7 before richard woke up late that afternoon , jack saw : at least one unmistakable head peering over the rim of the hills ; two more jouncing and deadly fireballs careering down at him ; the headless skeleton of what he at first took to be a large rabbit , then sickeningly knew was a human baby , picked shining clean , lying beside the tracks and closely followed by : the round babyish gleaming skull of the same baby , half-sunk in the loose soil .