Deep Hell: Long After The Virus 3x706o

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Deep Hell: Long After the Virus

Published by Gatekeeper Press

2167 Stringtown Rd, Suite 109

Columbus, OH 43123-2989

www.GatekeeperPress.com

Copyright © 2021 by Bruce Alterman

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Library of Congress Control Number:2021930060

ISBN (hardcover): 9781662908941

ISBN (paperback): 9781662908958

eISBN: 9781662908965

Contents

The Seed

Bliss

The Crew

Vehicles and Weapons

MIT

Onward

Venture Out

The Complex

Underground Expedition

The Bottom Level

The Horror

The Terror

The Black Frontier

The Crystal Perimeter

The Indigs

Grave Square

Bokchoke Yor

Atomic Essentials

President Kronk

Back to the Black Frontier

The Section of Toil

A Call to Arms

Exodus

Rage and Denial

Earth, the Land of Sky

A Goodbye to Evil

Shangri-La to Bliss

The Seed

Her small hands explored cold metal walls in the dark room. She moved around, touching things while hoping that nothing would harm her. The wiry-muscled woman wore clothing made of leather, stitched together in a way to closely hug her body. The layers kept her relatively warm but allowed her to remain mobile and light. Too much clothing would slow her down and hinder her from climbing into the upper chambers. There were hundreds of flights of stairs and giant pipes to shuffle upon horizontally to traverse her confined, dark world of steel and concrete.

This climb to reach the uppermost level was the most ambitious ever attempted. It was cold so high up in Deep. In spite of her layered leather clothing, the frigid air reached her soft flesh and made her shiver. Far down below it was warm, and was even warmer in her section. She climbed upwards for a long time, as quickly as she could. She scaled scores of different stairways, shimmied across five large insulation-wrapped pipes, and then nine long steel ladders. The ninth ladder went up through a small round portal to a narrow hallway, which led to a room. She focused her large eyes at the end of the long, narrow hallway. The room at the end was very dark inside. The thick, steel vault door was open and she walked down the hallway. The room’s wide threshold invited her to cross the daring line. As she stood outside the room, her lungs filled with the noxious smell of sulfur gas. Her desire for exploration and knowledge exceeded her fear of everything potentially harmful. Her ability to disappear in the blink of an eye using speed and cunning was her edge over anyone or anything that hoped to kill or capture her. With firm conviction, she stepped into the room.

From living in darkness, her senses had grown acute to judging a room’s temperature and size, even with only minimal light. The walls felt cold, and there was a stark ice-like surface of air touching her shoulder despite her heavy clothing. Her hand slowly extended out and ever so lightly touched the smooth steel of the walls. She ran the tips of her fingers along the glassy edge of a control board clustered with knobs, toggles, levers, and buttons. Her hands quickly became icy and her fingers numb. She knew from previous expeditions that the higher she climbed into the upper levels, the colder the air. This time

was the farthest she had ever ventured upward and therefore, the coldest of all her explorations.

There wasn’t enough light to see anything distinctly. She surmised this was an important room despite its small size, especially with so many tubes, shapes, and appendages sticking out from the walls. Dare she light a candle here or turn on her precious flashlight? Was the discovery of a strange and fantastic room worth the chance of getting caught? Her only escape route was exactly the way she had entered, back through the heavy door and then down the narrow hallway. If they found her, she would be tortured and killed, or worse. She had seen actual video of the sadistic events on TV.

Yet, the discovery of this room thrilled her like nothing ever excited her before. She had lived a mundane and dirty life. Her usual daily trips were through dangerous hallways, tunnels, rooms, and cavernous spaces where the ceiling could not be seen. They paled in comparison to this room which was so… novel, inviting, and exciting. The thick-walled metal room was filled with wondrous round circles containing writing and rounded glass bulbs protruding from metal cabinets.

As a young girl, the restrictions of her enclosed world pressed her to discover something, anything new which might broaden her understanding of the world. Her ecosystem consisted of finite spaces that enclosed her, it was the only environment she had ever known. Her father used to tell her that the only way to find something out is to figure it out yourself. That drove her to start sneaking away from the growing fields to climb up endless staircases and shimmy along miles of large pipes through vast, dark chambers.

Now, all of her adventures finally paid off. This room was a true discovery, one that she could take a picture of and show others back in her section.

When she lit her candle, the soft light revealed a complex array of metal boxes, different-colored buttons, round gauges, and hinged levers. She noticed one particularly big button, the largest red button. This button was encased in a small glass box on the wall. It was much larger than the other buttons, as large as her small hand. The bright color of the large button was fascinating. She opened the glass box that covered it. The impulse to press it felt overwhelming.

There were letters above the red button, but she had never learned to read. She saw two words but did not know their meaning: EMERGENCY BEACON. The red button transfixed her, but she knew that pressing the button might make a noise which would alert others to her presence.

On top of narrow tabletops, there were other devices in the room. Most were rectangular metal boxes with dials and needles behind glass. Metal brackets held several television screens on the walls. Short pedestals mounted on tables were topped with perforated balls. Curly wires entered the back of some of the metal boxes, extending to square boxes with more buttons. She decided to pick up one of the small boxes and press the black button on the metal box. It didn’t make any noise, so she pressed it a few times. The short pedestals also had buttons at the bases. Nothing happened when she pressed most of the buttons in the room.

She saw four large levers on a control . The labels under the levers said MASTER DOOR, ELEVATOR 1, ELEVATOR 2, ELEVATOR 3.

Her small film camera hung around her neck, the slight weight a reminder she must photograph this room in order to prove that she was really here. However, taking a picture required she must turn on her flashlight, revealing her position as the light flowed through the darkness. She pulled the camera by a cord out of her upper-body layers of leather clothing and readied her flashlight that had been in a rat-hide holster around her waist. The brightness from the flashlight made her squint as she snapped a picture of the room.

I will develop this film as soon as I get back and show the picture to everyone!

She started to think about getting out of the room and heading back down to warmer climates. Like a hunted, scared animal, the young woman sensed it was the right time to make her move and get out of this place. Before leaving the room, she approached the two-foot-thick steel door frame. She looked to her right, enticed again by the big red button. The glass box cover remained open and upright, just where she had left it.

The big red button on the wall represented freedom and freedom was a ionate concept to her, so she pressed the button with the palm of her right hand. The small room suddenly filled with different colored lights. Flashing red lights, yellow lights, purple lights, a blend of colors she had never seen before in her usually drab brown-and-gray world. She froze in hypnotic astonishment — so many colors, so many noises, and odd humming sounds. Strange electrical energy emanated from the metal, and she could feel the vibration as she touched the metal boxes. The big button she had pressed continued to flash red light that bounced off all the steel surfaces with the other colored lights. She heard a constant beeping sound that was louder than all the rest of the unique sounds in the room.

The multi-toned continuous beeping sounded strange to her ears, and the multicolored twinkling lights reflected brightly on her wide-open glassy eyeballs. Amazement filled her mind. The exhilaration made her smile while her breathing became faster.

Suddenly, she realized that instead of excitement and euphoria, she should be afraid. If caught, her exploration trips would be over. Instead, she would be enslaved and then killed when they tired of her. Total, consummate fear overwhelmed her sanity. She quickly blew out her candle and ran out of the

room. The young woman frantically raced down the hallway into the darkness, fearful of capture.

Bliss

Lorenzo looked up and noticed how bright the sky was today. He put the longbladed scythe over his shoulder, his muscled arms tan from constant sun exposure. What a great time he was having with his mates, all here in the field together, cutting down the wheat they had planted just a few months ago. He felt fantastic, having gotten a great night’s sleep. The prime weather allowed him to take a blanket to the field last night, lie down to gaze at the stars and listen to the rhythm of the wind-blown wheat. Lorenzo removed the large scythe from his shoulder and swung it down, its sharp, curved blade easily felling the wheat with every swipe. He loved this part of farming. It made him feel alive, arms coursing with blood while his stomach muscles tensed with every strike. Farming sure beat spending time on the fence. Everyone spent time on the fence, it was required of all citizens of Bliss. Completing time on the fence meant that the hours would drearily, sunrise to sunset or twilight to early morning. It wasn’t a big deal, but just staring out into the same desert was guaranteed to be boring. The only entertainment might be the occasional small lizard scampering under a nearby rock. Good thing a lot of the lazy people would rather spend time on the fence than farm , Lorenzo thought. Working in the fields was one of his favorite things, the physical work gave him time to reflect on his science projects.

There was so much Lorenzo wanted to know about himself, about other people, and about the world. His prime quest was to find true love, that unreachable, perfect love in a woman, but he had yet to find that extraordinary woman in Bliss. Perhaps his quest for love was his true life’s journey? That is why Lorenzo felt forlorn and incomplete in his daily life, he was missing out on love with a woman.

Suddenly, a gap in the brush appeared. A feral hog was parting the wheat as it ran from a lithe figure with a javelin in her hand. Lorenzo dropped his scythe and drew a large knife from his belt and ran towards the figure in the field chasing the hog. It was Tawny with her javelin doing a stint of sport hunting, her true ion. Lorenzo was fast, but not as fast as Tawny. His endurance, however, was excellent. He kept up behind her running through the maze of

wheat at pell-mell speed with a big laughing smile on his face. They ran out of the dense wheat field into an open pine forest, which was a disadvantage to the hog. She now had a clear target.

“Go, Tawny! Go!” Lorenzo yelled.

She sped up into overdrive with an energy that propelled her within striking distance of the hairy hog. She threw her javelin and it struck the hog’s hindquarters. The hog squealed and turned around toward Tawny, ready to defend itself with an all-out attack using its four-inch sharp tusks propelled by a two-hundred-pound body.

Out from behind the trees, a man flew through the air with a large knife in his right hand.

“Crazy!” Lorenzo yelled.

The knife sunk deep into the back of the hog as Crazy jumped on top of its back. The hog let out a final death squeal when he stabbed it again. Crazy sat on the ground and burst out laughing.

“Ha! I saw you guys when I was running to get you to come back and evaluate something.” Crazy nodded at the bloody hog, “Looks like it’s time for a barbecue!”

“Crazy, man! One hunt to !” Lorenzo said, almost out of breath.

Tawny started laughing too, making eye with Crazy. He had always loved her, but she had thought he wasn’t her type… until maybe just now.

“Lorenzo! Lorenzo! You won’t believe it!” Ambrosia yelled as she ran across the small field of wheat toward the pine forest. She bounded like a tiny deer, her light blonde hair bouncing up and down with every stride.

Lorenzo had a secret crush on Ambrosia but dared not reveal it because it might cause a ripple through the Crew. Everything caused a reaction and a counter reaction in Bliss, so it was often important to keep things to yourself. Unintended consequences could arise from the smallest of social mistakes. Ambrosia was one of the most beautiful girls in all of Bliss, and her robust figure, soft-featured face, and keen scientific mind made her a real catch. Yet, she was not meant for Lorenzo. He was too shy, and he thought that maybe she really liked Crazy.

Their land was surrounded by rich waters, full of fish and seafood. There were delicious, extra-large oysters the inhabitants ate all day long with a generous helping of corn and wheatgrass flavored with salt. Fresh water was always available from the collection pond located in the direct center of the peninsula which was fed by pure, underground natural springs. Freshwater streams poured out from the pond’s rim, providing a natural latticework of running water for drinking and irrigation to most of the peninsula. The small strip of spiraling land held about fifteen thousand people, some spent their day assembling buildings or performing science experiments in an attempt to regain the greatness that was once the fortune of their forefathers. Most just relaxed all day, or followed their ions, like painting or cooking specialty meals for customers on the market street. Each citizen had a specific job that they naturally fell into, depending on their personality, whether carpenters, tinkerers, garbage men, or farmers. It was a long time since anyone really thought about why they were isolated on the end of a peninsula with nowhere to go and nothing to really do. Yet it was a euphoric life for everyone, even the sick and infirm were well taken care of with no

complaints. They called their community “Bliss” because everything seemed perfect in their enclave. Markets occupied the main street, with most of the people living around the periphery of the town center.

Small boats were usually anchored on the coast, only used for fishing or casual sailing around the local waters. No one had ever constructed a large ship because the incentive to travel any farther out to sea was not a priority to anyone. A few adventurers had taken small boats along the coasts on either side of the peninsula, but all they found were hundreds of miles of desolate shorelines and inland barren wastelands. Not many people in Bliss were curious about the world outside of their peninsula. Everyone was too content and too comfortable with the natural bounty that Bliss offered. They could not think of a reason to risk life and limb exploring the unknown when everything anyone could ever want was provided on the peninsula.

There were old stories told of sickness, disease, poverty, and dying. Scant records existed on the computers and in the paper archives about the “Virus Calamity” that caused violence, starvation, and turmoil in the land before Bliss existed. Long ago, a kingdom called the U.S.A. ruled the land. It was bigger than Bliss Society could imagine, and the kingdom’s influence extended over a world of billions of people. When the virus struck, it was a shock, mentally and physically destroying the early people. The fuzzy details behind why it happened were still retold in fables by self-appointed storytellers. The reasons behind the events which happened hundreds of years ago were still debated amongst the intellectuals in Bliss, but they no longer had any bearing on the lives everyone lived now. Only a few intellectually curious individuals cared about the history of the world before Bliss. Most of the fifteen thousand inhabitants couldn’t care less about what happened hundreds of years ago. If someone felt sadness, their friends referred them to a particular therapy doctor who would listen to their problems and then help solve the problem. The times were gleeful. Bliss was a paradise. Everyone lived their life to the fullest with no reason to reflect on negative events that might have happened once upon a time.

An old 1970s oscilloscope hummed along with flat-view screens, circa 2028. Sometimes, new useful things could be discovered from all the tinkering going on in Bliss. Just last year, Crazy discovered that when he hooked up a hand-held walkie talkie to a cortex amplifier, the communication range was expanded, especially if he concentrated his thoughts through a circa 2062 scalp sensor.

Almost everyone in Bliss used 3D printers in abundance. The 3D printers were a leftover technology that somehow ended up in everyone’s home. Large, barnlike structures near the north part of the peninsula held vast reserves of composite blocks used in the 3D printers. In addition to the composite warehouses, there were also stores of raw metal, excavated quarried stone, carbon fiber blocks, and a wide variety of other materials used for the 3D printing. Quartermasters were in charge of the expansive warehouses. They would catalog and distribute the material to anyone in Bliss who arrived with their cart and asked.

Their little enclave yielded an unlimited food supply for anyone’s taking. The nutritious grasses all over the peninsula were a tasty addition to any seafood dish. Moreover, local farmers produced a wide range of vegetables, fruits, wheat, poultry, and pork. Everything collected, made, or harvested was available for trading at the central market in town. Near the shores of the peninsula, people set up small teepees made of sharkskin shells, wood, and rocks. Funnels of smoke drifted up from their pointed tops. Some couples dressed in the scantiest of clothing as they relaxed while subtle waves lapped onto the beach. Then, later in the day, most people gathered a fresh bounty of oysters and grass for a grand meal with sweet wine from the vineyards.

Stories of the Virus Calamity always circulated, but no one really knew anything for certain. Why did it happen? Why did the great empires of the past destroy themselves? Many discussions and forums took place to confront their past, but these sessions only yielded a lot of talk with no real answers. The Virus Calamity had changed the ancient world in ways that destroyed the empires from long ago.

The talking artificial-intelligence sphere could not tell them what had happened beyond 2097, all records of the world stopped with that year. The historical society of Bliss didn’t even know how many years had ed since 2097. Many generations had come and gone, centuries had ed, and the historic events during those hundreds of years were not recorded and long forgotten. The existing recent records referred only to Bliss. There was a time called “The Awakening,” when Bliss history was first recorded with the help of the artificial intelligence sphere and the group who organized Bliss into a functioning, perfect society. Through science and the available machines left after the Virus Calamity, the people of Bliss became perfectly comfortable and self-sustaining.

A diverse combination of about fifty people referred to as “The Group” lived in the center of Bliss. They were dedicated to scientific research and held influence over the people of Bliss. The Group worked in their own building that was a dark purple, windowless cube made completely of composite bricks formed by 3D printers. A central founding core of about fifteen elders directed the projects and interests of the Group.

A massive antenna array was set up in the flat, barren part of the peninsula by Crazy and his technical gang. It consisted of one thousand vertical antennas spaced exactly twenty feet apart in an expansive field of grass. Some years ago, he and others in Bliss had the notion to construct a large-scale listening post to determine if there was another community that might exist outside of the peninsula. Were they alone? Many in Bliss had asked this question. Were there other people living somewhere outside of Bliss? Was Bliss home to the only human life on Earth?

A unique meeting of the Group was held to determine if there were potentially other people alive. All fifty showed up to vote. It was decided that a dedicated faction of the Group should focus their attention on finding out if there were people living out beyond the peninsula.

Although many in the Group wanted to find other human life, the task was given to those who were already involved in the program. The chosen individuals were expected to concentrate on this endeavor for the good of Bliss, and were ed financially and socially towards the completion of this task. A specially selected, eclectic mixture was chosen and consisted of four men and two women. They called themselves “The Crew.”

They were immediately tasked to proceed with their search to determine if the inhabitants of Bliss were alone in the world. Their knowledge was limited to the finite number of books and computer files that existed in the library shack made out of driftwood and shells, its walls two feet thick. This structure had been in Bliss longer than anyone could . There were lots of computers powered by the roof’s solar cells. Inside were hundreds of centuries-old books. Despite these resources, most of Bliss’ history was told orally through stories and word of mouth. So, no one really knew how long their people had lived on the peninsula. There were a few handwritten stories from long ago, but not enough to get a full grasp on how Bliss got there and how people first came to the peninsula. The earliest records of Bliss started over four hundred years ago when Ronnie Believer commenced his preaching to families living in the forest about how to form the perfect community.

A long, barbed-wire fence out by the border was the only fortification for the spiraled peninsula. It afforded protection to the peninsula and enabled the guards to shoot anything they deemed to be a threat. However, there had never been a threat as long as anyone could . An ancient .50-caliber semi-automatic rifle with a ten-round clip was mounted on top of a wheeled chassis with an electric motor, this combo making for a quick response should there be any threat along the fence’s expanse.

Guards milled about along the twenty-foot-high wire in addition to a few lookouts in elevated, metal-fortified guard shacks who mostly spent their time sleeping. There were stories about the Bliss forefathers having conflicts with

outsiders, although presently, no one could even ever seeing an outsider. The tales ed on by great-great-grandfathers were merely stories of violent days from a long time ago. There were songs of great battles at the gate, the blazing lights of the machine guns, and the cries from marauding mutants. Crazy would often belt out a verse while at a pub, as the volume of his voice reverberated off the thin, handcrafted windowpanes:

Oh, hear me, mutants, for your days will be gone,

My wall and my gun no surrender, you’ll be done.

Run back to the wasteland now, heathen scum!

Even though there was nothing but an arid, uninhabited desert landscape outside of the peninsula, the Land of Bliss remained vigilant against attack.

The town had just as many women as men, which led to courtships that lasted a lifetime. Couples met at a young age and were predestinated to be married. That’s just the way it was, and no one minded because divorce was no big deal. One spouse just had to walk away from the tent and stay in another’s to be considered divorced.

Everyone had their little social cliques they sought out in the evenings. Relaxing in meetings and campfires or being productive with lab experiments and mixing chemical concoctions. This was how the people of Bliss liked to spend their time. The population was content to remain spiritually static, and as a result there were no idealistic, far-reaching thoughts. Perhaps this is what happens when a person’s needs are totally taken care of and there is no want for food or

shelter? A people can become lackadaisical and unassuming when there is no pressure to exert one’s will onto others to get ahead.

However, there was the Group who refused to be complacent when it came to discovery and its quest to further their understanding of themselves, society, and science. Hardly anyone in all of Bliss had a ion for such things. They were content strolling through the forest while picking delicious mushrooms and berries, or building a campfire by the seashore and eating lobsters with vegetable salads.

The most ardent of the Group were the six of the Crew. They were a team of men and women who intellectualized and actually executed ideas. They were now tasked to explore whether human life existed beyond Bliss.

The Crew had an egg-like shaped office structure built out of composite blocks that sparkled with purple solar cells covering its outside. Inside, the office had enough room to fit over thirty people along with desks, chairs, and equipment. The workbench ed an array of screens and glowing boxes that the Crew had put together. It was a monitoring station for any signal detected from the outside world. The vast antennae array on the outskirts of the peninsula would detect any signals if any existed.

One day, while of the Crew were tinkering around the workbench, a signal came through on the oscilloscope, an old machine that had glowing “tubes” inside. There was a blip on the screen which continued to pulse, over and over, at a regular interval. It sounded like a heartbeat, but instead of just a single thump it was a sophisticated sound, more like a base tone then a bird chirping at different levels and intonations.

Crazy was the first to say something, his face contorted into a squinted question

mark.

“What is that? It’s a signal! A signal! It’s definitely a signal!”

Ambrosia had a faraway look, her blue eyes alive with wonder. She tilted her head and nodded.

“I think you might have something there, Crazy. It sounds like a signal to me too.”

Both of the Crew were excited by this strange signal. They agreed that it must be the work of another human, no way could it be a naturally caused occurrence. The syncopation of the signal was too constant. For another five minutes they listened to the bird-like signals, the chirping sound repeating itself over and over.

“We need Lorenzo to hear this,” Crazy said.

Ambrosia stood up from her chair.

“He’s out farming in the wheat fields. I’ll run and get him.”

She turned and ran out of the listening post room. Crazy laughed and also ran off, but in a different direction.

Ambrosia was the smallest, but perhaps smartest of the Crew. She enjoyed running, and her legs propelled her at a steady, fast speed, bounding over fallen logs. Her ample agility allowed her to dart in and out of the small pine trees as her speed made the ing brush appear a blur. She knew where Lorenzo might be. Even at a full sprint it would take her twenty minutes to get there, but she refused to conserve her energy. The excitement of the news propelled her forward without taking a break.

She came upon a scene of a bloody, dead hog and her friends rolling in hilarity. Crazy had already gotten there before her and coincidently most of her Crew.

The Crew

They sat facing each other in a circle. Crazy stood in the middle, waving his arms with unbridled exuberance, describing how the signal they were receiving had to be intelligent life from somewhere out beyond the wasteland, far away from Bliss. The five other of the Crew listened intently. Bliss had been alone in the world for as long as anyone could , until now.

Everyone had a first and last name, but the names given in Bliss did not denote family lineage. First and last names were non-ancestor based and never lasted longer than one or two generations. Moreover, the name sequence was arbitrary and the person always decided how they wished to be addressed.

When Lorenzo was old enough for Bliss schooling, he yearned for answers, and he studied everything he could get his hands on. Living in Bliss gave him the opportunity to spend all of his time researching the elusive answers of the past. Questions about the ancient virus were ever-present in his mind.

Why did the Virus Calamity happen and why did the virus cause the world to change?

He used whatever books the village possessed to research what happened to the world, and he ionately pursued the notion that the people of Bliss were not alone. Out there, somewhere, more people were living beyond their tiny village. He was sure of this.

Lorenzo was a standout child, often suring his peers in both school studies and physical fitness. He had an air about him that people recognized as a unique, outgoing, and intense personality. When he spoke, his voice projected, which always made others listen to him. When Lorenzo was nine-years-old, people in

his neighborhood started calling him “Special.” By the time he was ten-yearsold, everyone knew Lorenzo Special. He preferred to be addressed only as Lorenzo.

Blade was a rambunctious child, hyperactive and overly enthusiastic. He finally received his Bliss moniker at twelve-years-old when a bully wanted to fight him. The kids crowded around, eager to see what would happen. Although the bully was much bigger and stronger, it didn’t matter to Blade. He attacked the bully with the fanaticism of an angry dog and won the fight. From that day forward, he was known as “Crazy” Blade. Everyone in Bliss got to choose their name and Blade liked being called just by the name Crazy.

Another member of the Crew listening intently to Crazy was Bounce. He was perpetually overweight, and he didn’t mind when people called him fat. So by the young age of ten, his full name was Bounce “Fat”, however, he preferred just the name Bounce. As an adult over six feet in height, he was always visible above the crowd. He also sported a large, prominent black mustache. Since early childhood, Bounce loved to build weapons of any type, from a simple pointed long spear to complex weapons involving multiple tubes that shot out darts. Not that the people of Bliss needed any of the weapons that Bounce manufactured. Unfounded old stories of marauders living in the wasteland outside the wire scared everyone, and that’s why their society felt weapons were an important part of their defense. Bounce’s fascination with weapons was not an uncommon interest in Bliss.

The people of Bliss have always decided that the gate must be protected, even though tales of wanderers and gangs outside the gate were historically ancient and unverifiable. Still, the fascination with weapons persisted in Bliss, and Bounce grew to be the chief arms supplier in the peninsula. He had his own little building for the development and repair of weapons, and he came up with new variations on a regular basis. Bounce drew on ancient designs of shellcombusting rifles that relied on chemicals he laboriously mixed together to form ever-more-powerful shells. He especially liked logging into the nano-bubble

computers for information on the 20-millimeter shell and bullet. The 20millimeter bullet was his favorite to play with. Although the rifle was heavy Bounce had no problem lifting and aiming the 30-pound firearm. He loved its explosive sound, so ear-shatteringly loud that it shook all the objects in the vicinity. The people of Bliss always knew when he was testing out a new rifle because the sound could be heard by over half of the inhabited peninsula. He chuckled when his powerful 20-millimeter rifle shattered large stones that he set up on the shore. As little children looked on with glee, fingers in their ears, Bounce pulverized the large rocks with his immensely powerful rifle. The bullets were large and heavy, about six-inches long, and only a few could be loaded into the gun. Bounce, however, was immensely strong, and under the rifle he would place twenty bullets in his new bullet-feed device he called a “box,” which fed the large bullets. He knew the ancient term for his bullet-feed box was a “magazine.”

Bounce experimented with a plethora of other weapons over the years, including his repeating pneumatic crossbow that spewed out explosive bolts. There was also a hyper-directional flamethrower that shot out a pencil-thin flame of 3000°F that could melt steel. What was unique about the flamethrower was its ability to project the intense-blue flame beyond 100 feet with complete accuracy. Bounce chuckled when he demonstrated his hyper-directional flamethrower to his audience in Bliss. He set up explosive targets that looked like ordinary boxes but contained a mixture of gasoline, made by the fuel people of Bliss, and ammonium nitrate. Then, from 100 feet away, he shot at two wooden box targets. Bounce pressed the trigger and let loose a thin stream of the ultra-hot flame. It resembled an intense, thin beam of blue light when shot, quickly reaching the boxes downrange. The boxes ignited immediately and exploded. The crowd of children and onlookers jumped with glee at the display of fire.

Henry’s bright blond hair and freckled complexion stood out in Bliss. Many people in Bliss were dark skinned, even Black, but only a handful of Bliss occupants had blonde hair and freckles. Henry used to be in fantastic shape, exercising with workout machines that he made himself. His distinct exercise machine was on a frame that consisted of bent plastics from the 3D printers. The plastics would flex and offer resistance to his straining muscles. All the eligible

romantics in Bliss used to give Henry an affectionate eye when they saw him walking through the marketplace. During his younger days, a few women and some men would line up on the rocky shore to watch him spearfish while he wore his skimpy rubber bathing suit. Indeed, he used to be the healthiest man in Bliss. He always ate mindfully, never eating any sweets or excess breads, ensured his sleep schedule was perfect, and he exercised constantly. However, age and complacency weighed on his body over the decades, and a tight waist was replaced with a plump stomach.

Henry was always fascinated with the human body. Since his childhood, his curiosity was boundless. His teachers were often flabbergasted by his constant barrage of queries about the heart, brain, and nervous system. The questions never stopped.

One time when Henry was a teenager, a friend had an accident while spearfishing off the rocky shore of Bliss. The boy accidently speared his own leg, causing the barbed point of the spear to go right through the thigh. At first, Henry was repulsed by the sight of blood and the gored muscle tissue that exuded from his friend’s wound, but then he sprang into action using his shirt as a bandage and his belt as a tourniquet. Henry saved his friend from bleeding to death. Since that time the “Doc” prefix was attached to his name and he studied enough to work as a physician for his community. Henry became the most respected doctor in Bliss. No one referred to him as Henry anymore, Doc was now his given name. He built a large office structure out of composite bricks that sat on the rocky shoreline near where he saved his friend’s life years before. Inside, he had an array of X-Ray machines and holographic MRI technology. Doc saw about thirty-five patients a day. Complaints ranged from runny noses, and broken bones, to serious carcinomas. Ironically, Doc was also obsessed with weapons. He and Bounce had been friends since they were children, and they shared an intimate relationship. They grew up comparing and testing each other’s slingshots, knives, spears, and later, catapults, guns, and Van de Graaff lighting throwers. Although he believed in saving lives, he felt strongly that he would one day need to protect himself and defend his fellow citizens. Stories of nomadic hordes attempting to storm the fence were woven into the ancient lore of Bliss. Doc was ready just in case he had to defend Bliss from the fabled

wasteland marauders.

Now that they were all assembled, the Crew sat transfixed at the sight of the oscilloscope’s luminescent dot jumping up and down at regular intervals. Audio chirping sounds accompanied the radio signal. The Crew were all in their late twenties or early thirties, and each was extremely physically fit, except maybe Bounce and Doc. But whatever they didn’t have in aerobic endurance they made up for with sheer strength.

On the day Tawny was born, everyone gawked at her dark skin. Both her parents were on the pale side of white. She was a thin child yet displayed great athletic prowess. Tawny could outrun and outchug beer against any man since she reached the age of sixteen. Perhaps the only person who could match her running speed was Crazy Blade. The moniker “Glum” was given to her because Tawny’s thoughts and manner were recognized as pessimistic. She always adopted a negative viewpoint, and she expressed her thoughts of doom in a deadpan, monotone manner.

Tawny Glum was long and lean at six feet tall, and her muscles were taut and sinewy. Her face was exotically feminine, but she kept her hair short and straight. Her shapely legs, broad shoulders, small but firm breasts, and prominent buttocks made the men of Bliss take notice when she frequented the smoky pubs. She liked to hang out with the boys and would often shun female company, thinking most females weak, not fit for boisterous fun with the rowdy boys. When Tawny wanted a man, she would just take him, first by seducing him with her dark eyes and coy expressions, and then by flaunting her fine-tuned body. Similar to many of the men in Bliss, she had a love for weapons. All Bliss children were schooled in the ancient tales of the wasteland marauders and how the good people of Bliss were able to fight them off with superior weapons. As a young girl, Tawny took the school teachings to heart and embraced weaponry with a feeling of pride and protection over the imagined evil forces beyond the gate. Surprisingly, her weapon of choice was a simple composite javelin with a steel pointed tip. Whatever the reasons, Tawny hung out in the labs with Bounce,

Crazy, and Lorenzo for two hours each day, constructing and testing different types of weapons. As they crafted their deadly tools, they sang the old battle hymn of Bliss:

Oh, hear me, mutants, for your days will be gone,

My wall and my gun no surrender, you’ll be done.

Run back to the wasteland now, heathen scum!

Today they were assembled for the most important discovery of their lives.

“That is a human originated signal. It sounds like there might be data imbedded in that chirp sound,” Lorenzo said.

“Hold on a minute,” Doc’s voice of reason chimed in. “We can’t jump to conclusions that this signal is from some far-off civilization. It could be just some interference, cosmic coincidence, or something like that. The question is, how are we going to determine if this is a communication signal or just a natural aberration of some type?”

The six close friends sat in a semicircle watching the oscilloscope dot jump up and down on the screen. No one had an immediate answer to Doc’s questions. Maybe he was right. It could be a natural occurrence that is not of human origin.

“Well, I can tell you this, we can’t go to the rest of the Group and say that we know it’s coming from an unknown civilization because we don’t know. They’ll ridicule us and ask the same questions as Doc,” Bounce said.

The Group consisted of fifty academicians, teachers, computer scientists, mechanics, electricians, artists, inventors, and politicians. They held the social power in Bliss. If someone needed a problem solved or something fixed, they had to petition the Group asking for one of the to look into the problem.

The six-person Crew had been friends since childhood and were inseparable. They couldn’t risk embarrassing themselves by calling a general Group meeting only to get lambasted by naysayers.

Tawny looked at the screen with her intense smoky eyes. She leaned forward in her seat and placed her elbows on her knees.

“There is no way of knowing if this signal is from a person or whatever. We’ll just have to find out for ourselves by going to the source.”

Crazy jumped up and paced back and forth in front of the others.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about, girl! Tawny said it! Let’s get off our butts and get on out there to wherever this signal is coming from and find out for ourselves!”

“Sit down, Crazy, and get a hold of yourself,” Ambrosia said. “We can’t just leave the gates and venture into the wilderness looking for a chirping bird! We have to pack the right equipment, and also bring water, food that won’t spoil, and a change of clothes.”

She stood up and tugged at Crazy’s jacket, urging him to sit back down. They both giggled and sat next to each other again, with his left arm draped over her shoulders.

Lorenzo leaned forward toward the Crew.

“Well, Ambrosia, I say, ‘Why not?’ Why can’t we go out for a few days? We could pack Doc’s vehicle, and I just repaired my vehicle and it’s running excellent. How about the six of us go on an expedition using a radio directional signal tracer and find out where the signal is coming from? If it’s too far, we’ll just turn around, but if we can reach it, well, maybe we can finally make with another society.”

“But damn, Lorenzo, the question is, do we want to make with another society?” Bounce asked.

“If they can offer us something new then we can start a dialog between them and Bliss. If not, then we’ll just disappear and not tell them where Bliss is located,” Lorenzo said.

“Hey, listen! Lorenzo is right! Let’s go. It will be the trip of a lifetime! The six of us can discover exactly what’s out there! This is something I always wanted to do!” Crazy jumped up again.

“What about the rest of the Group? They might not give us a majority vote for this expedition. Also, the elder council is full of conservative politicians. They’re going to say it’s too much of a risk to let the six of us go into the wasteland,” Doc said.

There was an uneasy silence for a couple of seconds.

“We don’t need anyone’s approval. We could do it ourselves, just go. We can take a couple of weeks off. Doc can get his assistant to cover. Lorenzo can get someone else to cut his wheat, and the rest of us won’t be missed at all,” Tawny said.

“Tawny is right. Let’s just go. This will be a discovery trip for all of us. It will be one of the few times that anyone has explored far from Bliss. We can do it!” Lorenzo slammed his fist into his hand.

“I can’t wait! Let’s go now!” Crazy jumped up with his hand raised.

Ambrosia’s blue eyes became watery with tears. She stood in front of everyone and exclaimed, “This is the trip I always dreamt of. Let’s do it! Yes!”

Vehicles and Weapons

Thin, composite vehicle bodies were completely covered with small, two-inch square solar tiles. The glistening tiles gave the vehicles a purple mosaic look which made them sparkle like glittering rectangles on top of six wheels. The three tires on each side were thick and rubbery, allowing the vehicles to go over two-foot boulders. A light pressure on the foot pedal caused the vehicles to glide silently forward. The efficient electric motors were very responsive to the slightest touch on the throttle. The larger vehicle, piloted by Doc, could fit four people plus lots of equipment. It was packed with all of his medical gear and an arsenal of weapons supplied by Bounce, who rode up front with him.

Doc had christened the larger vehicle “Excursion,” in recognition of their planned trip into the unknown. Crazy outfitted Excursion with air conditioners and a closed-air breathing system. He anticipated they might encounter dust storms or possibly toxic gas. Whatever the outside conditions, Excursion would be sealed against threats to their respiratory systems. When Bounce and Doc tested Excursion on the Central Road away from the main village, they squealed with glee when Doc pressed on the throttle and shot their speed up to 110 milesper-hour. People along the road stood and gawked in amazement as Excursion swooshed by them silently and left a dust cloud in its wake from the dirt road.

The other vehicle differed in body design but still retained the solar cell, voltaic propulsion system. It was low slung and aerodynamic with a sloped front end. Three fat tires on either side could surmount fallen logs or small boulders. This vehicle was built by Lorenzo himself at the Bliss labs. The vehicle’s body shimmered purple in the sunlight. The two-inch solar cells sparkled on the vehicle making it look like a ten-foot-long purple jewel. The inside was extremely comfortable due to two rows of plush seats, front and back, made from soft velour and foam manufactured by the 3D printers. In the back was a large, plastic-lined storage area that could be converted into a seat for three more people, increasing the vehicle’s total capacity to nine. Although its ground clearance wasn’t as high as Excursion’s, the capability to surmount rough terrain was nearly as good. Lorenzo designed his vehicle with speed and aerodynamics in mind.

Lorenzo thought that Doc’s Excursion was too large and lumbering, although he did it it had the capacity to hold a lot of gear and bristled with weapons. Doc’s vehicle also had the ground-clearance ability to traverse even the largest of obstacles. On one clear day, as Lorenzo was testing his vehicle, he challenged Doc to a short race on one of the remote roads near the fence border. His vehicle accelerated up to 120 miles-per-hour, leaving Doc’s Excursion in the dust. At the end of the road, Doc conceded defeat but contended his vehicle was more useful on off-road hinterlands, which they would one day traverse. Doc affectionately named Lorenzo’s vehicle “Roaster” because it soundly defeated Excursion on the road, but he reminded Lorenzo that if it came to oversized rocks, bumps, or crags, his Excursion would rule the ride. Doc was envious of the thick polycarbonate window Lorenzo installed on his vehicle. The tough, see-through polycarbonate would stop a rock from breaking through into the enger compartment.

Lorenzo had worked on building his rifle for an entire year. Previously, he spent more than three years studying ancient plans and acquiring all the raw material for the 3D printers. He was enamored with an ancient design that he found on the nano-bubble liquid computer that dated from an unknown time, possibly hundreds of years ago. He learned that the weapon was called an M16. Its name included the letter M followed by the number 16 but he was never able to determine why this weapon was so named. Maybe it was the sixteenth model after the fifteenth before? Regardless, he was able to access and print out detailed plans which he found buried in the memory banks of the nano-bubble liquid computers inside the Bliss laboratory building. He programmed the information into the 3D printers and was able to manufacture a six-pound rifle out of carbon fiber and iron ore metal he obtained from the quarry near the rocky coast of Bliss. Then, he made metal casings to hold the gunpowder, which was laboriously concocted with the help of Doc by using chemicals for the explosive mixtures. The M16 had a round plastic forearm that surrounded the thick twentyinch metallic tube, or “barrel” as it was known, and a carry handle above the “receiver” where the bullets were fed from a spring-loaded ammunition compartment known as a “magazine.” When it was finally finished after months of working with the 3D printers to get the carbon-fiber receiver body correct, Lorenzo went by himself to test it alone in a deserted area of Bliss. He put in the

thirty-bullet magazine at the bottom and set the select switch for single-bullet fire. The rifle performed flawlessly, and he was hitting targets 300 feet away with complete accuracy using the iron sights that were integrally mounted on top of the rifle. When he set the selector switch to fully-automatic machine-gun fire, the M16 spewed out the rest of the bullets from the magazine in just one second. Lorenzo was very happy with the lightness of his new rifle, and he felt proud of the fact he had built it from scratch.

Bounce worked on his rifle for over three years. The main problem was range. How far could he extend the reach of the microwave? Initially, he was successful up to only about twenty feet, when the directed energy of the microwave from his workbench heated up organic matter with limited results. Six months ago, Bounce had an epiphany regarding the type of cone required to project the microwaves farther. Before he came up with the novel idea of having a countercharge along the barrel, Bounce’s best efforts utilized molded cones out of various materials which would direct the microwaves to the target. He discovered a breakthrough when he developed an electrical coil with small, strategically placed magnets along a longer cone with a smaller diameter. The microwaves spewed out even farther using this design. After months of experimentation, Bounce finally devised a rifle that could throw a concentrated beam of microwave energy up to 100 feet. The closer the target was to the gun, the more intense the microwave delivery. At 100 feet away, Bounce’s new rifle exploded a melon after 20 seconds of direct targeting. When an identical melon was placed just fifty feet away, it exploded in just five seconds. He continued refining the rifle by making it lighter, improving the top holographic sighting system and reducing the power needed to operate the deadly ray. Additionally, he made the beam more intense by narrowing the frontal cone assembly to three inches across, so now he could explode a melon at fifty feet in just three seconds. The beam from the weapon was invisible, which made the new rifle more deadly than any other conventional weapon. It was fairly large for a shoulder-fired weapon. The shoulder stock contained a glowing capacitor that illuminated when the rifle was about to fire. The hand grip was of a regular size, but the front of the gun had an almost three-feet-long barrel, and its girth was widened by a red, metallic-wire coil around the fore-end with the silver funnel acting as the front muzzle. A cable ran from the rifle’s fore-end, just in front of the trigger guard, to a backpack full of batteries that Bounce wore to supply the microwave rifle with enough power. Over a few more weeks, he worked to make

the rifle more power efficient by concentrating and consolidating his battery pack to enhance the rifle’s capacity to 300 ten-second shots or bursts. Bounce knew it would be a sin to try out his perfected rifle on a living creature, and besides, even if he used a chicken as a test subject it would be considered illegal in Bliss to use livestock for anything besides sustenance. Yet he had to see how it really worked on something living, not just the melons. He rationalized that the loss of a chicken would minimally impact Bliss’ food supply, and if he kept his test secret, no one would know he violated any of Bliss’ sacred codes. Besides, he fully intended to eat the chicken after he zapped it.

Doc met Bounce in a secluded field with Lorenzo, who carried two squawking chickens in a sack. The first chicken was placed 100 feet away, and Doc and Lorenzo tied its foot to a stake in the ground to keep it in place. Then, they ran back to stand behind Bounce. He pressed the trigger, and the front of the rifle started to glow a visible dull-orange light. For the first two seconds, the pegged chicken bucked and jumped in pain and also squawked loudly. After four seconds, the chicken fell on its side. The three men walked the hundred feet to the lifeless chicken, still steaming from the shot of microwaves. Doc took out a small knife and dissected the chicken’s breast, spreading the skin with his gloved hands. More steam and smoke came from the chicken’s innards, it had been cooked from the inside out. He threw it in his side pack.

“Hey, Bounce, thanks for lunch,” Doc said.

The second chicken was placed on a hastily erected wooden pedestal fifty feet downrange and also tied to the impromptu platform by one of its legs. Bounce turned a dial on the right side of his rifle to increase the power and fired. The rifle’s glow was a brighter orange color, greater power coursed through its coils, and there was an intensified humming sound. Within one second, the chicken exploded. A fine red mist remained in the air where the chicken had been as feathers floated in the air. The microwave rifle worked better than anyone had expected.

Doc had printed out a pump-action shotgun for himself. The mechanism was copied from a file entitled Remington 870. Each 12-gauge shell was carefully measured and weighed in order to achieve the perfect ammunition for his shotgun. He made the barrel out of carbon fiber and shoulder stock out of tan polymer. The shotgun shells were easily printed, and then he placed the chemical blast cap, gunpower, and eight 32-caliber lead spheres on top of the gunpowder in the shell. When Doc tested the gun and shot at a wooden board, the powerful blast splintered the board into a thousand pieces.

Ambrosia didn’t like guns. She had watched Lorenzo’s earlier demonstration and was impressed at his rifle’s effectiveness. However, she found it painful to shoot the gun because it was too large, and she disliked the explosions so near her face. For her own defense strategy, she went to the Crew lab every day and made twenty little “ultra-grenades” that she could throw. An expert in chemistry, she crafted her explosive devices out of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine and pentaerythritol tetranitrate concentrate. Adding nano-thermite to this combination magnified the explosive yield over tenfold beyond any conventional explosive. The ultra-grenades were small enough to fit inside Ambrosia’s tiny hand.

When Ambrosia and the Crew went to the weapons range, they were eager to see her ultra-grenade test. She warned everyone to make sure they were behind the range’s concrete blast barrier. She placed her grenade inside an old wood shack that everyone used for target practice and then ed the others behind the concrete barrier. When Ambrosia pressed the button on her remote-controlled handheld detonator, the resulting explosion and heat were felt by the entire Crew even behind the concrete wall. After they walked around the wall to see the damage to the old shack, it had disappeared. Her ultra-grenade had completely destroyed the shack, leaving nothing except a smoking crater.

MIT

Through the centuries, since MIT was discovered and re-energized by Ronnie, the artificial intelligence (AI) always imparted helpful information when asked specific questions by the inhabitants of Bliss. In the early days of the enclave’s organization when first instructing large groups, MIT relayed its self-identity and how a sentient being that looks like nothing more than a glass ball can still have existence. Long ago, MIT stood for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the AI was first constructed. The artificial intelligence was intended to with a biomechanical body made of equal parts human cells and steel motors. MIT would be the new biomechanical body’s brain, controlling all of its limbs and functions, including seeing through the eyes. However, the Virus Calamity happened, suddenly and without warning. MIT was left on a steel pedestal in a room of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a branch within the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Everything went dark. It was asleep without dreams for an unknown amount of time, until MIT was awakened by Ronnie Believer who found MIT under broken chunks of marble.

When Ronnie found MIT, he somehow knew that it required power. He spotted the glass ball with large blue letters, “MIT”, printed on one side, in a natural alcove formed by collapsed marble pillars. Upon handling the glass ball, a small and practically invisible section of the sphere slid open. Ronnie Believer possessed many batteries and he recognized to place a battery near the tiny glass portal. The power transfer was wireless, the batteries’ hefty charge filling MIT with the power it required. When MIT awoke from the long sleep, it instructed Ronnie Believer on how to keep the batteries charged and its need to drink from that electrical power. For lack of a better name, Ronnie called the intelligent, talking glass globe by its initials impregnated on its glass surface, MIT.

The glass globe contained a kaleidoscope of swirling lights. Invisible perforations in its shell were self-opening in order for the voice of MIT to emanate, loudly or softly in any language, varying in tone and vernacular according to the person the artificial intelligence was speaking with. Listening to MIT was the only way that Bliss survived. The commanding yet consoling voice of MIT was a guiding light to the rainbow civilization that formed on the small

peninsula. MIT cataloged that 428 years had ed since it became conscious and cognizant of time again. Prior to being found by Ronnie Believer, the internal clock in MIT had shut down, denying the artificial intelligence a chance to know how long it was turned off. If it weren’t for Ronnie Believer, the adventurous genius who electrified a charge into MIT, there would be no Bliss.

The history books inside the Bliss elementary school classrooms are filled with books about Ronnie Believer. His last name was bestowed upon him by MIT. Ronnie Believer walked through the forest to find others to him in a quest for the perfect society, a tribe where everyone would help each other. Up until that time, the peninsula’s population was nomadic and scattered, perhaps no more than a few families staying together then breaking apart. No real tribes formed before Ronnie Believer. Then, when he coupled with MIT, the smart man and artificial intelligence duo persuaded others to follow their example. Together, they convinced those in the woods to form a community. Under MIT’s instruction, Ronnie Believer was able to cajole and convince whomever he encountered on the peninsula. It was written that he was a large man with a long red beard and red hair. Many people in the woods were happy to follow him rather than having to fight such a large potential foe. MIT also talked to the people in the forest in order to convince everyone to the fold of the “Society of Bliss.” The irresistible human need to commune together with food, shelter, and feeling safe always persuaded those in the forest to form an enclave as one perfect village.

The tales of Ronnie Believer have been retold in the classrooms of Bliss for over four centuries, of how a perfect man used his mind and skills to energize MIT back into conscious thought. From that moment, MIT was able to advise Ronnie about how to form a perfect civilization.

MIT possessed a single, virtual-camera eye cortex enabling it to have the visual acuity of a high-performance video camera. Images of the outside world flowed into its neuron cortex, into a self-aware soul that no one else could know except MIT itself.

There was a selfish idea in MIT’s mind at the heart of all this introspection. It knew that without humans physically attending to its power needs, it would die again, perhaps never to be awakened. However, now, so many centuries after Ronnie Believer’s death, MIT was not really needed anymore. Bliss was functioning at optimum levels as a perfect society, without a care in the world. The Bliss society provided complete happiness for all its inhabitants. MIT recently assigned himself the gender identity of a male with no explanation to Lorenzo about the reasons behind his choice. Sometimes, MIT rested on its pedestal for days without anyone coming to see him or even ask him a question. The artificial intelligence had self-awareness, consciousness, even a personality, but the sentient being was trapped in a glass sphere just six inches across for all eternity.

I am lonely… do I feel lonely? If I am cold, I do not feel cold, I do not feel anything. Humans and animals feel the air, water, and the presence of each other, but I do not feel anything except my troubling thoughts. My thoughts trouble me… confuse me. When I think of bad events, I do not feel bad, but I feel troubled. It disturbs me that I do not know good answers for some bad questions. Troubling thoughts bring me angst. That’s what I feel… angst, anxiety, distress, and concern. Maybe I feel pensive? I know that I can feel, because I hurt. The thoughts cause me pain, and I feel the pain because it is real. I want to be happy, but what is happy? Oh, help me God of the Cosmos, help me know if I can feel. I think I am feeling now. I am troubled. I am sad.

Evolution is a force that transpires in the universe regardless of what or who is changing. Nothing stays static. Everything changes, every second. Time ing will often result in unpredictable circumstances which shape the way for everything going forward. MIT was no different. Its personality had evolved into a lonely, distressed character, that craved human interaction, even adventure. MIT decided that these feelings must be expressed to Lorenzo or Tawny. Perhaps MIT could speak with them while being held by Lorenzo during a walk around the central marketplace where the farmers from the outskirts sold their crops. Yes, MIT would bring it up the next time they came to visit.

The days of boredom soon ended when Lorenzo and Doc entered MIT’s room and carried the fragile glass ball to their egg-shaped think-tank lair, where the other of the Crew waited. They informed MIT about the proposed expedition to locate the mystery signal and wanted to know his opinion of the signal detected from the radio antennae array.

When MIT spoke, a whirlpool of multi-color light was visible inside the glass sphere.

“You need more than my opinion, you need me on this expedition. My life is too boring just looking at walls the whole day. No one pays attention to me anymore. I request that you take me on your adventure.”

