by R A Baxter
“Now, let’s try some super strength.” Jack gripped the door lever and yanked it back. The double doors cracked and flew with their frame back across the lobby, crashing into a floor joist. Jack laughed and strutted onto the gravel path outside. He strolled at a slow pace, forgetting all about the real world. He stared at the cracked concrete foundation wall that had once supported his cabin. His elation faded to sadness and a dull pain formed in his throat.
He moved on and entered the clearing, turning toward the outdoor eating area, and stopped. Damien stood there, talking to his father. The only guards in view ushered campers toward the amphitheater on the opposite side of the clearing. Jack walked at a brisk pace toward the main offices where he knew he’d be out of Damien’s view. Once there, he changed course, ran around the back of the building, and darted to the redwood slat fence next to the outdoor eating area. He peeked through a gap between the slats and gasped when he saw Travis and Barbara sitting on a row of white plastic chairs with Carl, Tony, and Marina—each staring at the nearby lodge with blank expressions on their faces. Jack’s chest tightened. He feared Lynch had already gained control over his friends.
Then he saw Ming standing next to another plastic chair, facing away from Jack, with Lynch standing behind him. Tamera stood behind Media who sat in a second chair, facing Ming with her eyes closed. Blood stained the cheeks of her normally beautiful Indian face, now contorted beyond what would be possible for an awake human being. Tamera clenched her fingers tight on both sides of Media’s head.
“Sit, my boy,” Lynch said.
Ming looked at him, nodded, and sat down.
“No one gives massages like our Media,” Lynch said. “You’ll think you’re in heaven.” The old man nodded to Tamera.
He doesn’t know he’s dreaming! Jack thought. Lynch is lying to him. Jack saw a wider gap at the far end of the wood screen, near Damien and his father, and ran to it, searching for a way to rescue Ming.
“There are only three left?” Fenton Murdock said.
Damien nodded. “Jack thought he was clever running off, but he and Katie will be here as soon as they fall asleep. I don’t know if Clara’s able to dream here.”
“After an emotional experience like that explosion, even Clara might dream about this place.”
A scream rang through the air and Jack turned to Media.
“No more! Please! It’s too much. It hurts! Let me go!” Chairs and tables became visible through Media’s shaking, semitransparent body.
Ming stared forward and smiled.
He can’t hear her or see her, Jack thought. What’s she doing?
“We better stop,” Tamera said. Her voice trembled.
“We have no choice!” Lynch grabbed Media’s arm, looked her in the eye and squeezed hard. “Our entire organization is at risk. Do your duty if you want to survive this night.”
Media’s face twisted in agony and she reached for Ming’s head with shaking hands. Ming looked down at the floor and tapped his fingers on the armrests. Media’s fingers disappeared inside his head and she moaned.
Jack froze, a knot squeezing his stomach.
“You’ve always wanted to join Montathena Research,” Media’s sobbing made her shaky words even slower than when she was awake. The words rolled out too loud and then too quiet. “Montathena Research only wants to help people. Lynch, Murdock, Farley—these are your heroes. You’d do anything for them. You’d die for them. You’d die for Intershroud. You’d die to protect its secrets. Its enemies are your enemies.”
“Tell him to return to the camp,” Lynch said.
“You want to come back to camp. You never wanted to leave. Come back and the company will reward you. You—"
Media’s body faded nearly to invisible and a black mist formed around her head and rolled along her arms. The mist engulfed Ming’s head before shrinking and penetrating his skin.
Ming lifted his chin and stared forward with the same blank expression as the others.
Media convulsed, her head rolled from side to side, then a black liquid trickled from her mouth. She cried out and fell forward, but Tamera caught her before she could hit the concrete. She kneeled next to Media and held her head up.
“She can’t handle any more of this!” Tamera glared at Lynch. “We have to get another Mentalist for the others.”
Lynch pursed his lips. “I suppose you’re right. There’s nothing left in her. Go see if anyone is available from one of the other camps.”
“What are they doing?” A female voice spoke from behind Jack.
