SCENE: Prosby woke up feeling fuzzy headed after dispatching a killer bot into Alexander Springs. The head pool of the spring was about the size of two backyard pools.
Prosby’s first thought was relayed to him by his face. It was planted, face down of course, in the sand.
His second thought was relayed to him by his upper shoulder. It had been sliced by the circular saw on the robot’s arm and it hurt like a mother$%#$#@.
“Hey man, stay down! We are trying to help you.” Prosby’s eyes came in and out of focus. He had lost a lot of blood.
“Hippie Chick,” he said without thinking, looking deep into the pools of black dilated eyes, tinged with ocean blue.
It appeared she didn’t have any clothes on as her honey brown hair nearly touched her knees. While confirming that observation he suddenly he realized he was naked. And he had no hair to use as cover! He started looking around.
‘Relax Robot Hunter. Clothes aren’t used much here. Your closes are dirty, torn and bloody. We will make you new ones.” Hippie Chick seemed to have a bevy of hippie chicks.
Prosby’s head hurt. They were in a small clearing covered by a canopy of trees. It was warm. It appeared as an outdoor cathedral.
Hippie Chick brought him something to drink. “This will help heal you” she said.
He drank it and fell into a deep dreamy state but was awake. He asked what they gave him. The nectar of honeysuckle, ground nutmeg concentrate and oil of budding yellow primrose, said Hippie Chick.
“Let’s get you to camp where you can recover,” she said. He felt for his right shoulder using his left hand. He felt wet dirt.
“Gray clay,” she said.
“It wounds all heals,” she said laughing, running away. “Stay here, they will bring you.”
About 10 naked hippie chicks were laughing; He was not sure if they were laughing at him as he stood up in all of his glory? Or the joke Hippie Chick made before running away?
They took him to see the men, hippie dudes. They sat in a circle and urged him to sit in the middle. The women came and sat next to the men. He started to daydream, thinking of Burnese and how difficult it will be to rescue her. He imagined running away with her and being safe as they live out their years together. He thought of Burnese saying: “And how long did you stay in the woods with the naked women while I was near death?”
This snapped out of his reverie. The hippies were laughing. They talked into the night sipping Elderberry wine.
He spent a day or two healing. He practiced WoW with them. The hippie colony had a meditative spiritual focus on the word ‘WoW. At around midday, they would gather in a tent revived from long ago. And they all said WoW. Not in unison. They would just walk around and say, ‘WoW.’ WoW, WoW, I mean WoW. It was the perfect word, they said, it was their word for creation. It was the same backward and forward. It was WoW that opened the universe to their beings, their souls, they said.
Wow. Just WoW.
Prosby actually got into it a litle bit. Making your lips shape the WoW was kind of funny after a few hundred WoWs.
HIppie Chick took an interest in Prosby, and snuggled up against him around the communal fire pit, But Prosby told her his story and said he loved another woman. She kissed him on the forehead and said, ‘Go rescue Burnese. She’s a fine woman. I’ll always be here.’ She smiled and disappeared into the darkness. He was off.
He didn’t look forward to this leg of the trip.
The Hippies persuaded him not to use Alexander Springs because every time someone uses it as a portal, it draws unwanted attention. One time after three assassins went through the portal and killed a rising young politician J. Effum Kaye, the government attempted to plug the spring shut with cement. The Hippies plagued the shut-down efforts with diversion tactics and nighttime raids. Finally the government gave it up.
So Prosby took it to the road, onward to Auburndale, which was near the coast now as Tampa and St. Petersburg were underwater. The air will likely get worse as Prosby approached the area. It’s as if Florida residents had retreated and huddled up, millions of them around the Auburndale area. Underground was the desirable place to live and breathe, above ground you need masks and a protection from the bounty hunters, rabid, vicious animals, diseases, and of course the ever-present drug gang wars. In the Underground, you had restaurants, fitness gyms, health care and decent employment if you don’t mind being part of the History of the World Project, rewriting and documenting thousands of pages and computer drives of tedious information. All other employment consisted of services such as cleaning, cooking, waiting tables, and a few entertainment jobs but you could only play songs approved by the government. The elite rulers knew the power of music.
To Be Continued …