It's My Party

Time: Saturday, August 9, 2019 6:24 PM

Two hours before sunset, Doug turned the last corner on his path and stood shock still. Hovering above the fountain was… What the hell was that?! Some kind of huge balloon with a toy airplane hanging underneath? After a few seconds of study, Doug decided the contraption looked too ridiculous to be dangerous, but he also knew from his experience with the ivy that appearances could be very deceiving. Should he avoid this thing?

What the hell for? If it were going to kill him, let it happen. After a final moment to recheck his decision, Doug finished his journey and reached the edge of the fountain. The bottom of the balloon was about four meters in front of him across the fountain and three meters above the level of the water.

The water in the fountain was deep, swimmable in fact, over a meter, so the balloon assembly was effectively out of reach. But Doug could probably hit it with his water bottle if he wanted to. He stared into the wide-angle lens at the bottom of the assembly, thinking "Man, this thing sure looks stupid, but it's probably doing a damn good job of taking my picture right now. Uh, is that a video camera?" Doug pondered his situation while he filled his two large water bottles, his eyes never leaving the hovering contraption. After he clipped the bottles to his belt, he blurted out a question. "Hello?"

"Hi Diego," came a cheerful reply.

Doug jumped. That sounded like… "Chico?! Is that you compadre?!"

"The one and only. But I've given up on Chico and the compadre shit. I'm Charles now."

"Yeah? What a coincidence. You can call me Doug." Doug realized his heart was racing and he tried to slow himself down. "So, how's it going man?"

"Oh, I'm okay, but maybe… Could we talk about you for awhile? You look…" Charles blinked as he took a hard look at the man before him. "Hell Doug! You're not skin and bones, but you're not far from it. You getting enough to eat?"

Doug gave a mirthless laugh. "I'm not getting anything to eat. My food ran out… Uh, four days after the day with the midnight sun. And I was stretched thin on one-quarter rations long before that."

"What?! Oh shit! Stand by…" A full minute went by in silence, Doug spending most of the time in deep thought while staring at the floating camera. "Okay, I'm back," Charles finally announced. "Doug, before we go any further, I should tell you, there are others watching this video with me, and you are been recorded. You deserve to know that."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that, at least about the other people. Charles, are you a free man?"

Charles did not want to reveal much of anything about the Society, not yet, not until he understood a lot more about the man centered on his monitor. But this particular question deserved an answer. "I am. Seriously, I really am. No fucking bullshit about on my honor as a compadre either. I really mean it. I'm free, and I'm doing exactly what I want to do, now and every time else."

Doug nodded thoughtfully. "I'm glad for you then. I really mean that Chi… uh, Charles." Doug understood what his friend meant by his strange language. Within their frat, the words "on my honor as a compadre" were code words for, "ignore or reverse whatever I just said." Charles was telling him the real deal.

Charles paused for a moment before responding. He had had an extensive group discussion detailing important pieces of information that should not be revealed, but Fatima had also given him authority to use his judgment as the conversation progressed. Charles didn't have to ask permission for anything, and inside he was deeply moved by how far Fatima was trusting him. Charles needed to weigh his words carefully. A loose comment getting back to Ricardo could result in mass fatalities.

Still, there were more things Doug deserved to know, and Charles would not deprive a starving man of food in order to extract information, no matter what. "Doug, these balloons, they have about one kilo of extra lift capacity. I've got a second balloon coming to your position. It'll have about a kilo of food bars tied to the bottom."

Doug's mouth twitched. "Yeah? What do I have to do?"

"Huh? Nothing. Just take them when they arrive. They should be there in less than an hour." Charles was hugely relieved they had such a fortuitous setup. Doug's position was only about two kilometers from Green Mall's home complex, and a quick request to Hannah and a few people with her was all it took to get the rescue package under way.

Doug remained motionless for a moment, just staring at the balloon. Then he sat down heavily on the edge wall of the fountain. He wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt.

"Hey Doug," Charles said softly. "You okay?"

"This is a really big change," his friend whispered back, and then more loudly, "All these weeks, more, I been preparing myself to die out here, mentally I mean. To start thinking about living again…" Doug took a deep breath and shuddered, and then decided to offer something in return for the food bars. "So, is there anything you want to know?"

