Zeitgeist
Chapter 9- Crossover (Part II)
Mr. Guile felt exposed as he followed Mr. Leonard into Loony Square, being so close to his goal, yet all but powerless in the middle of a crowd. To him, every fairgoer had the potential to be some block in his path, every movement a potential threat to his mission. Under his sunglasses, his eyes darted from side to side and up and down. He studied every person who approached them with paranoid scrutiny. As Mr. Leonard pointed out the information booth, Mr. Guile slowly clenched and unclenched his hands which to had become unpleasantly clammy.
As they approached the booth, Mr. Leonard took notice of Mr. Guile's appearance. Being decked out in black, his sunglasses, and how he seemed to visually scan the scene by moving his head to and fro, all reminded Mr. Leonard of one of those Secret Service agents President Reagan uses for protection. Mr. Leonard. It struck Mr. Leonard as a tad funny and odd looking, but he said nothing. It might annoy Mr. Guile, and that was the last thing on Mr. Leonard's mind. Mr. Guile had seen to that.
As they walked through the small crowd around the info booth, Mr. Guile's breathing became sharper, as he prepared for anything. Finally, the people parted, and Mr. Guile could see the person working the booth. Behind the counter was a young adult woman, smiling at a customer as she pointed directions to a mother and child.
A woman? But Mr. Leonard said it was a male who held this advertisement. Where was he? Mr. Guile's lips tensed into a slight snarl as he tried to mask his ferocious disappointment. Again, he was denied! To have his hopes dashed once again, even for only a short time, infuriated him. He took a deep breath to collect his thoughts as Mr. Leonard talked with the woman.
"Hi Tammi," Mr. Leonard greeted. "Isn't Kevin Reaves supposed to be here?"
"Mm-hmm. He asked me to cover for him for a bit. He had to take care of something."
"Oh...well, I guess we can..."
"Excuse me, miss," Mr. Guile interrupted as he stepped forward. "Did you see where this man went?"
"Uh...he said he was going to Fantasy Land for something."
"And you say he felt he had to take care of something? Did he mention what it was?" Mr. Guile asked in a sober voice, though Tammi noticed it had an underlining sinister resonance.
"D-didn't tell me what, but it seemed pretty important," Tammi answered Mr. Guile nervously.
"I...see," Mr. Guile droned.
Mr. Leonard sighed. "Well, maybe we can wait a..."
"Excuse me!" interrupted a boisterous voice from off to Mr. Leonard's left side. A chubby, red cheeked man wearing a loud flower shirt leaned onto the counter of the information booth while two small freckled children, one boy and one girl, bobbled energetically at his feet. "What time do the fireworks go off?" the man asked loudly.
"Yay! Fireworks!" the girl yelled.
"Boom!" the boy shouted.
"Uh...the fireworks are scheduled to take place right after the concert on the main stage tonight. Roughly around 9:30," Tammi politely answered.
"And where would be a good place to get a good look at em!" asked the man with all the excitement of opening day in one sweaty package.
"Well, anyplace on the fairway will give you a great view, I think," Mr. Leonard chimed in.
"That sounds great! Thank you very much!"
"You have a good time now," Mr. Leonard said with a wave of his hand as the group of three started to walk away.
"We sure will! How bout that kids, huh! Wanna see fireworks tonight?" the loud man asked.
"Yaaay!" the children screamed in unison.
As the group of fairgoers skipped away, Mr. Leonard let out a sigh as he smiled and shook his head. "Well, they're certainly into the spirit of things, aren't they? Sorry about that Mr. Guile. Again, maybe..."
Mr. Leonard stopped talking in surprise as he saw that Mr. Guile was gone.
"Huh? Where did he go?" Mr. Leonard asked.
"Wow. I dunno," Tammi said as she looked all around. "He was just here a second ago."
"Oh my...I wonder where he went? Maybe we should look for him. Maybe I should...I should..." Mr. Leonard stared blankly at the ground as if he had forgotten something important.
"Mr. Leonard, are you all right?" Tammi asked.
"Uh..yeah. Just lost track of thought for a second there. Huh...strangest thing," Mr. Leonard pondered.
