As
I walked, it seemed like I was passing the few visible trail markers
much faster on the way back. But, at the same time, the cluster of
pillars I had just left wasn't falling behind me very quickly. I
exchanged looks with Ulla, but she didn't seem to have any thoughts
on the matter. Then, as our "home neighborhood" of pillars
came into view, it became more obvious. The pillars were moving; the
distance between the comatose and the dreamers was being collapsed.
A
shining cobalt blue pathway surfaced out of the grass under me, and I
caught myself laughing as I watched all the pillars glide, rumbling
as they went, into a pair of concentric circles – inner and outer.
It seemed as if there were more pillars now, as well, and not just
adding Kimble, and many of the pillars had taken on blue and silver
panels, wide crystal arches, and long pennants.
Moment
by moment, a city grew, tall and gleaming, with a flying palace at
its center, and wide blue roads; with zeppelins and shining lights.
And then, finally, with a handful of people, in the courtyard at the
heart of it. I started to jog towards them.
Vee
spotted me, almost immediately and started whooping to get everyone
to look, then pointing at me. I could just hear her comment "I
win at searching. Forever."
Gina
and Ray came walking over; Gina grabbed me and hugged me. "Damn,
coz. Where are you, in the waking world? Were you taken?"
"Yeah.
Bad news. Laurent held it together long enough to have me
kidnapped. He, uh, kind of shot me a few times. I'm dead, in the
waking world."
She
just stared at me, running that around in her brain. The she
screamed "I'LL KILL HIM THAT MOTHERFUCKER. I'LL RIP HIS FUCKING
HEAD OFF!"
"He's,
uh, he's dead, too. I got him. How about we all sit for a bit, and
talk? I've got a bit of a story to tell you."
We both
do. Yes, Ben, they can hear me now, too; don't look at me like that.
Trying to keep my presence a secret will just end up confusing
everyone.
Ulla
and I proceeded to gather everyone around, and told them the story –
this story, more or less. Our telling was much shorter than I have
attempted here, but left out a lot of detail. Our audience was more
or less stunned into silence, which made it hard to tell if I was
doing a good job or not. That's a risk you take when you share your
stage with a telepathic cat totem, I suppose.
I
ended with a summary of what we knew was happening at home.
Kingsport was home to a cult, which paid homage to a terrible master.
That cult was involved in not only the drug trade, but in poisoning
the parts of that trade as a way of making sacrifices to their
master. They practiced rituals that called up things out of
nightmares, and set them into possession of people – likely, with
the goal of breeding them. Sooner or later, the cult would come for
all of them, as it had come for me. They could scatter to the winds,
or they could fight.
The
obvious question came back "How do we fight that?"
"Dayside?
I'd say, as unfairly as possible. Like, try to get some explosives,
and cave in their... uh, their cave." I replied. "But I'm
not going to be there; I can't exactly pitch in."
It
was Joy who spoke up with "I have a whole lot of fertilizer in
my shed. I bought it on sale. That's what you need to make a bomb,
right? Diesel and fertilizer?"
Most
of the group looked at her as if she'd gone completely crazy, but
George returned with "It might not be the right kind, though. I
think you need a certain kind of fertilizer. I'm sure we can find
out how to do it from the internet, though."
When
everyone turned their shocked looks on him, then, George just
shrugged "If you had lived in this town as long as I have, you'd
say the same. Kingsport has a rot that lives in it, deep down; you
get to know that after a few years, and either you move away, or just
learn to live with hating it, because what else are you going to do?
Well, these young people found its name and address; I'm quite
willing to help knock its door down."
If you do
this, even if you are careful, and are not seen or found in the
waking world... Kether-Kinal will search for you here. And it will
find you, in time; there are way of searching that target what you
remember, what you feel, what you know; it will find you. You must
prepare here, as well as there.
That
was easier to accept, it seemed; here, they were powerful. There,
they were nothing special.
The
conversation went on and off for a couple of hours; eventually, the
plan emerged. Ulla would scout the graveyard, using her various
cats, sniffing out the entrance. George, Joy, Clara, and Ray were on
bomb-building detail. Gina, Vee, and Kimble would keep up the recruiting. Everyone would sleep at the shop most nights, everyone
would plant up their own poppy garden; odd hours for sleeping were
welcome, since I could use the company.
They
spent five days preparing, training, recruiting, and concocting.
They waited for my my body to be found all that time; it wasn't.
There were moments where they thought the cult must have found them,
and they all sat on edge for a few of those days. But I was
elsewhere, at the time, doing other work, on another timescale.
