Candice's Diary: Introduction

[5Cats]

It's the first chapter of a long, long story folks!

Candice?s Diary
Sept.3/01

He was trying to make heads or tails out of the metal sign. He stood on the top of a small hill. It was a bright sunny day, with a gentle breeze blowing from the south-west. The sign was supposed to represent the rail and ferry system for the area, but he was sure there was something wrong with it. He scratched his chin, shifted his weight from one foot to the other, but still the sign made no sense. He knew the area, he?d heard all about it from his girlfriend, her family came from around here. But where was here? Mexico, he was fairly sure he was in Mexico.
?That doesn?t make any sense,? He thought, ?her family is from northern Canada, not northern Mexico. She?s Cree, not Mayan. And this sign just isn?t right.?
The sign showed a river, and the seacoast, and several islands. So far, so good. There were lines and mysterious writing, definitely not English or Spanish, but obviously representing the routes that the local ferries and rail system took. But it showed a large bay where most of the town was standing. He could see it from the small hill which the obnoxious sign had been posted, from where he was standing it was off to his right. A town, not a body of water. And the distance to the islands was too far, disproportionate. In fact, he noticed, that the island due north of the town wasn?t supposed to be an island at all, it had been connected to the mainland by a man-made causeway. This sign, he concluded, had been put up a long time ago. Before, in fact, there were railroads or ferries in this area. Yet they were plainly, if erroneously, marked on this sign.
?There you are!? She called from the base of the hill. ?I?ve been looking all over for you, what have you been doing all this time??
?Hey Baby!? He was glad to see her, finally, something that made sense. Except it still didn?t make sense. He shook his head, too much thinking.
?I?ve been trying to figure out how to get to the city, but this sign doesn?t make any sense.? He pointed an accusing finger at the offending sign.
?Oh don?t worry about that, those silly signs don?t mean anything! C?mon, or we?ll be late and miss the train.?
She took his hand and lead him along the road to the left of the sign, away from where it said the train station was. He was so sure that the sign was important, that it had meaning. Yet after a short walk they arrived at the small train station. Perhaps it was some sort of warning, that things weren?t what they appeared to be. But his girlfriend smiled brightly at him, and the sun shone with a warm glow, people milled about doing their daily business. They were mostly Mayan, and many wore traditional outfits with shirts decorated with brightly coloured beads. Many wore sombreros, and most of the women wore a kerchief over their hair. What was wrong? What was bothering him? He looked down at the tracks, and noticed that they were scarcely a foot apart. How wide are railroad tracks supposed to be? Wider than that, he was certain of it. How could they be so narrow? No one else seemed to pay any attention to this, to them it must have seemed normal.
Before he could turn and ask his girlfriend about the narrow tracks, a train pulled into the station. The engine was a diesel-electric, but small, like it was originally intended to shuttle rail cars around, not pull them on extended journeys. It was perched over a single, wide wheel, and appeared to be ready to topple over at any moment. It was brightly painted, and had ribbons tied to it?s various guard rails and hand-holds. The passenger cars it was pulling were of similar design, reminding one of the letter ?A?. They looked even more unstable than the engine, but people climbed aboard without hesitation, and so he and his girlfriend did too.

When they were seated the whistle blew and the train chugged forward. His girlfriend was talking, pointing out various parts of the town they were passing. How the market her mother had bought vegetables in was over there, and her grandfather?s first house was on that hill. He wasn?t really paying attention, but she didn?t seem to notice, or at least didn?t mind. As the train picked up speed it crested a hill. He could see the impossibly narrow tracks going down the hill, along the narrow causeway that wasn?t on the sign, to the former island that was on the sign. He could see another town in the distance, obviously that was where they were going. With the ocean on either side of them now, there was no place else to go.
?What?s the name of that town we?re going to?? He asked.
?Oh, I don?t know. We just refer to it as ?The Navy Yards?. We?ll take a ferry from there to the big city.?
He remembered that ferry route was marked on the sign, but it had indicated another ferry ride to get to the island, not a rail line. He wondered how she could have grown up here, knew so much about the area, and yet couldn?t remember the name of this town. She was talking now about how the local people had been forced into building this causeway, how it offended their ancient beliefs to build land onto where water had been. Yet she didn?t know the name of the town. It continued to bother him as the train chugged along.
Chugged? It was a diesel-electric, why was it making a distinct ?chugging? sound? He could feel the pulse of the engine through his feet, through the seat and the entire train throbbed with the ?chug-chug? rhythm. It simply didn?t make any sense.

