There was a diner in this town and parked in front of it Ingrid recognized two of our farm trucks. We rushed in and found Ted sitting at a table with his two children, his boy now twelve and his daughter sixteen. There was another young couple with them holding a baby. What most surprised me, Amira and April were also present, working behind the counter at the grill cooking some food. Ted stood up and greeted me while Ingrid ran to hug the couple at the table, her age and her close companions over the last eight years.
“How long have you been here?” was my first question.
“Only three days” Ted responded, “and how did you find us so quickly?”
“Pure luck I have to say. Sarah and I found a hidden valley with farms and Sarah suggested we move all our people there just to be done with Dora forever. The idea had such an appeal to me we drove south and did a little spying on the farm.”
“I’d been having a really bad feeling, not just about running away but about what might be going on there. When Ingrid by chance drove her tractor right up to where we were hiding in the bush and I saw the visors on her face my worst nightmares came true. We grabbed her and fled and when we were safe I cut them off her face and found, to my great relief, her mind was all there. But how did you escape in time?”
“Pure luck again, just like yours. Ever since you left Dora began acting in strange ways. Her little group were bringing in more equipment and distancing themselves from us in their basement. The day the antenna showed up I confronted her. There was no possible reason for it, except expanding their range and power.”
“She told me it was to increase the range of her droids so they could help us out on the farm. But I knew this was a lie. They didn’t care a jot about our food supply. It meant nothing to them. As it was slowly erected I loitered around. The trailer it came on also held a locked trunk. That in itself was a red flag.”
“Then I found my clue. There was a little box like the kind we used for stick matches on the ground near their tools. I pretended to tie my shoe and opened it. Inside were tiny screws, the same ones we used to fasten headsets into the skulls of criminals. Now I knew what was in the trunk.”
“My children were nearby and Jenny and George here were just about to take a truck on some chores. I sauntered over and told them to take my children immediately and leave for this destination and not stop till they got here. They could tell by a look and a tone they’d never heard before I was dead serious and they complied.”
“I drove my own truck back to the grove with the vague plan of rescuing Beth and June and May, and all the babies. But Dora was already suspicious and had Pan standing guard at the door to the nursery. I turned and strolled out the back door and the only people I could reach were Amira and April in their remote cottage, so I collected them and made it on dirt trails to the highway and here. That was three days ago. I thought it would be another four months before I saw you.”
“We’ve all been very fortunate” I spoke to the whole group. “You would have been wearing the googles as we speak. Ingrid suspects it must have happened in the night as she has no recollection of it. I’m sure they’ve done this with everyone we left behind.”
“From what she’s told me, they have the computing power to completely manipulate everyone’s minds through the glasses. They’re using the same old model, the same programming they used before, making her think she was working her way to some heaven by performing her chores on autopilot, not even seeing what she was doing. That’s how all-obliterating the power of the illusion, the control, the erasing of identity.”
“I asked myself why they might do this. The only answer is to advance their own agenda and that obviously includes turning us humans into their total slaves, not even slaves, less than that, automatons, robots. I’m declaring war on that.”
“The good news is that Ingrid recovered her wits and mind the moment we were far enough away and I cut her glasses off. So I’m guessing that if we act quickly we can recover our friends. We’ve found a great little valley to hide. Let’s go there now and make plans.”
