Desperate By Dusk

by Alexander Salkin

  Simon had been to the lake several times during summer camp, back when he was considerably younger. He'd been to the body of water with Ramone a few times to go fishing since then, but those days were fewer and far between since Ramone's father retired in Florida many years ago. It was nice out here. Quiet, even with the occasional presence of people walking the circumference of the lake, so long as it wasn't done during Fourth of July weekend or the midsummer Boy Scout jamborees. Fortunately, the Pine Barrens didn't lack for forested locations to fish and hang out.

  Suddenly, Simon paused. It took the others a moment to notice he stopped. "Huh? Something wrong, man?"

  Simon shook his head. "No, but I just remembered something. Ramone, remember when we tried our phones and the radio when we were in the red eyed world?"

  Ramone quickly stopped, although it took him a moment to process the meaning behind it, thanks to his addled mental state. "Oh shit, you're right… we would know, wouldn't we?"

  Jessie looked back and forth, soon shrugging. "Wait, what? What's supposed to happen?"

  Simon and Ramone looked at each other and then to their friend. "Try your phone. Internet, call, whatever," said Simon. "Tell us what you get."

  Jessie eyed them pensively, but felt a bit foolish for not recalling this part of their story when they left the first time. "Alright. I'll call you, Simon." His sunglass wearing friend held his cell phone handy, but didn't open it, as he waited.

  After a moment spent dialing and listening, Jessie withdrew his head slightly and looked at his phone with mild disgust. "The hell? It's all… static and dial up modem distortions. That's not right at all."

  "Try getting online," said Ramone.

  Wordlessly, Jessie did as he was requested and fidgeted with his phone. After several moments, he squinted at his phone. "It's…. gibberish. Not even a 'page not found' message or a 404 error. It's just… random characters and shapes. Not even sure this is supposed to be code."

  "Then it's true," began Simon. "We aren't in our Dresden Port after all. Our devices don't work right in this place. Or at least, electronics like this don't. This is definitely somewhere else. We are in red eyed world, after all."

  Jessie stared hard at his phone before closing it and turning it off. "Super. Well, I guess we better lay low. I guess that's good to know, but I don't think it changes anything. We're already in a cautious state of mind, all considering."

  Ramone nodded thoughtfully. The idea of genuinely being back in red eyed world was a bit sobering from his pain. "I wonder how long we'll be here?"

  "I think for right now, I'm honestly fine with being away from home," Simon lamented. "I don't know, I think I'm a bit more concerned about the Clayforged than the locals here. These guys, at least, aren't hunting us down like dogs yet. I'm in no rush."

  "Not yet," sniffed Jessie.

  CHAPTER 16

  They reached Anekagustah as they emerged from the woodland trail. The waters were a usual translucent tea brown, colored from the roots of nearby trees drinking from the body of water. It was a common enough sight in the Pine Barrens. More than once when Simon visited, a soft out-of-towner would comment aloud on the 'discoloration' and wonder if the source was from some pollution in the area. What little industry was in the area was the complete other side of town. PJ Mannington was a lot of things, if Jessie's stories held true, but to Simon's knowledge, the man did not shit where he slept.

  "I don't see anyone around here," Ramone noted. "I'm gonna wash off. I feel gross." He took off his jacket and then his undershirt, not feeling terribly self-conscious. And what reason had he to be? He was in amazing shape, and not just because he didn't fit the stereotype of a modern day doughy American. His friends had seen Ramone's etched and rather powerful looking physique before, so it came as no surprise. He looked much like he did back in his days of playing football in high school, if anything. Ramone just naturally had those genes to allow it. That and he stayed fairly athletic on his own time, to say nothing of the heavy lifting at work. Simon knew the barbells at Ramone's place weren't just for show or collecting dust bunnies. Drinking was his only main physically detrimental vice.

  Although less of a mess than his friend, Simon also removed a flannel and T-shirt. Of the boys, he was on the slim side and probably the most pale, although he was in the sun more than Jessie. He was neither weak, nor overtly strong looking. His was a bit of a lean runner's build with some scattered freckles about the arms. No one would find him threatening.

  They washed their faces and shirts in the tea toned waters of the Anekagustah. As long as they weren't soaking their articles in the long term, there was no serious risk of the waters staining anything. Simon's mind flashed back to a swim during summer camp where he accidentally got some of the lake water in his mouth. It tasted surprisingly brackish. The memory made him smile, as the blood on his face was quickly diluted in his reflection. Times were simpler on so many levels back then.

  While they cleaned up, Jessie was sitting upon a log near the water, likely used many times by local fishermen. He wasn't particularly an outdoor buff, so much as indifferent. He liked his technology; gadgets and machines. As such, he wasn't quite in his element out here. He had no father to take him fishing and his bad knee made hikes nothing less than a chore. Still, sometimes he wished he had grown up in a place where having a tree house, perhaps one of his own design, could have been a thing. Mannington mansion didn't have a lot of greenery, after all.

