It's My Party

Carla paused for a moment before answering. "So we're not going to check this out?"

Sandra sighed. "Oh, I learned my lesson from Derrick. I'll give him that. We can't be passive when we have an opportunity to explore. We'll check this out all right. Amy, gather the troops for a meeting. I want to put a team together to visit the island tomorrow." Amy turned and reentered the cave. Several women but not the active guard followed her.

Carla had remained standing quietly by her leader's side. After a moment Sandra asked her, "Opinions?"

Carla gave a mirthless laugh. "Well, our situation is insane. Our whole world is insane, and from insanity one can imply anything. Derrick's death taught us both Sandra. We don't want to fall into traps."

"You're thinking this might be a trap?"

Another long moment of silence passed, and then a shout from Sachi. "Look Sandra! Another flare!"

"I see it! Flare number three!"

Sandra let Carla observe the beacon point of light through the binoculars. After it was gone, Carla looked at her watch and said, "I think the first flare occurred precisely one hour after sunset, one hour to the minute. And I think the next two flares were spaced two minutes apart."

They waited another five minutes in silence without observing another. Carla finally answered Sandra's question. "I'm hoping it's not a trap."

Sandra nodded and briefly touched Carla's shoulder in a sign of friendship. "I'm hoping that too." Meanwhile Sandra's mind was thinking furiously about the time and distances involved between their campsite and the central island.

Sandra considered their campsite to be the one obvious spot in this insane world for them to live. On the high rocks above them were acres of delicious food growing in obviously planned terraces, a great contrast to the wild forest below. And there was a running stream here full of sweet water, plus shallow caves with small window-like holes in the front face that provided pleasant light in the daytime. It was an immense relief that the holes were too small to admit the predatory cats. The shelter was a key asset that made their survival possible.

The only other choice to stay was the strange set of rooms at the entrance point to their world at the opposite end of the cylindrical sky. But that place though wonderfully secure had a deadly flaw. There just wasn't any food there. And roundtrip it was more than a hundred kilometer hike between the two ends of the world. The safety of the strange rooms just wasn't worth the danger and the effort of the trips to get there.

Time and distances… Fifty kilometers round trip to the river bank near the central island and the tantalizing boat dock and great pale-yellow building. And the time! At least there was lots of daylight now. They were approaching fifteen hours of daylight between sunlight and sunset, a great contrast to the eleven hours they had when they first arrived here less than two months ago.

The two months were nightmare times, and they had started so innocently. One single mistake, so easy to make, so innocent, so logical, and it had turned so irreversible and deadly. Their mistake had been to attempt to go home without appreciating how bizarre their situation had become.

They had let the door close behind them as they left the lounge sometime after midnight, the day after arriving at the party. They were all walking around in a dreamlike daze, unfocused with everything except for their sexual needs. And in their innocence they had let the door close behind them. That's all it took.

And after that their doom was sealed. Sandra remembered how bewilderment slowly turned into panic as her group walked the great circumference along the second floor corridor. And then their panic was swept away by a second wave of sexual fantasy and release. Sandra shuddered as she remembered it. She remembered everything so vividly, the utter release of inhibitions on sexual desire, how she had begged Patrick to mount her and his wild eagerness for her. How silky his penis had felt when he slipped inside her. Patrick! She didn't even know him!

Oh, the embarrassment and apologies that occurred the following morning. Everyone was in a daze. As a group they decided to delay discussing what had caused the breakdown in their morality and just find a way out of the insane loop of corridors.

They soon found there were only two options to leave, and they were both at the opposite end of the loop from the lounge. There was an incredibly long staircase descending far below ground, and there was an exit door at ground level by some ivy leading to a really awful walkway made of razor-sharp black cobblestones.

In spite of the sharpness of the stones, the stairs down went so deep it was frightening, and their choice seemed obvious. Two young women who were obviously close friends went outside first to look around. One of them was curious how the ivy could look so dense and healthy in such cold weather, and she bent down and plucked a leaf.

