2 Minutes to Midnight

by Steve Lang

  “Oh, look in the back, on the floor, there behind my seat. They’re made of stone. You can’t miss them,” she said.

  Shaun produced two small stone cones that were just large enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He turned them around for a minute and then gently clanged the two together. They rang like a bell for several seconds and then quieted.

  “Hmmm, neat. So, I’m guessing we’re headed to the tunnel?”

  “Yep. All I have to do is follow the little blip on my GPS, and we’re there. I’m parking a mile from it just in case anybody comes along and gets curious. I don’t want anyone else knowing about this.” Madeline explained.

  “Wait, we’re the only two people who know we are out here? What if this thing is a booby trap, or some kind of elaborate drug operation? Have any of these thoughts entered your mind?”

  “Actually, until you mentioned it, no. Look, you can stay outside if you want to, but I thought you came all this way because you wanted an adventure?” She said. He could see disappointment forming in her eyes, like a storm.

  Shaun could not argue that point. He had not come to Africa for an adventure, but because Madeline was in danger. But now that he was here, his curiosity and taste for adventure had come alive. She was right and if he had to go back to his hum drum life right now, without having followed this to the end he would regret it. Madeline was not crazy, and he didn’t believe she was a fool either.

  “You meet Michael Tellinger yet?” Shaun asked.

  “Not yet, but this is a big country, and if it’s meant to be, we’ll run into each other.”

  She pulled the vehicle over, cut the engine, and got out. Shaun followed her up a small hill through a group of boulders and stubby grassland. It was barren, wide open, and kind of spooky out there.

  “Don’t enter one of the circles with your electronic devices. I’ve have to buy two GPS units because of their electromagnetic interference, and it’s not easy to buy equipment in this region.” She shook her head. “For some reason, once you enter one of the circles all electronics go haywire.”

  Shaun followed her silently for another half an hour taking in the scenery, and admiring how quiet it was.

  “Almost there. Oh, and there are some tribes out this way but they’re friendly.” She waved dismissively.

  She searched around for a few more moments and then knelt down beside a medium sized stone. Her hand disappeared into the solid surface, and after turning to look back at Shaun, she fell forward and was gone.

  “Madeline!” He began to run. “Madeline, where’d you go!?”

  Shaun ran to the spot where she had vanished and knelt down, just as her head suddenly popped into view. “Holy Shit!” Shaun jumped.

  “Are you coming, or what?” She laughed.

  Shaun watched her disappear again, and then knelt down, and in a leap of faith he fell forward as well. He slid down a fifteen foot chute to the half lit tunnel below. Amazingly, daylight was passing through the facade above their heads, lighting the way. Madeline removed the cones she had been storing in her cargo pockets. When she reached the rock wall, she clanged them together. Shaun caught up and stood next to Madeline as a series of crystals began to light along the top of the wall. They were in the shapes of strange symbols that neither of them had ever seen.

  “What happens now?” Shaun asked.

  “I have no idea. This was the part where I ran out of here, remember?”

  Shaun nodded toward her stone cones and she clanged them together once more while pointing them at the wall. This time the entire wall lit up and the form of a man began to appear. At first it was like a scrambled television transmission, and then there was tall man standing before them garbed in a long hooded robe. He was no ordinary man though, and stood eight feet tall with a larger head than theirs and oval, almost almond shaped black eyes. He gazed at them in silence for a moment, blinking as Madeline and Shaun contemplated bolting for the entrance. The silence was beginning to become awkward when the man spoke.

  “Welcome to Halania. My name is Enlil and I know you have a lot of questions, but first you have to make a decision that will be difficult, but necessary.”

  “What decision? What are you going to do to us?” Shaun asked.

  “Do? I am not going to do anything to you. But what I am offering is knowledge. The opportunity to understand where you came from is what I offer. There is only one stipulation: you have to come with me, and never return to your previous life.” Enlil explained.

  “I’m not sure if we can do that, Enlil. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but you live in a tunnel in South Africa.” Madeline said.

