by L. E. Fred
Naturally, Tiff was online waiting for me to explain what Mitch told me. He had apparently sent her an e-mail earlier saying he made progress in the dream world, but he hadn’t elaborated. I hastily typed everything Mitch told me to Tiff. It took her a few minutes to reply.
“Well, at least we have some more information.” Tiff would try to see the advantages of Mitch’s nightmarish encounter. “And we know the bus rides actually end up somewhere.”
“But why would a vacation resort want to put people into comas?” I typed back. I had been asking myself the same question all evening, but it still didn’t make any sense.
“I don’t know.” Tiff typed a little slower than usual. “I must admit that doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t even think twice after discovering that Chimera was the name of a vacation company. Thankfully, there are lots of websites for booking Chimera vacations. They have a lot of info on the company and the CEO.”
“Leona Palma,” I typed out.
“Duh.” Tiff replied with a picture of the woman.
She looked vaguely familiar like I had seen her on television promoting her resorts, with her golden skin, thick brown hair, and bright, honey colored eyes. She reminded me of an older actress, a stern mom on a family sitcom, or something like that.
“I guess we should send Mitch the picture to see if it’s the same woman,” I suggested.
“Good idea,” Tiff replied. “I’ll keep looking stuff up.”
A few hours passed, and Mitch never got online. Tiff found some interesting information, though. Apparently Chimera tried to create the first competitive games resort where people could enter in gladiator-like competitions during their vacation. The volunteers who won the games would get a free vacation. Other guests could buy tickets to see the games. The proposed games varied from obstacle courses to mixed martial arts combat.
Some humane group decided the idea was unethical, since a lot of vacationers and employees were getting hurt and even dying, and forbade the company from further developing the resort. Apparently Leona Palmer built a smaller arena somewhere in Peru and was fined and jailed for twenty years for breaking the law, even though people were paying to stay at the resort and watch the games.
“Twenty people died participating in the combat.” Tiff finished typing her story. “They also caught her underpaying the workers. The judge decreed it was murder and borderline slavery.”
I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Why would someone want to bring back gladiator stuff? We learned about coliseums and things last year; those gladiators had to go through some serious trials. Why would anyone want to watch, much less participate in, those sorts of things? I opened the picture of Leona Palmer again and imagined her wearing some sort of toga and a crown, ordering people to fight against each other.
“Devon, are you still up?” My mom knocked on my door. She could probably hear the fan on my laptop or something quiet like that.
My mom had crazy hearing when she wanted to. I blamed the contact her ears had with her cell phone. It probably permanently mutated her hearing. I looked at the clock and saw it was almost midnight.
“Going to bed, Mom,” I called back. I typed to Tiff that I needed to go.
“Well, be careful,” Tiff responded. “Try to stay up if you can. I don’t like this Leona woman very much. And Serpentine sounds creepy, like she really isn’t human.”
“I don’t think she is,” I agreed. “I’m gonna stay up as long as I can, and I’m definitely not meditating tonight.”
“Good idea. I’ll stay on a little later to see if Mitch gets online,” Tiff typed. “Also, I’ll keep researching. If you find anything else out, let me know.”
“Same to you. Good night.” I signed off the computer.
I stayed up for a few more hours, playing video games and reading. Around 5:00 a.m., however, my eyelids were beginning to feel like heavy bricks pressing down on my face. I reminded myself that I did have work in the morning. Life still went on outside of the creepy dream world.
Halfway reluctantly and halfway relieved, I crawled into bed. I clutched my baseball bat, though, just in case.
I’m very glad I did.
Chapter 6
Day 6
Morning
First thing in the morning, I flew out of my bed and scrambled to open my door. I was halfway down the stairs before I realized I wasn’t dreaming any more. Sweat dripped off my chin, and my side was hurting. I slowly returned to my room and assessed the damage. Two small, yet deep, puncture wounds rested between my ribs and my right hip; bruises already forming around them. Although they were painful, I breathed a sigh of relief. They weren’t tinged with green poison like they were last night.
