The van was surrounded in a complete blackness. When the Applebus stopped, Piyteur tentatively opened his door and stepped out. "C'mon," he called. "It's safe… I hope…" The others slowly followed him out. Aubrey and Ianthe had their arms around each other, Naomi was as close to Blake as she could get without actually touching him, Elisay and Daphne stuck together near the other four-giving the couple and… well… Naomi and Blake, some space. "Not a whole lot here, is there?" Myki commented. "No," Naomi replied. "But at least it's not gray!" She grinned up at Blake, who gave her an exasperated look. "I told you, I don't like gray that much! My favorite color's blue!" "Then wear BLUE, not gray!" Elisay exclaimed. Daphne sighed. "Here we go again..." Daivi gasped. "What is it, babe?" Maik asked. Daivi just pointed to...where the Applebus should have been. "It’s gone!" everyone exclaimed in unison. They were enveloped in a darkness so deep, it was nearly tangible...except for a faint glow that gave them just enough light to see each other. Then Piyteur noticed something. “Hey guys, look!” He walked over to a nearby spot that was the source of the light, and sat down in half-lotus position. The others followed him. "Wow… that’s a pretty psychedelic candle," Myki said, referring to the white pillar of light, somewhat larger than a normal candle. It didn’t appear to be burning down at all, and the flame was multi-colored, with many colors flowing around in it, constantly changing. "Sit down," Piyteur suggested. "Doesn’t look like we’ll be going anywhere too soon." A cold breeze blew past, nearly extinguishing the candle. "Usually, I don’t mind the dark," Naomi whispered to Blake. "But this… I’m really getting scared." "Yeah," Blake replied quietly. After a moment, he put an arm around Naomi, and pulled her closer to him. Despite her fear, Naomi thrilled inside. She leaned her head on his shoulder. Elisay and Daphne noticed, and grinned at each other. (Aubrey and Ianthe were too absorbed in each other to pay much attention to anything else.) (Boy, where have I seen that before? *g*) "Hey, two successes in one night," Daphne said quietly to Elisay. "Pretty good…" "Yes, but I myself am deeply jealous," Piyteur said, overhearing them. He grinned at the two girls, his dimples just barely visible in the candlelight, and winked at Elisay. Maik came over and said, "Hey Piyteur, whatcha think of this?" Before he had a chance to say anything at all, Daphne smiled and exclaimed, "I have one of those!" It was a pretty shiny silver harmonica. The two of them sat down and began discussing harmonica things. Elisay glanced around. Ianthe and Aubrey were snuggled close together talking about who knows what. Naomi was grinning at the way things turned out while Blake was leaning against her shoulder. Near Blake and Naomi, Daivi and Myki were having a small argument over what to do about the bus. And Daphne and Maik were still deep in conversation. That left Elisay and Piyteur with not much to do. So Elisay suggested they have a walk away from the candles. Piyteur accepted the offer and they went in a direct straight line so they could find their way back. More candles appeared and there was no difference between them. Except one they came to. It was different - a bright orange-yellow. Piyteur wanted to pick it up to look at it. Either he turned on the lights by picking up the candle, or daylight happened suddenly around there. All the candles disappeared and everything was visible. A very earthlike landscape was displayed before them. Elisay and Piyteur were standing in a field. Ahead, they could see mountains and valleys and they could hear loud, running water. Behind them, the rest of their "crew" was visible and they were all wide-eyed and shocked. Everywhere around them was field as far as you could see except in front of them. However, there was still no sign of the bus. Piyteur and Elisay hurried back to the rest of them. "Ah'm thirsty. Whatcha say we look for water over there," Maik pointed. Blake said, "As long as there is NO tie-dye water I'm for it." The others all agreed and they headed for water! It wasn't long before they found a rushing river. "It isn't tie-dye, I see," said Blake. "But what are those things in there?" All over the river were what looked like giant air bubbles. They floated with the current, and somehow never popped. They looked almost like clear plastic.
The others bent over the water and looked at the bubbles. "Weird," said Elisay.
Daphne, in curiosity, went to her knees, reached over, and touched one of the airy orbs in the river. Suddenly it seemed to swell, and with a vacuum-like force sucked Daphne inside!
Daphne screamed as the plasticy orb began to float away with her still inside. She slapped and poked at it frantically, but it didn't pop or even bend much. She could breathe, and wasn't squished, but she was alarmed at being carried away by the swift current. Where would she go?
"After her!" yelled Naomi from on shore.
Elisay, Aubrey, and Ianthe immediately touched other bubbles and were pulled into them. Maik was about to follow when he cried, "Wait! We can't all go in bubbles, or we'll never get out of them. Someone'll hafta run along the side."
"I'll do it!" said Myki. "The rest of you, hurry up and catch up to the bubbles that already left!"