"Say, who was that guy? I don't mind telling you he gave off some strange vibes. Is he a cop or something?" Tammi asked.
"He's...an antique salesman," Mr. Leonard said with a shrug.
Mr. Guile strolled toward the direction of Fantasy Land in a quick, even pace, happy to quietly slip away from his blubbering host and get back to the task at hand. He could have perhaps waited for the employee to return with the advertisement, but Mr. Guile's instincts told him to take the initiative. After listening to what the girl at the booth said, something inside him told Mr. Guile that the players were moving and there was no time to waste.
Besides, Mr. Guile knew the perfect place to start looking as he noticed the large face of a dragon in the distance. And most important of all, Mr. Guile had a name. In his business, names were gold. Names were power. Names held secrets and revealed them. Names opened and closed doors.
And Mr. Guile had one to go by...
Kevin Reaves.
He was so close now.
All of sudden, for no reason, Kevin felt like his whole body was covered with spiders. As he quivered where he stood, by reflex he turned toward Loonyland. He glared across Loony Lake, somehow expecting to see some threat coming at him like some bully in a schoolyard, but he saw nothing unusual. He felt watched...threatened. He twitched uncomfortably in line as the feeling began to subside.
The line for the Dungeons and Dragons ride was moving briskly as it snaked its way along the guardrail near the ride and out with Kevin near the middle of the fairway of Fantasy Land. Kevin watched as the ride setter... who at the moment, Kevin noticed, was not Reggie, but some other helper Kevin knew named George...moved the customers politely and efficiently into the coaster cars, and ran them straight into the dragon's mouth. One particular group of teenagers was especially loud and boisterous, screaming in mock terror as they entered the dragon's maw. The sound of their shrieks, no matter how insincere, made Kevin swallow hard. The ride's eyes of the dragon flashed menacingly.
"What are you doing?" Kevin heard from behind. Turning around, Kevin saw Reggie standing off to the side, out of the line, and looking at him accusingly.
"Oh. Hi. Uh...whaddaya mean?" Kevin asked, trying to sound innocent.
"We get off at work at the same time, right?" Reggie asked.
"Uh...yep."
Reggie looked up and down along the ride, as if he was looking for something he missed. "So, what are you doing in line?"
"Just...uh...taking a break," Kevin said. He said with a forced chuckle.
"You just ate lunch. Besides, I thought we weren't allowed to ride the rides when we're on the clock,." Reggie explained.
"I...uh...look, it's...kinda weird..." Kevin uttered.
"You're kinda weird. What's gotten into you? Accusing me like that?" Reggie asked as he nodded toward Loonyland, referring to their earlier conversation. "I mean, why wouldn't I tell you if I saw Diana or not? What do I care?"
Kevin sighed. "Yeah. Sorry about that. Really. I just thought you might have saw Diana and those guys. I...need to get in touch with them." That was certainly true.
"What for? You'll see them in school tomorrow."
A sudden chill ran through Kevin wondering if that was true.
"You didn't answer me though," Reggie continued. "What are you doing in line?"
"I just...I just need to check this ride out, okay? I've been curious about it all day long, and I'll go right back to work when I'm done."
"But you're working!" Reggie exclaimed. "You'll be in line for at least a half an hour... they're gonna see you, ya know. You're off in a couple of hours...why don't you ride it then?"
Kevin smirked a bit and glanced humbly at the other people in line who might have been listening to the conversation. If this was any other circumstance, Reggie's suggestion would make perfect sense, and Kevin knew it. But there was a force urging him on toward the ride he could neither explain nor deny, and he decided to take 'Loony's' advice and not fight it. He even wondered if it was like being addicted to cigarettes and needing to walk to the store to get that pack of smokes. Plus, now he could sense some vague threat drawing near.
And he had no way to explain this to his friend. It would be like explaining the color purple to a blind man.
Kevin leaned forward and spoke quietly, so the other people in line couldn't hear. "Look, it's just something I wanna do, okay? Don't tell anyone before I get on, please," Kevin pleaded.
"Oh, sure," Reggie said sarcastically. "What are you going to tell George up there when you get on the ride? You're kinda hard to miss, then."
