When they left the next node behind at a galloping pace under the cover of the transit way, the Agent was a mile behind and closing rapidly. His readouts showed them to be stationary and he laughed to himself as he thought they were trying to hide from him. When he arrived at the node, his scanners showed him the source of the signal was amongst the various structures that featured at each node, so he brought the space ship to a gentle landing and approached the sight on foot with a pulse rifle. He had taken a hand held scanner with him, and half way to his target, the signal suddenly disappeared. “Too little far too late turning off whatever device you have. I knew you would resign to me,” he said aloud, quickening his pace.
For a few moments he searched around the node amongst the various buildings and cable conducting boxes, until he thought he had found what he was looking for. Quietly he approached, as he was keen to instil the most in fear through surprise as he could. When he reached his target, he found that it was a trick. John had carefully placed a few items in the dark shadows that from a distance looked like the outline of a wagon. The Agent was suddenly struck with fury, shooting the decoy until it was ablaze. Then after regaining some of his senses, he ran back to his ship, to continue the chase.
Carmel, John, and Frieda were well ahead of him by this time and only a mile away from the township. No lights of respite were on offer as this was a place under control of the Agent, and so all were extinguished, except for a few in the very centre of the town. When at last they entered its outskirts and took to a shed for cover, the Agent was almost overhead.
“He knew we would come here John. To go north towards Reno is too dangerous, so this was our obvious choice to him. We need to think about what to do. He will not go through this town in the dark, and his scanner will pick up the life signs of other people here, so we at least have some cover. But in the day, he will order everyone out and then he will come for us John.”
“Yes, I figured he would not just leave us behind. But he cannot be sure it is us he has followed, so perhaps we still have something to work with yet.”
Chapter 16
Dreams cannot turn to dust, nor can they be forgotten forever. Dreams can change and can be overlooked, but somewhere deep inside their core intentions always remain, waiting to be realised. Inner turmoil can mask the view into dreams, and clouds can weather away the spirit leaving one to feel wanting. But so long as the spirit is keen and therefore, to be lived, then dreams will again arise to the fore and they will become life. It can become the ways for the mind to be disconnected from the heart, where life takes on existence rather than living. Conformity to learned ways where the learning has not always been so beneficial to the heart, can lead to pain and to the apparition of hardship, and so a person can cease to be their self intended as their self intends to be, thus the pain also can permit dis-easement to enter and despair can follow. But these notions are only ‘cans’ and ‘learned ways’, where those of wisdom realise there is always learning leading to another possible outcome remaining in essence and alignment with their real intentions.
This is how it was for Tobias, as he lay awake late into the night just outside of Omaha where the curfew still remained since its inception eight years before. The streets were empty as they were every night, and there was barely any sound aside from machines that made life possible, kept the air artificially fresh, and those few machines that would seize upon anyone outside beyond the permitted hour. His sense told him there was something stirring inside, but he was unable to determine its cause and its effect. He was unable to fathom precisely what it was somewhere inside him wanting to act. His life in the house was not one of reward where one enjoys the mere comfort of being at home, but was one of mere existence as if he was in waiting, for a moment, a catalyst that could provide him with the vision on where he should be in order to feel alive.
He was alone. Asper was just…nowhere. He had no child or parent – he was entirely alone, and he felt it so very much on this night. It was difficult to socialise for many who lived in fringe dwellings as he did. With survival so central to life, barely any room existed for people to meet and develop relations as friends. Some did, and Tobias had a few acquaintances, but he could barely count them as genuine friends like the others with whom he had shared so much all those years ago. Even John could be lost as a friend, for contact had simply ended after that brief meeting, and Tobias put it down to the conditions of the times where many people simply disappeared, as had Asper.
She had been so dear to him and him to her. Now, with it all so much a part of history to him, and with nobody to turn to for company, to share a meaningful conversation with, or to share feelings, he felt as if he was but one small insignificant molecule coursing through the veins of infinite embodiment, without a destination.
As it is when the brain takes a stronghold over the toroidal flow of existence, a person can be in isolation, yet be surrounded by others, by the very nature of elemental creation, and within the many waveforms. A dominance quite different to an egotistical sense of desire and power, but a dominance none the less, and so the eternal flow becomes disrupted, causing angulation within where angulation conflicts with the rounded nature of those elements of water, of air, and of the great vortex – the heart. Inside it awaits - the dream of dreams, the message to express, and the blueprints of manifestation.
Tobias lay awake nearly all the night, choosing not to view any holographic projections, and choosing not to read any material available via the holographic library – it was mostly authority driven propaganda anyway, and he chose not to listen to anything other than the calling out inside of himself, which in fact, was also all around him and throughout. He chose to explore this rhythm, to explore the questions he was being asked by himself, and to explore why he had chosen to watch the transportation event where he could see the looks of utter despair on the faces of those doomed to oblivion in the western sector.
