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The DarkLand
By Sandi Layne
DarkLand - Part 1
“It happens
to all of us,” the one called Dalyn said. She was the humor-laced girl.
“Don’t be embarrassed. We have no privacy, here. It’s just the way it
is.”
“It’s a
prison!” Kat protested, trying to wrap her mind around the
circumstances, impossible as they were. The girls all told her how it
had happened, for they had all seen the Memwands in life, and they had
discussed it in this, their post-life.
“It may be
prison, but there’s no such thing as jailbreak from a computer.” That
was Irissa, a laconic presence.
“I broke
out of prison. Juvenile Detention,” Kat confessed, pushing her panic
down, deep in her mind. “I can beat any security feature.”
Brennie’s
voice snorted. “I’m a security expert. I designed Juvie.”
“Let her
tell us!” insisted Dalyn. “We haven’t had a new story since…since…”
“Since I
got here, I know,” Irissa finished.
Kat related
how she had broken into the security system in Juvie and managed to let
herself out, without being noticed by the Eyes in the Sky until it was
too late. “I can’t be locked up again, you guys,” she stated at the end
of her tale. “I can’t. I’ll go crazy.”
“We’re all
going crazy.”
“Yeah, just
wait ‘til the Walking Libido wants to play.”
Kat ignored
the groans and sighs and curses that surrounded her. Instead, she told
herself to adapt. Immediately. She had to find a way out.
Can I get them all out? she wondered.
“You
better, or we’ll find a way to haunt you, Kitty-Kat!”
Kat felt
shock in her mind at the evidence that her thoughts were public. That
wasn’t something she had ever had to deal with, before.
“None of it
is, Kat. Get used to it, already. We’re stuck.”
“No, we’re
not! I’ll find a way!”
^ ^ ^
Lyric
joined them. Marta. Ninian. Still, Kat learned the ways through the
inner world where she and the others were trapped.
While
Ninian was still in her adjustment phase, Kat’s presence began to
vibrate throughout the strange inner community in which they had, one by
one, found themselves. The DarkLand, she called it. No sights, smells,
or anything to touch, but the presences of one another. It kept her sane
to put everything into a context she could work with.
“What is
it? What happened? Did a virus make it in?”
“No!” Kat
exclaimed. “I found it. I found a trapdoor.”
“Impossible,” Brennie countered instantly. “I never leave them. It’s my
policy. I can’t leave a loophole – even for myself.”
“You
didn’t, Brennie. You didn’t. But he did.”
“What?”
Ninian was
still in a fugue state, but she managed to ask, “You saw it?”
Several
prodded again. “What?”
“The new
connection,” Kat blurted out, her relief and excitement tangible to
those in the DarkLand. “Reece found a new way of getting his kicks,
girl. He’s decided to hook himself up through one of those legal, scaled
down versions of the Wand.” She paused, relishing the moment, feeling
the certainty pulse around her as if she had nerves, after all, and not
just psychological space.
“I can get
us out.”
^ ^ ^
Reece’s
smile was broad as he palmed open his apartment after his time in Hades,
as he called his nine-to-fiver job. Psychophysics was a delicate field,
but lately he’d been processing research. That was so boring.
Now, it was
playtime.
“Okay,
ladies,” he called, stripping off his shirt, trousers, socks, shoes and
briefs so that he was naked as he sunk into his massage chair. “Let’s
have a party.”
The chair
was upholstered in actual leather, costly beyond price, but Reece had to
have his toys. The massage chair had a pocket on the side. From this
pocket, he slid a clear Lucite case. From the case, he slid the
Connector.
It had come
from his lab, as a matter of fact, and had taken years to garner
official approval from the Ethics Committee. Pale green in color, it had
markings that were similar to the Memwand’s. But the connector had an
added bonus, making it prime for the Virtual Reality Salons. Holo-tangibles.
Not holograms, but holotangibles. No longer was it merely a mind game.
Now, this was a full-blown orgy of sensation.
He had
helped design them, had been heralded a genius. Getting one of his own
was, therefore, a courtesy. He designed his to interface with his
personal dek . It was an upgrade.
It was an
incredible rush to relive each encounter with His Girls. An almost
transportive experience. The final barrier had been crossed.
Triumph and
arousal coursed through his body again as he settled into the chair. His
breath was coming faster and more loudly as he adjusted the headset so
that the connections were made from his mind to his dek.
“Ah, Ninian,”
he groaned in pure, pleasured anticipation. “You were so…appreciative.”
^ ^ ^
“Here he
comes!”
Ninian
recovered from her depression sufficiently to be enraged at this
repeated use of her past psyche. “Are you sure this will work?” she said
around the sounds and feelings all experienced together. Again and
again, as Reece plugged himself in.
Plugged
himself in to them.
Kat
gathered herself to catch the opening. No light intruded into the
DarkLand. Nothing to give a bold indicator of the trapdoor that she had
found. Only an impression of space in the terribly closed-in environment
they shared.
“Now!
Follow me!”
Linked
together, the women latched onto Kat’s presence as she dove to the
barest of open spaces. And all at once, the women shouted with one
voice:
“Light!”
^ ^ ^
“Light!”
Reece shouted, his voice throbbing in ecstasy as Ninian reached her peak
again and again. “Light!”
He stopped,
ripping the headset from his scalp and looking at it as if it were some
insidious form of viper. “What on earth…?” Had he heard something?
Yes, you did, Reece Jac. You heard us!
Reece
cursed fluently, leaping from his brown leather chair. “No freaking way!
This is a nightmare!”
We’re all here, Reece. This is Ninian.
And Annalee. Remember me?
I’m Irissa.
The names
continued to flow behind his eyes and somehow behind his ears as well.
He felt dizzy and checked each corner of the room for intruders.
Then, he
stopped, completely convinced that someone had put something into
the ventilation system of the building. Maybe someone was messing with
him. Spying on him. He ran to his room to pull on a black velvet robe,
tying it securely around his waist.
“Okay,
fine. Ha ha. Very funny.”
It was the
final thing he said of his own accord. The Girls were out now, and they
wanted to…play. |