That's all it took to turn bewilderment and panic into pure horror. The woman was engulfed in vines within seconds, and then so was her friend who bravely came to her rescue. The two women were torn apart with blinding speed, and Sandra never even knew their names. She never even knew their names…

A half hour later they chose Patrick to lead them. He died two days later on Christmas Eve, sacrificing himself during their group's first encounter with the big cats. Sandra became the next leader and held the position until she was dethroned in a coupe by Derrick on the morning of January 9th. That was a little more than five weeks ago.

"Ah, time," thought Sandra now as she stood with Carla in the darkness. "Even the time is strange here." The days were progressing so strangely. True, the insane world was artificial. Carla was right. From insanity, you can imply anything. But still, why have the bottom drop out of the predawn twilight and not the evening? When they first came here, sunset was around 6 PM and sunrise a little before 7 AM. Now sunset was a little before 7 PM and sunrise about 4:15 AM.

It was Carla who had pointed out recently that the correct way to think about this was that solar noon was gently drifting back in time, probably by a little less than a minute each day. The linear sun would be directly overhead a little earlier each day. Why did the makers of this impossible sanctuary add such a drift? But then again, the sanctuary itself was impossible. Therefore its existence was insane to contemplate. But its existence was also irrefutable. In the end, the women had to accept what their senses perceived. So where did that leave them?

It left them surviving by their raw will to live. They lived now in the world that was challenging them in ways that they had never been challenged before in all their comfortable lives. Sandra had never felt so alive. All her senses seemed sharper, her reflexes faster, her very mind clearer and more decisive. And through all the changes and horror, Sandra wondered if she would be able to hang on to the better part of her humanity, her compassion and nobility. It was still an open question. On her darkest days, she struggled to remember their importance.

"Are you thinking of going yourself?"

Carla's question pulled Sandra out of her thoughts. "No. It's a fifty kilometer journey round trip, more if the expedition had to make detours around the cats. I'd never make it, not yet anyway." Sandra sighed and sensed her left foot. The last month had been so difficult. Several days before his death, Derrick had ordered Sandra to lead a party and hunt one of the small wild boars they could occasionally see in the deep forest. Their weapons were simple spears, tree branches sharpened with the knives they had taken from the strange kitchen at the entrance to the world.

The hunting expedition had ended in disaster. They had expected the pig to flee. Instead the small boar had turned on them with an incredibly vicious attack, slicing open the bottom of Sandra's left foot with its teeth before escaping and giving Roxanne a deep puncture wound in the gut with its tusks.

Over the next week Sandra and Roxanne worried dreadfully about the mortal risk of infection. Through luck or fate or divine providence, Sandra survived but Roxanne did not. She died an agonizing death on the first of February, two and a half weeks after receiving her injury.

Sandra turned now to Carla. "But we still need to investigate this. Carla, would you be willing to lead an expedition?"

"Me?"

"Of course. You're the best person in our group in terms of wilderness experience, and I'm not holding any grudges with what happened with Derrick. What do you think Carla, an expedition with half our group?"

Carla sighed and answered, "Yes. For a trip of that length, it would be useful to have six people with spears." She paused for a moment. She hated depleting Sandra's home force so severely, but in the forest, her defenses against the cats would be much more effective with the higher number. "Can I pick my teammates?" She paused again. "Will you be okay, holding the fort with only four people?"

"Five," answered Sandra. "My foot's feeling much better this week." She smiled at her subordinate in the dim artificial starlight. "And yes, you can pick whomever you want. Start before dawn. Give yourself as much daylight as possible."

Carla nodded absently and stretched. "I know the people I'll take. I should tell them. We need to prepare and then get as much sleep as possible. We'll leave before 4 AM. Who's on guard duty tonight?"

"Thara and I."

"Ah yes. Well, can you wake me at three?"

"Sure. Get some rest Carla, and good luck."

Carla nodded and then on impulse did something that surprised the both of them. She leaned over and kissed her leader's cheek.

