Banished To Earth, Book Two, Dreamscape (30)

Banished To Earth Book Two, Dreamscape   

 Chapter 58

 94

     Davin had been here before; a prisoner in his own head, a powerless spectator. The difference being this time he was trapped inside Chase’s head. Still just as helpless but also just as aware.

   Memories of his recent past went black the moment Chase knocked Pry to the ground. He had no way of knowing if they were truly recent. The image of Pry falling away from him burned like a fire. It was also just as destructive. And his being helpless to save her much less himself, filled him with rage. That kind of anger was nothing but blind stupid emotion, not only useless but self-defeating.  He dared not let it consume him. She needed him to be strong and clear-minded. Dwelling on it would only hobble him further.

     Of course, Chase being asleep did not help. Floating incorporeally in a black hollow that had no walls or floor was not only disorienting but only accentuated the futility of his helpless state. Helpless yes but not stripped of will, self-awareness and intellect.

    He was dead, yet, still present...

     Chase’s nasty unmistakable presence engulfed him but also informed him. Grinding like sandpaper, he could sense his essence was trying to erase him. However, he reasoned it was not a conscious act on his part, more like a natural reaction to a foreign object.

      He had infected Chase. Yes he was contained, but maybe not so helpless after all. Two wills in the same body. He was weak, but not truly dead.

    It was something, a handhold, a root waggling from the wall of the black pit that trapped him. He couldn’t see it, but it was there.

    And what is this darkness? Really. Chase’s sleeping mind? Or was it some sort of psychic holding cell. Did Chase even know he was inside of him. Or was he like a virus microscopic and undetected.

    One thing he knew, his essence, his soul could not be erased from existence. He simply was and would forever be. That would be his strength, the key to the lock box that now held him.

     Engulfed by darkness, he imagined light. How many times had he watched the sun rise above the shimmering surf at his beach house. Ever so slowly beams of remembered sunlight streaked before his mind’s eyes. Cool soft sea breeze caressed his bare legs and chest. Grit ground against the soles of his bare feet, feet that carried him into the foamy surf.

95

   He looked up, pale blue sky gently brushed with white clouds as the glare of the rising sun made him squint. Sea spray filled his nostrils with the smell of salt and low tide. He was somewhere.

    He had created his own little world of light and joy deep within the black bowels of Chase Gillette. The virus named Davin was growing, and Chase had no clue. Now to ‘find’ Pry…

    

    Weeks later her emaciated hull sat on the balcony. It was as if she were trying to live up to the movie version of vampires, by dying in the sunrise. The sun being the bane of their existence, deadly to the extreme, at least according to popular fiction and Hollywood.

   But as usual truth was far more complex. Yes Phastanar was a place of shadows and mist, but its sun was no more a threat to the Creichee than its moons. In fact, Earth’s sun was particularly beneficial to her, especially since she was also Hunter.

    Sea water, sunlight, even the wind and soil nourished all Hunters. They could eat anything make it taste like anything or eat nothing at all and survive, albeit miserably. Sadly, misery was what she craved, punishment, for what she deemed a brutally selfish act.

   Shunning all comfort and compassion she had made herself a stranger to them all, even Nikki.

     Self-Banishment was the harsh sentence she executed against herself, since she knew the others’ love for her would never allow them to heap the punishment on her she deserved.

   Barely eating, bathing, silent as a stone she sat, not looking, not hoping just waiting, waiting to die.

    Could she die from nothing more than self-neglect? She did not know, but she was determined to find out. A slow arduous death was all she wanted; Davin was gone. There was nothing left to want, or so she felt.

   Her hair had not moved since that terrible night. Its sorry state went unnoticed, at least by her. It was dull yellow now. Rainbows no longer danced across it; a perfect picture of her dying soul, a soul that could never truly die.

  96

    Weeks earlier, Chase awoke. Bright artificial light streamed in. It, for a moment, washed out Davin’s sky and beach. But that was okay. He knew he could bring it back and make it grow.

    Answers, he needed answers. Maybe he would eventually find some here, inside, but the outside world was bound to be filled with them.

  He was about to find out more than he could have hoped or feared…

     Finding himself inside a first-person video game, with no hope of getting his hands on the controller, he, like before could do nothing but sit back and enjoy the ride. Enjoy, well, not so much as reconnoiter.

     Rightly assuming, the Transit Authority had discovered and retrived Chase, he could do nothing, at least for the time being, but resign himself to this new  impossibly strange situation. Clearly they had been waiting for him to appear. He was after all an investment, too valuable to simply write off.

  Davin knew the only thing, the best thing, he could do was absorb as much information about them as he could. It should be easy, just sit back watch listen and learn.

