Arie started to pad up the corridor away from where they had come so Lionhawk followed and about 60 feet from those double doors there was a door in the wall with no window. Arie stood in front of it and Lionhawk quickly moved to open it. He could hear voices in the corridor and new they had to get in this door. It was locked when he tried to turn the handle. Aries eyes began to blaze light from his being and Lionhawk turned just in time to see two black figures halt and then start to run at them. Arie ran at them and jumped one while Lionhawk pulled his sword and moved towards the other one as Arie had done. Lionhawk had just enough time to see Arie turn into a complete blaze of blue light as he jumped at the first black thing. Lionhawk then swung his sword which was blazing blue also and struck the second figure. When the sword made contact the thing disappeared in blue blaze of sparks. Arie had pushed the other one to the floor and bit him on the neck. As soon as that happened the thing disappeared just like Lionhawk’s adversary had. They both turned and ran up the corridor until they came to another door that opened into the vehicle bay. This door was not locked so they slowly opened it and went through. They ducked behind a row of scrammers that were fairly new cars and waited. Aries’ eyes had faded somewhat and Lionhawk’s sword was dull with the blue tint. They waited and peeked up and didn’t see any more humans or the black things and slowly began examining the cars and the armored vehicles. The bay was big enough to park at least 100 cars and at least 4 of the armored vehicles. At present there were only around 30 cars and two armored vehicles. That meant that two more were out and could come back anytime. Lionhawk looked across the bay and saw the door on the other side so he touched Arie in the mind and they both moved quickly across the large bay to the door and got back into the corridor. The storage door was just around the curve and when they reached it they again heard voices and footsteps. They ducked into the room and spoke to everyone to be very quiet.

As the footsteps and voices became quieter and finally disappeared, Lionhawk slowly opened the storage room door and viewed the corridor. It was empty; Arie and Chephirah both squeezed past him and padded into the corridor one went one way and the other the opposite direction. Not long after, they both came back and spoke. Lionhawk heard the mind talk and it echoed from both that the corridors both ways were clear. They must all hurry to the main entrance. Lionhawk opened the door wide and they all entered the corridor and moved off towards the main entrance. As they approached the double door system Lionhawk peeked through the small windows and saw the corridor clear. They all pushed through and into that corridor. There were four doors along the walls, two on each side. Two of them did not have windows but the two that did; they could hear voices and such. They all moved to the end of the corridor and on the way Mark and Jim both peeked into the windows. Mark looked and saw guards quarters, what he actually saw was darkness in the room and it made him move away quickly. Jim peeked in the other window and saw a guard quarters also but the few men in it were ordinary humans so he moved to be with the others as Lionhawk stood in front of the elevator doors. The door closest to the elevator had no window so Shadowself opened it and noticed it was a stairwell. From the floor level they were on it went down and up. She mentioned that someone should explore the stair wells. Lionhawk looked at the elevator car indicator and where it was located and turned and said “Yes let’s take the stairs. The elevator is at a top level at the moment and I do not know how far that may be but we can’t wait here for it to come to us, besides Arie and Chephirah are visible.” The other door turned out to be a restroom so they all piled through the stairwell door and stood on the landing.

They had no Idea how far it was between levels but from what Lionhawk had seen there were 4 levels in all toll. They were on the third level. Lionhawk said that they should explore the lowest level first and after that maybe they could get the elevator to come to them so they could get up to the higher levels. Chephirah spoke and said she would go up to the next level above to see how far that might be. Maria said she would go with her and they both took off climbing the stairs. Maria levitated herself making it easier and Chephirah stopped for a moment and asked if she could do the same thing. Maria looked at her and said if you would like I can levitate you to float like me. Chephirah bumped Maria’s legs and in mind speak said please do so they both floated up the stair well. After 24 flights they reached a landing with a door. The door did not have a window but above it was a sign and written on it was “LEVEL TWO”. Maria listened very careful and did not hear any noise on the other side. She slowly opened the door and peeked into the corridor. The corridor here was very short and had one door at the end. She and Chephirah slowly walked to the door and it had a glass panel in it. When she looked through, she saw a large room full of computers and a full wall of monitor screens on a far wall. There were only two people in the entire room and they were busy watching the monitor screens. On the screens she could see a city scape and all the activity of whatever city that might be. She thought this must be a surveillance grid or something. Something made the two people turn around but Maria had saw them turning and ducked down. She was wondering how these people might be able to even see her as long as she was cloaked. She spoke to Chephirah and they both scooted back to the stairwell door and went through and just to be safe they floated up and around the first flight and waited. They heard the door open and some one saying “nothing in here must have been your imagination Chuck” Maria heard the door shut and she spoke to Chephirah that they should go up to the top level. Chephirah was ready and they floated up.

24 more flights of stairs they came to another landing with a door. This door had a small window in it so Maria peeked through it. On the other side of the door the mountain had been carved out and a large space of granite floor and walls stood empty. She was confused at first but then noticed a room with glass panels lining a wall. There were two people manning a computer station. The lighting was quite bright on the overhead ceiling of the cave like structure. As she scanned from left to right she could just see the edge of the elevator shaft and the doors. The doors stood open and the elevator car looked empty. As she was watching the side of the cave began to open. She watched it open about 4 feet or so and three people walked in. One was a General and two were very large fat men dressed in suits. They seemed to be arguing with one another as they walked towards the elevator car. They all stopped suddenly and the General turned around to face both of them. She heard one of them raise his voice and then saw the General pull his side arm out and shoot the man. The large man seemed to fall in slow motion to the floor. She saw the General motion to the people in the room to come out. Two of them did and walked over to the General and the other man. She saw the General say something to them and point at the dead man on the floor and then turn and walk to the elevator with the other man. The General and the second man entered the elevator and the doors shut. The two men in the cave picked up the other man and hauled him over to an opening in the wall. She watched as they opened a chute of some sort and place the dead man into it He slid out of view and the chute closed. The two men then punched a series of buttons on the wall and a large fire hose nozzle unfolded from the ceiling and began to hose the floor with water. As she watched all of this the water flushed to some floor grills and disappeared. Shortly the floor was clean once more and the two people went back to the room and disappeared behind a door. Maria and Chephirah floated back down the stairs past LEVEL TWO and stopped at the landing at LEVEL THREE. Jim, Mark and Shadowself were waiting when they showed up. Lionhawk and Arie had gone down the stairs to check out the lowest level.

