The light that cut through the storm did not keep to the pli­ant road. It cir­cled, a bea­con shone from below, mov­ing much too fast to be affixed to a human. It cir­cled again, twice more, and finally aban­doned its pat­tern, rov­ing with what seemed a des­per­ate intent. The light was search­ing, search­ing, but could not find what it called out for. It landed on me only for a sec­ond, the blue light flood­ing my alcove, pin­ning my hud­dled shadow to the wet rock. As the rest­less sweep con­tin­ued, the light skirted a path head­ing down. […]