"I'll...think of something," Kevin stated, hoping it was true.
Reggie's face had the mischievous look of someone planning to do something devious. Suddenly, Reggie grabbed Kevin out of line and started walking toward the start of the line where their workmate George was loading passengers onto the ride.
"What are you doing?" Kevin gasped as Reggie urged him along.
"Helping you out. Hey, I'm runnin' the ride, right? We'll make this nice and quick," Reggie said with a chuckle.
"You don't have to do this. I mean you really don't have to do this," Kevin nervously said.
"You kidding? Most exciting thing I've done all day!" Reggie said with reckless glee. "About time you did something once in you life that was
against the rules! Fun, ain't it?"
"Yeah. A blast," Kevin deadpanned.
Reggie and Kevin trotted by the other fairgoers in line, with Kevin smiling apologetically as they nudged past the group of riders on the ride's platform who were set to be the next group to be loaded up on a coaster. George, the employee sitting the passengers, gave his fellow employees a puzzled look as they stood in front of him.
"Hey, George. We got a problem with the ride, and Kevin has to it check out. Right, Kevin?" Reggie blurted.
"Huh?" Kevin gasped, as he could feel blood rush to his face at the thought of being put on the spot like this. He responded with a quick, spiteful looking glance at Reggie, who was sporting a wildly insincere grin. A liar's grin.
"Uh...what kind of problem?" George asked meekly.
"The...uh...uh...smell," Kevin blurted. The teenager nearly winced at how insincere it sounded coming out of his mouth.
"Smell?" George repeated, his awkward bucktoothed mouth curling in surprise.
"Yeah! Smell! It smells! Smells awful in there!" Reggie barked. Kevin gave a quick elbow to his ribs to quiet him.
George stared blankly at them. He was about a year younger than both Kevin and Reggie and had a gauche face that unkindly suggested he was a tad slow.
"Um...we've been getting complaints of a smell emulating near the end of the ride and we were hoping that I could go in there and track it down." Kevin tried to keep his voice in a calm steady manner, trying to sound as sincere as possible.
"Really?" George said. "I ain't heard anythin'."
"That's why I'm going on it to find out what they're talking about. I have a hunch it's just a couple of riders who got put off by the smell of the steam. Just overreacting, y'know?"
George simply shrugged.
"But there's only one way to find out if they're telling the truth from where they're sitting, sooo..."
"So we gotta go ride the thing and check it for ourselves!" Reggie blurted.
Kevin turned to Reggie suddenly. "We?" he huffed.
"It'll just be a sec!" Reggie said as he helped himself into the coaster car. "C'mon, Kevin. We got a job to do! We gotta go smell Big T's armpits!"
Kevin gulped hard and grimaced as he saw Reggie get comfortable in the coaster car. He was nervous enough wondering about what, if anything, would happen when he rode into the dragon's mouth without the thought of Reggie along for the ride.
"Oh, Reggie. I think I can handle it from here. I don't want to bother you with this." Kevin projected an intense 'what the heck are you doing' leer while keeping his cheery voice.
"Oh, nonsense. Can't do such an important assignment alone, right?" Reggie said through a crafty smile.
George stared blankly, unaware of any hidden tension between the two friends.
Kevin found his mouth dry and he was sweating again. He felt trapped. What could he do? His mind raced like lightening, but he couldn't think of any way to have the ride to himself. Kevin sheepishly stepped into the coaster, staring blankly ahead deep into the jaws of the ride's mouth. His eyes gave a nervous inspection to the animated monsters visible from where he sat.
"You really shouldn't come with," Kevin said with sadness in his voice.
"Hey, what are friends for?" Reggie responded.
As the coaster car lurched toward the dragon's maw, Reggie could see Kevin jerk harshly in shock. He turned to see Kevin; his friend's face frighteningly pale and his lip slightly quivering, and his eyes opened wide staring ahead.
"Would you relax, man? For God's sake, it isn't that bad. What are you, five years old?" Reggie joked.
"Oh god, Reggie...I'm sorry. I'm sorry I got you into this! I didn't know how to tell you..." Kevin lamented with the passion of a final confession.