So they did. Each person was in a separate bubble. It was rather like wearing swim goggles-they could see underwater clearly, but if they looked up, could also see Myki running alongside them.
Daphne, meanwhile, could see them in bubbles in the distance, but was still having a hard time not freaking out. She'd always had a fear of being trapped in an elevator-this seemed to be much the same. How could she ever get out? Then she looked ahead, and began screaming again. A waterfall!
Myki had been running along the shore, but skidded to a stop when he saw that everyone was about fifteen seconds from going over the edge. What could he do? There was no fast way to the bottom. Yet he couldn't just watch everyone go over the side. He pressed his lips together grimly. "There's only one thing for it," he said. As Daivi's bubble floated by where he was standing, Myki reached over, touched it, and was pulled in. "Hey," he greeted Daivi, "does this bubble have room for two?"
Meanwhile, Daphne was pushed near the edge of the waterfall. Where was Myki? Couldn't he free her somehow? She hated fast rides--wouldn't plunging over a waterfall be like a roller coaster? Why couldn't she have just kept her hands to…
And suddenly her thoughts were interrupted as her bubble plunged over the fall. Daphne screamed, hoping that the bubble was sturdy enough to hold her. Would she even survive?
She was convinced that the bubble would pop and that she would plummet to a watery grave when she realized that the water was getting farther away. Daphne's bubble was floating in the air among other bubbles that she had failed to notice before. Her comrades soon floated nearby.
Elisay's bubble floated so close it touched, and the two bubbles merged. Other bubbles did the same. Ianthe's and Aubrey's did so, spilling them into each other's arms. As did Naomi's and Blake's, and Maik's and Piyteur's. Soon, there was only one bubble and the companions were all inside it. "Okay," said Daphne, "now how are we going to get out? These things don't pop!"
"Don't know," replied Aubrey looking at something outside, "but we're headed…"
"...towards that cave in that cliff," Ianthe said, finishing Aubrey's sentence. "Wow is that big! I think I hear music..."
"...an' there's changin' colors too!" Aubrey concluded. Everyone's heads turned to where the pair were looking.
Blake groaned. "Oooo… I thought I was safe… too many colors… changing too fast…"
"Maybe if you wore a little color once in a while, it wouldn't be such a shock…" Naomi mock-rebuked him.
Piyteur was entranced by the psychedelic patterns created by the variable colors. "Can you dig it?" he asked no one in particular. He didn't realize that a voice in the background was singing this.
The voice was joined by Ianthe and Naomi's sweet ones, and Aubrey's lower one. They apparently knew the song. "To sing that you can dig it is to make your soul to fly to heaven!" they sang.
They had been in the cave for quite some time, with its psychedelia and groovy music. Maik exclaimed, "Look! There's the Applebus!" Sure enough, through all of the psychedelicness, the orange, slightly painted on VW bus was present. (when did the Applebus turn into the Lost Monkeemobile? *G*) The bubble stopped floating and gently settled on the cave floor. The walls of the encasing sphere dissolved.
"Well, I guess that's 'ow we get outta the bubble," pointed out Daivi. As they began climbing into the van, Myki knocked one of the buttons. The back seats were swallowed into the floor and new ones surfaced along the walls so that there was a big empty space in the middle. "Oops," said Myki. "Well, guess there's more room now."
"Hey Daphne, you wouldn't mahnd doin' the honors…?" Maik asked gesturing to the many different buttons.
"Sure…" She reached out and pressed a button that looked like…
well… she wasn't sure.
"Maik, what is that supposed to be?" she asked, completely bewildered.
"A fish," he responded, "eating a piece of furniture."
"What?!" Daphne exclaimed, laughing. "Sorry I even asked," she added, once she managed to contain her laughter.
Maik shrugged, a grin on his face. "It's an old mariachi song...Ah'm the one who put that one on thar." He winked at her. (Laurel: A Mike-wink is notoriously swoon-worthy, just so ya know...*g* Oh, okay... :::puts hand to head, flops over::: That better?)
"Ah. Well, where's it take us to, then?"
"Ah don't know, but Ah reckon we're thar!" he replied as the Applebus stopped. The ensemble tried to peer at the exterior landscape through the windows, but their attempts were in vain. Whatever kind of bizarre countryside awaited them, it was obscured by a (visually) impenetrable fog.
"Wahl, let's go have ourselfs a look," Maik suggested, leading the way out of the psychedelic Volkswagen.
Once outside, they were all quickly enshrouded by the dense mist.
They all held hands as they moved away from the Applebus, walking in as close to one straight direction as they could, to prevent loosing track of the bus.
This was the order of their holding hands: Ianthe-Aubrey-Daphne-Maik-Piyteur-Elisay-Naomi-Blake-Myki-Daivi.