****
At first I hadn't realized I was dreaming again. I had spent a few nights without visiting the ship, and being back on it was a surreal experience. It wasn’t until Mitch reached me that I realized where I was.
“Devon.” Fear replaced Mitch’s usual confident look. He had dark circles under his eyes. “We’re back.”
“Yeah, I know.” I tried not to let his fear get to me, even though my hands were already trembling as they clutched my baseball bat. At least the bat was still with me. “I didn’t even meditate this time.”
“I was at a party,” Mitch said it like it was the worst mistake he could make. “And I went to bed really late. I let my guard down. And now I’m back.” He kept looking around as if Serpentine would turn up.
“Let’s get to the back of the bus,” I suggested. “We’ll draw the least amount of attention from there.”
Mitch nodded and followed my lead. I have to admit it was pretty nice to have him listen to my ideas. Then again he was so scared I bet he would have done anything to avoid confronting Leona or Serpentine again. I felt really bad for Mitch. This was my first time back on the ship. I didn’t really know what to expect. Mitch had visited this place only last night. I looked at his shoulder and saw, despite being heavily bandaged, he was still bleeding.
“She did that to you?” I asked him. Mitch realized where I was looking.
“Yeah.” Mitch winced as he adjusted the bandages. “Doctor thinks I got into a fight with a large cat. It should heal up in a couple of days, if we don’t run into Serpentine again.”
Thankfully, neither Serpentine nor Leona showed up on the ship. The bus ride was just as smooth as I remembered. The other passengers, the souls, chatted merrily amongst themselves. They thought they were on their way to a resort on the moon.
The ride was a lot longer than I remembered. Then again, I had never ridden it this far before touching the ball of light and waking up. I looked for the light; it was hanging out at the front of the bus by the driver-less bus.
At least if we didn’t like where we landed, Mitch and I could leave. It seemed a bit unfair that the souls couldn’t do the same. I wondered what would happen if I made one of them touch the light. Would it save them?
I jumped about a mile when the ship suddenly landed.
“We’re here,” Mitch announced, taking a deep breath. He stood up when it was our turn to line up in the center aisle. I noticed he was clutching a rowing oar.
“Oh this?” Mitch grinned when he realized what I was looking at. “I didn’t have anything else. Nice job with the bat.”
“Thanks,” I said. We filed out of the bus in silence, careful to not cause a scene.
Finally, I stepped out of the ship and got my first glimpse of the dream world.
It looked exactly how I had imagined it. No vegetation grew, and the sky above was pitch black. The thick darkness made me feel like I was at the bottom of the ocean, alone and insignificant in a vast amount of space. Despite trying my hardest to be brave, I began shaking with fear. Even the souls chattered nervously as they walked in a single file between dim lanterns that formed the only path.
“This is the stuff of nightmares, isn’t it?” Mitch muttered behind me as we followed the souls. I silently nodded as I tried to
see what was beyond the lit path. I strained my eyes and thought I saw two small pinpricks of blue light. I blinked my eyes, and they were gone.
“We’re almost there,” Mitch informed me. “It gets a lot brighter.”
He was right. Know how it feels to walk out of a dark movie theatre on a sunny day? Think of that times a hundred. I only took a few steps before I had to suddenly shield my eyes from the light. I squinted and saw that the souls weren’t doing the same. I guessed they were dreaming, really dreaming, so they weren’t aware of the sudden change. After my eyes adjusted, the landscape looked completely different.
We were now walking along a neatly paved road surrounded by trimmed grass, fountains, and palm trees. I had never been to a resort, but I assumed an entrance would look like this place. I turned around to comment to Mitch, but he simply pointed ahead. I looked forward and saw the fortress Mitch had described.
It did look like a cross between a football stadium and a hotel. Two sleek black skyscrapers were in front, and a stone stadium lay behind them, just visible between the two taller buildings. I couldn’t see the bottom, because of the concrete wall and barbed wire surrounding the area. The wall was huge, and I had to turn my head to scan the length of it. Sure enough, I also saw the watchtower Mitch had warned me about.
