Jan thought to himself, OK say it right, and don’t mess it up. “Do you remember in the hospital? The morning after? Do you remember what I said about my dream?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Rachel responded, tapping her foot. “You had a dream about me, and it messed you up.” She looked at him with a hurt expression, “I thought you’d get over it.”
Jan said, “Listen to me, I hear and see things. I never told you about the Guide. I hear him sometimes, and I believe he is real. I’ve seen him in my dreams, and he glows. When I look at Rebecca, there’s something about her that’s glowing, and only I can see it. It’s, it’s — holy.” There, I said it. Jan continued, “I have this ‘thing’ holding me back. I know that if Rebecca and I become romantic, we’ll lose what we have now, become ordinary or worse, and I don’t want that to happen.”
He looked at Rachel, and asked, “Do you understand?”
Rachel said, “Yes, I can understand.” She managed a smile, and shaking her head, said, “It sounds reasonable, but what does that have to do with us? I didn’t grow up with you.”
Jan was relieved that Rachel got it. “I didn’t tell you about my vision that night.”
Rachel tilted her head to the left and asked, “What, when you saw me in your dream?” She crossed her arms because she sensed something hard to handle was coming.
“It was a dream that led to a vision. When I saw you, you were the bridge from my dream to the vision I had afterwards.” Jan paused, remembering. He looked up, “You were an angel, glowing, floating, and you pointed the way to the one-way door. Then I had the most wonderful vision of love and light!” He smiled broadly thinking about it, and stared off a million miles. “It was the brightest light you could imagine.” He looked at her, “And you were part of the whole thing — you sent me to it.”
“The holy light?” Rachel was intrigued now — it was legendary in LERN tradition. “The love light! You saw the love light?” she asked, and now she was staring into his eyes, trying to imagine it through his. Her posture relaxed.
“Yes! I was in it, it was all around me,” Jan said. Then he redirected his focus. “The thing is, your part in the beginning of the vision has become part of the whole experience now. I can see your angel-self when I look at you — just like Rebecca.” He was looking at Rachel with pleading eyes, hoping for any chance she may understand.
Rachel crossed her arms again, shaking her head, tapping her foot again, and looking at Jan with confusion, “You are so fucked up.”
“Tell me about it!” they both heard from the stairway.
Rebecca came strolling in, much calmer now. She had been listening to the whole thing from the stairs, just like before. She knew Jan, and also knew that Rachel was just as fucked as she was regarding this dude. He would never abandon his child, though. Rebecca had to accept this new understanding if she was to stay close to him — and she had to stay close to him.
Rebecca had a smirk on her face, and she looked at Rachel. “You’re finding out how impossible this guy is,” and now she was shaking her head, looking at Jan as if he was some pitiful thing.
Rachel said, “Oh Rebecca, I am so sorry for all this! I didn’t know Jan had a girlfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Rebecca said indignantly, “He is my best friend!” She slithered up next to Jan and took his arm.
“Yeah, right.” said Rachel, tilting her head to the side again, testing Rebecca.
“No,” said Rebecca. “I heard what he said to you — he says the same thing to me, ‘you glow as brightly as the brightest star,’” Rebecca was now dramatically waving her hands, mockingly imitating Jan.
They both looked at each other and started laughing. “He is so odd,” Rachel said, shaking her head as they both analyzed him. “Most guys come up with that crap to get into our pants, and he uses it to stay out of them!”
Rebecca busted out laughing at that one, because it was the ridiculous truth.
Jan had enough of this and said, “Hey, I’m standing here, you know.” Actually, he was just happy that they weren’t at each other’s throats.
Rebecca got a look of inspiration, and said to Rachel, “Hey, whatayasay that the two of us go out tonight after the party? You can watch me get drunk, and we’ll talk about this guy all night long!”
Jan was aghast. Now his mouth fell open.
“Excellent idea,” said Rachel, happy that the both of them had obvious power over Jan for a change. She patted her belly and said, “No tuba for you, though!”
