Zeitgeist-Chapter 10- Welcome to Loonyland!!
Everything had become darker as the creatures strolled out of the swirling gray mists and onto the hard stone ground; they wobbled slightly as their bodies took a moment to adjust to the slowness of physical movement and the tedious heaviness of gravity. Their artfully curved, jewel adorned armor rattled and clanked as the tall, gaunt humanoid looking creatures cautiously viewed the scene, letting their piercing, solid black eyes get used to darkness of night.
The creatures soon viewed a scene that was illuminated only by the glow of unearthly still silver gray fog behind them. Judging how it seemed to be a large opening in a long, 15 foot high wall that stretched far into the darkness in either direction, the three creatures knew they were looking at a gate, though it was a gate like none they had ever seen before. The top of the gate was not an arch, but was long and flat, only slightly more than twice the height of a man, with poles on top carrying long colorful flags hanging motionless in the still air. On the right side of the gate was a large, odd looking statue with birdlike features dressed in blue and red, gesturing at the creatures as if to welcome them. The face of the statue, to the creatures viewing it, looked happily deranged in a way that unsettled them. Walking over to the left side of the gate, the creatures saw a small structure made of stone brick, though a small section of the front had a window that seemed to be completely covered with horizontal strips of steel. Parts of this structure had painted figures of the statue, along with rounded, colorful shapes that the creatures found strange to their eyes. One of the creatures pointed up to markings on a part of the brick structure above the steel covered window. They devised it was lettering of some sort of a language unknown to them.
"SOUVENIRS"
The creatures snickered and spoke in a language that buzzed and clicked like a language written of electricity. Their long, thin, leathery faces were twisted in looks of caution, anger, and confusion. They argued for a time, as they tested the steel fence that covered the gate, tapping it with their long swords they carried with them. Looking in through the fence, they could make out other smaller gates, only waist high, and farther in, an open square with what seemed to be a statue of the same bird figure at the gate. One of the creatures grabbed and shook the long fence that covered the gate, watching the long steel bars that traveled horizontally from end to end of the gate ripple and sway with the vertical metal strips that held the curtain together. Again, the creature grimaced with confusion.
One of the creatures, which had armor and jewelry more preciously adorned than the other two, spoke in even, authoritative tones, gesturing them to fall back from the gate. As they did, one of the creatures spitefully swung his sword at the large bird statue as he walked by. With ease that seemed to startle the creature, the sword cleanly sliced the statues arm off. The arm fell to the ground and shattered into chalky debris. The creature that had ordered them to move back barked in outrage at the one who swung the sword, and gestured him to fall back at once. Taking backward glances at the gate, the three of them slowly strolled back into the mists, floating out of view.
Kevin and Reggie huffed and puffed as they tried to keep up with the tall blond haired man who had called himself Josef Mueller, who had all of a sudden started running down the moonlit fairway of what appeared to be Fantasy Land.
"Waaaaaoooooo!!" yelled the blond haired man triumphantly as he ran away from the teenagers.
"Wait! Josef! What are you doing? Come back!" Kevin yelled.
"Kevin...what's going on? Who is this guy?" asked Reggie between breaths.
"He's the old man...I was...wheeling around... the park!" huffed Kevin.
The surprise of what Kevin said made Reggie stop running. "What?" Reggie barked.
Meanwhile, Kevin kept running ahead while the man calling himself Josef had turned and was running back to them, still whooping for joy and rambling in German.
"Josef...would you slow down a bit?" Kevin asked.
"Kevin! Kevin, this is wonderful! I can run again! I can breathe again!" Josef cheered.
"But...what's going on? How did you get here? How did we get here?" Kevin asked as they drew closer together.
"Oh, my young friend," Josef said as he as he slowed to a halt in front of Kevin, trying to catch his breath. "I knew you would come!"
"Say what? You were expecting me?" Kevin gasped.
"And my word, Kevin. Look what you brought with you!" Josef exclaimed spreading his arms in a sweeping motion.
"Uh, you mean Reggie? Hey, wasn't my idea..."
"This! The park! In every detail, formed and molded from the ether! How did you do it, Kevin?"
"Me? Waddaya mean 'How did I do it?'"
"My word, could it be so easy? Is this some sort of second chance? The ride is right there," Josef said, more talking to himself than anyone else.
"Huh?"
"How long has it been since I left the park in the ambulance?"
"I...I dunno. Couple of hours," answered Kevin.
The tall blond man let out a sigh of amazement. "Astonishing. Only a couple..."
"Wait...wait a minute," Kevin blurted, waving his hand to interrupt Josef while shaking his head in confusion, as if he had just absorbed the absurdity of this entire scene at that very moment. "You were so...old! And now you look like you're 25."
"Hmm. I would guess," was Josef's reply.
"How can that be?"
"Well, I'm not all that..."
"And why do I know it's you?"
"Eh?"
"I mean, just a couple of hours ago you were an old man being driven to the hospital, and just a couple of hours later you just appear all young and one look at you and I'm thinking 'Wow, it's Josef.' I mean, you can't be Josef!" Kevin's voice had a desperate tone to it, as if he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying.
