Thuraya Known – I'm glad you liked the 'Ben falls down' part. I've never experienced that before, and it sounds like you have, so I'm glad you thought it was good. I almost just breezed through his falling over, but for some odd reason I decided to work on that a bit more. What a coincidence you're studying the Ghost Dance! Keep me in check, if I make any mistakes, let me know!

Dark Duchess of the Underworld – I'm fairly certain that everything about the Ghost Dance is accurate. That would be one subject I wouldn't want to screw up on… but the medical stuff is mostly BS.

A short chapter again, which I don't like doing, but I've been so busy lately I just thought I'd update what I have. H'enjoy.

I knew I wasn't being buried under the new Earth but I thought about it anyways; was it really that bad if all white men died? Well, I sure hadn't done anything wrong. I was willing to live in peace and harmony with anyone who'd do the same. I didn't deserve to die.

Someone was tapping my back.

"Ben, you ok?" It was Blackwell. I rolled over and faced the now pretty cloudless sky. The sky and the doctor's face hung directly over mine, strange orange and yellow and brown streaks hanging in my peripheral vision. The ground was still tilting around a bit, but the back of my head hurt if I lay like that so I sat up.

Miraculously, the dizziness stopped when I sat up. With the absence of disorientation of my physical world came surprisingly sharp reorientation of what had just happened. They'd taken Riley. I stood, started towards the car.

"Come on, we have to follow them," I said, knowing something was a little weird about that plan, but what else was there to do?

"Ben, stop. Did you hear what they said?"

"They said something?" I turned around. Blackwell approached, looking more tired than I'd seen him since I'd known him, which was still less than twenty-four hours. Mrs. Blackwell just looked huffy.

"They said they took Riley so he could help them get false authorizations for their projects."

"What makes them think he'll comply with them?" I asked, knowing the answer. Blackwell voiced my predictions.

"They said they had ways of persuasion," he said, voice dripping with annoyance, probably at having to repeat the overly cliché threat. It always sounds so silly until it happens to you or someone you know. Then suddenly it's really, really terrifying. I felt a pang of something shoot through my gut. What was that? What is it that makes your guts twist up so that you can actually, physically feel pain, makes you want to crumple and close your eyes? Was it fear, or anxiety? Some weird hormones released when you experience panicky dread like I was?

I breathed. Had I been holding my breath? Yes.

What would they do to him? Were they just going to beat him until he did the job? Cut off his feet, break his knees, poke him in the eye with red-hot pokers, not realizing he was already feeling that pain again because he has no way of preventing the headaches now? They wouldn't seriously hurt him, they needed him to be conscious. He needed to be able to think so he could do whatever it was they wanted him to do.

I sighed – here it was yet again. Except now it was up to Riley. Would he choose the masses or himself? I truly didn't know. I wanted to believe he'd choose the masses, but when you think about it, when threatened with painful bodily harm, I'll bet a lot of people would give something up to avoid it. Now, what did I want? Did I actually want him to take whatever they did to him and not try to protect himself? I was split, part of me willed him to do whatever they told him, the other part… hoped he could handle the pain.

Not the thing to be thinking about. Either choice was bad. It was my job to eliminate the possibility of either. Had to do something quickly. The Blackwells were staring at me. Not saying anything.

"Alright, what should we do, you guys have any idea?" They didn't say anything. Blackwell approached the driver's side door, Mrs. Blackwell the backseat. I took that as a cue to sit next to Blackwell. I shut the door behind me and looked at him expectantly. When he spoke he kept his eyes staring straight out before him.

"When he hit you… he told us to drive straight to Price and park in the water treatment parking lot. He said if we didn't obey him he'd… harm Riley. And that we risked setting off something that would…" The doctor struggled for words. I finished for him.

"That would kill everybody."

"Basically."

"He also said he wanted each of us to call every hour. He'll be tracking our progress to make sure we don't go anywhere. He gave us this one to use, said it was rigged to be invisible." Blackwell handed me a cell phone. I wanted to throw it out the window.

"Did he say anything else?"

"He confirmed what you were saying."

"What?"

"Your suspicion that their ultimate plan is to have everyone dead. Including themselves." I wondered at the lack of surprise I felt. I'd suspected, sure. But upon confirmation… after everything else that had happened, it wasn't so weird after all. Now the Ghost Dance theory didn't make as much sense – if everyone was going to be dead, what was the point of shooting for a new Earth? Who would be there to enjoy it?

"They say why they were doing this?"

"No."

"They must be crazy."

"Quite possibly. They sound cult-like to me."

"Yep, definitely crazy." We sat for a moment. I really wanted to slide into the metaphorical muddy pit of doom and wallow in despair, but I had everyone in the world pulling me away from the pit, Riley pulling the hardest. It was pretty much my responsibility to save everybody. And it looked, at the moment, quite impossible. What in the world could I do? Everyone was going to die, but if I did anything… everyone was going to die sooner.

Blackwell turned the ignition.

