By G.R. Nanda
Fearing another slap to the face, Nickel narrated his dream, stammering and pausing to catch his breath. Throughout Nickel’s recollection, Steve looked on, frowning and unflinching. However, his eyes relaxed and a small smile formed on his lips when Nickel mentioned the singing woman who followed him, unseen. As Nickel continued to speak, Steve continued to frown.
He told Steve about running outside while being chased by soldiers with guns. He told him about burning alive, then falling down the cliff. Recalling the memory made him shudder with discomfort, despite it fading into the abyss of memory and dream. Finally he told him about the visions he had while falling into the large dome.
When Nickel stopped speaking, Steve just nodded his head and sighed. No one spoke and all Nickel heard was the wind outside.
“What was all of that?” said Nickel. “It was so vivid. The most vivid dream I’ve ever had.”
“These are the things you see when you perform the acht-chi, the trance that we terrestrial wanderers have learned to use over time. But use it sparingly, because over time it will kill you.”
Nickel’s eyes widened in fear.
“What did you do to me?” Nickel shouted. His chest bobbed up and down as he began to breathe heavily. Steve reached out and pressed his hand on Nickel’s sleeping sack above his chest.
“Calm down, Nickel,” Steve said. “Breathe slower. Bring your-.” Nickel shot his hand out of his sack and shoved Steve’s arm away.
“What did you do to me?” Nickel screamed.
“I opened you to a world you were hiding from on your hovercraft!” said Steve. “I promise-Nickel-I promise I won’t make you perform the acht-chi anytime soon! The acht-chi is the only path to dreamworld. When you inhale these orange fumes, you see outside of yourself, through the fume all across these plains.”
“I have the dreams and so does Farrul. We all see different things in dreamworld. With enough dreamers, we have enough pieces of the puzzle.” Steve nodded his head and smiled. “I think we have all the pieces of the puzzle.”
“What do you mean?” asked Nickel.
“I think the dreaming has finally been worth it,” said Steve. “You don’t know. I’ve been dreaming so much, it’s killing me! It’s stretching me! Wearing me thin. Weakening my nervous system — making it weaker than it’s already been made in this wasteland.” Steve’s face twisted in pained expression. He moved away from Nickel and leaned against the tent. His eyes were watery and glazed over.
“That’s what it does to you,” he whispered. “Slowly, bit by bit, it will kill you. You feel great — powerful when you do the acht-chi. Then after the electricity leaves you, you crash. The more you do it, the more your body will degenerate.” He shook his head. “I won’t do that to you. I only need to see through your mind-see what the sorceress wants you to see. Then I can piece it all together.”
“Sorceress?” said Nickel. “What sorceress? What’s dreamworld? I don’t believe in magic! What’s going on?”
“Magic?” said Steve. “Magic is in the eye of the beholder. Is the kraken magic? No, my friend. You can walk over the canyons into the depths of the basin, beyond the Ghost City into the bottom of the dried up ocean and what’s there? What’s there, Nickel? What’s there are the cracked dried up festering skeletons of SQUIDS! The kraken is real!”
“The lady sorceress is real,” said Farrul in a low voice. “She sings to us in our dreams. She sings to those who perform the acht-chi and shows us what’s beyond these canyons. You can’t pretend this stuff. I don’t pretend!” Farrul’s shivering and flaky face frowned and he spoke his next words in a growl. “Don’t you take us to be some lying savages or crackpots! I know that’s what us — the suffering — look like to you fancy flyboys cruisin’ around safe in your goddamn glibbing spaceships!” He spat the last words, spittle flying from his lips and landing at Nickel’s sack.
“I don’t have a spaceship,” muttered Nickel. “If you’d told me about the acht-chi and dreamworld before, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would’ve thought of it as a-a-a hallucination, the hallucinations of the sick and dying. Or something else. I would have resorted to science. But nothing I’ve seen in dreamworld can be explained by any of the science I’ve learned so far.”
