Good and Evil : Freeland - Part Two (9781628547375)

by Pulver, William

  One of the geek-squad people for that group lifted up Lexie’s clothes and handed them to her, while keeping his eyes closed, and shared, “You see, this is the way it has always been, brawn over brains, but not anymore. You jocks think that everything demands force physically. We are going to have to think our way out of this one. The number of these Pasties are too vast, and these are just the ones of which we are aware. We were down the system a little ways, and we saw more of these eyes from not just Pasties, but some of their pets, or whatever they were. These aren’t the only beings in this wraparound-the-globe cave structure. You do know that it encircles the entire planet of Trendago, right?”

  “Nonsense!” Tynan prattled back. “You might think you can think your way through this one, but you are going to need the brawn of us dumb jocks just as much as we are going to need your brains. The only division down here should be us against them, not us against each other. Look how we ended up here in the first place. I didn’t see any of you devising a plan to escape the Love Shack. You all looked pretty determined to follow our route not to get caught by the magistrate. If it weren’t for the strength of Zon here, we would all have gotten sent to Nostradama for sure. At the least, we would have gotten sent to the in-between, the Dry Sea Octofuture Health. I know I don’t want to go there either.”

  “You do have a point, but if we do procreate, should it be by natural selection, or should we go by emotional attachment? I know I am a virgin. Lexie, if you had your choice, would you want to be with another virgin, like me, or would you rather lay down with a pig who has done almost every girl in our class, like him?” Aftab Kahn, the true virgin brainiac, pointed at the eighteen-year-old, five-o’clock-shadow-wearing senior quarterback for the Bobcats, Holden Cruze, the only person there who had been shaving since he was in fifth-grade.

  “Neither. I told you guys before who I am saving my virginity for, and he is already at DSOH. I don’t care if it does mean that I will get killed by these Pasties. I don’t believe in the God versus the devil thing anyway. It is a bunch of hocus-pocus. I just choose not to engage in sexual relations because my body is sacred to me.”

  “Not anymore!” Tynan laughed out loud while he watched Lexie quickly redress. “Your temple has now been demolished. You exposed yourself to everyone, and nice it was indeed.”

  “Knock it off! That was because I thought I had to save everyone’s lives from getting subdued by those mineral people. Like you said, I took one for the team, so that shouldn’t count against me.” She was so consumed by her pretty-little-liar mentality.

  “Whatever. Deep down inside, you wanted us to see what you’ve been hiding all these years.” Tynan’s form of hitting on her was backfiring the more he talked. The nerd, Aftab, now had a better chance than he did.

  The Pasties were in their own huddle with backs facing the humans. They turned to cast communications to the wall on the human’s side. Zon looked over to discover that these Pasties wanted something else. They wanted a sacrifice. Someone whose soul they could steal. That was the enticement, but whom?

  Like a counselor at a treatment facility, Zon went around his group of people and evaluated the strength of each person. He didn’t think there would be any athletes who had thoughts of early dismissal from this life, so he focused more on the deviants. Lo and behold, it wasn’t within them that he found his target. It was within the nerds. His name was Derek Chandlee, and he was one of the smartest kids in high school. He was fortunate to be able to figure out algorithms in trigonometry as an eighth grader, but unfortunately hacked into the wrong person’s computer when he made use of them in a different way. His hacking got him caught up in a sexual offender scandal. Come to find out, the offender whose website he hacked into lived three doors down, on the same side of the street. Derek claimed it was self-defense, but several of his Internet sites depicted a pre-meditated slaying scheme to save future children from victimization.

  Scooping the kid up with one arm, Zon took him over to the other side as a sort of peace offering for the time being. Again, no judgment was going to be passed on anyone for any sin in this underground system, so the offering was not noted as a conspiracy to homicide.