Lionhawk and Arie had virtually fallen down the stairs as they jumped down each flight. When they had covered about 40 flights they stopped to catch a breath. The landing at this spot seemed to be bigger than the previous ones and they noticed a wall that had been recently patched with concrete. It looked odd but a faint outline of a door could be seen through the concrete patch. Lionhawk knew this was not the time to explore something that could possible take a lot of time to break into so he and Arie continued down. They went down another 10 flights to a bottom landing that had two doors. One was inside the stairwell and the other let out into a corridor. That door had a small window in it and Lionhawk looked through and saw a corridor that looked to be about 20 or 30 feet long before a double door system crossed it at the end. The doors looked extra wide and had windows in both leafs. Lionhawk tried the door inside the stairwell and as soon as he opened it he backed away and then shut it as fast as possible. What was in there was blackness and it smelled like coal dust. He wondered why there would be a door directly to the old coal mines. Arie had a brief moment of blue light shine from his eyes when the door was opened and then they faded again when the door closed. They both turned and opened the door into the Corridor and immediately saw the elevator doors. They also noticed a second elevator. Lionhawk spoke to Arie and said did you see a second elevator on the 3re LEVEL? Arie said he did not notice such a thing. They both proceeded to move towards the double doors.

When they reached the double doors, Lionhawk peered through the windows and said wow. He pushed the doors open and him and Arie both walked into a very large cavern that was concreted completely. It was at least a hundred feet to the ceiling and 200 feet wall to wall. The floor was complete concrete and the cavern ran about 200 feet long till it hit a solid wall of mountain that had more huge double doors in it. The cavern appeared to be unoccupied. The low level lighting close to the floor level was red lights. They both walked the distance to the larger double doors and noticed that they were like the big ones in the cave above where the vehicle bay was located. There were also a number of double man doors to the side of the big doors. Lionhawk began walking along the door walls and looking through windows in the few doors that had them. Most of the doors were solid. When he found a window he peered through and saw another Hugh cavern and it looked twice the size of the one they had just traversed. It was brighter in that large cavern and he could see rooms along the walls that had lights on inside. There were windows lining the walls on one side and he could see people walking around inside some of them. As he kept watching a cave entrance opened up to the right of the doors he and Arie were standing behind and an armored black vehicle rolled through pulling a caged trailer behind it. The caged trailer had humans in it. Lionhawk noticed they were children and women and young men. The vehicle continued down the cavern and turned a corner or something further into the cavern. Lionhawk watched the cave doors shut and thought to his self that up on level 3 somewhere was another entrance to get vehicles down to this level. He touched Arie and told him that they were going back up to get everybody.

Back on Level 3, everyone met once again. Maria and Chephirah told what they had found up above and Lionhawk and Arie told about what they had found below. Lionhawk wanted to find where that second vehicle entrance was located. He thought it had to be in the large vehicle bay somewhere. This time out, Lionhawk and Mark went back through the corridor and entered the circular corridor that ringed the vehicle bay. They entered the bay and stood against a wall watching. About 10 minutes later the floor opened to there left. They both saw a rather large area between the cars. Looking closely the floor system appeared to drop at an angle at one end and then they heard a vehicle coming up. As they watched the armored vehicle pulling the cage trailer rumbled up out of the hole and moved towards the big double doors, it stopped and some black suited men climbed out and walked to a door in the wall and went through. As they watched, a very large noise startled them. Turning towards the noise they caught the closing of the floor where the vehicle had come from. Turning back they saw the two black suited men come from the door and as they climbed back in the vehicle the Hugh bay doors began to open. Once opened the vehicle pulled out and moved away through the cave. The big doors closed again and all became quiet once more.

Lionhawk began to search for a control room or panel to operate the floor road. Mark had started to skirt the walls looking in one direction while Lionhawk went the other way. Lionhawk wanted to see what was in the door that the two black suited men went into and when he reached it there was not a window in it. He figured it would be worth a chance to enter and turned the knob and eased the door open. He heard a faint sound of machinery and slid into the room. Once he was in the lights were bright enough to see. As he looked around he could see a bank of computers and some manual controls that looked like levers on a wall. He walked to the computers and noticed that one was set to control the big bay doors, and the other looked as if it might control the floor road opening. The monitors were in a standby mode so he jarred a mouse looking object and both came alive. One had a view of the cave leading out and the other had a view of a road winding down inside the mountain. He could only see a short distance on that monitor but figured it was the road to level 4. The manual levers could be for operating the bay doors if the power systems failed. He did not know for sure. The room had another door so he tried it and found a small restroom. He made mental note of all this and re entered the vehicle bay. He looked for Mark and spotted him on the other side of the large bay doors. Mark saw him and waved him over. He ran across the bay and reached Mark. Mark spoke in the mind and told him that there was a door leading to another stairwell. Both men walked around the circular wall a short distance to the door. Mark said this is it and opened the door.

