by R A Baxter
“Damien,” Fenton Murdock said. “Just the boy I wanted to see.”
“Hey, Dad. What brings you here?”
“Where’s Farley?” Lynch’s raspy voice demanded attention. “What’s going on at this camp? This is outrageous!”
Damien didn’t need to answer. Farley had just come in from the back door. “I just finished my morning lecture. We’re having a few problems with the locals, but I think we’re doing just fine.”
Derek sat on a desk and Tamera settled herself on an office chair, with her usual elegance. Damien made himself comfortable on a countertop. Fenton and Lynch stood facing Avard and Farley.
“I want the attacks stopped tonight,” Lynch said. “We don’t finance this facility so you can obsess about your own pathetic problems. I want results.”
“The attacks will stop. I’m restoring the lighting as we speak.”
“Not good enough! I’ve already assembled a task force. We’ll wait them out and destroy them. I don’t want to hear more excuses for failing to harvest quality recruits. You cannot accomplish anything with all these distractions!”
“You’re not being fair,” Farley said. “We've had great results with this crop. In just two nights, most of our targets have begun dreaming strong Archetypes. Many are showing signs of mental conflict. And we’ve already recruited three members of our research team. We assimilated one boy successfully. None of the others have shown signs of dream awareness. I’d say we’ve done well so far.”
“My associates don’t share your optimism,” Lynch said. “I agree that the crop looks good, but the research team members are worse than I’ve seen in years. Yes, you assimilated a boy, but you lost a girl. The Barnes girl is a clear security risk, still not dreaming about camp. You’ve allowed a boy to traipse right into the assimilation facility just because he claimed to be a friend of the Park boy. And now, one of your most-trusted staff members has turned traitor. There’s no telling what she’s told the campers.”
“We’ve been rolling back security tapes,” Farley said. “We’ll know where she spent her time.”
“You know nothing!” Lynch pounded a desktop. “Mentalists like her can resist our interrogation techniques, but we know she wasn’t working alone. At least one of the research team members colluded with her. I want every one of them assimilated—tonight.”
“No!” Avard grabbed a nearby stapler and threw it across the room. “There are too many kids on the team. Media can’t assimilate them all. Her mind can’t take it. You gotta give her a night’s rest.”
“The assimilations will take place tonight.” Lynch glared at Avard. The old man glared back for a few seconds, then looked away and stormed out of the building. Katie wondered what kind of power Lynch had, that even a bully like Avard could be cowed by it.
“There’s still the issue of Katie Frost,” Farley said. “Her father has forbidden us to assimilate her without proof that she’s been enlightened.”
“That,” Fenton said, “is why we came here without him. No one questions Vance’s loyalty, but recent events have blinded him. He knows Katie’s destiny was settled the day her uncle joined the executive board.”
“It’s not worth the risk,” Damien said. “We all know what happened to Alison. If Katie isn’t enlightened, there’s no reason to risk assimilating her.”
“Katie must be assimilated tonight,” Lynch said. “Now, if the rest of you will excuse us, Fenton and I need to speak privately with Mr. Farley.”
The three men headed for Farley's office. Katie danced around the glass shards and dead insects until she arrived at the window. She stepped onto the sill and jumped to the flowerbed below. She ran around the corner of the building and came across Taylor and Clara standing and talking. She bulleted straight for them.
“Taylor wants to watch me write about my dream.” Clara looked at Katie and her eyes widened. “You’re upset. What’s wrong?”
Katie took hold of Clara’s arm and tried to compose herself.
“I’ll see you at the research facility.” Taylor smiled at Clara, turned and walked up the hill.
Katie pulled Clara into a line of trees. “I don’t know what's going on here,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
She looked into Clara’s eyes. “I honestly don’t know what I just heard. Some of my dad’s partners are here. They were talking about the campers here as if we were all some kind of crop to be harvested. They don’t sound like they care about anybody.”
“Your dad wouldn’t have sent us here if something bad was going to happen.”