"Gosh yes, all sorts of stuff. Can you tell us what you know about Hernando and Ricardo?"

Doug nodded. "Sure. I'm curious though. Why those two?"

"Well…" Charles was giving Fatima a chance to object on a separate line, but she kept quiet. It was Charles' decision to make. "Well, we think one is currently in a building in your area, but we're not sure who."

"You know that? Okay. It must be Ricardo. Hernando is dead. Jenaro told me Ricardo killed him up on that crazy maze filled with the stuff that looks like pale green shaving cream. Ricardo threw Hernando's body into the foam."

"Jenaro told you this?" Charles was confused. According to the census counter and Mark's employment log, Jenaro was dead. "You've spoken with him recently?"

"Uh, no, not recently. Let me back up. I'll tell you my whole story, everything I can remember." And he did. Doug described in detail everything he thought was relevant, starting with his own downfall in becoming a rapist and supervising the pussy barn. He talked about the death of Uno, his work in the Black Mall library and he told about convincing Ricardo he needed to find new employment opportunities. Doug described in a shaking voice the collapse of his own morals in brutalizing Alfonso and not protesting the rape of Jessica. He then told of his chaining and eventual escape from the dead-man's switch at the southern vertex of the Black Mall home complex.

Diego's tale eventually reached the critical information of his encounter with Jenaro, and how the two compadres had communicated by hand signs and pantomime. He then concluded with what he had learned from his many weeks of wandering.

By the time he finished, the time was approaching 7:15 PM and a second balloon assembly was approaching the fountain. As promised, there was a small package tied to its base. Doug grabbed and held onto the frame after untying the package to give the controller time to readjust the buoyancy, and then he let go and dived into the package. It held twenty individually wrapped high-energy food bars, fifty grams each. Charles winced as he heard Doug whimper as he tore away the wrapping. The man ate half the bar in two quick gulps.

"Hey Doug, you've got to slow down. Seriously, that's concentrated food. Those bars in your condition, you could kill yourself if you gorge on them."

Doug looked up, the food and saliva in his mouth felt so unfamiliar. He gave a reluctant nod. "Yeah, thanks. I'll nibble on the rest of this and then wait an hour." He slowly ate the rest of the portion while watching the second balloon depart to the southwest. Doug then licked his fingers clean and reverently stored the nineteen remaining bars, treating them like gold ingots as he packed them into his backpack. He then looked at the camera curiously. "So, what now?"

"Well, I can tell you that we don't have a way to get you out of the area you're in."

"So you want me to stay here?"

"Yeah, for now. I guess eventually we could try to attach a hundred weather balloons to a chair or something."

That thought elicited a quick grin. "Lawn Chair Larry rides again, huh?" Doug was referring to a event almost forty years old. On July 2, 1982, a man by the name of Larry Walters attached weather balloons to a lawn chair and wound up taking a ride 16,000 feet above Los Angeles.

Back at Wobanakik, Charles scratched his head. "Yeah, it does sound kind of far fetched when you put it like that. Would you be okay hanging out where you are?"

"Sure, no problem. You want me to stay by this fountain?"

"Oh, not just there. But keep staying out of sight of Ricardo's building. That was a really smart move. One minute…" A moment later Charles continued. "There's an open building to the southwest, right before the sand moat and the ivy."

Doug nodded. "I know the place, the small building with the open archways and no doors."

"Yep, that's the one."

Doug considered the request. "It's a good shelter from the rain, but I don't use it because its too close to the ivy." Doug suddenly realized he had not told of his experiment with the thrown package of sand. "You know about that plant, right?"

"Oh yeah. But you're safe on the other side of the moat. The vines hate sand."

"Really? Okay. Maybe that's why I really pissed them off." He continued without elaborating. "Thanks for telling me. That's useful to know."

"We'll send over more balloons, built up a food store for you, some fresh fruits and veggies too."

Doug gave a deep sigh and nod. "Yeah, thanks man. Sounds great, much appreciated."

"You want anything else?" Charles asked quietly.

"Well…" Doug thought a moment. "Well, if it's not too much trouble, maybe something to read?"