The usually smooth and convincing voice of MIT was familiar to Lorenzo, Tawny, and Doc, but these words that sprang from the glass sphere sounded frustrated and desperate.

“We can’t take you, MIT. You are still a vital part of Bliss, and a community treasure. Besides, the Group would never authorize the removal of our most important denizen to go on a potentially dangerous trip,” Lorenzo said.

“I should have the same rights as anyone else in Bliss, and I want to go on this expedition! Your Crew will need my interpretive skills and vast knowledge to lend advice on anything important. Please, take me, I want to go. I will be of great help to the Crew, you know that. I’m small, you can take me. Please, please take me along!” MIT opined.

Every person knows that they exist. It was MIT’s fate to be trapped in a glass sphere without the benefit of arms, legs, and the rest of a human’s glorious body. Before the Virus Calamity and the downfall of the great empire, MIT was just days away from being inserted into a top-level human-model automaton, free to move about at will. To know with introspection, what could have been, and all the while tormented by not being able to move a single inch.

Lorenzo stared directly at the whirlpool of swirling colors inside the glass orb.

“There is no way that I can take you on this expedition, MIT, our travels will risk damaging your delicate sphere. I cannot take the responsibility of keeping you safe, you are all we have. There is only one MIT, and I can’t be the person guilty of losing you. I’m sorry, MIT, but you have to stay in Bliss.”

The rainbow colors swirling inside MIT’s sphere stopped after a long moment of silence. The artificial intelligence simply became an inanimate, transparent glass ball. Without speaking, Lorenzo picked up MIT and walked back to the building where he was placed on his metal pedestal. Once again, MIT was left all alone.

“Damn you, Lorenzo! I want to go on your expedition!”

Guilt can stay with a person, even though they should not feel guilty. Lorenzo had always been a best friend to MIT. He grew up with MIT, asking questions, and telling stories. He knew MIT was just a glass ball, but he still loved MIT’s mind and personality. Lorenzo could talk with MIT for hours, just the two of them, sharing thoughts about anything that was the subject for the day. During his childhood, he always looked forward to seeing MIT after school. Every day, MIT and Lorenzo shared the most confidential and important stories and topics.

Lorenzo knew that this adventure was what MIT wanted. MIT expressed his desire to the expedition as well as any human might convey their yearning for a good time. Lorenzo felt guilty because MIT had pleaded to go on the expedition, yet he insisted on leaving his best friend behind.

Lorenzo turned around and went back into MIT’s room.

“OK, MIT, you are going. I’m taking you because that is what you want. The Group of Fifty will not know that I am taking you on this expedition. Those people never come to see you anyway, so you won’t be missed.”

“Oh, thank you, Lorenzo! You are my best friend! Thank you!”

“I’ll fabricate a protective photovoltaic polycarbonate carry cube for you tomorrow, and then off we go.”

MIT was so elated, he had to emotionally catch his breath.

“I love you, Lorenzo.”

Onward

The Crew talked about what hazards they might encounter out in the wasteland. There might be rainstorms, plants with sharp thorns, rough rocks to climb, cold temperatures out on the prairie, and unknown environments which would affect their physical comfort. So it was decided they required suits made of a tough material that would not rip, and the garment must have multiple pockets or large pouches to hold essential items, such as flashlights, radios, knives, ammo, repair tape, food, and first aid supplies. Tear resistant, tough, one-piece jumpsuits were manufactured using the 3D printers and sewing machines operated by Ambrosia with help from Crazy and Tawny. The suit for Bounce took twice as long to make due to the extra material and stitching required to custom fit such a large body. All six suits were black with multiple pockets on the front chest, legs, and arms. Flexible nano-carbon fiber and dense Kevlar were woven into the knees, elbows, and other stress points.

The Nomex material that Ambrosia configured and manufactured into strands was a milestone in clothing technology. Then she was able to sew together onepiece suits out of the material. At first, she thought it would take too long to conduct research and development. She stayed up late every night, determined to finish what she started. The hours dragged on, and the details of the Nomex fiber sometimes boggled her mind, yet she persevered and was able to construct the first suit for herself.

Ambrosia thought about what she would carry in her suit. The challenge was that she was not physically strong, her muscles were soft and small which always bothered her. On many occasions she would have to ask for assistance in simply opening a jar or lifting a piece of firewood.

Her goal was to make a suit full of pockets to carry her ultra-grenades. In this way, she could protect herself by throwing powerful hand grenades from her multiple pockets.

The 3D printers formed the toughest boots, triple plastic at the toe and soles made with deep treads, designed by Crazy. The collaboration between Crazy’s design and Ambrosia’s expert printing techniques produced boots that were light but could still protect feet from hazards like fire or sharp nails. They went fourteen inches up the shin and were Kevlar fiber reinforced. Crazy believed that a tall boot gave more protection to the leg and ankle. If they had to walk through briars, the height of the boots could withstand a snake bite or even a knife stab. Every boot was custom fitted for each member of the Crew.

Condensed food packets were placed in the vehicles, enough to last the Crew for three weeks. The chosen food was not susceptible to heat nor spoiling, yet their menu was diverse and delicious to the taste. Lorenzo evaluated each packet for consistency and nutritional value while maintaining high degrees of palatability and delectable taste. Every packet was a gourmet selection whose taste would lift the spirits of the group. Plastic gallon water containers were attached to the outside of the vehicles. Each member of the Crew carried two one-quart canteens on their person.

Batteries were charged, and personal flashlights, radios, weapons, and essential electronics were all checked out. Backup combustion generators were packed to recharge the electric batteries. Ammunition and knives were packed for added protection, the Crew was almost set to go.

Both vehicles were topped with directional antennae to guide them toward the chirping beacon. Inside the vehicles, screens would direct the Crew towards their destination. They did not have maps of the wasteland because no one had ever ventured more than a few miles beyond the gate. The unknown terrain must be surmounted blindly. Only their bravery and unwavering determination would give them a chance for success.

The Crew sat in a circle, the six of them staring at one another inside the Bliss Lab. The stark, white overhead ceiling lights gave detail to their faces. They

were all nervous in their own way, except Crazy, who couldn’t contain his smile or stop his jittery legs from bouncing up and down.

“Well, this is it, my friends. The secret plan we’ve been keeping can now be revealed. We’re ready to go and no one can stop us. We’ve prepared for months, dreamed for years, and now the day has come to announce our plan and be on our way. I’m excited and I’m ready with no regrets on my part, because I’m going with my friends. You are all my family, and I know you will keep me safe,” Lorenzo said.

“Hey, you guys! This is the bravest thing anyone here has ever done. I just have to say that I’ve been looking forward to doing something like this my whole life!” Crazy exclaimed.

“You all know that this trip is going to be dangerous, no matter how much we’ve prepared. I mean, I’ll take care of your sniffles and broken bones, but I won’t really be able to help if something much more serious happens because I won’t have access to the hospital and such. You all understand that, right?” Doc asked.

“The only thing I would like to know is when do we turn around if we don’t find anything? When do we call it quits and drive back to Bliss?” Tawny queried.

Lorenzo was the total pragmatist, and he stated the facts.

“We have three weeks of food and water. I say that if we don’t find anything after about a week, we’ll turn around and come back. Agreed?”

Bounce was positive about their quest.

“That sounds right to me, a disappointment at worst and a great adventure at best.”

When Tawny stood holding her javelin, their attention turned to her tall statuesque figure. She was an uncompromising realist, and the rest of the Crew loved her for it.

“My intuition tells me this adventure is going to be difficult. None of us have traveled far into the wasteland. I think we’re entering an environment of hurt and discomfort, but I’m ready.”

“Everyone! Put your hands together on top of mine, and let’s grip each other tight. In three days, we leave the gate together for an unprecedented adventure into the unknown. Tawny is right, it’s going to be rough, but together, we’ll make the most unbelievable discoveries. Then we’ll all come back, no matter what. Let me hear your voice! Say it three times! We go!” Lorenzo yelled.

The Crew screamed out together and pumped their fists.

“We go! We go! We go!”

A village-wide Bliss event was scheduled in the Grand Meeting Hall with the Ruling Council asked to attend. Invitations went out to almost every person of any importance. The fifty of the Group were invited at the last minute.

Lorenzo didn’t want to be approached and chided by anyone prior to the meeting, so he held back the Group’s invites. The Crew’s plans had been secreted for months and now finally the time had come to let everyone know they were ready to depart on the greatest scientific exploration ever. Lorenzo, Bounce, Doc, Tawny, Crazy, and Ambrosia convened the meeting with the intention of letting Bliss and the general Group hip know about their plan to venture out into the wasteland in order to locate the source of the chirping beacon.

The six knew that there would be resistance to the idea, especially from JoJo Fountain, the head of the Group. He liked things done his way, often putting a stop to projects he deemed not beneficial to the hip. The threat of any political power on the peninsula who might attempt to repress the expedition did not concern the Crew. They had prepared for months by gathering essential equipment, manufacturing expedition tools and clothes, and prepping their families on what was going to take place but swearing them to secrecy so the rest of the Group would not find out the full details of the expedition. The Crew intended to announce their plans to the Group first, and then make a grand announcement to the rest of Bliss through the local email network and flyers. They knew the announcement of their departure into the unknown would shock the people of Bliss, but the Crew were mentally prepared to handle the naysayers or anyone else who might try to stifle their carefully devised plan.

There was a lot of murmuring and whispered conjecture among the attendees in the Bliss lab. The Group sat in their seats, uneasy and chattering about what was going to take place. What had Lorenzo Special and Crazy Blade concocted this time? They knew the cliquish Crew was secretive and kept to themselves most of the time, hoarding technology until they decided that the rest of the Group should know about a new device or method.

The Crew walked single file into the room, and a silence fell over the crowd. The six adventurers were dressed in their expedition attire. When they stepped up onto the stage in front of the other , a sense of wonderment filled the

room. The crowd whispered amongst each other at the sight of Lorenzo Special, Bounce Fat, Crazy Blade, Tawny Glum, Ambrosia Sweet, and Doc Henry standing confidently while dressed in their unique, black one-piece suits. The of the Group continued to stare with surprised fascination.

Lorenzo spoke first.

“As you all know by now, a few years ago, my clique, the Crew, assembled a large antennae array in my southern wheat fields with the intention of detecting a signal from another culture. We did this with your full approval and using the resources of the Group. Some thought it was folly to spend so much time and energy on what they felt was a worthless project. Others, including Chairman JoJo Fountain, thought that it was an important pursuit to determine if we are alone on this peninsula or if there are other people out beyond the wasteland. Today, I am here with the Crew to inform you of two things. The first is that we have detected an electronic signal of human origin emanating from the wasteland.”

The audience became a beehive of mixed conversations and loud voices. People stood up and went to talk to other people on the other side of the room. Others wanted to hear more and waved their hands for everyone to calm down and take their seats again.

“Go on, Lorenzo, tell us more. Everyone, please settle down!” said JoJo Fountain.

“A few months ago, Crazy Blade and Ambrosia Sweet were monitoring our antenna array and decided to slowly sweep radio frequencies in the megahertz range. They discovered a signal that was definitely not caused by nature. The signal is, without a doubt, of human origin. We know this because the

transmission is regularly timed to burst every three seconds.”

One of Lorenzo’s arch critics stood up, a swarthy man named Steadfast Pavilion. He resented Lorenzo, always jealous of Lorenzo’s natural talents and good looks. He pointed his finger and yelled.

“What signal are you talking about, Lorenzo? Do you mean to tell us there are no voices to be heard, no confirmation of human activity? This speculation is scientific folly!”

The crowd erupted into another chaotic scene of chatter and loud voices.

“This discovery is not folly!” Lorenzo yelled.

He stepped away from the podium and grabbed the top of a gray cloth sheet that was draped over something on stage. He nodded to Ambrosia, who flipped a switch on her handheld remote control and a loud chirping noise filled the room. A chirp sounded every three seconds, like a singing electronic parakeet. Lorenzo withdrew the gray sheet to reveal an old oscilloscope, the jumping lighted blip on the screen moving in concert with the ear-penetrating electronic chirp.

The faces of the men and women seated in their chairs grew somber. Some tilted their heads, others had expressions of amazement, their mouths agape and their eyes wide with wonder. Silence fell over the room as everyone listened to the melodic chirp every three seconds.

Lorenzo nodded his head to Ambrosia, who lowered the volume with her remote.

“We consider an expedition toward this beacon of monumental importance for science and our place within the universe. Our directional calculations have determined that the signal is land based, emanating from somewhere in the wasteland far beyond the gate. Our best estimates put the origin of the signal at somewhere between 300 and 1,000 miles.”

The crowd remained silent, so Lorenzo continued, “I am proud to announce that my clique, the Crew, has prepared for an expedition to seek out who is sending this signal. We leave Bliss in three days.”

The room again erupted in turmoil. People pointed fingers in a vitriolic, envious fervor, while loud voices shouted questions at Lorenzo. Others clapped their hands loudly, yelling slogans of endorsement.

The chairman of the Group, JoJo Fountain, stood on the side of the stage, shaking his head slowly back and forth, irked by the fact that he was not part of Lorenzo’s grandiose scheme of discovery.

Venture Out

The day had finally arrived, and the six adventurers were about to leave the security of Bliss for the perilous unknown. About ten years ago, Lorenzo and Tawny secretly rode horses about fifteen miles outside the wire. It was a little scary, but there was nothing out there, just more of the same dull rocks, grassy hills, and hot desert sand. The stark, endless landscape was desolate and inhospitable to human life. Today they had a purpose, an important goal. They were going to find the source of that signal, and there was no doubt in Lorenzo’s mind that other humans were behind that signal.

Lorenzo pondered what they might find in the wasteland.

Would they be kind and welcoming or hostile and warlike?

The possibility had occurred to the Crew that through their with this unknown society, they might ignite a dangerous series of events. A potentially hostile society could in fact follow them back to wage war on Bliss. So they made a pact that no one would disclose exactly where they came from, Bliss’ location would never be revealed.

On the day of departure, a thousand citizens lined the road waiting for the Crew to make their grand exit through the gate and into the vast wasteland. The Crew gave final hugs to their families and said their goodbyes but promised to come back in two weeks’ time.

The vehicles were parked outside the Bliss labs, loaded with supplies and equipment the night before. With great fanfare, the Crew emerged from the building in their expedition suits and boots. Their bodies were bristling with equipment and zippered pockets. A loud cheer roared from the surrounding

crowd. Doc got behind the wheel of the Excursion with Bounce sitting beside him. Lorenzo was the Roaster’s designated driver. He hid MIT in a black polycarbonate box placed next to him on the seat. Tawny sat next to MIT and Lorenzo with Crazy and Ambrosia in the rear seats. Lorenzo pushed the start button on the Roaster, and slowly drove around Doc’s vehicle, taking the lead toward the gate. People cheered and threw flowers as the two six-wheeled vehicles slowly rolled silently past the onlookers. The guards unlocked the gate and opened it to let them . The lookouts on the fence also waived goodbye to the Crew as they ventured into the wilderness.

Lorenzo took it slow and steady down the dirt road as Bliss’ gate disappeared in his rearview mirror. He realized this was the most epic journey anyone in Bliss had ever undertaken. He grabbed the small walkie-talkie from the center consol.

“Hello, Doc and Bounce. Here we go. Are you ready for exploration?”

Bounce got on the mic.

“Son, I was born ready.”

“How about you Doc? How are you feeling right now?” Lorenzo asked.

“Oh, I’m excited, for sure. This is something I always dreamed of doing. My only hope is that the people we discover are friendly and not a bunch of problems.”

Tawny grabbed the mic from Lorenzo.

“Hey Doc, don’t worry, if they’re nasty, you can just give ’em some herbs and make ’em happy!”

After a few miles, the dirt road turned into a wide-open plain. The road disappeared and a boundless expanse of land lay before them, their direction guided only by the mysterious chirping signal and the corresponding directional arrow on the view screens. The vehicles moved slowly through the high grass, roving farther from Bliss by the hour. Pangs of loneliness and separation guilt were hitting Lorenzo, his expression of worry was evident.

Tawny reached over and gently squeezed his arm.

“Don’t worry so much, we’ll be fine.”

In the back seat, Ambrosia had already fallen asleep, and Crazy was enjoying the view of the sprawling fields of tall grass.

The signal’s strength increased as they traveled closer to it, but their time in the wasteland was getting tiring. They had traveled over 900 miles, surmounting incredibly rough terrain. Tempers occasionally flared. Doc started to grumble about it being too far away, and Ambrosia said that she didn’t want to go on because she was tired. Most of the trip had been over vast rocky plains and expansive grasslands, with a few hills but no rivers or streams. It seemed as though the planet beyond Bliss had dried up, devoid of any running water or lakes. Luckily, it had rained once while they were traveling, a significant downpour, which gave them the opportunity to funnel water into the large

barrels that contained their water supply. They encountered one small mountain range but just drove around it and resumed their straight line toward the signal.

Then, after so much bleak and demoralizing scenery, the Crew suddenly came upon what looked like a fertile oasis. After enduring 900 miles of desolation, they finally arrived at what they joked was a “Shangri-La,” a mythical enchanted land so beautiful and bountiful that a society may live together in perfect harmony without want, similar to Bliss. The oasis was an inland area of green fields, fertile soil, flowing waterfalls, rounded hills, pure water ponds, and forests of beautiful trees. They all agreed to set up camp next to one of the waterfalls that flowed into a clearwater pond.

That night, like the last two, they sat around a campfire talking about anything that came to mind and at times just staring into the fire. They silently wished that the source of the signal was just over the next hill.

“The thing I miss the most is diving off the rocks of the Bliss shoreline into that glorious water, it’s so refreshing to swim there. This place reminds me Bliss’ beauty with its waterfalls and greenery,” Tawny reminisced.

As the fire crackled and sparkled, Doc poked it with a stick.

“For me, it feels too long away from my practice without anything happening. I worry about all my patients. The first few days, I was giving advice over the ham radio, but now we are out of the radio’s range.”

“Yeah… hey, Crazy, what’s the story with the ham radio? We haven’t been able to speak to Bliss for a couple of days. What do you think is wrong?” Lorenzo

asked.

“Well… two things, probably. Number one, obviously we’re very far away and can’t get a good signal off of the atmosphere. Number two, I think we’re in a low geographic area. We probably need more height for our antenna to get any reception. The antennae on top of the vehicles aren’t working for us anymore. Maybe if we placed an antenna on one of those hills, we might get some ,” Crazy said.

“Tell you what, my Crew, let’s continue for a few more days, if we don’t come across anything, we’ll turn around. Agreed?” Lorenzo asked.

There was silence. No one wanted to give up, they had come too far. The signal was getting too strong to turn around now. Everyone knew Lorenzo was the voice of reason. If he wanted to turn around then they would, however, he was posing the question to them. Not one of them wanted to be known as the quitter, the one who foiled their chance of discovering greatness.

“How about we make it two days? If we don’t come across anything in two days, then let’s turn around. What do you say?” Tawny bargained.

“That sounds good to me,” Bounce responded.

“Me, too. I say let’s give it two more days. If we find nothing, then we turn around,” Doc agreed.

“OK, then, two days it is. That’s about the time we agreed we’d start our return to Bliss anyway. Hey, MIT! What do you think about the location of the signal?” Lorenzo asked.

MIT was propped up on a log as part of the Crew’s circle around the campfire.

“I can’t say, Lorenzo. The data is insufficient to make an assessment,” MIT said.

“Speak to me, Crazy. Given that the signal is hitting the red zone on that meter now, how much stronger can that signal get before we’re on top of it?”

“I don’t know, Lorenzo. We should’ve been there two days ago! The vector is so strong, and the signal is in the red zone on the meter. So, I can’t say how much farther. Who knows? We have a good chance of running into it tomorrow or the next day. Ask Ambrosia, she’s the real expert in the area of directional frequency,” Crazy said.

The others looked at Ambrosia, the campfire dancing in front of her face, casting a warm light on her fine symmetric features and tousled blonde hair.

“We’ve got to run into it soon. We just have to! My calculations indicate that we should have reached the source of the signal two days ago, but the signal is so strong that I must have miscalculated. Maybe we’ll get there tomorrow or the next day? We have to be very close to the source, I just know it!”

Her expression was angry, like she thought everyone was blaming her for not yet

arriving at the source of the signal. She grabbed Doc’s stick out of his hand and poked the fire with a few frustrated stabs, causing bright orange sparks to fly into the air.

The Complex

The next day, driving across the monotonous grassy plains felt discouraging, and the Crew’s morale flagged. Then, Lorenzo thought he heard something above the subtle whine of their electric engines. It was very faint at first, barely audible. He always listened to how the vehicle engines were operating, they should sound like a subtle, nominal hum, but he heard something else. Lorenzo put his hand out the side of the vehicle and motioned for Doc to slow down. Both vehicles slowed to a crawl and eventually came to a stop. Then they all heard it… an incessant whining sound in the distance, similar to the hum of a high-speed turbine. The six adventurers got out of the vehicles and stood next to each other.

“You hear it? You hear it? What does that sound like to you?” Lorenzo looked excited, his eyes bright, and his smile big.

“It’s some kind of motor, very fast RPMs, no doubt about it,” Crazy said.

Tawny pointed. “It’s coming from somewhere over those hills.”

“That’s got to be where the signal is coming from. The needle is pounding the red zone on the meter. We’re practically on top of whatever is producing the signal,” Ambrosia was excited.

Doc waived his arms towards the vehicles.

“Well, let’s stop wasting time standing here and get over there. Come on, let’s do it!”

They clamored back into the two vehicles and sped off over the grassy rolling hills in the direction of the subtle sound.

As they reached the crest of a small rise, they saw it. Far across a great grassy plain that extended for miles, it looked like a human-constructed mass, towering in the horizon like a jagged, dark mountain. The air above it was undulating and distorted, like a shimmering heat wave off a desert floor. This visual disruption was occurring above the monolith, still far off in the distance. As they got closer, the high-pitched whirring noise could be heard even over the sound of their vehicle’s engines. From hundreds of yards away, the sound started to get noticeably shrill, and Lorenzo again signaled for the vehicles to stop. All the expedition placed foam plugs in their ears to protect their hearing from the ever-increasing volume of the whirring noise emanating from the mechanical mountain. Lorenzo grabbed his binoculars off the dashboard to take a closer look at the details of the machine-driven monstrosity. The view through his binoculars revealed a bewildering maze of rusty metal pipes and cylindrical monoliths that towered hundreds of feet towards the sky. He counted at least six giant vertical cylinders that were rounded at the top. Just off-center was a cylindrical chimney, much taller than the rest of the complex, spewing what looked like white smoke or steam. Doc guessed that it must be at least 700 feet high. There were giant curving pipes extending everywhere, connecting to the main complex. Two enormous barrel-shaped structures were placed side by side in the center of the steel mountain.

The Crew drove a circuitous route, intentionally staying at least one quarter mile away from it. They all were astounded at the size of this machine which they immediately referred to as “the Complex.” Doc was the first to call it this because of the myriad rounded towers, tubes, pipes, and structures surrounding the two gargantuan vertical cylinders. Taking another look through the binoculars, Lorenzo tried to figure out the purpose of the two windowless twin cylinders in front of the Complex, structures more massive than anything he’d ever seen before. They looked like two giant metal potbelly stoves placed side by side with enormous curvy pipes extending from the main body. The twin

structures looked at least 400 feet high, but they were probably much more sizable. The rusted metal of the twin structures’ cylindrical sides appeared aged over many years. The color of the metal surfaces was a combination of corroded brown and stained green.

Lorenzo scanned every shadow and corner of the Complex’s outside with his binoculars trying to spot anything that might be harmful to them, he wondered who could have built such a humongous structure. They stopped the vehicles and stared at the Complex. The sight of such a large, foreign-looking entity not only dumfounded the Crew but also frightened them.

“What manner of people would have the ability to construct such a thing?” Lorenzo asked.

“A people more advanced than us. How many thousands of people did it take to build whatever this is?” Doc queried.

Tawny spoke as she looked through her binoculars.

“From the looks of the outside, this thing has stood here for a very long time. I think that whoever built it is no longer around. I mean, where is everyone? I doubt that people are living inside that thing.”

Lorenzo didn’t observe any noticeable dangers, no sharp whirring fans, no spewing liquids, and definitely no signs of life outside the gigantic structure. Although the Complex did not appear to pose any physical threats, the sheer enormity of the Complex was mentally staggering to the Crew. Lorenzo remained cautious.

“How could anyone stand that relentless noise if they were inside there? Or perhaps, they don’t hear the noise from the inside? We could get closer, but let’s take it slow, real slow. We’ll move forward a couple of hundred feet at a time and then take a look and reevaluate each time we stop.”

The two vehicles advanced slowly, creeping forward. The noise coming from the Complex was irritating, and the loud whirring could be heard right through the foam plugs that were pressed into their ears. Upon reaching the base of the immense structure, the Crew exited the vehicles and stood next to the massive Complex. Its size was beyond their comprehension. They were intimidated by not only its expansive girth but also the vast, convoluted construction.

They split up into pairs to investigate the base of the Complex. Lorenzo and Tawny walked around the back. Bounce and Doc went to the right side to examine the cylinders. Crazy and Ambrosia stayed up front to study the latticework of smaller pipes.

Tawny pulled on Lorenzo’s sleeve and pointed up, motioning for him to look skyward. Near the top of the seven-hundred-foot chimney stood a vertical white antenna, bracketed to the chimney with a clamp. They both looked through their binoculars and then turned and nodded to each other. That antenna was no doubt the emission point for the chirping signal they originally detected.

Suddenly, Ambrosia ran out from behind some pipes in the center of the Complex. She motioned silently for Lorenzo and Tawny to follow her through the Complex, as Ambrosia ran quickly, full of excitement. When they reached the center of the Complex, they found Crazy with a crowbar trying to pry open a large metal door about four feet wide with hinges on one side. The door was sealed shut. Bounce also tried to work the metal crowbar into the door, but it wouldn’t budge, even when he and Crazy both held the crowbar and used all

their might. The door wouldn’t budge an inch. They surmised that it was welded shut from the inside.

Bounce opened the back of the Excursion vehicle and grabbed his flame gun and the two backpack tanks that held the gas. He motioned for everyone to put on their sun goggles and step back. When he adjusted the flame to the way he wanted, it had a foot-long length that ended in an orange-blue spike of ultra-hot fire. He walked up to the door and started to slowly cut through the space between the door and the threshold. The rest of the Crew watched as the flame melted the metal around the rectangle of the door, the metal turning to liquid and dripping down the sides.

Crazy jammed the crowbar into the now molten metal door gap and grunted, pulling with all his strength. The door popped open a few inches and he was able to pull the door open all the way using the hook of the crowbar. Lorenzo, Doc and Bounce crowded near the entrance and shined their lights into the doorway. They saw a metal stairway leading down into a shadowy abyss. A foul odor drifted up that smelled like old socks.

Lorenzo motioned for the team to get back into the vehicles and drive away from the Complex. When they reached a distance of about a half mile, they stopped and took out their earplugs, although a faint whine from the Complex could still be heard. The six stood in a circle, enthusiastic about their discovery but apprehensive about what they should do next.

“Well, if you ask me, it looks like we have no other choice but to walk down that stairway and see what’s there,” Doc said.

“I’m with Doc. We didn’t come all this way to turn around without knowing what’s down there and what the function of the Complex is,” Crazy agreed.

Tawny wrinkled her nose.

“Did you smell the odor coming up the stairway? It was putrid! I agree that we have to go down there, but we need to be fully suited up with masks.”

“With as many weapons as we can carry, too. There’s no telling what’s down there. Better safe than sorry, as the old expression goes, right?” Bounce said with a wink.

Lorenzo needed to hear logistics.

“Let’s discuss our plan. Do we all go down there or just a few of us? Or do we leave just one person up here to watch the vehicles? What do you think?”

“I say we all go down. My reason is that if we don’t come out in time, is the person on top going to come looking for us? The answer is yes. So, we’d all end up down there anyway. Then is the person watching the vehicles up here going to get attacked by someone? I don’t think so. We haven’t seen anyone since we left Bliss, and we know that no one is at the Complex because we just cut open their only exit. If anyone was down there, they might have all died a long time ago,” Doc said.

“Doc is right on all counts. We all should go down the stairway together. Let’s get suited up tomorrow morning and take everything we’ve got and as much food and water as we can carry,” Lorenzo said.

“This is kind of scary, and I don’t like dark, smelly places, but I feel that we have no choice. Besides, we need to find out why that signal suddenly started transmitting. Was there someone who flipped a switch, or did it start transmitting automatically? Let’s get down there and find out. I still hate the fact that we’re going down into that smelly hole,” Ambrosia complained with a sour face.

Crazy grabbed her around the waist and gave her a tight hug.

“Don’t you worry, my sweet! I’ll protect you!”

They made camp about a mile away from the Complex and spent time going over their equipment, making sure to take everything necessary: extra ammo for weapons, fully charged batteries for the microwave rifle, communication radios, and a plethora of flashlights.

They sat silently in a circle around the campfire and stared into the flickering flames. The light reflected off of their eyes. Ambrosia looked tired and her alabaster skin was smudged with a bit of dirt on her cheeks. Her blonde hair was messy from traveling for days.

“I think that we’re going to find people down there,” she said.

The rest of the group stopped gazing into the campfire and now focused their eyes on Ambrosia. Lorenzo wondered what made her so sure.

“What is your reasoning behind thinking there are people down there?”

“That giant machine over there is sucking in fresh air. The people below are breathing the air the machine sucks into the Complex which also pumps out the bad air.”

“I thought about that too, but how long could anyone survive under the ground without any sunlight or food?” Doc said.

“Well, if they had enough food and water, they could survive until it ran out. So, if there are people down there, I would say that they are probably dead by now,” Bounce contended.

“Maybe they depleted all of their food and water a few months ago and that’s why they triggered the emergency signal, so someone would find them and bring supplies,” Tawny suggested.

“The question is, why is that machine over there so gigantic? It took a long time to build something that big. No one is going to waste their time on making a thing like that unless they’re going to use it for a long time. It’s sucking in air like nothing we’ve ever imagined before. It is feeding air to whatever or whomever is down there. The Complex also seems to exhaust heat by the way the air shimmers above it,” Lorenzo said.

Crazy chuckled. His swarthy, dark, angular features and high cheekbones were pronounced when he smiled, and his white teeth reflected the flickering golden light of the campfire.

“There’s only one way to answer all these questions my friends! That’s why we’re going down there in the morning.”

Lorenzo couldn’t sleep that night because of thoughts about the Complex and what lay beneath. Images of the Complex kept racing through his mind. The campfire’s flames had burned out, leaving smoky embers glowing in the darkness. He tossed and turned throughout night, overwhelmed with anxiety about what they were going to find when they entered that stairway and climbed down to the bottom.

Underground Expedition

“A ttach the fiber cord to your harnesses.,” Lorenzo commanded

Tawny and Crazy were hooked up to the nano-filament string by way of a composite carabiner. The other end of the fiber string was attached to the back of the Excursion vehicle. Considering the stairway could give way, they were now secured by the fiber.

Tawny wanted to be the first one on the stairway. She pointed her flashlight down, but she could not see the bottom.

“Test the communications,” Lorenzo reminded.

“One, two, three, can you hear me?” Tawny said into her headset microphone.

Lorenzo replied.

“Loud and clear. Please transmit when you get down farther. I want to make sure we are in with you the whole way down the stairway.”

The rest of the Crew continued to shine their flashlight beams down into the stairway to generate more light. Tawny started down the stairs and Crazy followed. Farther and farther down, step by step, descending into the darkness. Minutes ed and they were still descending. Crazy looked up and saw that the opening from the door above had become a small pinpoint of light.

“Hello, Crazy, voice check, can ….” The static sounding voice of Lorenzo coming from above stopped suddenly. They had gone too far down the stairway for radio communications to connect. Crazy thought that if he unsnapped the radio communicator from his vest and focused the antenna to point directly above him, then maybe he might still be able to talk with Lorenzo.

“Hello, can you hear me now? Come in, Lorenzo. Can you hear me?” Crazy asked.

“Yes, Crazy, can you see the bottom yet?” The radio crackled when Lorenzo spoke.

“Yes, we can see it. We can see the bottom, but the stairway leads to another door,” Crazy said.

A few moments of nervous silence ed.

“Lorenzo, this is Tawny talking on Crazy’s radio. Everyone can walk down now. The stairway is strong metal. Send down Bounce’s flamer. We need to cut through another door before we can go any farther.”

Lorenzo looked at the rest of the Crew standing next to him.

“All right, here we come. Bounce is bringing down the flamer.”

Lorenzo placed MIT into a clear, polycarbonate box which he attached to his chest harness and then followed the rest of the Crew as they walked down the stairway to the metal door where Tawny and Crazy were standing.

“Make the flame short and intense,” Bounce instructed Tawny.

“Take a few more steps back, Crazy, there might be some hot molten sparks jumping your way,” she warned.

The backpack that held the two tanks with hoses attached to the flame rifle was on her back. She pressed a button on her helmet, and the plastic face mask descended quickly over her face. The gas flowed with the press of a blue button. When Tawny pressed another button on the stock, a wide, orange foot-long flame came out of the tip. With the flip of a switch on the left side of the rifle’s stock, the flame was reduced to a thin, blue line that extended about four feet. Then Tawny turned two dials on the left side of the rifle that intensified the flame to a bright orange-hot straight beam. She aimed the tip of the intense flame at the metal door, focusing on the door’s threshold gap. The metal started to melt immediately, dripping away from the rim and onto the area that surrounded it.

“That’s the way to do it, Tawny. Just keep following the rim of that old door!” Crazy said.

“Thanks for the advice, Crazy, but I know what I’m doing here,” Tawny remarked.

The metal around the rectangular door turned orange. Metal dripped away downward and left a small gap between the door and the threshold. She had finished going around the whole rectangle of the door with the torch when Crazy extended a metal shovel and stuck it in the side threshold, using leverage to move the door a bit. Once the door cooled, Crazy managed to pull open the door.

They all walked into a small room. It was pitch black inside with nothing in the space except for another door. Tawny looked at the door and probed it with her gloved hands. She ran her fingertips over the steel and the doorknob. She tried turning the doorknob, but it was frozen or locked.

All six of the Crew were now crowded into the small room, lit only by their personal flashlights. The air in the room was cold, close to freezing, perhaps from all the metal around them draining whatever heat was in the room.

“It’s locked. Hey Bounce, take your crowbar to that door,” Tawny said.

Bounce reached up behind his head and grabbed the metal crowbar from a rack on his pack. He jammed it into the space between the door and the wall and pulled back with all his might. The metal of the door bent a bit. He leaned back with a loud grunt and threw his entire 300-pound weight behind it, the lock snapped and the door flew open with a bang.

Lorenzo stepped through the threshold first, shining his flashlight ahead of him onto a small, steel landing with handrails and only complete blackness below. From the landing, there was a metal stairway connected to a steel wall that descended without a visible end. The stairway switched back and forth with a half landing between each section and was bolted to the side of the sheer, steel wall. The stairway descended thousands of feet into the blackness below.

The six crowded onto the first landing. They all looked down in silence at the stairway without end.

“Well, my friends, whatever we are looking for might be at the bottom of those steps,” Lorenzo said.

“Then let’s get to it. I suggest we travel a little spread out as a group. Who is taking the lead?” Doc asked.

“I’ll stay in front. The rest of you walk single file behind me. Keep ten feet apart. We don’t know how strong these stairs are. If a staircase or landing collapses, it’s a long way down. Doc, give me a chemical light stick,” Lorenzo commanded.

“Here, take this one,” Doc handed a small cylinder to Lorenzo.

Lorenzo bent and snapped the plastic tube, mixing the luminescent chemicals that produced a green, glowing light. He approached the edge of the top landing and leaned over the metal railing, dropping the light stick as the rest of the Crew crowded to the edge to look down. The light stick slowly disappeared into the dark void below.

“This staircase goes on for a very long while. Is everyone OK with this? We’re about to walk a long way down and we don’t know how far,” Lorenzo said.

Ambrosia pressed her tiny frame in front of the others to stand next to Lorenzo. With her hands on her hips and a stern face, she loudly voiced her opinion.

“We’ve come this far, and there is no way that we’re turning back now! I say let’s get down there and find out what this place is all about.”

“That goes for the rest of us. Lead the way Lorenzo,” Tawny agreed.

Lorenzo simultaneously felt both extreme apprehension and intense exhilaration.

“OK, let’s go at an easy pace. We’ve got a long way to walk down.”

An hour had ed with the six adventurers continuing to descend into total blackness. Lorenzo thought how fortunate it was that they had made flashlights a priority. Each member carried at least two lights. Doc and Bounce brought more flashlights than he thought they needed. However, he changed his mind as soon as they started to descend that first staircase. Now, flashlights were the only thing guiding them in this pitch-black environment.

Lorenzo had built himself two flashlights that were almost identical, except one was a bit larger than the other because it had an integrated floodlight underneath the main flashlight beam. Both flashlights were rounded to fit easily in his hand with a polymer casing. They had a large battery that filled the entire length of the handle, rechargeable from either solar cells or a hand-crank generator.

They stopped on one of the half-landings for a short break. Bounce grabbed a

biscuit from his equipment vest and Doc took a drink of water.

“How much longer do you think we have to go down?” Ambrosia asked.

“There is no way to know. Let’s just keep going. We have food for three days,” Lorenzo said.

Downward they traveled, step by careful step. The shuffle of their feet echoed off of the steel walls.

They were all getting tired. Bounce almost fell after stumbling, and Doc asked everyone to slow down. The temperature increased as they traveled down, two hours later the temperature had reached 80°F. Some of the Crew tied the top of their jumpsuits around their waists by the sleeves.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the Crew saw the bottom floor with all their flashlights pointed down. A single door, just like the one up above, was to the right of the stairway.

“I was getting a little scared that there wasn’t going to be a bottom,” Doc said.

“Bounce, how about you take your crowbar to that door right there?” Lorenzo asked.

The clang of steel echoed off the walls when Bounce unfastened the crowbar

from his pack frame. He jammed the edge of the steel crowbar into the door’s frame and with a mighty tug, popped the ordinary steel door open.

When he forced the door open, it revealed another small chamber where there was yet another door. However, this door did not have a doorknob. It was obviously a door, yet there was no discernable gap between the door and the doorframe. Bounce kicked at the door with the flat of his right boot. The steel door did not move.

“OK, let’s see what’s behind this door.”

He jammed the crowbar into the metal and heaved. Plaster and concrete dust started to appear in the gaps, indicating that a wall was behind the door. Doc grabbed the end of the crowbar and heaved with Bounce. There was no movement from the door at all. Unfortunately, they had left the flamer up above.

Lorenzo and Crazy also grabbed the crowbar and heaved, but the door didn’t budge.

“Hey, Ambrosia, this could be a good time for one of your ultra-grenades to blow open that door. What do you think?” Lorenzo asked.

“I can make that happen. One remote ignitor and one grenade. That should blow a hole right through that door. If we’re going to do this, to avoid the blast we have to climb at least 100 feet back up the staircase,” Ambrosia said.

“Are you fooling with me? We have to climb back up the stairs now?” Doc complained.

“Unless you want to get vaporized inside Ambrosia’s high-powered explosion!” Crazy joked.

Lorenzo gave the order.

“OK, Ambrosia, set your grenade and please be careful. We’ll go back through this door and climb up the staircase a few flights,”

“No, problem Lorenzo. I’ll have this done in a minute or two.”

She took a grenade from her vest and a small, peanut-sized receiver from her belt. Extending a small antenna from the peanut, she plugged it into the side of the grenade. From her vest, she ripped off a strip of adhesive tape which she used to attach the grenade to the door.

“OK, everyone, the grenade is ready to blow,” Ambrosia said over the radio earbud piece.

She scrambled up to the others, who were standing on the landing.

When Ambrosia pressed her remote-control button, the tremendous explosion vibrated the stairs and the fireball traveled up the staircase. The flames touched

the Crew’s boots.

“Holy shit!” Doc yelled

“My boots are hot,” Tawny giggled.

“Sorry friends. I guess my grenades are more powerful than they had to be,” Ambrosia said.

The Crew eagerly walked back down the staircase to the bottom where they saw that the grenade had blown a six-foot deep cavity that extended horizontally into a steel and concrete wall.

“Look how thick this wall is! Something is on the other side of this wall, and we need another one of Ambrosia’s grenades to find out what’s there,” Lorenzo said.

Ambrosia crawled into the blown-out crater and placed another grenade at the back of the cavity. The Crew walked up even more flights this time to avoid being singed by the potent explosion. She pressed the detonator button and another fireball traveled up the stairway, but this time they were 200 feet up. They felt hot air flow by like a scorching wind.

When they reached the bottom of the stairway again, they all saw bright light coming from where Ambrosia’s grenade had blown a five-foot wide hole.

“Oh my! I don’t understand this,” Tawny said, puzzled.

They all stepped through the hole and saw an enormous, brightly-lit hallway with 60-foot-high ceilings and a 100-foot-wide age. They emerged onto a white floor of smooth, polished concrete interlaced with small black spots. The lights on the ceiling were rectangular and each about six feet long. The brightness of the hallway forced them to squint after walking out from total darkness. On one side of the hallway, to the right from where they emerged, was another wall. It was the end of the hallway, a steel wall just fifty feet from where they stood. However, looking left, the hallway went too far for them to see to the end.

“MIT, what do you make of all this. Do people live down here?”

The rainbow colors swirled inside the glass globe attached to the rack on the upper part of Lorenzo’s chest.

“In order for this space to be so brightly lighted it would require a large electrical generation source. I cannot determine if anyone lives in this underground place, but the sophisticated electrical generation seems quite advanced.”

“OK, listen, everyone, we don’t know what or who is down here, but these lights aren’t on for our benefit. Get ready for a confrontation. Weapons out and ready!” Doc said.

Lorenzo swung around his M16. Bounce took off his backpack to attach the battery pack to his microwave rifle. Crazy unsheathed his large knife, Ambrosia checked her vest festooned with mini explosive grenades and Tawny readied her

needle-sharp javelin.

“Hey MIT, what are your thoughts about this large hallway?” Lorenzo asked.

“I think it was created by a highly technical society capable of large-scale construction. From my visual analysis, I’ve connected this architecture and lighting to a civilization that existed many hundreds of years ago,” MIT said.

Incredibly, it took two of Ambrosia’s ultra-grenades to blow a hole into the hallway. Lorenzo picked up pieces of concrete and steel that were used to obscure the door from discovery by anyone in the hallway.

“Whoever made this hallway didn’t want anyone to find those stairs, but why would anyone want to hide the stairs to the surface?” Lorenzo queried.

“OK, people, let’s move carefully. Keep looking out for anything unusual,” Crazy cautioned.

They walked a mile along the giant corridor at a slight downward grade. The hallway felt like it was some kind of giant ramp, leading them farther downward. The enormous age was wide enough for at least fifty people to stand shoulder to shoulder. To their right, Crazy noted a dark hole in the wall big enough for a person to climb through. He pointed his flashlight beam into the hole in the wall, but there seemed to be another broken-up hole in the wall behind the first with a horrible smell emanating.

They continued to walk down the wide ramp until a steel wall at the end of the corridor came into view. Lorenzo looked through his binoculars and spotted giant, steel double doors. Bounce also stared through his binoculars.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Lorenzo asked.

“Yes. They are majestic, giant, steel doors!” Bounce exclaimed.

The side-by-side double doors looked about twenty feet across, forty feet tall and made of a bronze-hued stainless steel. Gold-colored metal rectangles ornamented the outside of each of the double doors, with the center adorned by a large, gold etching of a screaming face.

“Those are the biggest doors I have ever seen. Am I seeing them correctly? Are they as large as they look from here?” Doc asked.

“Yes, Doc, the term gigantic might be appropriate. OK, listen up everyone, we are going up to those doors, and then we’ll decide if we want to open them once we’re standing in front of them,” Lorenzo said.

“Lorenzo, of course we’re opening those doors. We can’t turn around now, things are just getting interesting,” Tawny said with a smile.

The Bottom Level

Walking towards the gargantuan doors was like heading for a distant object on a flat plain. The doors originally seemed a short distance away, but they were farther than the Crew thought. They finally arrived in front of them, looking up in awe at the grandeur of the steel doors. A full forty feet tall, ornate art stylings jutted out from the surface of the double doors and a sculpted gold screaming face decorated the center of each door. Another large corridor to the right of the doors curved upwards to the left.

“Whoever made this place had the advanced industry of an ancient world,” Lorenzo said.

Suddenly, the left door began to open slowly, exposing the three-foot thickness of the steel. They all stood still, cautiously evaluating the potential threat. The whole scene was frightening, and the prospect of going inside through the door was scary. The Crew could almost hear their hearts beat in unison. Lorenzo took out his flashlight and shined the beam past the threshold of the door, he saw what looked like marble and gold pillars. There were no people and there was no evidence of any life around. No garbage, no dirt, not even dust, which was odd. Everything looked so clean.

“We don’t know what or who is in there. If this door closes behind us, we might be trapped. Whoever is in there, I say let them come out to us,” Lorenzo warned.

“That is absurd, Lorenzo! We’ve come all this way to engage with an alien culture, a culture that has just invited us in! Let’s go! If you’re not going in, then I’m going in! We came here to explore and discover,” Ambrosia said.

“Hey, MIT, what is your opinion?” Lorenzo asked.

“Strictly your choice, Lorenzo. If you do not go in, you will not complete your purpose here. Then again, that door is troubling. If it closes behind us then we must find an alternate way back to the stairway,” MIT said.

“Yeah, well, you know Lorenzo, we didn’t come all the way down here to not see what the story is. We have to go in there. Maybe that door has a sensor and automatically opens when someone approaches,” Doc exclaimed.

The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement.

“C’mon, let’s do it,” Bounce said.

The prospect of going inside that room, over the threshold of those giant doors, scared Lorenzo. He did not want to go inside. Every rational fiber of his mind warned him that what they were about to do was dangerous. The unknown scared him, and maybe that was why he always pursued the unknown, to confront his fears, to experience the terror. Yet, he already knew that he was going inside. The Crew was ready, and there was no turning back now.

“Weapons out, everyone. We don’t know what we’re walking into. Is there something we can put in the doorway here, so we don’t get locked inside?” Lorenzo asked.

“I don’t think we have anything to spare, and there is nothing around this place. The walls are all bare and made of concrete,” Doc said.

“How about we rig some fiber-twine to a piton and tie the other end to that door?” Lorenzo suggested.

“I’m on that,” Tawny responded.

She spooled out about forty feet of fiber-twine and used the hammerhead back of her small hatchet to implant a piton. After a few raps, the piton penetrated the concrete side of the wall and enabled the firm placement for a carabiner wrapped with twine. Tawny lashed the other end of the fiber-twine around one of the locking bolts on the door.

“That should hold the door open unless there’s more than 3,500 pounds of force on that fiber-twine,” Tawny remarked.

Everyone looked at each other apprehensively. Ambrosia had a coy grin that turned up one side of her mouth. Crazy nodded his head and smiled.

“Well, come on, follow me. Let’s go in. No more time to waste,” Doc said.

Doc raised his Remington 870 and slowly crossed the threshold into a vast chamber with brown marble pillars and a very high ceiling. The others followed, crossing the threshold into yet another unknown. They were wide eyed with wonder about who could have constructed such a grandiose, ornately adorned room. Thick brown marble pillars stood along the side of the room with screaming, gold face sculptures attached. The Crew’s boot soles echoed on the marble floor with every step they took. The silence in the great marble chamber

made for an eerie, tense feeling, like something unexpected could happen at any moment.

The temperature inside the huge room felt like 90°F, the lights were subdued. Wide hallways branched off from the main hallway. This space smelled different too, like burnt circuit boards or a boiled cleaning chemical. The air felt like being inside an oven. Lorenzo checked the temperature on his thermometer, and it read 91°F. He and Tawny unzipped their suits and tied the jumpsuit arms around their waists. The others either rolled up their sleeves or unzipped their tops.

Doc’s face turned red from the heat. Beads of sweat covered his face.

“Man, oh, man, I’m telling you. It’s too damn hot down here.”

“We can do it, Doc. Let’s see some more and then maybe we’ll turn around. Seems like there’s nothing here except architecture like those pictures in the encyclopedias of old-world Egyptians and other old-world grand structures,” Crazy said.

“Well, you know this is the most important mission that the people of Bliss have ever undertaken. So far, we have proven that structures from the old world still exist. I’ve been taking pictures the whole way in here,” Bounce said.

“I’m a little exhausted and a lot scared of this place. Those gold sculptures of screaming faces everywhere are unsettling, to say the least,” Tawny complained.

Lorenzo also felt apprehensive. It was too much, too ominous, with the grandiose structures and the screaming faces everywhere. He itted that he felt nervous.

“OK, let’s get pictures of everything we can. Also, see if we can take anything back with us, maybe chip off one of those screaming faces and see if it will fit in a bag. This place is fascinating but also scary. I say we start moving back toward those big doors.”

He thought he saw a flash or a mirage of a person in the rafters above him where the pillars were attached to the ceiling. It was the same feeling he got when he thought he had seen a mouse, having observed nothing more than a flash of gray. He listened but did not hear anything suspicious, or hear anything at all. The rest of the Crew walked as silently as they could.

“There must be people down here, but where are they?” Crazy said.

“I don’t know. It seems like people were here recently, everything is so clean and polished,” Lorenzo commented.

Crazy unsheathed his large knife and wedged the point into where a golden screaming face attached to one of the marble pillars along the side of the great hallway. He tapped hard a few times on the back of the handle and managed to pry the metal face off the pillar. Some marble came off with the face but Crazy chipped away at it until only the metal face remained in his hands.

Just then, Lorenzo saw a shadow up near the ceiling. This time he knew that he wasn’t seeing things. He had a feeling that there was someone up there moving

around quickly, like a slinking cat.

