The Book of Dema

CHAPTER ELEVEN + We Go Where We Want To

It was almost too dark on this night for an effective outing. From his crouch behind the clump of bushes, Tyler could see a short ten feet in front of him and then just barely. He could see Josh's teeth flash a smile an arm's length from him–always with a grin, Tyler thought. Always thinking we're having fun. Well, work ain't fun, man. I'm tired.

He looked out at the blackness of the field, and then his eyes went back to Josh. He smiled again at Tyler as though he could read his companion's thoughts. Josh nodded and weighed the heft of the yellow axe in his hands.

"Chirrup! Chirrup!" The sound of a bird call broke the silence away to their right. It was Sean and Morgan signaling they were in position. Michael and Carter were up ahead on the left, though unseen. Julie was sitting somewhere directly in front of them with a slender figure Tyler hadn't spoken to before beginning the outing. This made him uneasy. It was his habit to hear each person's story before going door hunting. The people were important, and there were nuances in the Numans' capture plans. It had been Josh who astutely noted that the Numans were using different tactics and team sizes based on the influence a particular subject had.

The thought reminded Tyler of a woman they had helped last year–a young teacher. Driven to despondency by the pressures of checking boxes, conforming to bureaucratic standards, and managing difficult parents, she clung only by a thread to the idea that hers was a noble profession and the children needed her. Torn by her suicidal thoughts, the importance of her work was her only lifeline and a weakness the Numan would exploit.

Tyler remembered her story and her pain. She started having the dreams one evening while she was sitting in the bath sipping wine and wondering if the world really had a place for her. She would doze and begin to see water and doors and women in colorful cloaks telling her there was another way to resolve her struggle–one that would help others. "The Way to Peace for troubled souls is through our colored doors," they would say. She told of how intense this temptation was. When she heard the name "Dema," the word piqued her interest. It seemed like they were offering her a new start where she could be of real service.

This had been news to Tyler. The Numan weren't just proposing she come for her own peace of mind but for the good of others. That idea had lingered with him since. Shortly after, the doors arrived, first at home and then at school. Comforting in her dreams, the doors in real life gave her chills that she was unable to explain to herself. That was when she had reached out on Reddit.

When the Fourth Circle took her on the outing, they were in for their own challenges. They were confronted by a change in tactic. The Numans began using teams of three instead of two and multiple doors simultaneously to confuse the Skeleton team. They wanted this "soul of service" and were willing to risk more to get her.

Josh had carefully considered the report. So engrossed in it, he had rebuffed all of Tyler's attempts to get him to the pool, one of his preferred workout locations. The team returned, having dispatched the doors and freed the teacher. The confusion, however, had taken its toll. All but one member of the team had been stunned despite wearing earplugs. All were now experiencing their own dreams, a disturbing development considering destroying the doors had previously ended that phenomena. Josh's response was to issue yellow duct tape to all the teams to be applied to their axe heads and handles. This had the effect of rendering their tools invisible to the Numan.

It was a small adjustment, but this unexpected response had the Numan on their heels for months afterwards. The impact of seeing their doors destroyed by people swinging only arms so alarmed them that abductions stopped for a time.

But the quiet did not last. Within days of the bandmates returning from an expanding show schedule, the door reports started flooding in to Sean's monitoring software at an increasing pace. It seemed the Numan had regrouped and were making up for lost time. The strategy this time seemed to be one of numbers. By overwhelming the Skeleton Clique's ability to respond to all the alerts, they increased the number of targets they managed to win. It also increased the number of people the teams were assisting without getting the usually detailed background information.