The Writer and The White Cat

Real World Poetry and Humility

2013-02-03T00:51:00.001-05:00

"As I watched in horror, I was certain that I would lose my entire family."

excerpted from God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation by Joseph Sebarenzi and Laura Mullane

For the last several weeks I've had the great pleasure of working with Omar Reda, M.D. He is a man of remarkable talents, tremendous achievements, and great humility. His biography reads: "Dr. Reda is a Libyan American psychiatrist who graduated from Benghazi Medical School in 1996, worked as an ER physician before leaving Libya for fear of persecution. He then obtained a Masters certificate in global mental health from Harvard University in 2007, and finished a residency in psychiatry from the University of Tennessee in 2009.

Dr. Reda is currently an assistant professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, the founder and director of Libya Al-Shefa project for psycho-social healing, recovery, rehabilitation and reconciliation. Dr. Reda had served as the psychosocial advisor for a number of international NGOs and as the country deputy mental health lead during the war.

He is an expert and a sought-after public speaker on issues of psychological trauma, Muslim mental health, immigrants’ mental health, the Libyan revolution and the Arab spring."

I'm editing his new book titled "A Journey of Hope: Searching for Hope in the Middle of a War Zone." He's an impressive man in that his word poetry is focused on bring healing into the world. What he has seen and heard are difficult to comprehend. In this book, in tender but strong language he tells the story, for example, of a woman who was forced to act as a slave to Gaddafi's wife. During a fit of temper, Gaddafi's wife ordered soldiers to dump the woman into her bathtub and pour boiling water on her.

He heard this story directly from the woman's own lips. The Gaddafi's did not take the woman to the hospital. She nearly died from the infections. Before she was properly treated, she was taken back to the house and locked away.

Dr. Reda saw so much of this type of tragedies that he should have been numb to the horror. But in working with what he has written, it became clear that he always was able to feel the pain of these victims. He trained teams of medical personal to focus not only on their patient's physical injuries but their emotional as well.

The stories he tells would be enough to make me sick with sorrow were it not for the fact that Dr. Reda was able to find hope for healing the cultural divides that not only keep people apart, but in refusing to bow to megalomaniacs. He reveals the devastating effects of the Libyan uprising, its people and his very own family for us to see and learn from.

The manuscript re-writes should be done by April, and I promise you it will be a fine book- a work of real world poetry from a humble man with a healing heart.

Young Adult SciFi

2013-01-26T00:45:00.002-05:00

Before working with the staff at Sam's Dot Publishing, it had never occurred to me that there was such a thing as young adult science fiction. Or science fiction poetry, for that matter. But after reading through the various science fiction magazines we now publish, I was amazed at the scope and range of possibilities that sci-fi embraces.

That's why I'm thrilled to be publishing Beyond Centauri. It's specifically geared toward young readers. It's my hope that it increase the number of young people motivated to study science.

Most of my reading prior to last year was confined to mystery and suspense. Working with the fantastic crew at Sam's Dot Publishing has opened my eyes to what I've been missing by ignoring science fiction.

But I'm going to blame Alex Cavanaugh for starting me down the sci-fi trail again. When I read his CassaStar, I was hooked.

Cosmic Crime

2013-01-24T16:30:00.004-05:00

Having lots of fun on the publishing side of things these days. We have a total of 17 new magazines we're publishing of at White Cat,

I get to work with some really cool publications, including our digest called Cosmic Crime Stories, which covers intergalactic crime. As a guy new to science fiction, I'm finding it pretty darned interesting!

Working the Writing Deals

2012-12-10T20:57:00.000-05:00

With 15 or 16 magazines being published at White Cat Publications now that Sam's Dot Publishing and White Cat are merging operations, I realized that it's been a month since I blogged and am now one of those bloggers trying to explain where they've been for an extended period of time.

The thing is that there are a lot of people committing a lot of time and good faith to White Cat's success, and I very much appreciate their trust.

So I'll be spending a lot less time blogging and a lot more on making sure that White Cat's growth trajectory is such that writer's have more places to submit their stories than ever before and readers can discover a new home for genre stories.

Happy Holidays to anyone I don't talk to before next Spring! By then the company should be well on its way.

Also, I'm looking about for another small press publisher to acquire. If you know anyone out their who might be looking for a new home for their publishing efforts, let me know, will you? I hate seeing good magazines or book publishers fold just because they can't carry on.