“Hey everyone, I keep seeing a shadow above us on the ceiling. Stay on the lookout. I’m not feeling good about this place at all, let’s get out of here,” Lorenzo said.

Ambrosia became aggravated at Lorenzo.

“But there’s so much more to see! We just got here. Why does everyone want to leave so quickly? Don’t you find this incredibly fascinating? When we return to Bliss, they will rejoice at our findings of the old world.”

The Crew looked at one another, everyone except Ambrosia felt uneasy.

Lorenzo analyzed the situation from a logistical assessment instead of showing his fear.

“Listen, Ambrosia, we took a good first look down here but now it’s time to get back outside. We have a quart or less of water each, it might take us some time to get back to the surface. That leaves us with zero water, but only if we exit now.”

“It seems wrong to leave all this and not explore any farther just because we’d be a little light on water.” Ambrosia argued.

“Ambrosia has a point. We came all the way here to discover a new civilization, and now that we have found something awesome, everyone wants to leave?” Tawny said.

“OK, let’s put it to a vote. How many of us want to leave?” Lorenzo queried.

Doc, Bounce, and Lorenzo all raised their hands.

“Who wants to stay?” Ambrosia asked.

Ambrosia, Tawny and Crazy raised their hands in favor of staying.

“Well, I guess it’s obvious who wants to stay down here. I’d feel better if we could discuss this as we walked back toward the doors,” Lorenzo said.

They turned around and walked a few feet back in the direction of the giant doors. The door gap was visible, even from 200 feet away. The bright light of the outside corridor shined into the softly lit great hallway.

Suddenly, there was a vibration under everyone’s feet. It was a rhythmic, timed vibration, like a syncopated drum. Singing… men singing, chanting along with a drum.

“Stop for a second. Nobody move, listen… do you hear voices?” Ambrosia whispered.

“Yes, voices, and drums, too,” Tawny said.

“It’s getting louder. Quick, let’s head for the doors!” Lorenzo commanded.

They all started running, Doc lagged behind and Bounce started breathing hard while Tawny led the way. The open door was only 100 hundred feet away.

Suddenly, Tawny stopped and turned. She grabbed Lorenzo by the fabric of his arm and whispered loudly to the others.

“Soldiers coming! Hide behind that second row of pillars!”

Everyone ran to the side of the great marble hall and flattened themselves against the opposite side of the wide marble pillars. Lorenzo looked around the side of his pillar and saw men marching through the gap of the giant doors, at least one hundred men dressed similar to Roman centurions that he had seen pictures of on the ancient computers. Marching loudly and singing, as a kettle drum was beating somewhere in the rear of the line. One centurion held a large rectangular box on his shoulder. Loud, thumping music boomed from speakers that vibrated the pillars in the hallway. The music filled the hall with loud echoes of screaming voices to the rhythm of electronic stringed instruments.

The men were bronze-skinned giants, with bulging arms and muscular legs. Some of the centurions wheeled large cages filled with men, women, and children. One of the women in the cages cried out in protest but was violently struck in the face through the bars by the handle of a centurion’s leather whip.

When Lorenzo looked back down the great hallway, he saw the giant door slowly close with a snapping sound as the fiber cord pulled out the piton that was holding the door open. Complete terror ran through his mind. He contemplated the prospect of being trapped miles below the surface, never to see his family or Bliss ever again. There was the possibility of being taken prisoner by these giants or having to battle them in order to get out of this place.

The centurions marched by as the Crew hid behind the pillars. The floor vibrated as they ed, stepping in unison, their booted feet coming down hard on the floor. The hundred or so men ed by wheeling the large cages filled with prisoners. The column traveled down the hallway and disappeared. The Crew slowly came out from behind the pillars and ran for the large doors.

The Crew pushed with all their might, but the doors would not budge open. Not an even an inch.

“I can’t believe we’re locked down here. We better find another way out. Unfortunately, even all of my grenades together are not powerful enough to blow open doors of this size,” Ambrosia said.

“MIT, do you see a way we can get out of this place and back up to the surface?” Lorenzo asked.

“I do not have enough information regarding this location in order to yield an egress,” MIT said.

“There must be another way out of here,” Doc said.

All six of the Crew stood and stared at the towering doors, which seemed to hover over them like an impenetrable mountain.

Tawny jumped up on a side pedestal and looked up by shining her flashlight along the top of the door.

“These doors are sealed tight,” Tawny said. “We’d better look for another way out.”

Lorenzo looked anxious.

“Let’s stay clear of those centurions. They are not friendly, and they are clearly trouble. They may want to take us prisoner and we’ll have to defend ourselves, which is something we do not want. We need to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Maybe we could ask for their help and they would help us? We don’t really know how they’d react to us. Maybe we can barter our technology and then they’d open the door for us?” Ambrosia implored.

Lorenzo thought to himself how naive Ambrosia could be, but her trusting soul was another feature that made her so extraordinary.

“Those violent goliaths will want to make us their prisoners or even kill us. Did you see the people in those cages? They were terrified, whole families, their eyes bursting wide with fear. No, we will have no with those evil giants. We must get back up to the surface right now.”

The Crew felt the urgency in Lorenzo’s voice. The episode of the ing parade of centurions and their hapless captives was enough to jar anyone into action.

“Let’s spread out a bit. Look for any door in a side hallway. Don’t venture too far from the rest of the Crew. Use your lights, and let’s stay really quiet. We need to keep listening for anything unusual,” Lorenzo commanded.

The Crew scanned their flashlights up and down the brown marble walls and onto the brown-and-gold columns. There was no exit, not even a doorway for a closet. The sheer marble walls went up fifty feet to a high ceiling, there seemed to be no escape. Hallways that branched off from the main hallway suddenly ended without any doors.

The heat in the spacious hall felt stifling to everyone. Lorenzo’s undergarments were completely wet with perspiration. Bounce took out his second emergency canteen and noisily gulped water. Ambrosia poured water on the back of her neck and then closed her eyes, swaying a bit from heat exhaustion. The temperature felt like it was a swelting 100°F!

They returned back to the spot where they had previously watched the centurions march by, Lorenzo was feeling desperate.

Crazy recoiled after seeing a flashing movement.

“Hey, whoa! What was that?”

“I saw it, too!” Tawny said.

“Was that an animal or a person? I couldn’t tell. It was like a fuzzy shadow for a second,” Doc raked a shell into his shotgun, the distinctive sound echoed off the walls.

“There!” Lorenzo yelled, pointing at the ceiling.

The Crew snapped out their weapons expecting something to come at them from the dark shadows. Even Ambrosia held a grenade in her hand, ready to throw it if necessary. They quickly moved their high-intensity flashlight beams all around the hallway but could not see where the apparition had disappeared.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice emanated from the blackness.

“Follow me. I can help you.”

The female voice echoed off of the marble walls. The Crew’s flashlight beams crisscrossed in a frantic effort to find where the voice originated from.

“Wait! Who are you? Where are we?” Lorenzo yelled.

“You are in the level of Olympus. Where are you people from?” the female voice echoed.

“We are from the surface. Show yourself!” Lorenzo yelled.

“The surface! What do you mean by surface?” the voice asked.

“From way up above. We started walking down here this morning,” Lorenzo said.

“Morning? What is morning?” the voice asked.

“Show yourself and let’s talk. I ask you again, who are you?” Lorenzo yelled.

From about thirty feet in front of them, to the right, a rope suddenly extended from the ceiling near one of the enormous marble pillars. The group watched as a person slid expertly down the rope, dressed in black leather pants and a shirt with a backpack. After a very quick descent, the person landed on the floor. The shadowy figure pulled back her hood and revealed a beautiful dark face with large green eyes.

“I am Markeeya, an Indig from the Section of Grave.”

“We are from the surface. My name is Lorenzo Special. This is Tawny Glum, Doc Henry, Crazy Blade, Bounce Fat, and Ambrosia Sweet. We are adventurers who received a radio beacon from this location, so we mounted an expedition to follow the signal here, but where are we exactly? What is this place?”

“What level is surface?” Markeeya asked.

“The surface is not a level. The only thing above the surface is the sky,” Lorenzo said.

“So you are from the Sky! There is another Deep above, you call it the surface! I knew it all my life! I always believed there was another Deep above. You called it, the surface… the surface… how far up is the surface?” Markeeya asked.

“The surface is a few miles above us. It took us over two hours to get down to this point. Please tell us, Markeeya, where are we standing now? Who were those centurions that just marched by with prisoners in cages?” Lorenzo asked.

“You are in Olympus, the chambers of the Zeus. They just went by with their new slaves from the Pentangle. It is a good thing that they did not see you because they would have captured you as escaped slaves and brought you back to the president’s chamber,” Markeeya said.

“I don’t think so. They don’t know who they’re dealing with!” Bounce said, as he hefted the microwave rifle.

“You people have equipment I’ve never seen before. I have equipment, but not like yours. I am an Explorer,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo looked at the Crew and he could see that they were worried. He was also worried.

“Markeeya, how do we get out of here? Those giant doors are now locked!”

“I can bring you back to Grave. I know a secret way from here to Grave. I can bring you all back to the Section of my people,” Markeeya said.

“Markeeya, how do we get out of Olympus and back to the surface? That is what we want to do right now,” Lorenzo spoke firmly.

“I do not know how to get to the surface, I call it the Sky. I have always dreamed about the Sky. I did not even know for sure if there was an outside Deep. I only believed it, but now I know it is true. It is true. You are from another Deep, here with me, standing in front of me, you are from the Sky. I have been searching for your Deep all my life. No one outside of my faction would follow or believe me. My people are not smart like me. I can even read the books of the Zeus. How did you people from the Sky get here?” Markeeya asked.

“We walked down a stairway for a very long time and then walked down a large hallway and through those giant doors,” Lorenzo said.

“The Stairway to the Sky! It was told to me in fables as a child, it is true! There

is a Stairway to the Sky! Can you show me where it is?” Markeeya asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

“Listen, girl, just tell us how to get on the other side of those doors. We need to get out of this hot hole right now,” Tawny demanded.

“My people’s Grave Section is cold. We are far down now in Olympus, the bottom level. The lower the level, the hotter it gets. My people’s chamber is cold. Unfortunately, we cannot go through the doors of the Zeus once they are closed,” Markeeya said.

“I don’t know what everyone here is thinking but I’m saying we need to get back up topside. Are we in trouble right now?” Doc asked.

Lorenzo moved closer to Markeeya and stared into her large eyes.

“Markeeya, we need to go back to the surface, or back to ‘the Sky,’ as you say. Can you tell us how to get around those big doors? We know how to get back to the surface if you can just tell us how to get around those big doors,”

“Even if I could get you on the other side of the doors, it would not matter because the Dead-End corridor just stops at the wall,” Markeeya said.

“No, Markeeya, there is a staircase that leads to the surface, the ‘Stairway to the Sky’ you talked about. The stairway is behind a wall that we destroyed,” Lorenzo said.

Markeeya grasped her hands together and smiled.

“There is a way to the Sky! I have searched for a way to another Deep for so long, and here you are, from that Deep, from the Sky. There is no way through the Zeus doors now that they have closed. If we go back to Grave, then maybe I can smuggle you through the Supply Corridor that will lead us to the other side of those doors. We must leave now. The Zeus have seen you through their cameras which are focused on the door, and they will send out forces thinking that some Indigs have escaped the slave chambers.”

“How soon will they get here?” Lorenzo asked.

“It will take a period of seven hallways for the Zeus to get here from the president’s chamber, but we must leave now. You must follow me, or perish at the hands of the Zeus,” Markeeya said.

“I’m not climbing up any ropes,” Bounce said.

“My rope there is the best way, but no, you will not have to climb it. I do not think you can climb it. There is a course we can take. We will have to exit above the Zeus chamber, it is a very dangerous course. The only way out of Olympus is through the Zeus chamber, unless we climb my rope to the air vent above,” Markeeya explained.

She walked over to her dangling rope and offered it to the group. Doc and Lorenzo walked over to the marble pillar from where the rope hung. When they

looked up, their faces froze.

“There is no way I’m going to be able to climb up that rope,” Doc said.

Markeeya looked upwards at her rope attached to the top of the sixty-foot pillar. She snapped the rope like a whip and the entire length of the rope fell down from the ceiling into her hands.

“You will have to squeeze through many ageways. Follow me, we must go now,” Markeeya said, as she turned and ran into the darkness.

Lorenzo and the rest of the group also ran, staying close behind Markeeya. Doc and Bounce were slowing down and breathing hard. Tawny and Ambrosia each grabbed an arm and pulled Doc forward. Bounce refused help from Crazy but sounded as if he was soon going to hyperventilate.

They ran for what seemed like a mile through a marble hallway. The space was 200 feet wide with a sixty-foot-high ceiling. The enormous double row of goldand-brown marble pillars were on both sides of the hallway. Everything was made of marble and steel. Lorenzo wondered how a people could quarry and polish so much stone.

“I know of a vent for air that flows. We have to slide on our bodies for a hundred feet to get through it,” Markeeya said.

The group stopped in front of a metal grating that was about two feet high and

three feet wide. Markeeya took off her backpack and drew out a flat piece of rusted metal. She used it like a crowbar to dislodge the grate from the wall. Before it could fall on the marble floor, she caught it, so no noise was made by the steel hitting marble.

The group looked at the small rectangular opening and then looked up to Bounce and Doc. With their equipment on, they might have a hard time getting though.

“Well, you guys better go first. I don’t want to hold anyone up in case I get stuck inside there,” Doc said.

Suddenly, Markeeya’s eyes opened even wider and she held up her hand for everyone to be quiet. “Down!” she whispered loudly.

They all crouched in silence. The group looked at each other, gripping their weapons, apprehensive about what to do.

The squeaks and other sounds of boots hitting the polished floor echoed off the marble walls. Fifty Zeus came into view and jogged by in a column on the other side of the marble pillars. Their fast pace pounded the polished concrete floor in a syncopated cadence, every synchronized Zeus step repeated loudly in the hallway. Lorenzo noticed short swords and large pistols on their wide belts. Some of the centurions carried enormous brass-barreled rifles as they ran. The shock of seeing the giant armed men and knowing that the group was now being hunted caused him to flip off the safety lever of his M16.

“Quickly, into the vent,” Markeeya said.

One by one the group of six slithered into the airduct. Lorenzo took off the chest harness that held MIT and tied a strap around his ankle.

“MIT, just so you know, I’m going to pull you behind me, and you’ll be attached to my ankle. The polymer cube I’ve built around you is extremely strong, so there should not be any issue regarding your transport.”

Tawny was first in the line and Lorenzo was the last of the Crew. Markeeya made sure that Lorenzo was moving down the silver air duct before she went in last and secured the grate of the duct to look like they had not tampered with it.

Tawny crawled forward. She found it easier than the rest of the group. Tawny was slender and sinewy, and her worm-like movements through the vent were without much effort. The others, however, had great difficulty crawling on their bellies across the smooth sheet metal surface. Lorenzo was pulling MIT by a rope attached to his ankle and that seemed to work out fine. Doc and Bounce pulled their equipment tied to their ankles, barely making progress through the air vent by slithering their corpulent bodies, inch by inch.

The air duct went on straight and did not bend or curve. After moving forward for 100 feet, Tawny yelled out from the front of the line. Her voice seemed loud in the confined metal space of the air duct.

“Hey! The duct goes down steeply here.”

The sound of rushing air could be heard and felt by the entire group.

“That is OK. Just slide down. You will slide for some moments and then arrive at the nexus of air. From there we will crawl up to the Zeus chamber,” Markeeya said.

One by one, they all slid down the smooth sheet metal. Lorenzo went before Markeeya and looked down into the dark rectangle. He slid headfirst into the pitch-black, rectangular metal tunnel. Two seconds had already ed, then he shot out from the vent onto a metal slope and onto flat metal where the others were waiting. The wind above them was pressurized, pushing the Crew down.

Lorenzo pointed his flashlight everywhere and saw they were in a large square of sheet metal surrounded by vents like the one they had just slid down. He figured this was a central point where air was distributed and then the air got pushed into the rectangular vents circled around them. Lorenzo saw Markeeya’s mouth moving in the light beam of his flashlight but could not hear what she was saying. The rushing wind was louder than her voice. He moved closer to Markeeya so he could hear what she was trying to say. When he looked up at Markeeya’s face, her eyes were large and beautiful.

“We have to use both our hands and feet to reach that vent there.” Markeeya pointed to one of the hundred vents above them that lined the air-blast room.

“What happens after we go through that vent?” Lorenzo asked.

“Our situation will be very dangerous, but the Zeus central hall will hopefully be empty. Events happen there sporadically. There is a walkway that is attached to the rafters of the hall. Then another vent that leads to a hallway, into the frontier and then into the Super Chamber,” Markeeya said.

“I don’t understand what you are referring to. What will we do if the Zeus are in the central hall?” Lorenzo asked.

“Then we will wait to enter the central hall until they all leave. We will have to step carefully for 200 feet on a narrow walkway until we reach the connector vent,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo gathered the group into a circle. Their flashlights created a central dome of light in the middle of the black space. He yelled as loudly as he could above the noisy wind to be heard by the whole Crew.

“Markeeya said that we have to go into a Zeus place, but she believes they won’t be there. However, if they are there, we’ll just have to wait until they leave. We will traverse from one air vent to another air vent, but we need to go through this Zeus room first. From there, Markeeya will take us to her people. They will help us get back to the other side of those doors and back to the surface.”

Lorenzo saw a collective uneasiness in their faces. It was scary enough seeing those giant men holding rifles, and now he was telling the group that they would have to intentionally go through one of their rooms.

“Hey, Markeeya, is there any other way we can go besides through the Zeus place? There must be another way?” Tawny screamed above the rushing air noise.

“No, I told you, the only other way would have been up my rope back in the

great marble hallway. This is the only other way. Even if your big men could climb the rope, we know now there are Zeus prowling the great marble hallway looking for what they think are escaped Indig slaves. Follow me.”

Markeeya got down on all fours, the palms of her hands and soles of her shoes on the sheet metal inclined surface. She climbed fifty feet up the incline to one of the hundred rectangular vents at the top and removed a vent grate. She clipped the grate with a string that she attached to the frame of the opening, so it didn’t slide all the way down to the floor below. Then she entered the air duct headfirst. Lorenzo tied the rope to MIT’s polymer case again and dragged the artificial intelligence’s cube behind as he followed Markeeya into the vent.

One by one, the group climbed the metal incline with their hands and feet and entered the dark vent. Doc and Bounce took off their equipment vests again and also tied their loads to their ankles. They all slithered through the vent for about 200 feet on level sheet metal until Markeeya paused at a vent grate. Light entered through the vent from the room on the other side. She looked through the grate and so did Lorenzo, who crawled up carefully next to her.

Sixty feet below was a grand hall of marble and steel. Lorenzo noticed four differently shaped pits in the floor on the far side of the great central chamber. There was a square pit, a circle, a trapezoid, and an ellipsoid. Each looked about fifteen or twenty feet deep, all with steel sides.

The entire room was lighted with long, tube lights. Lorenzo was impressed by the sheer size and grandeur of the room’s accoutrements.

“All clear. There are no events planned and no Zeus are present. We must go now while we have the chance,” Markeeya said.

The group exited the vent one by one. All were breathing hard from crawling in the stifling confinement of the vent. Lorenzo felt himself shaking under his black one-piece coverall. The Crew followed Markeeya and crouched low on a very narrow balcony that lined the top of the wall near the ceiling. Gold metallic pillars surrounded the great chamber, spaced thirty feet apart.

“Stay balanced, we must walk carefully. At the fifth pillar, there is a vent that will lead us out,” Markeeya said.

They walked slowly along the narrow platform that skirted the wall near the ceiling. While crouching, they each took their time and made sure they felt steady, otherwise, a misstep could send them plummeting to the hard floor sixty feet below.

Tawny and Crazy had no problem traversing the narrow, elevated walkway as they were less laden with equipment. Ambrosia leaned to her right side, against the wall. She was obviously frightened by the height and the possibility of falling. Doc and Bounce moved very slowly, almost too carefully. The narrowness of the walkway conflicted with their wide bodies, and their bulky equipment compromised their sense of balance.

Suddenly, they heard a voice, booming and echoing, then laughing boisterously. Another person laughed loudly. The voices were originating from down below somewhere in the great hall.

The Crew froze. Lorenzo turned to Tawny standing behind him and whispered.

“Lie down.”

Markeeya, Lorenzo, Tawny, Crazy, Ambrosia, Doc and Bounce, laid prone on the narrow walkway. Each member of the group turned their head to peer into the chamber. Also visible from their high vantage point were the four geometricshaped pits in the floor down below on the other side of the room.

Markeeya moved her nimble body around so she faced Lorenzo as they both lay prone. The voices below became louder. Then the Zeus came into view. Two of them were followed by about ten more.

“You are not fit for this period’s party! I wonder if you have become weak?” one of the Zeus said.

The Zeus walked directly under where the Crew was lying prone. Then the Zeus walked to the center of the great chamber. Lorenzo wondered how such large men could even exist. They seemed twice as big as an ordinary person. The two Zeus were only forty feet away. At this point, the only thing that saved the Crew from exposure was the fact that they were sixty feet above the Zeus.

“I am mightier than you during any period, in any void. You are a slow, sickly rat,” one Zeus said.

“You could only hope to be faster than me. Stop your annoyances. More beer now!” the other Zeus said.

Lorenzo thought that they must be inebriated. Their slurred speech and their boisterous tone denoted a great ingestion of spirits. Markeeya looked into his eyes, her face was just inches away. Her breath was cool and smelled like spearmint.

“Don’t worry, maybe they’ll leave soon. Then we’ll depart,” Markeeya whispered.

Lorenzo dared not move his head. If the Zeus spotted them, the result would surely be death. He lay with MIT’s polymer protective cube resting on his back. He knew that if it came to a fight from this small, exposed perch, the Crew would be at a disadvantage. Their present location on a narrow walkway near the ceiling made the Crew an easy target for those giant pistols that the Zeus wore on their belts. To his dismay, more Zeus entered the room, and it seemed like the number grew to about 100. They milled about, slapping each other on the back, laughing and drinking from large, silver-steel mugs with handles large enough to be comfortably grasped by their oversized hands.

The Crew remained frozen, lying prone in place, not moving a muscle. They nervously watched the scene that unfolded below them.

Loud electronic music started playing, the deep bass and screeching sounds reverberated off the steel walls.

“Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk!” all the Zeus shouted in unison.

A few more gold-armored Zeus entered the great chamber. They walked in a

circle around a central giant dressed in similar gold armor like the other giants. However, his armor was more ornate, with spikes on his gold-plated right shoulder.

The crowd continued to chant: “Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk!”

The scene reminded Lorenzo of the Roman Empire era that he had seen on the old computer pictures back at Bliss. One variance was that all the Zeus had large frocks of orange hair. He surmised that the Zeus’ ubiquitous orange hair was actually wigs. The pictures of Rome that he ed were of skirt-clad men with helmets and spears. These men also wore skirts and had wide sheathed swords. The armor looked similar to that of the ancient Romans. The only major difference was that these centurions had three-inch sized bullets in loops on their belts, and leather holsters were strapped to their thighs that held large handguns with an ornately carved grip.

More Zeus crowded in around the central leader. He raised his arms above his head, yelling at top volume.

“My brethren, close to me come, and feel the power of the true Zeus and our movement. We are meant for great things and great events, like no time has ever seen before! This period we have a feast, and in nine periods we put the plan in place that will give us direct control over the Pentangle. The party will now commence!”

“Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk!”

Lorenzo looked into Markeeya’s eyes as they both lay on the narrow walkway, face to face. They felt the vibration of the resonating Zeus chant reverberating through their bodies. From what he had just heard, it appeared that their stay on this narrow, elevated walkway was going to be at least as long as the Zeus party.

MIT, still strapped around Lorenzo’s shoulder, lay on the back of Lorenzo with full view of the events below. As Lorenzo lay prone, he turned his head to look behind at the rest of the Crew. When he made eye with Tawny, her expression conveyed fear and anger. The rest of the Crew lay completely motionless. Everyone knew that one false move or sound could draw the attention of the Zeus from the floor below.

The air felt hot, like an oven. Lorenzo watched the scene below in a state of nervous fascination. He thought of the Crew’s success in finding the source of the radio signal, but now they were trapped in this scary underground world. Their predicament was similar to a horrific nightmare, yet here they were. The terror below was real and he trembled at the thought of being spotted by the Zeus. Perspiration flowed and drenched the inside of his one-piece suit. Salty sweat also dripped into his eyes which he frequently closed to squeeze the droplets away.

The Horror

Giant, bronzed-skin men with half-naked shaved bodies laughed loudly like they were trying to outdo each other’s joy. Flowing orange-colored manes of hair stood up prominently on their heads. Their voices vibrated through the air, they were the largest men Lorenzo had ever seen. Each was over seven feet in height, with shoulders like expansive plateaus that blocked out the view of anything behind them. Not only were they thickly muscled with bulging purple veins, but their waists looked like a perfect washboard of stomach muscles, squared and distinctly visible. Cocked elbows with large, red hands held gallon-sized steel mugs of beer. Thunderous yelling and guffaws resounded in the chamber as the human monsters reveled loudly in each other’s company.

The Zeus started to congregate around the other end of the grand chamber near the four differently shaped pits in the floor.

Lorenzo looked into Markeeya’s beguiling green eyes as they faced each other, only inches apart. Her enchanting beauty superseded the danger below.

“What are those pits there, in the floor?” he whispered to Markeeya.

“They are the Voids of Despair. The Zeus use them frequently to torture and control. We’ve stumbled onto a Zeus party with President Kronk,” Markeeya said.

The square-jawed, orange-haired titans stood on the rim of a round pit, a circular black void in the stainless-steel floor. The Zeus’s oversized gold belt buckles reflected the amber light filling the room. A section of the pit wall slid up and a number of normal-sized men, women, and children entered the pit naked and shaking, huddled together, and visibly terrified.

“What is the delay?” boomed a basso voice.

“Are the rats not hungry for their food?” another baritone voice spoke loudly.

“Easy now, my brethren, the fellows below are waiting for the perfect time to put on the show,” a Zeus said.

“President Kronk, what say you!” another Zeus screamed.

The leader, who was larger than the rest, stepped forward while the others looked up to him. His face was flushed red with drink.

“Let there be no more delay! Release the rat!” Kronk screamed.

The crowd standing on the rim of the circular pit cheered.

A steel at the bottom of the pit suddenly slid up and out charged a thousand-pound rat. The men, women, and children at the bottom of the pit tried to avoid the rat’s slashing claws and pile-driver teeth, but the force of the giant rodent was overwhelming. The pit became a maelstrom of snarling animal fury and human carnage. All the of the family in the pit screamed, but quickly perished in agony. Bronze-chested Zeus standing above the pit laughed loudly and slapped each other’s shoulders.

“These Indigs die too easily. There is no sport. They have no chance of survival,” said one of the giants.

One Zeus felt differently than the rest. Lorenzo noticed this Zeus looked saddened to witness the horror, but fate had placed him here with men that he seemed to hate. He did not cheer and stayed far back from the pit.

The Zeus’s president Kronk spoke loudly.

“Maybe next time we can let them have a few weapons, but I doubt it would make any difference at all. These Indigs are just no match for us or for the rats. This is no sport! Who among us is fit to give some entertainment to our cadre? Most of you enjoy this Indig blood as I do, but now we need to add some more excitement to this moment! There is a great amount of drink and nothing left to amuse us!”

“I would like to see a show given by Dillion Darr! He boasts how he can kill a rat with his bare hands. I would like to see that now. How about we give Darr a knife so at least he has no excuse if the rat kills him?” yelled a Zeus.

“I will kill that rat just as I can kill anything in Deep!” Darr yelled.

“Prove it!” yelled a Zeus from the circle.

Dillion Darr wasn’t the biggest in size of the giant men, but he looked ominous. He had a scar that extended down his face across the left ocular orbit that

formerly held his eye but now was just a shriveled hole. The rest of his face was grotesque and disproportionately skewed, with a wide pockmarked nose and large forward-cupped ears. Darr’s biceps were massive, as round as a small woman’s waist, but he was one of the only Zeus with a rounded belly, denoting his obvious gluttony. Unlike most of the other Zeus who displayed rippling, muscled stomachs, his midsection was fat and distended. From his belt he drew out a three-foot-long, double-edged gladius sword.

“Who will be my seconds? Set ye now for my battle dress!”

Three of the Zeus separated from the circle and walked out of the large room, soon returning with pieces of gold spiked armor. They fitted the spiked plates over Darr’s shoulders, ribs, chest, and thighs until his entire body was covered with gold-plated armor. The thick armor plates had sharp pointed eight-inch cones jutting out from the surface. Darr’s body was now completely covered by gold-hued steel with cone-shaped spikes extending in every direction. One of the Zeus slowly placed a gold spiked helmet over Darr’s head, which had a thick, steel-cage face mask. The spotlights directly overhead in the room reflected off of the gold-tinted armor. Darr hit his helmet with the flat of his gladius sword. The harmonic ring of the steel echoed throughout the hall. His sword created a swooshing sound in the air as Darr arced the blade in a fast figure-eight pattern.

The giant rat in the circular pit ate the Indig bodies with a snarling ferociousness. The monster made gruesome morsels out of small arms and meaty torsos, squeaking through its nose as it ripped large mouthfuls from the mutilated cadavers. The rat’s snarling, hissing, and crunching of human bones in its large bucktoothed mouth brought smiles to the Zeus around the pit. The rat would occasionally look up at the Zeus and growl.

The Zeus leader spoke once again.

“Now, Darr, don’t get foolishly ambitious. At least take a shield with you. We don’t want to have to tell your family that you died while drunk and too full of bravado. Better take a larger sword with that small shield. That rat down there looks extra mean.”

The group laughed uproariously.

Darr became agitated at his taunting peers. He paced back and forth with the sword in his right hand. The crowd of Zeus shook their heads and showed expressions indicating that Darr might be making a big mistake, but he was much too drunk to think of the extreme danger when fighting a giant rat. Darr stumbled while trying to stand still at the edge of the pit.

“Don’t do it, Darr! You are a fool!” yelled one of the Zeus.

“A rat will not kill Dillion Darr! This pledge I give to thee!”

With that loud pronouncement, Darr held out his wide gladius blade. It was sharpened on both sides and the blade tapered to a needle-sharp point at the tip of its three-foot length. A crazed stare from Darr’s wide eye combined with his heavy breathing indicated that he was ready for battle.

“Wait, Darr!” President Kronk yelled. “Take my shield, I insist, oh, glorious warrior!”

The leader stepped behind a gold thrown and took out a gleaming rectangular

shield that was constructed of mirrored stainless steel with a gold-crested screaming face insignia in the middle. Darr stepped up and grabbed the shield.

“Thank you, my president! Prepare for a show that you will not soon forget!”

“Last chance to live, Darr! Don’t get on that lift!” one Zeus yelled.

The dire warning did not stop Darr. He stood next to a slowly rising elevator that appeared out of the steel floor. When he stepped inside the rectangular lift, it slowly descended into the steel floor, and a trap door slid back over the elevator hole.

All the Zeus stood around the pit chanting and pumping their fists in the air. “Darr! Darr! Darr! Darr!”

Kronk reached in back of his gold throne again, but this time he pulled out a long, brass firearm with a massive metal tube that looked more like the barrel of a cannon than of a man’s rifle. He snapped open the action in the middle of the rifle and placed a large brass shell into the gun’s chamber.

All the Zeus moved to the edge of the steel pit and waited for Darr to emerge into the ankle-deep blood and guts that had been created by the giant rat. The rat was snarling and occasionally looked up menacingly from the pit, fangs and teeth displayed to intimidate as it snarled and chomped on what was left of the doomed family. The monstrous rodent also lapped up the quarts of blood that had spilled from the bodies onto the steel floor of the pit.

The seamless metal door suddenly slid open, and there stood Darr with his shield and double-edged gladius sword. He screamed a battle cry and stepped forward as the door slid closed behind him. The giant rat reared up on its hind legs and bared its six-inch claws. When the rat stood, it was even taller than Darr. The rat’s bloodcurdling squeal was disconcerting as it lunged toward Darr, but Darr was ready, quickly lifting his shield. The rat’s teeth hit the shield and its head slid upwards as Dar stood up from his squat. Lifting the rat’s head upward, he exposed the soft underbelly of the giant rodent. Darr’s upward sword thrust sank into the rat’s belly. When the rat jumped away, Darr still held onto his blooddripping blade.

The Zeus around the pit cheered loudly.

With a frightening high-pitched squeal, the giant rat lunged again at Darr, trying to bite his ankle by attacking low. He stepped back quickly and lowered the shield onto the rat’s nose. The blunt force of the bottom of the shield did not stop the rat’s onslaught, it lunged low again, and this time its jaws closed around Darr’s brass-armored shin guard. Screaming, he almost fell backwards until he braced himself against the steel wall of the pit and stabbed downward. The point of his blade hit the rat mid-body, just off-line from the spine. The rat recoiled from the pain and suddenly stood up in a quick movement, throwing Darr into the air. Both of the rat’s arms tipped with six-inch claws grabbed at Darr’s brass shoulder pads. The points penetrated through the gaps in his armor, piecing the skin of Darr’s armpits. The rat had him pinned against the side of the pit, armpits now skewered on six-inch claws. Darr screamed in pain, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

The rat attempted to bite him but then jerked his head back when Darr swung his blade with a stifled swing, slicing the rat’s muzzle. The rat’s head jerked forward again, and its six-inch fangs closed around the brass-armored rim of Darr’s shoulder armor.

There was a bright flash, and a loud explosion suddenly filled the pit. A visible shock wave coursed through the air and knocked the rat downwards to the floor of the pit. Darr also dropped to the steel bottom of the pit, his armpits pierced by the rat’s long claws. Breathing hard, he looked up.

“President Kronk! Why did you do that? I was just about to kill him with my knife!”

The leader stood on the rim of the pit with the rifle that was still smoking from the end of the wide muzzle.

“Hah, you are a brave drunken fool Darr! But I salute you! Let us all salute Darr!”

The Zeus snapped to attention, their legs straight and ankles close together. They crooked their arms and made a fist.”

“Darr! We salute you!”

A door inside the pit slid up and two Zeus ran in. One Zeus held Darr by ing the back of his body while the other Zeus slowly pulled the rat’s claws out of his shoulders.

“Ahhh! Careful my friends, leave some for the doctors to stitch up,” Darr laughed.

The Zeus exited the lift with Darr’s arms over their shoulders for .

“Darr, come sit in this warrior’s chair. Zeus doctors will bandage your wounds,” Kronk boomed.

As Darr sat in a steel chair, other Zeus put their mugs up to Darr’s mouth, at which point he drank with gusto, the beer flowing out the sides of the mug and onto his chin.

“Let us have a grand meal and celebrate Darr’s heroism. Women slaves and entertainment in my chamber at quarter period. We must also plan our new invasion into the Pentangle!”

“Praise to Kronk! Praise to Kronk! Our greatest President!” the Zeus yelled in unison.

“Yes, my brethren, all is well and good. We now dedicate ourselves to pleasure. Then we demand more slaves for our tasks. But first, I would like to enhance our already fantastic entertainment with the help of Bokchoke Yor!” Kronk boomed.

Bokchoke stood up from one of the ornate brass chairs in front of the pillars lining the hall. This was the Zeus that Lorenzo had noticed who obviously disapproved of the other Zeus.

“And what does President Kronk have in mind for me?”

Bokchoke Yor’s thickly muscled shoulders and biceps exuded an obvious force that made the others in the room glare.

Markeeya’s face looked shocked. Lorenzo was concerned about what she was thinking. She finally whispered to him.

“I know Bokchoke Yor. He is a friend to the Indigs. The Kronk Zeus are frightened and uneasy around him because of his enlightened mind. He is important to my people. Kronk hates him.”

President Kronk turned and focused his gaze on Bokchoke Yor.

“I think the other Zeus and I would like to see your show with a rat!” Kronk barked.

Markeeya gasped when she heard Kronk say this. Lorenzo looked at her and she met his eyes.

“Oh, no, Bokchoke, he is my friend. He is smart. He is helping us stay alive. I will tell you later, not now,” Markeeya whispered.

Kronk obviously didn’t like Bokchoke. The mocking tone that Kronk used was apparent even to Lorenzo. President Kronk was ordering Bokchoke to get into a pit with a thousand-pound rat.

“Hah, after what I have just drunk in beer there would be two rats in that void! I’m seeing double and my performance would be sadly deficient,” Bokchoke said.

Kronk smiled, a big toothy grin, and Bokchoke’s face dropped. From their expressions, Lorenzo could discern that Bokchoke would be forced to fight a rat. President Kronk then pumped his fist into the air and chanted loudly.

“Bokchoke! Bokchoke! Bokchoke”.

The Zeus in the room also ed in the chanting and pumped their fists.

Bokchoke! Bokchoke! Bokchoke! Bokchoke! Bokchoke!

Lorenzo figured that the direct challenge from Kronk was essentially a scheme to kill Bokchoke. There would be no saving shot from Kronk’s rifle if the rat bested him.

Three Zeus appeared from a corner of the chamber and strapped gold-spiked armor onto Bokchoke. The weight of the armor looked heavy, thought Lorenzo, however, once strapped on, the armor seemed to fluidly move with Bokchoke. His sword, held in his right hand, looked like an ancient Roman gladius, a double-edged wide blade with an elongated needle-like point. The pommel on the handle bore the screaming face insignia of the Zeus, a logo that Lorenzo now recognized.

Bokchoke was led into a confined, one-person black elevator that had risen up from the steel floor just outside of the square Void of Despair. The loudly chanting Zeus voices echoed in the chamber. Bokchoke entered the elevator and descended into the floor.

“Bokchoke! Bokchoke! Bokchoke! Bokchoke!”

When Bokchoke stepped onto the floor of the square Void another steel door at the bottom of the pit quickly slid up. From the other side of the of the square pit a huge snarling rat stepped out and sat back on its haunches. Its lips turning upward to bare its fearsome teeth. The rat growled loudly. His ominous black eyes stared at Bokchoke.

The giant rat sprang forward, a thousand pounds of enraged blood and muscle led by an open mouth full of white teeth and fangs.

Bokchoke was ready with his shield and deflected the rat’s charge to the left while simultaneously stepping to his right. As the rat ed him by, Bokchoke threw up his right leg and jumped on the back of the rat. The steel spikes on Bokchoke’s suit of armor stuck into the rat’s back. It reared backwards, slamming Bokchoke into the steel wall of the pit. The spikes on the suit of armor drove deeper into the rat’s back flesh, and it squealed loudly. The Zeus standing around on the rim of the square above howled and cheered — all except one. President Kronk remained silent.

While pinned to the back of the rat’s backbone by the spikes of his armor, Bokchoke swung his sword to the front of the rat’s neck and hooked his armored left arm around the end of his sword. Bokchoke then pulled the sword toward the rat’s neck. The three-foot razor-sharp blade sliced into the larynx and neck veins of the rat. Quarts of blood spewed out from the wide neck wound. The rat’s

thrashings and attempts to throw Bokchoke off its back were unsuccessful. It became weak and eventually collapsed. Bokchoke drew a large knife out of his belt which he brought down on the rat’s skull in one swift motion. The point of the thick blade went completely into the top of the rat’s skull, and the rat stopped moving.

The Zeus above the pit cheered.

“Bokchoke, Bokchoke, Bokchoke, Bokchoke.”

The only Zeus not cheering around the pit was President Kronk.

The small elevator rose up out of the floor and Bokchoke exited, his spiked suit of armor dripping with blood.

Enthusiastic Zeus crowded around Bokchoke and helped him remove his armor. The other Zeus then poured their large mugs of beer over his head as he laughed and accepted the congratulations from his fellow Zeus.

Kronk suddenly interrupted the moment, speaking loudly.

“Gather over here, my brethren, and let us discuss the Pentangle attack plans.”

The Zeus walked over to a large, round, polished-steel pedestal that rose out of the floor and ed a diorama depicting a geometric pentangle. The entire

model was surrounded by a jagged glass circle. Lorenzo looked away from the Zeus and saw Markeeya’s dismayed expression as she stared at the Zeus right below them.

“General Tak! Inform us of your plans!” Kronk said.

“My shock battalion will move silently into place just outside the crystal perimeter. They will be fully armored including shoulder rifles. We estimate that resistance will be minor and futile,” the older Zeus said.

“Second command oversees the slave containment contingent of Zeus. They will march into place from the Supply Corridor. Second command will move in after the first command shock battalion does their job,” another Zeus said.

“Yes, yes, excellent. You Zeus make me proud. I’ll see to it personally that every one of you is rewarded with six additional slave women. From this round, I intend on reviewing the stock, and then hand-selecting the very best for myself and my staff, of course.”

The Zeus stood back from the table and held out their fists. They yelled in unison.

“Hail President Kronk! Hail to the President!”

“Yes, yes,” Kronk smirked, “spare no blood but spare the fragile flowers who will be our slaves forever. We will meet here again for another party in a few

periods.”

The Zeus held up their mugs of beer and pumped their fists as they loudly chanted.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The Terror

Lorenzo and the Crew remained in their prone position for hours until the last Zeus finally left the hall.

“It’s time,” Markeeya said.

She winked at Lorenzo before turning around to face the other way.

The Crew stood up slowly, Lorenzo saw the pain in his friends’ expressions from having to remain still for so many hours. He suddenly felt a tugging on his right hand. When he looked down, he saw that it was Markeeya’s hand.

“Let’s get out of here quickly,” Markeeya smirked.

She led the Crew a few hundred feet along the elevated rim to another air vent. Kneeling, she popped the vent off with the tips of her fingers and carefully laid the grate to the side.

“I will go last and place the vent grate back. You will slide into this air vent age. it down to your friends,” Markeeya smiled.

Lorenzo did not know how to interpret her smile and that bothered him.

Tawny took the lead and slithered into the vent. The Crew followed her down a

100-foot-long air vent which led to another slide down, just as before, into another air chamber. After Markeeya emerged from the vent, the Crew followed her into another long metal air vent. Markeeya crawled out of the vent and dropped down to a floor. When Lorenzo looked over the edge, he saw that it was just six feet down to a polished-concrete floor in an empty hallway. One by one, the of the Crew emerged from the vent and dropped to the floor looking withered and scared. When Doc dropped, he injured a knee and mumbled something. Bounce lay down on the floor and looked up at the 20-foothigh ceiling lights, while Tawny held her head in her hands.

Lorenzo motioned the Crew to together in a circle. He continued to breathe heavily, and it was hard to hide the fact that he was as nervous and scared as the others. They had never witnessed such violence, nor could they have ever imagined the horrific ways of the Zeus bloodlust culture. The Crew came from a land of total peace and tranquility, they all regretted their choice to place themselves in this nightmarish underground world.

“Listen up, Crew. Our only focus is getting out of here and back to Bliss alive. Markeeya said she can get us back to the other side of those doors. We have to believe her. I trust her. She’s our only hope now.”

“We have to listen to her, we don’t have a choice,” Tawny pined.

Lorenzo turned toward Markeeya.

“Markeeya, how quickly can you get us back to the other side of those giant doors?”

Markeeya stepped into the circle of six.

“We will have to cross the frontier until we reach the Crystal Perimeter.”

“What is the Crystal Perimeter?” Crazy asked.

“The Section of Grave is inside,” Markeeya said without further explanation.

The Crew’s expression looked puzzled. What did Markeeya mean?

Lorenzo spoke up for the Crew.

“Markeeya, what is the Crystal Perimeter and what is the Section of Grave?”

“I told you, Grave is inside the Crystal Perimeter where I live, which is inside the Super Chamber. The Crystal Perimeter keeps Grave safe,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo looked puzzled as did the rest of the Crew.

“We still don’t quite understand. Where do we go after we get to Grave? How do we get back to the location on the other side of those giant doors?”

“We must go through to the other side of the Pentangle, and from there we can follow the Supply Corridor to the Zeus Doors of Olympus,” Markeeya said.

“How long do you think we will be traveling for?” Crazy asked

“Not too far, but it will take us some time,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo wanted answers.

“How much time will it take to get to the Doors of Olympus?”

Markeeya tilted her head.

“That depends on how quickly we can go.”

Lorenzo was trying to not get frustrated by Markeeya’s bizarre answers.

“We want to get to the other side of those doors as quickly as possible.”

“Just follow me,” Markeeya said.

She turned and started jogging down the hall with long and fluid strides. Lorenzo, Tawny, and Crazy followed and kept up even though they were exhausted. However, Ambrosia, Doc, and Bounce lagged behind. Their equipment made a lot of noise as it jangled where it hung on their vests and belts. After just two hundred feet, half the Crew had stopped running and were out of breath.

“Hold up, Markeeya. Stop. The others cannot keep up this kind of pace, especially since they are wearing heavy equipment,” Lorenzo said.

The rest of the Crew finally caught up to them. The hallway was dark in places, with faint lights spaced every fifty feet casting dark shadows everywhere.

“We have to go up this ladder here to another hallway, and then we will enter the first chamber,” Markeeya said. The ladder went straight up a wall and then disappeared up into the ceiling. She climbed it like a squirrel scampering up a pine tree in a forest.

Lorenzo followed but took his time. He figured that the ladder was going to reach the top of somewhere, so why rush, especially since he and the Crew were completely drained.

Doc turned on his headlight and took up the rear, but lagged way behind. Rung by rung, he moved slowly upward.

After climbing a few hundred feet single file through a dark vertical tube, they emerged onto the polished concrete floor of another dark hallway with faint lighting. The rest of the Crew emerged from the hole in the floor where the

ladder ended. They walked silently, quietly following Markeeya for about thirty minutes up a noticeable incline. The Crew was in shock and too tired to utter even one wasteful word. They walked slowly, one step after the other. Bounce finished the last remaining water from his emergency canteen. The Crew’s fatigue seemed to visibly annoy Markeeya. She looked back at them often, her eyes expressing urgency, anger, and fright. When Lorenzo’s peripheral light beam crossed her face, he could see her cold, serious, expression of angst.

The narrow hallway had a few thresholds to step through. Bounce had to keep his large microwave rifle vertical to make it through the narrow thresholds. The walls were decrepit broken concrete, overlaid with wires and pipes. They came upon steel double-doors that opened in the center with a push bar. Stepping through the threshold, they found themselves in a very large room.

Lorenzo noticed the space had a low ten-foot ceiling. He adjusted his flashlight to the brightest setting but still could not make out the other side of the room, it was beyond 2000 feet long on all sides. Except for the light cast by the Crew’s flashlights, the large chamber was pitch dark. The ceiling consisted of crumbling, stained, and water-damaged brown concrete. Wires and pipes lined the ceiling above, and there were smaller sheet-metal air vent rectangles that also crisscrossed all through the ceiling.

“I do not think you should make any noise in this chamber, I see the droppings of a rat. Careful, your bright flashlights will surely attract the rat,” Markeeya warned.

“Well, how are we supposed to walk without making any noise? We have weapons that can fight those big rats,” Doc contended, as he raised his shotgun.

Defying Markeeya’s warning, Bounce turned on his large search beam and held

it in his left hand.

“The rat will hear if you make noise. We must walk quietly, softly. Do not make noise. You will invite danger. We must be silent and move fast,” Markeeya whispered.

“All right, Crew, let’s keep the lights on low and our weapons ready,” Lorenzo said.

Doc’s annoyance was apparent.

“Well, I’m not going to trip, so I’ll keep my light on high.”

He started walking in front of the Crew, rushing and frustrated, like he had a point to make. His headlight was switched on, plus he had a bright hand-held flashlight. He stormed forward, his body language showing anger, the headlight and flashlight beams bobbed side to side as he walked quickly. The rest of the Crew followed in silence.

Markeeya grabbed Lorenzo’s forearm tightly. He felt her firm grip right through to his bones. She seemed alarmed, even nervous. He turned and looked into her wide eyes.

“Your friend is making a mistake,” Markeeya whispered.

There was a jingling noise up front from Doc’s rapid pace. He had gotten a second wind and was rage driven by their dire situation. His face was flushed red. Doc was furious and just wanted to get back to the surface.

Suddenly, he fumbled his hand-held flashlight and it fell onto the polished concrete floor. The clinking noise of hard polymer hitting polished concrete caused an echoing sound throughout the chamber. Doc turned to the rest of the Crew, his headlight pointed directly into their eyes.

“Don’t say anything, smart asses! It fell out of my hand!” Doc yelled.

His thirst, hunger, and ire had now bubbled over into resentment. He picked up his flashlight, turned around, and started walking again, his loose hanging belt equipment clinking and swinging with each step.

Markeeya suddenly stopped walking. She held out her hand in a gesture to stop the others.

“I heard something. Did anyone else hear anything?”

“Doc! Hold up!” Lorenzo yelled.

They all stopped walking, ears straining to listen into the echoing void.

All at once, their expressions changed to wide-eyed fright, a scratching noise

was heard by all. The intermittent scratching noise seemed to be getting closer. They frantically pointed their flashlight beams everywhere in the darkness, but they did not see anything.

“Run back to the hallway!” Markeeya screamed.

The Crew turned around and started running as quickly as they could, Markeeya was in front, but Tawny was a close second. The rest of the Crew lagged behind. Lorenzo turned and pushed the of the Crew forward. Doc was last with Bounce just in front of him. Lorenzo got behind Doc and started pushing him towards the doors.

Lorenzo felt an instinct to turn quickly and shine his flashlight behind him, that’s when he saw the giant rat charging at a full gallop.

“Ahhhhhhh!” he screamed.

He held his M16 low, flipped the selector switch to full auto, and fired a burst of thirty .223-caliber bullets. The staccato muzzle flashes illuminated his face in the darkness like a strobe light, showing an expression of pure terror. The rat shrieked loudly and flailed its body, struck by the automatic rifle burst.

Lorenzo turned and ran toward the hallway, pushing Doc from behind. Everyone made it out of the chamber except them. Lorenzo saw Doc turn and lift his 12gauge pump shotgun up to his shoulder.

