Orr and Haber are parts of the same person.
- Haber is an aspect of Orr's personality: Orr is dying of radiation poisoning. He doesn't like the way his delirium is going, so he invents a psychiatrist to make him stop switching universes. It doesn't work as planned.
- Orr is an aspect of Haber's personality: Haber is a second-rate psychiatrist with grandiose dreams. One night he dreams of a magical psychiatric patient who will grant him fame, fortune, and power. Orr gradually develops autonomy, uwhich drives Haber insane.
George's perceptions define reality because he's the last observer in the universe.
- If observation defines reality (which is a very over-simplistic interpretation of quantum theory, but fun for stories like this), George is the last survivor of the nuclear war, the last observer in the universe, so all of reality will be what he perceives it to be. As long as he's awake, he observes the world passively, but when he falls asleep, the only things for him to observe are his dreams. When he awakes, his dreams have become reality. The only reason the world still exists and he is still alive is that when he collapsed after the nuclear holocaust, he dreamed of the world as it was, and everything came back... but now it's all mutable to what he perceives to be real. One wonders if you could bring dragons to life by convincing George they're real *even when he's awake.*