"I know it's hard to believe, but I am," Josef said. "It is hard to explain. Of course, I think I need to explain a lot of things."
"You got that right, buster!" yelled Reggie from behind Kevin as he stepped closer, finally collecting himself to join the conversation. "Can someone fill me in here?"
"Reggie," Kevin said. "This is going to sound weird, but..."
"Buddy, we passed weird ten miles back.. this is Twilight Zone, okay? Do do DO do, do do DO do!" Reggie said in a musical rhythm.
"I'm sure if we calm down..." Josef suggested.
"I mean, it was daytime just a minute ago, right? Just before we got on the ride, right?" Reggie asked earnestly.
All Kevin could do to respond is offer a meek nod.
"And then we went on the ride, and then..." Reggie eyed Kevin with a suspicious look that made Kevin swallow hard. "Keviiiin, what did you do?" Reggie asked accusingly.
"Me? I don't...know..." Kevin sputtered as he felt blood rush to his face.
"You did something! You were...you..." Reggie paused a bit trying to put into words what he saw. "You let off some fireworks or something!"
"I don't know what came over me," Kevin claimed confusingly. "It was like I was dreaming."
"You still got some in your hand! Right there!" Reggie shouted as he pointed to Kevin's right hand. The mysterious advertisement flyer was folded up tightly into Kevin's fist.
Kevin unclenched his fist and started to unfold it slowly, unsure of any surprises. As he unfolded it, he quickly realized the paper had become bigger. Instead of an average 8x10 piece of paper, the flyer had become nearly poster-sized. The paper's texture had also changed from glossy to one of a rough, long worn document, giving the flyer to look of an ancient parchment.
"Good Lord, would you look at this?" Kevin said in a stunned tone. The teenager held out what was the "flyer" and tilted it to catch more of the light coming from the streetlight that was shining overhead nearby. Kevin was taken aback by what he saw: All the Loonyland artwork and slogans had disappeared, replaced top to bottom by strange black lettering and other shapes. The shapes mirroring the pattern Kevin noticed in the paper a couple of hours earlier in the park when he held it up to the sun.
"What? What is it?" Josef asked as he was looking at the paper over Kevin's shoulder.
"This is the paper you got in the mail, Josef. The flyer that told you about Loonyland."
Josef directed a hard glare at what had been the flyer and let out a heavy sigh. "Kevin, my lad," he said in a soft, reflecting voice. "I think we've found out what's behind all this."
Kevin and Josef stood there for a moment, letting the revelation sink in. Reggie dumbfoundedly glanced at the "flyer".
"What? WHAT?!" Reggie shouted
"Magic," Kevin declared in an even, resigned voice; holding up the "flyer" parchment and pointing to it.
"Magic?" Reggie repeated, his voice betraying how unsettled he was as he looked back and forth between Kevin and Josef.
"Magic," Josef said. There was a resonance of finality to his answer.
"Magic," Reggie repeated.
An uncomfortable silence settled upon them as they stood under the moonlight.
Josef spoke, "I'm sure if we all calm down and think this through, we can..."
"C'mon!" Reggie interrupted. " You're saying that thing in your hand zapped us through time and dipped this guy in the Fountain of Youth? Is that what you're trying to tell me, Kevin?" Reggie asked, his voice barely hiding his frustration.
"This...this isn't Loonyland," answered Kevin.
"You're right, Kevin," Josef chimed in, "A moment ago, this...all this...wasn't here. It was a ... void of silvery gray."
"What do you mean?" Kevin asked.
"Of course, we're in Loonyland! What does it look like?" Reggie barked, spreading out his arms.
"I can't tell you how I know, Reggie. It's just...I do. This..." Kevin looked up and down the fairway of the Fantasy Land he was standing in, "...isn't what I expected."
"So? What were you expecting?" Reggie huffed.
Kevin let out a defeated sigh. "Look, a lot of weird things have been going on in the last couple of hours, okay? And I was told..." Kevin sputtered a bit as he thought better of telling of talking about taking advice from a six foot cartoon mascot. "I mean...I just had this feeling that if I rode the ride just once I could figure out what's going on. I didn't mean for you to come with, and I sure as heck didn't know about what this would do," Kevin explained as he waved the "flyer" in his hand a bit.
"You mean, you used that...that...whatever it is...and you didn't even know what it would do?" Reggie asked, pointing out the "flyer" in Kevin's hands. "What's the matter with you?!"
"I didn't plan on using it, Redge!" Kevin barked back. "Just...something came over me. I...I think it used me!"
"Oh, you're under its spell? Is that it?" Reggie scoffed.
"I think you just got to the heart of the matter, Reggie," answered Josef. "Whatever has happened here involves this...scroll I brought with me."
"You brought it? It's yours? How'd Kevin get it?" Reggie asked, pointing at the object in Kevin's hands.
"He must have taken it when I had my attack this afternoon," Josef said. " I can't recall..."
