Somehow he remained conscious. He opened his eyes and found himself on his knees. He felt mossy ground underneath him and tried to focus on that. The music kept coming at him, however, kept building in volume and dragging him back out from shore, back out into the depths where his head would sink under and he’d be faced again by her.

She was standing in front of him, of them. He was no longer alone. Her lips were moving as she paced back and forth but he could hear nothing but the music. Her eyes flicked back and forth between them, and when focused on the other, when no longer holding him so completely, he could struggle up to the surface and take another gasping breath. He could survive a little longer.

Adlai had done something to him, had stopped his ears to her words with his own. Behind the music was a single phrase floating past. “Hang on.”

The other, the girl, she was sinking too. He could see into her nightmare. She was with two others, children in a car, a road of some sort. Ancient and foreign. It was all part of the ocean that sucked her down. He could almost feel the winding trails of information that stretched between them here, the links between their nightmares. He wondered what she could see from him.

Babbage plunged back under water as the eyes slid over him again. All thought of himself and others was annihilated. There was nothing but the eyes that he poured himself into.

“Hang on.”

Adlai’s voice shot through him with a warm jolt, heating his spine. He opened his eyes again, saw the impossible green trees around them, felt his head rise out of the water again, the air fill his lungs.

There was a blade on the ground, six steps behind the woman, the woman he dared not look at again. And six steps further back was someone else. He knew it was Adlai. He wasn’t alone with his nightmares, his dreams were here too.

She was just a nightmare version of herself. He knew who she was. It was just the music, the virus that controlled it all. He could face her again. Help was coming.

Gretchen’s eyes sparked as he met them. He could feel the thrill of anger as she realised he was fighting back. He was still processing, still trying to act. Three steps behind her now, a familiar figure, blade in hand. The music surged up again and washed over his head.

Babbage felt himself be sucked back into her eyes, felt himself falling and letting go. The water swirled over him as he dived.

He felt a calmness almost immediately. The music was dulled here, filtered out by the water surrounding him. Them. The girl was down here too, in a car, sinking below him. The sunlight flickered down, illuminating the emptiness around him. He could help her.

He kicked on, further down towards them. The car was still sinking but he caught it, latched his fingers on the frame and sank with it. Further down towards nothingness. The sunlit water sparkled on the car windows, shot them through to show the struggling figures within.

The music had faded now, lost itself among the currents. Something had happened back there, back on the surface. Now it was time for him to act.

Babbage reached down and jerked the handle of the car, surprised at how easily it opened. He ducked his head in, hands moving easily now, and grabbed her waist. She was struggling still, fighting back against him, trying to reach the others. He could see they were already gone, part of someone else’s dream now.

Another tug and she came out of the wreck, but two strokes up and she fought back away from him, back down into the depths, determined to fight back inside the nightmare.

He dived again and held her and finally she came free. She went limp as they floated away, but he could feel she was still with him. He kicked up towards the surface, his arm around her, up away from the darkness, up towards the sun.