“There’s no way we can get inside,” Mitch told me. “I saw Leona a little bit further on.”
“Maybe we can sneak around?” I suggested.
“Worth a shot,” Mitch ducked out of the line and hid behind a bush. I followed suit, and we waited for the souls to pass. Soon enough, we were alone.
“Let’s look around while getting closer to the wall,” Mitch suggested. He started moving before I could agree. Well, so much for being the leader of this mission.
We crept toward the concrete wall a little to the right of the entrance. I watched as the souls filed into the fortress. The large entrance was barricaded by a strange, glowing wall. I soon realized it was a force field, like the kind you’d see in a sci-fi movie.
“Bizarre, right?” Mitch muttered to me, also watching the force field that had suddenly appeared. “It’s like all the stuff you see in your dreams, only it’s real for us.”
“Yeah.” I looked around at the beautiful fountains and palm trees. Surely if this was a dream world, someone could have created this scenery, right? The environment we saw after landing was so desolate, like an empty canvas. Did the dreams of millions create various worlds like these?
“Something’s moving.” Mitch’s voice jarred me out of my thoughts. His eyes were focused on the watchtower. “I think they’re searching for trespassers.”
I looked at the tower and saw someone was manning a dim searchlight. That’s stupid, I thought, they don’t need a light in this bright area. Suddenly, the light focused on a spot opposite the entrance. It turned from a dim yellow to red, and a butterfly flew from the grass. The light stayed red for a bit before slowly moving its way across the area.
“We should move,” I said, already rising from my crouched position behind the bush.
“Good idea.” Mitch followed suit. We half-walked, half-ran away from the searchlight, keeping as much distance from the light as we could. Though we didn’t encounter anything on the way, I held my bat in a decent swinging position, and Mitch kept his oar aloft.
“Wait!” I pulled Mitch back and into another hedge. I looked back to make sure the light wasn’t around. It must have stopped searching after not finding anything.
“What?” Mitch looked back, too. “Why did you sto—oh.” He saw what I had seen. We’d apparently reached the main entrance.
I thought the entrance the souls took was luxurious, but this new entrance made it look like a junkyard. Instead of bushes there were sculpted hedges that looked like creatures I couldn’t name. The fountains could have easily been Olympic swimming pools with jets of different colored water spewing from the mouths of strange statues. Though the jets shot pink, blue, and purple, they landed into crystal clear water. The entrance was also paved instead of being dirt. The bricks glittered like gold.
“You’d think we were seeing another place completely,” Mitch muttered, his eyes fixed on the fountain. “That looks so inviting…” He looked around to make sure no one was coming. He was halfway to the fountain when I shouted for him to hide. Thankfully, Mitch got the message and hurried back to his spot. Something was coming up the paved entrance. By the sound of the footsteps, it seemed like a lot of people.
“Leona?” I wondered. Who else would come in through this way? All of the souls had entered through what seemed to be the back door. I looked for any signs of a woman with thick, brown hair, but instead I got another image.
Actually, I got a lot of other images.
At first I thought an army was marching toward the fortress. They were all marching in step and appeared to be carrying large knives high above their heads. It wasn’t until they got up close did I realize those were horns, but they were sharp enough to be used as knives. In fact, some were tipped with what was unmistakably blood.
Their bodies were humanoid, but you could tell they weren’t people in costumes. Their eyes were a little too wide, their pupils a little too small, and their skin was a grayish blue and looked scaly. They were also about a foot taller than average sized humans. They all had either red or gold eyes and razor-like teeth. I could tell because the one close to Mitch’s and my hiding spot yawned as he passed. He looked like a great white shark with legs.
These creatures also dressed barbarically, like clothes were a mere annoyance. They had some sort of animal skin wrapped around their chests and legs like scaly and furry togas. A few sported gloves that had talon-like claws on the fingertips. Don’t ask me what kind of animals they killed to get the clothes; I really didn’t want to know.
“Whoa…” Mitch looked up at the creatures in awe and terror. I assumed he hadn’t seen those creatures before coming here. “There’s no way we could fight them.”
