and then continued to the area she designated as the north side. As they walked, Palmer couldn't help wondering why the north side of the shopping center was actually in the compass position of east.
The lights rushed past her, nearly knocking her over. Then everything was back to normal, and Alice was standing in reality again.
"I've been waiting for you," said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see John. He looked dashing in his expensive black suit. To offset the look was a holster that hung from a belt around his waist. "Welcome to my lands."
"Where am I?" she said.
"You're in your dreams," he said. "Come with me."
He scooped her up in his arms and then set her on the back of saddled horse. "Where are we going?" she said.
"I want to show you one of my territories," he said. "Just relax. This is only a dream. There is nothing to fear here."
She smiled. "I guess nothing can hurt you in your dreams."
He smiled back at her. "Of course not. Dreams are harmless." With that, he jumped onto the horse and drove down the dusty trail. Alice never once noticed the sign that warned they were leaving the Outer Lands and entering the Dark Lands."
Sergeant Eversole leaned over the counter and tried the taste spoon of Banana Split yogurt, fed into his mouth by the young girl behind the counter. She smiled and quickly put away the taste spoon as the two agents approached her shop, Palmer keeping his distance. "Can I help you?" she said. Just as quickly, Sergeant Eversole moved away from the counter to pretend he was only there on business.
Surprisingly, the two agents moved towards Sergeant Eversole. "Sergeant Eversole?" said Gunther.
He nodded his head. "Can I help you with something?"
Harley pulled out the photograph and showed it to him. "Have you seen him?"
He nodded quickly. "Yeah, he was real strange. I knew there was something wrong with him?"
"Why's that?"
"He asked me if I was the sheriff."
Harley smiled. "Where did he go?"
"He stuck around the mall for about an hour and then he trekked off towards the library."
"The library? Are you sure?"
He nodded his head yes. "I watched him until he went through the front door. He definitely went there."
"Thank you," said Harley as he turned and motioned for Palmer to follow him to the library.
They had only been moving for a couple of minutes before Alice realized something wasn't right. The lights in the sky had gone from blue to black, and even the white clouds appeared threatening. "John, where are we?"
"Oh," he said after a couple of seconds. "We're in the Dark Lands."
"The Dark Lands? I don't think I want to go there."
He smiled. "It's too late, Alice. We're already there."
In the distance was a small village. Fires could be seen on its outskirts, some in control, others not. "The Dark Lands," he said with a smile.
"Let's go back," she said as she turned back to see just dark, sinister sky behind her. The pleasant, blue sky was gone.
John drove the horse into town and then dismounted, turning to Alice to do the same. "I'm not getting off here," she said.
"You don't have a choice," he said. "This is where I have brought you. There is no going back now."
A figure exited one of the village buildings and walked towards them. As the figure came closer, Alice realized it was a woman, a beautiful blonde in a black cloak. She reeked of exotic sex as she came closer.
"Who is that?" said Alice.
"Desmidus," he said. "She is a witch, and she is my wife."
Alice's eyes opened wide. "But what about me?"
"You're going to help Desmi out of this god-forsaken place," he said.
"But how?"
"She needs your body," he said.
She shook her head quickly. "She can't have it!"
"You have no choice," said John. "I'll take it from you if you wish."
Desmidus reached John and grabbed him, kissing him hard on the lips. "I waited a long time for you. Where have you been?"
"An outsider opened the door for me," he said.
Her eyes opened wide. "Opened the door?"
He turned to show Alice to Desmidus. "And she will open the door for you."
Desmidus smiled at Alice. "For that, I will make your death an easy one. Thank you."
Alice jumped off the horse. "I'm not giving up my body to anyone." Before anyone could rush her, she ran down the trail and out of the village, pushing herself to run down the trail that had brought her into the Dark Lands.
John turned to Desmidus. "She's in your body. Are you just going to let her get away?"
Desmidus smiled and then kissed her husband again. "Of course not. I just couldn't resist kissing you one more time before I hunted her down." Then she floated into the air and went soaring after the girl on foot, closing the distance at a much quicker pace than Alice ever dreamed possible.