Kevin held up his hands. "Whoa, wait a sec. I didn't take it. You must have slipped it to me during all the commotion."
"You mean when he was an old man," Reggie said, his voice betraying his doubts of this whole affair.
"Yes," Kevin replied.
"And it took you under its spell," Reggie said in the same mocking tone.
"Yes," Kevin replied in a sharper voice.
"And time zapped us here."
"Yes, well...sort of," Kevin shrugged.
"And made him 25," Reggie pointed at Josef.
"Yes," Josef responded, with such a resonance of certainty, Kevin glanced curiously at the German.
All three of them stood in silence as long seconds ticked by. Reggie looked back and forth between Kevin and Josef a few times, like he was waiting for either one of them to step forward and yell "April Fool!" and put an end to all this. Finally, Reggie simply turned and started marching away toward the direction of the Loony Lake Bridge.
"Wait! Where you going?" Kevin asked.
"What's it look like?" Reggie said, not looking back. "You and Ponce De Leon can stay here and play with your witchcraft all you want. Me? I'm going home!"
For countless years, the Box had remained under the earth, put there to be hidden and forgotten. But such was not its nature, for its nature was to connect. To prisons for some, to a liberation to others. A gateway to the Far Away Places.
It would not be forgotten. It only needed a sign to make it stir.
Far above the Box, on the surface, young teenage boy dressed in green held his nose while he uttered an incantation over his floppy cone hat.
"Abracadabra
Quick as a wink
Conjure me something
To fight Eric's stink!"
The magical energies awoke the object buried many yards beneath the young boy's feet . It had sensed his presence. A presence to help it fulfill its nature. It could not be hidden any longer. It would not be forgotten.
The ground began to shake.
It had heard its call to fulfill its purpose, and it would answer.
"I'm sorry. This number cannot be completed as dialed..."
"Stupid phone! What's the matter with this thing?" Reggie barked as he slammed down the receiver.
A few paces away, Kevin and Josef were standing near the castle wall decor of the Dungeons and Dragons ride. Kevin sighed as he watched his friend's frustration in the nearby phone booth. He turned and caught Josef grinning at him.
"What's so funny?" Kevin asked.
Josef had to hold in a laugh. "You are taking this very well. Much better than your friend over there."
"Yeah, well, my head wasn't on straight to begin with. You think this is weird? Try having a conversation with a 6-foot cartoon bird," Kevin chuckled.
"What?" Josef asked in surprise.
"Never mind." Kevin sighed and his shoulders slumped a bit. "A lot of things have been happening to me since you got carted off, Josef. I get these weird...feelings.. whenever something happens. I don't know why...probably has to do with this...thing." Kevin flapped the scroll in front of Josef's face
"Like what?"
"Like I saw them."
Josef's posture straightened up in response. "You ... saw who?"
"Diana, Hank,...Sheila O'Brien I think. Out there standing in the middle of the lake."
"You saw them?" Josef inquired with immediate vigor.
"For a few seconds, then they disappeared under the water, and they didn't come back up."
"They didn't..." Josef shook his head like he didn't comprehend.
"I think they went back where they came from. I don't know how the heck I know that, but I do."
"Oh?" Josef blurted nervously. Kevin could see Josef's excited face becoming withdrawn.
"At least, I think it was them...they were dressed weird," Kevin declared. "Hank Greyson was dressed like Robin Hood. And Diana had on this bikini outfit with a lot of gold jewelry on her, and..." Kevin stopped talking as he noticed Josef's eyes growing wider and then look away. "Josef?"
Sadly, Josef lowered his head and closed his eyes.
"You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Kevin asked pointedly.
Unwilling to look directly at Kevin, Josef nodded his head.
"You know where they are," Kevin accused in a calm, even voice.
"Ja," Josef said.
"This all involves them, doesn't it? That ride took them just like it took us." Kevin gestured at the Dungeons and Dragons ride behind them.
Josef sighed disappointingly. "I was hoping you were going to tell me that they made it back. That they made it home."
Kevin shook his head in disbelief. "But...you knew it was going to happen before it happened!" Kevin huffed. "I mean, how did you know?"
Josef looked at Kevin. "Because it happened to me. Because I was there with them," Josef said in a resigned voice.
"What?" Kevin yelped. "How can...?"
Suddenly, Reggie came charging out of the phone booth, his hands flailing. "Fine! Just perfect!" Reggie shouted angrily.
Josef and Kevin turned their attention towards Reggie, who stood there simmering. "Stupid phone's not working," Reggie grunted. "I tried calling my dad, my friends, ...even the time, and it wouldn't give it to me."
"That's because there's no one to call, Redge," Kevin stated. "This isn't Loonyland."
Reggie grimaced. "Coulda fooled me, pal!"
"It's a ghost," Josef said plainly. He stopped leaning again the wall, and strolled over to Reggie. "It's a ghost of Loonyland."
Reggie scoffed a bit, while Kevin's features showed concern as he reflected on Josef's words.
"It's a ghost," Josef repeated. "Like me."