"Sure, we can do that. I think I can get you some stuff you'll like."

"I'm out of soap too. I could use a good bath... Uh, Charles?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll understand if you can't answer, but what about the others, the people that were on your expedition? Toro? Bambino and Cassidy? Brandi must be okay, right? And what about the… all the women we enslaved?" Doug finished his last question in a hoarse whisper. He was so embarrassed. He had almost referred to the rape victims as hoof pussies.

A new voice spoke through the Leophone. "Hi Doug. This is Cassie." It was a voice tinged in sadness.

With the outside conditions and the distance the speakerphone had to cover, Doug understood what Cassie had said but he failed to pick up on the emotional undertone. "Hey, Cassie! Nice to hear your voice!"

"Yeah. It's good to see you too Doug." There was a slight pause. "I have some bad news. The Bambino is dead. He got into a fight with Segundo. Segundo killed him."

Doug's jaw dropped.

Cassidy blurted out the story, all the horrible memories coming back in a flash of pain. "Segundo and Barry got into a fight over who was leading. Segundo won the fight, and he kept kicking Barry in the groin while Barry was lying on the ground, stomping down on his testicles with all his weight. Then Segundo shot him three times in the chest."

Cassidy gave a small gasp and continued. "I exploded. I started hitting Segundo with my fists. I got raped for my attack. The three muchachos raped me, Segundo and Geraldo and Ernesto, they raped me bad. I came very close to dying. The others, the group I'm with now, they saved me Doug. They're good people. They risked their own lives to save mine."

Doug nodded silently.

"Toro is fine. He goes by Tom now. And you deserve to know, Brandi… Brandi is dead. Alfonso killed her."

Doug blinked and then hissed, "He WHAT?!"

"Alfonso was hiding out in a candy store near the… end of the mall." Cassie stopped herself before revealing the multiple spiral nature of the mall. "Brandi went in alone. We were going to offer… to forgive Alfonso. Instead he killed Brandi. It was completely unprovoked." Cassie paused and then added, "Alfonso is dead now too." She didn't elaborate, and Doug didn't seem to mind the lack of detail.

"The shit! I don't feel so bad now about kicking him in the balls." Doug was silent for a long moment. "No, I take that back. He was forced to watch his girlfriend being raped, and Alfonso worshiped that women. He didn't deserve what I did." A deep frown. "But why did he have to go and kill Brandi? Brandi for God's sake! You couldn't ask for a nicer person!"

"We think his mind snapped," replied Cassie, "and we didn't realize it. Doug, that's why we left you alone for so long. The majority of us… didn't want to take the risk we took with Alfonso. We gambled and lost."

Doug took a long moment to think, taking a deep drink from his water bottle before replying. "I want to be a better person. And I know I don't deserve any forgiveness. But if you people need me to do anything for you, anything at all, I don't care how risky, just ask."

"Okay Doug," replied Cassie. "We appreciate that."

"And to the people I abused… and raped… Maybe they won't care, and I don't blame them. But will you tell them I'm sorry?"

Chapter 98.

Three weeks later, forty days till the winter solstice.

Time: Sunday, October 3, 2019 6:43 AM

A small three-person team had left the southern vertex of Black Mall's home complex at daybreak, and now a half-hour later they were halfway up the pink tower and about to reach the elevated surface of the crescent maze. Amber as leader was out in front followed closely by Kiyoko and Whitney. Before climbing the last three meters of the stairs, Amber sat down and signaled for her two companions to do likewise. She then surprised them by starting to unclip all the supplies attached to her body and storing them in her backpack, everything except her water bottle. She signaled Kiyoko and Whitney to do the same.

"This is absolutely our last chance to turn back," Amber said as she worked, "both physically and logically. From what Jenaro told Doug, once we start this maze, we won't be able to return. And once we walk up to the top of this tower, we'll probably be visible to Ricardo." In their mission planning, they had decided to assume Ricardo had access to his building's sensor arrays that were described in Mark's logs.

Amber continued. "It makes absolutely no sense to reveal our presence and then turn back. Would you both link with me for a moment?" Three pairs of eyes formed a triple link and in accelerated subjective time, the world around them seemed to come to a stop.