All of a sudden, they heard someone tearing down the stairs. It was Lep. He shouted in a panic, “There you are! It’s happening!” He looked wide-eyed and terrified.
“What? What’s happening?” asked Rachel.
“The escape! It’s on! Tonight — Now!” Lep was hyperventilating. They all looked at each other and ran upstairs. Ziba had already departed with her friends immediately after the phone call. The only ones left besides Jan’s mother were Rebecca, Rachel, Buz, Lep and Dom. Jan did a quick take on Buz. He didn’t know anything. Jan knew that they had to get Buz out of there. Martha was back in the bedroom.
Looking at Buz, Jan realized he would not see him again. I can’t tell him. One loose cannon could blow the whole thing — decades of planning.
Buz was a little drunk. Jan said to him, “Listen Buz, my mom wants everyone out before my dad gets home — he’s been in a bad mood lately.”
Buz said, “OK, sure. Let me have one more —”
“No,” said Jan, “I’m sorry to do this,” and he looked at Buz, sighing and thinking, I have to say goodbye with a lie?
Buz was not so drunk that he didn’t know something else may be happening. Too many people left at once, and there was suddenly too much tension in everyone still there. In any case, it was obvious he had to go. “OK, buddy, we’ll see you tomorrow, all right? No more school!” he yelled up to the ceiling.
Jan looked at him regretfully, “Sure — we’ll see you.”
Buz lumbered his way up the stairs, and left.
Martha came out of the bedroom with luggage and went down to the
storage room, and they all followed her. They retrieved some big prepacked luggage she had stored for the occasion. When they got back upstairs, Martha said to Rachel and Rebecca, “You girls are to come with me.”
“What about me?” Jan asked, not knowing exactly what was next. “You’re coming with us,” Dom said with a big grin, and he looked at Lep. They had arrived in one of his uncle’s small wagons, parked outside. Lep chimed in, “We could use you at the lab, and we were talking
about it. We need help loading everything.”
Jan looked at his mother, not knowing what to do.
“Go with them, Jan. They need you, and we’ll all meet up at the
rendezvous.” Martha was looking at Jan as if she was unsure of her
decision. It almost appeared that she was hoping he would resist. Jan did decide to go with Lep and Dom. “Well, what are we waiting
for? Let’s go! We’re going to be free!” he shouted, realizing that the time
for talk was over, and now was the moment for real action. It was do or
die.
Martha slowed the emotional momentum. “Let’s pray. I want to say
Milchexidike’s Prayer.”
They all stopped their bustle. If they ever needed a prayer, this was
the time.
Martha had them all hold hands in a circle.
“Our Creator,
King of Eternity, Holy is Your Thought, Love's Kingdom comes, Love's Will be done,
In Time, as it is in Eternity.
Give us this day, the fruits of your love, and forgive us our loveless thoughts and deeds, as we forgive others their loveless thoughts and deeds against us, and lead us not into loveless desires,
but deliver us from lovelessness.”
“Let it be,” they all chimed in. A little quieter now, they departed the house and went their se
parate ways. Martha left the front door unlocked, just in case a retreat was called, and someone had to get back or hide inside quickly. She deeply regretted leaving Griswolt like this, but had been hardened and disciplined by the years of planning.
After they all departed, there was someone still on the road. Buz had not gone home. He had started walking towards the neighborhood where Tama lived. He would occasionally walk by, hoping to get a glimpse of her. However, while he was on his way, he saw her with a group of others in a rental bus as they passed by him going in the direction of Jan’s house. It looked like it was loaded with boxes inside as well as on top, behind the contiss driver.
“Where are they going in that thing?” he asked himself. He decided to walk back, since there was no point in going any further. As Buz was approaching Jan’s house from a distance, he saw Martha and the two girls getting into a taxi and leaving. He went over to Jan’s house, and knocked on the door. Since there were strange goings on, he decided to see if the door was locked. When he saw that it was not, he went inside to find the place empty.