White Cat Announces "Blue Shift"

2012-11-05T22:09:00.000-05:00

White Cat Publications, LLC. is pleased to announce that Byran Thomas Schmidt has joined White Cat Publications, LLC. as editor for our new science fiction magazine Blue Shift, due out mid-2013. We’re proud to have Bryan on staff. Here’s his bio:

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Books For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, headlined by Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, a Ray Gun Revival Best Of Collection for Every Day Publishing and World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, all forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

Introducing Ives Hovanessian & "Dark Intent"

2012-10-28T14:48:00.000-04:00

White Cat Publications, LLC. is proud to announce the development of its new mystery magazine, "Dark Intent," which while premier in June 2013 and be edited by Ives Hovanessian. Submission guidelines will be released soon by our Editor-in-Chief, Charles P. Zaglanis.

Ives Hovanessian is a screenwriter and author of noir, uncanny and horror fiction. Her prose work appears in anthologies from Aetherial Publishing and Obsolescent Press. Her first screenplay, Trendsetters, was optioned by Colossal Entertainment. A debut collection of short stories, "I Am Death," Cried The Vulture, will be released in the summer of 2013. She is also a contributing columnist for The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

Conjurings & Bartholomew Klick

2012-10-26T16:17:00.000-04:00

Over at White Cat Publications, we’re proud to announce our new fantasy magazine Conjurings will be coming out next spring, and that we have selected Bartholomew Klick as editor for this new publication.

Bart studies English and Chinese at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas, where he also lives under a bridge, guarding the last remaining portal to the fairy lands. He plays flute and writes short fiction, some of which is occasionally published. He makes a web comic at ramen-empire.com, proofreads for Nightmare Magazine, and now edits Conjurings.

Please give Bart a warm welcome- he has a big job ahead of him.

White Cat's New Mystery Magazine

2012-10-23T22:42:00.002-04:00

White Cat. LLC. will be making announcements soon for upcoming new magazines including a fantasy magazine, science fiction magazine, and a mystery magazine. I'm going to be editing the mystery magazine myself and leaving the others to the new editors we'll be announcing in the near future.

Keep your eye on White Cat Publications website to see what's coming up.

Insatiable is Now for Sale

2012-10-22T08:33:00.002-04:00

Insatiable: the Magazine of Paranormal Desire is now available over at White Cat Publications. It's loaded up with stories by Nicki Elson, Ellen Denton, Diane Arrelle, Gary McNully, Lillian Csernica, Timothy Friend, Alexis A. Hunter, Jude Marie-Green and E. Catherine Tobler. Book reviews by Erica Cassell and Christina Rundle. The Author Spotlight this issue includes an interview with Zoe Winters by our own Christina Rundle.

Head on over when you can and get a copy.

Starving Writers

2012-10-17T19:30:00.003-04:00

A Little Donation Can Feed

A Lot of Kids

See that kid in the picture?

He's hungry. Lots of kids are hungry these days and so are a lot of adults.

Don't wait til the holidays to help out.

White Cat Publications, LLC. has partnered with Gleaners Community Food Banks. Why? Because writers and artists aren't the only people who starve. Click on the picture of the kid and you'll go to the website we've set up together so you can make your donations. It all goes to Gleaners. And 96 cents goes to food and only 6 cents to overhead.

So if you can help, click on the kid and done some bread. No pun intended. Well, maybe a little one.

Insatiable

2012-10-11T16:26:00.000-04:00

For the next 10 days we'll all be hustling to produce the first issue of Insatiable: the Magazine of Paranormal Desires.

The first issue has wonderful stories, book reviews and author interviews, which is why we ordered a pallet of coffee for the office and set up a line of credit with the local pizzeria.

Episode 32- The Kill List

2012-10-08T14:58:00.003-04:00

Voices.

Voices filtered through dark cotton as I drifted back and forth between dreams and the beginnings of consciousness. Pervasive dread prowled my reveries; hungry night wraiths growled and salivated as they hunted me. I pressed hard against the veil between sleep and waking, but could not break through.

"How much do we tell him, Ian?" said a rough-edged voice.

"It's dangerous to leave anything out," said someone else.

"He threw himself across Sissy to save her life," said another. It was Mark, I knew that voice. "I say we tell him whatever he wants to know."

"Hate to burst your bubble," said the first man, "but he landed on her after bouncing off the floor. That's why he was stretched out across her legs. You ought to have figured that out, cousin."

Drifting, drifting. Desperately trying to return. Terrible phantasms slithered through my torpidity.

"People have to know what's happening," said the second voice. "To defend themselves."

"With what?" said the first voice. "Besides, the government will seal this place off in a heartbeat if they know what's under their feet. They're running all over topside right now. If they weren't so damned blind, there wouldn't be anything left to hide. We're the ones doing the hiding from everyone. For their own good."

They were quiet for a moment and I panicked. I struggled toward consciousness.

"You know the drill, Enid," said Mark. "Government would lock this place down so they could weaponize everything they find. But what's down there needs to stay down there. Messing with that is liking trying to pick the locks on the gates to hell."