Entering the stairwell Lionhawk and Mark both noticed that it only went down so they moved down as quickly as possible. The stairs only had 4 flights of 15 steps each and then they came to a door. They both noticed the Caution sign on the door. “CAUTION VEHICLE TRAFFIC” For your safety view activity through the panel at left. Lionhawk looked and saw the panel and slid it to the side. A screen showed the other side of the door and a road bed. Lionhawk opened the door and stepped through onto the road bed. He then noticed a narrow walkway with a guard rail just above the road bed skirting along the wall. It was just wide enough to let one person traverse it. The road turned a sharp corner about 50 feet or so and the slope was fairly steep, he estimated it to be around a 5% grade at this point. Looking up he could see the track system and the floor structure piece that opened to let vehicles drive down this road. He turned and grabbed Mark and they both re entered the stair well and found their way back into the vehicle bay and moved to get back to the interior corridor. Once there they both headed towards the main stairwell where everyone was waiting. As they passed the guards quarters Lionhawk felt something and knew his sword was turning a blue tinge. Now was not the time but there would be a time for he and Arie to dispatch this darkness. They both reached the stairwell and heard the elevator car moving within the shaft. They both entered the stair well just in time when the elevator doors opened and out came 5 suited men. They proceeded towards the corridor that surrounded the vehicle bay. They were talking to one another about the coming take over of 10 states.

Bruce Wormski counted himself quite lucky, sixteen years ago when the then President of the United States planted the nuke in DC and destroyed the Congress, he had been invited to go with Vinnie on his vacation to Denver. There were only a handful and Vinnie offered deals that he and others could not refuse. Guy Wyred was the latest victim of the creatures that controlled this place. He and others had been told by Alfred Nurome that when he and Guy came in they were arguing about how to get more young humans for the species that arrived hear from that other dimension, calling themselves the Burnsacka. Guy wanted to notify Vinnie of what was going on here but that General just shot him and then they dumped his body into the furnaces below. Those furnaces had been created in the deeper old coal mines and were fed constantly with Coal. These creatures were from a very hot place in their dimension and required lots of heat to survive. As he and his immediate associates walked to their cars in the Garage, as he called it, they continued to talk about the military take over of 10 states. This had been Vinnie’s idea from the get go and he had struck a semi deal with his top military commanders to nuke the major capitals in each state. He had heard a rumor that something had happened to two of the underground bunkers up north and Vinnie had sent some of his secret service personnel to verify what was going on. The main rotunda on Level two was full of associates today discussing this operation. They had been Politicians at a time in the past but now they were just associates and the people of this country were totally subject to the whims of these men but only knew that they had an Emperor. The five men reached the circular corridor and went through the double doors in the garage and climbed into their cars and began to leave by the cave as soon as the big doors opened.

Jim had watched the 5 men walk through the double doors and stepped into the corridor to check something with the elevator. If his suspicions were right these men had come from a level above them. The elevator doors were still open so he looked at the level indicator above the doors and then peeked into the elevator car its self. Sure enough their was an indicator in the car that showed all the levels but the most interesting thing was the car had doors on the front and the back He remembered Maria and Chephirah telling them that level two had a very short corridor and just one door at the end and it was a computer systems room or some such. The top main ground level was just an entry and did not have much more than an operations room. So if those men came from above it would have to be Level two and through these other doors at the back of the elevator. He told everyone his theory and they all agreed. Lionhawk said that they would have to start at the bottom because that is where they are taking humans for something. They all agreed on that and began to move down the stairwell to level 4.

71 AN ATOM IN FLAXVILLE

As the chopper lifted up out of the valley, the crew was filled with very good feelings. The Bears and the Beavers had given them hope and melted their nightmares away from the Gerou mission. Evelyne had healed them and told them about other wonderful things happening with mother Earth and around the world. She told them about a dreamnet that was building and people were waking up in large numbers. The animals were becoming speakers in the minds of each other and with all other species. Their time in the meadow and around Nawhaur’s pond was like a vacation. Once out of the valley their thoughts were brought back to the next mission. Jonathan and Samantha were replenishing there additional gear while Mary was watching the monitors of the tracking and other gear at her station, Samuel was playing the previous mission out in his thoughts when Bills thoughts entered his mind. Bill told him that they were near Powder River and preparing to move on that bunker. He would let them all know when they had completed that particular mission. Samuel mind spoke back and acknowledged.

Samuel asked Mary how far they were from Flaxville. She was studying the radar system and said we are about 70 miles from ground zero. Jonathan started to ask a question about how far they would be landing from ground zero when all of sudden the chopper started to shake. Samuel had been looking at the ground below but now he looked up and what he saw gave him the willies. He immediately banked the chopper to the south east and kicked the jet device into action. Mary had been looking at her monitors when there was a large light form and waves began to spread rapidly from the target area. She looked up just as the chopper banked and saw the giant mushroom cloud forming to the north east. Mary asked “What just happened”. Samuel said “I am not sure but everybody strap in tight we are going to mach 1 right now. We have to beat that EMP wave before it takes us out. He gave everyone about 3 seconds and kicked the jet system in. The chopper jumped into the speed of sound and beyond. Mary had started tracking the wave as soon as it began on her monitor and it was gaining on them. She looked at Samuel and asked if he could get this bird to go any faster. He looked back at her and said “we just reached the max speed two seconds ago. “ You might want to see if she will go any faster and within the next 15 seconds because that wave is going to overtake us at about that time. Samuel told everyone to hang on tight to something and gave the bird an extra push. He managed a few more mph and just when they thought the wave was going to hit it dissipated at its maximum range. The chopper began to shimmy and Samuel shut the jet device down. The chopper kept on moving and began to slow down. They had beaten the wave but did not know what kind of damage may have happened yet. Samuel was searching for a secluded area to set down so they could survey the bird. Mary said all of her gear was still working and found a secluded spot just ahead.