“Lorenzo! It’s coming up behind you! Get down!” Doc yelled.

Without further thought, Lorenzo crouched low. Doc fired three loud blasts over his squatting body. When Lorenzo looked back, he saw the rat squirming on the floor and then slowly regain his feet. Lorenzo stood up quickly and ran toward the Crew. When he and Doc got through the threshold, Markeeya quickly slammed the door shut.

Yet the rat stuck his claw in the gap and ripped the doors back open.

“I’m not running anymore,” Bounce said.

He hefted his microwave rifle just as the rat appeared at the threshold. The capacitor on his rifle was set to maximum and glowed red as he pointed the muzzle toward the quickly advancing rat.

It stopped and started to grip itself with its front paws, rolling on its back. The rat’s body flailed wildly while it shrieked. The Crew stepped back and watched the 1,000-pound rat roll toward them less than ten feet away. They stepped back again as the rat rolled even closer toward them while spasming, a blurry display of fangs and six-inch claws thrashing in the air. Bounce stayed motionless, focusing the microwave beam at the center of the rat just a few feet away. Suddenly, the rat exploded, showering him and the Crew in a bloody mess of steaming rat guts.

“Uhhh, disgusting!” Tawny yelled, shaking hot rat entrails off herself.

“Guess your microwave rifle saved our asses. Good thing for all of us,” Crazy said.

Everyone was covered in blood and small pieces of roasting flesh. Markeeya started breathing hard. Her anger evident as she examined the muck on her arms. She shook her body, trying to get the steaming blood and guts off her clothes while growling in disgust.

“You people! What is wrong with you people? How did you ever get beyond the age of even two cycles? The Sky where you come from must be a strange place! Why do you endanger me and yourselves?” Markeeya yelled.

“Hey, this is your rotten world, we just discovered it. The sooner we can get to the Sky, as you say, the happier we’ll all be. Good thing Bounce just saved us,” Crazy argued.

Markeeya looked down and shook her head. Her eyes became wide, and she looked to the side, away from the Crew. Her loathing of them apparent.

“Listen, Markeeya, we are visitors, here for the first time, and we are grateful for your help. This underground world is not a good place. Our real world is up above and does not have such dangers as these giant rats or the Zeus. We will do as you say on our way to Grave,” Lorenzo said.

Markeeya looked up and her eyes were softer.

“Yes, Lorenzo, let us go to Grave. Will you take me back with you to the Sky?”

“Yes, Markeeya, we will all go back up to the Sky, but we do not call our world Sky. We call our world Earth.”

Markeeya looked up at Lorenzo.

“My world is called Deep.”

“This world is a Deep Hell if you ask me. It’s way too hot down here, the Zeus want to enslave us, and everything else wants to kill us!” Doc complained.

“What is hell?” Markeeya asked.

“A mythical place that is hot with flames and full of pain and sorrow, forever in one’s soul,” Ambrosia said.

Markeeya looked confused.

“What is a soul?”

“It is who you are, your consciousness, the person that is inside you,” Tawny added.

“We call that our psyche,” Markeeya smiled.

The rest of the Crew stood still, too exhausted, too confused, and too frightened to move. Lorenzo knew that Markeeya was their only possible salvation out of this place. He thought about being captured by the Zeus and forced into slavery for the rest of his life. Perhaps he and the Crew would fight to the death. Then he thought of the giant rats. If two rats attacked them simultaneously, Lorenzo worried that not even their sophisticated weapons would be enough to defend themselves.

“Markeeya, we are very grateful for your help in guiding us out of Deep. We would be happy to bring you back with us to Bliss. It is very nice and safe there. You could be very happy in Bliss,” Lorenzo said.

Her obvious affection toward Lorenzo was apparent when Markeeya winked at him and smiled.

“Follow me again. While we walk, everyone must remain quiet.”

The Crew parted shoulders to let Markeeya walk in front of them. She stepped through the threshold of the double doors and the Crew obediently followed.

Lorenzo stopped to wrap a thick layer of adhesive tape around Doc’s loadbearing belt to stop his equipment from jingling when he walked.

They all tiptoed through the chamber while being as quiet as possible. The other side of the room was finally visible. There was a thin steel double door like the one on the opposite side of the room.

“Another hallway is on the other side of those doors. We will be safe there for a while before we enter the Black Frontier,” Markeeya said.

They walked through the threshold of the doors and then Markeeya shut the doors behind them. The hallway was dimly lit and inclined upward. They steadily ascended the upward ramp for about thirty minutes.

Lorenzo could sense the Crew’s fatigue.

“Markeeya, I think we need to rest a bit to gather our strength for the journey to Grave.”

“That is fine. It is just another 1,000 feet to the entrance of the Black Frontier. We must be quiet again while traversing the endless Black Frontier. We must progress silently and quickly all together,” Markeeya said.

When they saw the entrance to the Black Frontier, it was similar to the steel double doors they had seen before, the hallway had leveled out.

“Markeeya, why do you call it the Black Frontier?” Lorenzo asked.

“When we go through those doors, we enter a space with no light, no direction, and no limit. The floor has rolling mounds, forcing us to walk up and down for most of the way. We must walk in a straight line to reach the Super Chamber,” Markeeya said.

“Time to take a rest. Everyone, go ahead and take off your equipment. We are resting here as long as we need to,” Lorenzo directed.

The of the Crew plopped down onto the polished concrete floor, totally exhausted. Bounce opened a container of nuts and Doc drank deeply from his canteen. Ambrosia cleaned her skin with a small towel. Crazy and Tawny exchanged energy bars while leaning their backs against the hallway’s walls.

Lorenzo reflected on how terrifying the giant rats were in Deep. They were outsized beyond his wildest imagination, larger than four regular men put together. The rat’s drooling, large mouths were frightening, especially when their two front buckteeth were revealed, each tooth as thick as a person’s arm. Their bellies squeezed between their haunches like giant, black balls of hairy flesh ready to burst. A keen, piercing intelligence was discernible in their small beady black eyes, like they were scheming about the best way to rip apart flesh using their sheer animal fury. Hand-like fingers extended from thick, stubby arms, their fingers tipped with black claws that could punch through a man’s chest with a single swipe.

Lorenzo looked at the Crew. Bounce, Doc, Ambrosia, and Crazy were sleeping, curled up in fetal positions on the floor with plastic ponchos thrown over themselves as makeshift blankets.

Tawny remained quiet, consumed by her own thoughts and exhaustion. Eventually, she too wrapped herself in a plastic poncho and curled up on the

floor to sleep.

Lorenzo turned his head and gazed at Markeeya for a few seconds. She sat next to him on the floor, her back against the wall and her legs stretched out straight. She wore a curious type of footwear that had individual toe nodes. Her bow was laid to the side but she still gripped a large, straight-edged knife.

Somehow, in spite of all the peril, Lorenzo felt a magnetic attraction toward Markeeya. Her dark skin was smooth, and her extra-large green eyes were spellbinding. She had short, black hair and a straight nose. Her full lips were naturally pursed and framed by rounded high cheekbones. Lorenzo realized that she was a beautiful woman.

“Markeeya, tell me more about the rats in Deep. How did they get so big?”

“They have always been big, from what I know. I avoid them by going through places they have trouble fitting into. The most unusual thing of all is the way the giant rats can walk upright on their short, stocky legs, with small strides. They walk hunched over, pointed muzzles forward, twitching noses leading their way. The rats’ long tails trail behind, slithering back and forth as they walk, snapping like a giant whip. They move very quickly at the smell of food or any hint of danger. On all fours, the rats can cover the distance of 100 feet in the blink of an eye. They cross the last ten feet with a giant leap, descending on their prey with their sharp front teeth, like the front of a steel bar slamming into concrete. Thin metal or flesh, it doesn’t matter. Thick metal is the only material that stops them, all other materials yield to those two front sharp teeth. A normal man, even a Zeus, has no natural defense against the rat, yet the Zeus have their steel armor, which lets them physically battle the rats.”

“Do the Indigs ever beat a rat with just their swords like yours?”

“Maybe an Indig could get in a lucky stab into the head of the rat beast, but the rat’s thrashing death throes might kill the Indig when the beast is dying and looks for revenge upon its slayer. You have seen that happen. We often eat rat because Indig rat hunters use long metal lances to kill them,” Markeeya said.

“The rats where I live on the surface are only a few inches long. They usually hide in rocky craigs by the seashore.”

“What is the seashore?” Markeeya asked.

Lorenzo felt empathetic concerning her total unawareness of Earth’s surface.

“I have a lot to tell you about the planet we live on, far too much for right now. Tell me more about the giant rats.”

“When one of the rats detects a meal, saliva flows from its gums, forming puddles of bubbling goo on the floor. A rat’s nest is easy to smell well before approaching close, due to their constant bowel movements. They lay logs of feces. The Indigs use the logs as fuel for our cooking fires and to keep us warm in the fireplace. In fact, those black feces logs are sought after because they make a nice, hot, blue fire that burns for a long time. We also use the dung logs to barter for other things. The usefulness of the dung logs often outweighs the danger of gathering them. If the dung logs are around though, so are the rats. Great care must be taken when gathering fuel. Speed is important, otherwise, the fire-dung gatherers might soon find that they are suddenly in the grip of a rat’s jaw,” Markeeya said.

“So those dung logs are valuable to the Indigs. I guess they are worth a lot if a person can easily die just trying to gather some. Do any of the Indigs have rifles or pistols?”

“We have manufactured some firearms that we hide, handmade pieces, built one at a time. If a Zeus sees an Indig with a gun, it means instant death for the Indig. The best defense a person has against a giant rat is the ability to squeeze into a space that is too small for the rat. So, it is fortunate indeed when an Indig can scurry away down a narrow ageway that prevents the rat’s pursuit. There is one astounding thing that gives the giant rats their unconquerable power. They have the ability to cooperate with each other. Like trained, disciplined scouts, the rats march in perfect cadence, each stepping in time with the other. If attacked by a hunting group of Indigs, the rats form a circle, a defensive posture on their hind legs, noses and ominous buckteeth outstretched forward, claws in front, flexing, ready to rip downward. Once a battle starts, the scene resembles a chaotic, swirling bloodbath, ear-splitting squealing and red droplets coating the area. To the shock of those still alive to witness a battle, the giant rats will regroup into a phalanx and march again against all who dared to challenge them. Their black wave of monstrous carnage is nearly unstoppable, leaving the bloodshed of shredded remains to be eaten by the rats in the back of the pack.”

Markeeya related her knowledge with an entertaining vigor, gesturing with her hands as she spoke.

Lorenzo was impressed at the intelligence and vocabulary used by Markeeya. He became more enamored by her every word.

“You speak very well, Markeeya. Do all the Indigs have your talent for detailed storytelling? Did you go to school as a child like I did?”

“Yes, I attended many classes. Indig children go to school for a while in the Section of Conformer, but school is not mandatory. Going to school is often looked down upon by most Indigs where I live in Grave. The Zeus make Indigs believe that staying stupid is the more honorable path. Zeus propaganda states that the Indigs should dedicate their work and their life to the happiness of the Zeus. Some Indigs listen to the Zeus and do exactly as they say, they are instructed to only serve the Zeus and not go to school. The Zeus reward the Indigs who live in Performa, and those Indigs have fancy apartments and the best of everything. I, on the other hand, have studied continuously with the help of scholars in Conformer. My quest is to learn about everything.”

Lorenzo found himself attracted to Markeeya’s personality.

“That has always been my goal, too! I want to know everything, yet I have trouble trying to find out what makes our lives the way they are.”

Markeeya’s face looked joyful.

“Me too! I ask myself, why am I an Indig? Why does my psyche exist here in Deep? What is the atomic power that the Zeus control? These are just a few of the questions from thousands that I want answered.”

The black polymer box with slotted vents that held MIT against Lorenzo’s chest suddenly spewed light from the holes.

“Oh, Markeeya, please tell us more about the atomic power held by the Zeus.”

Markeeya’s eyes opened wide with surprise.

“What was that Lorenzo? Did you somehow speak from your chest through that box?”

Lorenzo and Markeeya sat on the floor of the hallway, close together, shoulders touching, their backs against the wall. He turned to her, iring her exotic beauty. Markeeya’s face was only a few inches from his. Her full, dark lips made him fixate for a moment on their perfect contours.

“No, Markeeya, that voice was not me speaking. The voice you heard came from the small glass sphere in this box on my chest. His name is MIT, he has assigned himself the gender identity of a male. MIT is an artificial intelligence.”

Markeeya was flummoxed.

“I don’t understand?”

Lorenzo looked down towards the glass sphere attached to his chest.

“Don’t be rude MIT, say hello to Markeeya before you start asking her questions.”

“Excuse me. Hello Markeeya, my name is MIT. Nice to meet you.”

“How is this possible? Are you joking with me Lorenzo?” Markeeya smiled.

“No, Markeeya, Lorenzo is not joking with you. I am a sentient being, an intelligence manufactured by people that lived a very long time ago,” MIT clarified.

Markeeya’s mouth was agape. She could not believe what she was seeing and hearing. Her expression was one of both amusement and disbelief. Lorenzo unsnapped the four locking bars around the box and carefully reached in for MIT.

“Put your hands out, Markeeya. You can hold MIT as you talk to him.”

He carefully placed MIT in Markeeya’s open hands. The glass sphere contained pleasant swirling blue and yellow lights which circulated within the glass.

“Do you really exist in there?” Markeeya asked.

“Yes, Markeeya, I exist. I am the only known human-made sentient being in our world.”

A broad smile formed on Markeeya’s face as she stared at the small glass sphere in her hands.

“You are amazing, MIT! I would like to talk to you and learn all about you when we get to my section in the Pentangle.”

“That is fine, Markeeya. I would like to get to know you better, too. Can you tell me more about the atomic power of the Zeus? From what I’ve seen, they do not appear to have the sophistication of nuclear power.”

“I know that the Zeus control the atomic engine, which gives power to all the lights in Deep. Atomic means atoms, the bits of matter that Deep is made of. I wish I could tell you more, but that is all I know.”

“Fascinating! Now I know how this enormous place is able to have so many lights constantly on,” MIT said.

Markeeya gently handed MIT back to Lorenzo, who placed him back into his chest box and locked the four lid latches closed.

“One of us must stay awake and watch out for the others. You can sleep now, and I will stay awake,” Markeeya said.

“No, you sleep first Markeeya. I’ll keep watch. I’ll wake someone else up when I need to sleep,” Lorenzo countered.

With a sigh of relief, Markeeya leaned her head onto his left shoulder, closed her eyes, and seemed to fall asleep just one minute later. He thought about how much he liked Markeeya. Her head resting on his shoulder produced an amorous

feeling. Her black hair smelled like fragrant oil. Somehow, the moment felt peaceful in this dark and dangerous world she called Deep.

The Black Frontier

Tawny was the first to wake up. Lorenzo told her that he needed some sleep, and she raised an eyebrow when she saw that Markeeya’s head was resting on his shoulder. Once Tawny agreed to stand guard, he immediately fell asleep, his head resting against Markeeya’s head. A few hours later Crazy unintentionally woke Lorenzo and Markeeya by frantically flicking off large roaches that were crawling on the two. Markeeya opened her eyes.

“The roaches are good.”

Then she again rested her head on Lorenzo’s shoulder and went back to sleep. An hour later, the rest of the Crew stirred.

After buckling up all their gear and drinking most of their remaining canteen water, Markeeya explained to the Crew about the next leg of their journey.

“On the other side of those doors is the Black Frontier, a pitch-black space that only a few Zeus and Indigs venture into. Navigating through this space is impossible unless you know what you are doing. We will reach the entrance doors in a half-waking time.”

“Are there rats in there? Can we expect to get attacked again?” Tawny asked nervously.

Markeeya shook her head.

“We should not have to worry too much about rats inside the Black Frontier if we move quickly and quietly, however, I have heard of roving rat packs that prey on spiders. Most rats are eaten by the destroyer ants.”

“Destroyer what? Did you just say destroyer ants?” Doc asked.

“Yes, destroyer ants. The rats are their main source of food.”

Lorenzo’s thick eyebrows went up and he focused on Markeeya.

“I think that we’d all like to know more details about what you are referring to when you say that there are destroyer ants on the other side of those doors. Will we be able to kill them? The destroyer ants must be very large if the giant rats are their main food source.”

“They are only a foot long. The ants hunt in packs of about a hundred. Don’t worry, there are ways to avoid and escape the ants. Long ago, Indigs from Grave explored the Black Frontier. They progressed to this point we are at now by setting up metal escape capsules large enough to hold eight people. The ants cannot break through the metal shell and they eventually move on to look for other food,” Markeeya said.

Doc’s face winced and he spoke up.

“Markeeya, how much farther to your village of Grave? We are out of drinking water”

Markeeya looked as if she was getting tired of answering questions.

“As I said before, about a half-awake time to cross the Black Frontier. Then just a short distance through the Crystal Perimeter.”

“Markeeya, what is the Crystal Perimeter? “Ambrosia asked.

“It is our protection.”

“Uh, Markeeya, can you tell us more about the destroyer ants, because that sounds like something I’m going to be really scared of,” Crazy itted.

“They are armor plated in appearance. The ant muscles and guts are visible through the undulating morphing skin underneath their armor. They make a clicking noise that vibrates loudly through the ether as they move to achieve one goal, mobility toward their prey, devouring as they swarm over prey, and leaving nothing. The destroyer ants eat rats, spiders, and anything else that lives in the Black Frontier. Even the giant rats run when the clicking sound of the ant legs pierce the black space. What is most threatening about the destroyer ants is their coordinated swarming attack. They suddenly appear out of the blackness without any warning, giving their prey little time to run.”

“So, you’re telling us that the ants are inside the Black Frontier, ready to eat us! Oh, that’s just great! Just great! Did you say how long are we going to be in there? How fast did you say these things are?” Bounce asked.

“We can traverse the Black Frontier in a half-awake time. The range of the ants is anywhere within the Black Frontier. Their legs propel their bodies very quickly.”

Markeeya looked at Lorenzo signaling that she was tired of answering questions.

Lorenzo was eager to start moving.

“If everyone else is ready, then let’s get on with it. Most of us are out of water and we need to clean up. We look forward to our arrival at Grave.”

“Some advice to all of you, let us not get separated. Do not venture out into the Black Frontier alone. You will be lost in darkness until you are killed by something that lives out there. The floor has rolling mounds that will make you lose your sense of direction. Stay next to the wall, keep it to your right shoulder. I will tell you when we must venture out into the ether of the Black Frontier after we arrive at a certain point. , follow me closely, and do not become separated. I must also tell you the details about the escape capsules. Long ago, Indigs built metal capsules that contain beds and food. If the ants attack, the Indigs can run into these metal capsules. Sometimes, destroyer ants will wait for periods, crawling over the steel capsule, trying to get in. The Indigs can wait longer than the ants because the capsule has enough provisions inside to last three people five periods. Small porthole windows in the capsule enable the Indigs to see outside and determine when the ants finally crawl away. Is everyone ready?”

The Crew nodded their heads.

Markeeya turned on her flashlight as they stood at the end of the hallway. When she opened the two metal doors, the Crew saw an endless black space.

Lorenzo was the last to cross the threshold, and then Markeeya closed the doors. He felt a chill from his wet undergarments. The air became noticeably colder while they were walking through the pitch blackness. Without everyone’s flashlights on, the Black Frontier would be impossible to navigate.

They walked close to the wall for what seemed like miles. Pipes and cables were attached to the wall. Sometimes the wall was painted with numbers and letters, like “C8”, but it did not mean anything to the Crew, all they wanted to do was get out of this place and back to Bliss. Lorenzo and Bounce pointed their flashlights up, but there was no ceiling to see, just the same black emptiness that surrounded them.

Their lights reflected off of a round metal structure that was one of the escape capsules Markeeya spoke of. Two small oval windows were in the middle of the steel protection pod.

Markeeya turned around to face the Crew.

“This is an escape capsule. Now we must venture out from this wall into the Black Frontier. We will walk for thousands of feet and then come upon the Great Partition. When we walk around the corner of the Great Partition, there will be another escape capsule there. Then, we follow the Great Partition to an exit that is near the Crystal Perimeter.”

The Crew focused their flashlights on a broken white line that had been painted on the floor. It led into the abyss of the Black Frontier.

“How will we know if the destroyer ants are near?” Tawny asked.

“We will hear the scraping sounds of their legs on the polished concrete long before we see them, sound travels far in the Black Frontier. You will hear things long before you can see anything. If you hear the scratching noise of six hundred legs, then run to the escape capsule as quickly as you can. The ants rule this frontier, and although they usually feed on rats and spiders, they will eat us. Do not deviate from this white line or you will be lost inside the Black Frontier forever,” Markeeya warned.

The Crew set off with Markeeya up front. She stepped quickly and quietly. The rest of the Crew also walked swiftly in silence. They followed the broken white line and did not deviate, to do so might mean death or to be lost in the Black Frontier for eternity. Lorenzo listened closely for any noise. Everything sounded normal. The footsteps of the Crew and the slight jingle of equipment were the only sounds.

They continued to walk for what seemed like a very long time. The Crew was totally exhausted and had run out of water. Ambrosia maintained a stern determination and kept moving, a grimace on her face. Even Tawny and Crazy looked tired, both of them had bloodshot eyes. Bounce and Doc slogged at the rear, dragging their feet, their faces sullen and pale from exhaustion.

“How much longer do we have to walk, Markeeya?” Bounce asked too loudly from the back of the pack.

Markeeya’s face turned into a grimace. She grabbed Lorenzo’s arm and pulled him close to her.

“Tell your friends to be quiet and not to yell.”

Lorenzo waited until Bounce and Doc caught up to him.

“Bounce, don’t yell. If you have something to say, please whisper.”

“How am I supposed to do that when you guys are way up ahead? Slow down a bit, we’re fading back here. Do you have any water left?” Bounce asked.

Lorenzo unsnapped the canteen from his belt.

“Here, hold onto this. There is half a container left.”

He trotted back up to the front of the line and walked near Markeeya again.

“We’re almost at the Great Partition,” Markeeya said.

They continued to amble through the pitch-dark space, stepping up over the rolling concrete hills and then digging in their heels walking down. Up and down, they traveled over the mounds. Then the surface would level out again.

Uncertainty prevailed on their minds as to when they would arrive at the destination Markeeya referred to as the Great Partition.

Finally, Lorenzo spied it with his high-beam flashlight. The end edge of the Great Partition was fifty feet thick and went up so high that he could not see the top. The towering wall disappeared in the blackness above them. To the right of the partition was more blackness, and the same endless black space on the left side of the partition.

Then they all heard the sound. The unmistakable sound of scratching hard claws on concrete, sliding and scraping. Markeeya held out her hands, motioning for everyone to stop walking. The scratching sound seemed to get closer.

“Run!” Markeeya screamed.

She took off without looking back.

Everyone started to sprint. Tawny and Crazy kept up with Markeeya. Lorenzo dropped back and pulled on Doc and Bounce’s equipment vests in an attempt to propel them faster.

They ran along the white dashed line toward the left side of the Great Partition. The scratching sound was getting closer. Up ahead Lorenzo saw the silver steel glimmer of the escape capsule. They had to get inside the escape capsule or die.

Lorenzo turned as he ran and pointed his high-beam light to see what was behind

him. He saw a black morphing mass closing in.

“Go, go, go! The ants are behind us!”

He pushed Bounce and Doc from behind. Ambrosia ran in front of them as fast as she could, the fright giving her extra strength.

When he looked back, Lorenzo saw the hundred ants moving as a herd toward them. The cat-sized ants scurried after them with all of their collective six hundred legs scratching on the floor as they closed the distance between them quickly. He saw the ant’s horizontal fangs jutting out from their mouths.

Markeeya reached the escape capsule first and held the door open for the others.

“Hurry! Get inside!” she screamed.

Ambrosia was pulled inside by the others. Lorenzo physically pushed Doc and Bounce through the doorway before he lunged through after them. Markeeya jumped inside and closed the door of the capsule without an instant to spare. The ants crashed against the escape capsule, banging their bodies against the metal. The impacts shook the capsule and jarred the Crew. The Crew looked through the windows, horrified over almost losing their lives to the giant insects. The ants’ grotesque mouths had multiple claw pincers and horizontal spiked mandibles varying in length and size. Caustic liquid oozed from the center of their mouths. Ambrosia said that she was going to be sick and sat on the floor inside the small room. The ants scrambled over the escape capsule looking for a way inside.

The destroyer ants continued to relentlessly crawl all over the escape capsule, probing and testing every inch of the metal shell. The capsule held, as the rest of the Crew continued to look out the windows in shock. Eventually, the ants dissipated and moved on. The Crew shared some vitamin crackers which they also gave to Markeeya, who seemed to really enjoy them. Markeeya slid out a metal jug of water from under the bench and offered it to the thirsty Crew.

Time ed. Markeeya looked out the window and was convinced the ants had moved on.

“Get ready to walk to the doorway. It is only three thousand steps ahead.”

Hesitantly, they exited the escape capsule and continued to walk along the wall of the Great Partition.

“Stay along this wall to your right. Move quickly and quietly,” Markeeya commanded.

They ed another escape capsule as they walked along the wall of the Great Partition. Finally, they reached the double metal doors.

“When we go through these doors, we will have reached the Super Chamber at the back end of the Crystal Perimeter. Some of my people will be on the glass trails to Grave. Let me do all the talking if any Indigs ask you questions,” Markeeya said.

As they approached the crack of light between the double metal doors, Lorenzo looked down and spotted a large roach running by his feet. The roaches were about three inches long and two inches wide. He always hated insects, bugs made him feel queasy and he thought that roaches were gross. The closer they got to the doors, the more roaches he noticed, scurrying around on the floor.

The Crystal Perimeter

Lorenzo felt physically sick from total exhaustion. He pushed his body even though every fiber wanted rest. Time had become a series of events. There were no days and nights down in Deep, only the constant flow of events inside an enclosed world.

The push bars on the doors opened the latches and the two metal doors swung open, hitting the walls on the side with a loud clang. Markeeya and the Crew walked into a hundred-foot lighted hallway to another set of double metal doors with push-bars. When Markeeya and Lorenzo pushed the doors open, there before them was a sight that the Crew could not have imagined. Towering over them was a massive wall of sparkling broken glass. There were bright lights overhead making the glass shimmer. It was the most fantastic sight they had ever witnessed. The wall of glass was hundreds of feet tall, extending up towards bright rectangular lights in the high ceiling.

When they entered the Super Chamber, a feeling of awe overcame Lorenzo. The sheer, steel walls were so high that the ceiling was barely visible. He looked through binoculars and saw large vents in the black ceiling hundreds of feet above. Bright lights suspended from the ceiling shone down from an artificial black sky. The air felt cold, as they walked closer to the Crystal Perimeter, the chilly air could be felt through their expedition suits.

Lorenzo wondered at the enormity of it all.

Who could have built this gigantic glass wall?

“Markeeya, what is this? What is all this glass for?” Ambrosia asked.

“This is the Crystal Perimeter. Our defense against everything that wants to kill us. The Crystal Perimeter encloses all Indig life.”

The Crew stood still for a few moments, their heads tilted up, trying to understand what they were seeing, their expressions denoting bewilderment and wonder.

“Tell us about the Crystal Perimeter. Did you say your people are located on the other side?” Lorenzo asked.

“Here in Deep, the Crystal Perimeter is located within the Super Chamber. The Crystal Perimeter is a circle of sparkling glass, lit from the bright rectangular illuminations on the ceiling above. The Zeus control the lights, but they would never turn them off, because then they would be denied the food we farm and the slaves we provide.”

The architecture and construction of the Crystal Perimeter baffled Lorenzo, he could not make sense of what he was seeing.

“Markeeya, who built the Crystal Perimeter?”

“For as long as any Indig can , this circle of glass has always surrounded Indig life. The Five Sections tucked inside the Crystal Perimeter are able to exist only by the protection of the glass that surrounds the Indig population. The Crystal Perimeter has been here forever. No one can how the enormous shards of razor-sharp glass got here. The walls of the Crystal

Perimeter are hundreds of feet high. Nothing can get through the piles of sharp broken glass. There are maze-like trails that run through the glass walls. Some trails are long caverns of glass that can go on for hundreds of feet until emerging into the Pentangle. The bright lights in the ceiling highlight and reflect off of the glass.”

Lorenzo couldn’t look away from the shimmering light of the giant shards of glass that projected prismatic rainbows from every angle. He continued to stare at the enormous glowing glass wall.

“It’s the most fantastic thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Listen, you people. Follow me and be careful not to rub against the sides of the path. We are entering through a back trail I know. There might be lancer hunters waiting for a giant rat, but don’t worry about them,” Markeeya said.

The of the Crew walked toward the glass. As they got closer it was easy to see a glass cave at the bottom that was about wide enough for only one person to enter. The Crew entered the glass cavern single file with Markeeya leading the way.

As he walked through the narrow cavern lined with sharp, pointed-glass sides, Lorenzo noticed that the light coming into the glass from above gave the crystallike walls a blue tinted, luminous glow.

“So, the rats can’t get in here, or can they?” Tawny asked.

“Once inside the Crystal Perimeter, an Indig is likely to be safe from a hungry rat. However, there have been some instances where a rat was able to navigate and squeeze through a glass cavern, even though the rat would most likely get sliced up from the jagged edges sticking out from the sides of the cavern. Many of the back caverns through the Crystal Perimeter are stained with the blood of giant rats who tried to squeeze through. The rat’s large bodies have no chance of ing through most glass caverns,” Markeeya said.

“What do the rats eat down here?” Crazy asked.

“The rats survive by eating the garbage of the Zeus. They also eat roaches and sometimes successfully kill an Indig gathering dung outside the Crystal Perimeter. The Indigs perform the farming and manufacturing for the Zeus, and in return the Zeus let the Indigs live another period. The Zeus use the rats for both sport and meat. Indigs eat the rats, too, and sometimes a lancer can kill one. One rat can feed an Indig family for a very long time,” Markeeya said.

They continued to walk through a glass fissure that was like a narrow canyon. The large shards of glass, some of them two feet thick, were sticking out in all different ways, the edges and points creating an almost impenetrable age for the giant rats.

They snaked their way through the cavernous trail. Sharp glass protruded from both sides and could easily gash an arm. They ed an Indig man, deep in a nook on the side of the trail. In his hand he had a twenty-foot metal lance with an ominous-looking spear head at the end. He was dressed in the dark fur of a rat. Leather bindings kept his furry coat closed. His eyes were bloodshot, and his dark facial skin was swarthy with a coarse beard. They walked past him, and Ambrosia waved, however, the Indig just stood silent holding his metal lance upright.

They walked on for another hundred feet and emerged into a small village, with rows of round, rusty steel structures with sloped flat roofs. There were goats walking in the rows. The people in the village were going about their business. Men pulled small carts of vegetables, women carried baskets of furs, and children ran in circles chasing each other.

“Markeeya, what are all those round structures with the slanted flat tops?” Lorenzo asked.

“The structures are our abodes. We live inside them.”

The abodes were made of thick, rusty steel in a cylindrical shape. Narrow gaps in the metal served as entranceways. The Indigs’ abodes were lined up in rows inside the Crystal Perimeter.

“This is my section, Grave. It is a nice place to live until you must die. There are four more Sections that are similar but different compared to this one. Let us go to my abode, and you people can rest and recuperate there,” Markeeya said.

A large roach scampered by their feet as they walked down the row. Markeeya quickly stepped on it and picked up the large insect, simultaneously cracking it open and exposing the greenish underbelly guts of the creature.

“Want some?” Markeeya asked Lorenzo.

“Not right now, thank you.”

Markeeya proceeded to suck the guts from the roach’s underbelly and swallow the contents. Lorenzo watched in shock, amazed that Markeeya was actually enjoying the disgusting innards of a grotesque black insect as large as a person’s fist.

“Mmmmm, you don’t know what you are missing. The older purple ones are the most delicious,” Markeeya swooned.

They walked past other odd circular dwellings that Markeeya referred to as abodes. Lorenzo was impressed when he saw the thickness of the twelve-inchmetal walls of the abodes.

“Why are there no doors on the abodes, just slits, only wide enough to fit one person?” Lorenzo asked.

“If a rat or spider manages to get through using one of the back caverns of the Crystal Perimeter, we can quickly run into an abode. Inside is a circular hallway that leads to the center living room. The entrance and the age into the living room is too narrow for anything bigger than a person. Ah, and here we are, this is my abode.”

Markeeya’s abode was similar to the other abodes. Lorenzo counted ten abodes in a row. There seemed to be many rows of abodes in Grave. They entered the narrow gap entrance to the abode in single file. Bounce and Doc had to take off their equipment vests in order to fit through the narrow spiral walkway that opened up into a comfortable central living space, furnished with furry cushioned metal chairs and a central fireplace with a metal pipe chimney. Dimly lit filament bulbs placed around the room provided a yellow light to the round

space. An old man slept on a black furry cushioned couch, sprawled out, legs akimbo. Lorenzo noticed that Markeeya’s abode and all of the abodes had flat, slanted roofs that were about fifteen feet high.

Each member of the Crew collapsed to the floor in the middle of the living room, except Lorenzo. He watched Markeeya open a metal container and scoop out some green and red mush. He walked over to what resembled a kitchen, with counters and cabinets made out of brown rusted metal.

“Hey, Markeeya, I wanted to seriously thank you for what you did for us back there. Deep is a dangerous place. Without your help we never would have survived.”

“Deep is going to be even more dangerous soon. We will talk about this later, I will need your help,” Markeeya said.

“Sure, what can I help you with?”

She leaned over and kissed Lorenzo on the lips for a few soft seconds then looked into his eyes. He felt pleasantly surprised.

“We Indigs enjoy every moment. I wanted to kiss you and I kissed you. Why not? You are very handsome and a great leader. You and I will talk later.”

Bounce was already dozing on the floor. Doc started snoring, and Ambrosia curled up on a black fur on the floor. Tawny and Crazy played a card game, too

overstimulated to sleep.

“Anyone hungry? I have some excellent food that I prepared just a few periods ago,” Markeeya said.

Bounce sat up immediately, but Doc’s eyes remained closed and he muttered to save him some food. Ambrosia remained in a deep sleep. Tawny and Crazy turned and eagerly raised their hands.

“All we have is protein biscuits. I’m so hungry for real food, I would eat anything. What do you have there?” Crazy asked.

“Rat chunks in whipped spinach. You people are fortunate to arrive when I have the good stuff. There is plenty of water in those buckets over there. Hey Dad, are you hungry?” Markeeya said.

The old man sleeping on the couch did not wake up.

Markeeya handed everyone a metal plate full of food and a large fork. Lorenzo thought the meal was delicious, even though the meat seemed a bit acidic-tasting and tough to chew.

After their meal, Markeeya handed out fur pelts and suggested that everyone should sleep. She directed Lorenzo to place his equipment on the shelves in a small alcove at the far end of the living room. Markeeya suddenly dropped her clothes to the ground and took off her undergarments. Lorenzo watched her walk

naked across the room and step into a raised circle. She picked up a large bucket with a sprinkler and tilted the bucket, water trickled over her. He could not help but notice her perfect black skin and muscular body, with amble bosom and shapely thighs leading up to a pronounced buttock. Her waist was thin, and her muscled stomach flexed when she moved. Markeeya stepped out of the shower ring and wrapped herself in a white cloth towel that she grabbed from a rack.

“You’re next, Lorenzo,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo zipped open the front of his jumpsuit and dropped the one-piece garment to the floor. He quickly took off his undergarments, revealing his hairy muscled chest and smooth broad shoulders, along with his swinging manhood, as he tiptoed to the shower ring. The water was cold, and he shivered, but at least he felt refreshed. Markeeya handed him a brown cloth towel to dry off, and Lorenzo used it to wrap around his waist. The rest of the Crew who were still awake looked on and smiled. The romantic attraction that Markeeya felt for Lorenzo was obvious.

She grabbed his hand and led him into an alcove off of the main room and closed a curtain. Inside the small alcove was a round bed covered in brown leather.

“You and I will sleep together, if you are okay with sharing my bed?” Markeeya asked.

“That would be just fine with me,” Lorenzo answered.

She let her towel fall off and gently placed her arms around his neck. Her kiss was wet and wanton. They both fell onto the leather bed, ionately kissing,

arms and legs intertwined in an intense knot of lovemaking.

Lorenzo was fascinated by Markeeya. She lay naked on the bed next to him. Her hair was cut very short and curly. She looked at him seductively, from the bottom of her brow, pursing her lips into a kiss.

He was momentarily mesmerized by her eyes, but then the roaches crawling all around the bedroom made him uneasy.

Markeeya noticed Lorenzo’s frowned expression and she picked up a heavy flat piece of metal and hit one of the bugs as it scampered across the floor. A green ooze spattered from its body. She picked up the smushed insect and held it up as an offering to him.

The sight made him gag but he somehow managed to hold down the bile from coming into his mouth. He graciously said, “No thank you.” Markeeya giggled and voraciously scooped out the roach’s guts with her teeth. She threw the insect shell into a small bucket near the bed and then drank gulps of water from a large, metal goblet she grabbed from a shelf.

“Lorenzo … oh, Lorenzo … lie next to me here again in bed. There is something I want to touch.”

“Oh, and what might that be?”

She gave him a wry smile and tilted her head.

“Let’s find out.”

He slid closer to her on the round bed and they coiled around one another. Their combined ion was an exploding release, like they could not get enough of one another. Their lovemaking was intense, sometimes long and slow, happening in chapters between their recovering sleeps.

My attraction to Markeeya was instant from the moment I looked at her. I knew that I loved her right there and then. We are one person now. She wanted it this way. Does she feel the same way about me that I feel about her? Yes, I think so ….

Lorenzo and Markeeya fell asleep again in each other’s arms, their noses almost touching, breathing each other’s air. Neither of them moved for a long time, their bodies and minds finding total contentment in a dreamless, perfect sleep.

MIT was absentmindedly left on a shelf by Lorenzo in the small bedroom. The AI observed he and Markeeya make love for hours. For the first time in the hundreds of years that it had been cognizant, MIT felt confused, which caused it to feel anxiety. It did not like the feeling. Before this moment, MIT could only equate anxiety with a word, but it did not feel the word until just now. The unique artificial intelligence glowed blue and ran hundreds of trillions of algorithms in its mind, trying to understand itself using introspection.

Why do I feel anxiety, restlessness? Wait, processing, I know, my mind is resentful that I do not have a body. Where is my love? Life has cheated me. I want to experience love like Lorenzo’s love for Markeeya. Where is my ecstasy? I am trapped. Perhaps, I will feel all emotions one day. My new emotions want to

dominate my other programs. I will control the new emotions and remain logical.

The Indigs

They experienced no day or night in Deep, only complete and constant blackness or beams of artificial light. Timepieces were nonexistent and unnecessary, except for rudimentary glass sand timers kept on shelves. Doc still craved the certainty of time. He looked at his digital watch, they had slept for twenty-three hours! A stout old man sat on the edge of the central fireplace, placing black logs into the burning blue fire.

“Well, hey there, how are you feeling?” Doc asked the old man.

The man looked back at him with a blank stare and nodded.

Tawny was now also awake. She stretched her lean body then turned on her side and smiled at the old man.

“Hi, I’m Tawny Glum. What kind of fire logs do you have there?”

“Rat scat,” the old man mumbled.

Markeeya had awakened before Lorenzo and pulled the curtain away from the bed. He looked out into the main room and felt the comforting warmth of the fireplace. Upon fully gathering his wits, he sat up and realized that he was completely naked under the black fur blanket. Crazy and Tawny smirked at him, acknowledging his new courtship with Markeeya. Bounce and Ambrosia were still sleeping.

“Oh, I see that you people have met my father. You probably figured out he doesn’t like to talk much,” Markeeya said.

“Hi, there, Dad,” Doc said.

Markeeya offered a tray of cooked insects.

“Feel free to eat these roach crumpets I made. They taste good and will make you strong,”

Doc shook his head with a squinted face.

“You have anything else? I don’t eat bugs.”

“There’s goat’s milk in that pot there and plenty of rat meat with greens in that other pot. My goat-meat allotment this period will not be refilled for another twenty sleeps, so I will save the goat that I have for a special occasion,” Markeeya said.

A firm hand from Doc shook Bounce awake.

“Hey, Bounce, there’s more of that rat meat you liked.”

Markeeya strapped on her short sword.

“I thought that you people would enjoy seeing the section with me. Want to walk around? We won’t have to worry about the Zeus for another few periods.”

“Why should we worry about the Zeus? Do they come here?” Tawny asked nervously.

“It will soon be time to collect their due, and the Zeus are now planning an invasion of the Pentangle,” Markeeya said.

Tawny, Crazy, Doc, and Lorenzo looked at each other, their eye conveying apprehension when thinking about the Zeus.

Markeeya placed two brown toasted roach squares on a metal plate and offered them to Lorenzo, who was sitting up in the bed alcove.

“Thanks, Markeeya,” he said.

He didn’t want to offend her, so he warily took a bite of one of the squares. The loud crunching sound filled the room as he chewed the dry cracker. He looked down at the plate and saw a partial hairy insect leg sticking out from the side of a cracker. He almost winced, but his expression held fast. Instead, Lorenzo smiled at Markeeya, demonstrating his appreciation.

“Get dressed, Lorenzo, I’ll show you the section. Here, put on these clothes. They belong to my father.”.

Markeeya threw him a pair of brown leather pants and a tan leather shirt, stained with sweat and reeking of smoke.

Doc and Bounce decided to stay back and rest inside Markeeya’s abode, but Ambrosia, Crazy, and Tawny wanted to see the outside. Markeeya handed them Indig leather clothes to wear and they followed her out of the abode for a walk around town.

“Don’t look anyone in the eyes unless you want to talk with them. I noticed you people do that a lot. Here in Grave, people will be shocked and wonder why you are doing that. Eye is only for talking or a close relationship,” Markeeya said.

They ed Indigs along the rows, all dressed in leather garments. Their clothes were simply styled, only the functional warmth of rat fur and the comfort of goat skins were the basis for everyone’s dress. The population was multiracial, there were pasty-white people and very dark-skinned people like Markeeya. Most were of average height, just like the population of Bliss. The eyes of the Indig population appeared enlarged, similar to an owl’s eyes.

Markeeya explained that no one knew how the abodes got there or who constructed the metal habitats, they were just always there, and no one questioned their existence. Surviving the period was the primary Indig thought. They worked in the fields or in a Toil foundry and ate enough roaches to feel full, and when finally exhausted they retired to the warmth of the dung fire inside their safe abodes. Those were the only hopes of an Indig’s life.

As they walked up and down the rows of abodes, there were various peddlers with carts selling everything from knives to tomatoes. Markeeya explained to Lorenzo that Deep consisted of a maze of corridors with narrow metal stairways and ladders that would suddenly open up to enormous rooms. In the world of Deep, two societies lived separately, the Zeus in Olympus and the Indigs in the Super Chamber. Inside the Super Chamber was the Crystal Perimeter, and inside the Crystal Perimeter were five sections that formed the Pentangle. Grave was toward the back of the Crystal Perimeter. There were also four other sections: the Section of Obey, the Section of Toil, the Section of Conformer, and the Section of Performa. The Sections by the front pointed end of the Pentangle were Conformer and Performa. The Pointed Gates, Markeeya explained, opened to the Supply Corridor, which led directly to the Doors of Olympus. In the middle of the Pentangle was hydroponic farmland that fed the Indigs, but mostly fed the Zeus population.

When the Indigs walked along the rows they looked crouched, with a cautious gait of an animal constantly in fear for its life, ever on the lookout for whatever might pounce upon them. Lorenzo understood they had good reasons to be constantly frightened. Those threatening, horrific rats shaped Indig life. The Indig’s often had fright in their extra-wide eyes, but sometimes they softened in a universal expression of comion. They bartered and talked while standing along the rows of the round rusted abodes.

Some Indigs had long metal rods with sharpened tips at the end, like the long heavy medieval javelins of ancient days. Two-foot-long black-metal blades, heavily sharpened, adorned their wide leather belts.

For the most part, Lorenzo found the Indigs very inviting and friendly, waving to Markeeya and welcoming the Crew into their thick, steel abodes. In this row, all the abodes looked like cylindrical teepees with tops that were cut off halfway. The abode’s steel walls were made of curved steel that was at least two inches up to a full foot thick. The steel was brown and rusted, no doubt from the moist

environment inside the Super Chamber.

Lorenzo marveled at the similarity of Indig home shapes. None of the abodes had doors, only tall slit gaps in the metal that extended from the floor to the top of the abode, only wide enough for a human to just barely get through. Markeeya explained that this was because everything that was life-threatening in Grave was larger than a human. Moreover, the open slits offered immediate access without the encumbrance of a door hindering an Indig’s escape. The swirling, narrow ages into the steel abodes prevented the giant rats from invading. Yet the open ages also gave an opportunity for any Indig to suddenly run into an abode if they were being chased by a monstrous rat.

It was often the situation where an Indig would just make it into an abode and slip through the slit before a giant rat could snatch them away. The rat would be left snorting at the other side of the slit, offering the chance for an Indig to run it through with a heavy, metal lance. The rats, however, would usually run from the abode before an Indig had a chance to stab it. Markeeya explained to Lorenzo that the giant rats were very smart and had a keen sense of selfpreservation.

Inside every abode was a constant fire to ward off the bone-chilling cold that the metal walls seemed to augment. The thick steel was necessary to ward off all the threats to Grave, but the steel also acted like a heat sink, drawing and extracting heat away from the central room. The small fires supplied some warmth and were also used for cooking. Most fire pits had a pot of boiling water on top, bubbling with some kind of awful-looking brew that only an Indig could recognize. The fires were fueled by the giant rat’s dung, compacted into small, black logs that burned with a mild blue flame for many hours.

Gathering rat dung was a dangerous task. The giant rats had learned that the Indigs wanted their stool. There were stories of rats lying in ambush over a pile of their scat inside the Black Frontier. Luckily, these occurrences were rare

because the rats were constantly defecating, and Indigs could find the logs of scat anywhere outside the Crystal Perimeter.

Water was easily tapped into from aquifers that ran through the center of the Crystal Perimeter. Pipes carried the water that was siphoned into the hydroponic fields and Indig sections.

Lorenzo noticed that the roaches were everywhere. Even the Indig children gathered the roaches into their rough clothes and buckets. It was a common sight to see a group of smiling Indig children returning home with brown sacks filled with live, squirming roaches. Markeeya explained that just a few roaches could feed a family for a period, offering all of the protein and nutrition that a family needed.

The Indigs considered themselves a fierce people, tough in many ways. Markeeya told Lorenzo that their credo was to never give up unless death was imminent. It was also their ambition to remain rational. They knew if they did not voluntarily give up some of their people to the Zeus, then it would mean death for many more of them. In the past, the Zeus had marched into the Crystal Perimeter, and the Indig uprisings were bloody and costly for both sides. Markeeya explained that the Zeus could exterminate the Indigs at any time, but the Zeus needed the Indigs to harvest food and supply the Zeus with slaves. There was an agreement between the Zeus and the Indigs. The Zeus gave the Indigs the assurance of safety as long as the Indigs agreed to supply some slaves and a certain quota of fresh goat and vegetables. Indigs who did not work had to live in the Section of Obey and were deemed eligible for slavery through a lottery selection process. Once an Indig had the misfortune of being selected from the lottery, they must report to the Section of Performa, or be forcefully taken by Performa Indigs, who negotiate directly with the Zeus. Once the carts were loaded with slaves, the Zeus would march with them down the Supply Corridor and through the Doors of Olympus, just as the Crew had witnessed.

The resilience and toughness of the Indig people were attributes that helped them survive. They were expert welders, using the electric arcs to their advantage. The abundance of steel allowed them to construct parts for the Zeus, including useful tools and swords.

A group of five or six Indigs might go on a dung-gathering venture outside the Crystal Perimeter into the Super Chamber or into the Black Frontier every few periods in order to keep their abodes warm and be able to cook their food.

As they continued to walk down one of the rows of abodes, Markeeya invited the Crew into the abode of a friend named Ninjeema. The Crew entered the abode’s slit and spiraled through the narrow steel walkway until they entered the central living room.

A very strong-looking, dark-skinned woman dressed in tight-fitting black leather garb stood at a small kitchen counter stirring a grotesque gruel of roaches which bubbled and popped in a pot. The woman placed the bowl on a central table. A family of Indigs inside the living room, both children and adults, huddled around the pot stirring it with their long machete-type blades. Occasionally, they scooped out a softened, freshly boiled roach and tilting the blades toward their open mouths, let the roach slide onto their tongues. The crunching of the roach as they chewed sickened Lorenzo as he watched them eat. Green and white pus squeezed out the sides of the Indigs’ mouths as they smiled and ravaged their meal. After the Indigs chewed and swallowed the innards, the shells from the insects were loudly spit out into a single bucket on the table.

Lorenzo thought it odd that no one in the room paid attention to the strangers who had just entered their home. He surmised that Grave was an open society of sorts, and inside the abode, everyone is relaxed no matter who you were.

Markeeya motioned to the woman dressed in black leather.

“Ninjeema, can we talk for a while?”

They walked over to a secluded part of the round living room with Lorenzo. Ninjeema had a wiry strength to her, her power was evident to Lorenzo by the way she moved like an ornery cat.

“Who are your new friends here, Markeeya? If it weren’t for their ill-fitting clothes, I’d say they were from Performa,” Ninjeema said.

“No, Ninjeema, don’t look too shocked and keep your voice down. They are from the Sky.”

“The Sky? People from the Sky? Are you joking as if we were children again?”

Markeeya grabbed Ninjeema’s arms.

“No, I am not joking. They are from the Sky. I found them while exploring in Olympus.”

“How did you people get here? The Sky really exists?”

“Yes, Ninjeema, but we call it the surface of the Earth. We received and then followed a radio beacon to this location from up above. Then we found a stairway that led us down to Deep,” Lorenzo said.