"And you two think if this writer writes down everything that happened we can get it out to everyone without the government shutting it down? You remember what happened in the Middle East? Who do you think really controls the Internet? Ebook, print book, it won't make any difference."

"Maybe," said the one named Ian. "But we have to take the chance. People have to know. This guy writes it up, publishes it and then we see what we see."

"Why don't you do that yourself?" askd Enid.

I opened my eyes to a room filled with blurry lights and shapes just as the other gave his answer.

"Because," he said, "I'd like to stay alive. Whoever writes this up will be on a kill list from day one."

White Cat Magazine Issue 6 is Available!

2012-10-06T18:21:00.000-04:00

White Cat Magazine Issue is available for purchase as a pdf with print and mobi/epub versions to follow soon.
Our Fall issue presents stories by John Shirley, John Claude Smith, Christie Maurer, Jamie Mason, and Charles P. Zaglanis, Ferrel D. Moore
Interviews featuring Jason Sizemore and Tom Piccirilli
Reviews by Blu Gilliand and George Beremov
Cover art by William Roberts
Brought to you by White Cat Publications, LLC.
www.whitecatpublications.com

Episode 31- The Door to Hell

2012-10-02T14:38:00.003-04:00

In my unconscious state, I dreamed uneasy dreams. I dreamed a door of stretched alien skin. It permeated the air with the smell of burnt sulfur and bubbling green blood.

Whisperings.

Strange whisperings crawled up my back and into my brain.

In my fever, I walked through that door as though it were not there. Sissy was terrified of what waited deep below the tunnels and caves of Townsend Mountain. It was an instinctive fear magnified by a dark, subconscious knowledge. I felt it too as my wandering consciousness stepped through that membranous door. Something disturbingly alien lay hidden behind it.

I stepped into a giant cavern where the air itself was alive with a pale neon blue light. I saw rows and rows of automatons topped with the glass domes Sissy had described. Red brass mechanical men stiff and upright with arms veined by cables and jointed fingers that shone like infrared fire. They were connected by a network of glassine tubes that pulsed with an eerie white energy. They stood at attention, connected by these tubules to a monstrosity that hung at the sheer rock face at the back of the cavern. It was suspended twenty feet in the air like a giant spider between two metal pylons by the web of glassine tubules that were affixed to each soldier.

There was no defense against my inner compulsion to comprehend this mystery. I had to see it. Had to stare into the face of madness itself.

The air in the cavern, though itself alive with energy that fluoresced the vast empty space with light, seemed undisturbed by any presence for a very long time. There was no noise in the room save for a soft electrical buzz. Suddenly the back wall began to glow faintly with a viridian light, which quickly darkened into a purple-black incarnadine emittance so repulsive I felt the desire to turn and bolt for my life.

But my body lay unconscious on the rock floor of a dark tunnel somewhere else.

In my inchoate dream, I instead moved forward, walking through the rows of hulking automatonic soldiers, too anxious to look upward to see the dead souls twisting beneath their crystal domes. The sheer number of these mechanisms filled me with trepidation. The unreasoning fear that one of them might come to life and recognize me as an intruder, then wake the others.

I kept my eyes on their metal feet, walking up the rows, getting closer to the thing in the center of this evil architecture. I could not think of who built this army. The age of their construction was indeterminate. The fact of these hideous mechanical soldiers was chilling. But it was the strange creature in the web of tubular light that pushed me too close to the edge of sanity.

Closer.

A moment of weakness.

I looked up at an automaton. Saw the crystal dome and the fluid wisps that moved beneath it like lost aethyric spirits searching for surcease. A translucent face, then another writhing within the domes as though twisted by invisible fingers. Eyes glazed in gauzy effulgence peering back at me.

I screamed. I ran.

I felt the floor tremor. Saw the back wall flash raging scarlet then subside.

I stopped and looked up. I was only twenty feet from the suspended monstrosity.

It was a lifeless man with a ragged beard down to his chest and wild, frayed hair that hung past his shoulder. He wore a disintegrating Confederate Civil War uniform of rock washed gray.

His head lolled to one side. His eyelids closed as though he had been forever asleep.

To my horror, I saw that his legs had been cut off at the knees and both his arms severed at the elbows. The pulsing glassine tubules attached to these stumps as though his suspended form was the hideous heart of this network of glassine arteries and veins connecting the mechanical soldiers.

How long his mutilated body had hung there I cannot say. Who had done this to him and how long ago they had so savagely murdered him I would never know.

I could not imagine his agonizing death, but hoped for his sake it had been mercilessly quick.

My nerves had reached their limit. It was time to leave.

At just that moment his eyelids popped open and I saw that his eyes were silver slits of bright metal, as though someone long ago had dug them out and replaced them with platinum silver crescents.