  The process looked long and painful. The same infrared beams that traced Lexie’s body were now the color of the main Pastie doing the sacrificing. Infra-blue shot out from the amethyst marbles in the Pasties’ eye sockets. Determinedly, they burnt a hole in the chest of Derek. Shrieks of pain echoed off the interior walls. The tunnels leading elsewhere had those low sunken eyes lighting up the hollows in anticipation. Some of the teens watched with abhorrence, while others, mainly the girls, shied away, afraid that this could next be them. Again, Jessica Glethry buried her head in Zon’s arms where he finally caught on and took her to the darkest dark corner and proceeded to impregnate her. Others started doing the same thing. Pretty much everyone but Lexie and the geek squad guy who was trying to get his earlier, participated in the life renewing ritual.

  This mass-reproduction lasted a short while, until all had met their satisfaction. It was natural selection at its finest—survival of the fittest. Mainly, it was those who carried out previous thoughts or fantasies of who they wanted to be with; it had nothing to do with spirituality or anything emotional. Like the age-old question, if we were the last two people on the planet, would you sleep with me? Well, in this case, it didn’t take long for the teams to get picked and the darkest vacant dugout pod to be located. Since she was already fulfilled and would have now been revealed, Lexie didn’t go anywhere with anyone.

  The ceremony ended, and Derek was between a human and a transforming Pastie. His upper half was still human, and he looked like a Minotaur that was lower part newt instead of lower part bull. It was eventually going to be fed human sacrifice, but not until thoughts of guilt consumed any of those who had gotten pregnant way too young.

  The carcass of his body was tossed to the side. A set of blue eyes carefully entered from the pee-tunnel as they lit up the cadaver while dragging it back into their tunnel. Other colors of eyes swarmed around to help devour the meal for their nutrition. The lights faded, and all was dark again from the beyond.

  Once redressed, the group of humans single-filed down the smooth rock trail to another place, away from the Pasties. There, they would regroup, and later they could divide and conquer, once the time arrived. For now, it was survival; they were going to have to figure out how to adapt to these underground conditions. They were going to need: food, sculpting tools, light, and munitions in preparation of a surprise attack. Water was already abundant, and minerals would be more like vitamins, but those were in the water.

  If these Pasties were anything like snakes, the body they shared would keep them occupied for at least a day. Zon looked around at the crowd of people, hating the fact that he was the leader, the judge, and the determining factor of who goes next. It was a tough position, one that required that person to have alligator-skin, be tough as nails, and not have any emotional attachment to humans as the whole. He was somewhat this person, but that slight indifference could mean his life. He had to be hard in order to survive.

  “I want five of you smart guys to devise a plan for engineering weapons in case of an all-out war. Isaic, you are a gifted individual with size to match your wits. Will you handpick four others to take with you and guide them through the assembly line?”

  “You know I will.”

  “Good. Now, I am going to need about fifteen people to seek outward and find a good spot to house around two hundred people. Are we all right to stick with those we have impregnated?”

  “Yes,” all agreed simultaneously, as if Zon was leading a hazing session at a fraternity orientation.

  The only person who had a problem with all of this was Lexie. She was still stuck in her beliefs that no one should have had intercourse, regardless of the circumstances. It was unnecessary and would lead to future chaos fo
r all.

  She spoke like a seer looking into a crystal ball. “I am going to branch off from this group and seek shelter somewhere else. I don’t see the need to defend myself when I know what the Pasties are seeking. They don’t want a virgin. So, I guess only two of us really has a chance down here.” She looked over at the geek and thought, now there is a reason why he is still a virgin. The geek caught the look in her eye and stepped to the side to avoid the judgment. He slid back behind the group to cower from the spotlight, though inside, he knew better that she shouldn’t be the one to try to judge.

  “You guys do what you are going to do, but I am telling you, bad things are coming.” Lexie walked down the hall with the group of people Harvey was put in charge of to find an open cave. He put some shards of gemstones on the end of a stick and lit the way. Eyes flickered here and there like hidden bats against the walls.