“That’s just it, I don’t know if that’s true. They kept talking about an assimilation process that sounds really dangerous. Damien told me it was safe, but he didn’t sound that way just now. You should’ve seen how Avard reacted when Mr. Lynch brought it up. He went ballistic. He said they lost a girl during assimilation. It must’ve been Alison. I just don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Don’t be afraid. I won’t let them hurt you.” She wrapped her arms around Katie. “You’re everything to me.”
“Thanks Clara, but I’m not the only one I’m worried about. They were also angry at you because you haven't been dreaming about this stupid camp.”
“Angry? At me?” Clara’s eyes watered up and her lips quivered.
Katie smiled and patted her cousin’s hand. “I shouldn’t have said that. I think they’re angry at Farley more than anything. It’s just that creepy Lynch guy. He thinks Sherry’s some kind of traitor who’s been spying on them. That’s what gets me. Why would anyone want to spy on a stupid summer camp? It’s the same way it is at home with my dad. Constant paranoia.”
“So, what’re we going to do?”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t know what I was trying to prove by coming here. What was I thinking? I’m such an idiot.”
Two gray squirrels chattered at each other and circled the trunk of a tall pine tree. Jack lay on his back on a secluded hill near his cabin, suspending Sherry’s book above his face. He figured the surveillance cameras couldn’t see him since Sherry had gone to this location to be alone. He glanced at his cellphone and found he’d been reading for nearly three hours. He slammed the book shut and stood up.
Over the low hill, he saw Ming, Taylor, and Travis walking down the trail from the cabin, carrying towels.
Taylor turned and saw him. “Dude! Where you been, man? We got tired of typing. We’re going to do some canoeing before lunch.”
Jack nodded absent-mindedly, stuffed the book under his arm, and walked down the hill to join his friends. He saw Clara and Katie walking a few hundred yards ahead of them.
“If y’all don’t mind,” Travis said. “I think I’ll head down to the lake with the better-looking company.” He winked at Ming and charged down the hill to join the girls.
“Travis is hitting on your girl again.” Ming punched Taylor’s arm.
“I’m not worried. Travis is about as charming as a slug.” Taylor handed Jack a towel. “Here you go. I hoped I’d find you before we got to the lake. Have you come up with a plan?”
Jack checked for Ming’s ID and saw that he wasn’t wearing it. “I walked the perimeter earlier, but there’s no way through the fence. The front gate is guarded and the back one is locked and has a camera aimed at it. I’ve been reading the book Sherry gave me. It’s as dry as a rock, but I couldn’t put it down. Things are even worse than I thought. I can hardly believe it.”
“Like what?” Taylor stopped at a covered pavilion to enjoy some shade and evade any curious ears.
“It tells you how to control your dreams. You need three things: dream awareness, control of your subconscious, and enlightenment. It doesn’t explain enlightenment. That’s the part someone tore out of the book.”
“It’s worthless then,” Ming said. “There’s no point only knowing two of the three requirements.”
“Actually, those two requirements are still pretty cool,” Jack said. “I don’t even
see what a third one would add. Dream awareness is the most important thing. You can control most of what you do in a dream just by being aware you’re dreaming. It’s called lucid dreaming.”
“I’ve heard of that,” Ming said.
“It seems easy. You choose an object that you use often—the book calls it a prime token—then you think about that object as you fall asleep, so you’ll remember it in your dream. The second you dream about it, you trigger awareness of the dream.”
“No way!” Taylor sat on a plastic chair and put his feet up on the table. “If it’s really that easy, I can’t wait for lights out. I’d love to control my dreams.”
“Me too.” Jack pulled a lighter from his pocket. “I already picked my prime token. I never go anywhere without this. What’s cool is, once you know you’re dreaming, you can literally do anything you want. You can even fly.”
Taylor’s eyes widened. “It’d be like living the ultimate video game. That’s so cool.”
“Don’t get too excited” Jack said. “Dream awareness lets you do what you want, but your conscious mind is just reacting to whatever dreamscape your subconscious creates. Your subconscious ultimately controls everything in your dreams.”
