Chapter Forty-Three: Explanations (Pt. 2)

At the Drone's behest they got up and walked down the paved paths alongside the park's interconnecting lakes. Tedford and Krystal listened as he illuminated them to his viewpoint on the Hive's higher purpose. It all sounds very similar to Tedford's explanation, yet not quite as dark, and was delivered with an air of superiority that comes from one brainwashed into a belief system, Tedford thought to himself. "Not brainwashed," the Drone corrected Tedford, reading his thoughts, "indoctrinated. I was taught the fundamentals, Tedford - enlightened, you might say, but it appears that this knowledge has somehow become foreign to you." Tedford bit his tongue and said nothing.

The Drone, for all his superhuman senses and abilities, wasn't immune, it seemed, to all of the physical necessities of his human body. As they approached a small building containing restroom facilities, he took his leave of them, giving Tedford only a knowing look, but with no words spoken. Tedford knew, and Krystal guessed, that even if they ran, the Drone would find them within minutes. For Krystal, however, it would be minutes well spent.

*****
As they ran toward the parking lot, Krystal recognized a man leaning against a vending machine that looked oddly familiar, and she stopped in her tracks. It was the man from her dream, Tanagua.

Tanagua opened an ethereal door, barely visible to the naked eye, and he stepped though it, almost entirely disappearing right before their eyes, and then beckoned Krystal and her companion to follow him. Krystal looked at Tedford, whose face registered completely and utter consternation, and said to him, "It'll be alright - I think I know this guy, I've seen him before."

Time seemed to stand still as Krystal and Tedford watched wide-eyed and flabbergasted at the singular scenes 'floating' before them. They weren't really floating, per se, but they seemed to be layered somehow in various positions around them, some closer and some further, and some more transparent than others, depending on which ones they focused on - like there was a fourth and a fifth dimension at work here. They could see glimpses of scenes through partially open doorways, and Tanagua explained that these portals allowed them to pass in between various times and places with minimal effort. Everything in the past and present was continually available, and was like an open book. In fact, Tanagua winked, things in the past aren't necessarily "set in stone" really - everything is malleable, subject to review and refinement at any time.

Krystal politely asked a question, "What do you know about 'The Hive'?" Tanagua's face remained unchanged, much to her fascination. (She had expected him to frown, to look serious, or something, but the warm comforting expression on his face remained.)

Tanagua's answer was somewhat cryptic. "There's an opposition in all things, Krystal. This planet is no exception. Every person who has ever lived is a remarkable combination of two opposing forces: the natural body and the eternal soul. The natural body brings with it the senses, and therefore worldly temptations. The eternal soul brings with it our minds, our reasoning, and our conscience. When the two opposites are married, the result is a complex dichotomy, a living breathing embodiment of fused yet polarized elements."

As they stepped through another doorway, Krystal smirked, "So all of us are bi-polar?" Tedford looked at her incredulously, but Tanagua's visage still emanated the warmth and pleasant countenance he always had. He continued, "The mortal struggle is characterized - nay, defined - by our actions and reactions to conflict and opposition. There are some at work that seek to capitalize upon certain types of situations as they arise. Some seek to alter conditions upon the timeline to advance their interests and agendas. 'The Hive', as you call them, are one of many such groups that we monitor." This piqued Tedford's interest. "Who is 'we'?" Tanagua smiled at him, and explained. "'We', dear Tedford, are emissaries of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and God of this Earth and many more like it. The group known as the Hive have a limited focus to this particular planet, being mortals themselves, but 'we' have a vested interest in all of His creations, throughout the far and vast reaches of the Universe."

"You mean you can travel to other planets using these doorways?" Krystal blurted out. "Yes, my dear - distance is only one way in which things are separated. Time is another, of course, but there are others. We are granted access to traverse these sundry barriers in order to roll forth God's plan."

It was immediately obvious to both Krystal and Tedford that they had barely touched the surface of a magnificant and grand scheme, in the which they were but minute, insignificant pawns, the sheer dimensions of which were unfathomable to them. Their petty problems seemed just that now: petty and inconsequential. Suddenly, the Drone and the Hive didn't worry them anymore. They both instintively knew that when they returned back into their own proper place and time that their "problems" would still await them, but it all seemed so small as not to even occupy their minds.

A second later, and they were stepping out of the portal near the vending machines, and T-Bone slipped in a dollar in quarters and retrieved a bottled water. They walked back to where the Drone was now exiting the restroom, and it was then that the Drone noticed a subtle change in the comportment of his captives.