Chapter 56.

The next day.

Time: Saturday, March 2, 2019 10:40 AM

Old Earth Time: Saturday, February 16, 2019 9:49 AM EST

They were approaching the river at an angle, heading directly along the short direction of the sky. Carla gave a small shrug as she expertly scanned the trees ahead against possible ambush. Then she turned and got brief nods from Oona and Abit, two native Abenaki Indian women who along with Carla were in their senior year at the University. Their nods signaled their concurrence that the immediate path ahead was safe, and they moved silently as they rotated with Carla to take the point position. Carla fell back and guarded the rear with her eyes, quick flashes to the trees and brush. This was dangerous territory. They were getting close to the river, the prime hunting area for the cats. To let down their guard here would be unthinkable.

It wouldn't be long now, one kilometer maybe to the shoreline, maybe a bit more to get to the shore point closest to the island. They had made excellent time in the hills, breakneck time in fact, especially considering the fact that many of their shoes were falling apart. They had all come to this strange world dressed for a party, not for a two-month wilderness expedition. The long-term issues of clothing and especially footwear were critical concerns. A wounded foot could be lethal if it became infected.

Carla had pushed her team as fast as it could go, and they had started their journey as much before sunrise as they dared. But the flares last night had inspired an eagerness Carla hadn't seen in two months. No one was complaining.

And Carla had to grin at her current role. She was the only Caucasian in her group. Besides the two Abenaki, she had also taken all four of their group's Hindu women, Parni, Sachi, Suvarna, and Tajana. Over the last two months, these four women had practiced relentlessly to become the group's primary response team against an attack by the cats. To have all four of them on this mission was a choice beyond obvious.

The Abenaki were the group's two best trackers and observers. Carla perhaps had the best military survival training, but she also had enormous respect for the Indian women's abilities to read and understand the wild terrain. Oona and Abit were first cousins, born in the same month and year and almost on the same day. Their parents had named them as a pair after an ancient tribal legend. The two women were unabashedly proud of both their local tribal ancestry and their great Algonquian heritage, and they had learned their native traditions and skills extremely well. Very early this morning when discussing which woman to take, Sandra in a gesture of support for Carla offered that she take both.

That left only four people back at home, Sandra, Thara, Amy, and Margaret. It was a minimal force to leave behind, but Carla agreed with Sandra that it would be adequate. The only entrance into their primary cave was a short twisting hole that a full-grown cat would have trouble passing even when undisturbed, let alone with four spears waiting for it on the other side. There was ample food stored in the cave, an internal trickle of water, and regardless the cats were opportunistic assassins. Oona and Abit were as convinced as Carla that staging a siege just wasn't in the big cats' playbook.

At twenty-five years of age, Carla was older by three years than anyone else in the group. She was a senior at the University majoring in criminal justice. Carla was also a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps. She had won her double chevrons after two year-long tours of duty overseas, and it was with a great deal of pride that she expecting to complete her four-year active-duty enlistment in the spring. Her hope had been to apply to the Vermont State Police Academy after getting her bachelors.

Was that dream still alive? The unexpected question made Carla pause as she scanned a side cluster of trees. In her heart, the answer was no. Her memories of her family, her career, the causes of all her comrades in arms, of everything in her former life, in her heart she knew she would never see them again. The reality of the new world around her was simply too extremely different for it to ever connect back to her old life. Carla had no hope of returning. Her only desire was to one day perhaps learn how the realities of the two worlds had touched even once, the day she accepted such an innocent looking invitation to come to a party.

Oona and Abit were walking slightly ahead of the rest of the group. Oona raised her left arm and clenched her fist. The whole team immediately froze. Carla silently slow-walked to Oona's and Abit's position. Oona pointed to some trees and then to nearby leaves showing the direction of the wind.