He opened his mouth and screamed shattering fusillades of fury.

The Horror Zine Reviews "Tainted Blood"

2012-09-28T10:29:00.000-04:00

Tainted Blood got a great review from "The Horror Zine" today in their Halloween issue. It's always a weird feeling to know a magazine is going to review your book. When you read the review, its like listening around the corner when people are talking about you.

On the other hand, when it's positive, it's worth eavesdropping!

Episode 30- Death by Disintegration

2012-09-27T01:11:00.000-04:00

It was the only smart thing I did that night.

I ran with my hand along the side of the tunnel to keep from smashing into rock when we came to a bend. That's what I say now. But I know better. I needed to touch something that night to steady me against the black chaos of the pursuit as we went further down into the underground abyss. We were running for our lives. The sound of the creature's roars of rage echoed around us as the tunnel narrowed.

My lungs were hot with pain. My legs were numb with exhaustion.

The fear of death drove me like a whip.

The monster bellowed. It was farther back than I expected, but I ran harder. When it bellowed again, I could sense its helpless hatred. The sound was much further behind us.

I could hear its frothing frustration as it continued. Further and further back still.

"Sissy," I shouted.

From somewhere up ahead, she yelled for me to shut up and keep running.

The monster's screams were getting farther and farther behind us.

"I think it's stuck," I said.

We both slowed down and then reluctantly stopped. I leaned over with my hands on my knees. The creature continued to bellow its frustration and rage while I tried to catch my breath. I felt Sissy's hand on my shoulder and it startled me. But enveloped in total blackness with a terrifying creature somewhere behind us bent on ripping us to pieces, her touch was the best thing that could have happened to me.

"You think it's really stuck?" she said.

"Maybe," I said.

"I hope so," she said.

It howled with manic frenzy. I could imagine it writhing in a narrow passage, insane with the desire to break free of the rock walls that trapped it.

"It's sounds pissed off," I said.

"Good," she said. "I hope it gets so mad it blows itself up."

"Not likely," I said.

At that moment, from far back the way we had come, a bright blue-white starburst of light exploded like an overheated transformer. The pressure wave knocked us both backward and I caught a brief glimpse of Sissy tumbling head over heels before I hit my head on the rock floor and blacked out.

White Cat Issue 6 is Coming...

2012-09-24T16:03:00.000-04:00

October 2012

Episode 29- The Depths of Darkness

2012-09-20T23:05:00.000-04:00

I had just turned to run when I heard Sissy fire the first shot.

"Don't shoot, run," I yelled over my shoulder.

When I turned to look and see if she was following, I saw her fire another round. An enraged, ear-busting roar came from the creature in the breach.

Another shot. She stood straight, with her feet apart and her arms raised and locked into position like a life-size GI Jane.

One of the creatures eyes was now a liquid red pulp. I saw a tiny hole above the other eye.

She fired again. Again.

I saw its entire head protrude through the energy breach. Then a thick scaly neck. The breach widened and a giant pair of clawed hands came through followed by arms the color of copper cable.

Sissy sent a bullet straight through one of its nostrils. It opened its mouth and screamed.

I grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back through the door. She slammed me backward with the butt of her rifle, knocking me to the ground, then dropped to one knee and kept firing as the entire creature came through. The floor trembled under its weight.

Sissy fired one last shot.

The creature reared up and back to its full height. In the eerie red sparkle lights, it glowed with dark energy. Sissy dropped the rifle and ran past me through the door and into the darkness beyond.

"Hurry up," she yelled back at me.

The beast was over twenty feet tall. If it wasn't for the domed ceiling, it couldn't have stood up. It was six or seven feet wide and I realized at that instant it couldn't follow me out through the door.

But first I had to make it to the door.

I started scooting backward slowly as the creature eyed me with its one good eye. It took a step forward. The floor shook. I panicked, scrambled back to my feet and bolted through the door faster than I knew I could run.

A small light clicked on and I brought my hand up to protect my eyes. Sissy now had a small halogen lamp strapped to her head. She had me by the sleeve and was pulling me down the corridor, her camper's lamp lighting the way. We slowed in front of a door and she reached for the handle.

There was a crash behind us and we turned in time to see the entire wall explode into pieces that bounced off the tunnel wall like defective shrapnel. The beast's grotesque head stuck out into the hallway. It turned away from us, then turned back, fixing on our light.

Sissy reached for the handle again.

"No," I shouted. "Run."

She got the point. If the monster could knock down one wall, it could knock down another.

The sound of claws raking over stone and loud, slithering rasps. The thudding impact of its weight with each step. We tore down the hallway like we were on fire and looking for water.

"Isn't there any place the tunnels aren't so wide?" I shouted in between heaving gulps of air.

