Gavin, Naomi, and Blake began searching the walls, corridors, everything, around them, eagerly at first, but soon becoming discouraged, finding nothing that they could learn anything from. They found a few computer panels, but most were merely for opening doors or turning lights on or off. The one they did find that might have produced results was beyond their means to operate - both keyboard-buttons and screen images were in a language completely foreign to any of them, and pressing buttons seemed to have no effect, anyway. Eventually, they all meandered to different corners and corridors, out of sight of each other, but within calling range.
     As Blake wandered around, his thoughts wandered as well. Wow.. I've ended up with some weird people.. I can usually deal with Naomi, Daphne, and Elisay's weirdness, Ianthe's a bit out there sometimes, though Naomi can be too.. the guys are alright, mostly. I don't know about the two new girls yet, but I've spent how long with Aubrey? I still think he's a little too weird..
     Then, unbeknowst to the others, Blake disappeared.
     
     Once again, the voice in his mind...what was it Ianthe had said it was? The Illuminati?... Prejudice hides the light of truth. Humans all share one thing - humanity.Then he heard part of a song, vaguely familiar, but for the first time, Blake was able to make out the lyrics: "I'm on the outside, I'm lookin' in, I can see through you, see your true colors. 'Cuz inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me. I can see through you, see to the real you.."
     
     Blake suddenly found himself in an unknown forest, in the near-complete dark, with no trail in sight. Complete terror almost took over within seconds of this realisation, and in fact did take over for a few moments, until it occured to him that the only one who could get him out was himself, so he'd better not go hysterical.
     He had just begun to attain a reasonable level of calmness, when he heard something or someone in the dark behind him.
     Terror set back in.
     It's a rabid hobo!!!!!!      Blake, well, screamed, then tried to run, but tripped within five steps, and saw that there was no way he could break through the undergrowth with any amount of speed.
     "Hey! You!" Blake froze as he heard a male voice call out from the direction of the previous noise. "Get back here, ya mofo!" [Hehe.. "Lookin' for to save my, save my soul..."] Blake slowly turned around. A dark figure began coming into view, crashing through the underbrush.
     "There you are, bastard," the voice said. Blake wasn't sure whether the voice was angry or somewhat friendly or what. "Do you know how the hell to get outta here?"
     Blake was silent for a moment, then realised he should probably answer. "Ummm... no, not really.. not at all, I mean."
     "Great. Just fuckin' great." The voice had a shape now, but Blake couldn't make out anything beyond the fact that it appeared human in the dim light.
     "Well," Blake said after a few moments of nervous silence. "It looks a little bit lighter over to the right. I guess we could try going that way."
     "Sure. 'Course, if it doesn't work, I might have to kill you."
     Blake didn't doubt it.
     
     "By the way, why'dja scream?"
     "It was half-manufactured."
     "Riiiight..."
     
     Fortunately, there was a clearing in that direction, which they reached in about fifteen minutes. As Blake stood inspecting the many scratches he'd gotten from the dense brush, the other looked around. "Hey," he announced. "That was a damn' good guess, cuz there's a road here!"
     Blake looked up in surprise to see that he was right - there was a road, and despite the fact that it was currently deserted, it still held promise. As he looked over to the road, however, Blake was also able to get a better look at his mysterious companion. He appeared to be about Blake's age and height, but with an almost sickly-thin build. His black hair was shaggy and down near his shoulders. He wore a black goth-like shirt with belled-out sleeves, made of a lace-like material with something like fishnet in a 'V' down the middle. His pants were tight on top, belled at the bottom, the left side black-and-white checked, the right... a metallic vivid purple? When the boy turned, Blake saw his face. His pale skin was a ghostly white in the bright moonlight, causing the black make-up around his eyes and his dark lipstick to stand out even starker. The moonlight also glinted off the spiked dog-collar around his neck.

    Blake... was more than a little frightened.
     "What're you starin' at, mofo?"
     Blake quickly looked away. "Nothing. Just the road." The road, the road... gotta be a way outta here... this guy's too weird, he scares me.      "Well there ain't nothin' on it now, prolly won't be at all, this time of night. I'm gonna start a fire." He proceeded to scrounge around the edge of the woods, while Blake wondered what to do.
     "You could help, y'know, I'm not gonna do all the work for you."
     Blake quickly began collecting up brushwood.
     
