It's My Party

Fatima sighed. "If only we could have started our searching sooner."

Lucia shook her head. "I know your history Fatima. None of this is your fault." She yawned again and lay back down on her cot, taking a moment to fluff her pillow. And then she began to tell Fatima her story. She started with a question.

"I was in the very first elevator ride to… You still haven't named this planet, have you?"

Fatima shook her head. "We haven't, and it deserves one, I know. For a while we were thinking of waiting until we had joined up with everyone possible, wait and get everybody's input. But this morning I was talking to Mark's sister Madison down in Wobanakik…" Fatima looked at Lucia and asked for confirmation with her eyes.

"Yep, your care team is keeping us up to date on what's going on."

Fatima nodded. "Madison made a suggestion today. Of all of us left, you are the very first human to arrive here. Maddy thought you should have the right to name the planet."

Lucia eyes lit up. "Oh wow! That'll certainly put me into the history books!" She gave a nervous laugh. "Anything at all? You really wouldn't mind if I called it Luciaworld?"

Fatima grinned back. "Well…"

Lucia turned serious. "From what I understand, our first two days here weren't much different than what you experienced. We found this place absolutely bewildering, but everybody was assuming with were just trapped in a mall we couldn't understand. Uh, let me start at the beginning."

Lucia took a deep breath. "A few of us noticed a strange invitation, the morning of the 21st. No one knew how it got up on our bulletin board. But it was kind of intriguing, and as fifth-years many of us had shifts scheduled over the holidays, either at Children's or the State Hospital or at Fletcher Allen's. So we were going to be around over the holidays. Nobody had heard of a fraternity named Kappa Alpha before, but checking out its party seemed a nice, innocent diversion."

Fatima nodded her head. "The symbols aren't even Kappa Alpha. Close, but the Greeks never dotted their alphas."

Lucia nodded back and continued. "The tunnel to get here was so strange. I wanted to turn back and just leave, a number of my classmates did too. But then somebody wondered if the guys from Beta Sigma Rho would follow us. We definitely did not want to be caught alone in a deserted mall with those creeps. And there were a lot of people in the tunnel. It seemed safer to stick it out and go to the party."

"My classmates and I arrived at an empty lounge. It was our first warning of how bizarre this place was, an incredibly delicious banquet, super opulent surroundings, and the place was absolutely deserted. The food pacified us for a while and we chatted how strange the views were out the windows. We saw the big soccer field to the south. That was a real puzzle."

Fatima nodded quietly. "Yes, the following day, for us too."

"Anyway, by the time the rest of our group arrived with Husna, well, by that time we had had it with how ridiculous this all was. Most of us decided to head back to campus, get there before dark. We thought we had lots of time. Nobody had any idea we were walking into a nightmare."

"It took us about two hours to reach what you call the Waterhole. By then it was pitch black outside and we were totally confused. We tried to retrace our path and found a locked door about a few hundred meters behind us. We came back to the Waterhole. A few hours later the rest of our group joined us. They had chosen the same path. And by that time, the drug was already affecting us. Things got… wild, downright ugly."

Fatima looked at her closely. "Really? We were having a mini orgy too, back at our lounge, but we weren't cruel with each other."

Lucia shook her head. "You had one guy and six women, and Mark is a really sweet guy. We had four highly competitive males, a whole bunch of females, and a drug that took the lid off absolutely everything. It was bad Fatima. I'm not blaming anybody. With the drug, I don't think the men were accountable for their actions. But the end result is they started organizing us into four harems, and we girls were… I'll be blunt. We were so hot to be fucked, we didn't mind."

Fatima grimaced. "Shit. This is similar to what happened at Black Mall. But over there, the men already had their pecking order established. They were much more efficient in dividing up their women."

Lucia sighed. "There was a lot of bad blood created. I was a part of two harems. I lost my virginity that night, to… wow, at the time, I didn't even know his name. And when I tried to switch to a third harem, a fight broke out, a bad one. There's a kitchen area at the Waterhole, food and dishes and several drawers with cutting utensils. The men armed themselves with knives, and soon the women started to get knives too. We were four armed camps, drunk and fucking and growling at each other."