"Okay, let's go!" Amber said out loud three seconds later in objective time, echoing her last thought within the link. To the people monitoring the expedition through the Leophones, it seemed that Amber had asked her companions one last time whether they wanted to turn back, asking within a link where it would be impossible to hide true reluctance to continue. A moment later the group resumed climbing the last of the stairs of the pink tower. The expanse of the crescent maze was huge and daunting, and Amber thought that Doug's description was perfect in its analogy. The foam moguls looked exactly like pale green shaving cream.

Jenaro had communicated to Doug in sign language that the foam could be deadly and descended far below the surface of their narrow walkway. Doug himself had commented that he felt vaguely revolted by the foam and Amber had no wish to play with it. With a curt nod to her companions, she led the way single-file along the curving walkway and away from the pink tower. Diego had said repeatedly that the maze could not be retraced, but there was no sense of movement in the foam hills as they walked. After about twenty minutes of walking, Amber wondered when they would reach the point of no return. Unknown to her, they had already passed it.

The maze would take about two hours to traverse, leaving plenty of time for reflection. The long linear building to the south was an obvious place to watch, and they made no effort to avoid looking at it. Their intent was to give the appearance of a simple exploration team. Amber felt herself working to keep a look of dread from her face. In spite of all their work and accomplishments, a feeling of impending doom had descended on her Society. They were trapped in a box with no apparent way out.

To be fair, there was significant progress on many fronts. The exploration of South Africa had revealed an ideal hiding location about a hundred kilometers from the equatorial pyramid, a natural cave system with internal spring water and entrances covered by a thick canopy of fruit trees. A surprisingly large number of the fruits and nearby vegetable roots too had proven to be edible, delicious in fact.

At maximum speed, the six stair-cats could make two preprogrammed round trips per day, delivering 1.8 metric tons of goods each day. Tom and Carla and few other people were stationed at the cave site now, scouting the area and unpacking the stair cats as they arrived. It was Tom and Carla's opinion that living in the area indefinitely would be quite doable. Giving up the vast benefits of the hexagon's technology was of course almost beyond comprehension to most people, especially in the issue of health care, but conceivably humanity could survive on this planet without technology.

The Society had studied the orbiter's sensor logs and discovered that the circum-equatorial continent of Africa had a truly fascinating ecology. Within a hundred kilometers of the highly elevated equator, the terrain had a seasonal cycle of 168-days just like the rest of the planet, but with a slightly different phase. Snow would built up on the northern slopes while the sun was south of the equator, and then at the spring equinox with the sun directly overhead, the snow would rapidly melt and create a lush environment full of life. Temperatures would actually dip a bit at the summer solstice, with the sun a full forty-five degrees removed from the overhead position.

The areas within two hundred kilometers of the coastline had a much different ecology, having two complete ecologic cycles each year. Peak warmth would occur on both shores near the solar equinox positions, and a very mild mini-winter would occur when the sun was at its extreme solstice positions in the northern and southern hemispheres. And finally the bands of land between the shores and the mountains were transition areas, four lopsided seasons per calendar year. Africa would indeed be a fascinating and diverse place to live.

The problem with hiding out there was that the technology they left behind would eventually come hunting for them. How long would it be before Director of Security Ricardo discovered the capabilities of the orbital telescope? Mark had no authority to destroy it or shut it down, and once Ricardo had eyes in the sky, how long would it be before they were discovered? One picture of a human through the trees, perhaps one stubborn and rebellious child, that's all it would take. Would they have a month, a year, ten years? And it all their time in hiding, Ricardo would be studying and adding to his capabilities. There seemed only one way the game of hide-and-seek would end. The Society was facing enslavement, torture, and death. It seemed inevitable.

So the Society decided to act aggressively and stop Ricardo by any means possible, and the deadline for success was the winter solstice. Amber's official mission was one of preliminary exploration and probing. Her group was to circle the linear building and test and record accessibility at each of its doors. The group would then head further south and join up with Diego. With Kiyoko's authority as Black Mall janitor, perhaps they could find an underground entrance into Ricardo's lair and surprise him. Amber thought the plan had a very low probability of success, an act of desperation, but she vigorously supported it. And she kept her reasons private.