  “Our world is vaster than you can imagine. Before you make your decision, let me show you,” said Enlil.

  They could feel his consciousness bind with theirs and in an instant they saw Earth from long ago: a planet filled with evolving ape-like creatures, dinosaurs, and oceans teeming with schools of bizarre fish. Interplanetary vehicles floated through the sky above entire civilizations living in pyramid cities, with massive glass towers rising high above the ground. There were many types of extraterrestrial beings living on Earth then; all of them competing with each other for Earth’s resources.

  “You all have been here a long time,” whispered Madeline.

  “Approximately two-hundred and seventy million years. Your world above ground pales in comparison to ours. You have to decide.”

  “What are the stone circles for? Can you tell us that at least, before we make a decision?” Shaun asked.

  “Of course. They power our civilization below ground through the use of the Earth’s natural magnetic field. We pull energy from other sources as well, but those circles, as you call them, are like a backup power supply.”

  “Well, that explains why my electronics went nuts when I entered them,” said Madeline.

  “Can we ever return to our old lives once we join you?” Shaun asked.

  “No, there is no possibility of return. We had formed a delicate balance on this planet after a great flood long ago, and humans are rapidly destroying that balance with ignorance and misuse of technology. When we began to tamper with your genetic code around thirty-five thousand years ago, we enhanced your evolution. The unintended side effect was that you all began to understand and grow in your technological prowess, and at the same time you used it to destroy each other. A great change is coming to this planet, and what I offer the both of you is opportunity. You and others we have welcomed into our society will be the next evolution of the human species.”

  Shaun and Madeline gave each other one final glance, and then turned toward Enlil. With a silent nod they both accepted his offer. The rock wall behind them faded and what they saw beyond it was more than imagination could describe. There were many other humans in this underground world, as well as various species of ET’s. Lush trees and grasslands rolled out beyond the horizon in a world within a world. With a final step forward, Shaun and Madeline entered their new life together. As they greeted the new day in Halania, neither of them regretted their decision, or the amazing opportunity to become one with an intergalactic community.

  human trials

  “We have to get off this planet within the next ten years, doctor.” Colonel Slaymore said.

  “I know the next batch of trial subjects are on their way. One of them has to be a fit!”

  Tony Davis woke up on the cold, hard, steel floor of a speeding van. His head hurt like hell, and he had cottonmouth so bad he felt as if he had been walking in the desert for two days without water. Tony remembered that he had been leaving the nightclub, when someone wrapped their arm around his neck as he stuck the key in his car door, and then, a rag over his nose and mouth with an odor of cotton candy. After he was out they must have drugged him, because he was hallucinating, and the left side of his neck stung from an injection. The odor of exhaust, and gasoline permeated the air as Tony attempted to roll over and see where he was. They had bound his hands and feet behind his back a
nd had ball gagged him, so he nearly choked in the effort, but Tony could see there were three other people in the van with him as it bumped and shook down the road. Highway lights flashed by two rear windows giving him some light, and he could see that the others were either still unconscious or playing dead. He was frightened and disoriented, but mostly sore from the beating he had taken while being thrown into the van. The van slowed to a stop and Tony could hear the driver talking to someone outside, and then they were moving again.

  When the driver stopped again the rear doors were thrown open and everyone inside the van was tossed onto rolling stretchers by men in black jumpsuits wearing nondescript facial masks that resembled department store mannequins. Tony could see that they were in a huge industrial plant with large buildings and round silos rising high into the night. Bright lights were flashing in Tony’s eyes, further disorientating him. The black jump suited men seemed to be armed henchmen for the people dressed in blue medical scrubs with white protective masks covering their mouths and noses. They strapped Tony down hard, and rolled him and the others through sterile white hallways illuminated by bright LED bulbs. One of the men pushing his stretcher had his crotch directly in front of Tony’s face, and due to the restraints he could not move his head, or budge an inch. His head was frozen to the left, using his peripherals as they passed by an open room and he could see people milling about, some of them holding their arms above their heads like strange human scarecrows. Others sat catatonic in wheel chairs, drooling, their eyes rolled back in heads drooping to the side. It was terrifying, and he felt his heartbeat quicken as his respiration increased making the ball gag choke him even more. The freak show was gone from view as Tony’s captors zoomed down the hallway. They stopped at a tall with door with a sliding window in the middle, opened it with a biometric thumb scanner, and began to unstrap Tony.

