In the world that lies ahead of us all, reality and hallucination will merge and interchange. So when Max Renn saw the flesh of his stomach swell and redden as though a giant worm was moving beneath the skin, was that imagination—or reality? And when the skin split and the flesh parted like giant lips, soft and bloodied. When he could sink his fingers, his whole hand, deep inside, feeling and probing through the wall of his own stomach. As the juices, thick and warm, clung and sucked gently at his finger-tips, drawing him in. As the bile rose, hot with revulsion in his throat.... Was that a nightmare—or reality?