The gunslinger opens his mouth like a baby for the breast. Eddie puts two of the pills in his mouth and then slops fresh water carelessly into Roland’s mouth. Roland guesses it must be from a hill stream somewhere to the east. It might be poison; Eddie wouldn’t know fair water from foul. On the other hand, Eddie seems fine himself, and there’s really no choice, is there? No.

He swallows, coughs, and nearly strangles while Eddie looks at him indifferently.

Roland reaches for him.

Eddie tries to draw away.

The gunslinger’s bullshooter eyes command him.

Roland draws him close, so close he can smell the stink of Eddie’s sickness and Eddie can smell the stink of his; the combination sickens and compels them both.

“Only two choices here,” Roland whispers. “Don’t know how it is in your world, but only two choices here. Stand and maybe live, or die on your knees with your head down and the stink of your own armpits in your nose. Nothing . . .” He hacks out a cough. “Nothing to me.”

“Who are you?” Eddie screams at him.

“Your destiny, Eddie,” the gunslinger whispers.

“Why don’t you just eat shit and die?” Eddie asks him. The gunslinger tries to speak, but before he can he floats off as the cards

shuffle

KA-BLAM!

Roland opens his eyes on a billion stars wheeling through the blackness, then closes them again.

He doesn’t know what’s going on but he thinks everything’s okay. The deck’s still moving, the cards still

shuffle

More of the sweet, tasty chunks of meat. He feels better. Eddie looks better, too. But he also looks worried.

“They’re getting closer,” he says. “They may be ugly, but they ain’t completely stupid. They know what I been doing. Somehow they know, and they don’t dig it. Every night they get a little closer. It might be smart to move on when daybreak comes, if you can. Or it might be the last daybreak we ever see.”

“What?” This is not exactly a whisper but a husk somewhere between a whisper and real speech.

“Them,” Eddie says, and gestures toward the beach. “Dad-a-chack, dum-a-chum, and all that shit. I think they’re like us, Roland—all for eating, but not too big on getting eaten.”

Suddenly, in an utter blast of horror, Roland realizes what the whitish-pink chunks of meat Eddie has been feeding him have been. He cannot speak; revulsion robs him of what little voice he has managed to get back. But Eddie sees everything he wants to say on his face.

“What did you think I was doing?” he nearly snarls. “Calling Red Lobster for take-out?”

“They’re poison,” Roland whispers. “That’s why—”

“Yeah, that’s why you’re hors de combat. What I’m trying to keep you from being, Roland my friend, is h’ors d’oeuvres as well. As far as poison goes, rattlesnakes are poison, but people eat them. Rattlesnake tastes real good. Like chicken. I read that somewhere. They looked like lobsters to me, so I decided to take a chance. What else were we gonna eat? Dirt? I shot one of the fuckers and cooked the living Christ out of it. There wasn’t anything else. And actually, they taste pretty good. I been shooting one a night just after the sun starts to go down. They’re not real lively until it gets completely dark. I never saw you turning the stuff down.”