"What are you talking about?" was the last thing Kevin heard from Reggie before they entered the dragon's mouth; its eyes glowing and bellowing a theatric recorded roar welcoming them into themouth of Dungeon's and Dragons ride.
The roar was piercing to Mr. Guile, like the very earth and sky were raging in anger. The shock of the noise made the man in sunglasses plug his ears in shock and dismay as the other park goers near Loony Lake walked on by, oblivious of anything unusual.
Mr. Guile quickly took his sunglasses off and peered across the man-made lake to view the Dungeons and Dragons ride, calling to his master to give him the strength to awaken his abilities again. Still, there was nothing to see. The ride looked normal enough, but Mr. Guile knew it had done something...something monumental.
"No! No! NO!" Mr. Guile yelled, regardless of the park goers who looked at him strangely. The thought of losing his target filled him with enough rage to engulf the entire world, and his rage would be cleansed... one way or another. He continued briskly toward the Fantasy Land bridge.
"'Come visit Loonyland! The place for food, rides, and family fun'" Kevin read.
"What are you doing?" Reggie asked in response to seeing Kevin reading from the amusement park flyer in his hand.
"'Adults ...$9.95, children ages 6 and over...$5.95, children under six...FREE!'" Kevin read off as they passed by the first batch of impressive looking animated monsters.
Reggie snickered as they passed by the first batch of serpentine animated monsters spewing out their recorded howls in sync with their clockwork slithers and grunts. "You play hooky at work to get on this ride and you're not even looking!" Reggie chastised. But when Reggie glanced at Kevin again, it was as if he hadn't heard a word Reggie said. He kept reading; grasping the flyer tightly in his hands.
"...11 am to 8 pm...Friday and Saturday...11 am to 10 pm!"
"Hello? Roller coaster! Monsters! This is what you... WHOA!" Reggie jumped in surprise as he saw the flash of fire coming out of an animatronic dragon that came out of a cave in the wall of the tunnel. Reggie smiled as he felt the heat on his face.
"Wow...neat," Reggie said.
"...explore Pirate's Island! Ride the World Famous Zipper!..."
Reggie just shook his head disappointingly at his friend reading from an advertisement as they passed a group of humanoid monsters carrying swords and maces, gesturing threateningly as they coasted by. Reggie was surprised to find he was quite impressed at how real they looked, even the monsters with the most outlandish shapes. He saw giant lizard like men, and monsters with huge beaks and batwings, and one that had the snout of warthog.
Then, the ride started getting dark.
"Gimme a break, Kev. You gonna put that thing away for the big finish, or..." Reggie gulped as he looked over to Kevin. He was taken aback to see that the seemingly innocent flyer in Kevin's hands started to glow with a low orange light. He saw Kevin's face in rapture as he read rhythmically from the flyer.
"Seth tienarba ton sen tonabas...!" Kevin chanted.
"Wha-what...?" Reggie stammered.
"Eth dina zanda en Bahamut sen vize...Bahamut sen vassis.."
As the tunnel kept getting darker, the light emitting from the flyer became brighter and brighter, and flickers of what seemed to be light orange flame danced around the paper's edges. The flames flickered off past Kevin's fingers, but the teenager still held on.
"What the hell are you doing! I don't like this!" Reggie yelled.
"En tiez seth tienarba ton plena endien yon Vina...yon Gratatis!" Kevin recited loudly.
Reggie could do nothing but watch as the flames from the flyer erupted with the intensity of a raging campfire, though miraculously gave off no heat as they wafted around both teenagers as if they had a life of their own. He watched as Kevin continued what could only be called an incantation; the brilliance from the flyer now being the only light in the tunnel as the coaster neared the exit of the ride.
"What's happening?" Reggie shouted.
"Ontey! Ontey! COME ENTER THE REALM OF DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!" Kevin raged as the flyer erupted in a blinding flash that made Reggie scream. Then all was dark.
At once, a lost soul felt solid ground under his feet again as he stood underneath a star filled sky, though he didn't know why.
The Silver Void was gone. For the briefest moment, he saw it twist and convulse, shaping itself with the violence of birth, but just as quickly found himself standing on, to his utter bewilderment, cold, hard blacktop. He squinted to try to view his surroundings as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He basked in wonder as the scene he viewed became familiar to him.