He turned and looked up, finding Katie standing next to him, peeking through another gap in the redwood fence, her forehead creased with concern.
Jack stood up and placed his hand lightly in front of her mouth. “They did something to Ming and the others. We’ve got to wake ourselves up somehow and try to help them.” He saw a shovel and grabbed it, then handed it to Katie and closed his eyes.
“Hit me with this. If it wakes me up, I’ll hurry and wake you up.”
Katie glared at him then set the shovel aside and crossed her arms. “Have you lost your mind? We’re not dreaming.”
The redwood screen suddenly vanished, and Jack fell backwards onto the concrete at the feet of Fenton Murdock.
“Hey,” Damien extended a hand to help up Jack. “I wondered when you’d show up. Everyone’s getting massages over here.” He waved for Jack and Katie to follow him to Ming.
“We don’t want a massage,” Jack said.
“Speak for yourself,” Katie said. “I could really use one.”
“Tamera and Lynch went to get the masseuse.” Damien gestured at Ming to go sit next to Travis, and he did.
Jack turned to Katie and leaned into her ear. “Can’t you see they’re lying? It isn’t a massage. We need to run while they still think we don’t know we’re dreaming.”
“Would you stop?” Katie turned and slapped Jack’s arm. “I think I’d know if I was dreaming. I’m not dumb.”
Jack shook his head and turned to Ming. “Would you tell her this wasn’t a massage? Tell her what Media did to you.”
Ming stood and clenched his teeth, fury in his eyes. He shoved Jack in the chest so hard, he fell back onto the cold pavement.
“Why do you always overreact?” Ming tightened his fists. “Just stop it! This camp is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Just calm down and wait for Tamera!”
Jack turned to Travis and Barbara and found them both sneering at him and nodding.
“You got to admit, you’re always judging people,” Barbara said. “You don’t know how much good this company does for people. You only want to criticize it.”
Jack turned around and saw that Lynch had returned. He stood talking to Damien and his father. Jack pulled himself to his feet, his heart aching, and turned to look for Katie. His eyebrows rose at seeing her moistened eyes and a face that showed she’d seen the change in her friends. She understood something was wrong.
Tamera appeared out of nowhere near the lodge, standing next to a short bald man. Everyone turned to face them except Katie. She yanked on Jack’s sleeve and leaned into his ear.
“Run!” Katie stepped back slowly and darted behind a trash bin. Jack did the same, watching for any eyes looking his way. He rounded the trash bin and charged across the clearing, out of everyone’s view. He barreled after Katie toward a section of collapsed perimeter fence and disappeared into the low hills beyond his demolished cabin. Katie looked back at him only once, then ran at a speed only possible in dreams.
They didn’t stop running for what seemed like hours, though he couldn’t really tell how much time passed. Katie finally slowed down at a stream bank and stopped and leaned against the trunk of lodgepole pine, pounding on it with the side of her fist. Jack walked up next to her.
“Did they see us leave?” Katie lowered her hands.
Jack shook his head. “We made it to the fence before anyone noticed we were gone.”
“
Did you see their faces?” Katie wiped her eyes with her hand.
Jack nodded. “They were like different people. I’m hoping we can snap them out of it after we wake up.”
Katie smiled. “You still think this is a dream? I hope you’re right.”
“Well, what do you know?” Avard emerged from the trees carrying a shotgun in each hand. “I thought I’d seen you two running around the forest like a couple o’ bunny rabbits.”
“What’re you doing out here?” Derek stepped up next to him and laughed. “Did you get lost?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Jack said.
“Don’t get smart.” Avard leveled his shotguns at the faces of Jack and Katie.
“We know this is just a dream,” Jack said. “You can’t hurt us.”
“I couldn’t care less if I hurt you or not.” Avard laughed and lowered his weapons. “Ol’ Lynch sent us out to kill the culprits that blew up our research facility, but I’m fixin’ to thank ’em. That infernal camp is finally closing down. I get to retire, and Farley won’t be harming my Media no more.”