“So, in other words, we can’t really control what we dream.” Taylor dropped his feet back to the ground and put his hands up in surrender.
“I didn’t say that. I’m saying we have to control both our conscious and subconscious minds. Lucid dreaming takes care of our conscious mind. The book called control over the subconscious ‘Shadow Control.’”
Taylor huffed. “Why would you call it that? Who wrote this?”
“Some dude named Curtis Lynch. He calls the subconscious our ‘Shadow’ because it’s always there, just out of view, like a shadow. Our Shadow creates situations and shapes events in our dreams. So, if you really want total control of your dreams, you have to know you’re dreaming, and then your conscious mind has to overpower your subconscious shadow.”
“That’s weird,” Taylor said. “Makes sense I guess, but how are you supposed to overpower your own mind? Sounds schizophrenic.”
Jack laughed. “This could all be virtually impossible to do, for all I know. Lynch says the way to control your subconscious is to force yourself to be the same person consciously that you are subconsciously.”
“What?” Taylor looked at Ming, whose furrowed brow revealed his confusion.
“It means you have to be at peace with who you are. You have to live free of guilt and regret. They call it ‘Embracing Your Shadow.’”
“That sounds like what you said Sherry was talking about,” Ming said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Jack said. “The other campers were at peace with who they were before they came here. That means they could’ve easily embraced their Shadow and controlled their dreams.”
“That explains perfectly what’s going on here,” Ming said.
“Exactly,” Jack said. “Those campers were already in a position to embrace their Shadow. They only needed to be made aware that it’s possible to control our dreams.”
“Man, that totally explains why they didn’t invite me here,” Taylor said. “I’m already the poster boy for mental conflict. I doubt I’ll ever be able to embrace my Shadow.”
“Actually, the book said it’s that way for most people. Lynch described a second way to control your dreams. He called it ‘Subduing Your Shadow’. With that method, your conscious mind just has to conquer and subdue your subconscious.”
“Sounds even harder,” Taylor said.
“Not really. Only the best of people can embrace their Shadow, but even the worst monster can subdue it. But you have to work at it both when awake and while asleep. It means learning to accept yourself exactly as you are, no matter how awful you are. If you’re the scum of the earth, you have to be okay with that. You have to convince yourself that you want to be the scum of the earth.”
Taylor stood up. “That’s bad news for me. I’m always mad at myself for one reason or another. What else do you have to do?”
“It sounds kind of weird, but you literally have to overpower a dreamed-up being in your dreams. It’s a specific being that your subconscious mind creates to represent itself. Lynch calls that symbolic being a Jungian Archetype. It’s a human-like manifestation of your subconscious; a dreamed personage that represents your Shadow.”
Ming scratched his head. “Are you saying everybody has some kind of Archetype being hanging around in their dreams?”
“Yes, but only if your mind is conflicted in some way. Your Shadow automatically creates that Archetype personage to represent mental conflict in your dreams.”
“What if I have loads of conflicts in my head?” Taylor grinned.
“Your subconscious picks the strongest conflict.”
“Wow,” Taylor said. “And all I have to do is find that archetype and tackle it?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“How do you know which person is your Archetype?” Ming looked at Jack.
“The book says you first have to figure out what bothers you most. Archetypes are different for everyone. It could be a demon trying to control you, a witch trying to put you down, or maybe some hero trying to save you.”
Taylor shook his head. “This sounds insane, dude.”
“I know. I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t seen what’s going on at this camp. Montathena doesn’t just keep people from embracing their Shadow, they weaken them, so they can’t subdue it either. Your Archetype becomes too strong to subdue when the conflicts in your mind are too strong. The bigger the conflicts, the harder it is to subdue.”
“So, the staff tells everyone to steal, cheat, and lie just to make us hate ourselves.”
Jack nodded. “Sad thing is, the conflict occurs even if the staff fails to destroy your self-esteem. Either they make you feel worthless or they get you to overreact and become proud. Both responses create mental conflict, which then creates powerful Archetypes that our minds can’t subdue.”