     A while later, they had a reasonably good-sized fire going, thanks to the black-clad boy's lighter. (Blake didn't even want to start thinking about what else that lighter had lit...)
     "So what's yer name?"
     "Huh? Oh... Blake."
     "Blake?" The boy laughed. "That's a really weird name."
     Blake appeared much less amused, silently fuming. What's he talking about, my name is weird? What about him?!
     "Mine's Dirand. [dih-RAND] Nice t'meetcha."
     "Yeah."
     "Sorry if I was a bit pissed earlier," Dirand continued, seemingly ignoring Blake's chill tone. "I'd been wanderin' around, lost, for like, forever. Lemme tell ya, if yer ever gonna go runnin' off, don't go runnin' into a giant woods that you've never been in before."
     Blake maintained his silence.
     "'Course, it's not like I had much of a choice. When you've got cops after ya, whether ya did anything or not, and no-one around likes you too much, ya gotta take what you can get, even if that's just a dark forest." The two sat in silence again. "You don't talk much, do ya?"
     "No, not really."
     "Lemme guess, yer one of them smart people, one of the elite, high-and-mighty who would never stoop down to speaking with one of us "scumbags", one of us "scary people", 'cuz we're just too "weird"."
     Blake started a bit, but couldn't think of anything to say... 'cos the boy was sort of, partially, right.
     Dirand settled down onto his back with a sigh. "Whatever," he said resignedly. "A man with friends ends up with as many extra loads on his back as he has acquaintences, eh?"
     After a moment, Blake realised that this was actually true - his friends were always going on about their problems, and he didn't always want to hear them, he'd rather stay oblivious and keep happy.
     "Read much Shakespeare?"
     "Huh? No." I hate Shakespeare! What is it with weird people and Shakespeare?
     "What kind of music you listen to?"
     "I don't really listen to music much."
     "Ahhh, you don't know what you're missing! Jimi Hendrix, the Stones, man! Pink Floyd, hell, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Bowie, Linkin Park, U2, Virgin Prunes, Slipknot... how can you not listen to music, man?!"
     Blake started again - Dirand had just completely echoed Naomi - "How can you not listen to music?!", as well as mentioned her favourite band. He shrugged. "I don't know. I watch t.v., that's about it."
      "Music... is life, man! Drums and bass are like yer heartbeat, your pulse, your blood, your innermost life-force! They keep time moving, flowing, making life progress, keeping away the stagnation that brings nothing but a slow death... guitar takes you out into space, takes you.. farther than you'd ever imagined you could go, stretching the limits of your soul, pulling it out and up and through and around its flights of fancy! Singer.. hell, puts words to it all, naming what you can't even come close to describing, your dreams and desires and heartaches and wet dreams and nightmares! Rock is sex, man, music is life!"
     Throughout Dirand's speech, Blake couldn't keep the sharp criticisms from coming to mind... Drums and bass your "innermost life-force"?! Sounds like Star Wars or something..."flights of fancy"? how can he actually say something like that? Rock is sex? What kind of an idea is that?! This guy's worse than an English teacher, making up stuff...
     "Ever see Trainspotting?"
     "Huh?"
     "Guess not...great movie. Did an awesome job depicting heroin abuse..."
     And you would know, I bet...
     "I've tried a lot of that kinda shit...never did much for me, though. Alright, it kinda did, but... how about you?"
     "No," Blake answered sharply, somewhat taken aback. Do I look like a scary druggie?!
     "Aww, fuck! There goes the fire again!" Dirand randomly swore as he coaxed the fire back up. Blake wasn't seeing much chance of any sort of friendship here, Dirand was his complete opposite in so many ways... and what kind of guy wore make- up?! Scary. Eventually, Dirand seemed to give up on conversation, and the two sat in silence for a good long while, as the night grew darker still. When the fire began dying down, the two collected more wood to throw on, and when it became apparent that neither was planning to sleep, Dirand began talking again.
     "Why're you out in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, anyway? You don't strike me as an outdoors-y type of person."
     "I'm not usually... I don't know how I got here, really. I was somewhere else, and then..." Blake shrugged, realising how ridiculous this must all sound, "I just appeared here."
     "Oh. Okay." Dirand appeared largely accepting of this, which surprised Blake, who had expected further laughter. "Well," Dirand began again. "I'm here 'cuz otherwise I might be in jail. I didn't do nothin', not really, didn't hurt anyone... y'know, you talk back to one too many teachers, one too many cops, make a few silly idle threats, hang out with a few of the wrong people..." He shrugged. "An' next thing ya know, yer off runnin' so you don't get in trouble for somethin' you didn't do."
     Blake, having never been in any situation even remotely comparable, had nothing to say. Great, so why have I not run off yet, gotten away from this guy? Yeah right he didn't do anything wrong..!
     "Reason I wanted a road, though, in case you're wondering," Dirand continued, ignoring Blake's silence, "is so I can hitchhike out to my dad's. I left what, last night, I figure the search'll've died down by now, shouldn't hafta worry too much 'bout the wrong cars comin' along."
     "Ah." Blake swatted a mosquito that had been bothering him.
     "Well, we've got one thing in common," Dirand said with a grin as he slapped at some invisible bug, "Neither of us is an outdoors-person!"
     "Yeah... I just want to be home, in my room, with my t.v. and my computer."
     "Yeah... and I want to be... I don't know. Far away from here... but with my girlfriend." Dirand sighed, lying back down to stare at the stars. After a bit: "You got a girlfriend, Blake?"