Then he heard the banging sound of a door opening, followed by a rumbling noise of metal on metal not too far from where he stood. He was startled but not fearful. Being curious, he moved toward the sound, his legs shifting briskly under his feet.
He smiled as he drank in the sensation. It had been so long since he could move like this.
Reggie had his eyes closed as they burst through the automatic exit door of the Dungeons and Dragons ride and rolled down the track to the loading area. Put off by the shock of what had just transpired, Reggie slowly opened his eyes to see Kevin staring blankly ahead, breathing heavily as if he had run a marathon.
"Alright, dammit! What..." Reggie halted to dead silence once it registered what he was seeing.
It was night.
The sky, lit up by the mid afternoon sun just minutes before, was now filled with stars set against a black cloudless sky. The park was shut down; and not a customer or employee of Loonyland could be seen. The only light came from the occasional street light that lit up every 100 yards or so down the length of the fairway. As the coaster rolled to a halt, the silence of the park hung in the air with a potency of being a solid, material thing.
Reggie and Kevin said nothing. Slowly, zombie like, the teenagers exited the coaster car and stumbled out the exit faux castle stone arch of the ride; eyes wide in total bewilderment and mouths agape as they stared at the vacant amusement park.
They walked a few yards out into the fairway of Fantasy Land and turned back to look at the Dungeons and Dragons ride. The ride sat silently...lifelessly.
"AAAAAAAAAAA!'' Reggie screamed.
The sound of Reggie's scream shattered the silence and Kevin nearly jumped out of his shoes, making him lose his breath.
"Gah! Don't do that!" Kevin hissed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Reggie screamed.
"Now, c-c-calm down Reggie..." Kevin encouraged haltingly. "We're okay...everything's..."
"Whatthehellhappenedtoeverybodywhere'sthesunwhyisitnighttimewhereintheworlddideverybodygoooooooo!" Reggie rambled.
Kevin didn't answer him. He looked in all directions for any sign of life. Reggie stopped his ranting when he observed Kevin was being surprisingly calm.
"You just gonna stand there...?"
"DIANNNAAAAAA! DIANA BECKEEEEEEEEEET!" Kevin yelled loudly. His voice echoed ominously in the empty park.
Reggie flashed a look of anger and doubt at Kevin. "What...the...HELL...are...you...DOING?"
"I think she might be here," Kevin answered.
"What makes you say that?" Reggie asked accusingly.
"I...I think the ride took her just like it took us... took us here. Wherever 'here' is."
"What does it look like! We're in Loonyland! Oh my god...we...we've been time warped!" Reggie barked.
Kevin took a deep breath, trying to absorb what was happening. "I..I don't think so," Kevin said with his voice expressing awe. "I don't think this is the park."
"I believe you are right, Kevin," said a voice from the shadows by the barrier surrounding the Dungeons and Dragons ride.
"AAAAAAAAAA!" the teenagers shouted.
"Who-who's there!" Kevin shouted as both teenagers reflexively tensed up; hands balled into fists.
"Oh, I am sorry, Kevin. I didn't mean to startle you. I am so happy to see you here."
Stepping out of the pitch-blackness and into the dim glow of the fairway streetlights walked a fit, clean shaven young man with short blond hair and handsome features. He greeted the teenagers with a warm smile.
"Who...who are you?" Kevin asked.
The man started to giggle. "Oh my...you don't recognize me! I must be young in the face too! This is incredible!"
Kevin shook his head. He recognized the accent. He had heard it just a couple of hours ago.
"Oh! And you! This is a surprise. You are Reggie, the one I saw running the ride earlier."
"Y-yeah," Reggie stuttered.
Kevin studied the man's face, and all at once he knew. Though the marking of time had changed him, there was no mistaking who Kevin was looking at. The confident eyes. The set and sturdy jaw line.
"Ohmygod..." Kevin whispered as if he was staring at Death itself.
Reggie turned to Kevin. "What? What? What is it? Who is this guy?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. We've never been introduced," the man said as he held out his hand. "I am Josef Mueller."
