at that , and perhaps too late , they understand what they should have grasped from the moment of their materialization among these zombies with their prophylactic rubber gloves ( unless their delay in comprehension was programmed like everything else here ) : the supreme temptation ( and transgression ) of contact with the administratively suspended to drain off the raw material of memory and reconstruct a past existence at the expense of the contacted , robbed of the substance of mind and body .