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     As things were turning black I heard someone say,
“Keep them separated.  Last time it was when they were together that they were able to escape.”

CHAPTER 14

     I woke up in one of the cells and I was alone.  I have never felt so depressed in my life.  I began to cry as I put my head in my hands but then I felt the lightest touch on my cheek.  It felt like it had the first time Joe had touched me that way.

     I looked u
p but there was no one there
.  I closed my eyes and tried to picture Joe.  Neither of us had implants
now but I felt like I could faintly hear him.

     I didn’t know if it was wishful thinking or what but I thought I could hear him.  And then I was sure, “Honey, don’t cry.  We will be all right.  Can you hear me, Ashley?”

     I couldn’t believe we could communicate like this.  I had never been able to do this before.  “Joe, if we can communicate like this, can they hear us?”

     “I don’t think so.  I think the cave is enabling us to do this but I don’t know how.  See if you can contact Irene.  I’ve been trying but haven’t been able.”

     I closed my eyes and pictured Irene.  She came in loud and clear, “Hang in there, Ashley.  I’m aware of the situation.  It looks like I can communicate with you only.  Have you and Joe been able to communicate?”

     “Yes.  He has been trying to reach you.  Why can we do this?”

    
“I believe the one who has provided all these wonderful things for us is providing what we need even going so far as to mimic what the others are able to do but much better.

     “I think you were the catalyst for all that’s happened.  When you got here, all of sudden there were so many improvements.  I wasn’t able to get into the city until you got here.

     “The one who is providing for us will not let anything happen to you.  You are needed by us all.  I promise you will be all right.  Pass all this along to any of the others you are able to contact.

     “Tell them also that Pud, Zen, and Zoe have found a lake to swim and bathe in
,
hills to hike in, animals of all kinds which they are making many into pets, and more fruits and vegetables than we’ve seen.  They have really been exploring.”

    
I laughed and one of the guards came over and asked me what was so funny, “Not a thing,” I said as I continued to laugh.  We stared at each other as I communicated with the others and it was clear he couldn’t listen in.

     At one point, Joe told me this way of communicating was so much better.  There was no background noise. 
Also, he didn’t have to worry about the authorities listening in.

     I didn’t know if we were going to be rescued or not this time.  I didn’t understand how it all worked, but after the guards had locked up for the night and gone home, I sat down on the cot and closed my eyes.

     I had an idea about getting out of there.  I concentrated, as one by one, the other minds
seemed to be connected to mine,
I kept thinking over and over, “Take us home,” and suddenly we were in the city.

     As I hugged the others I said, “This is going to scare the crap out of those guards.”

     Our city had grown tremendously while we were gone.  Everyone
had
grown hair and chosen names.  It was hard to understand why anyone would want to live any other way, but if you didn’t know any other way except having implants and being brainwashed and controlled by the government, you would have no reason to question it.

     Most people were afraid of change of any kind, even for the best.  We were trying to get them to make such a big change that some of them just couldn’t do it.

     Some of them had changed their minds when they saw that their dwelling was going to be destroyed, but I think a lot of them just wanted a safe place to live.

     We all decided to spend a few days exploring before going back outside and down the hill.  Joe and I started up a hill located just outside the city. It was amazing how there could be a city and countryside inside a cave.

    
“I’m glad you like to hike, Joe.  I’ve always enjoyed it myself.”

     He was thoughtful for awhile and then, “I think one reason I started hiking was that I was trying to escape all the voices.”

     “I can’t imagine how horrible it was for you to have all those other voices all the time.”

     He was quiet so long I thought he was finished with the subject.  He stopped and pulled me down onto a big boulder to sit beside him.

     He laid my head on his shoulder and began talking again, “The whole indoctrination they did on us was so gradual no one noticed.  They started out with only one small implant and gradually increased them, convincing us we needed each of them for a different function.

     “I honestly didn’t realize I was living with so much
noise inside my head until they
were removed.  And I didn’t consciously realize I was going up the hill so often to try to escape the noise.”

     “I’m so glad you’re whole again, Joe.”

     “Yeah, me too, let’s go farther up and see what’s up there.”

     The hill leveled off at the top and was covered with purple flowers.  Again I tried to pick some but they held on tight.
  We stretched out in the flowers and I was suddenly, for some reason, remembering my clothes.

     “Joe, why does everyone wear these ugly robes?  I
miss my sweaters, and my sandals and some bell bottom jeans
.”

     “Ah, I once had shoes and pants and such myself.”

     “What happened to them?”

     “They wore out.”

     “Couldn’t you buy
some more?”

     “No one made any
more.  These robes we wear were issued by the government.”

     I was suddenly angry, “What is wrong with you people?  Do you realize you’ve let them take away your whole life and identity just so you could have a better way of communicating?”

    
“Yes, I do now realize this, but you don’t have to yell at me.”

     I laughed, “I’m sorry, Joe. You’re right.  The government i
s much more controlling now than
in my time.  Although in my time they decided who was going to give their life for a lost cause.  I’m talking about the Vietnam war.”