They were all walking fine until...Daivi tripped over a rock and hit it so he fell sideways. And from there it was a domino-effect. He pulled Myki down, who pulled Blake, who pulled Naomi, etc. They were too scared to laugh at first, but they all thought it was kind of funny. Eventually Elisay couldn't hold it anymore and burst out laughing. The others followed, but they found themselves lost. No one knew which direction they had walked and so they decided to sit in a circle and pray. Not because they were scared of tired, they just thought it to be a good idea after missing church so much. The funny thing was that no one prayed about going home or wanted to. They were having too much fun. Sure, they missed their families (but not younger brothers…*g*), but how often could they do this? Certainly not often.
As the prayer-time ended, Elisay yawned. "No!" she protested in a tired voice. "I don't wanna sleep! It's too much fun here! But I...ah..." Her mouth opened wide in spite of her efforts, and she let out another huge yawn. "I didn't think I was tired. Guess it caught up with me."
Yawning is often contagious, and so it was with the others. "I'm sort of tired, too," said Blake, and Naomi nodded with sleepy agreement.
"Wah don't we all rest here for now?" suggested Maik. "We haven't slept since this morning, and there's no telling what tahm it maht bay." (Did anyone else yawn reading this?)
"The ground isn't the softest," pointed out Ianthe. "But since the blankets are in the Applebus, and we lost track of that..."
"You can use my jacket again," offered Aubrey. "It's not cold out anymore. Just kind of warm and moist." (He meant the air, not his jacket.)
"Really? Well-okay. Thanks. But it isn't big enough to share, is it?"
"Probably not. But that's all right." (Are they sharing the jacket or not…? I wasn't sure…)
"All right," said Piyteur, "let's make a circle of some sort and rest. Not necessarily sleep, but at least lie still."
Everyone wondered why Piyteur had taken charge, but they soon saw the reason… Maik and Daivi were nodding off next to each other, their heads propped up by each other's.
They curled up in a small circle and closed their eyes. One by one, Maik, Myki, Piyteur, Daphne, Elisay, and Ianthe dropped off, and most of the others looked close behind.
But Naomi, though tired, couldn't seem to fall asleep. She watched the others rest, then finally decided that she wasn't going to sleep. What she really wanted was to take a walk, but the fog was so thick.
But, she thought, if she just walked until she could barely see them, then turn around, then maybe… but still.
She tapped Blake on the shoulder. "Want to take a walk?" she asked.
"No," he said sleepily. He closed his eyes again. (Typical Blake. *g*)
Naomi frowned. What if she got lost? Then she had a sudden thought. She crept over to the sleeping Maik. He was sleeping soundly...green wool hat perched on his head. She gently pulled it off and examined its inside. Sure enough, there was a secret pocket containing his harmonica. She took out the harmonica and pocketed it. She walked away from Maik. As an afterthought, she dropped the hat on Daphne's head. Daphne, who was lying on her stomach asleep, never noticed.
Naomi took slow, careful steps away from the circle, always looking back. But if she was lost, she reasoned, she could use the harmonica.
Suddenly she realized that she had taken one step too far-the group had vanished. She was about to turn around when she heard music nearby, like someone on a recorder. She walked towards it in wonder. But suddenly she gasped in terror. She thrust her hand into her pocket. Her fingers grasped Maik's harmonica. But before she could pull it up, someone-or something-clapped a tentacle (?) over her mouth, grabbed her, and pulled her away.
Ianthe opened her eyes. "'Ey Aubrey. Wake up." She shook Aubrey gently until he awoke.
"What?" he asked.
"Where's Naomi?"
"I dinna know. I've been sleeping. Why?"
"I dreamt that something bad was happening, an' then I found that she wasn't there." They woke the others.
Maik reached for his hat, then glanced at it on Daphne's head. "How'd you get that?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said, tossing it back to him.
"Mah harmonica! It's gone!" he exclaimed in shock.
Blake added his knowledge. "She asked me if I wanted to take a walk, but I kept sleeping."
"Good thing," Maik commented, "Ah have mah harmonica-tracker with me."
"What?!" everyone said, glancing at him.
"Well, Ah figured if Ah ever lost mah harmonica, Ah could follow it with a trackin' dee-vahce. Now if we follow the beeps, we'll eventually fahnd mah harmonica, an' Naomi. It's in mah hat…" A little box with a grid and a moving dot was in Maik's hands. "Y'all, follow me, an' try not to get lost," Maik ordered.
They started walking slowly and in silence. There was more or less a line, with Maik and Blake in the lead.
"He said, 'He's crackers!'" Aubrey was saying to Ianthe. "How 'bout..."
"'Cap'n Hornblower, yeah, groovy, sock it to me!'" they said in unison, then laughed. "You know who said that, Elisay? Elisay?!" They turned to find that neither Elisay nor Daphne were behind them.