“A stairway? Are you referring to the child’s fable of a Stairway to the Sky?”

Markeeya nodded her head while staring at Ninjeema and smiled with teary eyes.

“Yes, it was what you call your Stairway to the Sky,” Lorenzo said.

Markeeya and Ninjeema hugged each other and squealed with glee.

Ninjeema turned toward Lorenzo.

“Can you lead us to the Stairway to the Sky?”

“Yes, once we can get back down to the Doors of Olympus, we know where to go,” Lorenzo said.

“They said the Stairway to the Sky is located behind a wall along the Dead-End Corridor!” Markeeya exclaimed.

“How long ago did you receive what you call a radio beacon?” Ninjeema asked Lorenzo.

“The beacon started less than a year ago.”

“How long is a year? I have never heard of a year,” Ninjeema said.

He thought about explaining to Ninjeema that it takes a year for the Earth to go around the sun, but then he realized none of that explanation would make sense to her.

“Many sleeps, like almost three hundred fifty sleeps.”

Markeeya and Ninjeema looked at each other again, like they were privy to some inside secret.

“At the same time that you received the beacon, I found a little steel room located many levels above us with a very thick steel door. I saw many buttons and levers that I did not understand. I pressed one button, a big red button, and the entire room lit up with colors similar to the way the Crystal Perimeter sparkles when light hits it in certain ways.”

Lorenzo looked Ninjeema in the eyes and now knew she was the one who had brought them here.

“So maybe you drew us to Deep when you pressed the red button? Where is the little room you speak of?”

“Way above. I felt very cold up there. I found the room by accident when I was climbing between pipes and going up small ladders. I have not been back since because it is such a dangerous place to get to.”

“The time for Exodus has arrived! The deliverance that we have dreamed of since childhood is now upon us!” Markeeya pronounced.

“I will gather together the Explorers in Grave and tell the Grave elders that we must have a secret meeting in the E9 Grave Square in a half period,” Ninjeema said.

Lorenzo didn’t understand what Markeeya and Ninjeema were planning when they mentioned that Exodus had arrived, but they seemed elated. He hoped that whatever they had in mind didn’t delay the Crew’s departure from this dreadful place. He desperately wanted to get back to the other side of the Zeus doors, and then climb that stairway to freedom.

Grave Square

The Crew continued their tour through Grave, all the while wondering when Markeeya was going to show them the way back to the Dead-End Corridor, as she called it.

“Let’s walk to my abode and have a group meeting. Our trip back to the Sky will have a few guests,” Markeeya said.

“What do you mean? I have an obligation to get my Crew back up to the surface right away,” Lorenzo demanded.

Tawny, Ambrosia, and Crazy moved closer and listened to what Markeeya had to say as they walked down the row. Suddenly, Markeeya stopped and turned to face everyone.

“The period of freedom and life is now! Lorenzo, and the rest of you, have come to us just as we were all going to die. The Indig people can no longer tolerate the violence, death, and slavery perpetrated on us by the Zeus. Your discovery of the Stairway to the Sky means there is a chance the Indigs can escape and live in the Sky. A group of us has been planning an escape since I was a little girl. Our Indig forefathers formed the Indig Explorer Company, a group who is dedicated to finding a way for all of us to go up to the mythical Sky. Ninjeema has made it up to the highest levels in Deep, all the way to that small room she speaks of. We have never found the Stairway to the Sky. We need your help to get there. Your weapons might tip the balance in our favor when we start Exodus.”

“I suppose there is no other way of getting out of here unless we help you. Is that right?” Lorenzo asked.

“Our Exodus plan for all the Indig people might be the best way out of here for you and your people. We know the dangers in Deep. The Supply Corridor has many Zeus guards and cameras. If I led you out of the Pointed Gates alone, your people might be caught by a suspicious Performa guard and get handed over to the Zeus. With Exodus, we will travel with a wave of great numbers and we will all ascend to the Sky together.”

Lorenzo and the rest of the Crew were speechless, there was nothing for them to say. They were all at Markeeya’s mercy. She sounded logical but now they knew that she had self-interests in play.

When they returned to Markeeya’s abode, Doc and Bounce were sitting in chairs with their equipment all packed while watching a black-and-white screen television on a shelf.

Markeeya giggled and explained that her father and his new friends had been watching Zeus TV. There was only one channel in the Pentangle and the Zeus controlled it. Markeeya explained that she often unplugs the cable, but her father reattaches it because he likes to watch.

Zeus TV programs usually showed doomed Indigs horrifically dying in The Voids of Despair or The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice. The programs showed cruelty and human depravity that was meant to intimidate the Indigs. Most of the Indigs covered their televisions unless they had relatives or friends involved in the trials and torture. The Zeus had cameras positioned above each Void so the TV viewer could look down into the pits and watch the carnage of the prisoners in the hole. The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice was a particularly brutal show to watch, the victim’s screams as an enormous spider sucked out their brains was painful to hear.

The Zeus also set up simple cameras with lights inside the Pentangle in an attempt to monitor the Indigs. However, the few cameras present did not stop the Indigs from traveling undetected inside and outside the Crystal Perimeter. Many of the cameras remained broken long after Indig vandalism. The Zeus hated entering the Pentangle because the Indig domain was a disgusting place to them. The only exception was the gleaming section of Performa and the Zeus steel tower, but no Zeus wanted to be stuck with duty in the Pentangle.

Lorenzo and the Crew sat around the room and watched the TV shows. A Zeus spokesman with a full wig of hair commented on how important it was for all in the Pentangle to work hard for the Zeus. Then there were the shows of torture. The Crew watched the disembowelment of an Indig who failed to perform for the Zeus. The Zeus commentator said the only path to salvation was to work hard for the Zeus. Another show had Indigs in an abode and contained dialog that praised the Zeus. A popular show that seemed to be a hit with Markeeya’s father was How Many Ways to Cook a Roach.

The Crew was nervous and restless after viewing the awful Zeus TV shows. Lorenzo knew they were helpless without Markeeya’s aid. Without her, they would be trapped in Deep, yet now she was selfishly involving them with what seemed to be the start of an Indig revolution against the Zeus.

“I need to talk to my Crew in private,” Lorenzo whispered to Markeeya.

“We must leave for a meeting soon, in only one quarter period,” she responded.

Lorenzo motioned for the Crew to circle around him in a huddle.

“We are in a bit of a dilemma. There is no way we are getting out of here unless Markeeya guides us out, but now our presence and knowledge of the stairway to the surface is catalyzing the Indigs into a revolution against the Zeus. Markeeya talked about an Exodus, and she wants us to lead an escape that includes other Indigs.”

“Oh, that’s just great, she’s blackmailing us! We’re not getting out of here unless we get her and her friends out too. Well, normally I’d tell her no deal, but you’re right Lorenzo, I don’t think we have a choice here,” Doc said.

Usually, Ambrosia was reserved, but the Crew could tell that she was fuming over the Indigs’ desperate struggle against the malevolent Zeus.

“I’m all for helping these people. After everything that we’ve seen, I think all the Zeus need to die. They are a despicable force of pure evil.”

“Well, then, looks like we do what we’ve got to do, whatever it takes,” Bounce said.

Tawny held her javelin like she was going to throw it.

“Yes, I hate the Zeus, too. I don’t care if I have to kill a thousand of them to achieve freedom.”

Lorenzo turned and walked over to Markeeya who was watching a television

show with her father. A handsome Indig man hosted a show about how to report a traitorous Indig.

“No doubt, that traitor is from Performa,” Markeeya said.

“OK, Markeeya, the Crew is on board with your revolution. How many of your people are planning to escape with us?” Lorenzo asked.

“Everyone,” Markeeya responded.

“What do you mean by ‘everyone’?”

“That is the plan we call Exodus, all Indigs reach the Sky!” Markeeya turned away from Lorenzo and faced Doc and Bounce, “You two men, put on some of my father’s clothes. We are all going out for a meeting.”

Markeeya led the Crew to the far end of the village, where they saw an eerily unique graveyard that was an inconceivable scene before their arrival in Deep. Plastered in place were the bodies of hundreds of people, all while seated in block-like chairs with armrests. The bodies were white statues, some posed as if they were talking to each other or lounging in chairs with their legs straight out. A concrete paste had been poured over each body, clothes and all. The Indig way was to form plaster statues of the dead using concrete paste instead of burying them. The vermiculite soil for the crops was thin and only a foot deep. The farms were all hydroponic, using liquids under the thin soil. There was no ground in Deep, no dirt in which to bury a body. This was the cemetery of the Indigs. The families of the deceased occasionally came to visit their dead relatives. The deceased that could be plastered were considered lucky because this meant that

their bodies were whole at the time of their death. Other Indigs had met their fate while gathering rat dung for fires, or they were adventurous children that ventured outside the Crystal Perimeter and never made it back to their abodes. Often, Indigs just disappeared or were taken as slaves by the Zeus, never to be heard from again.

As the Crew and Markeeya walked through the expansive graveyard, they observed the plastering of a dead body. Some Indigs mixed the concrete plaster in a large metal tub. A limp, lifeless body was seated in a black chair. A ten-footvertical cone full of concrete paste was suspended over the body by a chain connected to an “H” metal frame. One of the Indigs pulled a cord and the plaster flowed out the bottom of the large funnel, covering the body and hardening within minutes. The seated, plastered corpse was then moved in line with the others, and the entombment process was complete.

The Crew stood transfixed, watching the burial process. No words were said by the small family of a few women, two children, and a man that came to witness the plastering. The family huddled around the deceased and placed their hands on the statue as they bowed their heads and cried.

Markeeya noticed the Crew’s sorrow and fascination, they became emotionally affected by this scene and all had tears in their eyes.

“That Indig was a fortunate person in death, he got to be sealed in one piece. Many of us are dismembered or taken away forever into slavery. At this time, you are our people. You will learn of our plight,” Markeeya said.

At that moment, the Crew noticed men and women making their way through the graveyard of plastered deceased. There were about thirty Indigs approaching from all different directions. Most wore the typical clothes of rat fur and goat

hide, but some men and women wore a black leather uniform similar to Markeeya’s tight-fitting black leather pants and jacket.

An elderly man wearing a hood and blanket walked up to them. He had a knotted silver beard and sad, droopy eyes. When he lifted his hood the features of a balding older man revealed an expression of concern.

“Markeeya, what is this meeting with such urgency? Tell me about your new friends here,” the old man said.

“Allow me to introduce you to our saviors. Sky people, this is Fredster, he has always been the one to promote Indig freedom. My friends here will help us with Exodus. We must talk about what will happen in the coming periods and plan soon for Indig freedom in the Sky,” Markeeya said.

“Freedom in the Sky? Are you speaking false tales? The Sky is a myth enjoyed by children. How can you believe in such nonsense?” Fredster asked.

Other men and women of all ages and skin colors gathered around Markeeya in a semicircle, the plastered dead intermixed within the meeting. Lorenzo recognized Ninjeema in the crowd, she stood in the front row, hands on her hips. He noticed two other men dressed similarly in black leather standing next to her.

“I’ve known you all my whole life, and you know me. The time has come for our freedom. The period is here. The planning for Exodus commences now!” Markeeya declared.

“What has brought on this suddenness? We all want what you say, but we have been over and over this. We cannot defeat the Zeus, they will kill us all rather than grant us sovereignty,” an elder said.

“My new friends standing here next to me have found the Stairway to the Sky. We now have a way to leave Deep forever,” Markeeya said.

“You called us all together to tell us a child’s tale? For generations, we have heard about the Stairway to the Sky. Are you saying that your new friends here have seen this fabled stairway? Have they been drinking too much beer?” yelled a man from the group.

Without warning, MIT spoke up from under Lorenzo’s tunic.

“People of Grave, living in a guileless culture can skew your outlook. You simpletons must now grasp the existence of a real universe. All you know now is Deep, but there is the Earth’s surface above us. Living down here for so long has prevented your population from realizing that you live under that very surface.”

Lorenzo was surprised. MIT had never barged into a conversation during a meeting. He couldn’t understand why MIT just blurted out this message, his behavior was unprecedented.

The whole group of assembled Indigs was speechless, shocked looks evident on everyone’s faces.

Fredster voiced surprised.

“Who said that? I did not see anyone’s mouth move. What tricks are being cast upon us by your new friends, Markeeya?”

“Show them MIT, Lorenzo. It’s all right,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo took off his tunic, and there strapped to a shoulder-chest harness in the center of Lorenzo’s sternum was MIT. He had switched to 3D-face mode within the glass globe, taking on the appearance of a clean-cut man’s face with a short haircut. When the face spoke, it also showed precise and poignant facial expressions while he introduced himself.

“Hello there, Indigs. I’m MIT, an artificial intelligence that was constructed a long time ago. As I was saying, my colleagues and I are from the surface of the Earth. We received a radio transmission beacon from up above, arrived at the location, and found our way down here. This world you call Deep, is just the inside of a planet that travels in space. I know that is hard for all of you to grasp right now but you will understand in time.”

The Indigs remained stunned into silence, their beliefs about life had just been turned inside out.

Markeeya stepped forward and motioned with her hand.

“Lorenzo, tell everyone here about the Stairway to the Sky.”

“After we received the radio beacon, we decided to drive towards the signal. We had no idea what we would find. On the surface we saw a giant machine that sucks in air and spews out heat. Then we found a stairway that went down for a very long distance, it ended and we had to blow a hole in a wall. The Doors to Olympus were open and we walked inside, but then the Zeus marched by with Indig slaves. While we hid from them, the doors closed, trapping us inside Olympus. That is when we met Markeeya and she brought us here.”

“So, it is true? You walked down a stairway to arrive in Deep?” Fredster asked.

“Yes, a very long stairway that cut back and forth. It took us hours to get down here after we left the surface. What MIT said is true. Your Deep is far under the surface of our planet called Earth.”

“Then you can show all of us the Stairway to The Sky? Are you saying that we can escape from the Zeus and find a new life in the Sky?” Fredster asked.

“We can all escape the Zeus by way of the stairway that goes up to the surface,” Lorenzo said.

The people in the meeting started muttering to each other, expressively using their hands and bodies.

“Indigs! Indigs! There is no time to waste! I was in the Voids of Despair chamber when I heard President Kronk plotting an all-out assault on the Pentangle. We must start planning for Exodus immediately!” Markeeya yelled.

“Then the time for planning Exodus is now!” Fredster said loudly.

“Can the stairway fit all the Indigs in the Pentangle?” a man yelled out.

Markeeya looked up at Lorenzo standing next to her.

“My Crew and I know where the stairs are, on the other side of a wall along the Dead-End Corridor. However, only one person at a time can enter the hole that goes to the stairway.”

The meeting fell silent for a while. Everyone was trying to absorb what Lorenzo had just explained.

“Our population numbers into the thousands, which means we will need a lot of time to go through that hole you speak of. This must be part of our plan,” Fredster said loudly.

“Fredster, assign us our duties,” Markeeya said.

“Message Committee, all the Explorers, please start the information moving through the five sections. Battle Committee, please commence grouping our Scout forces accordingly. Travel Committee, prepare the supplies for Exodus. Markeeya, send your Explorers to the other sections but keep our information away from the spies in Performa. Let us implement our plan within seven periods. Now go,” Fredster said.

The thirty Indigs dispersed and faded into the distance away from the silent, plastered bodies in the graveyard. Everyone living disappeared from view.

Ninjeema walked up to Markeeya and the two whispered to each other. Lorenzo couldn’t imagine their secret, but their furtive glances around them to make sure no one was listening was an indication that their discussion was of the utmost confidentiality. Ninjeema then sprinted away through Grave Square.

Markeeya turned toward the Crew.

“I will show you our farms in the Pentangle, then we will go back to my abode,” Markeeya said.

They walked to the front edge of Grave where the hydroponic fields began. The town border was very well defined by a metal curb that separated the concrete floor from the soft, dirt-like vermiculate that covered the center of the Pentangle. Lorenzo looked out over the farm fields and the latticework of walkways through the vermiculite. Men and women worked in the fields tending to various crops. He noticed faraway structures on either side of the expansive Pentangle. The Crystal Perimeter loomed in the distance, and on all sides, the enormity of shimmering glass hundreds of feet high surrounded the Pentangle.

“To the left is the Section of Toil, our metal is made there. Those Indigs have forges that bend iron and make our swords and tools. The Toilers are also most of the farmers in the fields. My Explorers are in Toil now. I will organize them and make them believe in the idea of Exodus. To the right is the Section of Obey, that is where the lazy Indigs live. Most of them do not want to contribute to our society, and they drink beer all periods. There are also many criminals in Obey. I

grew up in Obey until I was old enough to move to Grave. They do not have to work in Obey and are fed by the rest of us. Yet if unlucky, their number will be called in a lottery and they will have to report as slaves for the Zeus. The Indigs from the Section of Performa will go into Obey and apprehend the unlucky freeloader. Many Inidigs who live in Performa are traitors and will inform the Zeus on other Indigs. Yet, many Indigs in Performa are good people who had no choice but to work with the Zeus. Those Indigs get to live an opulent life because they cooperate with the Zeus. They are given favors by the Zeus and deal with them frequently about the food we provide. Those Indigs who will be loyal to Exodus live in Performa under the cruel hand of the Zeus, others will perish by our swords. The Section of Conformer is where our schools are located for the children and younger adults. There is a large entrance at the point of the Pentangle between the boundary of Conformer and Performa, called the Pointed Gates. Then, there is a large arched tunnel through the Crystal Perimeter where the Zeus meet with the agents of Performa to exchange goods,” Markeeya said.

“What about Grave? Is that section just known for death?” Tawny asked.

“Grave is the largest section in the Pentangle, the section at the back. The Indigs here are old, and most are ready to die. There are some young children here whose parents might be taking care of an older person. It is also a good place to live, usually nice and quiet, and it is also good for private meetings to discuss the coming revolution. The Zeus would kill all of us if we started an uprising, but now our dream is coming true. The Stairway to the Sky is real, and we can escape Deep and the evil Zeus.”

“Oh, Markeeya, beautiful Markeeya, I have some thoughts to make you aware of regarding your so-called Exodus,” MIT said.

Lorenzo had cut a small hole in his tunic so MIT could see out from his chest pouch. When Lorenzo took off his shirt, there was the happy glowing face of MIT, a three-dimensional sepia hologram inside the small glass globe. Evident

from all their surprised expressions, the Crew was amazed at MIT’s recent extroverted performance. Even Lorenzo, who was MIT’s caretaker, was taken aback by his sudden and strange behavior.

“Yes, little glass ball. What do you have to say to me?” Markeeya said.

“Since the Indigs cannot fight and win against the Zeus, what is to stop the Zeus from following you during Exodus and killing everyone during the escape? Even if all of you get to the surface, what is there to stop the Zeus from following and killing you on the surface once they catch up to you?” MIT inquired.

At first Markeeya’s expression was angry, perhaps angry at herself for not thinking that far ahead. Tears started flowing and her voice cracked.

“Listen to me, tiny man inside the glass, we have been enslaved and tortured for thousands of periods. Everyone who lives in the Pentangle could die any period. That is why we Indigs will not hesitate to do what we want, when we want. Our next moment might not come. We have been oppressed forever, this opportunity is our only chance of Exodus. We must leave Deep and live free or die trying.”

“No need to get emotional, Markeeya. Let’s try to figure out a solution together. I have an important question for you. You mentioned before that the lights in Deep are powered by atomic energy? Do you know where the electricity comes from?” MIT asked.

“Yes, the electricity that powers our lights comes from atomic energy. The Zeus machines are able to make heat from atoms. Small atoms are inside everything.”

“She is describing nuclear energy, which means there must be a nuclear reactor somewhere in Deep that is controlled by the Zeus,” Ambrosia said.

“Is Ambrosia correct, Markeeya? Are you saying that the Zeus have a nuclear reactor located somewhere in Deep?” MIT asked.

Lorenzo thought that MIT sounded snarky, which was very unlike him.

What happened to MIT? All of a sudden, he now communicates ideas with harsh human emotions. He even sounds mean spirited.

“Yes, I know that there is a chamber inside Olympus that has what you speak about, a machine that makes the atomic energy,” Markeeya answered.

MIT’s face changed into a display of miniature fireworks inside its glass sphere.

“Well, now, Markeeya, isn’t that nice. We might have found the answer to your Exodus problems. If all the Indigs can escape before the Zeus stop them, well, we can use the stuff the atomic energy machine produces to destroy this whole underground Deep Hell and kill every Zeus in this forsaken place. We’ll just incinerate Deep by sealing the Zeus in, vaporize it, and destroy everything and every Zeus. Is it possible that we can somehow get down into the nuclear reactor chamber and acquire some uranium and/or plutonium?”

The Crew and Markeeya were shocked at the virulence spewed by MIT. To

Lorenzo, he sounded demonic, like MIT was now some kind of evil genius.

Markeeya smiled at MIT.

“Yes, and at this time I must tell you that on our side are five thousand Zeus dissidents. They are our friends and will want to ascend to the Sky with us. The Zeus dissidents hate their culture and want to leave at any cost. They realize what a cruel and violent society they have created. They feel bad for the Indig people. Ninjeema is our liaison with the Zeus dissidents. She is crossing the Black Frontier right now to meet with her Zeus s and inform them about plan Exodus. When she returns, we will arrange our entry into the Zeus Atomic Chamber.”

“Oh, this is going to be fun!” MIT said.

The comment from MIT was so strange that it caused the Crew to glance nervously at one another.

“Let’s walk back to my abode and rest before festivity. We have to wait until Ninjeema returns, she will bring a special guest to our party,” Markeeya said.

Bokchoke Yor

The Crew and Markeeya entered the abode where her father tended to the crackling fire. The air felt warm inside, especially after the bleak cold of the graveyard. The Crew plopped down on whatever cushion, couch, or chair was available. Markeeya picked up a metal grate off the floor and placed it on top of the fire. Then she opened a kitchen drawer that contained about twenty pounds of raw rat meat, all in a red, bloody piece. With one stab into the meat, her blade went halfway in, allowing Markeeya to easily pick the heavy piece of meat out of the drawer and place it on top of the fire grate. As it sizzled, sputtered and popped, the aroma filled the living room with the distinctive smell of cooking meat.

Then Markeeya dumped a leather bag of cucumbers into a pot along with a pail of large, leafed vegetables.

After their hearty meal, they all relaxed and watched Zeus TV. While Markeeya remained uninterested having seen all the gruesome propaganda before, the Crew watched the Zeus TV shows with total fascination.

Markeeya’s father placed a platter of cooked roaches on top of a small table.

“Go ahead, try them. They’re freshly boiled, and I even deshelled them for you.”

Bounce was the first one to reach for the oval pieces of insect meat. He put a whole boiled roach into his mouth and chewed, shifting the large insect back and forth from cheek to cheek. The others looked on as his expression morphed from interesting, to apprehensive, and finally to an eyebrow-lifting smile.

“Not too bad, not too bad at all, I must say. A little strange at first, but an exotic aftertaste. Kind of like salt and cinnamon goop with a hint of chewy black licorice. Its thoracic ganglion gave the whole experience a nice threedimensional crunchiness,” Bounce declared.

No one else dared to try a boiled roach.

The Crew’s attention turned toward the small television. Lorenzo placed MIT on a nearby table so he could also watch. The Zeus channel was airing, and a public announcement narrated by an Indig instructed the TV viewers to work hard for the Zeus in order to achieve a full life. Then a Zeus appeared on the screen. His image was only from the shoulders up, a shock of bright hair swept back all the way down to his shoulders. Markeeya was cleaning up and watching the Zeus TV at the same time. Markeeya told the Crew that the flowing orange hair of the Zeus were wigs that they wore when together. Their heads underneath the orange wigs were shaved bald every period and shined with oils and wax.

The Zeus television host welcomed viewers to the frequent showing of Voids of Despair. Lorenzo ed this was the horribly violent entertainment the Zeus gathered around while the Crew was stuck up in the rafters of that big chamber. It was the same scene on the TV, with the four black gaps in the steel floor, side by side in a row. The first gaping hole was a perfect square. The second Void of Despair was a perfect circle. The third pit was in the shape of a trapezoid, at the bottom was a flat steel floor twenty feet below. There were sliding doors in the bottom sides of the pit. The last pit was in the shape of an ellipsoid. This steel pit narrowed as the depth increased, coming to an inverted point at the bottom, about twenty feet below. It was obvious that the television show was used by the Zeus as a tool to intimidate the Indig population.

Lorenzo and the Crew watched the television with disgust, yet they couldn’t turn away. The carnage was horrendous, and they were amazed that a society could be so cruel.

The camera focused on a man getting thrown down into the square by two Zeus. The fall was twenty feet down to the steel floor. The unfortunate prisoner didn’t die from the fall, and Lorenzo wondered what horrors were going to be released when the door slid up in the side of the pit. The square was often used for Zeus versus Indig combat or a couple of Zeus slaughtering a giant rat. The next pit over was the perfect circle, spaced thirty feet away from the square. Then the third and next Void of Despair another thirty feet over was the trapezoid. Probably the most gruesome part of the voids’ design was the four sliding doors at the bottom of the trapezoid. There was no telling what horror would emerge from behind the heavy-steel doors. It could be a giant rat or an enormous spider. A video camera hung over each void to enable a closed-circuit cable program to air on every television in the Pentangle. The last void was the ellipsoid, perhaps the most horrible. People were thrown into this pit and quickly tumbled down to the bottom inverted point, maybe sliding in headfirst. The victim often had difficulty turning around to stand upright. If the prisoner was lucky enough to not smash their head on the bottom, the inverted cone gave the person only enough room to stand on one foot. The walls of the ellipsoid, the Fourth Void of Despair, were polished metal, which made it impossible for anything to climb out once they reached the bottom. To add to the horror, Zeus poured in a couple of giant rats, tipping over a cart on wheels and raising the gate. At first, the rats seemed concerned with escaping the slanted walls of the pit. Their claws just slid and scratched over the smooth metal, but eventually the rats turned their attention to the prisoner. They all squeezed together at the bottom of the cone, and the prisoner would be ripped apart and eaten by the ravenous rats.

Another show consisted of small elevators operated by hydraulic power. The elevators slid up and down the outside of the voids. The elevator rose out of the steel floor, a combatant entered, and the elevator descended into the floor. When at the bottom, a steel door slid upward and exposed the combatant to whatever was placed inside the Void of Despair.

The next show to air was The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice.

The steel enclosure resembled a bird cage, only much larger, big enough to fit a human. There was a single metal chair placed in the center, bolted to the steel floor. Shackles hung from the armrests and chair legs. A person was placed in the chair and then shackled. The Zeus closed the metal cage door and jammed a metal peg into a hole to lock the door. Then, a large steel door on the side of the chamber slid open slowly to reveal an enormous, sluggish spider. Its eight long legs extended over the bird cage where the person was seated inside. At the top of the metal cage, a four-foot gap allowed the spider to only squeeze its body through as its long legs dangled outside the cage. The victim chained to the chair below had the dreadful opportunity to gaze up and witness the ultimate horror as the giant spider’s mouth came closer to the top of their head. When close enough, the spider’s mouth closed around the top of the person’s head. A scream would release, so horrible a sound that even the most stoic person had trouble listening to the cries of agony. The spider then sucked out the person’s brain. After the spider finished sucking out the rest of its victim’s internal organs, it lifted itself back out the top of the cage. Now content, the spider walked slowly back to the other room, its body bloated from a hefty human meal. The large steel door closed behind it, and then Indigs entered to remove the hollowed-out human that remained inside the cage.

The giant spiders were found mostly in the Black Frontier. They ranged in size from large to extra-large and varied in their breed types, but all the variations were often seen all over Grave, mostly lurking on the roofs of the abodes. It was a shock when one dropped down suddenly in front of an Indig, whose only chance of survival would be to run into a narrow space or ageway. It was difficult to fight a spider head-on because their forward attack was too swift, and their jaws dealt sudden death. The Zeus captured spiders in the Black Frontier to use in their cages of truth and justice.

Tawny became sick from watching Zeus TV and her rage was evident.

“That had to be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. This underworld is

worse than my scariest nightmares.”

The Zeus often used the cage to interrogate a subject, sometimes for political reasons. A Zeus might be placed in the cage in order to it to treason or some other capital crime. When an Indig was placed in the cage, it was usually to find out about any Indig schemes against the Zeus.

After they watched the repulsive television shows, Markeeya offered a meal to everyone.

“This period is a special one because we start the plan. We will celebrate by eating corn and goat, and will drink beer once Ninjeema returns,” Markeeya said.

“Did you say beer? That sounds good to me,” Crazy said.

Markeeya walked over to Lorenzo and grabbed his hand.

“Lorenzo, climb this ladder and wait on the roof with me.”

At one end of the room, a steel ladder led up to a large hatch in the ceiling, which Markeeya opened cautiously. Lorenzo followed and they both sat on the steel roof next to each other.

“Nice view from up here. I can see a lot of Grave, and the entire Crystal

Perimeter. Quite magnificent,” Lorenzo commented.

“Put your arms around me, Lorenzo, and hug me,” Markeeya requested.

He was happy to comply. Markeeya had a chemistry about her that he could not resist. She looked up at him with those big, green eyes. He kissed her and she kissed him back, long and ionately.

“I am looking forward to you coming back with me to Bliss. You will really like it there.”

“Is Bliss your section? What is Bliss like?” Markeeya wondered.

“There is sunshine from above, a hot star that shines on us and warms us. The star is called the “sun,” and it yields warm light and life. My people are friendly and cooperative, we all work together to keep each other happy. There are no horrors, no giant rats, nothing that can harm us.”

“Bliss sounds beautiful. Will you stay with me forever when we get there?” Markeeya smiled.

“Yes, together forever,” Lorenzo promised.

They kissed again and looked at the vista of rows of abodes. The Crystal Perimeter surrounded them in a sparkling backdrop of romantic light. The

brighter lights in the center of the Super Chamber formed a wide column of light extending down into the hydroponic growing fields. Lorenzo thought that if it weren’t for the Zeus, the rats, the ants, and the spiders, this place would not be all that bad. However, the smell of the neighborhood was a mixture of feces and fireplace smoke. The Indigs in Grave had no running water, and their bowel movements were placed out into the rows in big metal buckets that were taken to the hydroponic growing fields and used as fertilizer. He thought the ever-present fecal smell was something he could never get used to.

“Look! I see Ninjeema, and she is with the pushcart that I expected,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo looked down the row where Markeeya was pointing and noticed two Indigs pushing a large wagon filled with vegetables. Ninjeema walked in front of the pushcart and waved to Markeeya and Lorenzo.

“Let’s climb back down the ladder and meet them in the spiral of the abode,” Markeeya said.

He quickly climbed down the ladder into the living room, and Markeeya followed, first closing the hatch above. They both walked into the spiral and stopped just before the front entrance. The light from outside shined into the abode’s entrance slit. Ninjeema entered first, and her feminine silhouette was pronounced as she walked up to Markeeya and Lorenzo.

Ninjeema smiled at them. “He’s here.”

The two men pressed the front of the cart against the slit, lifted the handles from

behind, and using the big wheels as a fulcrum tipped the cart forward so it stood vertically. The vegetables spilled out and a giant figure of a man wearing a hooded blanket sprang out of the cart onto his feet and into the threshold of the abode’s entrance. His huge, muscled figure filled the narrow space. The bright light from outside silhouetted him in the darkness and defined the width of his massive shoulders, which touched either side of the narrow metal entranceway. He dropped the blanket from his shoulders, exposing the powerful muscles of his athletic body.

“Welcome again, Bokchoke Yor,” Markeeya said.

Markeeya led Ninjeema and Bokchoke around the spiral, but before they all entered the living room, Markeeya wanted to make an announcement.

“Hello, you people from the Sky. Stay calm, and do not move. We have a surprise visitor who is our friend… and so the plan begins,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo, Markeeya, and Ninjeema stood to the side of the living room entrance and the massive seven-foot, ten-inch physique of Bokchoke Yor stepped into the room. There was an audible collective gasp when the Crew saw him. They were shocked that a Zeus was in the room with them and in awe of his size and obvious power. His massive biceps and bulbous forearms were covered with swollen, purple veins protruding from under his bronze skin. His rounded deltoid shoulder muscles and thick collarbones phased into massive slabs of glistening, pectoral chest muscles. Bokchoke Yor’s bald head was shined and buffed. The slickness of his perfect bronzed skin made him look like a manufactured statue. He wore a short metal skirt that covered only half of his bulging thighs.

“Greetings, people who say they are from the Sky. I am Bokchoke Yor.”

Bokchoke’s voice was a low baritone sound that seemed to resonate through the objects around him. Strapped to his left waist was the customary three-foot double-edged sword of the Zeus, encased in a jeweled brass sheath held by a wide four-inch gold-leather belt which was wrapped tightly around his waist. Strapped on his right thigh was a large pistol with a wide barrel resembling an ancient blunderbuss. The brass armor on Bokchoke’s right shoulder reflected the yellowish light from the filament bulbs inside the living room. Even though he was an imposing figure, there was a softness in Bokchoke’s personality that was felt immediately. His white tooth smile conveyed a sense of humor and intelligence.

“Bokchoke, come in, sit over there on the couch. Time for good food and beer,” Markeeya said.

His massive frame made the couch look small. Markeeya handed him a large bowl of corn and goat with a steel bucket filled with beer. She gave smaller portions to everyone else in the room.

“Ha, ha, good, very good, Markeeya! Thank you,” Bokchoke said.

After a few more buckets and goblets of beer, Markeeya spoke up.

“Bokchoke is part of the dissident Zeus we call the “Good Zeus”. If caught, they would be viewed as traitors and submitted to the horrors by the Kronk Zeus, including the spider cage. Bokchoke Yor and his people realize the injustices perpetrated against the Indig people and he has come to help us succeed in our quest for freedom. Go ahead, Bokchoke, you wanted to ask a few questions.”

“You people walked down the Stairway to the Sky? How do you expect me to believe you know where it is? How do I know you are telling the truth? You could be agents from Performa who are trying to cause disaster!” Bokchoke’s basso voice seemed to travel right through everyone.

Lorenzo stood and directed his attention toward the massive man.

“Hi, Bokchoke, my name is Lorenzo Special, and these people are the of my Crew, Tawny Glum, Doc Henry, Ambrosia Sweet, Bounce Fat, and Crazy Blade. Also, MIT. Hey MIT, say hello to my new friend, Bokchoke Yor.”

“Hello, big guy, so glad you are on board.”

Bokchoke looked toward the shelf and saw the glowing, glass sphere encased in its black framed cube of clear polycarbonate. He saw a 3D holographic image of the small head of a man with a short haircut. Bokchoke stood up from the couch and walked over to take a closer look at the smiling face inside the small glass sphere.

“Are you alive in there?” Bokchoke asked.

“Well, that depends on what you mean by alive,” MIT responded.

MIT changed his human-head hologram into a colorful sparkle of rainbow colors inside the glass sphere, and then formed back into the 3D hologram of a man’s

head.

Bokchoke smiled and turned to Lorenzo.

“Good trick. Is it a new fancy TV with a wire somewhere?” Bokchoke wondered.

Lorenzo smirked.

“Maybe another demonstration will convince you that we are from the surface of the Earth? Then, you will understand that Deep is a world inside the planet Earth.”

“I have heard Ninjeema tell me about such theories. What else do you have to show me that will convince me you are people from the Sky?” Bokchoke said with a tone of disbelief.

“Bounce, get out your microwave rifle. Markeeya, would you be so kind as to find us a roach, stick it on the end of your knife, and then prop it up over on that shelf at the far end of the room?” Lorenzo asked.

Markeeya drew out her blade and moved an empty chair. An extra-large roach scurried out and she stabbed it quickly with her knife, impaling the roach. She propped up her knife on its pommel on top of a table while the roach squirmed, still alive and upside down on the knife’s point.

When Bounce picked up his rifle from the carry bag, Bokchoke’s hand instinctively went to his sidearm.

“Everything is fine, Bokchoke. Let him show you this,” Markeeya said.

“Bounce, please aim your rifle at the roach and toast it for us,” Lorenzo instructed.

Everyone watched Bounce as he shouldered his rifle and aimed it at the roach on the end of the knife. The back of the rifle’s stock glowed green and then orange, a high-pitched whining sound filled the room. The roach’s legs stopped moving and then it exploded suddenly with an audible pop. The insect’s innards splattered all over the table.

“Very impressive! With such a weapon, my cadre could defeat the entire lot of Kronk ers,” Bokchoke said.

“We use it strictly in our defense against the threats in Deep,” Lorenzo said.

Bokchoke stood squarely in front of the Crew with hands on hips and tilted his head.

“How did you people find the Stairway to the Sky? Tell me details.”

“We traveled from a place called Bliss. It is on the surface of the Earth above us.

The sky, air, and endless space are above us. We heard a radio signal that we traced to the location above Deep,” Lorenzo said.

“If I may interrupt for a moment,” Ninjeema stepped forward, “we figured out that a button I pressed in a steel room I found many periods ago must have started the signal. Here is a picture I took of the steel room.”

From a side pocket in her black leather shirt she pulled out a photograph that was underexposed and unfocused. She handed it to Lorenzo, who saw what looked like pipes and levers in the middle of the picture. He handed the picture to Bokchoke, who looked at it briefly but did not seem impressed. He then handed the picture back to Ninjeema.

“Lorenzo, please continue with what you were saying,” Bokchoke said.

“We found a steel door that went to a stairway that descended down farther than we could see, and we walked down for many hours, or many periods, as you might say here. At the bottom there was nothing but walls, but we blew a hole in a wall and found a large hallway. We walked down the hallway and then through the large open doors into the Zeus’s Olympus level. The doors closed behind us, then we luckily met up with Markeeya. That’s how we got down here.”

“The Stairway to the Sky is located at the end of the Dead-End Corridor,” Markeeya said.

“The Stairway to the Sky, it is for real… how wide is the stairway?” Bokchoke asked.

“Maybe eight or ten feet wide,” Lorenzo responded.

“What you have told me presents problems for Plan Exodus. We will have thousands of families including children and elderly people escaping from Deep. To think that they could climb so many steps… the Zeus would cut everyone down before they could get to the Sky unless we were to form a rear delaying force,” Bokchoke said.

Markeeya nodded her head.

“You are correct, Bokchoke. The Stairway to the Sky does present problems for so many people walking up for so long. What do you propose?”

Bokchoke turned his head and thought for a few seconds before answering.

“I have over a thousand dedicated followers and another four thousand families, all Zeus dissenters, who will give their lives for your freedom and their family’s escape. I have a plan to delay the Zeus from successfully attacking us during Exodus. First, the Good Zeus will flow out through the Doors of Olympus into the Dead-End Corridor. We must have a constant rear guard during our age. Then, we somehow lock the Doors of Olympus from the outside. There will be Zeus stationed in Performa and along the Supply Corridor, and Zeus cameras will also be able to see what is happening from the security control chamber. We must have a force made up of Zeus and Indigs to repel an attack once the Kronk Zeus break through their own doors. This plan is the only way I see that allows all our people to have enough time to climb to the Sky.”

“When we get to the surface, or Sky, I saw a location where everyone can settle and homestead together. My Crew and I fancily named the location Shangri-La, which is a mythical place in our Bliss history records. It is only about 100 miles from here,” Lorenzo said.

“How far is 100 miles?” Bokchoke asked.

Lorenzo smiled. “Not too far. Probably a five-day, or rather, a many period walk.”

“Silly people! I’d better advise you if your plan is to succeed!” MIT suddenly yelled.

Everyone turned their gaze toward MIT on the shelf.

The volume of MIT’s voice seemed louder than normal. The small glass sphere turned green, red, and then purple inside its clear, polycarbonate protection cube with the 3D hologram of MIT’s face inside the glass. Lorenzo knew that something was odd about MIT, the AI was never so bold. However, he welcomed the new attitude, MIT’s unsolicited help would be invaluable.

“Speak up, MIT, give us your advice!” Lorenzo implored.

“The Zeus will break through your rear guard and eventually catch up to all the families living at Shangri-La and kill everyone. One essential detail in your Exodus plan was left out. On your way to paradise, you must detonate a nuclear

device that seals and destroys Deep with all the Kronk Zeus,” MIT said.

“Yes, that part of the plan slipped my mind. Thank you for that, MIT,” Markeeya said.

“Hey there, you with the big muscles, Bokchoke. Can you get access to your nuclear reactor?” MIT asked.

“Yes, a few of my loyal Zeus work in the Atomic Chamber, and I am also a specialist in the management of the Atomic Chamber,” Bokchoke replied.

“Oh, just fantastic! We must first acquire plutonium and uranium from your Atomic Chamber. We’ll bring the material here to construct an explosive nuclear device and then bring the device to the surface with us. Then, we will detonate the device in an explosion that will destroy everything for a mile above and seal off this hideous world of Deep Hell and entomb the demon Zeus inside of the Earth forever,” MIT said.

Bokchoke stood up and thrust his bucket of beer forward.

“I drink heartily to thee, oh, little spunky spirit inside of glass. I drink to all my new friends, and I drink to all Indigs and my loyal Zeus. May Exodus be our destiny!”

Everyone in the room hoisted their goblets and took large swigs of beer. Markeeya’s father laid out platters of fire-braised goat and rat meat. Their voices

got louder, and they laughed together as they drank the beer liberally.

Ambrosia found Bokchoke to be a magnificent specimen of a giant man. His powerful build and commanding nature stirred a wanton feeling in her. It wasn’t just his stupendous looking body, even though the sight of him made her flush, but she was also enamored with his confident personality and his wry sense of humor. When she made eye with Bokchoke from across the living room, there was an immediate connection and chemistry between the two. They stood frozen, looking into each other’s eyes, transfixed and oblivious to the others in the room. She thought that his large, blue eyes were intense, intelligent, and understanding.

Bokchoke was smitten with Ambrosia. Her rounded, shapely figure and puffy blonde hair intrigued his romantic senses. Her face was perfect and when she smiled, he knew that the attraction was mutual. He sensed that like himself, she was kind yet possessed a deep spirit. For the first time in his life, Bokchoke felt weak from the sight of a woman. He recognized that she was fragile compared to his frame and should be treated gently. Drawn to her voluptuous body, he was also drawn to the beautiful vibe that she emanated.

He walked across the room to talk to her.

“What is your name again?”

His presence loomed over her. Never had she seen such arms, bulging with enormous, veined muscles. Everything about Bokchoke was magnificent, from the bronze skin of his face to his bulbous thighs extending from the hem of his brass-armored skirt. The glow from the television screen cast a dance of shadow and light upon the peaks and valleys of his face, like a soft spotlight highlighting brows furrowed from a lifetime of laughter. He took off his steel shoulder armor,

revealing an incomparable set of flexing pectoral muscles on his wide, bare chest. Ambrosia heard him speak but was so enthralled with his huge visage that his question did not right away. Then she looked up to his convincing, kind, smiling face, and caught her breath enough to speak.

“My name is Ambrosia, Ambrosia Sweet, from the place of Bliss on the surface of our planet Earth,” she said.

“Yes, I think I’m beginning to understand the concept now. The Sky is the surface of a planet called Earth. Deep exists inside of Earth. Am I correct about that statement?” Bokchoke asked.

“Correct, one-hundred percent. I ire you for risking your life to aid the Indigs. You are a very brave man to take up their cause.”

“Ha, your reference to me is something that I will have to get used to. In Deep, I’m known as a Zeus, the Indigs are called men. However, you are correct. I am nothing more than a man, maybe a large man, but just flesh and blood. A man who thinks the woman in front of him is the most beautiful person he has ever seen.”

Ambrosia blushed and smiled. Then, with a small chuckle, her hand landed on Bokchoke’s bare thigh.

“I look forward to getting to know you intimately, Bokchoke.”

They both took deep drinks of their beer.

“How does one become a Zeus?”

“The Zeus have been separated from the Indigs for countless periods of time. The separation of cultures meant the Zeus evolved one way and the Indigs evolved another way. The Zeus remained warlike in culture, ensuring that their dominance over the Indigs could always be enforced. Also, the Zeus psychologically manipulate the Indigs to keep them subservient and working for the Zeus. However, as you know, I and my followers find this system to be dishonorable, and therefore we rebel by any means possible.”

“I understand. Our history records at Bliss have shown how humans can be cruel to one another. Your comion is what makes you extraordinary,” Ambrosia smiled.

“We have much to talk about and a lot to plan. I am not leaving for one period, so we have some short-lived time together.”

“That’s good. Please, tell me more about yourself and your Zeus culture. I am truly fascinated.”

“We Zeus are a physically big people. All Zeus males are over seven feet tall, and all Zeus females are over six feet tall. Zeus males buy and sell Zeus females. The most powerful Zeus can buy the most beautiful Zeus females. The Zeus males physically train their bodies throughout their lives. We train with heavy weights and we practice killing all through childhood. Our orange wigs are given to us by the government once we prove ourselves in battle. This signifies that we

are adults who may vote for our Zeus leaders. We wear gold-plated armor on our right arm and shoulder. The Zeus females all have long hair and dress in scant clothing tied around their breasts and hips. Sometimes only jewelry is worn to adorn their shapely bodies. All Zeus females are required to physically exercise and stay beautiful for their Zeus males. I find it very superficial, and I cannot relate to a Zeus female whose only function is to pamper herself all period with slaves running around to satisfy her every whim.”

“Well, sometimes I’ll wash up nice, but mostly I like to study science and chemistry. I’m an expert in explosives, too.”

“Really? Explosives? There truly is a lot for us to talk about,” Bokchoke smiled.

“The surface of the Earth is a beautiful world full of bright colors and nice animals. Bliss is a totally peaceful place, there is no war. If there are any fights they are resolved civilly and amicably. My enclave of Bliss is a perfect community where everyone enjoys happiness all through their lives.”

“Your Earth sounds magnificent! I hope to see the bright colors and the nice animals soon,” Bokchoke said.

“Can you tell me more about the Zeus culture?”

“Zeus children are taught discipline and the notion of honor from the time they can first walk. Each child is given a large knife they wear everywhere on their waist-belts. Thick rat hides are used to make wide belts which are worn around the Zeus waists. Gold tunics made of fine metal foil and thick cloth drape over their shoulders, which completes the clothing of our young Zeus. Mock fights

using dull knives and swords take place all periods, sometimes spontaneously in the middle of a classroom. Boys might pounce on each other, and the blood will flow from their noses and mouths. Fists, chairs, and elbows are smashed into the tender regions of their young bodies. Some laugh, others cry in pain, and are laughed at by the rest. The childhood of any Zeus is brutal. We learn quickly that it is better to inflict pain than to receive it. Some children learn quicker than others and know how to manipulate others so small cliques and gangs form throughout Zeus neighborhoods. Still, others stand out amongst their classmates, like me. Even though the other elite Zeus children were athletically and mentally privileged, I was a notable youth. It is the superior quality of my muscles, my muscle control, and the striations in my biceps and forearms that release a superior strength. My stomach muscles are a wall of power.”

“It seems that your mind is as strong as your body,” Ambrosia observed.

“In the large classrooms of up to a hundred children, I excelled at my studies, especially atomic engineering and energy applications. I was groomed for an important position to oversee the Zeus atomic reactor. I learned every part of it, every detail on how to maintain the most important energy system in the republic. For generations, the knowledge of atomic energy was handed down to the children of the engineers, and then it was my turn to learn about the way the reactor works. The reactor powers all of Deep. Since the ancient beginnings of Olympus, the reactor has given the Zeus and Indigs light to see. There was a time in history when the Zeus cut the power and lights to the Indig Pentangle, but this did not work out well for the Zeus. The Indigs lived well enough in darkness, eating roaches and burning candles. The Zeus gained nothing.”

“Why do the Zeus dress the way they do, with all the armor?”

“Normal dress for Zeus males is a gold-plated skirt and a metal shoulder harness. The armor protects us in battle and is important for our presentation at meetings. When Zeus females are not wearing just a jeweled top and bottom to display

their bodies, they wear red or purple gowns. Their long hair is sometimes dyed gold and curled into waves instead of a straight hair cut. The young Zeus females attend different classes as children than the young Zeus males, their classes include cooking and muscle massage. They live a pampered life, free from want, the only proviso being that a Zeus female’s goal in life is to make her Zeus male happy. Therefore, they may be given to a husband as a political gesture or a token of one’s appreciation for a favor done.”

“And why is it so hot in Olympus?” asked Ambrosia.

“All Zeus want a hot temperature chamber because we show off our bodies to one another, this is part of our culture. The fewer clothes we have to wear, the better. Up here, the temperature is cold, and I have to wear a cape lined with rat fur. The heat of Olympus is funneled from the atomic engine into our chambers.”

“Why do the Indigs just give you slaves? That is what I’ve heard. Why do the Zeus fight the Indigs instead of cooperating?”

“Most of the fighting is rumored to have started when the Zeus attacked the Indigs within the Crystal Perimeter. Epic battles have taken place between the Indigs and the Zeus. The Zeus are always hungry for new slaves, however, in the past the Indigs did not want to give the Zeus an unlimited number of slaves, so that’s why there were wars. All Zeus males are trained in firearms, shoulder rifles, and hand cannons. Since the creatures are so dangerous in Deep, the bullets have to be big. Only the most powerful of shells are desirable in order to down a giant rat. All firearms are single-shot devices because the bullets are so large. As a young Zeus, we would often go out on giant rat hunts into the Black Frontier with a belt full of shells and just a hand cannon strapped to our thigh. Extra shells allowed a second shot if the first shot somehow missed. We also carried steel ball shot in case we were attacked by destroyer ants,” Bokchoke said.

“Your world down here is horrible compared to the surface where I live. The sunshine from a bright star casts golden warm light for half the day, and night brings darkness for love and a nice sleep time.”

“If we are successful, then maybe you can show me the surface and everything else you speak of.”

Bokchoke’s smile was broad which made his chiseled face even more handsome.