Samuel brought the bird into a low circular pattern and saw the area. He slowed to a hover and they checked the area for any people and vehicles. After checking for clear space they landed the bird into an open area inside a large clump of trees. Samuel shut the rotor off and they sat for a short space just to unwind. Jonathan asked what had happened. Samantha unbuckled herself and stood up and almost immediately fell back. Jonathan grabbed her and steadied her. She sat back down and looked a bit pasty faced. Mary asked if she was going to be alright. Samantha shook her head up and down and waited for an answer from Samuel. Samuel turned and said “it appears that ground zero is exactly where that bunker was located in Flaxville. A small nuclear bomb was set off. I very much doubt there is much left of that place and I suspect that Flaxville itself plus any surrounding population are gone also.”

“We were a little less than 70 miles when that thing went off.” He looked at Mary for exact distance and she said “When you began to turn we were only about 50 miles. So that bunker was closer than we thought.” “So what do you suppose caused that to happen?” Samuel looked at all of them and could only guess at the moment. “I can give speculations only at the moment. One, since we took out the facility at Gerou information could have been relayed to destroy the one at Flaxville. Two, there could have been a major accident there. That is as far as I can get right now. We wait for awhile before we go back there to investigate. Meanwhile we should go to Butte and see what we can do with that one. Remember what we learned. Flaxville was more a less a parts plant for that Laser rifle. Where as Butte is a tech lab for chips and such. So far we have managed to take out 3 of these facilities and Flaxville was taken out either by accident or on purpose to keep something very quiet. 4 out 21 that leaves 17 and I suspect all of the other bunkers have been put on high alert by now, so Butte is not going to be so easy.” Mary said “you know that scientist that was going to use that Colonel for his test subject was hiding something about that Laser rifle. I could not quite get it from his mind before he became a pile of melted flesh.” Jonathan told her he was so sorry about all of that. He did know that the weapon had a chip in it and it was more than likely that it was manufactured at the facility in Butte. Mary told him not to worry about it and hopefully they would find something at Butte. Samuel got up and said “I need to investigate the out side of this bird before we leave. Shall we all give it a going over?”

72 AMANDA AND CONNIE

Amanda had finally managed to extricate herself from the crowds and was attempting to make her way back to the house. However, in a deliberate attempt to stomp on someone's toes, she had missed and one of her high-heel shoes had sunk into the heavy clay soil and upon lift off snapped and broke off. She now cursed loudly as she hobbled lopsidedly through the forest. It was a somewhat hot day and being hung over, she was beginning to get hot and dehydrated. Enraged by what she thought in her own perverted mind as a deliberate delay tactic on behalf of the crowd, she spent her whole time in her head, planning her revenge for anyone connected with this "Occupy Paradise." Somehow, the forests paths, the crowds and a really bad internal compass had all conspired against her. The paths and the crowds had taken her much further away from the house than she initially thought. She faced a long steep climb to get back to the other side, where the house was situated but in her delirious maddened state, she was heading the wrong way. The forest was listening and remained very silent indeed.

Connie made her way down into the cool glades of the forest where she tried to gather her thoughts on what they could do for Aberdeen. The trees were kindly to her and they whispered and rustled, "look out, harm is coming your way" but she was so intimately engrossed in her contemplations that she didn't hear that whisper. She stooped to pick a flower.

It wasn't far into her journey back to the house that Amanda spied Connie wandering in the forest picking flowers. She, the dark one was smart enough to realise that she wasn't on home territory and that she required every bit of cunning to bring down Connie. So she hid until she had scoped the landscape.

The first rock hit Connie on the side of the head with a force that stunned her. Her ears buzzed and she saw stars. She went down easily and tried to get up but she felt sickeningly dizzy. Blood poured from her ear and her head felt like it had exploded. Another rock missed and landed near her. It was enough for her to realise that she was being attacked and she forced herself to stand. Amanda came at her with full force. With one broken heel she could still half run. She held a branch in her hand and intended to give it a full work out. Amanda brought the branch down with full force but Connie side stepped before the branch could meet its target. Screaming with rage and frustration, Amanda flung the branch away and pounced upon Connie, like a tiger leaps on its prey. It brought them both to the ground with a crash and the sheer momentum of it all sent them rolling and tumbling down through the forests steep hillside and down into the river.

Amanda was the first to hit the water. She plunged deeply into the murky waters and disappeared. Connie soon tumbled in after her and she also disappeared for just a moment before bobbing up again, coughing and spluttering at the surface, her breath coming in harsh jagged gasps with the shock of the cold water. The pain in her head forgotten, she knew from the splash she heard that Amanda was first to fall into the water. She recalled with the shock of the water how Amanda couldn't swim. It was not the first time she'd had to play lifesaver to that wretched woman. Many years ago, Amanda had fallen into her own pool and Connie had dragged her out with a towel.

Connie took a deep breath, tried to still her racing heart with her thoughts, took one more huge breath and duck dove. Blindly groping at all around her, she swam frantically, grasping at whatever flotsam and jetsam she could get a hold of in search of Amanda. Feeling like her lungs were going to burst, she came up for air again and kicking her way down again, she cut her foot on a jagged tin. Luckily, nature's little helper in the way of adrenaline came to her aid. She neither felt the pain or the deepness of the cut on her heel. Doggedly and determinedly the search went on.

At last, a limb was caught hold of and she held fast because Amanda thrashed around in her confusion and desperation for life, fighting the water and Connie. At the very least Connie knew that Amanda was still conscious but they still had to get to the river bank. Using every last bit of strength and reserve she had, she pulled Amanda up to the surface and tucking Amanda's arm up behind her, she dove under the water again to anchor the crook of her arm around Amanda's neck, and holding her head firmly against her chest, she kicked out sideways, making her way to the river bank.