     Bright white light flooded his mind prison. Dull yellow walls that glowed and curved up and over became the ceiling of a large bedroom. Chase looked down, through back a thin brown blanket as he swung his pajama clad legs over a thin white mattress and onto the floor; a slick gray slab of what appeared to be highly polished metal. 

   There were of course no smells, no physical sensation, just like a video game, just images sliding past.

  The room reminded him of every motel room he had ever been in. As Chase walked out of the larger bedroom, went right into a perfectly normal looking bathroom, sink and mirror on the right, commode straight ahead, shower to the left.

    Oh no, Chase had to pee. It was nothing he had never seen a million times before, but this time was so different, strange, even nauseating. It really took him by surprise. He wasn’t sure why. The ultimate violation? Well not quite, but in the same hemisphere.

   Then there was the shower, another humiliation. He did not know who he was more embarrassed for, Chase or himself.

    Chase finally made himself fit for the day. Humiliation was about to be obliterated by shock.

    Having collected clothes from a small dresser at the foot of his bed, Chase dressed. Black shirt, pants, underwear, socks and boots, topped off by a long black hooded duster, nearly identical to his, now covered Chase’s body.

   A narrow door, that had no hinges was located a few feet to right of the bathroom. Knock. Knock.

   “You ‘bout ready boy?”

  97

    Chase could not shrink away, though he tried mightily. That voice, he knew that voice. It echoed through every nightmare he had ever had. Mabel Gillette!

    How could she be alive and why? They did this. Apparently, the Transit Authority, could work miracles, when it suited them. There could be no other answer. Did that mean he was off world in one of their ships, or on their home world. Maybe. After all anything was possible. They had brought Mabel back from the grave, well, rest home. What else could they do?

  

   “I’m up.” Said Chase. He pointed at the door it disappeared instantly.

   Her face filled Chase’s eye screen. Floating in the dark, a specter from his past, a suprisingly pretty, twenty-something Mabel Gillette was staring straight into his face, but of course not seeing him at all.

She leaned in for a good morning kiss. Suddenly everything was blocked out by her giant cheek that came rushing at him. After a moment that felt like an hour, it shrank and spun from view. The wall facing his bed and the dresser slid by until he was looking at the back wall that faced the door.

    Just like the bathroom and the rest of the room, except for its weird inner glow, it was bear. Chase pointed at it. Earth, beautiful blue and white, back dropped by blackness instantly appeared. The wall was suddenly a giant window.

   “Ours.” The word dropped off Chases’ tongue like a drop of spit.

  “Well not quite. They’ll send us down soon enough, take out Stayner and….” Davin was stunned to hear her say.

     Chase broke in, “They say he’s changed again. We need to be down there now. He’s going to infect the whole planet.”

   “Hush, that boy. They know what they’re doing.” 

  "Do they?" Chase asked.

    Ignoring his question, she continued, “They brought me back, didn’t have to. They did that for you, don’t forget it. They let me take out Chase.”

    “Well, his stupid little wife had a lot to do with that. Sentimental fool.” 

“I couldn’t really see her,” She replied, “but I could for one sweet, sweet, moment, hear her screaming. They didn’t have to take him.” She cackled, “Boo, hoo, hoo.”

   “Pryathamel,” he chuckled. “Little monsters, little men, shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of Gods.”

    “He went down good.” She smacked her lips, “Well, he’s gone now.”

  98

 “Davin.” Chase smirked. “Invader, murderer. You fixed him Mama, you fixed him real good. Oooh.” Chase groaned.

   “What is it?” She asked.

  “Headache. Better now. It was nothing, just a jab of pain.”

  “You sure?”

   “It’s gone. I’m good. Just need some breakfast.”

   “You know, they can put us back in….”

   “No, I’m good. No more tanks, no more tubes. Food, sunlight, dirt under my feet and Stayner’s blood on my hands…”

   “You don’t want his blood boy, not on your hands not anywhere on you. You stay away from his blood…”

  “You know what I’m saying, not literally.  It does sound like you were really paying attention.”

   “They gave me my son. They me my life back, ‘least I can do is give them my full attention.”

   “And they gave me Earth, just need to clean it up. But that’ll be fun.”

   “Not a game Chase. They are our betters, don’t forget it.”

   Chase and Mabel stood in front of the ship’s view portal for a while longer, then headed down the long curving hallway that led to the dining area that had been set up especially for them.

     Mable being fully human had special needs. Unlike her son, a Hunter of the highest order. Genetically enhanced long before he was implanted into her womb a short time after she married Evan.

      Of course, she knew nothing about this. She had no memory of being abducted multiple times throughout her life. But that particular bit of valuable knowledge was buried deep within both of their memories. Buried so deep they did not even know it was there. But it was there, just waiting for Davin to discover it, dig it out and exploit it…