He rubbed his arm where the two tiny scars from the two identification chips he had received in life, now almost completely faded away, had suddenly began to itch. His mind again turned to his friend John and how he had been such a willing companion to help escape those many years ago. In contrast to his earlier mood, he let out a small laugh as he recalled the hair raising flight in John’s plane all the way from Alaska to Vancouver. This lead Tobias to other thoughts, more specific about the journey from Vancouver to San Francisco, and their meeting with the others, and with Asper and Lorraine that night at the wharves by the bay. In reminiscence of the night and the sparkling lights upon the gentle waves in the bay, a spark ignited inside and made its way to his eyes, where it was wrapped in tears that rolled slowly down his face. They were tears of joy, tears of the deepest sentiment in recollection of the strength of the relationships he had back then, and they were tears of yearning – an expression of his inner most dreams, and from this moment, Tobias began to awaken and take the path towards where he was to go and what he was to do.
Such is the strength of these things that adversity is never any measure, as restraint is only a temporary distraction however long it may last, and sorrow just a shallow breath barely drawn. Without knowing what he was to do, or how, Tobias felt as if the answers were there, they were flowing to him from within him, and they were all about him as in any eternal flow in waves forming special shapes to then manifest in his actions based on such intentions. He was not a man of malice in any sense, nor would he extract vengeance when he had clearly been wronged by those who sought to depose and subjugate the elemental nature of his spirit. Tobias was a man of recognition and of grace, as he was one who in essence, lived the appreciation and invigoration of life given, and the ever-changing progression of nature, within and around. This was his strength and without conscious thought, was why he survived so well there on the fringes not far from the fence diving the entire nation into two sectors.
He rose out of bed, but there was nowhere much to go, other than within the small house, or outside int
o the fenced small back yard to the shed at the rear. He decided he would go there and at least gain a few precious moments outside beyond the curfew hours. He had often wondered what it would be like for those who lived in high-rise apartments with no access outside at night after the curfew. Very few of them had balconies, and even with such small allotments of outdoor space, Tobias had never considered a balcony much of a place to enjoy the outdoors. Outside in the yard he could look up to the sky and set himself free, he could feel the Earth beneath him, and his spirit for wild places free from all of the restrictions in life, could maintain its connection, however faint. As he stared up at the stars, which were a little obscured by the ever present dust in the air, he could see a few space vehicles slowing traversing the sky. For some years now, the night sky had progressively lost many of the space craft people in times past could look up and see on any given night, as the authorities had switched off most of their vast satellite network to avoid attack from the Agent. And since the curfew came into being, the skies no longer hosted the many HyperJets crossing the nation and the oceans, and so the night sky had returned to what it must have been like many years before the latter half of the twenty first century – mostly given to the stars.
He dared to take on some deep breaths, knowing there was dust in the air, but not concerned with it at this time. The only lights he could see came from the sole lamp switched on upstairs in his bedroom, and from the amber glow of the lights atop the sector dividing fence a block away. All of the other buildings adjacent to his were in darkness, as they had been unoccupied for some years now. His memories returned to the event of his escape from Alaska and how he had ridden the motorcycle through the outskirts of Seattle late that night, with his headlight amongst the mesmerising flickering amber streetlights. Then, he was driven with purpose as he was beginning to rekindle now, where he had an objective in mind, and he had given all he could to make it happen. With a sudden thought of realisation, he turned and entered the back yard shed.
Inside there was a jumble of mostly inoperative electronics and machinery parts, some of which were his, and others that had been there when he first found the house. Dust was everywhere, and as he searched around for the device he wanted, it stirred and swirled through the air illustrating the currents and waves he was creating with his cause. When he finally found the scanner device he had been searching for, he lifted it close to his eye to inspect its condition. Immediately he could see that it was not going to be a case of simply switching on. First, he would have to make some rudimentary repairs, and the he would have to find a power cell. Tobias was still unsure what he was going to do, but he was doing something, and he felt confident as he worked with the device that one thing would lead to another, and so his course of action would become apparent.
As he sat inside at the kitchen table working on repairing the scanner, he again thought of John, and how he was so highly skilled at repairing and reshaping technology to make it work for him. Tobias was like the others he had spent those times with eight years ago, where he saw technology as a compliment to life, and something to be used or worked with, rather than something to depend upon. When at last he awoke after having fallen asleep at the table, it was nearing dawn, and so he left the kitchen to sleep until he needed to wake again, where he would return to the device and make it work for him.
Chapter 17
Darkness shrouded the town of Bishop with black ice encasing the streets, when John and Carmel awoke two hours before dawn after Frieda had stirred and made a few slight sounds. In contrast to his normal flat black desires, the Agent’s ice covered space ship glistened as it stood motionless in the town square, under the few amber streetlights. It was an ominous sight, representing what was to come that very day, when he would do whatever he considered worthy, to extract Carmel from within the town’s perimeter. He knew they were there, so he too, was awake early to devise his methods for the process. The cockpit was the only other light on the scene, its’ multicoloured holographic arrays, sending beams outward in rays through the misty tendrils in the air.