“That’s because you’re both too weak to survive here,” said a cold voice behind us.
Mitch and I whipped around and saw Serpentine giving us a vicious, thin-lipped smile. I immediately froze with fear. Mitch had barely escaped this woman last night, and that was with a head start. Mitch was also much stronger and bigger than I was. If Serpentine chose to strike me first, I was dead.
“I guess you didn’t hear my boss last night.” Serpentine’s cold eyes flickered to Mitch. She chuckled as she saw his hands shake. He had dropped his oar. I turned around to see if the other creatures were still marching behind the hedge. It appeared the last of them were entering the fortress.
“Saw them, did you?” Serpentine had noticed where I looked. “They’re called Nightmares, and they live in this world. There are many dangerous things here; your kind is only good for menial tasks… and entertainment.” She licked her lips as if relishing the Nightmare’s idea of entertainment.
“They’re slaves!” It dawned on me. “You’re using the people as slaves here. This is a resort for those Nightmare things! You’re putting some of those people in games to die… for entertainment!” Mitch looked at me questioningly. I forgot he hadn’t been online to read Tiff’s information.
“Very good, boy.” If Serpentine was surprised, she didn’t show it. The cruel smile never left her lips.
“I had help,” I said without thinking. Serpentine’s smile faded and her eyebrows rose a little higher as if not expecting that.
“Well, regardless, you two were stupid enough to return—” her eyes flashed, “—and now you know too much and must be silenced.”
Her attack was quick, like a cobra. Thankfully, I had an older brother and knew when to duck. Serpentine lashed at me first, and I rolled to the side with agility I wouldn’t have imagined I had. Mitch came to his senses, picked up his oar, and swung at Serpentine. She ducked and kicked him, causing him to fall against the hedge. I tried swinging my bat, but it was too heavy to land a quick attack
. Serpentine turned around in enough time to grab my bat, and pushed me far away from the hedge. I landed against a palm tree, banging up my left shoulder. Why did I pick such a heavy thing to bring? I slowly got up as Serpentine advanced on Mitch, who grabbed his oar. She swatted it out of his hand like it was nothing. Mitch backed against the hedge, fists ready.
Without thinking, I ran to his aid, pushing all my fear aside. Despite the dude annoying me, Mitch had helped me out a lot here. I couldn’t do it without him. If only I had a better weapon, I thought. Something lighter, sharper.
Don’t ask me how I did it, I really don’t know. I guess I wanted a sword so badly that I got one. Think Excalibur but even more awesome. This thing was pure silver, and the blade was extremely sharp. The sword had a sapphire hilt and a wolf carved on the flat side of the blade. The entire sword glowed with a faint, blue light, as if it created flames. I hardly had time to admire it before Serpentine turned her attention to me.
“You…” Her voice faltered. “How? I would have thought…” She glanced at Mitch. She suddenly groaned. “Never mind, I must finish you now. You don’t know how to use the thing, why should I care?” She slowly advanced on me. I knew I didn’t stand a chance, even with a really cool sword. If only the ball of light would show up soon.
I saw Mitch slowly edge to the right behind Serpentine. He looked at me and then down to his side. With a jolt, I realized the light had reappeared. I nodded slightly to tell him I saw it.
“On three,” Mitch mouthed. “Swing.” He made a swinging motion. “And run.” I swallowed before nodding. I knew it was the only way. I gripped my hilt and faced Serpentine. She grinned.
One.
“You won’t win this, boy.” She smiled and showed her teeth for the first time. They were fangs.
Two.
Serpentine bent her knees.
Three.
She lunged as I swung. Although the blade didn’t make contact, Serpentine wailed in pain and rolled to the ground. I saw the remaining flicker of flames and scorch marks across her stomach. My moment’s hesitation caused me trouble. As I ran away, Serpentine lunged at my side. I looked down and saw blood and something green — poison — gushing from the wound. I didn’t have time to freak out; the light was only five feet away. I heard a scream as I jumped with Mitch to touch the light.