  “Take the gag off, he won’t need that anymore.” A woman said.

  He could breathe without feeling as if a boa constrictor were squeezing his chest for the first time in hours, but his jaw felt like it had been pried apart with pliers. They untied his arms and legs and stood him up before pushing him into a tiny room with rubberized walls. A man built like Arnold Schwarzenegger entered with him and forcibly removed his shoes, pants, and shirt, down to his underwear, and took them with him before closing the locked door.

  “What is this? Why am I here, and who are you people?” He asked.

  He walked toward the door hugging his arms close, shivering with fear. Tony saw a pair of cold blue eyes from the other side looking back at him, and then they were gone. He sank to the ground and began to cry out in frustration. The entire room, from walls to floor, was lined with the same kind of textured rubber that was used to make exercise mats, and he assumed the material might have been recycled truck tires. It seemed to him that whoever ran this place didn’t want their inmates harming themselves. The LED light in his cell was day glow bright, making him wince whenever he looked up; he felt like he had been transported to a sadistic mental asylum. Somewhere on the other side of his door, in the strange unknown, he heard someone shrieking and screaming bloody murder. The effect was blood curdling. Tony scooted back against the wall and grabbed his hair as he rocked back and forth, waiting for his turn to scream. Once the screaming stopped the silence was deafening in his cell.

  Hours passed and nothing happened. Shock, fear, and exhaustion after coming off an adrenaline rush made his eyelids very heavy, and Tony fell into a light sleep. He was huddled in the corner of the room with his arms drooping to his side, and face pointed skyward. Sometime later he was awakened by a large black combat boot to the ribs, and when he looked up there was a man in scrubs wearing one of the nondescript masks, he was looking down at Tony as if he were an insect.

  “Get on your feet!” He screamed.

  Tony tried to move quickly, but as he bent over something was injected into his shoulder with the needle gun the man was holding.

  “What the fu… “Tony mumbled.

  He began to get woozy, and then reality took on a fuzzy haze as he was thrust into a wheel chair.

  “Latest in modern chemistry. We use it to subdue “terrorists” in black site, secret prisons. What do you think? Works pretty good, huh?” The man said. He laughed at Tony.

  “I don’t think he’s going to answer you Wilson. Shit! Dumbass! You injected the whole thing into him! It’s going to be hours before the doctor can work on him now.” Another man said.

  Tony began to see dragonflies and fairies fluttering before him as his legs turned to jelly and he drooled down his naked chest. A frog hopped by his chair and he waved at it as a rainbow appeared in the hallway. The color pattern swirled and waved while one of the strange masked people pushed him from behind.

  “Are they going to start on the new trials this week?” One man said.

  “Don’t know. The last batch caused a bout of insanity in the test group, and later they started literally eating each other in the day room.” The other one said.

  Tony started laughing as he imagined, in his drugged up, incoherent state, that the test group his captors were speaking of were giant chocolate rabbits, the kind kids get at Easter. All of the rabbits were bouncing around the room, aluminum foil covered and delicious. The men behind him had thick Jersey accents, like guys from a mob movie.

  “We can take his vitals, and get some DNA while he comes down a little. Doc’s gonna’ want em’ for the records. We’ve got to make sure these bums ain’t gonna’ be missed. There have been slip ups in the past, and it causes problems with production.” One man said.

  “OK. No sweat, Tyler.” Wilson replied.

  “Oh, and if you hit another patient with that much juice again I’m sticking one in your neck. You got me? You could have killed this guy, and he might be the answer.” Tyler said.