Ianthe tapped Piyteur's shoulder. "Ehm, Piyteur, we have a slight problem."
"What's that?" he asked.
Aubrey answered. "Daphne an' Elisay aren't here any more."
They gasped in unison. "They're gone!"
Piyteur turned to Daivi. "Hey Daivi. Aubrey an' Ianthe," he said turning to face the pair, "are gone too!"
Myki caught the tail end of this. "Maik! We lost some people back there. Yeah, Elisay an' Daphne, an' Ianthe an' Aubrey."
Maik turned to check. "It looks lahke we lost more'n that. Piyteur an' Daivi are gone, too. Hold onto this, Blake, will ya?"
Maik gave the harmonica detector to the Grey One. Blake looked at it. "Hey, Maik? How does this thing work? Maik? Oh great. They left me. Well, there's nothing to do but follow the blinking dot. Maybe I'll find them. According to this thing, the harmonica should be right here." Blake looked around. "I don't see it. It should be right under my feet. Wait, there's a trap door. Looks like I'll have to go in." He disappeared through the hole in the misty ground.
He fell a short distance, landing on what seemed to be a slide of some sort. He slid rapidly around several curves, shot out in to midair, and landed on…
"Leaves?!" he cried in amazement.
"Yup!" called a familiar voice from nearby. "Bizarre, but no stranger than a tie-dyed river, really."
Blake looked around and spotted Naomi, perched atop a nearby tree. The harmonica detector's dot was blinking rapidly.
"Where are we?" Blake asked, trying to get comfortable on the treetop, and failing utterly, not having much experience in climbing trees.
Naomi, however, having had more experience, looked quite comfortable. She shrugged. "You're asking me?"
As they struggled to clamber down from their respective trees,
they heard a cracking noise, like a branch breaking. They decided to get out of that tree and fast. With each other's help they were out of the tree just in time! After they climbed out of the tree, it fell down and before it could make a crashing sound or hit the ground, it disappeared.
"Where's everyone else?" asked a curious Naomi. Blake shrugged.
"What?!" cried Naomi.
Blake shrugged again.
"Alright I want all the details!" she exclaimed. Blake decided he had enough time so they both sat on a log in the distance.
"-And that's what happened," Blake finished.
"Wow! Where do we go from here?" she asked.
Blake again shrugged.
"Would you stop with the shrugging!" she joked. The next thing, they found themselves laughing.
Then Blake stopped and said, "We need to find the rest of them." They both laid on the ground next to each other, with their arms around each other. The sun (?) beat on their shiny skin and warmed their bodies. Now, they had to figure out what to do next.
But suddenly a question came to Blake's mind. "So why'd you just go down the hole without comin' to get us?"
Naomi realized that Blake hadn't heard her story yet. "I was taken by some creature. I'd heard this weird music near where I was, but when I stepped closer, some plant-thing seemed to wrap around me and pull me down. It even covered my mouth, so I couldn't scream. It dumped me into this hole, and I couldn't get out-ever try to climb up a slide?"
"Can't say that I have," said Blake.
Naomi sighed. "You are abnormally normal," she said. "So, anyway, how do we get out of this hole?"
Blake paused, surprise frozen on his face. "Uh…"
"Good. That means you don't know, either." She fingered Maik's harmonica. "I wonder how to play this. I mean, I know you just blow in it, but I keep wondering if it's somehow… oh, I don't know, a magic harmonica or something. Like if you played it right, you could summon Maik."
"Yeah, right," said Blake. "Even if it was, how would we know?"
Naomi looked closer at the harmonica. "Hey!" she cried. "The metal's been scratched so it says something!"
And so it was. The metal had been scored into a word. It read as follows: EGAD. The two recognized the word, but were confused.
"Egad?" asked Blake. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I guess you… well, I don't know! Maybe you say it."
Blake looked wary. "Are you going to…"
"EGAD!" yelled Naomi, cutting him off. "Egad! Egad, egad, egad!" She jumped up and down as she shouted.
Silence.
"Okay… now I feel like a dolt," said Naomi, blushing.
"Nah," said Blake. "You're not a dolt."
"Well, why would it say the word? There's no song called 'Egad'."
Suddenly a light seemed to go on in Blake's head. "Hey, maybe there is! What if EGAD was four notes instead?"
Naomi gasped. "E-G-A-D! We can play it!"
"Where's E on that thing?" asked Blake. "The holes aren't labeled."
"I don't know. If we could find C, then it'd be easier." She blew a few notes. Do-Mi-Sol...
"How do you get re and fa?" asked Blake.
"I don't know. I watched Daphne play once-what did she do?" Naomi squeezed her eyes shut. "She sucked in her cheeks, I think." She put her mouth to the harmonica and inhaled. "It works!"
So between the two of them, they were able to estimate where C was, and from there, where E, G, A, and D were.