“Something’s going on,” he said, “And I’m going to find out!” Buz then went out and was fortunate to hail a taxi right away. “I need to meet with someone traveling up ahead, so I need to hurry. There will be a good tip for you if we catch up,” he told the driver. The driver willingly accommodated him.
Chapter Seventeen
Exodus
W
hile Jan’s graduation party had been going on, something entirely different was happening a half-mile down the road. Sak, the skinny, nervous pet of Barab was waiting for their gang to find a place to get hammered for their own graduation
celebration. They were to meet in an unlit part of the block — no witnesses for their gathering. He was wearing a full-length weathered black jacket over his usual thin black leathercloth shirt and trousers.
As Sak was standing there, blowing on his hands because of the night coolness, waiting, he spotted four figures walking his way. “I wonder where they all got together,” he said to himself, thinking they had left him out of something. As they came walking his way, he looked at them with confusion, because their outlines in the night did not show the big outline of Barab. “I guess Barab is coming later,” he said to himself.
As they approached him, they unexpectedly started running. Sak looked past them to see what they were running from. As they came into full view, he saw the one in front, and fear shot through Sak’s gut like a knife. He turned and bolted in the opposite direction, but it was much too late. They had the momentum, and they had him on his back on the ground in seconds.
Kran, the one in the lead stood there, towering above Sak, and smiling quite broadly. “You piece of shit, I got you now,” he said through gritted teeth, “Your buddy Tans won’t be meeting with you tonight.” They all started snickering. “Now tell me about the other night, the one with my sister! What did you do to her, and how did she get those bruises?” He had his heel on Sak’s chest now, and there was vengeance in his eyes. “You were the only one there! She told me it was you!” Kran hissed, as he dug his heel into Sak’s chest.
Sak was thinking, Barab, he always has to beat on them, that fucker! He had been out with Barab the previous week, and Barab’s favorite method for a successful date truly was to drug a girl and rape her. Sak had finally decided to join in, and their first conquest together was Kran’s sister. They both had taken turns on her, but Sak was the only one she remembered. She was not supposed to remember anything, according to Barab.
Just then, they all heard footsteps coming up in the dark. There was the familiar limp. Sak’s heart leaped. It’s Barab! Barab was already nine feet and two inches tall, and weighed over four hundred and twenty pounds.
Barab lumbered into the area, unaware of what lay ahead. At first, he thought that his gang had someone down on the ground, and was robbing him. When he got close enough, he stopped.
All heads were turned in his direction and Kran yelled “Back off! This doesn’t concern you, unless you want what he’s going to get.” Kran looked down at Sak.
Barab glanced at Sak, and back at them. He put his hands up, “No sweat, guys, I don’t want any trouble.” He then started backing up slowly.
Sak was mortified. “Barab!” he pleaded. “Do something!
Barab looked at him, and said, “Hey, it’s not my fault your mouth gets you into trouble,” as he continued to back up.
Sak exclaimed, “What? You fucker! I — ” and was not able to finish as he had just gotten kicked in the mouth by Kran, who had turned his attention back to Sak, now that Barab looked like no trouble.
“You know,” Kran grunted, between kicks, “I was going to kill you.” He kicked him a few more times, and then he continued, “But after seeing your buddy bail on you,” he kicked Sak again, “I kind of feel sorry for you.” He looked at his friends. They knew it was their turn. He stood back, and watched as they unleashed their own rage at the world on Sak — but they did not kill him.
The quartet left Sak there, laying by himself in the cold. He stayed like that for about twenty minutes. His head was bleeding, and his neck was screaming at him. His stomach was starting to loosen up, but he could not take a deep breath without a stabbing pain in his right side. He agonizingly rose up, with a deadly eye, and it was set on the object of his betrayal — Barab.
“All the garbage I took from that piece of shit,” he said with clenched teeth and grim malice on his mind. Sak was only with Barab because he thought he would protect him — this was the thought he could not allow to rise.