Chapter Forty-Two: Explanations (Pt. 1)

As Krystal and Tedford sat on a park bench under the careful watch of the Drone standing against a nearby tree, T-Bone tried to fill her in on what was really going on here and what they were up against. Krystal was a little confused at first, but seemed to catch on quickly and was surprisingly not as fazed by it as he had thought she would be. At first Krystal had tried to shush Tedford into whispering so that the Drone wouldn't be able to hear, but after a few minutes, she understood that it wouldn't have mattered because, as Tedford remembered, the Drone could hear even the inaudible. No amount of whispering could escape from the Drone's heightened sense of hearing.

T-Bone explained to her what he could remember about his few years of enslavement to the "Hive", as he called it, and even though it certainly sounded like classic Sci-Fi fodder to anyone else, she took it all in and seemed to believe every word of it.

"The Hive," Tedford explained, "is really it's own sort of thing - unparalleled by anything else I can think of. They're kind of half world guardians, half power brokers - like a world police, but with a more sinister, totalitarian spin."

Krystal was all ears, as was the Drone, who was finding this conversation to be quite amusing.

"They generally take people who are assumed dead or lost or who otherwise have no connections or reason to live. They 'hook them up' to the Hive mind, and with that comes a vast amount of collective knowledge, extrasensory perceptions, and additional abilities that would normally take lifetimes to accumulate."

Krystal's mind was racing with what this could potentially mean to mankind, if these kind of abilities were used for the betterment of humankind, but her grandiose idealisms were cut short as Tedford continued.

"The Hive existence is one of subservience and compliance. Individualism is frowned upon, and only the will of the whole is important. All Hive members have to be inducted into the Order, and with this impressive endowment of power comes great (and grave) responsibility."

Krystal asked a rather naïve question, but one that she'd been wondering from the start: "So, basically they're the bad guys, and they're fighting against the rest of us, the good guys, right?"

"Well," frowned Tedford, seeing that he would need to slow down and provide perhaps more background information, "it's not as easy as just 'good versus evil', Krystal - it's just not that simple. They're not necessarily good or evil, they're more of the grey area in between. That shady area in which things happen and only your viewpoint determines whether it was a good thing or a bad thing."

"I think I understand - but give me an example," she said, slightly flustered, but trying not to let on. She didn't want to sound stupid, and indeed she normally wasn't, but this was all so new to her. She wanted to understand this in-depth, and to do that she needed to ask some questions and try to relate it to something familiar, if that was at all possible in this case.

"Well, mosta da time the Hive is actually quite benign. Kind of a guardian organization, like a global attempt to balance out all the really good or really bad things that happen over the years. I guess you could say they be 'keepers of the balance', although they do frequently exercise a darker side. One of the overriding tenets of the Hive is that balance is perfection. They're here to maintain a balance between good and evil - neither one should have precedence over the other. Let's say, for example, that a convicted rapist escapes from jail and commits more heinous crimes. If the authorities couldn't catch up with him, the Hive eventually would - and they'd kill him. No trial, no juries - just swift vengence. Not justice, mind you, just equilibrium."

Krystal thought a moment, then spoke, "So, in essence, they thrive off of conflict. If good isn't allowed to prevail, then the world will never be peaceful. If evil never prevails, then anarchy will likewise never come to pass. What they're propagating is eternal conflict, in essence."

Tedford smiled, and the Drone was finally impressed. The Drone took several strides over toward them and faced them, still standing. "Bravo, Mr. Tedford, and bravo to you, too, Ms. Krystal. Tedford, I was beginning to think you had forgotten all about your former life and the responsibilities you assumed, but I can see now that you are quite aware of what you forsook, and therefore must realize the penalties. And you, Krystal, are a quick study. Very insightful. Tedford's slant on things is a bit skewed, in my estimation, but his skeletal explanation is sufficient to give you the general gist of our agenda."

Tedford didn't speak, just looking down at his shoes, and it was Krystal instead who answered. "Excuse me, I have a question."

Chapter Forty-One: Idlewild

Reno's Idlewild Park is a large park, with more than a mile of jogging and bicycling paths, an extensive exercise course, various ponds and interconnecting lakes complete with ducks, geese, and swans, fountains, a rose garden with 2400 rose plants representing 560 different varieties, multiple children's playgrounds, a skate park, memorial statues and monuments, picnic and barbeque facilities, baseball diamonds and softball fields, football and soccer fields, broad lawns, horseshoe pits, volleyball pit, a swimming pool facility, kiddie carnival rides, a real train ride circling a portion of the park - the works. Thousands of area residents and visitors frequent what is arguably Reno's best park daily: dog walkers, joggers, kids, photographers, swimmers, rose aficionados, skaters... and geocachers.

Tony didn't seem to believe what this guy was to him saying about this "G. O. Cashing", it sounded too lame to be a real pastime. It sounds to him like a front for drug dealing or blackmarket trading. If it was, like he suspected, it just might lead him back to T-Bone.

The guy was only mildly aware of the fact that he had literally been kidnapped by these two out-of-towners, but he tried to convince himself that he was actually just introducing them to the 'game' of geocaching, and that they would drop him back off near his car after a couple of more caches.