Fatima shivered as she tried to imagine the scene. "But afterwards, once the drug wore off…"

"Yes, we got back to being semi-rational. Most people kept their knives though, a bit of protection against how strange our situation was. It was a cloudy day outside, I remember that. Nobody could get a signal on their cell phone, but there were outlets in the room. A few people started charging their phones. We made a breakfast in the Waterhole's kitchen area. We had no idea how precious the food was."

"It was such a strange room Fatima! Such a huge isosceles triangle, with the toileting area right out in the open next to open sleeping areas. It seemed so bizarre. Who builds like this?!"

Fatima just nodded sympathetically.

"We took a vote and decided to wait in the triangle room, even with the absurd toilets. We tried to create a bit of privacy with some furniture and sheets. People were making simple pickup meals in the kitchen, being haphazard with the food. We had no idea how precious it was."

"Sunday was the day we thought we went insane. We saw the massive orange sun rise through the windows, and then the alien stars at night. It was as if someone had yanked away our sanity. This just couldn't be happening, and yet it was." Lucia's voice broke and she whispered. "A couple of people, a man and a woman, they went truly insane. But nobody realized it yet."

"A number of people were considering our plight to be a divine judgment against us. I know this sounds crazy, and it was crazy, but at the time I semi-believed it myself. We stayed in the triangle room for three days, propping the doors open and making little excursions to the southwest and east. Christmas night, maybe about 10 PM on the 25th, we had bedded down early. Four days had gone by now and the realization was sinking in that we might be waiting in this room for eternity. There were so many wild religious ideas…"

Lucia gasped and then continued. "Two people, Eric and a woman named Samantha, they thought our group was being damned for its divisiveness. They thought we needed a Moses to lead us out of the wilderness. We laughed at them… and they tried to kill us, kill the men and have Eric become Moses. Christmas night I was asleep. Suddenly there was a lot of yelling. They had already killed two men, slit their throats as the slept. They were trying to kill a third. We had a battle… Eric and Samantha were stabbed to death… I helped stab Eric… They just wouldn't stop fighting… It was awful…"

Lucia sat for a moment, shivering slightly, not speaking. Fatima came to her and hugged her. "I remember," Fatima whispered. "My group noticed the census counter drop very soon afterwards, Christmas night. It was the day we found Aggie at Hex Hall."

Lucia gave a deep sigh. "You can probably guess what happened next. We stayed that night in the room, but the following morning, the four dead bodies, all the blood, everybody wanted to leave. So we split into two groups of about a dozen people each. What fools we were! All that food in the room, and most of us just grabbed a water bottle. What incredible fools we were!"

"The first group left through the southwest door. My group went east. We thought we were being smart. We were carrying a huge amount of odds and ends to prop doors open. We traveled a couple of kilometers. The buildings were so bizarre, a nightmarish maze. We tried to turn back. One door had our prop to keep it open, but the next door was shut with no way to open it from our side."

Fatima nodded. "Propping doors open is a low-level security violation. The servos remove them if the prop is unattended."

"Right. We wandered into this maze of sixty-four rooms before the end of the day. We were shocked when we couldn't leave. We had tested the entrance door twice. But we were trapped, twelve people with no food. That was December 26th." Lucia paused and gave a big yawn. "You know the rest."

"Tired?"

"Yeah, a little. I had a meal just before you showed up. I guess it's making me a little sleepy."

"Ah. I should let you rest. Want your pillows fluffed?"

Fatima wound up petting Lucia's head and describing some of her hopes for the future. She only stopped when she realized Lucia was asleep.

Chapter 66.

The following afternoon.

Time: Saturday, March 9, 2019 4 PM

Diego was silently thankful he did not miss his required rendezvous time in Jacob's Bar and Grill. For almost the past week now, he had dutifully been at the entrance store three times a day at eight-hour intervals, and the door to the surface had remained locked. But this afternoon as he stood by the door, it opened and Ricardo waved for him to follow. The two men were sitting together in the Black Mall library a few minutes later. Ricardo started looking at some notes.

Diego had the impression his master was intentionally trying to ignore him. He knew enough not to attempt to start a conversation, even though he was very curious about Jessica. So he waited patiently, careful not to show any annoyance for being treated like a domesticated animal. Diego simply turned his head and gazed out the library windows. There was still about an hour of orange daylight left, and he could see complex and turbulent bands of white clouds in the teal heavens above. After six days of underground living, the simple sight of the dome of the sky was truly enjoyable.

