Chapter 6: Re-Dreaming

Douglas Quaid sat in his room in the Mars Hilton and tried to figure out just what the hell was going on.

Yes, he'd dreamed this all before when he'd suffered that schizoid embolism back at Recall. In that dream state, his subconscious had been able to penetrate his memory cap and thus had been able to access old memories and to weave them into his dream. But there had been gaps, things that Hauser never knew, and so his subconscious had resorted to wild guesswork. So here today, reality was not exactly as he remembered.

Still, he had to somehow get through to Melina and the others that Cohaagen was on to them, that they were in terrible danger, and that Kuato was being targeted. He had to get into the Pyramid Mines, to get to the alien control center, and to activate their planetary reactor. He needed to make air.

Someone knocked.

Quaid had the pistol in his hand and was moving towards the door. "Who is it?"

"Mr. Quaid? Do you remember my voice?"

Yes, he knew that gravelly, whiny voice. Quaid threw the door open and pointed his pistol at a tall, bald, chubby man. "Dr. Edgemar, so nice to see you. It's déjà vu all over again."

"Precisely," replied Dr. Edgemar. "May I come in?"

Quaid's free hand moved the doctor aside so he could spot Lori just around the corner. "Of course, both of you come in. I insist." He backed into the room, keeping the pistol on his visitors.

"This is indeed déjà vu, Mr. Quaid. I'm sorry to have to tell you that you've relapsed. Your paranoid delusion has returned, and you are lost in what we call a degeneration loop. The nightmare which you are now suffering through will only get worse. There is no way you can cure yourself. Mrs. Quaid and I have been implanted in an attempt to get bring you back."

"Unless I shoot you first."

"That is more correct than you know. After you shot me before, you only regained your sanity because of a miracle. I assure you, God doesn't hand out more than one miracle per customer. If you shoot me a second time, you'll be insane for the rest of your life, but not in a nice room like this. Because of the degeneration loop, your dreams will become more and more nightmarish. The rest of your life will be one of ever increasing horror."

The pistol in Quaid's hand twitched.

Lori said, "Think about this, darling. If this were reality, how could we ever have found you here on Mars? We'd be back on Earth on some wild goose chase, following the false clues you'd left us. The last place where we'd be is knocking on your door on Mars. You aren't on Mars, darling; you're at Recall. We're trying to save you. Help us help you."

Quaid thought about this. "If this is a dream, and you are both real, then how do you know of the false clues I left in my dream?" He brought the pistol up, pointed it at Dr. Edgemar's face and pulled the trigger. The back of the chubby man's skull exploded, with blood and brains spraying out all over the wall.

Then he turned the gun on Lori.

Before he could pull the trigger a second time, she kicked him hard in the balls.