The guy led them first just a block West, along the river, across from the Greyhound bus depot. Tony and Will sat on a green park bench staring down the transients encamped in the vicinity, while the guy searched futily around the metal "art" sculpture a few feet away for this so-called cache he kept telling them about. After about 15 minutes of nothing, the guy left the sculpture alone and started looking in the trees, the railing, under stones, at sign posts, at the bench itself, and finally at the lamppost next to them. He crouched down and looked underneath the post at ground level, and smiled. "Found it!" he proclamed, with a look of satisfaction on his face. "Lemme see that," said Tony, ripping the small magnetic keybox out of his hands. Tony opened it and was disappointed to find nothing but a small folded slip of paper inside with a bunch of fake names scribbled on it. "What's this, then - some sort of secret code or directions or something?" Tony asked. "No," replied the guy, "that's just where you sign the log sheet... to prove you actually were here and found it. Then you go online to 'Geocaching.com' and log your finds and then the site updates your stats automatically for competition purposes."

Tony and Will seemed unimpressed, and as they got back in the car, the guy said, "The next one is a multicache, and according to the Mapquest map, it starts in Idlewild Park, which is just down the street." He pointed, and off they drove.

*****
David got a ride from one of his buddies (who felt a little guilty at being indirectly the cause of David's recent misfortune), and hopped aboard the Amtrak downtown, bound for Reno. He didn't sleep that night, but not because of the uncomfortable seats - his body simply didn't need the rest. For the first time in his life, he felt like he had erased his 'sleep debt', as it were: he simply wasn't tired. As the train slowly made it's way northward, stopping at each little town along the way it seemed, David's mind raced with possible scenarios and plans of action for what he might find awaiting him in Reno. He had only been to Reno once in his life before, and that was when he was a little child of maybe five or six, so he really didn't remember anything useful that might help him this time.

In the wee early hours, the train pulled into the Amtrak station off of Commercial Row in the downtown area. He found it odd that the first thing he saw when leaving the station and walking out on the friendless streets of a strange town was a so-called "gentlemen's club", obviously some lame attempt to dress up what would be known in any other town as a strip club. In his mind, Reno (and Nevada, in general) already had a bad reputation as somewhere that allowed prostitution, gambling, and any number of other legal or illegal vices. David's family had never seen any reason to visit Nevada, especially Las Vegas or Reno, having already dismissed them as "dens of sin". David had never really questioned his parents' decision on this matter, but David was questioning a lot of things since his coma. As far as he was aware, neither his parents nor his buddies had visited him in the hospital, and he was feeling a little, okay - a lot, of resentment at the present time. His parents told him all the time that they loved him, but why hadn't they visited him in the hospital? They obviously had noticed he was gone, or else the maid wouldn't have given him the third degree when he got home, but hadn't they even tried to find him? Hadn't they called all the local hospitals and even tried to find him?

David walked, wandering around the streets and the crowds of people for about an hour, not knowing why he was even here, but he felt as if something were calling him here - summoning him here. Now that he was here, however, he didn't know what came next. He walked into many of the tourist shops and marvelled at all the worthless junk that one could purchase with the phrase "The Biggest Little City in the World" stamped across it. After awhile, however, the shops lost their novelty and it seemed that he was seeing all the same stuff over and over again. On a lark, he walked outside and just kept walking. It was getting to be late morning now, and David was beginning to feel that he already had a pretty good grasp of the downtown area after just walking around for a few hours. In fact, he mused, he probably had a better understanding of the idiocyncrasies of the layout than many Reno residents. This, in fact, was probably true, seeing as how most residents of cities with downtown areas actually never 'go downtown' for anything. That was certainly true of his hometown. The dare, in fact, was one of the few times that David had actually graced his city's tourist hub with his presence, and his friends knew it - hence the bet in the first place. What he hadn't known, however, was how dangerous a place can be after dark. During the daytime, the throngs of tourists make a place seem rather innocuous - tame, even - but after dark, that all changes. He suspected that the same was probably true for Reno, as well, and he immediately decided that he better formulate a plan for himself, get a room at least, before nightfall. He wasn't too worried about it, however, as he still had time, and he was sure there were probably several places in this place that would give him a room, even without any form of identification. Maybe not one of the big hotel casinos, but any number of the side street motel lodges would probably take a cash payment without raising an eyebrow. David was proud of his street smarts, although he wasn't really sure where or how he'd acquired them. One brief encounter - disaster really - doesn't make someone king of the streets, he told himself, but he felt a lot more illuminated as to the realities of the real world, like his eyes had been suddenly opened to a whole other world.

As he was so reflecting, a thought popped into his head - straight out of the blue, not even a word he'd ever heard before in his admittedly short life: "Idlewild."