Ricardo finally looked up and said in a flat voice, "Diego, I need your opinion."

Diego waited a moment for Ricardo to continue but he did not. Diego finally replied, "Sure boss. What's up?"

"We'll soon begin surface exploration. Who do you think I should station at the dead man's switch?"

Diego was surprised Ricardo would ask him such a question, and by accident he did something he tried never to do. He looked Ricardo directly in the eyes, just for an instant. Then he raised his eyebrows and before he could stop himself, he blurted out with exasperation, "Oh hell boss. You're going to assign me that job, aren't you?"

Ricardo's face flashed a quick frown. "What? Did I say that?"

Diego felt momentarily confused though he struggled not to show it. He had no clue how he had guessed Ricardo's choice. It was almost as if he could read his master's mind. He knew Ricardo's decision, he knew his master's real motivation, he even knew the lie Ricardo was preparing to tell him.

Diego felt very unsettled. What the hell had just happened? He knew it was dangerous to talk to Ricardo without understanding, but the continued silence felt very awkward and he couldn't delay his answer. "Yeah, I think you did. I guess I know how your mind works boss. You wouldn't have asked me that question unless you've already decided to place me there."

Ricardo lowered his head when he heard this. The silence stretched on for a long moment with Ricardo just staring at his hands. "I had no idea he could guess my mind so easily," he thought silently to himself. "I'll have to work on this. I will not tolerate being predictable. I will change or Diego must disappear. One way or the other, this will not happen again." Ricardo gave a deep sigh and said out loud. "You're right. Can you see why you're my logical choice?"

Diego was outwardly calm but inwardly terrified. His mind was spinning, afraid he was at the moment of his own death if he fucked up the answer to Ricardo's question. But what to say? To reveal Ricardo's true motive would be a disaster. Instead Diego put on his best poker face and pretended reluctantly to concede a point. "Well, I guess maybe I do. The rational choice of the person at the dead man's switch is to let the returning party back in no matter what the circumstances, and I've got the most rational mind around here."

Ricardo nodded, staring at Diego closely and looking somewhat relieved. "Hole in one Diego, hole in one. That was exactly my thought."

Diego added hastily, "I'm not comparing myself to you of course." And then he lowered his head meekly. His mind was racing wildly. Ricardo's true motive was so clear to him. Outside exploring the surface, Ricardo trusted that Jessica and Jenaro and Hernando had neither the courage nor the intelligence to challenge him. They would need Ricardo to return home and would not risk a mutiny. For all their swagger, Jenaro and Hernando were natural-born followers. Being directly responsible for their own survival terrified them.

But Ricardo had a totally different opinion of Diego. If Diego found an opportunity to escape, would he take it? Escape might be as easy as finding a lockable door and pulling it closed behind him. Ricardo was determined never to give Diego the chance, and that meant Diego must be forever under lock and key.

Diego wanted to say more. In fact there were a million questions he felt like asking, but he knew the limits for what Ricardo would tolerate. So he waited obediently for his master to proceed, and wasn't surprised when Ricardo said nothing. Instead Ricardo beckoned Diego to follow him.

A few minutes later they were standing on the second floor of the southern vertex of their home complex. Ricardo was surveying the fields surrounding them with binoculars, and the dead man's switch was directly beneath them on the first level. Diego tried to remain calm and not think about what a miserable experience the switch was going to be for him.

Ricardo handed Diego the binoculars. "Take a look. There's still enough light. Go out two kilometers from here, any direction."

Diego scanned for a while, unsure what Ricardo was driving at. "You mean all the buildings?"

Ricardo made a disappointed clicking noise. "No. The buildings are about two and half kilometers away. I said two kilometers."

"Right, okay…" Diego surveyed the scenery for a full minute. The ground outside was flat for about a kilometer, but then it turned into a wild and crazy landscape, no trees, very few bushes in fact, but full of moguls. The area vaguely reminded Diego of a vast miniature golf park. All it needed were a few mechanical windmills and a big plastic T-Rex on the eighteenth hole and the illusion would be complete. Or did all the little hills and valleys form some sort of maze? Diego remembered Ricardo's words. What was at the two-kilometer mark? Diego stared for a while and finally guessed, "Some sort of moat?"