  Still, he wasn't as disenchanted as before. The idea of knowing he was in some foreign version of his own hometown was interesting, even if the potential of what could be hadn't reared it's red eyed head and babbled nonsense to him. It was hard for him to imagine there was a doppelganger of himself strutting around town. Did the phenomenon occur to the other guys as well? That that they would theoretically have duplicates around too? Jessie thought about Ramone's clone, in particular. Since the red eyed people were a bit buggy as he understood it, Ramone's duplicate was probably racing around time with the appearance of a character belonging in Ed Roth's Rat Fink. He laughed to himself. It was a little too fitting.

  It didn't take long before the other two were done. Blessedly, both found themselves to be no longer bleeding. Simon even commented that his headache was fading, although Ramone still visibly winced in the light. They wore their wet shirts, content to air dry, while Simon rolled up his flannel in the warmth of the day and Ramone simply slung his jacket over his shoulder. "Guess I'm as ready as ever to roll out."

  "So where to?" asked Jessie. "I thought we were sitting tight."

  Ramone tiredly rolled his shoulders. "Well, that would have been a good idea, had Black Beauty not run out of gas. If something goes wrong, we can't just drive off this time. And I don't want my car getting towed. No telling what happens in the real world if something screwy goes on here."

  "You're saying this is a parallel dimension? Man, we don't know that," Jessie asserted. "It could be damn near unrelated to anything going on with where we're from, outside of the look. I'm not saying we're home by any means, but this place aside isn't enough to suggest we're a shade away from Dresden Port, necessarily."

  "I guess so, but there's no telling how long we'll be here- and my other statement stands. Getting Black Beauty taken away in a different world could bring a whole host of problems. I'm sure you can imagine that in more ways than I can."

  Jessie pondered the concern. After a moment, he had to admit Ramone had a decent point. And the fact they were all operating under a great deal of unknowns and curious rules right now did not exactly call for them to be too casual. "Alright, so again, where are we going? Gonna get some gas?"

  "Nah," Ramone said, shaking his head, as he held it in his hand. "We can't communicate with the red eye folk and it'll give us away if we try to buy a gallon, assuming they even take our cash anyway. Simon brought up a point while we were washing. We have an opportunity to get a feel for the greater scene going on here. And by that, we mean the Drifting
itself."

  Simon stepped up to explain his thinking. "Ullah described all of this as being some personalized journey. And I think that's why both he and Aveirasen have been kind of sketchy on the details. This is something all of us are going to experience and it'll be more meaningful if we do it on our own. Maybe it's like spoiling how a movie ends, you know? It's not as satisfying if someone just tells you."

  "Maybe so, but most people don't die watching movies, ruined or not. I get the feeling a person could suffer genuine injuries here. His little Goth chippie made it pretty clear that we are physically here," retorted Jessie. "That says to me, that when we go back, the Challenger's still going to be out of fuel and if you break a leg, it's going to stay that way on return."

  "That's true. But we can't hide from this. The Drifting does not turn itself off, at least not according to anything I've heard. We can't come here and just hide in a dark room. We need to get a feel for this place. And maybe get more of an idea about what the Drifting is even about. I don't want to sit there looking ignorant every time someone like Ullah or Aveirasen comes along with my face looking clueless. Again, we cannot run from this. We have to deal with the cards that we have, don't you think? This might even be an opportunity in some ways."

  Jessie folded his arms, grinned, and chuckled. "Well, aren't you intrepid these days? I'm more used to hearing that kind of stuff from Ramone. What happened to you?" It was a playful question, actually sounding more than a bit grudgingly respectful, despite the wording.

  Simon stared towards the ground for a moment. He didn't feel any different, really. Sure, maybe he was a little more outgoing for all that they had been through. But he wanted to change himself from the ennui-riddled homebody that he was, living forever in Ramone's shadow. That wasn't new to him. So what truly changed?

  Looking up, Simon took a slow deep breath. His face was introspective, a bit more than the usual visage he carried with him. "I walked through a red door." He let the statement sink as the only answer needed and had nothing more to offer. Mostly because even he didn't understand it, but it still felt profound on a level he couldn't explain.

  Jessie gazed up him blearily, not sure if that was as profound as his friend meant it to be, but he didn't care to argue the details. It wasn't important to anything right now. And he agreed with his friend's sentiments. Sitting around, watching clouds, they'd likely understand little to nothing about the Drifting and their involvement in it. They did need to be cautious, but it wasn't a reason not to seek progress or avoid exploring. If all men and women succumbed to their fears, they would do and live for nothing, only to meet their end with their final question being, "What if?" Paradise probably wasn't made with the missed opportunity of greener grass.

  The boys headed back to the main roadway, leaving Black Beauty in repose in the campground parking lot. There was some concern about shifting back to their version of Dresden Port without being near the car, but it wasn't clear if it would go back with them or if it would get left behind. Like many aspects in their lives as of late, there were only growing questions and the unknown. But they figured if their current visit was anything like last time, they had some time to kill before anything would happen.

