Hunter discontinued all of the medical devices so only the bandages remained. He climbed into a new camo uniform, then retrieved his crash helmet and boots from his hovering locker and quickly put them on. He snapped his fingers, and soon a jet pack materialized on the floor in front of him. He quickly put it on as well. Then he let his hand hesitate over his ray gun and holster. The chances were good that he might get hurt where he was going— that much he knew. But did he really want to bring a weapon into it? Would such a weapon work if he did?
His gut told him yes.
A few minutes later, he was at the back door of the command cluster. There were no guards on duty here. He stepped out into the still night, crossed his fingers, and activated the jet pack. In a burst of power and smoke, he was soon rising straight up above the base.
This was a new technology for him, and he had an almost comical moment trying to stop his ascent. He finally came under control around 1,500 feet. The air was even thinner up here, so his first order of business was to get back down to a reasonable altitude.
This done, he turned away from the base and commanded the pack to move him forward. The next thing he knew, he was zooming above the empty spaces to the south.
Not five minutes later, he made a successful if bumpy landing on the southern edge of the mesa called Lookout Below.
He took off the jet pack and then located the exact rock where he had started the first mind ring trip.
Then he reached inside his pocket and took out the deteriorating mind ring. More than once he'd wondered if in his previous life, he might have been some sort of a thief, because the ease with which he'd picked Tomm's pocket of the mind ring was a bit frightening.
He studied the device closely now in the dim light of Zinc & Tin.
Was he really going to do this?
He'd gone into the mind ring trip the first time without the benefit of knowing exactly where he was. Now that he knew the lay of the land, so to speak, would this work to his advantage? There was no way he could tell from here. He stared at the ring for a long time; indeed, he could see it deteriorating right before his eyes. He drew in a long breath of the thin air. Corrupted or not, it was their last opportunity, their last hope to get any real answers here. He had to take the chance.
He wasted no more time. He put himself into the exact position as the first trip. Then he put the ring on the crown of his head. It quickly transformed to the optimum shape.
He tapped it into activation, sat back, and waited.
Flash!
The trip started much quicker this time.
The desolate valley filled in, the sky became bright blue. The clouds appeared and, in the distance, he saw the huge metropolis spring up, and then the large military base. The monstrous space gantries appeared on cue as well.
He checked his quadtrol. What year was he in? It was 3237, once again.
Hunter jumped to his feet. The idea here was to get moving as fast as possible.
He looked down at his clothes and saw he was wearing the same gaudy uniform again. Still no markings, no emblems. He took out his tiny pistol, pulled the trigger, and heard it fizzle again.
"Maybe it was just a toy all along," he thought, throwing the gun away.
No matter. He reached into his boot and came out with his own massive double-barreled ray gun. He checked its control panel and was relieved to see that it had passed through with him intact. He pressed the trigger; two very reassuring blasts of green fire spewed out. A nearby rock melted away.
This wasn't supposed to be happening, but it was. His shoulder and arm still hurt, his head still felt like someone was banging it with an electron hammer. That wasn't supposed to be happening either — but it was.
He pushed the ray gun's intensity drive up to 111 percent and then returned the weapon to his boot holster.
At least this time, he'd come prepared.
He moved down off the mesa via the same floating walkway, and in the same manner, mixed in with the crowd of workers.
As before, the sea of deportees was passing him on the left beyond the electric-blue fence. If anything, the faces of the dispossessed looked even gloomier than before. In fact, everything about this trip seemed darker so far, more uncertain than the first time. There was more static around the edges, too, and many of the colors were starting to skew. A very creepy feeling was now dominating the program.
Hunter pressed on.
He found himself being drawn back over to the crowd of soldiers huddled near the entryway to the building with the green door. Reality was really blurring within the program now — and inside his head as well. Before he could even think about it, he found himself pushing his way through the stream of workers again — they looked much dirtier this time — and walking up to the soldiers. Each one looked twice as large this time; their weapons were larger, too. Hunter did not hesitate. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the handful of coins, and slammed them into the wide-open palm of the nearest soldier.
The man literally picked him up and over the invisible barrier, setting him down with a crash on the restricted other side. Hunter did not react at all. He simply stood up and walked quickly over to the building with the green door.
As before, two workers were in line ahead of him. If anything, the room within looked even more dingy, the lines of young girls more frightened.
Hunter did not allow the first man to select his victim this time. Instead, he walked up to the man and dropped him with a fist to the face and a knee to the scrotum. Then he turned and did the same to the second guy, even before his first victim had hit the floor.
This time, a few screams came out of the crowd of captives, and this in turn woke the two soldiers lazing at the back. Hunter reached down and retrieved his double-barreled blaster. The soldiers made their way through the crowd of frightened girls and confronted him with very puzzled looks. Both were carrying not-so-puny blaster rifles.
"Who are you?" one asked him, legitimately confused. Hunter didn't say a word. He simply lifted his ray gun and fired off two blasts, one at each man's chest. The soldiers were stunned. They looked down at their bodies and saw a hole going right through them. Obviously, this type of thing had never happened in the program before.
It was darkly comical for a moment: the two soldiers, standing calmly, each with a gaping hole in his chest.
One managed to croak out, "This is not the way it is supposed to go…." Then both simply faded away, deleted by the program.
Hunter walked right through their bodies and kicked in the door to the adjacent room. Inside, there were dozens of floating beds. Only a few were occupied, each with a young prisoner and a guy in a worker's outfit. Hunter fired one blast from his ray gun into the ceiling. This got everyone's attention. Then he calmly picked off every worker inside the room, a total of seven, causing them to fade into oblivion. With that, the girls all fled to the larger room, Hunter close behind.
He rushed over and opened the huge gate that led back out to the tarmac. The long stream of deportees was passing by not a hundred yards away.
"Go!" Hunter yelled to the female prisoners, pointing toward the slow parade of humanity. "Find your parents, your relatives, your friends. Stay close to them, and you'll be all right… but hurry!"