"You see any water out there compadre?"

Diego thought he heard derision in his old title. "Uh, no, I don't. Some sort of ditch then? And there might be a grass berm in front of it too, on this side. It's hard to be sure…" Diego slowly turned in a half circle. "Wow! I see what you mean. It might encircle us!" Diego lowered the binoculars and waited for Ricardo to say something.

All he received was a stern warning to tell Jenaro and Hernando nothing of his visit. Ricardo finished with a curt hand gesture. It was time for them to head back down to the mall. Ricardo walked a few meters behind Diego as they returned to Jacob's, and after Diego entered the walk-in freezer, Ricardo closed and sealed the stairwell door behind him. The men had parted company without uttering a word.

Diego's thoughts returned to Jessica. She had been invisible during his stay topside. Was she even still alive? Ricardo had made no mention of her. Of course, she simply could have been ordered to stay in a bedroom during his visit. Or maybe she was dead.

"Jessica," Diego thought. "If having an ego were an Olympic sport, she would take the gold. That's what I used to think. Now though… Poor kid. Nobody deserves being forced to play Ricardo's mind games. Poor kid…" Diego let out a deep sigh and went off to find his former frat brothers.

The following morning.

Time: Sunday, March 10, 2019 6:30 AM

"I'd like to start the meeting now," Fatima said over the bridge. "Team leaders, will you announce where you are and who you're with?"

"This is Jada at Pelican Island," said Jada. "With me are Lynn and our six escorts, Parni, Sachi, Suvarna, Tajana with spears and Charles and Madison who are armed with our pistols. I also have the flare gun."

Frida was sitting by Fatima's side typing the minutes of the meeting. "Jada," she asked her sister-wife, "Is your position safe?"

"Oh yes, this is overkill. I just couldn't see a reason not to do it. It's a fine day and we can see all of Pelican Island from here. There are no predators. This far from the central current, it's actually warm, the air and the water too. It's a great day for swimming."

Jada was reporting from a small oval island slightly over one kilometer due east of their home hexagonal island. Pelican Island was less than a hundred meters from the Missisquoi's eastern riverside and it was the location Madison had built a "telephone booth" for their remaining Leophone. Madison had named the island after seeing a large bird flee from it when their kayaks first approached the island on Friday. Their other Leophone, the one Lynn had carried to the central island earlier on Friday, it had ceased working several minutes after Lynn had landed. The phone had abruptly died while Lynn was still standing on the docks.

Another voice spoke up on the bridge. "Tom just gave me a hand gesture to speak. This is Carla. We're about one kilometer from the entrance rooms. We're returning home now."

Fatima blinked. "Carla?"

Her cheerful voice answered, "Yes, Tom made an offer to me last night that we divide the leadership. I'm in charge when we're outdoors and on land. Tom is in charge on the river and inside the entrance rooms. We're returning from my morning kayaking lesson."

"More like our morning workout," Tom added. "Carla is already an excellent kayaker. We were practicing towing techniques."

Another voice spoke. "This is Mark at the box maze. With me are Lucia, Husna, Emily, Aggie, Whitney, and Heather. Our night here was uneventful. We are all in high spirits and are set to begin the transfer operation as soon as this meeting ends."

Mark was referring to plan to transfer Lucia and Husna back to the Waterhole and perhaps all the way back to the home complex if the first leg of the trip went well. Almost the entire path would be indoors, and Mark's team had a pair of lightweight folding wheelchairs for the transfer. For the stairwells and ladders, Mark had designed a padded harness from a sturdy backpack frame, and he would carry Lucia and Husna in the spots the wheelchairs couldn't go. Mark had practiced with backpacking Ann the previous day and he thought the transfers with the lighter Lucia and Husna would be no problem.

Fatima described her location. "Toshi and Holly are asleep right now after working the graveyard shift. Everyone else is here with me at the Hilton. We have two items on the agenda. Lynn wanted to do a follow-up on what she reported last night, and there is a new development at Black Mall that Amber will talk about. Lynn, do you want to go first?"