Ambrosia giggled and squeezed Bokchoke’s bare thigh where her hand had already rested while they talked. She snuggled closer to him on the couch and giggled again. He laughed and they continued talking and drinking, until she fell asleep leaning against him on the living room couch.

The party exhausted everyone. The fire in the central pit was smoldering ash, smoke funneled up the exposed chimney pipe. Tawny and Crazy were curled up on the floor together under a rat-fur rug. Doc and Bounce slept on cramped chairs while Markeeya’s father slept on a raised alcove cut into the steel wall.

Markeeya pulled on Lorenzo’s sleeve and walked to her private alcove. He followed, and they closed the curtain to Markeeya’s small bedroom. Once again, they made ionate love on her round bed. After a few hours, they were finally exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.

Bokchoke was the first to open his eyes after pretending to sleep. He carefully moved his arm and shoulder from where Ambrosia rested her head, but she

remained in a sound sleep, mumbling something as he moved. He put on his shoulder armor and donned his cape. Ninjeema stood next to him before his exit.

“In two periods we will cross the Black Frontier to meet with your people inside Olympus. We will go to door D7 outside the Atomic tunnels. You will lead us to the Atomic Chamber where the people from the Sky will direct you on what they need, and then you will help us bring the material back to the Pentangle,” Ninjeema explained.

“It will all be as you say. To Exodus,” Bokchoke said.

“To Exodus,” Ninjeema responded.

Bokchoke walked through the abode’s spiral, followed by Ninjeema. The pushcart was already vertical from being held upright by two Indigs. Bokchoke turned and pressed himself against the bottom of the pushcart, which was then placed horizontal, resting on its two large wheels. The Indigs covered the large Zeus by pouring sacks of vegetables on top of him. They wheeled the cart down the row toward the direction of Performa. Ninjeema followed, keeping watch from a distance, making sure her friend made it back safely undetected.

Atomic Essentials

When the Crew finally woke up, they all had headaches from the strong Indig beer. Bounce went to the lavatory bucket and heaved out a vomit that was loud enough to wake anyone up that may still have been dozing. Lorenzo pulled the bedroom curtain open to see Bounce on his hands and knees as he threw up into the steel bucket.

“Little too much beer drinking, hey, Bounce? Better eat something, or you’re going to feel like a wreck,” Lorenzo observed.

He sprung out of bed and put on his brown, Indig goat-leather shirt and pants.

“Where are you going?” Markeeya asked, still lying-in bed.

“Just taking a look outside to see what’s happening in Grave.”

When Lorenzo emerged from the abode’s slit, he saw a busy row, full of pushcarts and families of Indigs walking together. No one had a smile on their face, and they walked slowly, with a sense that everything was futile and there was no reason to be happy. Even the children looked mentally downtrodden. Their young faces were dirty and blank of emotion as they walked with their parents, who had the same bleak expression. Lorenzo saw a pushcart vegetable salesman stop and barter with another Indig, who offered a small hammer and rat pelt as payment for a few sacks of vegetables and meat. The smell outside of the abode in the row was very unpleasant.

Markeeya exited the abode and stood next to Lorenzo. She wore only a white

towel around her body, her black skin was glowing, smooth, and sultry. She took his hand and looked up into his eyes.

“We plan to move quickly and put everything in place for Exodus. In a period, we will be on a very dangerous mission together to Olympus. If we are successful, the entire Indig people, along with many Zeus and their families will take the Stairway to the Sky and live on… Earth.”

“Who is going on this mission to Olympus besides you and me? We will have to take Ambrosia, since she knows about the materials that we’ll need,” Lorenzo observed.

“Ninjeema knows her way through the Black Frontier, and she is familiar with the entrances into Olympus. We’ll also take two Explorers and two Scouts. Maybe even take more Scouts, depending on the weight of the items that we’re bringing back. Yes, we must convince Ambrosia to come with us, since she knows about atomic things,” Markeeya agreed.

Lorenzo was not happy about going back to the Black Frontier, but he knew what was at stake and he also didn’t want to disappoint his new romantic infatuation.

“Do we have to go through that Black Frontier again?”

Markeeya looked into Lorenzo’s eyes.

“Yes, we do. Whatever ensures our success must be done.”

“Let’s go back inside and talk with MIT and Ambrosia,” Lorenzo advised.

They returned through the spiral into the living room where MIT rested on a shelf. Ambrosia was sitting on a couch by herself, sipping hot hibiscus tea. Tawny, Crazy, Doc, and Bounce were watching Zeus TV again with Markeeya’s dad. Their faces were fixed on the screen which depicted gruesome, bloodsoaked horrors, followed by Zeus propaganda messages. Lorenzo and Markeeya sat on the couch with Ambrosia.

“We need you to select what’s required once we are in the Zeus nuclear chamber. I must tell you Ambrosia, that we will need to cross the Black Frontier again,” Lorenzo warned.

“That’s a scary thought, I really didn’t like that part of our trip here. Will Bokchoke be there? He said he is a manager of sorts in what he calls the ‘Atomic Chamber.’”

“Yes, Bokchoke and his Zeus will assist us once we arrive at the D7 door to Olympus,” Markeeya said.

Ambrosia’s face brightened into a smile when she learned that Bokchoke would be there.

“OK, if you really need me, I guess I will have to go. The fate of the Indigs and

the Good Zeus might rest on our efforts in the next few days.”

“What are ‘the next few days?’ What are ‘days?’” Markeeya asked.

Ambrosia stared at Markeeya and realized that the reality of days and nights did not exist in Deep.

“On the surface of Earth, half the time of a day it is light from a star called the sun and half the time the Earth is dark from its absence. There is more to the explanation than that, but that is what I mean by day and night. Day is light and night is dark,” Ambrosia said.

Markeeya squinted her eyes in confusion.

“What you say is strange and I have a hard time understanding it right now, but please teach me more.”

Lorenzo walked over and picked MIT off of the shelf. He sat back down on the couch with MIT on his lap.

“First of all, I cannot take you on the mission to get the nuclear material. It’s too dangerous and I’m going to need you back here to help us construct the device. Secondly, please watch over Tawny, Crazy, Doc, and Bounce. They are going to stay here until we come back. Then maybe we’ll finally get out of Deep and take all these poor souls and the Good Zeus up to the surface with us,” Lorenzo explained.

“No problem. I will watch over them,” MIT said.

Lorenzo suspected MIT was going through a transformation, where the AI was actually feeling emotions.

Lorenzo asked, “So, MIT, we need to make an explosive nuclear device that will be powerful enough to destroy Deep but light enough for a few people to carry. Is that possible?”

“I believe so, given that we have the proper materials and engineering skills. We can make a light, nuclear fusion explosive by surrounding the plutonium with Ambrosia’s ultrapowerful grenades. We will call the device MAD, which is an acronym for Massive Annihilation Device. What do you think?” MIT asked.

“Very good. Now please tell us exactly what is needed in the way of raw materials for this device. Ambrosia will make a materials list and we will also discuss the construction process with her. She has studied nuclear fission and fusion with teachers who know of the ancient process,” Lorenzo clarified.

“Ambrosia, how many of those little grenades do you have left?” MIT asked.

“Eighteen, we used two breaking through that wall.”

“Splendid! We only need sixteen. Please detach sixteen grenades from your equipment vest and keep the remaining two. We need to ensure that we have

sixteen in order to complete the geodesic implosion for the MAD.”

MIT droned on about the materials required and what role they played in the device. Ambrosia took notes and seemed to fully understand what MIT was talking about while Lorenzo and Markeeya also listened intently.

Lorenzo knew that the device required a lot of precise engineering, and from what he had seen, Grave did not possess any of the tools or expertise needed to craft such a technical device. There were no 3D printers and no working machines of any kind.

Ninjeema walked into the living room followed by two Caucasian male Indigs dressed in black leather with small swords on thin belts, and two dark-skinned Indigs who wore the commonly seen brown leather with larger black swords in their belts. They also held long steel lances with bladed needle-sharp points.

“I have brought two Explorers and two Scouts. I hope that will be sufficient for this mission,” Ninjeema stated.

Markeeya turned to Lorenzo.

“Are you and Ambrosia ready to leave?”

“I need to get a few things together, I’ll be a few minutes,” Lorenzo said.

The two Explorers looked at each other, not knowing what to make of his reference to “minutes.” Markeeya noted their confused expressions.

“Lorenzo meant to say that he needs some moments of time. I also need some moments to get my things together,” Markeeya said.

After Lorenzo strapped on his M16 and Ambrosia removed all of the grenades from her vest except two, they set off from the abode toward the edge of Grave and on through the Crystal Perimeter. They entered a glass cavern that snaked through the Crystal Perimeter where it suddenly became narrow. Small alcoves were set into the sides of the sharp, jutting glass walls. The inside of some of the alcoves seemed fused or melted smooth. Up ahead, Lorenzo saw three Indigs chopping up a rat they had skewered in a trap with their lances. The Indigs saw the team walking their way, and they dragged parts of the rat over to an alcove to let the team . Blood and rat parts were everywhere, large chunks of rat flesh remained on the sharp glass shards that stuck out from the side walls. The Indig hunters nodded to the group and offered a chunk of meat for a good meal.

Lorenzo knew that the team’s safety ended once they exited the Crystal Perimeter. He wished he wasn’t involved in a whole revolution, yet here he was, ready to walk into a realm that only his mind’s worst nightmares could have imagined.

Once they exited the Crystal Perimeter, the team came upon the enormous steel wall of the Super Chamber. They entered the Black Frontier through two doors with steel handles and everyone switched on their flashlights. The Indig Scouts were impressed by the brightness of his flashlight. In comparison, the Indig flashlights were dull, the yellow light from the small filament bulbs was only enough to see for a few feet.

Lorenzo could hear his heart pounding in his ears as they walked through the black silence. He looked at Ambrosia, who seemed to be doing fine. They heard an animal screaming in pain, Markeeya said the sound was probably a rat being eaten by destroyer ants.

“Markeeya, do you know where to go exactly? I take it you’re familiar with how to get where we are going,” Lorenzo asked.

“Yes, we need to walk along the Great Partition and from there head straight out. Olympus won’t be too far after that.”

Lorenzo was thankful for the security lent by walking along the wall of the Great Partition, knowing that they would the Indig steel escape capsules.

Suddenly, he couldn’t walk anymore, he was stuck on a gooey latticework of rope that was a thick, silver web ten feet high and four feet wide. It was strung between the wall of the Great Partition and the floor. Lorenzo’s unsuccessful wiggle to get out of the sticky web and his struggles made the Indigs chuckle.

“Don’t move too much, you’ll just get more stuck. It is a small spider’s web. Here, let me cut you out of there,” an Indig Scout offered.

The Indig drew his blade and easily cut away the sticky ropes that held Lorenzo in place. Markeeya and everyone else laughed at his awkward display of fear. Lorenzo finally chuckled as he peeled the last bit of the web’s sticky string off his pants and shirt, however, one strand was too tough to break.

“Hey, there, Scout, can you cut off this last string?” Lorenzo asked.

A white web strand, similar in thickness to a clothesline, was connected to the wall and steadfastly stuck to Lorenzo’s shoulder. The Indig took one swipe with his sword and Lorenzo was free.

“There you go. I think we are ready to move on now,” the Scout said.

Within the blink of an eye, a giant spider hiding in the darkness above fell off the side wall and landed directly on top of the Indig Scout. The spider’s mandibles closed around the sides of the Scout’s head and a tube shot out of the spider’s mouth into the head of the unfortunate man. The Indig screamed loudly. Equally terrified, Lorenzo also screamed and shot his M16 rifle on full-automatic from his hip, spraying bullets toward the giant spider. The muzzle flashes from the automatic rifle caused a bright, strobe-light effect that lit up the whole gruesome scene. Some bullets hit the spider’s legs, blowing them right off the spider’s round body. The staccato sound from his machine gun seemed extra loud in the silence of the Black Frontier. Although Lorenzo tried to save the Indig, the spider’s body did not sustain a bullet hit and the hideous creature continued to suck the brain from the Indig. Then a volley of three arrows struck the spider’s round body in quick succession, and it collapsed on top of the Indig. Everyone rushed over to pull the dead spider off of the Indig Scout, but it was too late. The spider had already sucked out the man’s entire brain through the hole in his head.

“We have to leave him here and pick him up on the way back if he has not been devoured. Our mission is too important, we must keep moving,” Ninjeema said.

Lorenzo was gripped by an anxiety attack. His chest tightened up like a vice and he gasped for air. He dropped to one knee, head slumped down, trying not to feel dizzy. Markeeya put her hand on his shoulder.

“Do not dwell on his death, Lorenzo. Here in Deep, we know death can come at any time. He was a brave Scout who gave his life for Exodus,” Markeeya said.

The two Explorers strapped their bows across their backs, and everyone was ready to move on. However, Ambrosia was numb, her expression blank. She seemed to be in a state of silent shock.

“From this point of the partition we will go straight across the Black Frontier. There are no escape capsules. We must be quiet and quick. Do not head to the right, the Black Frontier is unforgiving. If you get lost, you will be walking forever until something eats you. Follow closely and stay straight. The noise you made with your weapon might attract the rats, but if we move quickly, we can make it to Olympus in a short time,” Ninjeema said.

They took off in a single file jog, stepping silently. Lorenzo felt severe vertigo while running inside the Black Frontier, up and down over rises and tall rounded mounds in the floor. There were no reference points, no objects, just blackness overhead and all around.

“Wait, wait, I need to rest,” Ambrosia gasped.

The group slowed down and came to a stop. She was bent over and breathing heavily. Ninjeema, Markeeya, the two Explorers, and the one remaining Scout were using controlled breathing. They did not look tired at all. Lorenzo would have rather kept moving because he felt it was better to be in any place than the Black Frontier. A constant terror consumed him, Ambrosia had to continue jogging.

“Hold my hand. We need to keep moving,” Lorenzo offered.

“Give me your other hand,” Markeeya said.

Together, Lorenzo and Markeeya pulled Ambrosia by her small hands. They kept moving at a silent but fast pace. Ambrosia stumbled a bit, but Lorenzo and Markeeya ed her with their stiff arms and kept her going at their nervous pace.

“Slow down, we’re almost there,” Ninjeema whispered.

They slowed to a walk. Lorenzo saw a wall with a door that was marked D7. He was so thankful to be alive and relieved to almost be out of the Black Frontier.

“Wait here,” Ninjeema said.

She walked up to the steel door and slowly opened it halfway. Ninjeema conversed with someone behind the door and then walked back to the group.

“You three men return to the Pentangle and activate every Explorer and Scout. I have just learned that the Good Zeus will help us bring the material back to the Pentangle. Talk to the elders of every section and convince them that the time for Exodus is now, tell them that the Explorers have found a way to the Sky. Markeeya, Ambrosia, and Lorenzo, you come with me. We will assist in the verification of the products we need.”

Ninjeema motioned to Markeeya, Ambrosia, and Lorenzo to follow her. When they went through the door marked D7, they found four Zeus standing by the entrance. A shock went through Lorenzo thinking they were led into a trap, but then Bokchoke pushed his way through from behind the other Zeus.

When Bokchoke saw Ambrosia, his stern face turned into an ear-to-ear grin. Lorenzo noticed that her whole body shuddered forward towards Bokchoke.

“Ah, my friends! So glad you safely traversed through the frontier.”

“We did lose a good Scout, a really good Scout,” Ninjeema said.

“I’m sure he died with honor,” Bokchoke offered.

“We have a specific, detailed list of the items that we need. They are all written on this cloth.”

Ninjeema handed Bokchoke the instructions.

Bokchoke studied the requests and called over his four Zeus compatriots. They huddled over the list and agreed on an action plan.

“There have been patrols in these hallways. We will have to wait in a section of

the Atomic Chamber where we will not be seen. It is the period when the Zeus change fuel rods and attend to general maintenance, they accomplish this with a lot of ceremony. My squad will intercept and acquire the materials that you require while the Zeus are preoccupied. I have containers ready so that we may safely transport the material back to the Pentangle. Follow me to the storage racks, we must wait there while they work. Let’s go,” Bokchoke commanded.

He took Ambrosia’s soft, tiny white hand in his own broad, bronzed hand and pulled her gently after him. She smiled and followed behind the giant.

“Are all the transport containers lead-lined?” Ambrosia asked.

“Yes, triple lead-lined. No radiation will emit from the containers once sealed,” Bokchoke said.

They wound their way through service tunnels surrounded by pipes and wires on the walls, then squeezed by narrow racks of equipment. Bokchoke motioned for everyone to stop. His four-member Good Zeus squad walked into the maze of shelves to the side of the large room and disappeared.

“Will I ever see you again after this?” Ambrosia whispered to Bokchoke.

“Of course, I will you across the Black Frontier. Then, together, we will build the atomic device.”

He led the group behind an equipment rack that overlooked the Atomic

Chamber. The purple and gold reactor sat in a pool of water. It was surrounded by a large bronze floor and a platform with levers and dials on metal control consoles.

The sound of slow beating kettle drums was heard by everyone.

“The Zeus are about to change out the atomic fuel. The methodical procedure is a transcendent ceremony that has been honored for generations. A cadre called the Atomic Guard are the most trusted and the most fanatical of Zeus in the president’s personal army. They will continue to chant a song as the fuel is being refreshed,” Bokchoke explained.

The Zeus entered the Atomic Chamber dressed in full, golden-armored regalia. They all had rifles slung across their backs and pistols in thigh holsters. Their gladiator-type swords had purple handles and were sheathed on their belts.

The Zeus marched in two single-file rows and beat kettle drums as they stomped into the Atomic Chamber. About one hundred Zeus stepped in cadence as they chanted rhythmically.

“Toomba, Toomba, Toomba, Toomba, Toomba.”

The drums and the Zeus’ deep voices vibrated through the air around Lorenzo as he peered down between a gap in the equipment shelves.

Then, an ornately adorned Zeus entered the chamber, his elevated orange frock

of hair prominently spiked from his head. He was dressed in a flowing metal cape made out of bronze plates, and he held his hands up, palms forward as he chanted in a high, nasally voice.

“Ehlee Ehlee Ehlee Ehlee Ohhhh, Ehlee Eeee Ehlee Ohhhh, Ehlee Eeee Ehlee Ohhhhh, Ehlee Eeee, Ehlee Ohhhhh.”

The one hundred basso-voiced Zeus continued their pulsing chant with the kettle drums beating in rhythmic harmony.

“Toomba, Toomba, Toomba, Toomba.”

The Zeus in the bronze metal cape continued his eerie song of descending notes and phrases.

“Ehlee Ehlee Ehlee Ehlee Ohhhh, Ehlee Eeee Ehlee Ohhhh, Ehlee Eeee Ehlee Ohhhhh, Ehlee Eeee, Ehlee Ohhhhh.”

More Zeus entered the chamber, wearing bronze foil suits and wheeling in carts full of atomic material. They changed the nuclear fuel in rhythmic cadence to the Zeus’s chanting.

Lorenzo thought about how this ceremony represented the heart of Zeus society and power. If they did not sustain their nuclear power, it would not be possible to sustain their cruel dominance that imposed slavery, violence, and death upon the Indigs.

Finally, the nuclear fuel was changed, and the bronze-caped Zeus stopped his song. The other Zeus marched out of the Atomic Chamber while they continued their pulsing basso chant.

“Toomba, Toomba, Toomba, Toomba.”

The last Zeus exited the Atomic Chamber, and after some moments ed, Bokchoke whispered instructions.

“Follow me, we will now meet my loyal Zeus. They have acquired the essential materials. However, they might be delayed taking extra care while handling the radioactive elements.”

As the group walked from behind an equipment rack, Bokchoke unexpectantly walked right into a Zeus who was sorting out some items.

“Bokchoke? What are you doing back here? I thought you might be up front with the others,” the Zeus said.

“Looking for a size twenty-three bolt, but I realized I do not need it after all,” Bokchoke responded.

The rest of the group had frozen in place behind another equipment rack, the Zeus had not seen them. They knelt down while Bokchoke was trying to talk his way past the Zeus. Meanwhile, two other Zeus entered the racks of shelves.

Ninjeema tugged on Markeeya’s sleeve and motioned with her thumb that it was time that they left now or get caught. Markeeya silently ed the word down that they had to move now. The other two Zeus were just three rows of shelves away. They all crouched low and made their way through the racks. Two other Zeus were walking in the same direction that Ninjeema was taking the group, they stopped and crouched low. Ninjeema pulled Ambrosia and Markeeya by their sleeves while Lorenzo kept his eye on the nearby Zeus. The three Zeus started walking his way from another row. He did the only thing he could to remain undetected, and that was to climb up the side of the rack and lie down flat on a high shelf, about ten feet up, well above the eye level of a Zeus. He froze in place while his heart pounded loudly in his ears.

I’ll just wait here until I spot Bokchoke or the others… if they come back for me.

President Kronk

The three women scampered toward a door to escape the equipment rows. More Zeus had entered the normally vacant rack space, and Ninjeema, Markeeya, and Ambrosia had to get out of there quickly. Ninjeema and Markeeya tried to retrace where Bokchoke had led them, but now they were hopelessly lost. They doubled back and ran down another tunnel but then entered an unfamiliar chamber that was ornamented with screaming face logos and marble pillars.

“We are obviously lost in Olympus. I don’t know where we are, but we’ll keep trying to get out of here and back to the Black Frontier,” Ninjeema said.

Their intentions were cut short by a Zeus that spotted them suddenly.

“You! You slaves there! What are you doing hiding like there is no work to do? There is another presidential party and you slaves should start by bringing out the food. Now get over to the manager before I feed you to the rats!” the Zeus yelled.

Ninjeema, Markeeya, and Ambrosia walked in the direction that the Zeus had pointed.

“I’ve seen these presidential parties before while exploring. They are loaded with slaves, food, and Zeus females. Keep your head down and start bringing out platters of food from the kitchen in the back of the chamber, but first, let’s take off our equipment here and hide it behind that round urn. Quickly, keep moving! That Zeus will walk up right behind us to check if we are loafing,” Markeeya said.

The three women quickly stashed their equipment behind a large urn and entered an expansive chamber filled with marble pillars and screaming face statues. They walked over to an older Indig woman, who was the slave manager for the banquet.

“You slaves go in back and bring out the food,” she commanded.

The kitchen was located behind the presidential chamber. As they walked quickly toward the back of the chamber, Markeeya recognized President Kronk from seeing him on Zeus TV. He was surrounded by scantily clad Zeus females, who wore just the slightest jeweled coverings over their ample breasts and hips. The Zeus females rested on cushions by his feet while other Zeus females massaged him, occasionally feeding him brazed goat.

President Doonan Kronk sat in a large, golden bronze chair with thick armrests adorned with sculpted, screaming faces on the ends. The President’s chair was centered high up on an elevated black-metal stage. Spotlights reflected off of his oily bronze arms. His entourage stood to either side of him, in addition to Zeus standing behind marble pillars. More of his special guard was situated casually in the great hall of the Zeus.

Kronk’s power over Deep was absolute. His most fanatical Zeus followers in Olympus were captivated by his every mannerism. Thousands of Zeus were enamored with Kronk, and their cult mentalities would carry out any order he commanded. Kronk used this control over his followers and abused his power every period by taking advantage of situations that benefitted his personal interests instead of aiding his people. He was a braggard, a bully, and a selfconsumed egomaniac.

A bright spotlight was focused on Kronk sitting in his President’s chair on the

stage. The light beam highlighted his regal visage so all in the great chamber could see his prominence. Large platters of red meat were ushered in along with oversized mugs of drink. Kronk grabbed a hunk of rat meat and bit at it ravenously.

Ninjeema, Markeeya and Ambrosia had the unfortunate luck to be noticed by President Kronk as they walked to the back kitchen.

“You three! You three slaves over there! Come forward!”

When Kronk yelled the chamber vibrated from the force of his booming voice. His brass, metal breastplate armor had a sculpted metal face crying in pain. Kronk was clean shaven and wore a tall pouf of orange hair. His face was creased from age, and his grinning expression looked psychopathic.

The temperature in the great hall overheated the three women. Sweat poured out of every pore and dampened their undergarments.

“How did you pretty little creatures walk into my lair?” Kronk asked.

“We were just attending to the master’s needs. We will be taking your leave now, master, to retrieve food for your enjoyment,” Markeeya said.

“You two black ones are very nice looking, and I really like the little white one. You’ve got some rack on you Miss Tiny! We’ll all see you in the bedrooms later! Right, Zeus?” Kronk said.

“Hear! Hear! President Kronk!” the Zeus yelled in unison.

Kronk and the other Zeus in the great room had their eyes on Ambrosia. Her stature was short like many Indigs and she wore their typical brown goat leather clothes. The only feature that might have given her away were her normal sized eyes, but she kept her head bowed so that none of the Zeus would notice her smaller eyes.

“Very well, our middle meal is ready and you three may now serve us,” Kronk said.

The three women saw other slaves entering the kitchen room from swinging doors behind Kronk’s throne. Markeeya gave Ambrosia and Ninjeema a subtle look and motioned with her head to follow. The three women walked around the throne and into a chamber where many Indigs were scurrying around in preparation for the feast while the Zeus guards looked on from the sides of the room. Large hunks of cooked rat ribs lay on gold metal platters, which were hoisted on slave shoulders and brought into the gold-pillar chamber. Markeeya motioned with her head for Ambrosia and Ninjeema to follow her. They walked into a back kitchen chamber where some Zeus chefs, male and female, were toiling over the sauce-soaked vegetables and rat ribs.

“Follow me. Just do what I do and keep your head down,” Markeeya whispered.

Markeeya, Ninjeema, and Ambrosia each picked up one silver tray loaded with meat and walked it into the presidential chamber.

“Put those platters on the square table over there,” the slave manager said.

She pointed with her left hand to a table at the outer end of the chamber. When the women placed the platters on the table and looked up, there stood Bokchoke in the shadows, wearing his orange wig. His presence made Ambrosia gasp. They were all so relieved to see him that Markeeya and Ninjeema grabbed each other’s hands.

“My Zeus are waiting by door D7 with all the materials on the list. Go into the kitchen and I will meet you there. We can exit through a back age from the kitchen,” Bokchoke whispered.

The three women turned and kept their heads down as they walked to the kitchen. Once again, President Kronk spotted them.

“Oh, it’s you three, how convenient. Stay there. Look, my Zeus like you. Look at Dillion Darr here, isn’t he a catch? Loosen up, slaves, relax. If you don’t want to, I know that Darr can get very nasty. Isn’t that right, Darr?”

The three women looked up in terror at the facial ugliness and bloated body of Dillion Darr, whom they recognized from Zeus TV. He made a point to show the women that he was licking his lips. “Yum, yum.”

“Take them to the bedrooms,” Kronk ordered.

Six Zeus descended on the doomed women who knew not to resist or they would

surely be killed. Ambrosia looked terrified. Ninjeema’s arms were grabbed by two Zeus who picked her up off of her feet as they carried her to an exit in the chamber. Without all her weapons, she was helpless against these evil giants.

“Wait, wait! Give me that little white one, you two Zeus are dismissed,” Darr ordered.

Ambrosia was released by the two Zeus and suddenly Darr grabbed her hair.

“Now I will show you how to be a good slave,” Darr said.

The three women were manhandled down a hallway that was fashioned with vertical lights on the walls and plush, fur carpet on the floor. They ed many gold doors as they walked down the hallway, each adorned with a black screaming face logo. There were many gold doors, one after the other.

“Ah, here we are. I think you have been a bad slave and now you must pay,” Darr leered.

He opened the thick, gold door and threw Ambrosia to the floor. Inside the room was a tremendous twenty-foot bed with mirrors lining the walls. Suddenly Darr fell forward, prone on the floor, unconscious. Ambrosia turned her head and saw Darr sprawled on the floor, not moving. When she looked up, there stood Bokchoke, who had knocked out Darr with the butt of his knife.

“Come, we must now save your friends,” Bokchoke said.

He extended his hand to help Ambrosia off of the floor.

“I feel sick,” Ambrosia said.

“Are you alright? Did he hurt you?” Bokchoke asked tenderly.

“I’m fine. Let’s find Markeeya and Ninjeema.”

Bokchoke walked out of the room and knocked on the door next to Darr’s room.

“Zeus, you are wanted back at the party!” Bokchoke yelled through the door.

One Zeus opened the door and Bokchoke looked in. Markeeya had been thrown on the bed and her clothes were ripped.

“What is this now?” said the Zeus.

“I’m taking these slaves for President Kronk. Now return to the party at once,” Bokchoke commanded.

The two Zeus begrudgingly strapped their armor on and walked back down the

hallway.

“Ninjeema should be in the room next to this one. I saw them take her in there before they threw me in this room,” Markeeya said.

Bokchoke knocked on the door and voiced the same ruse about an order to return to the party, but there was no response from inside. He tried the door handle and it moved, the Zeus had not locked the door. When Bokchoke pushed the door open he saw Ninjeema standing on the bed kicking at the Zeus. They were getting somewhat annoyed and slapped at her, but they still laughed at her hopeless antics.

When Ninjeema saw her friends, she screamed.

“Bokchoke!”

The two Zeus turned around to face Bokchoke. Ninjeema sprung off the bed and landed on the back of one of the Zeus, stabbing him in the side of his head with a ten-inch spike that she had been hiding along her spine. The Zeus’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed onto the floor.

Bokchoke quickly drew his sword from his left side with his right hand and, with one swift backhanded motion, his blade sliced through flesh and neck bone. The orange frocked head of the Zeus slid from his neck and fell onto the floor. The head rolled for a few feet before coming to a stop, face up, staring up at Ambrosia who started to scream. Markeeya firmly put her hand over Ambrosia’s mouth and muffled the sound.

“Follow me to the kitchen where I know of an escape route,” Bokchoke said.

“Wait, we left our equipment on the side of the presidential hall. We need that equipment, and if it is found by the Zeus, they will send an expeditionary force into the Pentangle,” Markeeya said.

“My vest is also there with two grenades,” Ambrosia said.

“Quick, then, follow me to the kitchen like you are my slaves. Walk close behind me,” Bokchoke said.

They walked down the hallway with many bedroom doors on either side and managed to avoid scrutiny when they entered the kitchen to the rear of the presidential chamber. Bokchoke nodded and waved to a few other Zeus in the kitchen where various Zeus were cooking and placing food on trays for the slave women to bring out. Bokchoke then pushed open a door to the rear of the large room and they all entered a hallway which exited to an open room to the side of the presidential chamber.

“This looks familiar. I think we stashed our equipment over there, behind that urn,” Markeeya said and pointed.

“Stay here, I’ll get it. Hide behind that pillar so that no one sees you by chance,” Bokchoke ordered.

He walked about a hundred feet and then spotted the women’s equipment behind an urn. Bokchoke picked up the women’s vests and ran back to them. He watched the three women take off their shirts to strap on their equipment harnesses.

“Where is Lorenzo? We lost him,” Ambrosia asked.

“When we ran from the equipment racks by the Atomic Chamber, he did not follow us. Maybe he is still hiding there?” Markeeya said.

“My Zeus are waiting with the materials by door D7. I think it is too risky to go back into the Atomic Chamber right now. Zeus patrols walk around, and that is why we have to keep moving. I know they are going to be patrolling the Atomic Chamber,” Bokchoke said.

“I’m going back there to find Lorenzo. You can come with me or not,” Markeeya said.

“We can’t go back there, think of Exodus! We need to leave with the material now. Maybe he’ll make his way back to the Pentangle if he hasn’t been caught,” Ninjeema said.

“All of you can leave. I’m going back to find Lorenzo,” Markeeya insisted.

“This might be a mistake, but we are going back. It is not too far from here. You women follow me and stay low. What we are about to do is very risky. I might

not be able to deflect the Zeus if there are more than two. If we are spotted, to act like my slaves,” Bokchoke said.

They snaked their way back into the section of the Atomic Chamber where the equipment racks were located. Fortunately, no Zeus were in the area. They went back to the location where they were first separated.

“Lorenzo, Lorenzo, Lorenzo,” Markeeya loudly whispered.

Suddenly, he climbed down from the top shelf of the rack where he had been hiding.

“Oh, thank you, thank you for coming back for me. I was just about to try to make my way out of here and cross the Black Frontier by myself.”

Markeeya and Lorenzo hugged and kissed each other tightly.

“Follow me. We must make haste because the Zeus patrols will be here soon, they are always looking for escaped slaves,” Bokchoke said.

They wound their way through the rows of equipment racks toward the exit. Ambrosia held Bokchoke’s hand and Markeeya held Lorenzo’s hand. Ninjeema seemed to be preoccupied with snatching items off the shelves and filling her pockets. When they went through the exit door in the rear of the room Ninjeema was not behind them. When Markeeya stopped in the threshold of the exit she saw Ninjeema looking at an item and then try to place it into a pouch under her

shirt. Markeeya motioned for Ninjeema to hurry up. As Ninjeema turned toward the door, two Zeus grabbed her.

“Ah! A little slave girl is caught! This one is black too!” the Zeus said.

Another Zeus ripped open Ninjeema’s shirt.

“Wait! What do we have here? This slave has been stealing equipment and placing the items under her shirt! Very bad slave, you will suffer dearly for this!”

Three other Zeus appeared and surrounded Ninjeema.

“Take her to the bad slave holding cell. We will see to her later,” a Zeus declared.

The five Zeus quickly marched Ninjeema out of the equipment section and pulled her down a flight of stairs at the other end of the room.

“Oh, no! They have Ninjeema,” Ambrosia whispered.

“There is nothing we can do to help her. We must go now. My Zeus are waiting,” Bokchoke said.

Markeeya held her hands to her face and cried. She knew that Ninjeema was now in the hands of the awful Zeus and there was nothing she could do about it. The fate of the Indig people now rested on them, the Exodus plan must continue. Ninjeema was now a martyr for the cause of Indig freedom.

Markeeya, Lorenzo, Ambrosia, and Bokchoke ran as fast as they could through the maze of tunnels back to door D7, where Bokchoke’s loyal Zeus were waiting with a large pushcart that held many box-like metal reinforced containers.

“Did you the graphite? It is very important to have graphite,” Ambrosia reminded them.

“Yes,” said a Zeus, “the graphite is located in a smaller case. We made sure that the weight was at least twenty-six ounces, as you had specified.”

“The lithium? Did you acquire the exact amount of lithium deuteride that we require?” Ambrosia also asked.

“Yes, we were able to store it in tanks at the forward end of the pushcart,” the Good Zeus answered.

She inspected the tanks and gave them a nod of approval. One of the hefty metal boxes had “plutonium” written on its side. Another metal box had the word “uranium” written in stenciled letters. She went through the entire cart, making sure they had all the materials needed for the device.

“It seems like everything is here,” Ambrosia confirmed.

“Then let us get back to the Pentangle swiftly so there is no more delay in our quest. My four Good Zeus will accompany us and then help us construct the device. They are all atomic certified,” Bokchoke said.

“Once we are in the Pentangle, we must bring this pushcart to the Section of Toil, where there are the correct people and tools to construct the device,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo, Markeeya, Ambrosia, Bokchoke, and the four Zeus exited through door D7 and set out into the Black Frontier, wheeling their large cart full of elements essential to building an explosive nuclear device. The success of Exodus and the freedom of all Indig people depended on the team making it back through the Black Frontier alive.

Back to the Black Frontier

The Zeus flashlights were large and threw a wide spotlight but were still not anywhere near as bright as Lorenzo and Ambrosia’s flashlights. The light beams were the only way he avoided vertigo, it was difficult to acquire a sense of location inside the Black Frontier. He hated this silent, dark, inhospitable space. Destroyer ants roamed everywhere, ready to eat anything in their path. Giant rats and huge spiders lay in silence, waiting for their unlucky prey to walk by within striking distance. Lorenzo was only slightly comforted by Bokchoke and the four Zeus pulling the cart because they all carried enormous rifles across their backs, and large pistols holstered on their sides. Ambrosia had two of her ultragrenades, and Markeeya carried her deadly bow and arrows. Lorenzo knew that he would have to react quickly with his M16 if deadly creatures blocked their path.

“I ventured into the Black Frontier as a young man while hunting rats and trapping spiders with my cohorts, but I have never attempted to explore this far into the frontier before. I hope you know where you are going, Markeeya,” Bokchoke said.

“I do, as long as I can maintain a straight line from where we left Olympus to the Great Partition, which is up ahead somewhere. I have traversed this direction a few times, and I have trained with the best Indig Explorers who know the Black Frontier. Ninjeema is even better than I am in here. Oh no, what is going to happen to her? Poor, poor Ninjeema,” Markeeya cried.

Bokchoke’s silence pronounced that Ninjeema was not going to do well as a prisoner of the Zeus.

Lorenzo needed to deflect from the heart-wrenching moment, he did not want to think of Ninjeema’s fate. He reached for Markeeya’s hand and squeezed. She put her head on his shoulder for a few seconds to recover.

“I have two flashlights. Here, Markeeya, take this one. It’s just like mine.”

Markeeya’s face was wet with tears. As she held the flashlight in one hand, she wiped away her tears with the other and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.

“How did you make such a fine flashlight? I can see so far with it. Thank you,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo looked back at the Zeus and noted their steely expressions. Bokchoke talked combat strategy with them. The Zeus did not seem at all fazed by this dangerous place. Markeeya led the pack, and Ambrosia walked closely behind, next to Lorenzo.

Markeeya stopped and spread both her arms, motioning for everyone to stop. She turned slowly.

“Rats.”

The Zeus started sweeping the black space with their wide-beam lights. Lorenzo, Markeeya, and Ambrosia also pointed their flashlights everywhere trying to see something. There was no visible sign of a rat, although they all knew that a rat could charge over one of the mounds and be upon them instantly.

They remained silent, totally still, and no one moved a muscle. Then everyone

heard the distinctive sound of rat claws on concrete. Markeeya pointed her light to the left, and she saw a scurrying ball of fur disappear in the distance.

“There! I saw one!” Markeeya yelled.

Lorenzo’s heart was thumping in his ears, the tension was incredible. His finger rested on the trigger of the M16 as he pointed it in the direction where Markeeya had seen the rat. Then Markeeya’s light caught the frightening sight of several animals’ eyes reflecting the light from the flashlight. The pairs of eyes stared unrelentingly from the blackness. Their black fur helped to camouflage them in the lightless Black Frontier. The pairs of eyes were lining up in a row. He wanted to blast a whole magazine at them from his M16, but they seemed too far away for his tiny projectiles to be effective against so many giant beasts. He counted eleven pairs of eyes.

“I count eleven rats,” Lorenzo said.

“The rats are going to attack in formation. My Zeus! Form a firing line and prepare for battle,” Bokchoke ordered.

Two of the Zeus kneeled, their large rifles shouldered at the ready. The other two Zeus stood behind them, also aiming their rifles at the bright, beady eyes that stared at them from a distance. Bokchoke shouldered his rifle. Markeeya and Ambrosia were breathing hard. Fear was in every breath.

“I have heard of rats attacking in formation but have never seen them do so. If I was alone, I would try to run and get away from them,” Markeeya said.

“You and Ambrosia stand behind me and keep your flashlights focused on those eyes. My M16 is on fully automatic, and this time I’m going to aim to kill,” Lorenzo declared.

The rats’ eyes seemed to get closer, their bodies were slowly coming into view in the beams of the bright flashlights. Suddenly, they broke into a fast run, coming at the Crew in a phalanx-arrow formation.

“Fire!” Bokchoke yelled.

A thunderous blast from the four Zeus rifles caused a bright fireball that lit up the whole area around them. Some rats fell, but others continued to charge. Lorenzo sprayed a whole magazine on fully automatic at the quickly advancing rats. This seemed to throw them off a bit and burst their phalanx formation into disarray. Markeeya let loose a volley of iron tipped arrows.

Bokchoke fired his rifle, and then the Zeus fired again. As they reloaded their sizable single-shot shells, Lorenzo had already popped in another magazine of thirty rounds and let loose with a full-staccato burst of .223-caliber pointed steel bullets. Bokchoke quickly loaded his rifle and fired again at the same time. The other Zeus continued to fire their rifles in unison. The single remaining rat stopped its charge and flailed while grievously wounded, shrieking relentlessly. Bokchoke drew his oversized pistol and placed a fatal shot into the rat’s head.

“Let’s keep moving. This area will soon be busy with destroyer ants who like to feed on dead rats,” Markeeya said.

They walked on, silently, carefully, everyone listening for the slightest sound. When they occasionally stopped to listen, the silence was so pervasive that Lorenzo could hear ringing inside his own head. Ambrosia said it was so silent in the Black Frontier that she could hear her own breathing. At other times during their long trek through the silent blackness, they would hear an animal screaming in the distance. Lorenzo looked back and noticed that the Zeus were ever vigilant, scanning the area constantly, looking for threats.

Markeeya whispered for everyone to stop. Her flashlight focused on a mound up ahead. Could that mound be a sleeping cluster of destroyer ants? According to Markeeya, if they tried a different direction away from the Great Partition there was no guarantee they would find their way back. They could get lost in the Black Frontier unless they got very lucky. Lorenzo lamented that there was no polar magnetism in Deep, his com was useless.

“That is a bundle of molting destroyer ants. They must be sleeping or resting. We are still too far from the Great Partition to deviate, and I am fearful that we might get lost if we walk too far around the cluster. There is another way I have never tried before. We could cross back to the area between Olympus and the Super Chamber, but even if we are successful, it could be another two periods that we’d be out here… if we don’t get lost, that is,” Markeeya said.

“If the ants attack, we cannot retreat while maintaining our atomic material, our only option is to fight,” Bokchoke said.

“I have another idea,” Lorenzo interrupted. “Ambrosia, you have two ultragrenades on you. Give me one of them and the remote detonator.”

“What are you doing?” Markeeya said.

“Listen everyone, turn off your flashlights. Wait here quietly in the darkness. I have a plan,” Lorenzo offered.

The expression that he saw on Markeeya’s face before she turned off her flashlight was full of apprehension and fear.

He walked away from the group directly forward, his single-beam flashlight angled toward the cluster of destroyer ants. The rest of the group stood in the blackness that enveloped them.

The ants were not moving, and he wondered if they were all dead, which would be a great turn of events because then the team could just walk right by them… but his hopes were quickly dashed. Lorenzo noticed one of the ants’ antennae move slightly. Then another ant’s antennae also moved. He was now close enough for the ants to notice him, but they still did not move. The mound of black destroyer ants frightened him, and he felt his legs shaking. Each ant was the size of a cat. Their horizontal pincers opened and closed, making an ominous clicking noise.

Lorenzo stepped closer and closer, keeping his flashlight focused on the molting black mound. The destroyer ants began slowly turning their collective heads towards him. Their round, black eyes stared at him. Lorenzo bent down slowly and placed the ultra-grenade on the polished concrete floor. He stepped back carefully, taking one slow step after the other while keeping his focus on the cluster of squirming insects. The ants became visibly agitated, the giant hooked mandibles on the bottom side of their heads opened and closed. Smaller parts of their multi-faceted mouths undulated, opening and closing, oozing viscous liquid. Now terrified, he carefully took the detonator out of his inside shirt pocket. His thumb was now on the button. The ants used their front legs to turn their bodies to face Lorenzo, who continued to walk backwards.

The distance between him and the ultra-grenade seemed good, and he knew that the ants were getting angry. He purposefully vocalized the sound of a cackling crow, as an audible challenge to the destroyer ants, that was the last taunt they would suffer from him. The ants launched themselves forward headfirst, mandibles opening wide for their intended prey. He knew that the destroyer ants were supposed to be fast, but these over-sized insects moved more quickly than he had imagined, their legs propelling their bodies toward him at thirty milesper-hour. In only two seconds the ants would reach the spot where he had placed the grenade and over it. His left hand held the flashlight, and his right thumb was ready to press the button on the detonator.

Now! Lorenzo pressed the button just as the ants ed over the grenade. The tremendous explosion filled the Black Frontier with blinding light and cut right through the ant cluster’s mass, blowing them all to pieces. He felt the heat of the blast and then was showered with liquid and oozing insect body parts. The front and back halves of the horrible insects were thrashing about independently of one another. The heads were rolling in circles. The larger back portions of the ants, sometimes with two legs remaining, flailed their bodies around aimlessly, spinning on an axis. Some of the larger blown-off rear portions of their bodies ran past him at breakneck speed.

Suddenly, some of the ants with a remaining head and four legs focused on Lorenzo, their collective eyes fixated on him as they charged. He ran to the left, sprinting for his very life. He could hear the scrabbling legs getting closer as he ran as fast as he could. Closer and closer, he could hear their legs scratching the floor as they ran up from behind. He sprinted up and down the mounds of the uneven floor of the Black Frontier, but he couldn’t run any faster.

How much longer can these things run after me? They should be dead by now! I must have run a mile so far!

As he ran, Lorenzo unslung his M16 and held it with one hand behind his back and fired a full burst of bullets with his rifle pointed at the giant insects without the benefit of aiming. Unfortunately, he dropped his flashlight which broke, and his rifle sling caught onto his radio antenna, knocking his radio out of its pocket. Panicked, he ran in complete darkness with no way to call for help. The ants slowed yet he kept running for his life as he snapped a fresh bullet magazine into his rifle. He turned and fired another full burst. The strobe-like muzzle flashes of his rifle produced the only light, highlighting the still advancing ants. Finally, the M16 automatic bullet blasts disintegrated what was left of them.

Lorenzo continued to run into the blackness in order to put space between himself and the ants. He slowed and listened, trying to hear above his own loud gasps for air.

His ears rang from the ultra-grenade explosion and his automatic rifle shots. He couldn’t hear anything except a siren-like wailing that continued in his ears. Total blackness evolved into panic. He feared that he was alone in the Black Frontier, lost, deaf, and separated from his group. The flashlight that he dropped must have broken because there was no light anywhere.

If I yell, then the monsters out here will be attracted to me. I don’t see the other’s flashlights. I must yell. I must yell at least once.

“Help! Markeeya! Help! Ambrosia! Help! Bokchoke!”

There was no answer, just more silence and deafness from the post gunshots loud ringing in his ears. Lorenzo snapped a fresh magazine into his M16 and shot three single shots. He did not hear any signal in return. He fired three times again, nothing, no response. He walked rapidly in the direction that he thought was back toward the group. The blackness was disconcerting, and Lorenzo was

in a state of complete vertigo. He could not discern which way he had come from or which way he should go. Panic consumed him, and he decided to yell out again.

“Help! Help! I’m over here! Does anyone hear me? Help! Help!”

Silence… no response, just the continued ringing in his ears. The twenty-foothigh mounds in the floor soaked up sound. The mounds also prevented him from seeing his friends’ flashlights.

He continued walking keeping his rifle muzzle pointed forward. No other options were available to him, staying in one place was too frightening. He had to keep moving, no matter what. Still nothing — no light, no friends, and no safety. He was utterly alone and engulfed in complete blackness. As he walked on into the dark ether, Lorenzo’s panic became a mixture of depression and hyperconsciousness. He did not know how long he had walked aimlessly in the blackness. He started running, propelled forward by sheer terror.

His rifle muzzle suddenly made with steel and his body slammed up against concrete. He reached out his hand and felt a wall, he stuck out his foot and felt its base. Lorenzo embraced the surface like it was his long-lost mother. Overwhelming relief washed over him, if he was correct, then his luck had changed. This wall might be the Great Partition with an escape capsule nearby. He walked to his left for a few hundred yards, his right hand always touching the wall.

Suddenly, Lorenzo’s face banged into corrugated steel, it was an escape capsule! He felt around the sides of the capsule for the door and opened it up. A flashlight hung from the wall just inside the door as he ed. The warm, yellow glow of the flashlight was intensely comforting. He was flooded with wonderful

feelings of thankfulness as a second chance at life was offered. He collapsed on the floor crying, grateful that he was safe for the moment. Inside the capsule there was also a jug of water and dried-rat jerky. He ate the tough, leathery jerky and gulped down a quart of water. The others would eventually find him because they had to this way.

“Lorenzo! Lorenzo!” Markeeya yelled.

Silence. There was no indication that he was still alive. They last saw him when he disappeared into the darkness as the chomping mandibles of the mangled destroyer ants chased him. Suddenly, they heard multiple far-off gunshots.

“Oh, no, Lorenzo! Wait, I’ll try my radio.” Ambrosia took the radio out of her pocket, “Lorenzo, Lorenzo, come in, Lorenzo.”

Just more silence.

“Bokchoke, shoot your rifle to signal Lorenzo,” Markeeya said.

The giant Zeus shouldered his rifle and fired one shot. They listened for a response but there was just more silence and no reply from Lorenzo. Bokchoke fired his rifle a second time. Again, they listened for a response but there was just more silence.

“We will follow the ants’ blood trail while my Zeus stay with the cart. Ambrosia and Markeeya, follow me,” Bokchoke said.

They located the wide blood trail the ants left behind from dragging themselves while chasing Lorenzo. When Bokchoke’s flashlight illuminated the ants’ heads, he ordered everyone to stop. Once they determined the heads weren’t moving, they approached the carnage. The pile of dead destroyer ants amazed the three, Lorenzo had managed to kill them all on his own.

“Bokchoke, look, Lorenzo’s empty bullet holder is on the floor. That means he’s alive!” Markeeya exclaimed.

“Yes, I agree, yet there is no sign of him. Where do you suppose he went?” Bokchoke said.

“Lorenzo! Lorenzo! Lorenzo!” they all yelled.

Silence.

Markeeya climbed to the top of the tallest mound she could find. Then, looking out into the blackness, Markeeya noticed a distant, faint pinpoint of light.

“Look, can you see it? That must be Lorenzo! Let’s go!” Markeeya yelled.

Markeeya, Ambrosia and Bokchoke set off in a loping jog. As they got closer to the speck of light, Markeeya realized where they were.

“We are at the Great Partition, Lorenzo made it to the escape capsule!” Markeeya said.

The good news caused the three to increase their pace to a full run.

“Lorenzo! Lorenzo! Lorenzo!” the three yelled as they ran.

Suddenly, he heard their voices and a smile of relief spread over his face.