Two snouts appeared above the water. Waiting and watching as the two women made their way to the river bank. Chomper and Mayline the beavers were anxious that the two humans would make it safely to land for they knew that humans were very poor swimmers. They had seen the light-haired one sink to the bottom of the river and struggle very much and then become very still. The sacred spirit had then left the body. It was different to their beaver brother’s spirits; it was a bigger and brighter light. To their amazement, another bright light appeared within the water and the two lights merged and then, ever so strangely, the sacred spirit went back into the light-haired one again. They watched as the light-haired one struggled and then was rescued by the dark-haired one. It made no sense to the beavers. Chomper could smell and taste human blood in the water, such were his refined senses and he sensed with alarm that something was wrong. He paddled his way effortlessly through the water and the debris, strong water creature that he was and he spied that one of the humans had blood coming out of one of its moving parts. He swam swiftly back to Mayline to let her know that a special packing medicine would be required for the dark haired one. She immediately swam to a place where the pure refined clays lay at the bottom of the river. They were full of rich healing for open wounds.

At last, Connie and Amanda reached the river bank edge. Connie went to stand and suddenly felt the sharpest pain shoot up from inside her foot. She screamed and collapsed with pain, dropping Amanda from her clutches suddenly. Amanda too weak to even cry out as she fell onto the river banks edge slowly crawled out of the water and lay on the ground, weakly throwing up river water. Connie crawled onto land and then she passed out from the pain. Meanwhile, each was unaware of the silent approach of a kindly stranger.

Silently and deftly, Mayline packed and applied the bentonite clay to Connie’s open wound. Beavers have great paws for doing just this, such are their practiced hands at building mud homes. Connie was unconscious and felt nothing. Amanda just lay there, dry retching and feeling like death. It was some time in the late afternoon when Connie came to. She winced as she remembered her foot but as she rose up onto her elbows to look down and examine her foot, she noticed that it was heavy with clay. It looked like someone had deliberately placed clay on her wound! "Well, don't look at me, I didn't do it," said Amanda, a little stiffly and awkwardly, her voice cracked with emotion. "It was a beaver." Connie looked at Amanda like Amanda had just said that they were on the moon. "A beaver," Connie exclaimed with one eyebrow raised. "Just what I said, a beaver," said Amanda, now aware that she was now sounding like she required a straight jacket and feeling very, very uncomfortable inside, an emotion quite strange and alien to Amanda.

"It really was a beaver, I swear," said Amanda, starting to feel her self cry. Amanda hadn't cried in such a long time that as she wiped the tears from her face, she thought to herself, what am I crying about? Connie was in no mood to argue with the likes of someone who had just tried to kill her. Besides, that crazy woman was crying her eyes out like there was no tomorrow. She could only feel pity. "I drowned down there." Amanda sobbed dramatically, pointing to the water. She completely lost it at that point and was sobbing uncontrollably. Connie waited for what seemed like an eternity before she eventually calmed down enough to speak. Putting her hand on her heart Amanda said, "I saw my body floating in the water and I know that I died. I could see and feel those beavers - they were in the water watching me. I am SO not making things up!" She exclaimed passionately. "One of those beavers came and applied a mud pack to your foot."

"As I floated up there,” she said pointing a finger to above the water, "a large golden being of light came to me. It told me that I had a choice about what I wanted to do, I could go straight back to the source, or I could stay and make the most of my life. I don't know how it knew this but it explained that when I was a little girl, the dreams I had of building a cubby house in the woods never eventuated because my father was an alcoholic and he would spend any spare money we did have on his addiction.”

“And it's true. I really wanted to build a tree house in the woods and live out in nature."
She paused for a moment to really consider what she had just shared. "I told the being that I wanted to come back because I wanted another chance to live. I do want to make the most of my life but I now realise that it can't be with Aberdeen anymore. I've just been compensating for the lack of what I've really needed in my life. The being also showed me how you and Aberdeen were going to have a life and kids of your own. That is, if Aberdeen lives and it's my entire fault that he's now really sick." She said, starting to sob again but more quietly now. "I'm really, really sorry," said Amanda, brokenly.

"Just to be clear Amanda," said Connie, very sternly but kindly, Aberdeen doesn't blame you for what you did to him. He realizes that you are a product of your upbringing and that this has been a part of the human condition. As it just so happens, Nick and I have been working on a plan that will allow Aberdeen to do the healing on his heart himself. However, he will not tolerate your plans to hurt Mother Earth and you need to put a halt to the plans you had to turn this land into a resort...and, you need to allow us to remain living in that cottage!"

"Yes, Connie," said Amanda meekly. She looked so ashamed of herself that Connie softened her tone. "Now I expect that you would still want to be able to fulfill that dream you had of building a tree house and there is something I want to show you once I am able to walk on my foot again" said Connie, leaning against Amanda for support as she stood up. The pain was great but Mayline’s mudpack had done its job and there was no further bleeding. "I want to tell you the rest of the story if that is okay" said Amanda, in a contrite tone. "Later," said Connie. "I'm exhausted, in pain and I need for you to concentrate on getting us back to the house.” And with that, two wet forlorn figures limped back to the house.

73 A CHANGE OF HEART AND REDEMPTION

Now that Aberdeen was safe and secure with the dispance cloak activated, Nick was also heading back to Rolin again to decide what next to do with him if he hadn't woken up to himself. But as he approached, he saw that there would be no need. Rolin looked like a completely different person. His whole face had relaxed and changed in a way that was indescribable except to say that he looked peaceful and calm. As for Amanda, the poor girl looked broken and defeated enough. He didn't have the heart to upbraid her and so he turned to Connie and said cheekily in true Laurel and Hardy style, "Well...here's another nice mess you've gotten yourself into," to which Connie retorted with a weak chuckle, "d'uh!"