  “Don’t wish bad things upon us; these people are already scared as it is.” Zon sloughed Lexie off and turned back to the remnants of his audience to speak, “Tynan, you are in charge of the ladies. I want you to keep them protected. If anyone should be taken next, I want it to be a male: the weakest link. There is no time for feeling sorry for anyone. The Pasties have already proven that they don’t care.”

  “I can assure their safety. Can I take some of the other football players and use them for bodyguards?” Tynan asked.

  “Certainly, Harvey will be staying here with you. Cruze, Drake, Mariot, Astor, Simpson, Chisholm, Payne, you will be my backup men if we undergo an attack. Actually, Astor and Payne, you two stay with me. The others can go with you, Tynan. We need to find some place to set a trap. Look for anything resembling contraband. These Pasties have to be hiding a stash somewhere down here.”

  “What about the heli-bus? Where did all of its scrap metal go? You know how many weapons we could make out of that?” One of the nerds stepped up and used his brain.

  “Now you’re talking.” Zon took Isaic’s stick-light idea and made several for his crew. “Pass these around to the outside of our huddle. We will light the way through these tunnels.”

  The lights pierced through the darkness as the group pushed onward. Slowly and cautiously they roamed further away from the Pasties. For the time being, they were safe.

  Chapter 6

  Firebugs

  Derek Chandlee was made a Pastie changeling and no one had any control over it. He was the temporary feed to the nourishment of this underground society of mineralized people.

  A trajectory showed overhead as the smooth walls of the dark cave system were brought to life. Another suicide was displaying, and the Pasties were getting restless. From the far corner of this sect of cave, Zon quieted his group of people while they watched the viewing, meticulously absorbing as much detail as they could. A pattern was starting to form, and the puzzle was coming together. The Pasties were a thought-projecting group of reckless soul seekers. Their thoughts revealed those who had committed to death on their own accord. Just before those tainted souls passed through judgment, these soul suckers would draw them in and create reincarnation to strengthen their own army of Satan’s underworld mercenaries. That explained the birth of the baby Pastie, previously. These are the Devil’s prey-league of fallen angels who would eventually gain enough strength, through their numbers, that they were going to soon surface and take over the planet. Thus, creating an implosion where Trendago would be turned inside out, instead of outside in, like the scraping off of burnt toast similar to when earth was turned into heaven. The difference is that this would be a reverse heaven: Nostradama on Trendago.

  It was up to the group of teenagers to stop this from happening. Zon devised a plan to move deeper into the cave system, before the Pasties decided they needed more nourishment. As the projection was roving around the hollowed out opening, Zon set charge to his team. They ran by the lead of the stick light held by Mr. Wonderful, the backup quarterback, Mariot. Through the tunnel hollows they raced; several different colored low-laying lights turned to observe once all were passing. Slow and patient, they sat in their stalk, just waiting for one to fall.

  Both Chisholm and his mate, Shana, were somewhat overweight and had issues with running for longer than a minute. Each slowed to a walk-trot and then finally pulled over to stop and catch their breath as he beckoned for the others to wait.

  Their pant bottoms were soaked from splashing water. This part of the cave system was wetter than the other, and reflections were casting from beneath the pool. Sloshing through the shallows, Zon grabbed a chunk of metal that was reflecting light from the bottom of an inlet. It grew in size once withdrawn from the bottom. The object was hoisted in the air, more massive in weight than any Pastie could handle. Zon hoisted it with both arms over his head to reveal the start of how they were going to overcome the Pasties.

  “This is the black box to the aircraft. We need to put it somewhere near these Pasties so that, if the magistrate tracks it down, it will lead them to those guys instead of us. We will sneak out during the diversion and take off with their heli-bus like we did before.”

  Mariot looked over toward the back wall and, through his blue eyes, saw another reflection of light. It was a constant beam that was coming from another bend. The teammates had to wade through deeper waters, adding more hindrance to their progress and weight to their already dampened clothes.