Taylor’s mouth hung open and he turned to stare at the nearby lake.
“It’s all spelled out right here,” Jack turned to a page where Sherry had scribbled in names of camp staff. He handed it to Taylor, who read it aloud:
“Avard’s team—bullying and abuse. Shadow/Hero Conflict Enhancement: Targets must…”
He took on a look of disgust. “He calls us ‘targets?’ What a jerk.” He turned back to the book.
“Targets must be compelled to feel shame for not standing up to abuse. Aroused fear and feelings of inadequacy are essential. Resultant dreams will include manifestations of the Hero Archetype as the dreamer feels a subconscious need to be rescued by someone. If target instead rises up against oppressors, the mind will enhance the equally acceptable Shadow Archetype—an unseen presence that the now arrogant dreamer feels he must rescue.
“Media’s team—criticism and belittling. Senex/Wise Man Conflict Enhancement: The easiest Archetype to enhance, the Senex (or old witch) is emboldened in a target’s dreams by creating self-doubt and low self-esteem. Targets who instead look inward, overestimating their own personal value, become proud. They will thusly project their exaggerated self-image into the dreamed form of a Wise Man Archetype.’
“Derek’s team—guilt and deception. Trickster/Child Conflict Enhancement: Guilt aroused via deceptive behavior encourages the Trickster Archetype. Targets who refuse to deceive others may enhance the opposing Child Archetype, a symbolic personage that is excessively honest, denying the target dreamer his or her personal privacy and exposing secrets the dreamer does not want exposed.
“Farley’s team—controlling and enslaving. Demon/Animus Conflict Enhancement: The Demon, as understood here, is an Archetype obsessed with controlling others. The Animus, on the other hand, is reflective of one whose appetites and emotions are uncontrolled, like an animal. Encourage animal-like carnality, selfishness, and unkindness to enhance the Animus Archetype. Targets who reac
t obsessively to these behaviors in others will instead enhance their need to control others—a fascist behavior that manifests in the form of a Demon Archetype.”
Jack, Taylor, and Ming didn’t know how long they’d been standing there below the canopy staring at the lake, pondering the words Taylor had just read. The staff’s behavior now made total sense to Jack, and the book verified everything Sherry had told him.
“It’s all real,” Ming said. “I kept telling myself we were overthinking it, that Sherry was just being paranoid, assuming things, blowing them out of proportion. But if there’s a shred of truth to that book, it’s all true. We need to get out of here.”
“That book sounds like good enough evidence to me,” Taylor said. “I say we go with my plan. Tonight, Ming can set something on fire down here by the lake. Jack and I will wait for the guards to be distracted and then we’ll sneak out the front gate.”
“What if they catch me?” Ming started breathing fast. “They’ll figure out I know too much. We have to get someone else to do it. I don’t know if that book will help us, anyway. Who’s going to read it? The police aren’t going to listen to a couple of teenagers with a weird book about dream control.”
“All we can do is try.” Jack said. “It won’t matter if they catch you. Farley tells everyone to do bad things. If you’re caught, just tell them you were obeying Farley.”
“I don’t know.” Ming looked away. “I’m not brave like you guys. I feel like I’m about to pass out. I just can’t do it.”
“You’re stressing yourself out again,” Taylor said. “We don’t have to commit to it right now. We can think about it for a few hours. Maybe we can tell Travis everything, and he’ll do it. For now, let’s just relax and join the others at the lake.”
“Good plan,” Jack said. “I see Katie down there. I still want to talk to her before we go.”
“Let’s go then.” Taylor headed for the lake with Ming and Jack following a few steps behind them.
Ming caught up with Travis and climbed into a boat with him. Jack stared across the water and spotted Marina and Barbara in a canoe on the far side of the lake. He groaned when he noticed Damien jogging to the docks in black swimming trunks, showing off his chiseled hairy chest. Katie and Clara rowed their canoe to shore and Clara climbed out.