The two agents and Palmer entered the library, looking over the large numbers of people before they came to the two sleeping people at the end of an aisle of books. "I think that's him," said Gunther.
They rushed down the aisle and stood in front of the two sleeping bodies. "What now?" said Palmer.
"Is that the guy?" said Gunther as his eyes went over the sleeping man's head, even though the face couldn't be seen while it was tucked under the arm.
Harley reached down and lifted the head up by the hair. "That's him, all right."
"So, what now?" said Palmer. "Are you just going to waste him?"
"We can't," said Gunther. "That would be murder."
"He's not human," said Harley as he removed his revolver and pointed it at John's head. "This is to save our people. You saw what he did to that laboratory."
"Then do it," said Palmer. "Just get it over with."
At that moment, John's eyes opened. He looked up at Harley and smiled. "What is this?"
Harley dropped the head, but kept the gun aimed at the man's face. "If you move or do anything to threaten our safety, I'll blow you back to dreamland."
John's smile increased as he moved himself to a sitting position. "So, you know?"
"Of course we know, you bastard!" said Gunther, his own revolver out. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" said John as he remained still and said nothing. "What are you going to do? Kill me? Could you do that without getting into serious trouble? No one would ever believe the truth."
"Kill him," said Palmer.
"Yeah," said John. "Kill me."
Harley cocked the revolver and then felt a blast of heat in his head. Before he could squeeze the trigger, his head exploded, killing him instantly.
Gunther remembered the video footage of John when Dr. Aziz was killed. There had been a warning before the death occurred. This time, however, there was no warning.
Palmer was the only person who saw what had happened. It wasn't John who attacked and killed Harley; it was the girl who had been sleeping on the other side of the table. She was now awake, and her eyes were glowing red.
Gunther was the second victim as a pulse hit him in the back and exploded. He fell into a bookcase, knocking over a shelf of books before he died.
Palmer knew better than to face the girl. He jumped back behind the safety of the aisle of books as another energy charge whipped by him and exploded into another shelf of books. Books went flying everywhere as Palmer rushed down the aisle towards the exit.
John was up off his seat this time, and he threw an energy blast at Palmer, the beam going over the man's head and exploding into a far wall. Palmer began pulling books off their shelves behind him to cover his escape, several explosions behind him proving that his actions had been the right ones.
Once around the corner of the aisle, he thought about the exit and then realized he would never make it down the stairs to the main level before o
ne of the dreamlanders cut him off and killed him. Rushing for a stained glass window, he threw himself forward and crashed through it, falling one floor to the grass field below. Hitting the ground and rolling, he felt pain in his arm upon impact, but he was able to stand up and continue running. A car exploded near him in the parking lot as he rushed for the safety of the shopping center, but after that nothing came after him.
He was safe, for the moment.
Dr. Fenster worked late that evening. His experiments had failed twice in a row, and he couldn't figure out what was wrong. The wave curve had been projected positive, but it kept going negative and then threw him an S-curve. There was no scientific explanation for any of this.
As he shredded the latest readout from the oscillator, he noticed there was someone standing at his door. It was Palmer. "What now?" he said, looking back down at his notes.
"I need your help," said Palmer.
Fenster put the notes aside for a moment. "What can I do for you?"
"The dream guy killed the two federal agents."
Fenster's eyes opened wide. "You're kidding, right?"
He shook his head no. "They tried to ambush him in the library. He had help from a woman."
"A woman?" he said.
He nodded his head yes. "She was sleeping on the other side of the table he was using."
"This is serious," said Fenster. "You're going to have to get me that tape of the session."
"No problem," said Palmer. "There's no longer anyone to protest."
Fenster grabbed his notes and slid them into the top drawer of his desk. "Let's go."
John and Alice knew they had to leave the library. While there wasn't much that could be thrown against them, they weren't ready to face enemies at this time. They needed
Mapping the Silence of Dreams Page 3