?C?mon! I?ll show you the submarine pens while we?re waiting!?
They had arrived at the station and gotten off the train. His girlfriend tugged at his hand, eagerly leading him towards a low, concrete building.
The people of this town were different, he noticed. They worn more western style clothing, or navy uniforms. A dark blue jacket and white pants, with white running shoes. There were lots people, but they were lost in the vastness of concrete, which surrounded the small rail station. He could see the docks in the distance to the north, with several small boats moored under a huge concrete sun-shade. There was a large berth where he figured the ferry must dock, but it was empty.
As they approached the building, he saw another sign, similar to or the duplicate of the one on the hill near the town. He tried to stop and look more closely at it, but his girlfriend urged him onwards. They entered the building, and once his eyes adjusted from the bright sunlight to the artificial light, he saw that inside the building there was nothing except the doors to 3 elevators, and a hallway to their left. Several people were waiting for an elevator to arrive, and when one finally did, they went into it, as did he and his girlfriend. There were only two buttons on the elevator?s control panel. The lower one was glowing, indicating that they were going down. The doors closed with a solid ?thunk? and the air pressure suddenly rose, hurting his ears. Then the elevator began it?s descent, falling at what seemed to be an alarming, if not fatal speed, for what seemed like a very long time. He looked around and saw that no one else seemed to mind, his girlfriend was still smiling. He gritted his teeth as the elevator slowed then came to a stop.
They stepped out into a vast, man-made cavern. Far above them artificial lights gave a pale illumination to this chamber of concrete. There was a great open expanse of water on his left, which ended at the walls in the distance. There were a couple of submarines docked in the distance along the right side of the water, with busy sailors going to and fro. There were booths and tables set up along the wall to his right, like a market, and the people who got off the elevator headed over there. Except for him and his girlfriend, who walked over to the water?s edge. She was talking about this place, but he wasn?t paying any attention really. As they got to the water, he saw a huge white shape rise up from it?s depths. It was a submarine, pale while like a Beluga whale, and it slid silently into the dock closest to them. The people in the chamber immediately took notice of it?s arrival, and began closing up their shops and scurrying about. The other submarines began boarding, and locking down their hatches.
But his girlfriend stood and watched the submarine, so he stayed and watched it too. A door on it?s conning tower opened, and a man dressed in a business suit stepped out, to the right of the door. This man began talking about something in a rapid, polished way, and gestured to a large box which stood just inside the doorway. It was a salesman, he reasoned, and he?s trying to sell us something, this is a sales pitch. His girlfriend was listening intently, so he started to pay attention too.
?The best thing about the reality door? the salesman was saying, ?is it?s safety. There?s even an emergency release device which magnetically triggers the explosive bolts.? He held up a small electronic device, pushed one of it?s buttons and it began glowing. ?If I were to place the device on the hatchway?? He was saying, but he held the device too close to the hatchway on the box, and the device slapped against it, like a magnet on a fridge.
?Oh shit!? The salesman said, and ran away. The device started an ominous beep-beeping, like a countdown.
?He does that every time.? his girlfriend said with a laugh. ?RUN!? She shouted, and bolted to the elevator, whose door was still open.
?Does what every time?? He asked as she ran away from him. ?Has this happened before? What?s going to happen now?? He started to run after her, but she got into the elevator and the doors rapidly closed. Behind him there was an explosion, he turned to see what it was. The hatchway to the ?reality door? had blown open and a horizontal geyser of clear, blue Caribbean water shot out of it. As immense as the chamber was, it was quickly filling with water, and in only a few seconds he knew he?d be submerged.
?Oh shit!? he shouted, but there was no one else to hear him. He?d arrived at the elevators but their doors were all closed. He saw a hallway to the left, like there had been at the surface. He ran towards it, the water rising above his ankles. The short hallway lead to another elevator door, smaller than the other three. The water was up to his waist by the time he reached it. He pressed the button by the door as the water continued to rise to his chin. What else could he do? There was nowhere else to go. He took a deep breath as his head submerged. He was not able to float in the water at all, his feet remained on the floor as the water engulfed him. After an agonizing second, the doors of the elevator sprang open, the water behind him pushed him in and he struck the back wall with a thud. It?s force pinned him to the wall, but he managed to get another breath of air. The elevator filled completely with the clear blue water, right up to the ceiling. As it reached the ceiling, an alarm sounded and the doors closed. The elevator began to slowly rise, but it was obviously air-, and therefore water-tight, and it remained full of water. He looked around for some way of escape, but there was none. In a few more seconds he?d drown. He looked up at the light on the ceiling, which lit up the water in a blue glow, and saw a bright sparkle which twinkled in one corner. An air pocket! He surged upwards towards it, face first, blowing out what was left of the air in his lungs.

He awoke, sitting upright in the hotel bed, sweating and gasping for breath. He looked around in disbelief, still gasping for air. His face was wet with sweat, but also with tears, it had been so real. He saw his girlfriend lying beside him, she awoke and rolled over to look at him.
?Are you alright?? she asked ?What?s the matter??
?A dream.? he said, having finally caught his breath ?It was only a dream.?
Now other voices were talking, in hushed whispers, as if they didn?t want to be heard. He looked for the source of the voices, but couldn?t see anyone. Something was wrong. Then he realized that this was not a hotel room, but a hallway with a bed in it. In fact this wasn?t a hotel at all, it was an old-fashioned insane asylum. The voices were coming from the other residents, but they weren?t speaking. He was listening to their thoughts! Dozens, hundreds of thoughts, all at the same time. And what they were thinking wasn?t the least bit pretty. Two thoughts stood out above the rest. One was a black man who was thinking of terrible, terrible things he wanted to do to others with a knife. The second was a frail, middle-aged, white woman who was thinking, over and over again:
?My name is Candice. Remember, remember me.?

He awoke again. This time in his own bed, in his own apartment. He had made it home, alive.

[Mibbitmaker]

Only the introduction and already lots of cryptic stuff.

[Wee B. Pimpin']

~Mental note to self~

Never date anyone named Candice...

Truthfully.....5cats...I only read about 1/3 of it the forst time then tried to go onto something else butt had to cum back and finish it.

Now for chapter 1

Wee

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<A HREF="http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/Forum155/HTML/000145.html" TARGET=_blank>U know I went to Rehab 7/27....Anybody wanna go here about it....?
</A>

[Branflakes]

Hmmm, very interesting. I'll go check out Chapter 1. Nice start!

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The ninja lesbian milk getter.
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