He locked eyes with Farrul. “I believe you. It’s impossible for me not to. Not after I saw those silver men and that place — that big glowing place with the skyscrapers and half-naked women. It was all so….. lucid.” Nickel closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead. The dream experience was fading. But the images, the sounds- they still haunted him. Motherless men, suddenly rang the voice of the woman – the sorceress in Nickel’s head. Fighting nature’s amends. The feeling of burning was gone, but the memory of hot light and his charring skin remained. Nickel looked at Farrul and Steve.
“Nothing feels the same,” Nickel said. “Nothing would ever be the same if I went back to my ship. Trust me, I believe you.”
“That’s good,” said Steve. “Because we need your dream, a third dream is what we needed to make a bigger picture. Narrating it after awakening helps you hold the memory of the dream.”
“What do you guys see in your dreams?” asked Nickel.
“Farrul never did the acht-chi today. I did though. I saw what I usually see, plus a little more or in some different part, just as usual. I saw a dark place at the bottom of the canyon. I saw phantoms, pale blue projections of people using AR technology, fooling around at the bottom of the canyon. I saw them walking beyond me and beyond the windows in front of me. These windows were huge and sticking out of the canyon floor. After that, I always get pushed by the wind onto a highway. I’m just rolling down these dark, long and winding roads. Sometimes, I slam into cars and hovercrafts. But no one’s ever inside of them. Then, I fall into caves where I see machinery and glowing contraptions. Then, there’s always a creepy tall man with spectacles, sitting in an armchair.”
“When I’m in dreamworld, I see a place up above,” said Farrul. “I roll down a rock face and then I crash down on the roof of a hotel. I fall in and I get stuck in a massive piano. The piano plays super loud while the lady sings all around me. But of course, I can’t see the bitch. She sings words like, ‘piano keys humming. Machine guns are drumming.’ Then the lights go out. Silver soldiers fire their guns at me and I go down the hotel. Everything falls.” He stopped speaking and frowned at Nickel. “Why should I tell you any of this?”
“I don’t know,” muttered Nickel. “But it seems like all of our dreams take place in the same canyon around here. If it’s all real, then it’s not probably not far off from here.”
“Yes!” said Steve. “Connecting the dots already. For some reason, the sorceress wanted a third dreamer to show us the whole picture. Farrul always talked about a glowing blue city outside of the hotel, long cables stretching into the horizon, communication towers and broken roads. I knew they were connected by the singing sorceress, but I had no clue how the places were connected. Same landmass. Rocky. Orange. But now-” He spread his arms and tilted his shaking palms towards Nickel. “Now I see. We needed you. I needed you. It was for the dream you just had. It was for that you were destined to fall from the sky with an arc to give me a vision and save me-save us from destitution!” Steve’s arms shook uncontrollably. His face twisted and tears fell out of his eyes.
“You gotta be kidding me,” said Farrul, laughing and shaking his head. He scowled at Nickel. “We don’t come from where you come!” he growled. “We’re not privileged like you!” He coughed. “Nothing we do is to serve you. I wanna make that clear!”
“What did I do to piss you off?” said Nickel, edging out of his sleeping sack and up the surface of the tent behind him to level his head with Farrul’s.
“Only beat me to the ground!” said Farrul.
“That wasn’t even that hard though!” said Nickel. “And you went after me first!”
“Listen!” spat Farrul. “I don’t owe you anything because you came out of the sky in a hovercraft, wearing a fancy body-suit. You’re no Messiah to me. If I needed to, I could kill you myself. I might be sick, but I’ve suffered in this weather long enough to learn some tricks you don’t know.”
“SILENCE!” said Steve, flinching out of his sob into a hardened angry face, and sitting up rigidly. Nickel jerked backwards and Farrul ceased rocking. “I’ll have none of this! None of this threatening or blaming!” He scowled with glowering eyes as his right hand pointed upwards. “Nickel is no Messiah! No chosen one! And I never said so. But his arrival will save us and killing him won’t help us.”
He whirled to his right towards a hunched over Farrul. “If you even try to harm or kill anyone here — in any way — I will make you feel pain worse than being shredded by the teeth of a glibb!” He wheezed loudly. His eyelids moved closer to each other and falling back onto the wall of the tent, he breathed deeply through an open mouth.