     Blake blushed, though no-one could see it. "Well... I dunno.. sort of."
     "Whaddya mean, "sort of"?"
     "Well..." Blake really didn't see any reason why he should tell this scary-goth stranger his most close-kept thoughts, but... he really was getting bored, and he'd probably never see this guy again... "There's this girl, Naomi. We've been friends for a really long time, and we're really good friends.. and the way it's been going lately it might be something more, but... I'm not really sure. I don't want to risk something going wrong and losing the friendship we have. But I don't know what she sees us as, I don't want her to get upset, or be hurt, or..." Blake trailed off, having half-forgotten about Dirand now, lost in his own self-debate.
     "Well, there's another thing we have in common, then." Blake turned to look at Dirand, who had sat back up. His eyes glittered strangely from the black pits of his make-up. "My girl was kinda like that too for awhile... it wasn't exactly the same thing, but close.. I didn't have the guts to tell her how I felt about her at all, just sort of let things go, but I got so aggravated, so frustrated, 'cuz I loved her but I couldn't do anything, y'know? I was afraid if I even held her hand she'd get scared off and not talk to me. ..turns out, though, that she was goin' through the same thing. Finally I got up the guts to ask her to a dance, she said yes, and when we were dancing..." He sighed in happy memory, lost for a moment. "But yeah, we're together now, and it's great. We've promised that if we ever break up or anything, though, that we'll stay friends, and I know we will, that's just the way we are."
     The two sat in silence again, one lost in memory, the other in future possibility. The quiet remained unbroken until some minutes later...
     "Good God, there's actually a car coming!" Dirand yelled, jumping to his feet and running for the road. Blake, for lack of anything better to do, followed, though he didn't know what he was planning on doing.
     The car slowed as it saw the two approaching, Dirand sticking out his thumb, desperate for a lift.
     The car stopped next to Dirand.
     "Shit."
     "Don't move. Put your hands behind your head and remain standing where you are."
     "Shit shit shit..." Dirand continued muttering as the policeman left the car, walking around to stand behind him.
      Blake still stood a short distance off, hidden in the darkness, completely clueless as to what to do now. Should he just sneak off, hope the cop didn't see him? But then again, what had he done? He could just ask the policeman for a lift... but what if he associated him with Dirand? He could get hauled off, too!
      Just then, a song wafted through Blake's mind. It took him a minute to place it, then... "Inside you're ugly, you're ugly like me..." The prophesy? warning? advice? given him by the Illuminati resounded in his mind.
     "Officer?" Blake said, stepping forward, where he could be seen. The policeman jumped, and turned quickly, suspicious.
     "Get over here, boy," the policeman snapped. Blake complied, somehow fearing nothing. A calm had fallen on his mind with his decision. "Who are you?"
     "My name is Blake Mullings, sir. I'm not from around here, I didn't meet Dirand until a few hours ago. I'm... visiting the area for a little while." That's not actually lying...
     The officer continued to glare at him.
     Blake dug out his wallet, showing the policeman his driver's license.
     "Well, alright, you are who you say you are... and you're not from around here." The cop eased up. "I've never seen you around here before, but we may want you for questioning, since you've been with our buddy Dirand here."
     "I'm.. probably leaving tonight, sir, but... what is he accused of?"
     "Petty larceny, along with arson."
     "Officer, I---" Dirand protested, shutting up when the officer glared at him. Dirand turned to Blake, his eyes pleading for some sort of miracle. Blake took a deep breath, not entirely sure why he was doing this...
     "Sir, he didn't do it."
     "What? How would you know? Why should I believe you?"
     Blake shrugged. "Because I'm telling the truth."
     "Right. So's everyone, kid."
     "I know not everyone does, but I always do." Blake looked straight into the cop's eyes as he said this, perfectly calm and confident. "Dirand didn't do it. He told me he didn't, he's just getting blamed because he's been around the wrong people and talked back a few times. And I believe him."
     Something Blake said must've worked, or maybe it was just his clear honesty, or maybe the cop was just tired. "Alright, look," he said resignedly. "I don't know that the kid did anything, he's not really being placed under arrest. He's just to be brought in for questioning. We've got another kid in the station now, and he doesn't have anyone saying he didn't do it, there's no-one speaking up for the kid, including himself. And... maybe I'm just getting soft or I'm too tired, but I think you're telling the truth."
     Blake and Dirand looked at each other, relief and calm in Blake's eyes, amazement and gratitude in Dirand's.
     "So don't worry," the cop finished. "I'll be sure they go easy on him, and your testimony is considered."
     "Thanks," Blake said.
     "Need a ride?"
     "No... I have somewhere to go, I'll be fine."
     The cop shrugged, opened the door for Dirand, then got in himself. Dirand quickly rolled down the window as the engine started.
     "Thank you, so much! I owe you forever, man!"
     Blake smiled gently. "Don't worry about it... mofo." He wasn't sure what it meant, but it mustn't have been too bad, as Dirand grinned back as the car pulled away.
     
     Well done, Blake.      
     He did much better than I thought he would... I did not think they would find a common ground so quickly, or that he would be so accepting of it.
     Not only that, but he is kinder than you thought, the Illuminati replied.
     Perhaps... I will not underestimate them again.
     They will not fail your tests. You must know this.
     Do not be overconfident in them. They are only human.