The Inhuman Doll

While en route to Cartwright's position I stumbled across a refugee camp with strange shredded graffiti on the walls. Behind a broken wall was an altar, candles still burning. A Victrola played — a Russian folk song? On the ground was a doll, the kind that talked -- said 'momma' if you dropped it. But this one's throat was cut, hair stripped away, middle fingers cut. Paint, or blood, was smeared across its face. Its voice ... hard to describe ... changed. Only one answer: Cloven. I'd heard of the Cloven — from Cartwright's reports the previous January. The Cloven's self-mutilation, bizarre behavior, Russian uniforms -- their immunity to Crawlers. But I'd never seen them up close. What are they? Where do they come from? And for God's sake, why mutilate a child's toy this way? --

Journal Entry, 30 August, 1951 --

James Grayson