Rolin was strong enough to carry Connie over his shoulder, fireman style and soon, Nick and Rolin were laughing and talking over their days experiences. Rolin soon explained to Nick what he had now realised about the whole situation for Aberdeen and Connie; there was such relief on Connie's behalf and she sighed audibly. The charges laid against Aberdeen regarding selling produce on his land could be dropped by Amanda; the house would still have to go to council to get a retrospective planning approval but Charlie’s roundhouse at the Lammas ecovillage in Wales many years ago had set a precedent and he was confident that with enough public pressure, the local council would cave. The only immediate danger was Aberdeen’s heart and Connie's idea was a sound one. They just had to keep their fingers and toes and everything else crossed that it would work. The only person who was quiet was Amanda.

The closer they got to the house, the more uncomfortable Amanda looked. She was a fidgeting nervous wreck by the time they arrived at the entrance to the house. She knew that she needed to face Aberdeen and this bothered her more than anything else she had ever done in her life. It was a very hard and bitter pill that she expected to swallow. But when Connie, Rolin and Amanda entered Aberdeen’s bedroom and Rolin had gently set Connie down onto a chair, Aberdeen was not to be found anywhere! Nick laughed as he entered the bedroom where Aberdeen lay. He turned off the dispance cloak with all the flourish of a magician and there laid Aberdeen before them. The girls were so shocked that Amanda's hand flew to her mouth and Connie almost fainted. Rolin was the only one who didn't look surprised.

Before the girls could say anything Nick said to Aberdeen. "Amanda has had a change of heart about your whole situation haven't you Amanda?” He looked at her and winked. “She also managed to talk all of the medical professionals involved back into procuring you all the drugs you would need so that your body will no longer reject your heart." Amanda was flabbergasted because she had done no such thing and she knew that she had used up her bag of tricks so to speak so what were they up to? All she could do was dumbly nod her head in acquiescence.

Nick lovingly placed the first pill onto Aberdeen's tongue and taking a glass of water from his bedside, helped to prop him up and swallow it all. "There you go now Abey. You will be as good as new in no time, if not better than before!" said Nick, as confidently as a rooster in a hen house.
"Now, all we have to do is wait to see what happens," said Nick to himself. He looked over to Connie and whilst she looked pale and drawn, he could see that she looked hopeful too.

As Rolin continued to wash and bandage Connie's foot, he found that miraculously, the poultice had done its work and the wound was already starting to heal over. "If it was the beavers," Rolin said to Amanda, "they are great healers." “So then what happened" said Rolin. He was just as amazed and incredulous over Amanda's story as Connie was.

"Well," said Amanda dreamily, her eyes cast downwards and inwards. "As I came back into my body again, I then became aware that my lungs were full of liquid and yet shockingly enough, I was still alive. My lungs felt like they were being continuously filled with something warm and nourishing. A part of me knew that it had to be the river water but another part of me felt that I was being infused with a new kind of energy; an energy that would sustain me through anything. It was as if the water had been transmuted into a life-giving force for my lungs!”

“I knew logically that I should be dead because I had been down there for what felt like a very long time but it also felt like my spirit was more concerned with keeping me alive. I had, what I thought, were water spirits appear to me, delicate little creatures they were; they danced around me and were very playful. They kept on reassuring me that everything was okay and that I was okay. I could see everything in the water around me, even though that water was so cloudy! It felt so peaceful down there and I could have stayed down there forever but my spirit was also urging me to get to the top of the water; it was urging me to live and to redeem myself.”

“The message from my spirit was that I had to "re-deem" myself, not in the sense of how society defines it but rather in the true sense that I had to find myself again so that I could unconditionally support all who I would meet in my life. Eventually, I felt a tugging on my leg. It was Connie. She brought me to the top and well... now I'm here to tell the tale." She stopped to look at Rolin and Connie.

74 ABERDEEN AND CONNIE’S HOMES OF PARADISE

Day-by-day, Aberdeen appeared to grow stronger. His circulation had begun to return and he had lost the blue tinge around his mouth and the black half-circles underneath his eyes. The strawberry-red tongue that heralded heart and lung failure was now returning to a healthier color and he was able to walk around the house with the aid of a friend.

Nick sat in the kitchen in consultation with Connie and out of earshot of Aberdeen. How would they continue to help Aberdeen? "I think it would be a good idea if we continue our experiment with what we are doing with Aberdeen. He is responding so well Connie. What do you think?"
Connie put her fingers to her lips as she always did whenever she was in deep thought. She paused before she responded. "Yes, I think that we continue to do what we are doing but I am also consciously aware that the whole experiment could potentially backfire once he finds out what we are giving him. What I am going to do is leave quite a few spiritual and holistic well being books scattered around the house so that he is inspired to take his healing into his own hands in the time he has to rest. Once he can fully understand and appreciate what he needs as an individual, he may be more empowered to maintain his own health and well being."

Even though there had been a complete corporate media blackout around the proceedings (and what else could be expected in these totalitarian dictatorship times where all media was owned by those who would fight to keep the masses downtrodden?) the dream network was alive and well. The council had received so many pleas from those who occupied Paradise and from supporters around the world. They were forced under such a harsh spotlight to reassess the situation. Every aspect of Connie and Aberdeen’s lifestyle were heavily scrutinized by the planning inspector; Friends, neighbors and supporters were invited to give their views on the house but of course, the inspector could find no fault once all things were considered; for natural homes built with love and inspiration were far superior to any of the modern homes built today. A natural home could withstand all the elements; earthquakes, floods, snow, drought, fire; aesthetically they were beautiful to look at; culturally they drew people to the house because a house like that is so inviting; they could withstand the test of time; some homes could stand for over 800-years plus. And eventually, just like Charlie and Meg’s roundhouse in Wales, so many years ago, their home was eventually vindicated, the people triumphed and the retrograde planning permit was granted.