We came to an intersection of three tunnels. Sissy's head swung back and forth for a moment, trying to make up her mind.

"This one," she said as she turned left.

The tunnel began to slant downward.

We were going from bad to worse.

Sissy slipped and went down. I doubled back, lifted her to her feet and pulled her behind me. She resisted and tried to turn back.

"No," I said. "It's still back there. Can't you hear it?"

"My rifle's back there, you idiot. I dropped it."

The air shook with a roaring rage.

No time to go back for the rifle.

We turned and starting running. Sissy's light went out. The darkness descended on us again. I could hear the creature's claws raking the rocks behind us.

A new terror suddenly seized me. It was the complete and inexplicable conviction that no matter how horrifying the creature behind us, there was something ahead much worse worse, and I knew that it could see us coming.

Episode 28- The Breach

2012-09-19T22:38:00.001-04:00

"Sissy," I said softly, "where are you?"

The malignant darkness pressed against me. Absolute silence, cold and menacing.

"Sissy?"

"Shut up," she hissed from somewhere to my left.

I moved a step toward where I'd heard her voice. Her fear hit me full force, the fear of being alone in a strange dark place. It matched my own growing sense of terror.

"You feel that?" I whispered.

"Shut up."

"The air- it's moving."

It was more than that. It felt like the room was breathing.

Something grabbed my shirt sleeve and I almost screamed.

"That's you, isn't it?" I asked.

"Who else?" she said in a tight voice. "We're the only people here."

"I don't think so. This doesn't feel right," I said.

The room grew colder, and once again I smelled ozone. All around us, tiny pinpoints of red light began to sparkle like electrified snowflakes. I looked toward Sissy, and could see by the light of the tiny sparks that her lips were clamped shut to keep from screaming.

In the corner of the room farthest from us, a tiny ring of angry red-purple light appeared and began to distend and widen. Within its center I saw an undulating deeper depth of darkness. A blast of distorted static crackled from it. I remembered the eerie, twisted lights that had preceded the terrifying creature in the forest. I held my breath.

"Oh shit."

"What?"

"We've got to get out of here," I said as I grabbed her arm and pulled her behind me.

"Let go of me," she said.

I kept pulling at her.

"We'll die if we don't get out of here," I said.

"There's nowhere to go except down and I ain't going down."

"What's coming out of that hole is going to be really, really bad, Sissy. So get moving."

I'd pulled her three or four steps behind me when she dug in her heels.

"No. Not til you tell me what's going on."

"Oh shit," I said, looking past her.

Sissy turned and saw it, too.

Beyond the angry sparkles of light, a hideous face glared at us from within the twisting oval of purple-red light.

Episode 27- Mechanical Soldiers, Part Two

2012-09-18T00:39:00.001-04:00

"You've seen them?" I asked. "Hundreds of mechanical soldiers underground?"

"You think I'd make up something like that? I ain't seen them myself, but I read the journals. And it has what I said about being able to look in their domed glass heads and the the faces of the dead."

Sissy's pale, freckled face looked even younger than I had first thought. She seemed almost desperate for me to believe her.

"You can think what you want," she said. "I ain't crazy."

"I never said you were," I said. "I just wanted to know if you'd actually seen them."

"We don't go down there- women that is. It's not safe. Not if you want to have kids."

We were back in the room where we were supposed to meet Mark. It was the highest point you could go in the tunnels and caves that networked beneath Townsend Mountain. It was the size of a two car garage, with a domed, shiny metal ceiling. There were two gun metal gray desks and four chairs. The floor looked like linoleum salvaged from a nineteen fifties kitchen. The room was lit by indirect lighting that ringed the base of the domed ceiling. It was like being in an underground high school counselor's office. We sat looking at each other across one of the desks.

"I don't get it. You're saying that going down to wherever these automatons are could make a woman sterile or something like that? Is that it?"

"Worse than that," she said. "A lot worse than that."

"Like what?"

"I already told you too much," she said. "Nobody's supposed to know. It's just so weird down here. It's hard to think right. I was never here by myself til daddy had me come wait for you. He couldn't come himself. He had to be back at the house in case the black suits showed up looking for you. So he sent me. Now I went and told you too much. This place gives me the creeps."

"Were you scared?" I asked. "Waiting by yourself?"

Sissy's eyes widened.

"You have that gun," I added.

"Rifle," she said.

"Okay, you have that rifle. It's enough to scare anybody'd who try to bother you."

"I'm not afraid of anybody in these parts," she said.

"Well, then, you'd be safe from bears or wolves or whatever is in the woods at night."

"You're ignorant," she said.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"You haven't listened to a word I've said, have you?"

The lights dimmed, and I smelled the sharp odor of ozone and then heard an ominous electrical crackle.