Nickel felt uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure what to think of Steve’s feelings. It was clear to him that Farrul was jealous of him, but he thought that Steve might be making it worse.
“I still don’t understand what the place in our dreams is,” said Nickel, trying to steer the dialogue away from anger. “I mean — is it all even one single place?”
“The Desolate Plains weren’t always desolate, Nickel,” said Steve. “Long ago a power plant of some sort existed where we’re camping. It was all part of an energy suppliant infrastructure stretching all around the bottom of the dried up Atlantic ocean. Seafloor farming. Big powerful generators of electricity were here. If you traveled far enough, you might see their wreckage. It’s ugly.”
“The volatile atmosphere was harnessed. Big fast winds were located at their hotspots and used for power. Everything was big and fast and exciting. People visited from their shrinking and dried up countries to see this new technology at the bottom of the seafloor.”
“This was a glibbing tourism destination believe it or not!” Steve said, chuckling and waving his arms around. “The winds weren’t this bad and windstorms mostly occured in pocketed areas where air density was unique enough for them to be harnessed for energy.”
“But there were accidents. Accidents with the radiation plants and their power generators. At first they were contained. Their sectors were shut down. But people were foolish. They kept the tourism going. People went on tours of the plant in hovercrafts, traveling in safe channels carved into the plains. And these plains were getting windier and really toxic.”
“You see — this large-scale power plant was powering an even bigger tourism destination, tacked away at the bottom of the canyon — the entertainment, extravaganza-theme-park-of-a-city — the city of Hedonim! It was the new Las Vegas! No more Vegas. No more Dubai! No more Orlando! It was all Hedonim now! That’s where all the fun was. Every real-estate firm was applying for property there. Casinos, amusement parks, city squares, theaters, restaurants, strip-clubs, brothels, hotels, motels. All of that was built there. You had shows all around the city. People pouring in, people pouring out. No one stayed. Virtual reality parks galore. It was addicting. If you didn’t exercise some self-control, it could swallow you whole. You’d lose a gambling bet or waste money on those slot machines, or get too wasted, then you’re barfing on the pavement, facedown without a place to sleep while everyone’s walking past you disgusted.”
“But for most people, you dipped in and out quick enough, you’d feel a shit ton of dopamine, but little enough to keep you sane. A lot of pleasure was guaranteed in Hedonim. Especially a lot of sex.”
“Was a young man in Hedonim once.” Steve grinned sheepishly. His eyes were glazed over. “Felt a lot of things in myself and a woman for the first time there.”
Farrul snorted.
“How hard is it to say that you had sex with hookers in Hedonim?” said Farrul. “Are you still ashamed of buying prostitutes?”
Steve frowned and slowly turned to Farrul.
“You shut the glibb up right now!” said Steve. “I don’t need these little comments from you! They’re all besides the point! I’ve gotten laid before! That’s more than you can say!” He laughed loudly, wheezing when he was finished. “Isn’t that right?” he chuckled. “That’s more than you too Nickel,” he said looking at Nickel. “I don’t expect a boy born into military conduct to have lost his until marriage.”
“Now listen boys,” he said, raising his hands and looking at the two boys. “If you listen to me — do as I say, both of you,” he said pointing at them, “might have time to lose yours with a ghost in Hedonim.”
“Ok — alright,” said Nickel, feeling uncomfortable. “Tell me more about Hedonim and what else is out there in these canyons. “I thought Hedonim was a failed seafloor basin city in the Atlantic Ocean. I thought the amusement parks went bankrupt and glibbed up their whole economy until everyone left.”
“Oh, no,” said Steve. He snorted. “Back in my day, everyone could try to learn this stuff on the internet. I hadn’t realized how uninformed Americans are without it.”
“It wasn’t the amusement parks going bankrupt,” said Steve. “It was an accident here at the power plant that used to exist.”
“What?” said Nickel.
“The overseers were reckless. They maintained a tourism environment –built it as fast and for as cheap as they could. Combustion was a usual occurrence here. They’d just move their man-made channels and hovercrafts away from the combustion for the tourists. But soon enough, that wasn’t enough. Whole place blew up. Hundreds of thousands died. But the damage didn’t stop there.”