"What?" Kevin and Reggie said in unison.
"This...body. It isn't real," Josef said while spreading his arms to present himself.
"I don't...don't..." Kevin stuttered.
"Think, Kevin! I didn't go on the ride. What's left of me is back in the real world," Josef explained.
Unconvinced, Reggie rolled his eyes and started to march away.
"Where you going?" Kevin asked.
"I'm getting my stuff out of my locker, and I'm going home," Reggie said, not looking back.
"Reg-gie, wait a minute," pleaded Kevin, but it was no use. Reggie kept marching away. Kevin apprehensively looked back at Josef. With a defeated groan, Kevin shrugged and turned to follow, leaving some distance between them, considering the mood Reggie was in; he and Josef kept pace a few yards back, walking side by side.
None of them said a word as all three crossed over the Fantasy Land Bridge of Loony Lake. Finally, breaking the silence of nothing but the sound of their footsteps, Kevin cleared his throat harshly and turned to Josef.
"Where are they?" Kevin said intently.
Josef sighed and took a deep breath, like the answer was going to be long and important.
"I mean, at first, I thought they'd be here, but...something tells me they're not," Kevin continued.
"No, they're...somewhere else," Josef said.
"Where?"
Josef looked away from Kevin, as if not to be distracted. "It's called...The Realm." Josef's voice underscored the words with a sense of awe and dread.
"The Realm? That's it? Like 'Realm of Dungeons and Dragons' Realm?" Kevin asked.
"Ja. At least, that is what they called it when I met them there. Diana, Presto...all of them."
"Wait, wait...you talked to them?" Kevin asked, shaking his head.
"Or will talk to them. Depends on your point of view."
"Okay, okay...just hold it a sec," Kevin sputtered. There was a small moment of silence as Kevin tried to organize his thoughts as they walked. "This is some sort of time travel screw-up, isn't it?"
Josef couldn't help but smile as the teenager thought it through. "I'm afraid so, Kevin. I'm afraid so."
Kevin' face brightened, like he had come to some revelation. "That story you were telling me about! When you were shot down over Poland!"
Josef's smile became broader. "Very good, Kevin."
"I mean, I thought you were telling me some weird religious near death experience or something, but that's what you were talking about, wasn't it?"
Josef simply nodded.
"So, Diana and them got sent back in time, too?"
Josef's brow furrowed slightly. "Interesting question. I believe it would be more accurate to say I was brought forward through time, though..." Josef looked up at the stars for a moment. "'Forwards', 'backwards'...who's to say if these terms mean anything under the circumstances. I mean, if it's true what you said about what time I was put in the ambulance..." Josef looked questioningly at Kevin.
"Uh, yeah...just a couple of hours ago. But what about...?"
"A couple of hours to you," Josef interrupted. "I have been in this strange reality for six days."
"Six days? You've been in this place for six days?" asked Kevin, taken aback.
"This place wasn't here until you arrived Kevin. Before you arrived on the ride, I was...floating...weightless...in a silvery gray mist. Ghostly light seemed to come from everywhere, and...nowhere. I was alone."
Kevin just stared at Josef awkwardly.
"I floated for days, but...it didn't feel like days. I only know the passing of time because I have this." Josef tapped the expensive gold watch on his wrist. Just like the one Kevin saw him wear when he was wheeling him around in his wheelchair.
Kevin just then realized how strangely convenient it was to have Josef wearing the same color and style of clothes he had worn in the park just hours before.
"I felt no hunger, no thirst...only a little tired," Josef continued. "And the feeling of my broken body somewhere...and that I was waiting. Waiting . And then...whoosh!" Josef threw up his hands.
"Huh?" Kevin yelped.
"The gray mist seemed to churn and swirl and shape itself! It was a violent hurricane all around me, but I felt no wind. The swirls of smoke shaped themselves with the groan of the pain of birth! And then..." Josef paused, holding out his hands. "And then I find myself standing in the middle of Fantasy Land. Then you rolled in."
"Are you telling me this...twin Loonyland didn't exist until we got here?" Kevin asked pointedly.
"You are the reason all this is here Kevin! This whole park is here because of you!" Josef stated grandly.
A few paces ahead of Josef and Kevin, Reggie could be heard clicking his tongue and shaking his head in disbelief, but said nothing as he briskly walked ahead.
"Me? I'm nobody! It's...it's gotta be this thing!" Kevin countered, shaking the scroll.
"Perhaps," Josef said with a shrug.
"Wait a minute!" Kevin snapped. "Enough about this place, what about Diana and the rest of them? Where is this 'Realm'?"
Josef sighed softly before answering. "The Realm is...another world. Another dimension. Another reality...however you might want to call it. From what I understand...from what those brave children told me, it is a land of wonder and danger, populated with...I guess you would have to say 'normal' people, sharing the world with creatures straight out of the stories of myth and legend."
"'From what you understand?" Kevin questioned.
Josef cocked his head to one side and shrugged. "I wasn't there very long, Kevin. Only a few hours at most. Most of what I learned of that world came from talking to Diana and her friends around a fire, eating crocodile eggs."