"What was that?" I asked.

She ignored my question.

"I'm not afraid of anything outside this place," she said.

"What happened to the power?" I asked. "Why are the lights flickering?"

"The only things I'm afraid of are down there," she whispered, pointing her rifle at the floor and what lay below.

The lights dimmed until they were little more than a soft blue glow around the edge of the room's ceiling.

"Maybe there's a short in the wiring," I said nervously.

My skin felt abraded. My mouth was dry and the skin on the back of my neck tightened with fear.

"Daddy says it happens when they dream."

"Who?" I asked.

"Up top of where we're at is the family cemetery. Only ones buried there are the ones die down here."

"Is your dad coming soon?" I asked.

"I don't want to die down here," she said.

The lights disappeared into a sudden, terrifying darkness. I reached for where I had last seen her hand, but it was no longer there.

Episode 26- Mecahnical Soldiers, Part One

2012-09-16T16:28:00.001-04:00

"What is this place?" I asked.

I'd slept for twenty four hours. Showered and put on clean clothes Sissy'd given me. They were dirt-brown overalls like maintenance men wore and came complete with a utility belt but no tools.

"You're inside Townsend Mountain," said Sissy. "Creepiest place in the whole USA. Home to everyone at one time or another from from gold diggers to Civil War refugees, bootleggers, secret government scientists and underground UFO chasers. They all came and went is what my daddy says. Too scary to stay in for too long."

Three days ago I would have said she was crazy, but after what I'd seen in that time I was ready to believe anything.

"You want to explain that?"

"No," she said. "You got to ask my dad about that.

She'd said earlier that the inside of Townsend Mountain was honeycombed with miles and miles of tunnels. She didn't know where they all went. Not even her Daddy Mark knew that. What she'd made completely clear, however, was that some tunnels were safe, and some were dangerous. Some tunnels people could go in, as she said, but they never came out.

She'd shown me eight or ten rooms that fit the description of abandoned government laboratories and offices. The desks were still in place with papers scattered around the room like everyone left in a hurry.

"If the government was one of the groups that used to be here, aren't you afraid they'll come looking for us? Looked like they were SWAT-teaming the whole forest when the helicopters started coming in."

Sissy shook her head.

"They long since forgot about this place. And they'd never get past the AI. Besides, we won't be here that long. Daddy will come and get us."

"How can you be sure the government doesn't have records of this place they can pull up on computers?"

"They haven't been here since World War II. Whatever they were doing down here didn't turn out too well, according to daddy. They left so quick they left everything here. Sealed up the shaft they thought was the only way in. Daddy says not all of them made it out alive."

"How could he know that?" I asked.

"Daddy knows a lot," she said.

"Yeah, but how does he know so much?"

I watched her carefully. She didn't hesitate at all before answering. She spoke with the easy innocence of total conviction.

"'Cause he's a Mozer. Mozer's been guarding Townsend Mountain's secrets since the Civil War."

She was sitting propped on a dull green government issue desk. Had her legs crossed and was wearing ripped jeans that looked like they'd been a tight squeeze to put on. Flannel shirt tied in front at the bottom and a khaki jacket thrown over one shoulder. It it wasn't for the rifle she'd have looked safe enough.

"What secrets?" I persisted.

"Wouldn't be secrets if I told you, now would they?"

"Fair enough. When's your dad coming?"

"A while," she said.

"What do we do in the meantime?" I asked. "Go exploring?"

Sissy stiffened.

"No. That we will not do. There's tunnels and cave that don't need anybody walking in them. And there's doors, big strange doors made out of peculiar metals. Nobody should ever open them. Another thing, there's round hole some places in the tunnel that if you ain't careful you could drop right in."

"How deep are they?" I asked nervously.

"Don't know. Nobody ever went after anyone that fell in."

"Why not?"

She was looking past me when she answered, staring at a memory she wished she could forget.

"Cause they might lead down to where they are."

"They?" I asked.

"The mechanical soldiers," she said. "There's hundreds of them. If you look in through their crystal heads you can see the dead people trapped inside."

Episode 25- Woman with a Gun

2012-09-05T11:03:00.000-04:00

I stepped back and jerked my good hand up to protect my eyes. But before the bright light clocked my pupils, I'd seen the rifle pointing my way.

"Nice and slow, Homer," said the woman.

My eyes adjusted to the brighter light after a few painful blinks. I couldn't see much except the gun barrel. She was standing in front of a bank of lights, so it was difficult to see much except her silhouette and the rifle. She kept the gun steady.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Brandy says you're good to go, but I like to see things for myself."

"Brandy?"

"The AI."

"AI?"

"The computer system that runs this place," she said.

