The Cycle

Chapter 4 - Club on 21st Street

A purple light dancing to the beat of the music hit my eye. The bouncer stood to the side as we walked in. He pointed to a stairway leading up to the top floor. "Up the stairs and all the way to the back. Everyone's there except for Khole," he said.

Everyone. The thought rang around in my head.

We shoved our way through the crowd of people and made it to the stairwell. At the top of the stairs was a doorway with beaded curtains.

"So this is where you came all those times you ditched me in the club," I said.

"Yea, sorry." She gave a guilty looking face. "It wasn't every time though. Sometimes, I would go meet up with Alkin and he would buy me a drink too."

"Thanks for abandoning me, I feel so loved," I said trying to sound sarcastic.

Dixie went through the doorway first and then me.There was a large, round hallway with another bouncer standing at the door across the way. To the left and right of the door were bathrooms and above our heads was a huge chandelier.

We walked up to the bouncer. He asked, "What's the secret to completing the puzzle?"

Dixie whispered, "Up the stair, Down the stair, don't let the Justice disappear. Do what is fair in the cycle." The man took a step to the side, held out an arm of invitation and let us pass. Dixie opened the door and we walked in.

In the center of the big room was a circular shaped table which everyone was sitting around.

The first thing Dixie said when she walked in was, "Where is Khole? Honestly, he's going to be late to the apocalypse if he doesn't die before it happens."

A guy stood up and responded to Dixie. "He's on his way. He had to stop off at his house to grab the USB." The guy came over to shake my hand. "Hi, my name is Josh." It was't until he was standing right next to me that I recognized that he was really tall. He looked like he was about 6'4'' and his head almost touched the ceiling. He made me feel like a midget standing next to him. Actually I think he was just a giant. I returned his hand shake.

Then another guy came up. He was skinnier than Josh. And really short. He gave a gesture as if he was pushing Josh out of the way. "And my name is Mathew but you can call me Matt," He said.

I nodded kind of feeling uncomfortable and responded, "Its nice to meet you."

"Ok. Well, we're going to begin without him." Dixie said trying to get everyone back on task. "Take your seats."

Dixie took a key out of the bodice of her dress and inserted it into a key hole in the center of the circular table. She turned the key and a purple tinted projection popped up. Standing on top of the table was Alkin. It was easy to tell he was in an airplane bathroom, because everything around him was so small.

Dixie started, "Ok, what's the scoop? Where are you now?"

The projection shook. Alkin responded, "We're loosing connection, so I'm going to have to make this quick." He paused and the projection shook again. He continued, "I won't be able to be there until around 4:00 am. I need you to meet me at the airport when I get there. Both you and Vara. I know the Foundation is headed your way, but I'm not sure what their location is right now."

"I know someone who does know where they are and he's late," Dixie said rolling her eyes.

"Actually he's here!" Khole yelled as he came running through the door out of breath. "I forgot the password so I has to run back home where I wrote it down-"

Matt interrupted, "You wrote the password down?"

"Don't worry it's in a safe in a secret compartment in the closet of my room which is locked with a password that no one would be able to guess unless they were a Justice and even if they were a Justice it's still hard to get."

"Dude," Josh said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Ok let's focus on what's really important here. Khole just do your job." Dixie instructed ending the surprise interruption.

"Ok, chill Dixie. Here's the USB," Khole said. Dixie took the USB and plugged it into the side of the table

A holographic map popped up next to Alkin's face. We saw a red dot move through the map at a quick rate. Khole explained, "The Foundation is heading our direction. If we can get Vara and Dixie on the next flight we might be able to get them out of here before they try anything on us. Alkin, I think it's best that they meet you halfway."

"No, I don't want Vara coming toward this direction. The Foundation is trailing us too. Having them both Vara and the President together in the middle of the trail would just trap us all."

Khole said, "The map doesn't show the Foundation trailing you it only shows them traveling this way."

"They're definitely tracking us," Alkin said.

"Something's not right here. This isn't adding up. They must have found the tracker," Khole said. " It's time to move."

"Ok you know what to do. Khole, Dixie, keep Vara safe. We're going off route. We'll start heading west.

As soon as Alkin finished directing people around I started hearing a muffled beeping sound coming from the wall.

"Dixie, do you here that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" She responded turning around slowly.

"That sound, the beeping sound," I said with more nervous energy.

She tried to listen for it. Then gave up with all the noise of commotion. "Everyone, shut up!" She yelled. Then tried for the sound again.

"Everyone get down!" Dixie pulled me out of my chair onto the floor. Everyone scrambled to the floor.

The beeping got faster and faster, and then it stopped. There was no explosion.

"What the heck was that?!" Dixie yelled.

"Is everyone o-" Alkin said before he was cut off. The projection of him changed and a man dressed in all black with his face covered in some sort of black mesh.

He spoke in a deep voice close to Darth Vader's, "Hope I didn't scare you. Just know that that in the blink of an eye we could have easily blown up you and everyone else in this building. But if we did that, this process would have been too easy for me, for us. You have until sunset tomorrow to bring Vara to our base or we will kill everyone in New York City."

With those last words, the projection shut off. There was a moment of silence.

"Fuck you!" Dixie slammed her fist on the table.