  Chisholm spoke between gasps, “Listen… you guys go ahead… I am going to wait here… for you to come back. I need to… restore… my energy.” He tiredly sat down, wedged his shoes off at the foot of the pool, and dabbled his bare toes in the water. After leaning over on his side, he slurped for nourishment and fell asleep, using Shana’s left thigh as a pillow.

  Cruze weaseled his way through the thin opening in the rocks. His chest hair pulled from its set as he brushed it against the sidewall. He was pretty much the skinniest one there, anyway, and probably the only one who could fit through such a narrow opening. He maneuvered around a couple more turns as the light being held by Astor shone him through his way. He finally reached the corresponding light to discover it was a firebug flickering as it filled up with some kind of substance within this side cave. Cruze was hungry, almost starved to the point of no return, so he picked the bug up and put it in his mouth. This guy ate anything and everything. He was once fabled to have eaten a Rhinoceros Beetle. For him, this bug buffet was easy work. Its taillight went into a strobe up and down the body and back in an attempt to ward off the predator. Nothing doing. The hand-sized bug was wrenched upon by Cruze, its six legs scrambling to push off the row of front teeth tickled the roof of Cruze’s mouth as its light went from outside in.

  Cruze came back out guided by the leftover light-causing agent that stuck to his teeth and cheeks. Everyone giggled when they saw some of the light juice dribbling down his chin like he was sucking on a broken neon glow stick.

  Drake asked, “What did you do, swallow a flashlight?” They all laughed again at Cruze. He knew they had no idea how good the bug tasted, like a T-bone steak. It was scrumptious. He shifted his face up and laughed as the lighted juice, in a momentous crunch from his mouth, shot all over the ten foot ceiling of this part of the cave.

  Nothing happened to Cruze. No telltale signs of any side effects, other than his mouth staying lit up like a fluorescent light for nearly thirty minutes. As long as he kept it open, he could light the way for the rest of the group.

  “What did you see in that cave? Did it have an end, or did it keep going?” Zon silenced everyone so he could communicate.

  “I made it to the end. There wasn’t anything in there besides this firebug.” The juice had trickled down his shirt, leaving white, glowing stains. His semi-wavy hair, tight at the top, had ends that were lit up by the juices. It looked pretty cool. He smeared some on his eyebrows and the tips of his eyelashes to make everyone laugh.

  Since the light reflecting fro
m the firebug was white, and nothing drastic happened to Cruze, the crew decided to seek elsewhere for more white lights. These were their best hope for nutrition and future energy. Some firebugs tasted like barbecued chicken, others prime rib, and one was said to have tasted like raw tuna. It must have been old and hairy.

  The group broke up again, each guy taking their impregnated mate. They all promised to meet back at the pool where Chisholm and Shana were resting.

  This tunnel-system was a dark maze, ever changing within each bend. Some parts were open; some parts were narrow. Some parts were wet; some were mysteriously arid. Some were lukewarm, and some were heat-filled, while some were more lit, and some were pitch black and eerie. Big holes, little holes, wide holes, whittled holes. All in all, it was a labyrinth devised by some sadistic crusader who wanted to bottleneck all of his victims into some unrewarding end. The end, or perhaps the beginning, of something worse than they ever anticipated.

  A sound echoed through the tunnels, gaining decibels as it approached. The pounding against the walls pushed it out at an alarming rate. It sounded like the bass in rap music. A continuous, somewhat artistic, in-sync noise, led Drake and Farrah to its brink. Lights began flickering, casting shadows of large beings against the surrounding walls. The shadows were bigger than the little people who were casting them; these Pasties were of the pygmy type. They looked cute, all petite, dancing to the music. Music—where was it coming from?

  Hiding toward the back in the shadows these things were casting, Drake and Farrah slid back against the smooth cavern walls, proceeding forward toward the huddle of midget Pasties.

  “Hold my hand and don’t let go.” Drake tried to stay quiet as the projectors lit up the wall.