However, Connie and Aberdeen were not happy to just leave it at that. Thus were they so inspired and touched by the generosity that people had showered them with, they wanted no one to be homeless. They wanted everyone to be able to build and live in their own home, on their own parcel of land. It wasn't enough that they could have this for themselves, they wanted this for everyone as well. When they told Nick of their thoughts, Nick began to laugh and laugh. Aberdeen and Connie both looked at each other, completely puzzled over why Nick would be laughing.
"Aberdeen and Connie," said Nick, between whoops and gales of laughter, "You will never believe what I have been up to in my spare time. I've been waiting for the right time to show this to you." He coughed and cleared his throat to regain his composure and drew a device from his pocket.

Their eyes widened as he pointed the device into the air in front of him, projecting a holographic image. He lay the pocket-sized device down on the table and it continued to project the image. "Wait," said Nick, seriously now, "the device is not what I wanted to show you...it is rather nifty though isn't it?" He swiped the air with his fingers from one side to the other, much like people used to do with the old Iphones when looking at photos. He swiped for some time before coming to a particular image. He pressed the air and the image came alive.

It was a movie of Connie and Aberdeen with a whole bunch of people they didn't know, standing in front of the most amazing cottages they had ever seen, conversing and gesticulating animatedly. The cottages were those that they had been drawing up from their inspirations and sharing with each other! "This is your future that you are now looking at. This is one of the many that you are living out simultaneously whilst in this lifetime. The images I'm showing you are a future that already exists somewhere within the holographic field. Because everything is holographic and fractal in its nature, whenever you have a "eureka" moment or an inspiration that is for the highest good of all, you are tapping into that evolutionary part of you that already exists, that has already grown. Much like when you used to swipe the old Iphones that allowed you to bring up all sorts of images and movies, this device works on the same principles. However, this allows you to capture an image or a scene from that future. Your intuition is the vehicle that carries the idea to your brain. The brain is a transmitter and receiver. The brain doesn't store all our thoughts, as previously thought by scientists, our new thoughts and ideas come to us from the cosmos, and from others projecting their thoughts to us. Where did you think most of your thoughts came from anyway?" Connie looked aghast. She had never stopped to think about this before now.

"The reason I was laughing so hard," said Nick, trying to stifle another laugh, "is because one night, when we were all sitting around the campfire, an old man appeared and sat down in-between both of you. He was laughing and joking with you. Didn't you find it odd Aberdeen that you felt so close to him? Didn't it feel strange the way he looked right through you? Didn't you feel immediately drawn to him Connie?" The couple looked at each other and as the realisation dawned on them, they were both shocked. "He was your future self Aberdeen and you didn't recognise him did you? Take a closer look at that older-looking man in the picture standing next to you." Aberdeen peered closer and gasped with the recognition. "That's me again!" He cried.

"You may not be aware of this Aberdeen," said Nick solemnly, but some of the people who come into your life are not who they appear to be. Time is much more fluid than anyone ever imagined. Your future self can literally or holographically appear to your present self and most would never realise it, generally speaking because everyone is too preoccupied to see what is under their very noses. Often, they can appear at times when you are most troubled or challenged. That older version of you appeared just before you had your heart medications taken away. Most people mistake a future self for angels or a spiritual guide or god but who is god? God could be your future self!"

Nick could no longer contain himself and lost himself in hearty peals of laughter. It was infectious that laugh, it was the kind that makes you laugh, and Connie and Aberdeen soon joined him, laughing at themselves and each other. When they all eventually stopped laughing, Connie said, "I think that God could be the ultimate comedian."

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

"You ain't seen anything yet," said Nick as with a flick of his finger the image grew and Aberdeen and Connie found themselves standing inside the image. The image grew and widened. It felt so real that Aberdeen realised how easy it could be to mistake a holographic image for the real thing. "It really makes you wonder what is real doesn't it Connie?" He said wonderingly. "I do know that the essence of the divine is Love, Light and Life and they feel very real," offered Connie helpfully.

Aberdeen got really close to the image of him self and put his hand through the image. Nick grinned. He had caught the look on Aberdeen's face as Aberdeen had expressed shock and surprise. "I could feel that!" said Aberdeen excitedly. "What did you feel?" replied Nick nonchalantly. "I felt my own body tingle at the same time I put my hand through the image. Nick, do you think that even a holographic image can affect our energy bodies?"

And now the houses that Aberdeen and Connie had seen in the holographic images were slowly going up in Paradise because as you already know dear reader, all things created of beauty require a whole lot of love and attention. But these were not your typical houses. These houses were tiny and each bore the stamp of their own unique character. What was most strikingly apparent was that most of the materials used were only what could be found on the land. They were building materials that could all be returned to the Earth and Mother Earth was most pleased.

Those who had been completely inspired by the work that Connie and Aberdeen had produced on the land had decided to stay on and build upon the land so freely given. The talented wood-turners had shared all that they knew with those who were willing to have the knowledge passed down and there was so much land that there was enough for those who wanted to live in clusters and for those who required solitude.

75 BLACK POWDER, TRAINS AND GERMS

Coming in from the southern plains of North Dakota and moving south West Kevin kept the chopper at a steady speed of 150 miles per hour. He had taken a direct course across South Dakota and swung along the southern border of that state straight into Wyoming. As they entered the eastern plains of Wyoming they begin to see the trains. Back in 2021 the coal mines were completely shut down and the coal trains began to shut down. A few years later they all had quit operating and were abandoned on the tracks. The miles and miles of cars full of coal still set on the tracks and people from time to time still loaded their pickup trucks with this stuff to heat their run down homes with it. Most of them were kicked off their lands and herded into the cities. Some hold outs remained but their power was shut off. So people that continued to live out there virtually had to grow there own foods and drill for water. They supplied power by the coal and any other type of fuels they could find to use. The coal began to deteriorate and the dust would blow from the cars which created a fine powder across the plains. They all looked at the black landscape as they continued towards Powder River. The entire Powder River Basin was one large area of black powder.

