When his vision cleared, he saw that Max's right arm had disappeared to his shoulder. His shirtsleeve hung limp and empty.

Would the connection hold when Max didn't have a body for Michael to touch? They hadn't even thought of that.

Michael closed his eyes again and focused his mind on Max's body, on their body. He could hear Max's heart beating along with his own, feel Max's breath in his own lungs.

Yeah, this should be okay. With the connection it was like he and Max shared a double body. So when Max was gone, the Michael part of their body would still be here to re-form him.

Unless because of the connection Michael's body flew apart, too. Something else they hadn't thought about.

Michael heard one of their hearts stop. He felt a chill rush through him. Max's heart was gone. He opened his eyes and saw Max's eyes staring back at him.

Only his eyes.

An instant later they disappeared, too.

Time to bring him back. Michael focused on Max's molecules. He could feel them all around him. But there were so many of them, an almost infinite number.

A wave of dizziness swept through him. Where was he supposed to start? Yeah, he could squeeze some of the molecules together, but which ones? It's not like they were spread out in exactly the right groups, waiting for Michael to put Max back together like some preschooler's puzzle where the head goes up there and the feet go down there.

Michael shoved his hands through his hair and tried to deepen his concentration. But he had no clue which of the billions of molecules came from Max's brain tissue and which came from the muscle of his heart.

Why didn't Max think of this? Max's whole reason for existence was thinking of things like this. He was always so careful, so logical. Why did he have to choose now to experiment with recklessness? Couldn't he have just squeezed a toothpaste tube from the middle or something?

You said you would bring him back, so bring him back, Michael ordered himself.

He ignored the molecules and concentrated on Max. Just Max. He felt sweat breaking out on his forehead and dripping down his back as he concentrated on willing Max to re-form in front of him.

He sensed some movement in the molecules but didn't allow himself to get distracted. He kept one hundred percent of his focus on Max. A network of lines began to form a few feet away, starting about six feet in the air and ending on the ground.

Not lines, veins and arteries. Michael could see the blood pumping through them. He could feel it pumping through him. The connection with Max was unbroken.

A pocket of air darkened and began to pulse, and Max's heart slowly re-formed. Max's other organs reappeared much faster, almost too fast for Michael to take it in-lungs, liver, pancreas, stomach, intestines, brain.

Michael felt Max join the effort to pull his molecules together, and bone and muscle appeared, weaving around the organs. The changes happened so quickly, Max's body began to blur. And then he was complete except for his eye sockets. They were empty, blank and staring.

"You're giving me the wiggins, Max," Michael muttered. And Max's blue eyes reappeared, gleaming with excitement.

"That was too cool," Max cried, just as the cow clock in Ray's kitchen started to moo. "I've got to leave," he added. "I don't want to be late for homeroom." He started for the door.

"Uh, Max, just a suggestion," Michael said. "Before you go, you might want to put on some clothes."

"What?" Max slapped his hands onto his bare chest. "Oh. Whoa. Maybe next time I can figure out how to take some molecules of clothes with me." He bolted over to the pile of clothes on the floor and yanked them on. "See you later. We're all heading over right after school to decide what to do about Adam."

Max started toward the door again, then turned around and headed back to Michael. "There's one more thing I want to say to you, something I should have said the day we all made it out of the compound alive," Max told him. He gave a loud sniffle and wiped an imaginary tear off his cheek but couldn't hide his grin. "I love you, man."

Michael laughed. "You're sick-you know that, don't you?"

Max clapped him on the shoulder. "Yeah," he said. "But I like it that way."

Liz checked the bulletin board, then pushed her way back out of the crowd surrounding it. She almost slammed into Maria.

"I knew you'd be here," Maria said. "I don't know why you're so obsessive about the class standings. Every month you're number one. Every month you will continue to be-" She stopped herself. "Wait. Why are you so pale? You are number one, aren't you? Arlene Bluth didn't knock you out of first place, did she?"

"No, I still rule," Liz joked.

"Then what's wrong? I know something is," Maria insisted, stretching out one of her blond curls and letting it boing back into place.

"Did you see the bulletin board?" Alex interrupted as he raced up behind them.

"Yep, we're standing next to the class valedictorian," Maria answered. "There's no way it's not going to happen."

"I'm not talking about that," Alex burst out. "Although congratulations and everything," he added to Liz. "I'm talking about the flyer next to the class standings list. The flyer announcing the ROTC program starting at our happy little school. My weasel brothers did it. They managed to talk Principal Shaffer into sending in the application. I am so doomed."

"Do you absolutely have to join?" Maria asked.

"Oh no, I guess not." Alex slapped his forehead. "What was I thinking? I don't have to join. I can just change my name and go live in Siberia."

"Why Siberia?" Liz asked. She understood why he didn't think he'd be able to hold out against his the-military-is-life dad.

"You've got a point," Alex shot back. "Siberia's probably not remote enough." He gave a drawn-out groan of frustration. "Maybe it won't be too bad. Maybe I'll meet some GI Jane kind of girl. That could make it worthwhile, although I don't know if I could be with someone who has better abs than mine." He pushed open one of the cafeteria's double doors and held it open for them.

"Look at those biceps. Whoo, baby," Maria joked as she passed him.

"Are you okay?" he asked Liz as she headed through the door. "You seem kind of… something."

"I just had a bad dream," Liz answered.

"Liz, you should tell us what it was about," Maria said over her shoulder. "It will help get it out of your system. I know, we can help you make up a new ending. That's how you're supposed to get rid of bad dreams-you make up new endings for them and poof, they're gone."

Liz slid onto the bench at their usual table. Alex and Maria sat across from her. "It was about Adam," she told them. "He said we were all in danger. He said there was something inside him, but before he could say what, his tongue fell out. Then his whole face started coming apart. A piece of his cheek plopped onto my arm. That's when I woke up."

She could almost feel the piece of flesh against her skin right now. Moist and meaty. She decided to leave her lunch in her backpack.

"So how would you want the dream to end?" Maria asked. "Actually, you can change more than the ending. You can change the whole thing. Like you can make Adam someone other than Adam."

"Wait. Are you sure it was a dream?" Alex interrupted. "I mean, do you think Adam could have used his dream-walking power to try and communicate with you?"

"I thought of that," Liz answered. "I'm not sure, but it felt like Adam, the real Adam. He wanted to tell me something. He wanted to give us all some kind of warning."

Alex's green eyes darkened. "Maybe that something inside him found a way to stop him before he could."