  Jessie did point out one interesting detail as they passed by Ramone's chariot. He overlooked it before, but it was pretty clear that the car had left no tire tracks heading into the dirt strewn lot. Ramone noted it to be quite unnatural, given the speed and momentum he was certain he entered with. "Looks like it literally appeared out of thin air here. I guess we crossed over here after I passed out and the car was left in park."

  The trio marched through the woods, deciding to stay out of obvious sight. It made sense to take advantage of the native terrain. Wherever there wasn't dry scrub brush, ferns, and clay hills, there were trees. Plenty of cover. Well, that and ticks, but that's what bug spray in the back trunk of Black Beauty was for. It was hardly the first time the boys were traipsing along in the brush, although it was usually for purposes of following geocache coordinates on Jessie's GPS, and not so much exploring the layout of an extra dimensional version of their hometown. Funny where life unexpectedly takes a person, as Ramone's father once said.

  The woods were filled with earthy fragrances of bogs, honeysuckles, and the ever present pine trees. Burr Medic weeds left painful and irritating green spiny orbs on their pants legs. A childhood spent dodging poison ivy only to run afoul of those near invisible burrs plants led Simon to only prefer wearing jeans or slacks in the summer, instead of more cooling shorts. Nothing was worth the sting these horrid little weeds could provide. That aside, the walk was pleasant and the boys felt confident skulking about in the shadows of the Pine Barren foliage.

  Other creatures freely roamed as much as they did in their true home. There was no shortage of squirrels making equal use of the cover, which protected them from sun and hungry red tailed hawks. Ground hogs waddled about in their search for worms. Simons often thought they resembled amusing tiny crosses between tiny pigs and beavers. And of course, deer could be seen almost everywhere, usually in groups of three to eight. Surely, local hunters were never for want of solid game.

  "Hey guys? Uh, something's not quite right here," Jessie suddenly speculated aloud.

  "What're you talking about? The woods look like everything else around here," Ramone commented, as he led the group through the brush.

  "I mean the animals…" said Jessie, "why aren't they red eyed? Or at all different looking? Wasn't that kind of the thing where you two went?"

  It was a good question and enough to give Ramone reason to make a small stop. "Um… well… we didn't actually see any animals. Did we, Simon? I don't remember anything like that."

  Simon shook his head. "Well, no, we didn't. But that's kind of peculiar. Were only the people buggy and red eyed? I know animals and humans are different, obviously, but what if what we saw was the result of some kind of disease?"

  "Or inbreeding. Could be anything," scoffed Jessie. "I don't know, it just seems… really specific."

  "Shoot," said Ramone, stretching his back. "What's your point, man?"

  With a thoughtful look, Jessie tilted his head. "We know we're not on our earth, or whatever the truth is. But what if we're not in red eyed world either? You know? Couldn't there be more than one version of Dresden Port?"

  "More than one?" Simon repeated. "How does that work?" He never considered the idea, but how Aveir spoke to him about her area now had him thinking about it.

  Jessie threw up his arms. "I don't know, man! I'm just putting it out there. We could be in a completely different world than the one you two dropped in on. And our phones could easily be just as incompatible with it. There could be countless places. Maybe every time we drift, the destination is random. We could literally be anywhere! I… um…"

  Just as he was building up to what felt like a revelatory rant, Jessie caught his tongue and looked to Simon. Ramone glanced on in confusion and soon did the same. Their friend was holding his head, leaning hard against a pine tree with his other hand. His head was deeply bowed and his posture was buckling before their eyes.

  "Hey man… are you okay?" Ramone asked. "Simon?"

  Simon shook his head and dry heaved into the straw several times. As Jessie spoke, the image of the great tree filled the sideburn bearing man's thoughts. And for some reason, it hurt a great deal. His front lobes were on fire, making whatever pain he had in the back of his head from earlier seem like stubbed toe. He envisioned the watery paths and resplendent colors that filled the darkness of that place, as dimly lit eyes stared at him, studying and judging with alien thoughts.

  Crumpling to his knees as his hand slid down the bark of a maple tree, Simon dry heaved several more times, hearing only distant echoes of his friends trying to address him. He could see the boughs above him, with an unsteady vision that seemed to come from the back of his skull, and haunted representations of Ramone and Jessie, their faces muted and ghostly. Growing impossibly dizzy, S
imon vomited painfully, and collapsed, banging his temple against the tree he’d used to support himself as he fell. The calls of Ramone and Jessie grew distant in the darkness and he could no longer see the woods from any angle.

  His friends looked down in alarm at Simon, momentarily stunned from reacting. But Ramone was the first to drop to his knees and check on him. First, there were a few words of attention, then a gentle shaking, followed by an uncomfortable pause, and then the man leaned in and listened. "He's breathing… his forehead is burning up, though. Didn't you notice anything wrong with him? He was practically right next to you."

  "H-hey, don't pin this on me," Jessie said defensively, raising his hands. "I don't have any more idea of what's happening than you do. He was fine just a few minutes ago. He wasn't walking slow or anything. Maybe he had some kind of allergic reaction to a plant or a bug bite out here?"

  "I've never known him to be sensitive to even so much as pollen," Ramone said, looking worried.