They knew he would be waiting as they sat quietly discussing what their plans for the day would be. “I feel as if he knows we are here John. His presence has found its way to me and I am so sorry that I cannot do anything to prevent his sense of me in this place.”
“Don’t apologise Carmel. You are yourself and you should always be expressive of who you are. Consider that an asset for us against the Agent.”
“Do you think any of the others from the group will be here? Perhaps they can help.”
“I can imagine some would have made it by now, but I am not sure what they can do to help us.”
“We don’t want to hurt them if the Agent is after me John.”
“Yes, I know how you feel Carmel. We need to make a plan of escape. This is only a small town and the country surrounding is open and vast, but there are some ranges to the east, and that is where we should head towards.”
“He will make the townsfolk here help him John. We will have them all against us.”
“Then I think we should run, and do it now. I will reconfigure my scanner into a device to temporarily scramble his spaceship sensors, based on the flux mechanics I know. You will have to drive us fast Carmel. And Frieda…” he trailed off as they both turned to look at her, where she appeared to be listening to them.
“She is with us John. Frieda is peace and her determination is in her name. Do not doubt her John.”
“I don’t, it is I just feel for her and how much work she has to do.”
“Then think of it as her destiny if you will John. Perhaps that is why we came across her as we did, as we seek peace as well.”
They had taken the fringe roads around the town to avoid creating any disturbance in the early hours, and after crossing the river to the east, they drove on at a full gallop to cover half of the distance to the ranges, by the time dawn was upon them. John had managed to reconfigure the device and now he steered Frieda to give Carmel a break. “We will only use it if we have to. I think I made a mistake yesterday…”
“No John, it was a wise thing to use the scanner. Otherwise the Agent could have been upon us before we knew he was there. It was a risk, but one we had to take. He had surely made a plan to cut us off, or find us at Bishop, as travel there would have been the only viable option for us that he could determine. Remember John, he is a maniac and so thoughts of logic can elude him at any time.”
Carmel was right, as logic was lost to mania as they rode eastward away from Bishop. The Agent had woken all the townsfolk early, first by destroying a couple of buildings at the centre of town to draw them out, and then by commanding them to find the travellers. Unfortunately for him, the frantic search immediately after had brought no results, and so his impatience took hold. He was uninterested in the few horse riders who the townsfolk had found and offered to him – he didn’t even bother to kill them. The Agent was only interested in Carmel, and so now without any sign of her, he began to lose control of himself.
He blasted a few more buildings the moment he was back inside of his spaceship, and then he fumbled his way through the holographic controls before lifting off to hover a hundred feet above the town. He could not make a decision for a time, as he was lost to his rage, until during a fleeting second, he noticed the human scanner readout showed a fluctuating presence. He knew it must be them, for the townsfolk were all gathered below and back in Oakland his minions there had assisted him by stabilising and increasing the power to the scanner.
Without hesitation, he turned the craft on an easterly heading towards where he thought they were going. The White Mountains loomed just ten miles away, and he knew they would try to hide in there after their successful avoidance tactics of the previous few days in the mountains to the west.
“He has found our signal John.”
“Yes, I can see he has left the town, but he cannot be certain on precisely where we are. We should be into those foothills in
ten minutes according to this old map.” Frieda could sense there was trouble coming, and without request, she hastened her pace and covered the distance in less than ten minutes. “It will make it harder for him to see us. These hills provide some hiding ground.”
“But he will come John. He must be so furious by now.”
“Then we need to be extra careful.”
They had not seen his spacecraft at all since the escape from Bishop began, but this did nothing to alleviate their concerns about the Agent’s proximity to them. After driving on for another thirty minutes, deeper into the ranges, they rounded a corner and as they did so, the Agent’s spacecraft appeared in the middle of the road. He had landed just minutes before and was now bringing the ship out of invisibility and revealing it to them.
He was ever so pleased to see the look on their faces as they rounded the corner – the look of surprise, and the look of desperation to escape what he considered now as inevitable. They were not stricken with fear though, and this slight detail troubled him much more than it should have. He fed off fear, and now as he was about to apprehend them, they appeared resolute and not in fear of him, and he hated it.
“Don’t move or you die,” he said via the ship’s external communications. “You cannot escape. As you can see, these mountains have no forest around here for you to hide in, so there will be none of that stupid cat and mouse you tried on me recently. There is no purpose in you bothering to consider escape, because simply you cannot. But I will not kill you. No, in-fact, I am going to let you go…well one of you. The other, and that means you bitch, is going to come with me, whilst I enjoy the notion of your friend’s despair as he travels away all alone with your horse and your little wooden cart. Don’t try anything either or I might just change my mind and destroy you both now. But please, do not make me do such a thing, for I have so much to show to my former superior officer! Now come over here bitch, by yourself.”
Höllenbadt: Book two of the Torus Saga Page 13