"Ewww..." Kevin blurted.
"It's true. But what I did see was extraordinary! I saw a flock of migrating pegasi...horses with wings...and the small child, Bobby, he had a small pet unicorn..."
"U-ni-corn?" Kevin repeated. "Come on!"
"And your friend Presto could do amazing things with this magic hat he wore!"
Kevin was so taken back by Josef's last statement, he stopped walking just as they reached the entrance of the Lazer Tag Arena near the end of the Loonyland fairway. "Magic hat? Did you say magic ...hat?"
"Ja. It was this green cone hat. He waved his hand, said a magic verse, and pulled out food for all of us. Dishes too. He was the group's magician, you see?" Josef asked excitedly.
"Oh, of course!" Kevin agreed sarcastically. He started walking again, shaking his head in disbelief.
Josef let out an amused chuckle. "It's true Kevin. You see, at the time I saw them, each one of them represented a...character? What's the word..?"
Kevin shrugged.
"An archetype. That's the word."
"What does that mean?" Kevin asked.
"Each one of them was ...designated a certain role. For example, Presto was a magician. Hank, who as you said was dressed like Robin Hood, was called a 'Ranger.' He had a bow which could unleash bolts of lightening."
"Uh-huh," Kevin said sharply.
"Diana had a magical staff, which could extend to any length. She was an Acrobat."
"Don't you mean gymnast? I mean, she..."
"Then there was Sheila...her name was Sheila, right? She was given a cloak, which made her invisible. A Thief, she was called."
"A Thief? Sheila? She doesn't..."
"And the little boy, he wore this awkward looking helmet with horns attached, like the Vikings were said to have worn. He had this magical club that shook the ground when he struck it," Josef interrupted again. He spoke his words as though they couldn't escape from his mouth fast enough. Kevin judged Josef had wanted to tell someone about this for quite a long time. "They called him a Barbarian. Can you believe this? A boy not even ten years old being labeled a Barbarian? I guess I can see why, though...heh...he had quite a temper. Now, who am I forgetting? Ummmm..."
Kevin recalled the group in his head. "Uh, you mean Eric? Eric Montgomery?"
"The Cavalier!!" Josef stated triumphantly. "How could I forget him? He wore a suit of armor and carried a magical shield. "
Kevin's eyes bulged and he coughed on his own breath. "Suit of armor?"
"Yes."
Kevin grimaced a bit, picturing the froglike creature in his head. "This armor...wasn't sort of colored golden yellow, was it?"
"Why yes! You mean..."
"And did he wear a long red cape?" Kevin asked, again with a look on his face that was half amusement, half disgust.
"Yes! You did see them!"
"I...well, if that was Eric, he's not having one of his better days." Kevin couldn't fight off the grin that came across his face. Josef looked at him strangely, wondering what the teen found so funny.
Eric's five friends had to contain their laughter as he yelped in surprise and flopped off Zandora's Box and onto the ground. Exasperated, Eric looked up at the gray haired, dwarfish figure dressed in red sitting on the Box. He looked down at the Cavalier with a wide, pleasant grin on his face.
"Can't you ever knock before entering?" Eric asked.
"We put the Box right where you told us, Dungeon Master," said Diana the Acrobat, pointing to a spot on the weathered map in her hands.
"Yeah," continued Sheila the Thief, "right under the shadow of that giant...skull?"
And, as she spoke, the large gray mountain with peaks of enormous human skulls faded from view.
"Where did the mountains go?" Reggie asked, perplexed at the eerie scene in front of him.
Looking through the gaps in the steel curtain of the front entrance of Loonyland, one would expect to see a large empty parking lot. Instead, all Reggie could see from the front gate was fog. Fog thicker than any he had ever seen. Fog thick enough to hide anything more than 20 feet away from the front gate.
And not only was it thick and dense, but Reggie noticed it had a luminescence all its own. The very fog itself seemed to give off its own ghostly gray light. Reggie could not see any swirls or eddies of mist in the wind. There was no wind. It was an unmoving, all encompassing wall of mist that seemed to engulf anything past the gates of Loonyland.
Reggie's curiosity had gotten the better of him when he plodded toward the employee locker room a few paces ahead of Kevin and Josef. He had noticed the closer the group got to the front entrance of Loonyland, the more the stars and moon up above seemed to be hazed over by mist. By the time they had reached Loony Square, the sky had all disappeared, replaced by an abrupt, unmoving fog. Distracted by this, Reggie turned away from going to the employee locker rooms and went to view the parking lot.
A parking lot which could not be seen.
"Jeez," Reggie sighed. "Look at that fog. Can't see a thing."
"The gray void," Josef said in a hushed tone as he came up from behind. "All of what was here until you two arrived."
"You mean you were in that fog for six days?" Kevin asked, coming up the rear.
"Ja. Floating in it, actually. Not knowing up from down, lost in a sea of gray nothing."
Reggie clicked his tongue in annoyed disbelief.