     “Oh, yes, I have learned about this war.  It was very sad.  Who won?”

     “No one did, Joe.  No one ever wins in a war.  Everyone loses.”

     He stroked his chin, “Yes, this is what I worry about now.  I don’t want to be at war but I feel the lines are being
drawn, and it’s so senseless.”

      “They’ve never been violent with anyone yet have they?”

     “No but the threat of destroying the dwellings scares me.  I don’t know if it is an empty threat or if they are desperate enough to actually do it.  I believe they are afraid of losing control over us.

     “Sometimes when someone is afraid of losing control they will get desperate and do things they would not otherwise do.”

     “Yes, I agree with you.
  Do you think they are desperate enough to destroy the dwellings or do you think it’s an empty threat?”

     “I really don’t know but I’m not willing to take a chance are you?”

     “No, Joe, I’m not.  I’ve been wondering just how those dwellings grew and if they are a part of this cave.  I never saw all of your dwelling.  Can we go there and let me take a look at it.”

     “Now?”

     “Yes, Now.”

CHAPTER 15

     We left the cave and headed back down the hill, keeping to the wooded areas whenever possible.  The dwellings we passed
all looked intact.

     There was no one around his dwelling and when we entered it looked the same. 
The halls and doorways were tubular instead of rectangular.  There were five rooms with the spheres and also a kitchen where his
s
ister had made the meals.

     The kitchen looked like the ones in our houses in the city.  There were no straight surfaces or corners anywhere.  The source of the heat for the stove and the cold for the refrigerator was unknown.  Joe didn’t even know the sources.

     We examined the walls and the ceiling in each room but when we got to the main room and looked up, it looked like a hole in the ceiling leading to another passage.

     The hole looked like it had a muscle in it and was opening and closing about as fast as a normal heartbeat.

     “What is that?” I asked Joe.

     He stood studying it, “I’ve never noticed it before.”

     I laughed, “Joe, how can you have something like that in you
r
house and not know about it?”

   
He s
hrugged, “I don’t know what to tell you except that my mind was always so full I
didn’t even notice something as
obvious as this.”

     “Lift me up, Joe.
I’m going to climb through there.”

     “Are you crazy?  Look at it.  It will close on you and crush you to death.”

     “No, look, it doesn’t close all the way.  It leaves an opening big enough for either of us.”

     “It’s like a spasm.  It could close even tighter when you get in there.”

     “No, it’s more like a pulse, see?  Lift me up.”

     He reluctantly lifted me up and, as I raised my hands to go through, I was sucked up into the opening.  It felt like I
would think being swallowed woul
d feel like.  There was a gentle squeeze and I heard Joe cry out.

     “I’m okay,” I called from inside and I was lying in a slight soft depression.  “Get a flashlight before you come in here, Joe it’s very dark in here but very comfortable.”

    
“How am I supposed to get up there?”

     “Don’t you have a step ladder?  Of course you don’t.  You probably don’t even have a flashlight.”

     “Wow!!!”

     “What? What?”

     “One of resting spheres has formed itself into steps and on top is what must be a flashlight, although I’ve never really seen one.”

     He soon joined me, “That squeeze was a little scary.”  He shined the flashlight and we saw that the tunnel rose above us at about 30
degrees slope.  We got out of the depr
ession and started walking up
the tunnel.

     All of a sudden th
ere was a surge of blue
liquid rushing down from above us.  Joe and I held onto each other as the liquid rushed over us and then went back the way it had come.

     It left a thin membrane looking layer, light blue in color, but had taken our clothes.  Once again I was naked.

  As we continued going up into the tunnel, the tunnel became smaller and we soon had to get on our belly and slide upward.

     “I think this blue gook on our bodies is supposed to help us continue upward,” Joe said.

     “I believe you’re right.  I see a light up ahead, Joe, look!”

     He turned off the flashlight and we crawled out into the middle of the city, “Joe, we can’t let them destroy any of those dwellings.”

     As I
said this, the tube we
had just come out of was ripped away and suddenly there was what looked li
ke blood flowing from where we
stood and down toward the opening.

     I fell and if Joe hadn’t caught me I
would have flowed out with the blood.  The blood seemed to crust over and form what looked like a scab covering the opening.  It had healed itself.

     We
looke
d down and remembered we were naked.  We
ran to the place the girls had found to swim and dove in.  The
blue goo came right off and we
walked back toward our
dwelling.

     We
had been talking abo
ut clothes earlier and when we
walked inside there
,
lying across one of the spheres
,
were a pair of bell bottom jeans,
a sweater, and a pair of sandals
.

     Lying across one of the other ones was a pair of men’s slacks, a shirt, and a pair of loafers.

     “I wish I had a bra and some panties,” I said and Joe pointed to yet another sphere.  Lying there was both men and women’s underwear.

     When we got dressed we went outside and found a group of people gathered around wanting to know where we had been, what we had found out and what we were wearing.

     We explained everything to them and I told them to go inside their houses and get dressed.  They looked confused but soon came back wearing clothes.