“Media didn’t seem too happy to me,” Jack said. “She was screaming her head off back at camp.”
“If Media hurt my friends, I don’t feel one bit sorry for her,” Katie said.
Derek went pale and turned to Avard. “They’re just trying to get your goat.”
Avard leered at Derek, his eyes bulging, and his mouth pressed into a tight line. His aged knuckles tightened around the triggers of his guns. “So, that’s what this goose chase’s all about! You lured me out here so’s I couldn’t stop ’em from hurting my daughter! Do you have any idea what this’ll do to her?”
“I had nothing to do with it. It was Lynch’s orders.”
“I’ll kill him! I’ll kill all of you!” He raised his guns and blasted Derek in the face. He disappeared. Avard turned a shotgun on Katie. Jack heard the gunfire, but didn’t see her vanish, having closed his eyes tight when Avard shot Derek. He opened his eyes long enough to stare down the barrels of one of Avard’s shotguns and listen to a loud boom.
Jack slapped his face and chest, searching for bullet wounds, his heart pounding. He opened his eyes and turned to Katie, who’d already sat up, hugging her sweater.
“Please tell me you didn’t just dream about Avard shooting us in the face.” Jack sat up and brushed pine needles out of his hair with his hand.
Katie stared straight ahead and said nothing.
Warblers sang beneath a blue morning sky and sunlight bathed the western mountaintops. It would’ve been a pleasant morning were it not for the darkness Jack felt inside. Every detail of the dream stood vivid in his mind. How much of it was real, he couldn’t tell. He glanced over at Ming who slept nearby, curled in a ball, then looked around the glade.
“I don’t see Travis. I hope he didn’t get lost,” Jack said.
“He was in our dream. He must’ve fallen asleep.”
“Let’s not make any assumptions. We could’ve dreamed up all of that without them.”
Katie gave a brief nod but didn’t look convinced.
“Tony and Carl were there,” Jack said. “They couldn’t have been dreaming. They were in the cabin when it blew up.”
Katie perked up a little. “I saw Marina, too. Maybe we did dream it all up.”
Jack nodded. “Sun’s coming up. You better wake up Barbara and Clara. We should get moving while the weather’s good.”
Katie stood and weaved around the trees to the area where the girls were sleeping. Jack turned to Ming and gave him a shove.
“Knock it off!” Ming swatted Jack’s hand.
“I don’t blame you for being grumpy, but we need to go.”
“I’m not being grumpy. You’re being bossy. I’ll get up when I feel like it.”
Clara came around a clump of scrub oaks, her hair poking up and full of pine needles. “Barbara won’t get up either. Do you have anything to drink?”
Jack nodded, stood, and rolled up his blanket and tied it onto his backpack. He pulled three cartons of apple juice from his pack. “I managed to sneak these off the table yesterday.” He handed one to Clara and pulled a bundled-up paper towel out of his backpack and unfolded it, revealing a pile of dinner rolls. He grabbed a few and handed one to Clara.
“I’m glad one of us was thinking ahead,” Clara said. “I thought I was going to starve.”
Katie emerged from the shrubs, shook her head, and took a roll and a juice carton Jack handed her. “Thanks. Barbara won’t budge.” She eyed Ming for a second and gave Jack a serious look.
Jack bent over Ming and shook him three times. “We need to go. Lynch’s people could show up any minute!”
Ming bolted upright and glared at Jack, his mouth fixed in an angry sneer. “I don’t care about Lynch! Their lab blew up. They couldn’t hurt us now if they wanted to, and I’m starting to wonder if they ever did want to. You got us all worked up over nothing. It’s cold. All I want now is a warm bed.”
A knot formed in Jack’s stomach. This angry person wasn’t the Ming he knew. He looked at Katie and she looked away. “I better find out what’s up with Travis.” Jack handed his backpack to Clara. “Give Ming and Barbara something to eat. I’ll be back in a minute. I smell smoke. Do you?”