"That must have drove you nuts," Kevin stated.
"One would think so. I cannot say why it didn't. Or why I did not feel hunger, or thirst..."
"Well, you are a ghost," Kevin said with a wry smile.
"Hmph," Josef huffed.
"You guys are both nuts!" Reggie exclaimed. "It's just fog!"
"Lad, this fogis what this place is," Josef proclaimed in a stronger tone, trying to drive the point home to the teenager. "Think of this Loonyland as..."
"This Loonyland!" Reggie repeated bitterly.
"This Loonyland...as a floating island in an endless gray sky."
"Oh yeah? Why could I see the mountains when I was in the middle of the midway, huh? What about the moon and the stars? Did we suck all them through that stupid ride too?" Reggie retorted.
Josef shrugged. "An illusion, perhaps?"
"Look, can we just get someone to unlock this gate so we can get the hell out of here?"
"I don't think there's anyone to unlock it, Redge," Kevin said. "Besides, there's no place to go."
"I'll just see for myself, okay? I'll climb the fence if I have to," Reggie said. He then looked out into the endless mist and shook the gate in frustration, while Kevin and Josef started slowly walking back into the park. Suddenly, something grabbed Reggie's attention.
"Nobody here, huh?" Reggie asked mockingly. "Then who did that?" Reggie motioned Josef and Kevin to look the outside of the gate.
On the ground to their left they could see a cheery, colorful looking statue of Loony looking out toward the mists. At its feet were the chalky remains of its arm scattered along the ground.
"Someone had to do that, right?" Reggie claimed.
"That is odd," Kevin said. "I mean, maybe it just fell off...like it wasn't...made right or something."
"Yeah, right. Someone yanked it off...I know it,"" Reggie said. "Look, you got the key to the locker rooms, right? Just lemme get out of this outfit and get my stuff."
Kevin sighed and nodded. Kevin figured having Reggie get out of his uncomfortable 'happy suit' might make him calmer. They all started walking toward the dressing rooms.
Josef paused, looking at the abused statue just outside the gate. A look of grave concern was etched across his now youthful face.
"I don't think that piece was yanked off," Josef spoke to himself. "It was cut."
"Whatever," Reggie said in a huff. "Kev, you got that key to the locker rooms?"
Kevin simply nodded and handed the key from his pocket and handed it over to Reggie. Snapping it from Kevin's hand, Reggie quickly turned and trotted toward the locker room entrance, leaving Josef and Kevin to slowly stroll in the same direction.
"You're welcome," Kevin said under his breath. He then looked at Josef. "Y'know, usually he's a real nice guy."
"He's scared. He's scared more than he wants to admit," Josef stated.
"Hey, I'm scared, okay?" Kevin proclaimed.
Josef's lips formed a sly grin. "I think you're enjoying this."
"What?! No way!" Kevin barked.
"Well, a part of you is," Josef answered back.
"That's stupid! I mean, yeah it's exciting, but..." Suddenly Kevin was at a loss for words.
Josef's grin grew wider.
Kevin then heard the door from the men's locker room open and close.
"Maybe he'll relax if he gets out of his uniform. He hates that thing," Kevin said.
"Ja. Good idea," Josef nodded.
"Soooo...," Kevin uttered. "You met Diana and those guys in another dimension, right? How did that work? Or did you fly your plane into another roller coaster?" Kevin asked with an amused smirk.
"Nein," Josef said with a chuckle. "I was brought to that dimension by something called the 'Crystal of Chronos, if you can believe it."
"Oh, that fits."
Josef quickly gave Kevin a confused glance.
"Well, y'know, 'Chronos', time, time travel...it fits," Kevin said with a shrug.
"Hmph. Yes, and it worked, too. It was this huge glowing sphere set atop this stone pyramid. It could rip open the very air itself, opening a hole in time where I flew my Messerschmitt."
"Why you?" Kevin asked.
"Well, it was used to bring other people from other time periods, but apparently they weren't considered very useful. Except Stanley Baker, of course."
"Baker...? Wait...you mentioned him! Isn't he the guy you said helped you make your money?"
"Ja. And he did, in a way. You see, Kevin, I did not just happen to fall into another dimension. I was brought there. Brought there with the most evil of purposes in mind."
"Really? Why? By who?" Kevin asked.
"I was brought through time to change it. Stanley Baker was a pilot, you see...kidnapped by the Crystal with his plane just as I was. But Stanley was from the future."
"You mean like Diana and me? Like, from now?"
"Ahem. Actually..." Josef stuttered, as if he was guarding his words. "Let's just say my future. Along with his F-15 Fighting Eagle. Quite a remarkable machine. A machine I was supposed to deliver to the Third Reich."
"You mean take it back in time with you? Whoa!" Kevin reacted.
"Exactly. Could you imagine what Hitler and his scientists could have done with such a machine? I shudder to think of it."
"But whose plan...?"
"I was to fly it back through the rift of time...back to my country. To win the war for the Reich. But to do so, by some witchcraft I could not even fathom, I was given the flying skills of Lt. Baker to help fly it. Heh. A gross miscalculation."