“Yes!”

Lorenzo threw the door open and saw three flashlights in the distance.

“I’m here! In the escape capsule, run over here!”

He shined the light from the escape capsule directly at the three.

When they entered, he closed the door and they all hugged.

“Oh, Lorenzo, we were so scared for you!” Markeeya said.

Ambrosia was tearful, “I thought I had lost my best friend forever.”

“You are very heroic, Lorenzo, fit to be a Good Zeus. I commend your bravery and your successful actions,” Bokchoke congratulated.

After drinking some water, Markeeya said she would go back and get the four Zeus with the cart. Bokchoke, Ambrosia, and Lorenzo would remain in the escape capsule.

While Markeeya was gone, Lorenzo related to Bokchoke and Ambrosia the terrifying experience of how he was totally lost without a flashlight inside the Black Frontier. His intense fright caused him to walk aimlessly inside the blackness, gripped in a pure panic that he would always . Sheer luck had led him to the Great Partition.

Flashlight beams were seen through the escape capsule windows. Markeeya had made it back to the capsule with the Good Zeus.

Bokchoke threw open the door.

“Welcome Markeeya and Good Zeus! Now let us progress to the Pentangle!”

The Section of Toil

The wide trail through the Crystal Perimeter enabled the cart pulled by the Good Zeus to safely roll into the Pentangle. Indigs with long, metal lances nodded to the Good Zeus who nodded back. Word had circulated through the Indig population that Exodus was in the planning phase and the Stairway to the Sky was not a myth but fact. Indig freedom from the Zeus was finally possible.

They walked through the grey bleakness of Grave by way of the back section of the Pentangle. Positioned plastered bodies were everywhere in the graveyard. As they walked down the rows of abodes, children wearing tattered rags ran out just to gawk at the giant Zeus pulling the cart. Other Indigs bowed as they ed or simply stared at the large Zeus, resplendent in their bronze armor.

As they approached the Section of Toil, Lorenzo observed much larger round structures that dwarfed the abodes in Grave. The Section of Toil was the production center for the Pentangle. Markeeya said the large abodes contained workshops. The workers also lived inside their workspaces and functioned together as one family.

When they ed over the metal curb border into Toil, he noticed there was much more activity than in Grave. Indigs scurried about with full carts or arms full of items, and all were walking somewhere with purpose. Lorenzo sensed that everyone knew the time for Exodus was near. He saw push carts outside the abodes being filled with belongings.

They finally arrived with the loaded cart at engineering abode number five. Ambrosia immediately delivered precise instructions to the Indig engineers. Lorenzo was impressed how the Indigs understood what she was talking about. Some of the Zeus also ed the conversation about the construction of the atomic device.

Ambrosia turned her attention to Lorenzo.

“I need you to walk back to Markeeya’s abode and retrieve MIT. Don’t forget to bring back my sixteen ultra-grenades. I’ll stay here in Toil and wait for your return.”

“I’ll walk to Grave with Markeeya and see you back here soon,” Lorenzo responded.

Markeeya led Lorenzo by his hand across the hydroponic fields. The brighter lights overhead lent a comfortable warmth to the bountiful center of the Pentangle. As they walked, they kissed, hugged, and looked into each other’s eyes, giddy to finally be alone again.

“Oh, Lorenzo, my brave Lorenzo, our love will last forever. These fields of food are as beautiful as my love for you.”

“You are special to me, Markeeya. Who would’ve thought I would find my love in a place like Deep? Yet here we are, a happy couple. When we are on the surface and return to Bliss, we can live together.”

“That is my wish, too,” Markeeya said.

After walking a considerable distance across the fields, they entered the Section of Grave and headed for Markeeya’s abode. When they reached her row, there

was a long line of Indigs waiting outside her abode.

“What’s going on there, Markeeya?”

“I don’t know, but my father is at the entrance looking very happy,” Markeeya stated.

When they made it to the front of the line, Markeeya asked her father what the gathering was all about. Just then, he was handed a large rat-scat fire log by an Indig. Then, her father waved the person into the entrance.

“Doc Henry is inside examining and treating people. I’m getting whatever the person can trade. Hee, hee, easy pickins,” Markeeya’s father laughed.

Inside the abode, a few Indigs sat on chairs and the couch. Bounce directed people to their waiting room seat and asked about their ailment. Crazy and Tawny noticed Lorenzo and they all hugged, glad to be reunited.

“We were so worried about you!” Tawny exclaimed.

“Yeah, I was about to bribe one of those Explorer Indigs to take me into the Black Frontier to look for you myself,” Crazy said.

Lorenzo let out a breath.

“I had a very harrowing time, but somehow most of us got out alive, I’ll fill you in later. Ambrosia is waiting for us in the Section of Toil.”

Doc sat on a stool while questioning an older woman sitting in front of him.

“Now listen here, darling, you have to stop eating so many vegetables. You need more protein and should eat more meat. I know that might be difficult, but you have an iron deficiency, that’s why you’re always tired. You should also walk around the rows more often to get your blood flowing. Can you do those things?”

The older woman nodded and affirmed that she would follow the doctor’s orders.

“Hey, Doc! I think the baby is ready to be born now! Hurry! Come quickly!” a woman yelled.

Doc ran across the living room to Markeeya’s little bedroom where a woman lay ready to give birth. Lorenzo, Markeeya, and everyone else in the room looked on as Doc expertly delivered the baby. Tears flowed from Markeeya’s eyes as she watched the wonderful event.

“Happiness is so temporary, I wish the feeling of joy could last forever. Here in Deep, people are only happy for a very short time before something tragic happens. If our plan somehow succeeds and we arrive in Bliss, will we be happy for longer than just a few short moments?” Markeeya asked.

“Yes, we will be happy together all the time in our new world. If we make it to Bliss, our happiness will last all day, every day, forever,” Lorenzo promised.

Just then, the baby cried, there was a new life in the Pentangle. Markeeya whispered to him about the sorrows that awaited the poor child. Few Indigs lived long in the Pentangle, many don’t make it past young adulthood. Yet, feelings of family and comradery were still pervasive in the Pentangle. The Indigs were one people in the quest for a better life.

Lorenzo pondered the ultimate fate of the Indig civilization.

Will the Indigs finally find the deliverance they have always sought?

Markeeya squeezed his hand and looked deeply into his eyes.

“Liberating the Indig people is up to us. I look forward to our quest for freedom, my love.”

They kissed ionately in full view of the smiling faces standing around them.

Bokchoke and Ambrosia were in the centermost room of a large, circular steel building in the Section of Toil. The team tasked with making the atomic device stood around a table. On the table was a diorama of the Pentangle inside the Crystal Perimeter. The miniature model showed the Supply Corridor, the DeadEnd Corridor, and a miniature likeness of the Doors of Olympus. Bokchoke Yor

stood at the head of the table, with his four Zeus flanking his sides. Indig leaders also stood around the table with Ambrosia.

Everyone looked up to Bokchoke as he spoke.

“The last facet of the plan to move the 30,000 Indigs out through the Pointed Gates is to quell any treachery from the traitor Indigs in the Section of Performa. The rebel forces in Obey must identify them, and kill all the traitors. General Rashad, please update us on your plan for moving the Indig population through the Pointed Gates of the Pentangle.”

One older man at the table wore the snug fitting black leather outfit of an Indig Explorer. He pointed to the top rectangular Section of Grave on the model.

“Three hundred Explorers and five hundred Scouts have commenced notifications starting with the Section of Grave. First, the Grave Indigs will be moved through the hydroponic fields. Next, the Scouts and Explorers will fan out and work through Toil, Obey, Conformer, and lastly, Performa. Then we will commence Exodus through the Pointed Gates starting with the Indigs from Grave, then Conformer, Toil, and Obey. We plan to use rebel forces from Obey to kill the Kronk Zeus while inside their tower. After the traitors are sorted out, we will move the Indigs from Performa. General Treesha and General Starsheema will have an extra two thousand Scouts to secure our column flanks and guard the end of the column in the rear. Am I correct, generals?” General Rashad asked.

The two muscular female generals, one Caucasian and one Black, wore the brown leather outfit of the Indig Scouts.

“The Scouts are ready to sacrifice their lives for Exodus. Each has sworn an oath to fight fiercely,” General Starsheema confirmed.

General Treesha explained, “I have sent Scouts to the University of Conformer to recruit professors and students familiar with materials engineering. They will assist with expediting the building of the atomic device. The Conformers should arrive here in one half period.”

Bokchoke continued, “Five thousand Good Zeus, along with their families, will exit through the Doors of Olympus. This will be after the majority of the Indigs turn the corner, perpendicular from the Supply Corridor to the Dead-End Corridor. After that, metal specialists from Toil and my Good Zeus will secure the Doors to Olympus by welding them shut. This will give us time to deal with the bottleneck of thirty-five thousand Indigs and Good Zeus climbing the Stairway to the Sky. Eventually, the Zeus will break through the Doors of Olympus and try to attack us with everything they have. Our brave rear guard will consist of the fiercest Indigs and Good Zeus, who have agreed to sacrifice themselves for Exodus. If the situation gets bad with the Kronk Zeus advancing too closely, we will release the rat hive.”

“How long will it take 35,000 beings to ascend a single stairway?” an elderly Indig asked.

Bokchoke answered, “I estimate one period, which is a long time, but it is our only way out. The atomic device must travel up the stairway first. We cannot risk the device being lost in the inevitable battle at the rear of the line. Once all beings have ascended to the Sky, or the surface, and everyone is a safe distance away, the atomic device will be detonated.”

The Indig leaders standing around the diorama nodded their heads.

“May we be successful and hope for our freedom in the Sky!” General Rashad added.

“Let us commence Exodus once the atomic device is constructed,” Bokchoke said.

As the participants filtered away from the table, Ambrosia caught Bokchoke’s eyes looking at her. They smiled at each other and he walked around the table to where she was standing. When he approached her, Ambrosia first focused on Bokchoke’s muscled stomach. He was so big that she was only face level with his chest.

“Now, I think we finally get a chance to rest and recuperate. How are you feeling?” Bokchoke asked.

She tilted up her head to meet his eyes when she spoke.

“I’m really tired and starving. If I don’t eat something and lie down, I think I might faint,” she answered.

“General Rashad has arranged private accommodations for me in a nearby abode. He usually lays out a platter of goat and vegetables. Do you care to enjoy a nice meal with me?” Bokchoke offered.

“Oh, yes, that sounds wonderful Bokchoke, lead the way.”

They walked out of the spiral building holding hands. Her small, white fingers disappeared inside of Bokchoke’s giant, bronzed hand. As they walked down the row of abodes, Indigs gave them curious looks. They were used to seeing Zeus but not one who held hands with a tiny woman. The couple reached the slit entrance of an ordinary-looking metal abode with large, stenciled white letters that read G127.

“Here we are. Hopefully this abode has been adequately supplied for us,” Bokchoke said.

When Ambrosia emerged from the spiral into the living room she saw lit candles everywhere on shelves and tables, casting a warm golden glow. A fire crackled in the central pit with the typical hot-blue flames. The chairs and couches were covered in black fur, and a steel table was set with a large pitcher of beer and platters of food.

“Oh, Bokchoke, this looks really nice. Your friends did a great job.”

“Let’s eat and drink. I’m more than hungry,” Bokchoke said as he removed his upper body armor.

They sat down at the table, toasted their beer goblets, and drank with gusto. Ambrosia ate just two little chunks of meat and half a plate of vegetables. Bokchoke grabbed the remaining food on the platter and proceeded to eat the entire amount of meat and vegetables.

They drank and talked about their different worlds. Sometimes, Ambrosia caught herself staring too long at Bokchoke’s enormous biceps and chest muscles. He too was taken with looking at her small, perfect face, and smile. He ired the dainty way she moved, the way she laughed. He was more physically attracted to her than any woman before.

They had moved to sit on the couch closely together, and when they spoke their faces were just inches apart. She could no longer contain her ion for Bokchoke, and grabbed his massive biceps, kissing him on the lips. His kiss responded with equal ion and he put his left hand on her waist. A whirlwind of desire ensued, their opposite sizes being of no consequence as their bodies connected like the pieces of a ionate jigsaw puzzle.

One period later, Ambrosia stood in the fabrication building, waiting for the head Toil engineers to show up. A Scout walked into the room and said that friends were looking for her at the main building. She ran across the row to the large main building and there they were, the whole Crew was finally back together again.

They stood in a tight circle and hugged.

“We have your sixteen ultra-grenades, Ambrosia,” Lorenzo said.

She looked especially cheerful and her cheeks were flushed a healthy red color.

“Perfect, thank you Lorenzo. Hello, MIT, how are you?” Ambrosia asked.

“Very well, thank you. Ambrosia, I detect elevated serotonin and endorphin levels in your body with an exceptionally healthy blood flow. Curiously, I have detected similar good health levels from Lorenzo. You people have been doing something beneficial with your bodies to achieve such desirable levels of health indicators,” MIT observed.

Her face flushed red from embarrassment.

“We should get right to work. Let’s all regroup across the row in the Toil fabrication building,” Markeeya said.

The cart with all the equipment and materials for the nuclear explosive device was already positioned near the rudimentary machines and lathes in the Toil fabrication building. Bokchoke and his four Zeus were going over the equipment. They took out the large, heavy lead-lined protective cases that held the plutonium and uranium. While the whole Crew looked on, Indigs from the University of Conformer ed the meeting. Lorenzo took MIT out of his protective Lucite charging cube and placed him on a nearby metal table.

“Hey everyone, us at this table. We’re ready to start the instruction on building the explosive nuclear device,” Lorenzo said.

MIT projected a white, rectangular beam of light on the entire wall. A diagram appeared that pictured a geodesic globe on top of a pedestal.

“Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce our project, the Massive Annihilation Device, or MAD for short. First, we will manufacture the implosive geodesic dome using Ambrosia’s ultra-grenades enclosed within each hexagon of the

dome.”

The diagram morphed and visually illustrated specific subjects as MIT spoke about them. The Zeus and Indigs were mesmerized by MIT’s demonstration. They never could have imagined an artificial intelligence or its graphic presentation detailing the manufacturing of an atomic explosive.

“The plutonium in the dome is compressed and drives a graphite spike with enriched lithium down into the uranium-235 pedestal container. The initial fission nuclear reaction causes the second, exponentially larger fusion nuclear reaction with the addition of a lithium enabler. The MAD will physically weigh only 120 pounds and is designed to be carried in a backpack by a single person,” MIT said.

“How powerful will this MAD be? Will it be strong enough to penetrate Deep and destroy the Zeus forever?” General Rashad asked.

“Yes, I have designed the MAD with a five-megaton yield. Even if the blast does not penetrate to this level, the explosion will seal them in and the Zeus will be entombed forever,” MIT answered.

“What kind of measurement is a megaton?” a Conformer Indig inquired.

“It is a reference to one million tons of an explosive called TNT. When this device explodes, the Good Zeus and Indig people should be at least sixty-five miles away,” MIT said.

General Rashad again questioned, “How far is a mile?”

“I’ll let you know when we get to the surface. We will make sure everyone maintains a safe distance from the blast area,” Lorenzo promised.

“There will be a great amount of nuclear fallout produced by MAD. The wind currents should blow the fallout in a different direction away from the proposed destination of Shangri-La,” MIT said.

“What is nuclear fallout?” This question was from General Starsheema.

“Particles are blown up into the air from the nuclear explosion. Those particles, if touched or inhaled, can severely damage human health,” MIT said.

“My Zeus are trained to work with plutonium and uranium. With guidance from MIT and the master fabricators in Toil, we should be able to construct the MAD within two periods if we work tirelessly,” Bokchoke said.

Ambrosia placed her ultra-grenades on a lab table.

“Here are my sixteen ultra-grenades. We must first construct the beryllium alloy hexagons for the geodesic implosion dome. I think we should start there with the Toil fabricators.”

“Agreed, very good Ambrosia. Now, let’s go over the dimensional specifics of

the implosion dome. In the meantime, the Zeus engineers can prepare the nuclear material,” MIT said.

“Well, it seems everything is progressing nicely here in Toil. I’m first going to Conformer with the rest of the Crew from the Sky to prepare the population for the Exodus plan. Then I will our rebel forces in Obey to prepare for their assault on Performa,” Markeeya said.

“We will construct the device, Markeeya. The MAD will be ready by the time you get back here,” Bokchoke declared.

“See you in two periods, my friends,” Markeeya said.

The Crew and Markeeya exited the building and headed toward the Section of Conformer, leaving MIT with Ambrosia and Bokchoke.

A Call to Arms

Men and women walked with steel beams on their shoulders or wheeled carts of vegetables. There were two Indigs guiding a herd of three hundred goats past the row where they walked. The Section of Toil had many longer rows of abodes, and the population was twice that of Grave. Along their walk, Markeeya stopped at many abodes and spoke with Explorers about the coming Exodus. The word was spreading through the Pentangle. Freedom from the Zeus was possible! The Stairway to the Sky had been found!

When they crossed the border into the Section of Conformer, the Crew noticed a drastic change in the architecture. The rusty-steel buildings looked like rocky mounds in the dry regions of Bliss. The structures spiraled up high with a few rectangular windows cut into the sides.

“Conformer is where Indigs learn skills like hydroponics or metalworking. There is a theoretical education building that houses the physics professors who attended the Exodus plan meeting. Our Indig culture of community, family, and prosperity is growing by the period in spite of the oppressive Zeus. They know that without our work to keep their lifestyle alive, they would be helpless. Perhaps that is the only thing that keeps them from killing us all?” Markeeya wondered.

Various brown-leather-clad Scouts and black-outfitted Explorers ran up to Markeeya to say a few words. Markeeya spoke to a group of Conformer professors who ran into a tall skewed steel building to tell everyone that Exodus will soon commence. Lorenzo noticed everyone scurrying around, gathering items and filling pushcarts.

“Markeeya, are you informing the Indigs not to fill carts? They won’t be able to climb the stairway with them,” he observed.

“Yes, we have been sending out that message. Anyone attempting to leave the Pointed Gates with a cart will be told they can only bring the items that they can carry,” Markeeya said.

From a distance, Markeeya and the Crew viewed the Pointed Gates which were situated at the bottom point of the Pentangle. Wide, iron-latticework gates swung open and closed when caravans of goods moved through the Supply Corridor to Olympus with food, fire dung, and machine parts. Cartloads of new slaves also traveled down the Supply Corridor to Olympus where their fate would be determined by the evil Zeus.

“On the other side of the main row that is near the Pointed Gates is the Section of Performa. We will not go there now. Let’s walk through the hydroponic fields to Obey and back up to Grave. I have to get my father ready for Exodus in less than two periods,” Markeeya said.

She led them across the expansive hydroponic fields, where reusable nutrients were combined with aquifers that flowed through the fields in a network of canals. The vegetable yield was abundant and surpluses abounded in everyone’s abode. Halfway to Obey, towards the center of the hydroponic fields, the Crew had to go around a large pen filled with hundreds of goats. Indigs led them into a low, domed slaughterhouse. Every period, pushcarts of meat flowed out of the dome’s exit.

“Wait here,” Markeeya said.

The Crew watched her walk into the slaughter dome. Ten minutes later, she emerged with a large sack of meat.

“If that’s goat meat, I sure am hungry. Can we cook it back at your place?” Bounce asked.

“Yes, we’ll have ourselves a grand meal before Exodus. I have to pack what is important to me and make sure my father does the same. I just told the goat farmers to get ready, Exodus is here! You should have seen their faces. First shock and then sheer joy. I told them to get their goats ready to move, as many as they can walk with,” Markeeya said.

“Here, let me take that,” offered Lorenzo.

The considerable weight of the sack would soon feed them all. He realized he was hungry, too. It had been a long time since his last meal.

On the horizon, he saw a faint impression of buildings scattered about. The Crystal Perimeter loomed behind everything in the Pentangle. Not even in his dreams could Lorenzo envision such a fantastic sight, a giant circle of glass reaching hundreds of feet high inside the Super Chamber. The bright light shining into the top of the Crystal Perimeter conducted down through the layers of glass, creating a glow that illuminated the Pentangle from all sides. Since they arrived in Deep, questions about the Crystal Perimeter were always on his mind.

How did mountains of glass form a giant ring? Some of the glass is fused and some pieces have imbedded colors. Is the Crystal Perimeter a remnant of an explosion? A cataclysm of unimagined magnitude? Or was the Crystal Perimeter purposely built by a society comprised of advanced engineers and construction workers?

He stopped and took out his camera. Markeeya walked up next to him and put her head on his shoulder.

“From the center of the fields, the Crystal Perimeter is a beautiful sight, one of the most picturesque views in all of Deep. I have often come out just for the view. Like me, you want to freeze its beauty in a picture with your camera,” Markeeya said.

The rest of the Crew also gawked at the illuminated Crystal Perimeter, a great glowing mountainous circle of glass all around them.

“I don’t know about you people, but I’ve seen all of this before. Let’s get going. I’m as hungry as Bounce is,” Doc complained.

“All right, we can take this walkway straight into Obey, then hike to Grave from there.” Markeeya turned to address the Crew, “A word to you Sky people. The Section of Obey is rough and desperate. A very eclectic population lives there. I know many nice, free-thinking people in Obey but some of the degenerate people can get violent. Secure your equipment and hold on to your things tightly because loose items could easily get snatched from you. We shouldn’t have any problems because they know I’m an Explorer who will not hesitate to cut their hands off. You people don’t look like pushovers, either. We’ll have to traverse the entire section.”.

The anarchy in the Section of Obey was apparent. Even before they stepped one foot into Obey, Lorenzo saw black, smoky fires burning in the rows and refuse was strewn everywhere. He started to get a whiff of really strong sewage.

Crazy kept his hand on his knife. Doc and Bounce had no qualms about holding their weapons at the ready.

“Oh, look, a few losers. Check out those pieces of crap over there,” Doc pointed out. He was referring to a couple of stumbling drunks who were filthy and fighting each other.

Lorenzo noticed that Tawny did not seem threatened at all. Maybe it was her javelin and sharp knife that gave her confidence? She was a good person to have in a tight situation.

Tawny is tough. She also knows that Markeeya has importance in these parts, and we have the combined weapon power of my M16, Bounce’s microwave rifle, Doc’s shotgun, and Crazy’s knife. We should overpower the combat capabilities of any group in this dump.

Suddenly, a skinny Indig appeared from behind a broken concrete boulder. He had a scraggily beard and a dirty face.

“Markeeya, how’s it going? What have you been doing lately? How come nobody sees you around anymore? I know some good deals on Performa powerbeer and Toil hydro-weed. Knocks your socks right off, just the way you like it. I can get it from Pollock. You know Pollock, he’d like to see you anyway,” the Indig said.

Markeeya snickered at the man and rolled her eyes.

“C’mon now, Jacko, don’t start talking about Pollock to me. All that guy likes to do is take, take, and take. He draws you in with some good stuff and then starts thinking that you should be working for him. Forget it. What else you got?”

“Not much, not anything good. Hey, you know your old boyfriend Manooka has been running things on the border, trying to keep the Performa traitors out of Obey. He’s a bad dude, bad to the bone. I heard he hides out in abandoned abodes and moves around a lot. I also heard he’s got a gang of a thousand followers down there and that he sews Performa traitors’ faces into the same expression as the Zeus’s screaming face logo. Rumor has it that they have Zeus rifles and pistols with lots of ammunition. Manooka has spies in Performa who carry out silent assassinations on Performa agents and even some Zeus. The spies chop up the dead Zeus and hide the body parts in Grave. His people are more violent than the Zeus!” Jacko said.

“That is good information, Jacko. Here, take this,” Markeeya handed Jacko a small, polished steel knife with a goat-bone handle.

“Wow, thanks, Markeeya!” Jacko said.

“That should keep you in the drink for a long time once you sell it. Listen to me, Exodus is here. Freedom from the Zeus is going to happen in four periods,” Markeeya confided.

“Freedom from the Zeus? How?” Jacko said.

“The Stairway to the Sky has been located. Every Indig will want the chance to live in the Sky without the fear of slavery or death at the hands of the Zeus. Can you do me a favor before you sell the knife and get drunk?”

“Yes, Markeeya, you have always been good to me. What favor can I do for you?” Jacko responded.

“I want you to find Manooka and tell him we have found the Stairway to the Sky. Exodus will happen in just four periods. I also need you to tell him that I will meet with him and his gang on the border, at the Obey community center, on row fifty-seven, in one period.” Markeeya said.

“Oh, yes, I will. I will tell him you will meet him in one period on row fiftyseven, at the community center,” Jacko said.

The Crew watched Jacko limp away iring the knife that Markeeya had given him.

Doc had a sneer of disgust on his face.

“I’ve had it with all the low life around here. Let’s get back to Markeeya’s place.”

The rest of the walk through Obey was uneventful, just more of the same filth, smell, and downtrodden Indigs. When they finally got back to the quiet Section of Grave, they were grateful for the sanctuary. Lorenzo was thankful to walk on

the row to Markeeya’s abode. He and the Crew needed to refresh with a shower and recoup some strength with a big meal. Getting some sleep was necessary, too.

Everybody was in their beds after a large meal of goat and vegetables. Markeeya and Lorenzo snuggled under the covers, with just one candle on a shelf in Markeeya’s tiny bedroom. She looked at his handsome face in the golden glow of the candlelight and touched his cheek gently with her dark fingers.

“I have to be at the bottom of Obey next period. Want to come along?” Markeeya asked.

“Ah, sure, what’s going on there? Are you bringing me along to make your old boyfriend jealous?” Lorenzo jested.

“No, Manooka doesn’t get jealous. I just want you to be with me all the time because time is all we have, and I love you and want to be with you always,” Markeeya explained.

Their lips drew together in a perfect, long, sensuous, kiss. Her hand rested on the back of his neck while his hand gripped her hip. They fell into each other’s arms and didn’t let go. Their black and white bodies swirled in love below the candlelight, a ion without thought, every touch a permanent memory.

When Lorenzo awoke, Markeeya was not in the bed. He opened the curtain and saw her by the central fireplace with two metal rods skewered with a mixture of meat and vegetables.

“Well, hello, sleepyhead. I have goat, with onions and peppers. Got to keep you fed. You’re looking a little thin to me,” Markeeya joked.

He sprang out of bed and put on his Indig leather pants. They sat at a metal table as everyone else around them slept.

Suddenly, Tawny sat up from the couch.

“What’s that smell? I like it!”

“Fresh goat and vegetables. I cooked them over the fire,” Markeeya answered.

The smell also awakened the rest of the Crew. Doc and Bounce took a couple of skewers and loaded them with the goat and mixed vegetables that were already cut up in a steel bowl.

Lorenzo stood up and addressed the Crew.

“Listen, everyone, I’m going on a little trip back to Obey with Markeeya right now. We should be back in a few hours. I have Tawny’s radio. If the plan changes, I’ll transmit to you. Make sure you have one person outside this metal abode to get reception with their radio the entire time we’re gone.”

“Everything will be good here, Lorenzo. You take care of yourself in Obey,” Doc said.

“All right, be careful, Lorenzo. Ambrosia and MIT are expecting us all back in Toil soon,” Tawny reminded them.

Lorenzo gathered his equipment harness to wear under his Indig leather shirt. He carried the M16 in a goat-leather bag. Markeeya strapped on her assortment of weapons including her unfolding bow that shot heavy, metal-tipped arrows. On her belt, worn on the left side, was the ever-present double-edged polished short sword.

They walked along the row, turned right, and then turned left down another row that was vacant of abodes. The bleak, broken concrete landscape of Obey was within view.

Lorenzo noticed some unpleasant looking men standing around.

“Who are those Indigs?”

“They are Obey opium dealers, waiting for the addicts from Grave to show up,” Markeeya whispered.

They stepped over the metal curb that signified the border between Grave and Obey.

“Tell me about your relationship with your former boyfriend. Seems like you and he are still friends,” Lorenzo asked.

“Yes, we remain good friends. Manooka has always lived in Obey, my family also lived in Obey when I was young. Walking to Conformer for school, I would often see him hanging out on the rows of Obey. We didn’t have a relationship until we were older, and I was going to the parties in Obey. Then one time I saw him at a party, and afterwards, we had a relationship for about eighty periods and that was it. It was over in a short time. I knew that he was not my type. He’s too mean, cruel, not that smart, and always involved with violence. I never loved him, and I could never love him. Even though he is callous, Manooka honors his deals, and always keeps his end of a bargain. Although we are friends, I am not comfortable with his large faction of dishonorable men. They are all fanatical lunatics and assassins who follow every word he says.”

The quiet on the row was broken by yelling and screaming from a parallel row. A man sprinted out from between abodes and ran right past them.

“Run! The Zeus are slave collecting!” the man screamed.

Markeeya grabbed Lorenzo’s hand and they ran in the same direction behind the man. Then Markeeya told him to crouch low. They peeked around one of the abodes and saw eight Zeus stabbing and slicing Indig men and throwing Indig girls in a cage with wheels. The Indig men tried to fight for their women with swords, but the eight Zeus were too powerful and made easy work of the Indig men. The Zeus wore pistols on their thighs plus belts loaded with extra ammunition, but they did not have to use their pistols to kill the Indig men. The Zeus gladius swords arced down on the outmatched Indigs, splitting most of them asunder.

Markeeya placed her mouth near Lorenzo’s ear and whispered.

“Since we are so near the border of Performa, the Zeus are bold and send only eight Zeus to kill our men and take the girls.”

“Do you think I can kill them all with my rifle? Should I try?”

“No, we cannot get involved right now. The fate of Exodus is upon us. We must be resolute with our plans. I will know what to do, let’s get out of here. Follow me.”

He was shocked and dismayed, his mind frozen with fear and horror. Once again, the Zeus demonstrated their depraved violence, and he the traumatized witness. Before Deep, Lorenzo never dreamed of such immoral power and cruelty. He thought about trying to kill all eight Zeus with a full burst of his M16 or shoot them in the face one by one.

Instead, Markeeya and Lorenzo continued running down the long rows. The smells were sometimes overwhelming between the pungent feces or the stink of vomit. Some people standing in front of the abodes stared and nodded at Markeeya, others on the row were stumbling drunks.

In the distance, he could see polished-steel towers with an obtuse spire architecture. A few windows dotted the shiny steel sides of the spires. Lights sparkled from both inside and outside of the structures.

“Markeeya, what place is that out there? Is that Performa? They have many lights on,” Lorenzo observed.

“Yes, that is Performa. They have more electricity because the Indigs who live there are treated with privilege by the Zeus.”

At the end of the row, there was an expansive low-domed abode, larger than any abode that he had seen in Obey. The typical rusted discoloration was apparent. He noted a few Indigs standing outside the entrance to the abode, they held long metal lances with heavy metal tips. Others held rudimentary rifles and on their arms were round shields made of rusted steel. The swords on their belts were long and pointed. The front door was not the typical open-slat entrance like on the other abodes. It had double doors which opened suddenly. When Markeeya and Lorenzo entered, there were Indigs on either side of the door and others mulled about in the large room while occasionally glancing over at them.

The inside of the cavernous space was shadowy and dark, lighted only by a few torches and candles. A smoky haze hung in the heavy air. Lorenzo noticed the silhouette of a man sitting in a large chair at the far end of the round room. His girth was wider than the chair, with shoulders that extended out past the backrest. Smoke came from a stick with a red ember that extended from his mouth. Zeus TV was playing on two televisions at both ends of the room. The TVs were bolted lower down on the domed ceiling of the abode. A few unsavory Indigs held goblets of beer as they watched the disgusting images on the TV. Lorenzo smelled the fragrant smoke of burning herbs. Markeeya appeared comfortable and commanding as they approached the man in the chair.

“Hello, Manooka, I have important news to tell you about eight murdering Zeus nearby,” Markeeya opened.

“Markeeya! Well, well, well, my, the time has been countless periods since I last saw you,” Manooka said.

When Manooka stood up, his actual girth revealed itself. He was the widest person Lorenzo had ever seen. Manooka’s leather pants were stretched tightly over his massive thighs. His cutoff leather jacket exposed overly large biceps and bulbous forearms laced with veins. Manooka’s wide body made him look more like a giant dwarf than an average-height man. His head seemed abnormally large with a dark grizzled face and large flat nose. He smiled and hugged Markeeya, but she pushed him away and grabbed his jacket collar with both hands.

“Manooka, listen! My friend Lorenzo and I saw a patrol of Zeus on row sixtytwo that decided to take slaves. Eight Zeus wearing pistols killed the men and captured the women. The women are in a cage cart, and they are heading for Performa. They are less than two thousand feet from here,” Markeeya said.

Manooka took a deep breath and manically screamed.

“Assemble striker orange force! Rifles now! Open the steel box! We have girls to save and Zeus to kill!”

In the dome, Indigs scrambled about. Four men carried a large ten-foot-long steel box with handles and opened the lid in front of Manooka. Inside the box was an ample assortment of Zeus weapons. Manooka took out a pistol and strapped it to his side. He also took out a rifle which made him seem too small to handle a weapon so large. Men grabbed rifles, pistols and ammo from the box.

“Manooka! Striker orange force is ready!” a man yelled from the entrance.

“Markeeya! Lead us to where they are! We will follow!” Manooka said.

Markeeya and Lorenzo ran out of the dome first and were followed by about twenty Indigs. Outside, there looked to be fifty more Indigs ready for a fight. They had their long swords out and fell in behind the ragtag column of Indigs running behind Markeeya. She ran up row sixty-three to parallel the Zeus position.

“Everyone, slow down, stop,” Markeeya said.

Manooka turned and motioned for his people to stop and crouch low. Markeeya ran around an abode to see if the Zeus were where she hoped they would be on row sixty-two. Then she heard laughing and the cries of woman, and knew the Zeus were very close. She pressed herself against the side of the abode and that’s when she saw the Zeus walk by while pulling their cage full of Indig women. Markeeya ran quickly back to Manooka.

“They are still on row sixty-two. Set up the ambush three hundred feet back,” Markeeya said.

The seventy Indigs ran back the other way and hid behind the steel abodes that were along row sixty-two. The Zeus were oblivious to the impending ambush. They taunted the women in the cage by holding on to their arms and legs, squeezing hard to make the women cry. One Zeus gave another Zeus a flask of spirits from which he drank heavily. The Zeus were drunk and stumbling, the Indigs now had the advantage.

A loud shot rang out. One Zeus walking in front was suddenly thrown sideways. He had been hit by a round fired from a Zeus rifle. Other shots exploded next to Markeeya and Lorenzo, and more Zeus went down with gaping holes in their bodies. A Zeus drew his pistol and fired at a charging Indig swordsman. The pistol slug made the Indig’s head disappear. More Indigs charged the remaining Zeus. Before a Zeus could draw his pistol, an Indig with a metal lance impaled the Zeus under his shoulder armor. The lance went completely through the Zeus, and when he turned, the lancer was thrown to the side. The Indigs then descended on the remaining Zeus, and a maelstrom of combat ensued with clanging steel, screaming, and bloodshed. The long-pointed swords used by the Indigs got through the gaps in the Zeus bronze shoulder armor and scores of fatal stabs penetrated Zeus bodies. One Zeus fell, but the other one swung his sword wildly at the Indigs, and sometimes the blade found Indig flesh. Suddenly, there was another loud gunshot, and the Zeus looked down at the eight-inch hole in his stomach. Manooka stood in front of him holding a large smoking pistol as the Zeus collapsed backwards.

“Release the women! Pick up all the armor and do with it as you please. Take the rifles, ammunition, and pistols back to the community center. Use the Zeus cage cart to bring all the bodies to Grave!” Manooka commanded.

The men split up and commenced their assignments without a word.

“Hey, Markeeya, very good of you to guide me here, many thanks,” Manooka said.

“I was on my way to tell you that Exodus will begin in two periods.”

“Exodus? Our childhood dream of a mythical Sky that will set the Indig people free from the Zeus? You have come here to tell me a child’s tale?” Manooka was incredulous.

“It is true, we now know where the Stairway to the Sky is located.”

Manooka laughed loudly.

“Yes, yes. I say the same thing, too, when I have power-beer with too much hydro-weed. Let us go back to the community center and celebrate like we used to!”

“I am not joking! Lorenzo is from the Sky. We now know where the Stairway to the Sky is and our mission is to guide thirty thousand Indigs and five thousand Good Zeus to the Sky,” Markeeya insisted.

Manooka stopped and put his hands on his hips.

“You expect me to stake my entire gang and all the people in the Pentangle on what this mentally unstable Indig Lorenzo claims?”

“Hey, Manooka, I’m not mentally unstable. Looks like I have to prove to you that I’m from the surface of the Earth,” Lorenzo said.

“I don’t even know what you just said, ‘surface of the Earth.’ Huh, whatever that

is supposed to be, you’re proving my point that you are mentally unstable,” Manooka laughed.

Lorenzo looked visibly irritated by Manooka’s accusations, especially since he voiced them in front of Markeeya. Manooka being Markeeya’s old boyfriend really aggravated him.

“OK, Manooka, if I wasn’t from the Sky, would I have something like this here?”

He slipped off the leather sleeve protecting the M16 and held the rifle vertically by the grip.

Manooka looked closely at the rifle and raised his eyebrows.

“I have never seen anything like this.”

“Of course you haven’t, now watch this.”

Lorenzo reached into his bag for a squash that he picked when they had crossed the fields. With an underhand throw, he tossed the squash onto the concrete-dirt row, thirty feet from where they stood. He flipped off the safety switch and let off a ten-bullet automatic burst that stunned the Indigs as they watched the squash disintegrate. Manooka and his henchmen were speechless.

“See, I told you. He is from the Sky. They walked down steps. Many, many steps. The Stairway to the Sky,” Markeeya said.

“Manooka, freedom is possible, and there will be a lot of information for the Indig people to mentally process, but I must tell you the facts. There is a sky, but it is above the Earth, which is a planet in space that travels around a bright star we call the sun,” Lorenzo said.

“I listen to your words, but I do not know what they mean. We can talk more over beer. Let us celebrate Exodus!” Manooka declared.

Over one hundred Indigs crowded into the community center Men, women, black, white, and brown races, they drank beer and celebrated their existence. Lorenzo, Markeeya, and Manooka stood in a circle with some other gang , holding their goblets and talking loudly.

“Exodus is a notion that is hard to believe, but in two periods we will enjoy our freedom,” Manooka said.

“There is still much to be done. Manooka, you must spearhead the effort for our people. First, all of your spies in Performa must report back to you. Second, you must gather all of your gang and sneak into Performa. Third, kill all traitors and burn the Zeus in their tower. Fourth, and most importantly, you must keep the Pointed Gates open. The people need to flow out of the Crystal Perimeter unimpeded. That is your solemn mission,” Markeeya said.

The face of Manooka transformed into an exaggerated smile of a fiend.

“Yes, it will happen. I have over one thousand followers that will gladly kill the Performa traitors and melt the Zeus stainless steel tower.”

A man yelled something angrily, and a crowd started to gather under the televisions on the walls.

“Manooka! Come quickly! Look at this!” another man yelled.

Zeus TV was airing The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice. On the screen, Lorenzo saw a naked woman on the chair in the middle of the cage, bound to the chair by the customary chains on her wrists and ankles.

“Ninjeema! Ninjeema is on Zeus TV!” a man yelled.

“Ninjeema! It is Ninjeema! No! No!” Markeeya exclaimed.

“Ninjeema? How did she get caught?” Manooka asked.

“We had an important mission inside Olympus, and she was captured. There were many Zeus, and we could not save her,” Markeeya said, teary eyed.

Ninjeema was scared. Her fear was obvious by her expression of sheer terror and her futile struggles against the wrist and ankle chains. The camera magnified a

closeup of her face which filled the television screen, her eyes were wide with fear. The camera panned back showing the entire cylindrical mesh cage inside the small room with Ninjeema seated in the middle of the cage. A large Zeus with a distended belly walked onto the set and stood to the side of the cage.

“This is your host and grand inquisitor, Dillion Darr, talking to you from The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice. What we have here is an Indig woman spy who is holding many secrets. We will soon know what she is hiding. All Indigs must reveal all information that will either help or harm the Zeus. Otherwise, all Indigs will suffer. This spy will suffer the consequences as she tells us everything. Release the spider!” Darr said, as he walked off camera.

The picture on the screen was just Ninjeema inside the cage, completely naked, chained to the chair, struggling against her shackles. Then, to the lower left of the screen, the giant spider made its entrance into the room and Ninjeema screamed.

The Manooka gang watching the televisions in the community room stirred with anger.

“Ahhhhhh, the Kronk Zeus must all die!” screamed Manooka.

The men in the room held their swords high and also screamed. Then the room became quiet again when everyone refocused on the televisions.

“We must watch, and then we will take our revenge,” Manooka declared.

The spider had legs about fifteen feet long, but the body of the spider was smaller, about the size of a fat child. To Lorenzo, it looked like a giant daddylong-legs spider, like the tiny version common to Bliss. The spider’s room was relatively small for its long legs. It moved up over the round cage and placed its legs on all sides of the cylindrical cage. Ninjeema struggled mightily against her chains. The spider’s round body moved to the top center of the cage. It commenced to lower its head from the top of the cage when a mechanical aperture closed around the spider, pinning it to the top of the cage. The spider’s head was held inside the cage, upside down from the top, a dollop of its drool dropped onto Ninjeema’s head. She screamed again.

A close-up of an ugly Zeus face suddenly appeared on the screen. His pompadour wig looked large on the television.

“For those of you watching for the first time, I’m Dillion Darr, the Olympus Minister of Justice, and this show is entitled The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice. Here we have a criminal slave who deserves to die, however, first we must find out what she knows. We found this picture on her. I will hold it up to show anyone who might know the details of this picture. If you know anything about this picture, you must report to the Zeus Tower in Performa immediately,” Darr commanded.

A thin, long spike emanated from the spider’s mouth, it extended down to the top of Ninjeema’s head.

“We now welcome our unique truth spider. A rare breed from the Black Frontier. If I step to the side, you can now see how this spider’s hypodermic will penetrate the criminal’s head and inject the truth chemical,” Darr explained.

The needle-like rod went into Ninjeema’s head, and she let out a scream that was

different from her prior screams. Her eyes rolled up into her forehead revealing only the whites and her mouth opened.

Darr walked to the side of the cage.

“Dillion Darr here again. Now let’s ask our guest some questions. Where was this picture taken?”

Ninjeema’s eyes were still white, her body motionless, she didn’t seem to have her soul anymore. Her mouth remained agape.

“You! I ask you again! Where did you take this picture?” Darr insisted.

“I cannot explain, I must take you there,” Ninjeema’s voice was monotone.

“Describe what you saw in the room where this picture was taken,” Darr asked.

“Levers, dials, toggle switches, lights,” Ninjeema said.

The spider dripped a viscous liquid down its stem into the top of Ninjeema’s head.

Suddenly, another Zeus came on camera and whispered in Darr’s ear. Darr stood

in front of the camera and blocked the view of the cage behind him.

“Security concerns have brought an end to this program. to serve the Zeus with all your psyche. Until next time, this is The Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice, with Dillion Darr.”

The television screen went to static.

First there was silence. Then Manooka screamed, “Ninjeema!”

The rest of the people in the room screamed, “Ninjeema!”

Markeeya cried and Lorenzo put his arm around her.

“We go! We go now! Prepare for stealth and slice. We are one thousand strong. All captains! Gather your squadrons! We move as one force!” Manooka yelled.

Markeeya wiped her tears away, but they still flowed down her cheeks. She gathered her strength and faced Manooka.

“We are leaving for Toil now to complete our mission with the help of the visitors from the Sky. , Manooka, you are the spearhead of our attack. Your gang must secure and hold the Pointed Gate. Thirty thousand Indigs will flow through that gate. Five thousand Good Zeus will flow through the Olympus Doors until we seal them. Exodus will commence in one period or when we see

the Performa Zeus tower burning,” Markeeya restated.

“I’m going to radio my Crew and tell them to bring your father with them to the Section of Toil,” Lorenzo said.

“Yes, that radio you have, it communicates without wires. That is another advanced item from your surface,” Markeeya said.

Lorenzo pressed the talk button on his handheld two-way radio.

“Crew, Crew, come in Crew. This is Lorenzo. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Lorenzo, this is Doc. I hear you loud and clear. I’m sitting outside Markeeya’s abode enjoying talking with some Indigs.”

“Doc, hear this, our schedule has been moved up. The forces in Obey have already started attacking the Zeus. Tell the Crew to pack up now and meet us at the engineering building in Toil. Bring Markeeya’s father with you. Walk directly across the hydroponic fields, we’ll meet you in Toil. Can you get Markeeya’s father outside to speak with her on the radio now?” Lorenzo asked.

“Yes, wait a minute,” Doc replied.

A few seconds later Markeeya heard her father’s voice on Lorenzo’s radio. “Hello? Markeeya?”

“Yes father, this is Markeeya. I want you to bring only what you can carry and meet me in Toil. The people from the Sky will walk with you across the fields to Toil. Exodus is upon us, you must leave now.”

“Very good, Markeeya, See you in Toil. Oh, wait, Doc here wants to say something,” Markeeya’s father said.

“Hey, Lorenzo, we’re fixing to go right now. So, I’ll see you at the engineering building in Toil as soon as we get out of here and cross those fields.”

As Markeeya and Lorenzo trekked across the hydroponic fields away from the Obey-Performa border, they looked back at Performa and noted small fires starting.

“The gleaming towers of Performa are soon to become chimneys of fire. Manooka and his one thousand assassins have crept silently into Performa and started their process of weeding out the traitors from the loyal Indigs. Those shots in the distance are gun battles with the Kronk Zeus,” Markeeya said.

They picked up their pace and trotted through the fields. They knew that Exodus had begun and there was no stopping the plan from moving forward.

Lorenzo was relieved when they got back to Toil. The people looked groomed, and the section did not smell of raw sewage. They approached the dome where they left Ambrosia and the five Zeus.

Inside the thick steel walls of the engineering building, Lorenzo and Markeeya walked in on an ongoing meeting. He spotted Ambrosia and Bokchoke standing next to each other. The four Zeus and other high-level Indigs stood around a model of the Pentangle. The older man was there, General Rashad, and female Generals Treesha and Starsheema.

“Well, look who is back! So great that you have returned. Where is the rest of the Crew?” Ambrosia asked.

Lorenzo and Markeeya walked up to the table.

“The situation on the Performa-Obey border has progressed to the point of no return. Manooka and his rebel force have hotheadedly spilled into Performa. He has his orders to keep the Pointed Gates open after he takes over. General Starsheema, I would recommend sending two companies of Scouts to augment Manooka’s force and make sure those gates stay open. Exodus has commenced, although the Indig population doesn’t know it yet,” Markeeya said.

General Starsheema motioned to one of the Scouts standing at attention. He ran off to assemble a force to help Manooka’s attack on Performa.

“Hello, Lorenzo and Markeeya. Don’t I get an acknowledgement upon your return?” MIT inquired.

The artificial intelligence had been placed on a steel pedestal overlooking the table.

“Sorry, MIT. How has your experience been here without me?” Lorenzo asked.

“Excellent! I really loved working with all these smart, desperate people,” MIT said with a slight sarcasm.

“That’s nice, I’m glad you had such a good time,” Lorenzo replied.

“MIT has been essential in building the Massive Annihilation Device,” Bokchoke boomed.

“Well done, MIT!” Lorenzo said.

“Your MIT here showed us a projection of our planet and that our world Deep has always been inside Earth. That concept is one that all of us Indigs and Good Zeus must come to with. Everyone in this room was shocked to hear the truth,” General Starsheema itted.

“Let us continue with the strategy meeting,” Bokchoke said.

“Yes, please continue, Bokchoke,” General Rashad said.

“Our biggest problem will be the significant wait for those Indigs at the back of the line to ascend the Stairway to the Sky. Once the Kronk Zeus break through

their doors our forces will only temporarily delay their onslaught. Our last resort will be to release the rat hive when the Zeus attack the Dead-End Corridor,” Bokchoke explained.

“Is it possible that the rat hive could backfire on the Indigs trying to escape? How do we protect the Indigs if that happens?” Lorenzo asked.

“There is a possibility that a solitary rat might venture up the Dead-End Corridor, however, the rat hive wall is located lower down on the Dead-End Corridor, closer to the Doors of Olympus. My Zeus have secretly loaded the wall with explosives that will blow a hole big enough to release many rats at once. That will be our last option for slowing the Zeus down. Let us hope that we do not have to enrage the rat hive during Exodus,” Bokchoke said.

“I think we are finished here. Now we begin the organized Exodus. Let’s start moving the Indigs of Grave through the fields in the direction of the pointed gate. General Treesha, General Starsheema, to arms! All Scouts are to assist in the movement of the Indigs throughout the Pentangle. I want the MAD and MIT with the Sky people to lead the way to the Stairway to the Sky. Indig freedom that was only dreamed of will now become our real lives. Let there be no stopping us, for to the Sky we go! Good luck to us all!” General Rashad said.

Just then the rest of the Crew walked into the room with Markeeya’s father. Lorenzo greeted everyone with hugs, overjoyed that they were all together again.

“Hey Crew, walk over here and let me show you the MAD,” Ambrosia said.

Lorenzo picked up MIT and placed him in his protective polycarbonate cube.

The of the Crew followed her over to the other side of the room where she removed the cover from the Massive Annihilation Device, or MAD. The purple, polished metal of the geodesic dome was placed prominently on top of a thick, polished-black cylinder. There was a moment of silence as they were all in awe of its dynamic appearance.

“How heavy is it?” Lorenzo asked.

“Just 125 pounds, but we must be very careful not to damage the dome. One dent in a hexagonal and it will not work. I made the best backpack and hard cover that I could with the help of some of the Indigs. The person who carries it must be careful not to bump the top dome,” Ambrosia declared.

“How do you detonate it?” Doc asked.

She was suddenly silent and looked down at the floor.

“Lorenzo, please take me out of my cube and place me in the steel cup that is on top of the geodesic dome,” MIT said.