She had a young voice. As my eyes became still more adjusted to the light, I could see that she wore a wide brimmed floppy hunter's hat. Caramel colored hair stuck out from beneath it. She seemed pretty, but the steel circle at the end of the rifle seemed more important at that moment.

"I've got to sit down before I fall," I said.

"Yeah, you look like shit. Come on, follow me."

She jerked her rifle to tell me to get walking.

"Who are you?" I asked again. "Do you know Mark?"

I could see her more clearly by then. She couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen.

"He's my dad. He said to wait for you here and if you didn't show up to go looking for you. You being from the city and all we figured you'd find some way to get lost."

"Everything's on fire out there," I said. "Government helicopters circling. A ship crashed."

There are moments of clarity, even in total exhaustion. I had one at that moment and realized I was on the edge of babbling. I was in an underground bunker with a teen-aged girl still pointing a rifle at me. The world outside was burning. The government was on the scene, no doubt looking for the crashed UFO and would be more than happy to lock me up and weld the cell door shut during the process.

"I know I sound crazy," I said, "but I'm not. And could you point that rifle somewhere else? I'm not dangerous."

"Mister, you don't look like you can stand up long enough to be dangerous. And you might need a change of clothes before you go on TV."

"What?"

She lowered the rifle.

"Come on," she said. "Follow me and stay close. We got a place you can bunk til this is over. We don't get a lot of visitors down here."

"What's your name?" I asked as I followed her down a long tunnel that twisted and turned like an underground Mobius strip.

"Sissy," she said.

"I'm-"

"Garret. I know. Daddy already told me and I don't forget names. Not too much farther to go."

"I don't think I can make it much farther, Sissy. I'm not used to all this activity. I'm a writer. Usually I sit down a lot."

The air was cool and the tunnel dimly lit by overhead bulbs housed in thick glad domes. I'd lost track of whether we were going upward or downward. I just wanted to go to sleep.

"For a writer," she said, "you sure know how to stir things up. I've been watching things from the control room. Not too often we see UFOs, monsters, forest fires and the Feds coming down on this mountain all in one night."

We came to a metal door inset into rock. She waved her hand in front of something I couldn't see and the metal door pulled back to reveal what looked like a combination high school chemistry lab and an armory.

"Wow," I said.

"This ain't nothing," she said. "Wait til you see the rest."

"Wait a minute. Did you say something back there about me going on television?"

She smiled and I knew things were about to get a lot worse.

Episode 24- The Guardian

2012-09-03T20:01:00.003-04:00

Through the door and into Wonderland.

The door grated closed behind me as I stared in shock at the back wall of the next room. It was a ten feet tall and twenty foot wide holographic screen of a square-edged tunnel covered with zeroes and ones narrowing to an image of a beautiful woman.

I'd had all I could handle by that point.

On the run from the government, dropped in the middle of nowhere by a Kentucky survivalist, reduced to following a locating device blindly through a dark forest, then forced to witness a horrific battle between dark monstrosities ended by a UFO crash. The forest bursting into flames as the crash disintegrated. Running to stay ahead of the flames while following the electronic beacon to this cave while government helicopters circled overhead.

The sliding rock wall, stepping through the door with a flashing skull and crossbones into a room backstopped by a beautiful hologram. Too much. Too much for one night.

My mind slipped into cognitive dissonance.

"Welcome," said the image.

All I could do was stare.

Where the hell was I? What was this place?

"Come closer," she said.

No way. I was thinking it might be safer to go back and stand in the burning forest.

"Please come closer so that I may further identify you."

My legs were so tired they were shaking. I felt hot and wondered if my brain was overheating. That would explain a lot.

I took three steps forward and stopped. Maybe it was a stupid idea, but there's something about a beautiful woman- even a holographic one- asking you to step forward that can get a guy in motion.

Soft blue light moved over my body. My skin tingled. I was afraid to move.

Had I stumbled into a secret government facility? Had Mark's locating device sent me to the wrong place? Or was he working with the government?

None of it made sense.

"Come closer," said the image. "You are approved to enter."

"What am I entering?" I asked nervously.

"Walk through me and find out," said the image.

I closed my eyes as I walked through the electronic looking glass, terrified of what I would find on the other side.

Episode 23- Secrets

2012-08-31T14:53:00.001-04:00

Outside the cave, the entire forest seemed to be in flames. I could not understand how the fire had spread so quickly through the rain-soaked woods unless it was caused by the extreme heat generated by the alien ship's destruction.

Smoke rolled through the night. Acrid, smoldering fumes floated into the cave.

There was nowhere else to go.

When the back wall of the cave slide to one side with a soft, grating noise, I stepped into the opening. Seconds, later, it closed behind me, sealing me in. I was alone in the dark in a four foot by four foot cube. The screen of my hand held locating device faded to a soft green glow.