“Toxic radiation from the plant spreads throughout the atmosphere. The already volatile atmosphere is made worse. That’s how we got here, kid. That’s what all this orange gas is outside.”
“How are you not dead?” asked Nickel. “How am I not dead?”
“I’ve told you,” said Steve, “It only weakens you and your immune system. Doesn’t kill you directly. But look-” Steve raised his arms. “I’m no expert. I’ve just gathered information. I’m no scientist. I’m just a cook. Everything I’m saying is what I’ve observed over time and what people smarter and more knowledgeable have told me, or I’ve heard them saying.”
“But this gas gets down into Hedonim, makes the whole place inhospitable. Bye-bye industry! Everyone leaves as fast as they can. Lot o’ money’s lost. But guess what? The capitalists can’t leave it alone. Too much money’s been invested on it! Whaddya’ gonna do about the whole structures — whole skyscrapers that’ve been put up there?”
“You revamp the place. That’s what you do. Virtual reality’s been big in entertainment tech! You had them in Hedonim. But hold up! There’s AR! Augmented reality, projecting things and places that don’t exist onto your physical environment. Governor of Hedonim calls up Wutobang group from China and the AR division of GSN from America, two hotshot AR techie groups to turn Hedonim into one big ole AR theme park.”
“AR theme park?’ said Nickel. “But I thought the atmosphere made Hedonim toxic.”
“You see,” said Steve, “a completely new network of fiber optic cables was built for Hedonim, by a joint company called Hedonim Enterprises made out of Wutobang and GSN. The whole network of cables runs along the seafloor to the east coast of America. On the east coast, rich people hang out in state of the art AR haptic projection rigs. People rig themselves up to ARP rigs and a 3D holographic avatar of their bodies appear on the streets of Hedonim. Every inch of Hedonim was coated in optimized silicone latex to send information to computer banks through the cables and vice versa. In an ARP rig, you can see, feel and hear in Hedonim as if you were walking in Hedonim. Because it’s your avatar walking in Hedonim. Not you.”
There was silence. No one spoke.
“Holy shit,” said Nickel, “…….so that’s what’s in my dream?”
“Yes,” said Steve. “That’s what’s in all of our dreams. Hedonim.”
“But how does the singing lady fit in?’ asked Nickel.
“We don’t know,” said Steve. “But she’s been a part of the acht-chi for a long time. And the acht-chi is all that we can trust besides past knowledge.”
“But I’ve never even seen anything about Hedonim on the Eagle’s navigation computer when I was piloting around this area,” said Nickel.
“That’s because yours is a military craft, which means its computers only have military protocol information. I’m guessing it’s geographical mapping extends to routes taken in the Medditerranean War.”
“Yeah,” said Nickel. “I forgot.” Nickel then sat in silence, astounded by how much he didn’t know. He felt like the world was crushing him in how much of it was unknown to him.
“The world was a lot smaller before the nuclear war,” said Steve. “For us, born after it, we have to look outside and parse through all the wreckage to really see what the world is about. Now that the internet isn’t as big as it used to be, that’s even harder than before.”
“Our way out of here is into Hedonim. It’s the only known settlement close to us.” Steve smiled. “And we have a path into it.”
“How do you know our dreams are right?” asked Nickel.
“He doesn’t,” said Farrul. “This is really our only choice. We’ve just been guessing the best we could.”
“We’ve been waiting for the dreams to connect,” said Steve. “We’ve been waiting for your dream, Nickel.” Farrul scowled behind Steve.
“I knew Farrul and I were seeing Hedonim. But I had no clue where to look. Your dream shows me that it’s in a basin below this rock formation. And we have your hovercraft to look for Hedonim in.” Steve laughed. “I have no enlightened logic to explain the dreams, the acht-chi or the singing sorceress. But the sorceress wanted us to find you. She sees all and has gifted you with a sight from your dream.” Tears streamed down Steve’s face again. “I don’t know who or where the powers of fate are, but they’ve gifted us with your arrival. For that, we must be active and use what we have! We must go to Hedonim!”
Despite his surge of inspiration, Steve closed his eyes and his body slumped to the ground as he passed out.
G.R. Nanda 