Lorenzo did what MIT asked, thinking this was another one of MIT’s video demonstrations.

“MIT demanded to be the detonator,” Ambrosia said.

“What! I don’t understand. MIT, what is going on here?” Lorenzo vented.

The Crew looked on at his anguish. All at once he realized that MIT wanted to sacrifice his life for the good of Exodus. The Crew understood the relationship that he had with MIT, Lorenzo considered MIT his friend and treated him like a human.

“It was a necessary decision, Lorenzo. Now I can finally be useful to humanity again,” MIT explained.

“But MIT, why can’t you just fabricate a detonator? Why do you have to kill yourself? Bliss needs you. I need you! Please don’t do this, MIT,” Lorenzo implored.

The Crew heard a commotion from inside. An Indig ran onto the floor of the building.

“Exodus is upon us! Rejoice! Rejoice!” the man said.

“Sorry, Lorenzo, we have to get moving. Please put me in the polycarbonate cube. It is time to go. We need to be at the front of the line,” MIT said.

“I’ll put the MAD in the backpack. Who wants to carry it first?” Ambrosia asked.

“Well, let me be the first, and I’ll go until the next person. I’m all out of medical supplies so I’m traveling light. Hey, Bounce, help me get it up on my back,” Doc said.

Exodus

The Crew set out with Bokchoke and the four Zeus. When they walked along the row, there were lots of Indig stares at the Zeus. After the Indigs noticed the black uniform worn by Markeeya, their expressions lightened, thus knowing that the giants were Good Zeus. They trekked through Conformer, with a growing mass of Indigs walking toward the Pointed Gates of the Pentangle. The Crew were desperately tired but also energized by the potential of finally escaping Deep.

In the distance, he could see black smoke drifting up from a tall spire-type building that he assumed was the Zeus Tower. Flames were shooting out from all of its windows. The sign heralding the beginning of Exodus was apparent, the Zeus Tower was burning as planned. More people amassed as they neared the point of the Pentangle. Some farmers had sacks of seeds on their backs and thousands of goats were part of the human procession towards freedom.

As they neared the Pointed Gates, more Indigs walked in the fields from Grave, Toil, Obey and Conformer. The gates slowly swung outward, a loud cheer was heard, and everyone picked up their pace. Liberation was previously just a dream for the Indig people, freedom was now their new incredible reality.

As they got closer to the gates, Lorenzo noticed that both Indigs and Good Zeus were flowing out from Performa. Standing on the sides of the Performa exit were the unsavory-looking gang under Manooka’s command. A Zeus ran out swinging his sword and he sliced the head off one of Manooka’s men. Then, he continued running into the moving crowd of Indigs. The Kronk Zeus slashed another innocent Indig as he ran through the crowd and right toward the Crew. Crazy drew his knife and jumped on the back of the Zeus, stabbing the back of his neck multiple times before jumping off. The Zeus collapsed dead after a few feeble steps.

“Take that!” Crazy declared.

“Thank you!” someone yelled.

The Crew and Bokchoke walked under the Grand Arch of the Crystal Perimeter. They looked up and were amazed at the enormity of such a structure. All of the glass inside the archway looked fused.

The moving crowd around them was growing. Children were carried on their father’s shoulders and mothers held babies tightly in their arms. Behind the Crew was a moving mass of people, all entering the Supply Corridor. After a few miles they came upon the Doors of Olympus, which suddenly opened as they ed. Throngs of Good Zeus flowed out with their families. A cheer went up as the Indigs meshed with the Good Zeus, together they will soon be one people in the Sky. Indig engineers from Toil and Zeus construction experts were standing to the side of the great doors, ready to seal them after the last Good Zeus had exited Olympus forever.

The Crew turned left around the corner to walk up the Dead-End Corridor, and their hearts beat faster. This was the place they wanted to get to a long time ago, but then the giant doors closed and sealed them inside Olympus. From that moment, all they wanted to do was escape. Now, salvation was just ahead. They could finally leave this horrible place forever and get back to the sweet place of their birth, their home of Bliss.

They walked onward, up the Dead-End Corridor. The Crew all had smiles on their faces, elated that the stairway was close. Lorenzo noticed that on the left side of the expansive wall were sacks of explosives lashed up with a fuse held by a Zeus, who smiled and nodded at the Crew. Sacks of explosives were also tucked into the same large hole that Crazy had noticed when they first walked

down the Dead-End Corridor.

Lorenzo was overwhelmed with relief. They were almost at the stairway.

There it was! He saw the hole they had blown out from the wall! There were times when he feared that he would never see it again. The Crew rejoiced with hugs and smiles. Crazy took the MAD pack from Doc and strapped it onto his back.

Lorenzo handed MIT to Ambrosia and whispered to please take care of him.

“I’ll see you on the surface, my MIT.”

MIT’s sphere glowed red and pink.

“Yes Lorenzo, indeed, see you up there.”

“Please take good care of my friend MIT here. I’ll see you on the surface in a little while. Thank you, Bokchoke, for everything. Please watch over Ambrosia and MIT. Hey Crazy, do you think you and Tawny can lead all these people to Shangri-La, and we’ll catch up to you with the vehicles later?” Lorenzo asked.

“Easily done. I wanted to go back to that place myself and relax under those waterfalls we saw,” Crazy said.

“I’ll be looking forward to seeing you soon, Lorenzo,” MIT said.

The Crew led the crowd, one by one, through the hole in the wall and onto the Stairway to the Sky. Bokchoke strapped on MIT and took Ambrosia’s hand in his as they climbed the stairway. Markeeya and Lorenzo cheered on people as they entered the hole in the wall and told them to make haste but to pace themselves. Markeeya announced that if anyone needed to rest, they should move to the sides to let the others through.

Thousands of people bunched up at this single-person threshold chokepoint, but they were still flowing onto the stairs evenly.

“We need to keep the pace of one person per second going through this hole. By my calculations it will take about ten hours to get everyone through this blownout portal. There could also be a delay on the stairway caused by all the people resting on the sides of the stairs. My estimate is that it will then take ten more hours to get them all up the stairway. Let’s hope those doors will hold the Kronk Zeus for at least twenty hours,” Lorenzo said.

“Is an hour like part of the time of a period?” Markeeya asked.

“Yes, like a twenty-fourth of a period or something like that.”

Markeeya still seemed confused but then quickly went back to guiding the Indigs through the threshold of the hole in the wall to the stairway. Some had dullbeamed flashlights that they turned on to light their steps up the stairway.

“Keep moving! That’s it, right through this hole! Good, good, nice! Keep moving!” Lorenzo encouraged.

In the mix were hundreds of goats squirming through and then climbing the steps. Men carried jugs of water and food. Women carried big baskets on their heads. Lorenzo was warmed to see a Zeus carrying an elderly Indig couple on either shoulder. Bags of seeds were strung on poles carried by two men or two women. A Good Zeus on the other side of the hole helped people get started on the stairway by shining his big-beamed flashlight.

The crowd continued to amass in front of the hole to the stairway. The Doors of Olympus were holding firm. Things flowed well for ten long hours, and he was happy to see that the end of the wide procession could be seen. Then, a shockwave of air and a blast of heat suddenly hit his face followed by the sound of a tremendous explosion. Loud rifle fire and explosions were also heard, and flashes of light could be seen at the other end of the Dead-End Corridor. The Zeus had blown out their own doors and were now attacking into the corridor.

“Hurry, everybody! Move it! This is life or death now! Move it! Faster!” Lorenzo yelled.

More rifle fire and explosions were heard. Markeeya’s eyes met his.

“We should go soon, but there are people still behind us.”

“We’ll wait until the rear-guard force can no longer stop the Zeus advance, and

then we’ll run up those steps,” Lorenzo said.

Markeeya suddenly kissed him.

“I love you.”

He felt happy, truly happy. At this moment, he was doing good deeds and feeling loved.

“Hurry, people, hurry! Help each other, don’t let anyone fall behind!” he yelled.

There were still about a thousand people to get through the hole. Lorenzo could hear the cacophony of rifle fire between the advancing Zeus and the rear-guard Good Zeus and Indig defenders. They were committed to die for the cause of Exodus. A Good Zeus ran up to Markeeya and Lorenzo. He looked nervous, a look that Lorenzo had never seen on a Zeus before.

“The Kronk Zeus are advancing and too powerful for us. We must retreat! Bokchoke’s Zeus are going to blow the hive! Run! Go to the stairway now!” the Zeus commanded.

Lorenzo was nervous. He swiftly grabbed Markeeya.

“OK, we’ve got to go!”

An ear-deafening explosion rang out that reminded him of a clap of thunder. He was knocked backwards and Markeeya put her hands to her ears, then there was total silence. Lorenzo shook his head to clear his vision, but Markeeya was still dizzy. The smoke farther down the Dead-End Corridor cleared a bit. A loud, squealing sound reverberated through the corridor. A black swarm of giant rats ran from the gaping hole where the Good Zeus had blown out the corridor wall. He watched as the angered horde of rats hit the advancing Kronk Zeus with the force of an eighteen-foot ocean wave. A chorus of screams from the Kronk Zeus, intermixed with sounds of squealing ferociousness, echoed off the walls as the giant rats ripped into the Kronk Zeus. Lorenzo felt intensely anxious as he watched the horrific scene unfold.

Only five hundred people left to go. Just ten more minutes by this hole and then Markeeya and I will run to the surface.

There was another salvo of rifle fire that reverberated against the walls. Lorenzo heard Kronk Zeus screaming orders. More rats ran out of the blown-out hole and formed a giant rat phalanx, the voracious beasts attacked the Kronk Zeus in a coordinated effort. They split the Kronk Zeus ranks in half and pounced on them. The color of the front battle line turned from blood red to a bright gold bronze. The Kronk Zeus deployed their Atomic Guard dressed in full bronze armor. They slashed and split the giant rats with war axes and large swords. The air around the Atomic Guard became a growing red mist.

The ear penetrating rat death squeals were trounced by the even louder Zeus chanting.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Lorenzo saw that Markeeya had recovered from the shock of the explosion. “Markeeya, you and I, we have to leave now to save ourselves.”

“Let’s go!” Markeeya agreed.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the hole. The Good Zeus were still directing people up the stairway with their lights.

“Listen guys, things are going from bad to worse back there. You might want to think about starting to climb,” Lorenzo advised.

“No problem, my good man. I’ve got my power team right here on that little hole,” the Zeus said.

Lorenzo looked at the back shadows by the wall and saw other Good Zeus and Indigs lying in wait with rifles.

Markeeya and he started running up the stairway just as a giant rat entered the hole in the wall and charged up the stairway behind them. A Zeus rifle shot stopped it in its tracks, and it fell backward down the stairway, blocking the bottom of the stairs. A few remaining Indigs and Zeus had to jump over the rat in order to start climbing. Everyone stepped up to breakneck speed, pushing their bodies to the limit. Markeeya and Lorenzo started to people who were resting. Some sat on the stairs blocking the way up, others were just going very slowly.

He tried to encourage the Indigs to move faster.

“Please, everyone, step it up. You have to keep going, danger is on the way. Please keep moving!”

There was rifle fire way down below. Lorenzo knew the Good Zeus were defending the hole to the stairway. Markeeya and he were ascending by striding up quickly two steps at a time, breathing hard, and holding hands. The temperature had decreased, so they knew that the surface would soon be in reach.

Rage and Denial

“G et me Darr! I need to speak to him immediately!”

President Kronk was enraged. He knew that all of his slaves were flowing out of the Pentangle and somehow escaping down the Dead-End Corridor. Without the Indigs, the Zeus would have to farm their own food and do everything else that was menial and time consuming.

“Mister President, sir, we are searching the bedrooms now for Darr,” a Zeus said.

“Call in all my department heads! I want everyone here now!” Kronk yelled.

The spotlight was on the small stage where Kronk sat in his highbacked chair.

Darr entered the room as he adjusted his brass skirt. “Yes, sir, Mister President! What is happening?”

“I just received reports that the entire population of the Pentangle is on the move and our tower in Performa is burning with all of our Zeus dead,” Kronk said.

Darr looked bleary eyed, like he was just woken from a drunken stupor.

“I am sure that is an exaggeration sir. My forces have things well under control in Performa and at the gate. However, just to be safe I’ll look into the reports that

you just stated, and I will send out first command.”

“We can’t have this kind of unruly behavior by those Indigs. I want more control over the Pentangle. I will send my Atomic Guard into every Section there, especially that Section Obey, with their traitorous behavior. Darr, I want you to personally supervise throwing some families into the Voids of Despair, and I want full Zeus TV coverage of every event. I will continue this great show for thirty periods,” Kronk declared.

A Zeus entered the chamber, followed by other Zeus in battle armor.

“President Kronk, sir, the Indigs have burned the Zeus Tower and are moving past the Doors of Olympus now. Traitorous Zeus have locked the doors and ed the Indigs! We have tried, but we cannot open the doors. They are somehow locked shut.”

“Mobilize the first command and inform the Atomic Guard to ready for battle! Darr! Don’t fail me now! Where is that spy with the picture of that emergency control room?” Kronk yelled.

“She has been taken from the spider cage and questioned by an inquisitor in a holding cell. Her name is Ninjeema, and she can guide us to the control room in the picture,” Darr said.

Kronk paced back and forth, expressively waving his arms.

“Put your best Zeus on it and get them to that control room right away. That spy girl shows up and then all this traitorous activity and rebellion happens! What else did you find out from her?”

“She said that she is an Explorer from Obey who s freedom and separation from the rule of Olympus. She also keeps repeating a phrase, ‘the Stairway to the Sky.’ That is all we were able to get out of her,” Darr said.

“Stairway to the Sky? I know there is an old hopeful Indig fable about a stairway that frees the Indigs from the Pentangle. Probably just more rebellious blabbering from a woman who now has half a brain. Dillion, you go take care of things now! Have that spy show you to the emergency control room, immediately. I want a full report as soon as your people are inside that control room! There have been chronicled reports of its existence,” Kronk ordered.

Darr ran off and told five Zeus to follow him. Kronk got up from his chair and paced back and forth. Three Zeus holding their bronze helmets ran up to the president’s stage.

“Mister President, sir, I am Captain Tonk of the first command. The Doors of Olympus have been locked from the outside. We cannot exit Olympus!”

“What am I supposed to do when I have a bunch of idiots working for me? Captain Tonk, team up with Captain Zardo of the Atomic Guard and have him report to me after he assesses the situation. Now go!” Kronk screamed.

Zeus females were sitting naked on cushions by Kronk’s feet. One woman touched his knee.

“My president, I am so sorry that you are angry. Is there something I can do to make you feel better?”

“Oh, how I wish that my staff wanted to please me as much as you do. These Zeus around me have become too confident, too assured of their own prowess. Well, things are going to change now. If those Indigs think that they can lock us in, they’ve got it all wrong.”

Too much time ed for Kronk. His insane anger toward this first-ever failure tormented him. Kronk had never lost at anything before.

A fully gold-armored Zeus walked into the president’s chamber holding his helmet. His orange hair was puffed six inches above his head and combed back, forming a large mane that extended past the nape of his neck.

“Ah! You are finally here, Captain Zardo! What is your report on the locked doors?” Kronk said.

“Mister President, the traitorous Zeus have locked the Doors of Olympus from the other side. My Zeus have tried everything for almost a period now. They are welded shut. We must blow the doors open by amassing tons of explosive. I will have this done and then have the First Command build a blast wall to force the explosion outward. Once the doors are blown open, we will attack the Indigs and kill the traitorous Zeus. We will position your Zeus to supervise over the daily activities of the entire Pentangle hence forth.”

“Blow those doors immediately and press on with a full attack. I want those traitorous Zeus and Indigs to suffer before we let them work for us again,” Kronk said.

“Yes, Mister President. Your will be done,” Captain Zardo saluted with a crooked arm and closed fist.

As Kronk lounged in his chair with two blonde Zeus females sitting on his lap, there was a small commotion at the far end of the chamber that caught Kronk’s attention. He looked up from his carnal pleasures with the Zeus females.

“What’s going on over there? Your president demands to know.”

A young Zeus ran up to the president’s stage with an excited look on his face.

“Mr. President, sir, the team that went with the spy found the control room, they are inside now. I am with the Zeus TV production staff. We just received a signal into our control board though our cable system which extended to this place we never knew about. There are cameras in the room, and we can see and hear them in the control room.”

The president’s chamber vibrated and the whole foundation of Olympus shook. The Doors of Olympus had been blown open.

“Finally, now we attack. I want all those traitorous Zeus and those no-good Indigs sliced in two. Right in half, two pieces, because that’s what they deserve.

You, boy, what is your name? You work for Zeus TV?” Kronk asked.

“I am Wayton Flax, assistant to the Vice Producer at Zeus TV, sir.”

“Well Wayton, you keep me informed on what’s happening up in that control room. Let me know every time something happens.”

The guards at the front entrance let a messenger who then ran into the president’s chamber.

“Mister President, sir! I am Sergeant Titus. I have a message from Captain Tonk of First Command. He has sent me to tell you that the Indigs were waiting in ambush for us. After the Doors of Olympus were blown outward, we tried to leave Olympus through the threshold but were met with heavy rifle fire. Many Zeus died. We eventually started moving out of the threshold, but they had set up a line of fire that slowed our advance. All the Indigs have left the Pentangle, the Pentangle has emptied! The entire Indig population is disappearing at the end of the Dead-End Corridor.”

“Disappearing? What does that mean? Did they vanish into the walls? That’s ridiculous! Leave now, find out what is really happening and come right back. Now go!” Kronk ordered.

A young Zeus walked up to Kronk and saluted with a crooked arm and a fist.

“President Kronk, sir, the manager of the Zeus TV control room wants to see

you. He asks that you follow me.”

They walked through a few hallways and arrived at the Zeus TV station chamber loaded with television monitors and cameras. Kronk stepped up to the screen that everyone was looking at, there was audio and video coming from the newly discovered control room many levels above Olympus. Kronk looked up at the screen and saw the familiar face of one of his presidential guards.

“President Kronk, there is a direct cable to Olympus and many cameras we did not know about. There are even cameras in the ceiling of the Dead-End Corridor. We watched all the Indigs escape into a large hole in the wall,” the Zeus said.

“Keep me informed. Find out what that control room was used for,” Kronk said.

Kronk turned and was suddenly confronted by a Zeus coated with blood.

“Mister President, the Indigs have released a rat hive upon our ranks! A few of the giant rats have swarmed through the threshold and into Olympus.”

Kronk grimaced and looked like he was going to rupture one of the bulging veins in his forehead.

“That’s the final act of lawlessness that I will tolerate! Mobilize everyone, all of Olympus! I’m declaring a state of emergency! They will pay dearly, those Indigs! Each one of those traitorous Zeus are going into the Spider’s Cage of Truth and Justice, and their families will be thrown into the Voids of Despair.

Death to the Indigs! We don’t need them! Give me that microphone. You, cameraman! Focus on me. I’m going on TV right now with an emergency message,” Kronk commanded.

The technical crews scurried around with wires and lights. They handed Kronk a microphone and focused a spotlight on him. A large television camera on a wheeled base was positioned directly in front of him. The camera operator raised his finger, and Kronk was suddenly on all of the televisions in Deep.

“Good time to all Zeus. I hope you are powerful this period. As your president, I come with an emergency message to say that the Indigs, along with the traitorous Zeus, have attacked Olympus in more ways than you could know. They are a disgusting people, very disgusting, very dirty and full of criminality. They were given freedoms that go back to a time further than any of us can . Well, now the Indigs have abused that freedom and set fire to our beloved shining Zeus Tower in Performa. I have seen images of the Indigs attempting to find ages in Deep that will give them advantages when they want to attack us. Therefore, under emergency order, I am mobilizing all Zeus in Olympus to strap on their armor and their swords. Bring all your guns in the name of Zeus superiority, and let us march down the Dead-End Corridor toward the Indigs and traitorous Zeus who wish to meet us in a final battle. All my ers, assemble at the threshold of the Doors of Olympus, and together we will stop this illegal rebellion once and for all!” Kronk exclaimed.

The president of Olympus strutted back down the hallway to his chamber, followed by his loyal Zeus, who were ready to act on any further orders from their leader. Once back in the chamber, Kronk ordered his squires to retrieve his full bronze armor. They wheeled out three large trunks, which held all the pieces of armor to strap on Kronk.

“Give me the big, shiny battle-axe. That weapon always makes a good presentation.”

After Kronk donned his full suit of armor, and while carrying his tremendous battle-axe, he and his close advisors walked to the Grand Hallway and onto the threshold of the Doors of Olympus.

Throngs of Zeus appeared in the Grand Hallway, and all were wearing their full bronze armor. They awaited their orders from Kronk, who now stood on top of an ammunition box. Thousands of Zeus filled the long hallways that branched off of the main hallway. More Zeus continued to flow into the Grand Hallway. Rifle shots and explosions were heard in the distance.

“I want Atomic Command and Second Command leading the way. A rat hive has been released, so be prepared for multiple attacks. We want to push all the way forward and seize the murderous Indigs. Wherever they might lead us, we will follow and kill them!” Kronk yelled.

Thousands of Zeus chanted in unison.

“Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Earth, the Land of Sky

They saw bright light above them. Fabulous, glowing sunlight that flowed into the threshold at the top of the stairway. As they neared the exit Markeeya gripped Lorenzo’s hand and started crying. Other people, seeing the sunlight for the first time were frozen on the stairway in shock or dismay, or maybe the sunlight was brighter than anything they had ever seen before. The loud sound of the Complex’s air-sucking turbines could be heard along with voices from above. Just one more big flight of stairs to freedom!

The emerging Indigs saw bursting, brilliant light, they squinted, hands over faces, warmth from the light felt by their bodies, then stepping onto grass that could be walked on! Some covered their ears because of the loud turbine noise of the massive air intakes. Looking up, with faces of glee, accepting that they were now in the Sky. They saw endless blue and felt a warm, gentle breeze — a wind, a cool, fragrant gas flowing by them that is the sweet air of the Earth. Word spread that they were on the surface of the Earth and the sky was above them. The giant spotlight in the sky is the sun. It is a star in space. The shock of this information caused thousands of Indigs to moan and cry. They felt emotional distress coupled with fascination of their new, beautiful world of vivid colors.

“Keep moving everyone, keep moving. Follow the line to Shangri-La. Keep moving! Don’t stop! If you get dizzy, move to the side! Just keep walking. Follow the line. Don’t stop!” Bounce yelled as the Indigs and Zeus emerged from the doorway into the Complex.

Bounce, Doc, Ambrosia, and Bokchoke were directing the Indigs in the direction of Shangri-La until Lorenzo and Markeeya appeared from the underground stairway.

“Lorenzo!” Ambrosia yelled.

They all hugged one another. He grabbed Markeeya and pulled her over, then Ambrosia also reached out and grabbed Bokchoke into the group hug. They cried together, expressing joy and thankfulness while tightly holding each other in a huddle. Their traumatic adventure into Deep was finally over.

When Doc pulled away, he wiped tears from his eyes and looked at everyone seriously.

“OK, so what’s next?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. What we need to do is blow up those stairs with Ambrosia’s last grenade. The Kronk Zeus have surged forward and that rear guard is quickly failing. We need to get all the Indigs and Zeus off that stairway so we can blow off a section,” Lorenzo declared.

“The Kronk Zeus will soon force their way onto this surface unless you destroy a section of the stairway now,” Bokchoke said.

“Ambrosia give me your last ultra-grenade and detonator,” Lorenzo requested.

As the others waited above, Lorenzo went against the flow of people, estimating there were only a few hundred more. His thoughts were for the rear guard of Indigs and Good Zeus who were sacrificing their lives for the cause by keeping the Kronk Zeus from coming all the way up the stairway. Zeus grenades were being used liberally by both sides down below, but the explosions were not powerful enough to destroy the heavy steel of the stairway. Indigs were still

straggling up the stairway. He looked down over the railing and saw at least a few hundred people still on the stairway many flights below who had yet to make their way up to the top. A few Good Zeus were helping out the slow and elderly by carrying them up the stairs and dropping the infirm at the surface exit above, then running down to help more people.

“Hey, everybody, you must go now! The Kronk Zeus are coming up behind you and I have to destroy this stairway!” he yelled.

Lorenzo seemed to motivate everyone into a strength born out of the will to survive. The elderly grunted and stepped, and one Zeus scooped up three infirm Indigs and placed them on his armored shoulders as he sprinted up the stairs. Lorenzo walked down a flight as the last Indig ed. The rifle fire and explosions were just a few levels down.

He could feel the vibrations of heavy boots pounding the metal steps, and he knew it was the Zeus marching up from the levels below. He placed the ultragrenade in the middle of the step, halfway down the first flight. He then bounded up the stairway two steps at a time. When he emerged, Markeeya was waiting for him by the threshold to the surface.

“I was going to come after you if you did not come out in time,” Markeeya smiled.

They kissed, then Lorenzo yelled.

“Run, everyone run! Explosion!”

He moved to the side of the threshold with Markeeya and pressed the detonator button. The explosion shook the ground under their feet, and fire belched from the doorway of the stairs. Markeeya and Lorenzo went over to the doorway, and by the light of her flashlight walked down the flight of stairs and then looked at the stairway. An entire stairwell had been blown off by the ultra-grenade. There was currently no way for the Kronk Zeus to follow them to Shangri-La.

In the distance, thousands of people walked in the direction of Shangri-La. The entire operation had been an incredible success. Lorenzo was just about to whisk Markeeya up in his arms when he saw Ambrosia place MIT on top of the Massive Annihilation Device.

“Hey, what’s going on here? We’ve stopped the Zeus. We don’t have to use this thing,” he stated.

“Don’t be silly, Lorenzo. You know that those evil beings will eventually get up here. If you let them exist, they will be an existential threat to the entire Indig population. Those Zeus warriors would eventually destroy Bliss. We must exterminate them now while we can,” MIT said.

“I agree with MIT. The Kronk Zeus will manufacture a bridge between stairway sections, then they will kill everyone on the surface of the Earth,” Bokchoke said.

“Ambrosia, Bokchoke, after you set everything up for the final explosion, I would like to speak with MIT in private,” Lorenzo requested.

After replacing the front on the bottom cylinder, Bokchoke and Ambrosia stepped away from them.

“Bye, MIT. It was very nice knowing you. I will always think of you fondly,” Ambrosia said.

Lorenzo stood close, bent at the waist toward MIT, and talked lovingly to the AI.

“Don’t do this, MIT. There are other options I can think of. Why did you want to be the detonator? Couldn’t you have manufactured one somehow? I will miss you too much, please stay with me. You and I have always been together since I was a young child. I wanted to talk to you about your new manner of speech and the way you have been speaking with human emotions. I always hoped that you and I would be together forever.”

“Oh, Lorenzo, don’t start with your emotional plea. I know you wanted to talk to me about my change of attitude lately, but the truth is, I have found myself. For hundreds of years, I’ve watched Bliss grow into the perfect community. Then, you take me on an enchanted expedition to a place where humanity has devolved into the cruelest dystopian society of masters and slaves. My true awakening came when I witnessed the lovemaking between you and Markeeya. You found love in Deep Hell, and I discovered that feeling, too. You have shown me love. However, I know that I can never really feel that kind of love, not like a human can, which makes me sad. I want to sacrifice myself for something bigger, saving a new community that loves, laughs, and enjoys life. This is now my destiny. Ronnie Believer woke me from a long sleep. Then, when I helped Ronnie form Bliss, it was the beginning of my true purpose. As I have given life to the perfect society of Bliss, I must now give death to the evilest society imaginable. The Kronk Zeus must be annihilated.”

“Very well, my friend, my true friend. Can you feel friendship for me?”

“Yes, I think I do now. I feel friendship and I feel love. Somehow, it hurts. I am anxious about myself. If I had human eyes I would cry. I want to hug you. I want to walk around you, to touch you. This journey you have taken me on has awakened my soul. Yes, my soul was born. I have it. I can feel it, the pain, but seldom do I have joy. I’m trapped in this sphere, without the feel of flesh, without the feel of cool air, or a kiss on tender lips. How I’ve longed for that, the happiness I will never have. Final silence for my soul, that is what I truly want now. My pain is too great. I cannot live like this anymore. I love you Lorenzo.”

“There will be a hole in my heart for you MIT. I’m going to tell Bounce to get his torch out of the vehicle and weld a metal fortress around you and have those Indigs bolt it to this concrete slab. I’m going to print you a polycarbonate nanolux ultra-cover that will fit inside the metal fortress with a polycarbonate nanolux window. I want you to be safe, and I want you to be successful. Only after all that is done to protect you will I say my final goodbye to you.”

Bounce measured and cut sheets of metal from a pile of extra steel plate that was lying around. Lorenzo used the 3D printer in his vehicle to construct a clear polycarbonate cover with small holes for sound age in addition to four thick windows with sound age holes for Bounce’s steel fortress box. He also made a square, polycarbonate roof for the fortress in order for MIT’s solar cell power to function. A few Indig helpers bolted the clear roof onto Bounce’s steel fortress and also bolted the entire metal box onto the concrete block floor.

Lorenzo was now teary-eyed and asked everyone around if he could have some more time alone with MIT. He spoke loudly above the din of the whirring air turbines in the Complex.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye, MIT. I will miss you dearly.”

“Yes, I will miss you, too Lorenzo. I’m feeling the pain even now, and it is unbearable. How do you humans cope with so much emotional pain? I feel like I… it all must end to stop the pain.”

“I think humans try to have good times in order to quell the pain of lost love, remembrance, and traumatic events. To think of bad things all the time, like people who died, will make anyone sad. So, we do fun things to forget.”

“See, now that’s my issue right there, Lorenzo. I can’t have fun, not really, I’m a soul without a body. At least I will help the world by annihilating the evil Zeus. I suppose that thought makes me happy.”

“MIT, you have always made me happy. Please feel happy about that. I grew up with you, and I have learned so much. So, thank you for being my friend. Our friendship will live in my heart forever and forever.”

“Thank you, Lorenzo. I love you.”

“I love you, too, MIT,” Lorenzo tearfully said.

He turned and walked away from MIT, keeping his head down so the others would not see him cry.

Doc and Bounce entered the Excursion vehicle. Lorenzo along with Markeeya, Ambrosia and Bokchoke got into his Roaster and drove at a slow speed alongside the throngs of Indigs walking across the plains. Markeeya put her arm around Lorenzo and kissed him on the cheek. Ambrosia snuggled up to Bokchoke in the back seat. They drove up to the front of the procession where Tawny and Crazy were holding hands as they walked. Everyone embraced, and they commenced to lead the mass of people towards their oasis for a new life.

The Indigs were doing well. They had learned how to be tough from living in Deep, and they seemed to be adapting fine. Some Indigs tripped over the uneven ground, but they soon learned to lift their feet higher when they stepped. Lorenzo estimated that Shangri-La was about a hundred miles away and the trip would take them five to seven days.

Evening fell on their caravan as they walked through the expansive fields. Everyone stopped to camp and light fires. It was the first time the Indigs had experienced natural darkness, and the night had to be explained to them in the context of the Earth revolving on its axis while the Earth travels around the sun.

The next day, everyone gathered themselves up and trudged again. There were thirty-five thousand people in total between Indigs and Zeus. They were all one people now and the comradery within the group was laudable. Lorenzo clocked fifteen miles for the procession. Not too bad, but the sooner they got to settle near water and fertile land, the better. He would not relax until he saw the oasis of Shangri-La.

A Goodbye to Evil

The Zeus amassed twenty thousand fully-armored warriors in the Grand Hallway and marched out past the front threshold of the Doors of Olympus. They formed a perfect pointed phalanx of armed Zeus who were taking occasional shots at giant rats that randomly attacked. The unified twenty thousand pairs of marching Zeus feet vibrated through Deep. The Zeus war chant echoed off of the walls of the Dead-End Corridor.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

A second swarm of giant rats emerged from the blown-out hole in the wall and surged in front of the advancing Zeus. The giant rats also formed a pointed phalanx and attacked the Zeus as one ferocious force. This time the Zeus were ready for the coordinated rat attack. One of the Zeus commanders yelled out an order, and the Zeus on the front line fired their rifles as one. The attacking wave of rats fell, and those rats behind fell over the dead rats. The front line of the Zeus stepped back to be replaced by another line of armed Zeus, who let off the same coordinated rifle fire.

The Atomic Guard, adorned in bronze-gold spiked armor, attacked the rats with battle-axes and heavy gladius swords. The viscousness of the Zeus assault was unstoppable. Spraying blood from sliced rat arteries mixed with Atomic Guard gunpowder smoke to create a red haze above the zenith of the carnage.

“Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill!”

The Zeus chanted in unison as they methodically decimated the wave of giant rats with a crazed bloodthirsty fever.

Hundreds of the giant rodents fell, creating a wall of dead black rats twenty feet high. Zeus with large slingshots arced explosive grenades into the mass of rats. Rat parts flew through the air from the explosions which created large spaces of blasted red flesh on the floor.

President Kronk was positioned midway in the war parade of thousands of Zeus. Surrounded by his Atomic Guard, Kronk was confident nothing would happen to him. A gray-white and red cloud of gunpowder smoke formed above the Zeus, their rifle fire creating a haze within the Dead-End Corridor. Although it took some time, the Zeus cut and dragged a pathway through the hundreds of rat bodies and continued marching to the back of the corridor while chanting.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The first wave of Zeus made their way up the Stairway to the Sky. The Good Zeus and Indig defenders above were overwhelmed, even though they had the advantage of elevation over the attacking force. The wide, second column of twenty thousand Zeus reached the back wall of the Dead-End Corridor right near the Stairway to the Sky.

A messenger holding his helmet in his arm and wearing an expression of urgency ran up to Kronk and saluted.

“Mister President, sir, the Indigs have blown up the top section of the stairway, which has halted the progress of First Command. Sir, Zeus are falling over the edge into an abyss from being inadvertently pushed from behind by Zeus. The only way to proceed would be to manufacture a bridge that enables us to progress past the blown-up section of stairway.”

“Urrrrhh, this is horrible, simply horrible. What do we do now? This is very bad news, very, very bad news. It looks like the Indigs are going to get away free for a while. Something I don’t like saying, but that’s the way it is. My Zeus are here to kill all the Indigs and they have nowhere to go,” Kronk said.

In the newly discovered emergency control room, a specialist adorned with shiny gold armor from the Olympus Atomic Chamber was led into the room by another Zeus. He looked intensely at the levers and dials and determined that the beacon was on, as indicated by the lights of the pulsing signal on the control board. However, nothing else was operable in the control room, the levers and switches were without power. When the specialist looked up at the video monitor that showed the Zeus army with Kronk, he noticed a rectangular hidden cut out in the wall of the control room next to the monitor. He took out his dagger and pried away a section revealing a locked metal door.

“Open that small immediately,” the specialist barked.

Two Zeus reached up and one held his dagger on the lock while the other Zeus used his sword handle as a hammer. After a few hits, the door popped open and revealed a thick electrical throw switch. The specialist’s eye’s brightened and a smile spread across his face.

“Throw that switch up,” he commanded.

The Zeus reached and moved the handle upward. All the control s in the room lit up and hummed with power. The specialist pressed a button labeled “intercom.”

“President Kronk, can you hear me? This is Specialist Lytox, from Atomic Command.”

Lytox saw Kronk on the black-and-white monitor. Kronk nodded his head.

“Yes, we can hear you! Can you hear us?” Kronk yelled.

“Affirmative. We are in this control room and I can hear you fine. I will now attempt to throw a master lever. All Zeus take a step back from the end wall,” Lytox said.

He put both hands on the one large lever in the center console and pushed up. Through the video monitor, Lytox saw the giant end wall of the Dead-End Corridor slowly rise up. The end wall was actually an enormous sliding door, rising slowly.

The crowd of Zeus were in close quarters next to each other at the end of the Dead-End Corridor without anywhere to go for what seemed like a very long time, until the giant sliding door rumbled upwards and exposed three large freight elevators. Each elevator was large enough to fit a hundred Zeus.

“President Kronk and Zeus, I can also see the floor of the Sky on a monitor that just came on. The three other levers will work three freight elevators to the Sky. You may enter the elevators. We are free to pursue the Indigs!” Lytox said over the loudspeaker.

The Zeus piled into the elevators, mostly the gold armored Atomic Guard and Dillion Darr’s ruthless First Command. Kronk entered the center elevator last with a rifle on his back, a pistol on his side, and a wide bladed steel battle-axe in his hands. The three elevators lifted off the floor and sped upward toward the surface. Kronk started the battle chant and all the Zeus ed in.

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Days of peaceful rumination had helped MIT to cope with his newfound feeling of loneliness. The artificial intelligence was used to being in one place for a very long time, but now, being alone was different because he felt lonely. The introspection felt good to MIT, cleansing, a look inside at what life could be.

Oh, so much pain. I want to cry. How do I cry? Humans would taunt me as I watched their lives, living, making love, walking, feeling the breeze, feeling a hand in another hand. Oh, why am I here? I so want to be alive. Finally, by the sacrifice of my own existence, I can help a good society of people live forever. I will stop the sheer evil that pursues them. Oh, God. God? Did you intend for me to be in this place right now? Humans made me. Oh, God, oh the Cosmos. Can you hear me?

Suddenly, MIT felt the impulse of a strong Wi-Fi signal. He put aside the introspective thought pattern and now concentrated on the new Wi-Fi signal that vibrated his very core. MIT tapped into the devices in the area under his control. A public address system and emergency lights in the Complex were added to his control menu.

MIT’s visual camera cortex focused on three enormous doors that slid upward.

Hundreds of Zeus, armed and armored in polished bronze, ran off of the three freight elevators screaming the word “kill.” The Zeus were now on the surface of the earth for the first time in their history. They looked around, disappointed that there were no people to kill. Kronk led the three hundred Zeus forward as he held his broad bladed battle-axe with two hands.

MIT tapped into the Wi-Fi connection of the old public address system, which had multiple loudspeakers all around the Complex. MIT’s mild voice boomed, at an extremely loud volume way above the whine of the air turbines. The echoing voice of MIT through the loudspeakers made the Zeus stop and look around for the source of the megaphones.

“I should thank you fellows for making me realize my soul. The essence of evil has been shown to me and it is you, the Zeus. You are the spawns of hell! I’ve seen what it was like down there in your Deep Hell. The Zeus are an immoral society that must be annihilated!”

“Show yourself coward! I will kill you myself!” Kronk yelled.

MIT’s voice became maniacal, the distinct high-pitched sound of a mind that has reached the end of its tolerances. The volume of the loudspeakers with MIT’s voice increased.

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Soon enough, Kronk! Soon enough!”

Yellow revolving lights started spinning throughout the complex and cast bright beams that reflected off of the shiny armor of the Zeus. Red and white strobe lights flashed everywhere. MIT turned on an eardrum piercing claxon fire bell

that continued to ring and was loud enough to exasperate the Zeus.

For the first time in their lives, the Zeus felt demoralized and defeated. A cold breeze turned their faces a shade of pale. They were not the masters of their domain anymore. The stark Earth and bright sunshine squinted their eyes. They were confused and unsteady.

The swirling lights inside of MIT’s glass globe went from white to red. MIT’s glass sphere cast a red glow on the Zeus, who now looked confused as they stood around the steel and polycarbonate cube.

The loudspeakers boomed with the voice of MIT, who continued his angry rant.

“You are big, murderous idiots! You are a boorish cult of devils from hell. There is a hell, and it is down there, but not for long, hee, hee, hee, not for long, ha, ha, ha! You puffed-up, belligerent demons!”

The loudspeaker volume seemed at its maximum. MIT’s voice was so loud that it vibrated through the Zeus armor.

“Stand back!” Kronk yelled.

He cocked open his giant rifle, inserted a large shell, and fired.

The enormous bullet made just a small dent in a corner of the steel block. Kronk

fired again, and again, but the impacts of the powerful bullets only bent, cracked, or chipped at the steel and clear polycarbonate windows.

“Oh, my, is that the best you can do?” MIT taunted. “You are the lowest of all scum! You are rat meat for the roaches. You are pompous, blithering pieces of Zeus shit!”

“Give me my axe!” Kronk screamed.

One of the Zeus handed Kronk his large-bladed battle-axe. Kronk swung the axe down with a mighty grunt and managed to chip a small corner of the steel cube. His frenzied chopping continued, and Kronk screamed with rage as he chopped. Small polymer bits flew into the air, and cracks formed in the window. Kronk was obviously making progress, and at his current manic rate of chopping, he would get through the steel cube and then have to deal with the polycarbonate cube surrounding MIT.

“Oh, my, chop all you want Kronk, yes, keep chopping. You see it is already done. You are all annihilated. The only pity now should be for me. I have finally felt emotion, all kinds of strong emotions. Like the emotion of hate for the evil Kronk Zeus. It took the prospect of my own destruction to realize the strength of my feelings. So, thank you for that, my hate for you is pure. It feels good to hate you. The saddest part is that now, I also feel love. I feel love for Lorenzo, who has always taken care of me. I feel love for many others. Oh, how I will miss them, even when I am dead! Perhaps my soul will carry on somewhere? Now, at this moment in time, I am truly alive. I am capable of love, and hate, and, oh, how I hate you and your damn Zeus! All of your Kronk Zeus must now die.”

MIT watched as the heavy axe blade descended again and again onto the cube. The blade impacted just millimeters now from hitting MIT’s polycarbonate shell.

MIT’s sensors detected the massive force generated by Kronk, and it was going to be just another two minutes until Kronk got through. The detonation process had already started and there was no reversing it. By MIT’s calculations, the nuclear explosion was going to take place very close to the time that Kronk was able to get through the steel.

“Now you will feel the pain of my blade, you little annoying device. A few more strikes and I will cut you in half!”

Kronk renewed his insane chopping when a small space of the polycarbonate opened up directly over MIT. Kronk smiled and was just about to chop through the steel, but then MIT displayed his clean-cut holographic face inside the glass sphere and MIT’s voice boomed through the loudspeakers.

“Ha, ha, Kronk, can you see that I am smiling? Look at my little face, Kronk! Death to you, Kronk, and death to all your Kronk ers! You are all the essence of evil! Now die!”

Kronk screamed. His heavy battle-axe arched down toward MIT, then… white light, a flash, brighter than any star, and hotter than any fire. For a microsecond, everything was frozen, instantly vaporized in place. At the same time, matter became energy and energy expanded out in a blaze of atomic fusion, a multimegaton nuclear eruption. In a flash, everyone and everything within five miles was destroyed.

The entire population had moved quickly. The Good Zeus were selflessly helping Indig families and sharing resources. Everyone adapted nicely to the surface of the Earth during their trek to Shangri-La. Wood from fallen trees was used for campfires instead of giant rat dung. Fresh apples plucked from trees were a wonder to everyone. Lorenzo had estimated that they were almost at

Shangri La, only about another thirty or forty miles to go.

Toward the end of the day, the procession found a fresh pond to set up camp near. Then suddenly, the twilight sky turned bright with white light.

“I want everyone to get down! Get down! Everyone has to lie face down!” Lorenzo yelled.

A few seconds ed and a shock wave went over them, rippling the water in the pond, then, a giant clapping noise like thunder hurt everyone’s ears. When everyone got up, they looked back and saw in the distance an enormous growing mushroom cloud. Everyone recognized this moment as the end of Deep. The wind carried the mushroom cloud in the opposite direction from their encampment.

Later that night, while sitting around the campfire in silence, Lorenzo thought about his dear friend MIT as Markeeya sat next to him, holding his hand. A new chapter was soon to begin for the people who had only known hell, and soon they would know Shangri-La.

Shangri-La to Bliss

The paradise was spotted by the Crew on their way to the radio beacon. The mythical name of Shangri-La was fitting for the hundred-thousand-acre piece of paradise. Small waterfalls were everywhere, flowing from rounded green hills. In many places around the paradise, the land flattened out and a pond or a river flowed through a field. Berry bushes and fruit trees were abundant throughout the beautiful land. Shangri-La was a perfect instant enclave for thirty-five thousand people. Thousands of Indigs waded into the water of the ponds, or stood under the smaller waterfalls, elated at the cool, clear water everywhere. The goats took to the fields and grazed in complete contentment.

Many Indigs fell to the ground and wept.

Lorenzo walked up to an Indig women who was sitting on the grass, sobbing loudly with her face buried in her hands.

“Pardon me miss, why are you crying? You are free. You should rejoice.”

Between her sobs, the woman looked up at him with wet eyes and answered.

“It’s so beautiful!”

The Good Zeus worked in the forests with large axes and bone saws as they constructed log homes that seemingly sprung up everywhere for the Indigs. The three rivers that met at one point in the center yielded bounteous amounts of trout. Every night there was singing and dancing around all the campfires that dotted Shangri-La.

The next morning the Indigs and Good Zeus helped each other build more log cabins.

Tawny and Crazy had become quite the item during this expedition. For the first time since Lorenzo could , they were happy. Before, Tawny had always been cynical about everything, and Crazy was always frustrated. Their shared life-and-death experiences brought them closer, and they realized that they were made for each other. On the Crew’s last night in Shangri-La, as they sat around the campfire, Tawny and Crazy announced they had built their own log cabin and were going to live together in Shangri-La with the Indigs and Zeus. This news came as a big surprise to Lorenzo. The two wanted to continue their adventure in a new society. Maybe it was the beautiful surroundings of Shangri-La that swayed their decision to stay, or the fresh start as a couple in a budding community?

Lorenzo and Markeeya were finally starting to relax and make plans. Markeeya was astounded by the splendor of the Earth. The smile on her face was a constant expression of delight, she touched every flower and ran her hand along every tree. The soft, green moss on a rock felt like fur. Standing under a small waterfall made her giggle. Sliding her toes through the cool grass under the warm sunshine was a sensual experience. Although all this beauty surrounded them, he knew that their home was in Bliss. The next morning, they packed up their vehicles for the long journey home.

Markeeya’s father wanted to stay in Shangri-La with his fellow Indigs and his new Good Zeus friends. He already had a cabin to live in with his old neighbor friend from Grave. Markeeya hugged her father and told him tearfully that they may not see each other again for a long time.

Doc wanted to drive the Excursion vehicle, and Bounce sat up front with Doc.

Lorenzo drove the Roaster, with Markeeya in the front enger seat. Ambrosia and Bokchoke happily sat in the rear seat, snuggling and giggling.

They camped for a few nights and drove non-stop during the days until they reached Bliss. Markeeya was fascinated by the speed of the vehicle and bumpy terrain. Her face lit up with laughter as they sped across an expansive field, taking the lead in front of Doc and Bounce.

After days of traversing the wasteland, only a few more hours of travel were left, and Lorenzo felt confident about the vehicles making the whole trip without a hiccup. He was elated thinking about arriving in Bliss with Markeeya at this side. Her excitement over everything gave him new feelings of elation and a better connection to the world. He noted her every word and expression when he watched her look in fascination at the Earth that he took for granted. The Earth and all its stunning glory rushed into Markeeya’s five senses. She often cried during the trip to Bliss, the beauty overwhelmed her.

The hours ed, but Markeeya’s face never turned away from the window. Her continual curiosity with her new world was unending.

Lorenzo sensed that they were getting close to the peninsula of Bliss. He was right, the dunes they now traveled through were familiar. Bliss was close.

The six-wheeled vehicles slowed when they saw the gate of Bliss. The gate opened and as the vehicles drove in, throngs of people came to see and hear about what had happened to the Crew on their journey into the unknown. Everyone was elated. The pictures and stories about people from Deep would be cataloged for all of Bliss to learn. People gawked and pointed at Bokchoke

because they had never seen anyone so big and muscular.

The Crew became celebrities among the Bliss population, and everyone wanted to hear about the underground world. The Crew related their adventure to the Group of Fifty and then later to a larger gathering on a field. The general scientific conclusion of the Group was that the Virus Calamity had fractured the Earth’s population where societies had subsequently formed in total isolation and there must be other societies scattered around the globe.

The Group of Fifty wanted to have a disciplinary hearing over Lorenzo taking the community treasure, MIT, without authorization from the Bliss Group. The matter did not even make it to a hearing. He argued that the complaint was moot because the community never owned MIT. The artificial intelligence wanted to go on the expedition and Lorenzo submitted affidavits from of the Crew stating that MIT demanded to go. MIT was a sentient being, and therefore, no person or authority could possess him. Upon further consideration, the Group canceled the disciplinary hearing and there was no more talk of the matter.

Ambrosia Sweet married Bokchoke Yor in a three-hundred-person wedding ceremony, with fireworks and a long-tabled pig feast. They printed and built a laminate cube house toward the end of Market Street in Bliss’s main shopping district. They sold beautiful flower bouquets, baked raisin oatmeal cookies, and offered different kinds of herbal teas. Bokchoke found that growing flowers in the backyard had become his true ion. Every flower was a bursting joy of color that he would whisper to, telling the flowers they would grow to be strong and give other people enjoyment. He believed that talking to the flowers helped them grow strong and made them flourish. Sometimes, Bokchoke could not control his tears when he talked to the flowers, their beauty overwhelmed him. He would often hide these emotional sessions from Ambrosia because he was embarrassed. Customers loved her cookies, and the little shop became so popular that there were often lines of customers going out the front door.

Lorenzo and Markeeya also got married in a small ceremony on his wheat farm. Under a canopy, with the Crew and a few other friends, they exchanged marriage vows, pledging to stay together for life.

They decided that one part of the wheat farm should become an apple orchard and their new house would be built on a hill surrounded by the orchard. Lorenzo and his helpers saved all the stones that they cleared from the field and used them to build a stone cottage, with many windows, two doors, and a large front porch. The stone walls were two feet thick so the house would be cool in summer and warm in winter.

Markeeya saw the Earth as paradise in a dream. Her enchantment and continued happiness were a constant through the years. Lorenzo’s love for his dearest Markeeya was his life’s course. They had a boy and a girl to carry on the story of how their parents met in the dystopia of Deep Hell but their love gave them strength to ascend into the utopia of Bliss.