I aimed in different directions, hoping to see a tunnel leading to safety, but all I could see were four walls and a rock ceiling.

"Hello?" I called.

Someone had to have activated the rock door. I knew better, but it was important to feel like I wasn't alone. It made more sense that the locating device caused the wall to slide open and close after I entered.

"Anybody there?"

I leaned against the rock wall and waited.

Only two nights ago I'd been sitting in Emily's living room, talking to the old woman about the alien artifacts. I remembered feeling as though I was balanced on the edge of a great mystery, where a sudden move could plunge me into depths of darkness beyond what I could imagine. Now, leaning against the wall of a solid rock cage, I realized that I was trapped. If I died where I stood, no one would ever know.

Somewhere outside, the forest fire raged and the United States military was closing in on the alien crash site. The flames and scourging heat were burning any evidence I'd been there to charred embers. Even if I wanted them to find me, there would be no trace. With the military scouring the area, chances of Mark getting through to me were virtually zero. And they could be examining the forest for weeks, months, maybe even years. An alien craft had crashed there, so the prize was worth it. If any part of the ship survived the fire, the burned out forest would turn into the most important square mile in Kentucky.

"Can you hear me?" I yelled.

If anyone did hear me, they ignored me.

I needed sleep, I needed food and water, clean clothes and most of all I needed the hell out of there.

Using the fading light of the locating device, I scanned the walls for secret levers, buttons or handles but couldn't find any. Who built sliding doors in a cave, anyway? Why would anyone do that? I couldn't imagine Mark doing it. Maybe I could, but it would take a lot of money and contractors to do the work and he couldn't live with that unless he killed them after the job was done to keep the secret.

Dead men tell no tales, I thought. Pirates of Kentucky.

I knew I was losing it, but it wasn't like I didn't have good reason.

The only thing I was sure of was that it couldn't get any weirder or worse.

I changed my mind when a skull and crossbones symbol flared on the back wall of the rock cage and a section of it began to swing inward like a door.

Episode 22- The Cave

2012-08-29T12:21:00.001-04:00

Running hard.

The woods behind me crackling and burning. I glanced over my shoulder and saw flames leap to life with terrifying hunger. They were angry-bright fire demons filled with the lust to consume.

The sky was darkness lit into orange gray by the inferno. Cones of light shot down and I could make out the dark forms of helicopters above the flames. The government had arrived, drawn by the crash of the alien ship. Soon there would be more helicopters, more men, more searchlights. I could feel them closing in and the thought of it terrified me.

Branches slapped my face and arms, but I ran faster. I slipped in the mud, got to my feet and kept going. Smoke filled the night air. I drew in deep breaths of it as I ran. I gagged and choked but didn't stop.

Twice I dropped my electronic tracker. Twice I pulled it out of the mud, wiped it off and found the blinking green dot again. If I could just make it to the cave, I might have a chance. I could hide out and wait for Mark. He'd said he'd meet me there in two days, but surely to God with the alien ship crash, the raging fire and the arrival of the Feds he would come earlier than that.

I had no idea how long had passed from the moment Mark forced me out of the car and abandoned me with nothing more than a tracking device. All I could do was to keep running toward the cave.

My legs ached as the elevation increased. The ground was less mud and more rocks. The blinking green light was bigger and flashed faster than before as though I was getting closer. I collapsed on a boulder the size of a Smart car. I hung onto its slippery, wet smoothness like a drowning man clinging to a wind-tossed reef. At that moment I was so exhausted and in so much pain that I didn't care if the government finally caught me as long as they gave me a clean, dry cell.

The night roared with fire, jets streaked across the sky and helicopters flashed their searchlights. The rain and wind grew violent. I could not understand how anything could burn in such a storm. My clothes and hair were so wet I felt like I'd crawled out of a lake.

I pulled myself off the rock, straightened up into the storm and started walking. I was too exhausted to run. I didn't look back. My mind couldn't take any more. I just followed the green blinking light of the locating device.

By the time I found the cave, I was too worn out to worry if it was filled with snakes or bats or bears. I just shuffled mindlessly forward one painful step at a time, ready to lay down on the rock floor and fall asleep.

I'd walked fifteen feet or so into the darkness when the locating device screen turned solid bright green. My hand looked like I'd borrowed it from a muddy green goblin, but it was the only light I had so I aimed the device around the emptiness. I saw rocks and dried, dead wood that looked suspiciously like small bones.

When I aimed the device toward the back of the cave, I saw only a wall of lumpy rock. The whole cave was only twenty feet deep and four feet wide. There was nothing to hide behind. No cracks or crevices to conceal myself in. If the Feds found the cave, they'd find me.

I opened my mouth to swear just as the back wall of the cave slid aside.