  “He’s going anyway, once they’re done. What’s the big deal?” Wilson said.

  “Will you please shut up? He’s drugged up, not deaf. I know you’re new here, but you ain’t gonna’ make like this.” Tyler said.

  “Sheesh! You’re testy.” Wilson said.

  “I’m just edgy after that last batch of Wolzaprine went bad yesterday, and caused three people’s faces to M-E-L-T off.” Tyler said. Tyler spelled out the word one letter at a time.

  “Ha ha ha, who’s the idiot now? You think this guy can’t spell?” Wilson said.

  Tony was off in wonderland by this time though. He no longer saw or heard either man. The effects of the drugs administered to him sent his mind to a green pasture where the clouds were hotdogs, and licorice birds soared through the air. Tony sat in passive wonder as fields of green grass formed three-dimensional creatures and began to walk around. A tyrannosaur, a cow, and three little pigs began to dance around with each other, and then the dinosaur ate them in one large chomp. Tony could smell cotton candy wafting to him from somewhere far away, and The Mamas & The Papas were singing Monday Monday as he swam back into consciousness. Hours passed as he floated, and then Tony’s dinosaur evaporated, the hot dog clouds disappeared, and his fields of green grass became a large operating room with strange metallic machines, and tables, set with various syringes upon them. From a speaker in the wall Monday Monday continued to play as Tony struggled to understand.

  “…Monday mornin´, it was all I hoped it would be. Oh Monday mornin´, Monday mornin´ couldn´t guarantee. That Monday evenin´ you would still be here with me…”

  Someone strapped Tony into a dentist chair and beside him on a small rectangular table was a scalpel, a pair of surgical scissors, and pieces of plastic tubing. A mirrored lamp was directly in front of him and Tony could see that there was a plastic tube jutting out of his neck just behind the collarbone. Horror froze his mind as he wondered where the rest of that line was inside his body. Just then a woman in scrubs with a surgical mask over her face walked in with a cart, and as she got closer Tony could see that there were bags with brown liquid in them.

  “Oh g
ood, you’re awake. We were afraid we’d lost you to the psychotropics,” she said.

  “Where am I? Why is there a tube sticking out of my neck?”

  “You’re in an underground experimental research facility. We conduct human trials for drugs that are either brand new, or are on their way to being approved by the FDA.” She said.

  “And the tube?” Tony asked.

  “You’re been unconscious for three days, and these tubes are standard issue when processes come in. We feed you through them.” She said.

  Tony began to struggle against his restraints, but the straps were thick leather, and neither they, nor his chair budged an inch.

  “Now, hold still.” She laughed.

  The masked woman plugged one of the bags into his feeding tube, and hung it on a hook behind his chair.

  “What are you going to do to me? You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m telling you!” Tony screamed.

  “You know, everyone says that. I’ve heard that same thing thousands of times, and you’re always the right guy.” She said. Her callous tone sent a chill up Tony’s spine. Thousands of times?

  The cotton candy smell was back and he began to feel like he was floating above his chair.

  “Yep, you’re almost ready for the doctor. That euphoria you’re feeling is the drugs in your food. You sir, are in luck because today we’re testing out a mind expansion formula. It’s designed to allow communication with extraterrestrial intelligence, without the use of modern deep space vehicles, of course.” She said.

  On the far left side of the room a garage door slid up and a masked man in a white coat walked into the room. In a warehouse behind him were thousands of stacked oil drums, and Tony could just make out an image on one of the barrels. It had a stick figure on the side and the words ORGANIC MATERIAL stenciled in black spray paint above. Tony was comfortably numb as a Pink Floyd’s Shine on You Crazy Diamond began to play.

  “What’s that? The barrels? One duck, twoooo chickens, a roller cooooaster! Aliens? Game over man! Game over! Ha ha ha!” Tony said. The drugs had scrambled his mind and he was now speaking in almost incoherent tongues.