Sak limped home, resolute, his ribs tearing at him, and he retrieved something that he and Barab had built together and he had been sitting on. It was a homemade bomb for whatever they may have decided to blow up. Sak was good at making bombs. It also left a poisonous, potassium chloride-based substance behind in the air as a deadly by-product.
He marched one neighborhood over to Barab’s house, and banged on the door. Sak waited, stiffened and in shock from what he had just gone through. The loss of his imagined safety of the gang was much worse than the beating he had just received.
Barab’s older brother, the tyrant of the single mother family, answered the door. “Barab’s not here, punk,” he said to Sak. Looking Sak over, he sneered and spat, “What happened to you — and what’s that?” as he noticed the two-foot canister sitting next to Sak.
Sak responded with a mighty shove, for Barab’s older brother was even bigger than Barab. Barab’s brother was drunk, and not ready for such a surprise, he tumbled backwards, continuing all the way down the stairs. Sak walked into the small upper foyer, and heard the mother yell out from below, “What’s all that racket, you bastard?”
“Good,” Sak said to himself, “That drunken bitch of a mother is home,” and he pushed a couple of buttons on the bomb, and forcefully flung the bomb at Barab’s brother who was getting up from the bottom of the stairs. Sak then tore out of there, slamming the door behind him. He did not get far before he heard the muffled belowground explosion behind him as he continued running his ass off, holding his stabbing right side.
It was dark, and he then headed — where? Where can I go? I can’t go home. Barab will go there first. Sak was still in shock, but the pain from his ribs was becoming much worse since the run. He walked towards the city in the dark, but that was changing. The night sky was starting to peek through the heavy clouds, and the larger moon was full. The lesser moon was close to full, so it looked as if it might become a relatively well-lit night later. As the clouds continued to pass and go, Sak was not very comfortable with the exposure of the moons, and tried to stay in the shadows.
“I’ll get a job in the mines out west,” he said to himself, as he walked on, trying to figure out where to spend the night. He had a little money on him. He was thinking about joining in the mines the hard way.
His now ex-idol Barab wanted very badly to be a miner, but was determined to take the path his deceased father
had, through the Miner’s School. The problem was that although the tests were not demanding, Barab still was unable to pass them. Unless you knew somebody who could get you in, or went through Miner’s School, the only other way was to start out in the areas close to the wildlands as an apprentice. This meant becoming a “plebe” in a “fraternity” which sent plebes to do the deadliest tasks. Many died in those mines, so they would take anyone who would work. Sak continued to walk, hoping to make a decision before he reached the city. He was able to thumb a ride about halfway, but it actually took him a bit out of his way. He caught no other rides after that.
Deeper in the city, at Strakna Laboratories, Jan and Lep had dropped off Dom at his uncle’s place, and were now entering through security to prepare for the arrival of Dom and his oversized stagecoach, along with the six contisses that pulled it.
The dozing night guard sat up when he saw Jan and Lep coming through the front doors. “Hey Lep, what brings you here tonight?” He took a furtive look at Jan. “Who’s the guest?”
Lep responded, saying, “We’ve got a late night delivery. There was a delay earlier, and I’m the one who has to receive it.” He looked disgusted. “I should be at a friend’s graduation party tonight, and I’m stuck here doing this!”
“Too bad,” the guard said. He looked Jan over. “So who is this fellow?” he asked again.
Lep had been thinking about his alternatives for this lie. He opted for, “Oh, he’s my buddy, Jan. We’re going to the party after this, and he offered to lend a hand to speed things up.”
The guard made a thoughtful frown. Then he raised his eye-ridges and said, “Good thinking!” He wanted to get back to his “magazine”. He thumped his hand on the desk and said, “Well, you two had better get a move on.”
They both passed by him and walked down two long hallways to the elevators.
Taking the elevator down to the seventh floor, they immediately went to the back of the building to where the freight elevators were located. Jan and Lep then took the freight elevator all the way up to the first floor loading deck. When they opened the big doors at the top, there was Dom, with his big grin, waiting.
Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) Page 22