Why don'tyou handle them a little and see how heavy they are. You really do needto know and I think your little thing will enjoy it."I knew I didn't h...ve any option. I did as I was told and little Henrystarted to get quite painful inside his cage. This was something I couldreally do without.And why did I need to know how heavy they were?"From the look on your face I can see it does enjoy it, Frilly. Carry onfor a bit longer then. Lift them up and feel their weight!"I was forced to continue. Not much of a gracious loser either. She knocked the pieces across the room tghe first time I won, and I made her pick them up. I wasn’t going to get on my knees, I’d never get back up.”“How do you know what moves she wants?” Grandma really did roll her eyes then.“Well, when the piece moves from point A to point B, I’m pretty sure that’s what she has in mind. Now shoo, I think I got her this time.” I got a mental image of Miss Agnes concentrating, a frown creasing her forhead. She just barely. But no matter how long I waited, the fantasy remained. A spark of doubt suddenly ignited within me. Heart now racing madly, I pinched myself, hoping it would be enough to put an end to the fantasy. It wasn’t. Nor were the slaps I gave myself. It took a while before I realized what that meant.“Oh my god!” I gasped when it finally dawned on me why the fantasy had felt so realistic.It wasn’t a fantasy!I remained frozen in shock for a second before the implications of such a revelation were. They lived to feed on non-infected humans and that was it. Their bodies while not dead continued to function so long as it was reasonably intact.That was the enlightening aspect of Hope's visual report. Much of the footage she showed us was live, taken by the probes that she'd sent to the Earth to investigate it. As we quickly learned the pandemic had begun over a year ago and it had spread rapidly throughout the world's population. Almost a billion people had been infected during the initial.