Chapter Nineteen
Alone, the afternoon slowed, working its way only grudgingly toward evening. Slouch-splayed out directly in the glare of that now westering wheel of fire, Karl roasted on.
His skin stung as if Sol’s regard were some ethereal acid. When he closed his eyes, the incendiary red behind his lids and the blast-furnace heat led him to imagine endlessly falling into a volcano. While briefly cooling him, his dousing had washed off the protective oil. Now he burned steadily worse, with only enough stickiness remaining to trap the occasional arthropod. With that came the first bites of what would surely eventually become hundreds.
Karl couldn’t help it. This harbinger of all that still lay ahead made him erect. He was seriously suffering already, yet only enough to prick his ever