Carla nodded her understanding and approval. With their defensive abilities, Oona's desire for a detour was probably unnecessary, but it would keep them downwind of a prime ambush site on their left. This last kilometer would be slow going, but within the thick forest, reckless speed could be lethal. Carla made two additional hand signals, one for gratitude and then another for permission for Oona to alter course. The team continued their journey.

Time: Saturday, March 2, 2019 11:27 AM

Old Earth Time: Saturday, February 16, 2019 10:36 AM EST

Jada was walking alone, orbiting the 600-meter perimeter of their small island and making frequent scans of the opposite shorelines with her binoculars. The linear sun had been up for more than six hours now. Midway between two of the island's six vertices, Jada scanned for a moment and then moved on in a clockwise direction. The next face of the hexagon would contain the boathouse.

She paused for a moment to admire the island. What a paradise! This place was as nice as a home complex, even nicer in some ways. The mini-mall was so close! Everything they needed was here, except in the one critical area of communications. That was so strange. They had worked for hours yesterday at the library console trying to unlock their Leophone. If only Lynn or Akiko were here, perhaps they would have succeeded, but who could have foreseen this kind of problem?

Jada grinned at the budding romance between Tom and Madison. They had stayed up late last night with the Leophone and deserved to rest, but instead of napping now, after breakfast they had locked eyes in the great building's lounge area and had stayed that way ever since. If they were still locked, it would now be over an hour.

Jada sighed and remembered the first time when her link with Emily became open-ended, when their trust for each other was so complete that there was no limit, no hiccups no matter how long they shared their thoughts. And during a group conference call a few days ago, Brandi and Charles had announced they could maintain an open-ended link. An excellent benchmark, Jada thought, for couples to achieve before publicly declaring commitment.

Jada stretched and looked up at the sky as she turned the northwest vertex. Just about one hour before local solar noon she thought. That was when the linear sun would be directly overhead. Such a strange world. There were so many issues that her team needed to be addressing, but Jada had no intention of disturbing the two young lovers under her command, at least not until lunchtime.

A flicker of motion caught Jada's eyes a few seconds after she rounded the vertex. With the side wall of the large boathouse a mere thirty meters in front of her, she turned to the river and raised her binoculars. A few seconds later she gasped.

People! Lots of people! Six, no, seven! Several were jumping up and down and trying to attract her attention. Jada waved frantically and then ran to the boathouse. In less than a minute, she was back out and on the left dock, planting the large flare rifle and jerking down hard on the barrel. A bright diamond of light appeared in the cloudless sky a moment later. After a final wave, Jada ran back through the boathouse and towards the central building to gather her team.

Less than ten minutes later, Carla's team saw four kayaks leave the docks. Oona and Parni, the two women with the sharpest eyesight, were sharing the binoculars and reporting what they were seeing.

"Four people are coming here," announced Parni, "three women and one man. The boathouse looks deserted."

"Maybe these four are all that's there," suggested Sachi. "Did you see how excited that first woman got when she saw us? How they all were?"

"Almost as excited as we were," replied Carla dryly.

"My point Carla, is that if there were more people on that island, I think they would have come out to see us. I'm guessing the island is uninhabited now except for these four."

The shore team watched in silence as the four kayaks moved across the water. Somewhat of a surprise to Carla, the boats did not come straight at them. First they headed downstream over two hundred meters. The boats were soon about a kilometer away, so far that Carla thought they might not be coming to their position. But before she could explore that horrible thought further, all four boats made sharp turns to port and then headed directly for them.

When they were two hundred meters away, Oona handed the binoculars to Sachi and said with a frown, "They paddle this river extremely well, as if they owned it, the man and one of the women in particular."

"If they are the owners of this world," replied Abit darkly, "they have a lot of explaining do to. Seven people have been killed!"

Carla eyed her two Indian companions askance. "Will you two knock it off?! We can't afford to blow this meeting, especially over a misunderstanding!"

"Carla's right," added Sachi as she looked through the binoculars. "You know what they say about making first impressions… Hey, wait a minute! The man paddling the kayak, I recognize him! He was one of those awful frat boys from the tunnel!"