"But..."
"Because along with all of Lt. Baker's skills, I also received his memories as well. And I could see that the world, even my very homeland was not dragged into the abyss, but that a bright future lie ahead! How could I change that? Why would I want to? Just for the petty purpose of destroying Diana's future? I couldn't do it. Not after seeing what I've seen. Not after meeting them."
"What does this...?"
"So instead, I took the plane and crashed it into the crystal, destroying it as I parachuted back into the time rift, hopefully sealing it forever."
"Wait, wait, waaaaaait a second!" Kevin huffed. "You said you were kidnapped through time. By who? Who was planning all this.?"
"A vile being whose very image I have tried to put out of my mind for nearly thirty years," Josef said. He grimaced, as if his very words disturbed him. "An evil being named..."
"Hey Kevin!" Reggie shouted from the darkness of the locker room doorway. "How do you turn on the lights in here? I can't see nothin'."
"They're not on?" Kevin asked in a high voice.
"No."
"Umm...lesse if I got the key for that...ummm..." Kevin uttered as he reached for his pockets again.
All of a sudden, the overhead light above the men's locker room door flashed to life, followed by the surrounding overhead lights illuminating their corner of Loony Square.
"Aaa!!" Reggie jumped. "Hey...hey!! Not funny!" Just then, Reggie noticed Kevin and Josef standing in the middle of the square. "Hey...who did that?"
Kevin instinctively looked for someone at the control panel on the side of the building that controlled the lights of that section of Loony Square, but no one was there.
"How did that...?" Kevin uttered. At that moment, he felt a wave of dizziness, and his senses left him, as if his perceptions for the briefest of moments had left his own body. Kevin wobbled on his feet.
"Watch out," Josef barked as he grabbed Kevin to steady him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah...yeah...I'm fine," Kevin answered.
"The lights...they...they must be on a delayed timer or something," Reggie said unconvincingly. "Yeah...that's it." After a slight pause, he swallowed hard and then went into the men's locker room.
"Kevin, are you sure you're all right?" Josef asked again.
"Yeah, I just felt...a rush."
"Maybe you should sit down," Josef said while leading him over to a nearby bench.
As Kevin sat down, he leaned forward putting his hands to his face. The scroll was still crumpled in his left hand. "Oy. I need aspirin. Got any aspirin?"
Josef instinctively checked his pockets. "Actually, no. I had some prescription pain killers in my pockets at the ride, but now they're gone."
Kevin rubbed his temples and moaned.
"Isn't that odd? I'm wearing the same clothes, same shoes, same watch. I even have my wallet," Josef said while tapping the side of his gray slacks. "If whatever happened to me would bring me these things, why not the pills?"
Kevin simply shrugged. His head was throbbing too hard to think upon other mysteries.
"Is there any aspirin in there?" Josef gestured toward the locker room building.
Kevin looked up. "Huh? Oh, right. There's this first aid cabinet..." Kevin started to get up, but Josef put his hand on his shoulder.
"I'll get it," Josef said. "Where is it?"
"Umm...walk in, walk past the first row of lockers and you should see it on the wall. White cabinet."
Josef nodded, then walked off into the locker room
And so, Kevin was alone.
He unwrinkled the scroll and studied it for a moment. He marveled at the odd shapes and swirls that appeared on the page, just like the patterns he saw in the flyer, only this time the patterns were ink black. Although the paper looked browned and worn and old, the lettering on the scroll was still crisp and legible. Kevin even began to wonder about the paper. To Kevin, it felt sturdier, like an animal skin of some kind. Kevin tried to make a slight tear in the side of the scroll with his fingers, but couldn't manage it. He then tried to use his teeth, but the scroll wouldn't tear at all.
Kevin sighed, dropping his hands to his sides and leaning back on the bench. With Josef and Reggie out of sight, it finally dawned on him how quiet it was. No people, of course. But also no wind, no birds, no crickets...nothing. Everything was so quiet and still, nothing like the Loonyland Kevin knew, and he found himself feeling irritated.
Kevin also took note of howdarkthis Loonyland was. He knew when Loonyland shuts down for the night, some lights are left on around the park – for security reasons. Some signs from the rides would still be lit at night so they could be seen by cars driving by. But this Loonyland was much darker. In fact, if it wasn't for the moon and the overhead streetlamps on the midway...
Kevin stood up alertly when he suddenly realized the midway lights that had lit their walk from the Dungeons and Dragons ride were turned off.
"When did that happen?" Kevin asked himself. He shook his head as he wondered if there was someone else here, playing with the lights.
He walked forward, out of the glow of the lights that werelit around the locker room building, to get better look at the park. All the lights that had lit the path from the Dungeons and Dragons ride to Loony Square had been turned off. Loonyland was lit only by moonlight, which somehow to Kevin made it look all the more foreboding.