"We have to make the first call in five minutes. If we haven't moved from this spot since then, they might think we're up to something." He started driving.

I was slipping into the pit of doom, despite how hard Riley and everyone else tugged at my mind. I turned around to Mrs. Blackwell.

"I don't believe we've formally met. Hello, I'm Benjamin Gates." I stuck out my hand. She smiled, took it and shook.

"Century Blackwell." Century?

"A story behind the name?"

"I was named after the Century Plant." Not more plants. But I would rather think about plants than how to save the world.

"I've heard of it - doesn't it bloom once every century?" Her smile widened.

"Common misconception. It takes many years, but not as long as a century. Benjamin, I know you don't want to think about it, but Riley is in danger, not to mention the rest of the world." She looked a bit apologetic, which is the only reason I didn't feel as angry as I otherwise should have.

"I know, I know, I know, I just… can't think of anything. It's impossible."

"Have you tried thinking?"

"Of course I have!" She didn't say anything. I sighed.

"Well no, not really. I don't want to . I just... how could this be happening?" I asked the windshield.

"That is a question best asked in the past tense after we've figured out how to solve this." She was probably right but I sure didn't want to think about it logically like that. I wanted to fume and yell and cry.

"Do you guys have any ideas?" I asked.

"What we have to do is stop it ourselves," said Blackwell calmly. There was a calm in the inside of my head, when nothing happened. I'd tried meditating in college, and I guess what I was shooting for was a period of time where your mind registered no thoughts. I had never been able to do it. I was always thinking something, usually when I was trying to meditate it was something like 'stop thinking, Ben. No, don't tell yourself that. Just don't. Don't think. Don't tell yourself not to think. Don't do that, stop thinking', etcetera. But right now, I came pretty close. My one brief, simple thought, was 'ok.' I thought that to myself. I thought it to myself once, but it lasted for a few moments. What Blackwell had said sounded rather vague, but I knew what he meant. He meant that instead of informing someone else, instead of getting the word out, we needed to find the keystone on this big bad procedure and yank it out, render it sterile. Then we could worry about all the little things that were happening, about Good Earth Medicine and all the others. And Riley.

"Alright, that's good. Our only option. Good option. Two obstacles I can think of to that: One, we don't know what it is or how to find out what it is. Two, our Chinese friend is tracking us. He'll know if we're up to something." I didn't mean it in a negative way, I was simply stating the facts.

"Well, we have Riley's computer, don't we?" asked Century.

"Haha, yes, we do, don't we? They forgot about that. But I can't hack. Can you hack?" I asked, hopeful. Hey, she had a cell phone. Maybe she was a hacker too. She shook her head.

"Ok. Well… we know… it's going to kill everybody."

"Do we? Directly or indirectly?" Blackwell asked, glancing at me.

"What do you mean?"

"It could be some bio virus disease thing, or it could… I don't know, destroy or render something that would in effect wipe out the entire world." The entire world. I could feel an outburst coming on and I did my best not to shout when it popped out.

"Why? Why are they trying to kill everyone? What reason could they possibly have to kill every single human, including themselves? Who would do that? Is it some… weird religious practice? Do they think they're the catalysts to some big apocalypse?"

"Ben, why don't you make the first call." Blackwell handed me the phone. I sighed. Looking at the number written on a post-it note on the dash, I dialed, wondering if I'd be able to keep my anger in check. Wondering who would answer, what they'd want, if they'd let me talk to Riley, if they'd even talk. What if they just wanted our coordinates? The other end rang. Half a ring and someone picked up.

"Ben, Century, or Garrison?"

"This is Ben."

"Good to hear your voice, Ben. Let's hear the others'."

"No, let's talk for a minute."

"How about I hear the Blackwell's voices, then we talk?" I sighed, handed the phone to Blackwell, who said his name, and Century, who did the same.

"Alright…what are you doing with Riley?" The man on the other end laughed. It was the Chinese man, I could tell by the accent.

"Didn't Garrison tell you? He'll be helping us out with some authorizations we've been having trouble with."

"And you're going to persuade him to help you how?"

"I know you're worried, Ben. Maybe you'd like to talk to Riley?" What? He wasn't supposed to offer to let me talk to Riley. I was supposed to demand that.

"What's the catch?"

"I'd appreciate it if you'd convince him that it's in his best interests to comply. We're not interested in hurting him but we will, if we must. We just want this to go smoothly."

"Whatever. Give him the phone."

"One moment." I held my breath. Muffled speaking.

"Hey, Ben." Relief flooded my chest. I didn't know why, they still had him and he could still get hurt. But he was conscious. He sounded tired.

"Riley! Are you ok?"

"I have a headache, as usual. I'm kinda dizzy. And I have a slight neck cramp. How are you?"

"Have they hurt you?"

"No, Ben, I just have a headache, a neck cramp, and I'm dizzy. I'm fine. How are you?"

"They're going to try to make you do things for them. Some sort of authorization."