Before Clara could reply, Jack raced up a narrow deer trail that wound up a gradual slope along rows of pine trees and dewy ferns. He came out of a thicket to the edge of a narrow clearing and found Travis in the center of a glen, fanning a fire that sent a column of black smoke into the lodgepole tops.
Jack charged across the clearing. “What are you thinking? That’ll be visible for miles!”
“It’s freezing.”
“They’re going to find us.” He kicked dirt into the fire and seconds later found himself on his back, violet wildflowers around his head.
Travis stared him in the face and clamped his powerful hands against Jack’s shoulders. “You listen to me!” Travis released Jack with a shove and stood up. “We’ve been going about this all wrong. We don’t really know what we saw in that video you took. We should’ve talked to Farley, let him have a chance to explain it.”
“They shot at you!”
“They were shooting at those creatures. The guards didn’t know we were out there, running off like a bunch of idiots. They must’ve thought we were some of those ape-things.”
Jack pulled himself up and wiped dirt off his arms. Hearing someone behind him, he turned around. Ming emerged from the trees, followed by Barbara, Katie, and Clara.
“What’s all the yelling about?” Ming said, his tone serious. He walked over to Travis and the girls followed him. “Are you fighting?”
Jack pointed at Travis. “He knocked me down. I was trying to put out that fire.”
“He won’t listen to reason,” Travis said. “We need to go back.”
“Reason?” Jack pulled his own hair. “We talked about this. They want to control our minds! They killed Alison!”
“It was an accident,” Travis said.
“They covered it up!”
“Of course they did! They didn’t want everyone running home, telling stories.”
“Dude, help me out here.” Jack looked at Ming. “Last night you said you’d never let anyone control you. Tell Travis we can’t just waltz back there and surrender.”
“I’m with Travis,” Ming said.
“What?” Jack took his backpack from Clara.
“Hear me out.” Ming looked down and squinted, then placed his hand against the side of his head. He relaxed a moment later and looked up again. “To be honest, there’s something about Montathena Research that really impresses me. I know I complained about them before, but I actually like the way Lynch and Farley run things. They want to help people.”
Jack’s mouth dropped. He turned to Katie, who stared back at him with the same knowing expression. “Those are not your words,” Jack said. “Media said those things to you in our dream! Don’t you remember
? You, Travis, and Barbara were all there. Media did something to you. She told you things that weren’t true. You have to remember!”
“This is what you always do,” Ming said. “You keep saying crazy things like this and freaking me out. I want to go back. I don’t think I ever wanted to leave.”
Barbara stepped up to Jack and shook her head. “He’s right, you know. You sound seriously crazy. Even if I had dreamt about Media, it was just a dream, right? We need to go back and maybe get you some counseling.”
Jack didn’t know what else to say. He looked to Katie, but she only stared back at him, frowning. Jack shook his head and scoffed. He threw the strap of his backpack over his shoulder. “Suit yourselves.” Jack’s voice wavered with emotion. “I didn’t force you to come with me. I guess I’m on my own. Good luck slaving for Intershroud.”
Travis raised his rifle. “You’re coming with us. You’ll get lost out here.”
“Really? You’re going to shoot me? You don’t even know how to use that thing.”
Travis hesitated a few seconds before dropping his arm and letting the gun fall into the wildflowers. “Dude. Just come back with us!”
Jack marched down a narrow trail into a ravine. He couldn’t bear to look at his friends anymore. He walked only a few steps before he heard a thump behind him.
Jack turned around and found Travis laying in the dirt, rubbing his head. Clara stood next to him clenching a jagged rock in her hand. Her eyes widened, and the rock dropped from her hand. “He was going to hit you with his flashlight.” She looked down at Travis. “I’m so sorry.” She kneeled next to him and tried to look at the wound, but Travis glared at her and shoved her hand away.
Katie screamed. Barbara braced herself behind Katie, her right arm wrapped tight around Katie’s neck and her other arm latched behind her head. Katie’s face reddened, and she struggled to pull down on Barbara’s arm.