They flew over the little town of Powder River and headed towards the Northwest. Kristyl was watching her scopes and noticed the extra vehicle activity as well as the heat signatures of humans. The bunker appeared to be located North west and into some rolling hills. They could see the fence line and a guard post entrance as they flew over. They also saw men with dogs and the dogs were looking up as they flew over. Kevin told everyone that this was going to be fairly tough to get into. They appear to have quite a few dogs down there. The Guards on the ground kept looking up also but could not see anything and would jerk their dogs to follow as they continued around the fence perimeter. Kevin took the chopper higher and over some of the rolling hills until they were well away from the fence line. Bill had noticed a medium sized convoy of hummers and armored patrol cars setting outside the main Guard post entrance and on the inside there were several buildings with vehicles parked close to them. Carolyne had also noticed a landing field with two choppers sitting idly on pads.

Kevin flew the chopper over two hills away from the fence line and set it down Bill and Carolyne were talking to each other in the rear of the cabin. Kevin and Kristyl shut the rotor off and put all the other gear on standby. The dispance cloak and the stealth gear remained active as usual. Bill mentioned that the layout of the ground base was almost identical to the one they had destroyed. If this was just like the other one then there would be a rear entrance to the base also. The buildings would hold the Guards and the dog pens. The one separated building that seemed to be located a greater distant from the others would be where the entrance to the bunker was located. Carolyne asked if anyone noticed the train tracks running into the hill just west of the main buildings. Kristyl said she did and wandered where they might lead. Carolyne said “on the other base the tracks ran into a hill and wound their way down to the second level. That hill side has an opening that is remotely operated from two different locations. The engine and cars are used to bring large supplies down and other major materials up to be shipped to other facilities. Level two is nothing more than a large storage facility with that engine and cars. Somewhere down there is a very large elevator that is used to deliver big containers and what not. I would suspect that a people elevator is in that small building setting by itself to the South of everything else. It looked like the fence was only about 20 feet from the back of that building. We must remember this; there is only one path to that building that is safe. It is surrounded by land mines I am sure. Kevin started to ask about getting in when Kristyl grabbed his arm and spun him around. Outside the chopper once again was a small group of Prairie dogs standing on their hind legs looking straight at them. Bill and Carolyne both moved forward to see.

ODAKOTA had watched the giant metal bird land in his valley barely missing some of his brother’s burrows. This thing had swooped in and stood on his Coterie. He had given the warning and the whole town had scampered into their burrows just in time. When the bird had landed he waited for it to try to dig into the burrows but it did no such thing but rather just stood there. As he watched he could see things moving around inside of the bird and thought maybe it had already eaten and would not harm him. He popped up and stood on his burrow and the bird did nothing. Some of his brothers popped up and they chattered together and then got braver and moved towards the thing. It still did nothing so they moved real close and watched the movement in its belly. ODAKOTA recognized the things as humans and he and his brothers stood up on their hind legs and began to just watch these creatures. When they turned and looked straight at him and the brothers he almost sounded for them all to run and get safe but they just stood and looked, After a few clicks of moment A voice arose in his mind and it told him to not be afraid these humans were brothers and sisters and that he should help them. The voice was sweet and he waited for a sign from the humans in the bird’s belly.

Hava/Luun spoke into the crews minds and told them to meet ODAKOTA the Prairie dog. He would be able to help them to enter the bunker in a safe manner. She was opening his mind to receive their thought mind talk. Carolyn walked forward to the pilot’s seat and began to speak to ODAKOTA. My name is Carolyne this is Bill and these two are Kevin and Kristyl. We have been told that you are ODAKOTA and that you can help us to gain access to that place over the hills that have the big metal wire around it. We also understand that you had or may still have families and towns living inside the wire. We have met your distant brothers and sisters, NANTAN helped us in another place. As soon as she said NANTAN there was a very big chattering from the others that were standing around. ODAKOTA chattered for them to settle down. They all stopped chattering but were looking at one another and then back at the humans. ODAKOTA found his mind open to understand and began to speak back to Carolyne. “You speak of our brother who lives in the greater plains; he is a great speaker for all of us. We will show you the place to get in where your thought shows us. We have been that way everyday to see our brothers and sisters that live in their burrows to the open areas from those human burrows. They are attacked every light time by the big animals that look like wolves. Sometimes one of our brothers or sisters is caught and they no longer live in the town. We do not speak of what happens to them because it is too gruesome. We can show where the metal round things are that make loud noises and tear our brothers and sisters apart if they get to close to one. Carolyne asked when they could show them the way and ODAKOTA said it would be after the light has sunk into the ground. Everyone understood and made arrangements with ODAKOTA to meet at a place he would choose.

Dusk was approaching quickly and everyone had rested and eaten. Carolyne made sure once again that everyone had taken the pill she had created so the germs/viruses could not affect them. They all had the Officer uniforms on and planned to use them the same way they did in North Dakota. They kept the dispance cloaks on even though they knew the animals could still see them ODAKOTA had told them to meet him at the top of the hill just before the wire. They all had moved out on foot but used the levitation capability to float up and over and to the next hill. Landing near the top, ODAKOTA had watched them all float to his position and asked with great curiosity how he might be able to do that. Carolyne told him that it was a gift from the Great Spirit and she would ask for him to receive it. Darkness had set in when ODAKOTA and TUSA scampered down the hill and across a short flat area to the fence. Both of them disappeared for a moment through a hole in the ground and popped back up on the inside.