"Ben, are you ok?"

"What?"

"That's the third time I've asked you that." I shook my head.

"Yes, I'm fine, I'm just worried. Riley… I'm supposed to tell you to do whatever they want you to do."

"Yeah, I heard Chinese guy telling you what to tell me. I'm in his backseat. He doesn't look too concerned that I'm talking about him."

"Be careful!"

"Ben, I really don't think these guys are going to do anything yet. If they weren't members of a psychotic cult that's trying to destroy the world and they're probably planning on torturing me to death later on, I'd be pretty ok with this."

"They won't torture you if you just do what they ask." What was I saying? Is that what I meant to say?

"Is that what you meant to say?" he asked. I was silent for a moment, thinking.

"Riley… see if you can determine how important these jobs are. If they really don't help along their grand plot, you should comply."

"And if they do?"

"Then… then…"

"Then I won't comply."

"That's not what-"

"That was so what you were thinking."

"Where are you guys?"

"I don't think the guy with the gun sitting next to me would appreciate me telling you that."

"Oooh." Another moment of silence. I was surprised they hadn't taken the phone away from Riley yet.

"Riley, I'm… I'm really sorry this is happening."

"Came with the job description, I suppose."

"I didn't give you a job description. You had no idea what you were getting into."

"I would have come along anyways." I wanted to tell him I was going to save him., I was going to come up with some miraculous plot to spring him from their grasp, but I couldn't do that on the phone. And I really didn't have any kind of plan yet. Shouldn't get his hopes up.

"Are you ok, Riley?" I asked quietly. I hoped he caught that I wasn't talking physically.

"Um…" Pause on his end. "I'm… I'm kind of… I'm scared, Ben." His voice had lost its characteristic flippant tone. It was quiet and I detected a slight shake to it. I sighed.

"I'm not going to abandon you."

"I know," he said, but I knew he was just saying it because he knew I wanted to hear it. Knew I wanted to hear him say he trusted me to save him. Did that mean he was just too scared to think straight, or he really didn't trust me?

"Trust me, Riley."

"Ok, Ben." Same tone as before.

"Ben, he wants the phone back. You guys be careful. Don't do anything stupid."

"Like we ever do stupid things. Riley… talk to you later." What else was I supposed to say?

"Bye, Ben." Muffled voices.

"So… I noticed you didn't make a great effort to convince him, Ben."

"You can't seriously expect me to do that?"

"It has to happen sometime, Ben. We're holding all the cards here. You can't do anything. It's only a matter of time before he helps us, it may as well be sooner and painless. Well it was nice to chat. I'm coming up on an exit, I'd better get off the phone. Safe driving and all."

"Could you just… please be careful." What the heck, I was telling Riley's captor to be careful. What was I thinking?"

"What?"

"Don't hurt him," if you don't need to. The last part of my thought wasn't voiced. I didn't want to encourage him.

"Can't guarantee anything, Ben. Again, we don't want to hurt him but if he doesn't cooperate I'm afraid we won't have a choice. I'm sure you understand. You're a smart man, you have to see things from our perspective. Some part of you understands. Really have to go now, Ben. Call in another hour." I shut the phone.

He shut the phone. I shut mine and put it on the dash, just in time to merge onto the next highway. I looked in the rearview mirror at Riley. Admittedly, he looked pretty miserable. I almost felt bad but I didn't want to harbor any sympathetic feelings towards him. That would just make the process more difficult.

"Riley, don't look so sad. You realize you could have been held by so many levels of worse people? We haven't touched you."

"Yet."

"If you just do what we ask, you'll be fine. You heard what I said to Ben, you really have no other choice." He kept his silence. He was thinking that Ben would save him, someone would come rescue him. He wouldn't have to make the choice. Well… he was wrong. No-one would come for him, I'd made quite sure of that. And he thought he'd just have to withstand simple beatings. Maybe when he realized what we were going to do if he resisted he'd go along with helping us. Then again, maybe it would encourage him to resist. There are those who don't believe in that sort of thing. What we were going to do to him if he resisted. I, however, knew it would work. He fit the description for susceptible victims. He didn't seem to have much self-confidence. Not much of a sense of identity. Always worried he'd done something wrong. As far as I could tell, it would work fine.

"Alright, Riley. I'm going to tell you everything now."

"Everything? Like why you're killing everyone?"

"Yes. Like that."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll realize it's all for the better." He laughed.

"That's likely." I gave a slight smile at his reflection in the mirror.

"You'll see it our way." I hoped for his sake that we wouldn't have to help him see it our way. He laughed again, nervously.

"What are you going to do, brainwash me?"

So I decided to change perspectives. Not permanently. But I couldn't just leave Riley hanging! Alright, things are really picking up in my life, so I think my little story sprint could be over, but I'll keep updating as much as I can.

Oh no, I've totally forgotten about Abi again! And ma and pa Gates… Ben's forgotten about them! AAH! I should remedy that. Yorn desh born!