As he looked around, Kevin took note of one of the rides of one of near Loony Square called the Caterpillar. It was a simple ride, where the rider would sit in a roller coaster running in a tight circle linked up to a center axis, like a merry go round. Also, once in a while a green and yellow tarp built into the side of the coaster cars would unfold and cover the passengers, giving the ride its namesake. It made the coaster look like a giant caterpillar. The ride had a templed roof covering the whole structure, and Kevin could barely make out any of the actual ride in the moonlight.
Kevin noted how plain the building looked. While the park was running, it was one of the more colorful rides in the park – with its brightly colored green and yellow housing structure and running lights practically everywhere. And once more there was music. Very loud music. When they ran the ride, the operator would pipe in rock n' roll music, all the while asking the passengers "Do you want it louder? Do you wanna go faster?!" Kevin smiled at the thought. He wished he could see the Caterpillar in all its glory now.
Suddenly, Kevin felt a strange warmth travel through his body. At first, it felt like a simple head rush, but then, in a way he found hard to understand, he felt detached from his body, like he had stepped outside himself for the briefest of moments.
Every light on the Caterpillar ride fired to life. The floodlights on the roof, the running lights on the inside ceiling and the running tracks, the lights on the cars themselves, and even the lights lighting the small bits of lawn growing on the outside of the structure, were all turned on. Kevin jumped in surprise at the brilliance of the ride suddenly come alive.
Then, Kevin stood dumbfounded as he heard the motors of the ride hum to life and the coaster start to roll. Just as it started up, music began blaring over the speakers placed on the ceiling of the Caterpillar's housing. The rock and roll song echoed across Loony Square.
"Now in the street there is violence
And - and a lots of work to be done
No place to hang out our washing
And - and I can't blame all on the sun..."
Kevin quickly shot a glance at the ride's control booth, but no one was there. The ride just went on its own, going round and round with no controller or passengers. Then, without warning, the ride's tarp unfolded covering the roller coaster cars, making the ride look like its namesake, a big circular green and yellow caterpillar. Kevin shook his head in disbelief. He knew operating the tarp could only be done manually from someone at the controls, but there was no one there!
"Stop it!" Kevin yelled in frustration. At that moment, he felt the same rush again, only warmer and more pronounced. He could feel a flow of heat on his face, and his feet seemed to lose all sensation. The sounds and sights of the ride seemed to dance in his mind, as he heard buttons being pushed and lights clicking off.
At that moment, the Caterpillar shut down. All the lights went dark and the music speakers went dead silent. The only sound to be heard was the metal to metal squeal of the ride grinding to a halt on its circular track.
"What's going on?!" Reggie yelled as he came running up from behind Kevin, with Josef closely after him.
Kevin shuddered as Reggie's loud voice snapped him back to reality. Instinctively Kevin wiped his sweaty forehead with the sleeve of his uniform as he steadied himself on his shaky legs.
"Are you trying to be funny, Kev? You wanna go play on the ride's now?!" Reggie accused as he smacked Kevin in the shoulder with the back of his hand.
Kevin simply stood and stared at the ride.
"Reggie," Josef intervened. "How could he do anything standing here?"
Reggie made a quick glance at the ride's empty control booth.
"He's run every ride in this stupid park! He'd know...he'd know how!" Reggie accused.
"He's right," Kevin said coldly. "I did it. I started it up."
Josef looked awkwardly at Kevin, then at the ride, then back to Kevin.
"How? Why?" Josef asked.
Kevin kept studying the Caterpillar. His eyes narrowed. His jaw clenched.
Without warning, the lights of the ride blazed on and the rock n roll music blared as the ride once again roared to life. Motors churned as the Caterpillar rolled on in its circular path. Reggie leapt in surprise so hard, he nearly fell over.
"Gaaah!" Reggie yelped. "Who's doing that?!"
"I don't see anyone at the controls," Josef observed. "Is there anyplace else you can control the ride?"
"I dunno. Never seen these things run by remote control," Reggie claimed.
As Reggie and Josef talked, Kevin just stood in silence. He stared at the ride, the circle of coaster cars going round and round, speakers pounding out music, the lights dancing. He saw them, heard them.
He felt them.
"Kevin, are you all right?" Josef asked as he saw Kevin nearly mesmerized by the ride in front of him.
Kevin's only reaction was to look down at the parchment, now wrinkled and sweaty in his hand. He gripped it tightly and looked back up at the ride, his eyes burning with determination.
"Stop," Kevin said quietly.
The music stopped dead. All the lights of the ride turned off. The coaster cars started grinding to a halt.
Both Josef and Reggie gasped. They slowly turned to stare at Kevin, who was still focused on the ride.
"Go," Kevin said.
The lights of the ride popped on, and the music erupted. The ride itself started to speed up again.
"Stop."
As commanded, the ride went dead. The speakers go quiet and everything went dark.
After a long and uncomfortable silence, Kevin exhaled a deep, draining sigh. He wiped his brow, which was covered in sweat. He then turned to Reggie and Josef, who were just staring at him in shock. Kevin gave a weak, embarrassed shrug.
"Whoa," Reggie sighed.