Sometimes, I feel like a tall gangly ostrich, they have such long legs and are one of the clumsiest creatures on earth. Besides the sloth and koala, and panda, oh, and the giraffe. I actually feel like most of those creatures sometimes. But right now, I pick the ostrich only because they have a reputation for hiding their heads in the ground and besides being clumsy, I also like to hide. I wonder what those big birds see when they put their heads in the ground? Or do they close their eyes? When I want to hide, I close a door and don’t come out if I don’t have to. As a matter of fact, I wish I never had to come out of hiding.

Sigh! I’m almost to the top. I’m not going back to the cave from last time. It was a dead-end anyway, with a back wall that I could see. Besides, it scared me so much that it took a few days just to recover from the trembles. I hate it when that happens, and it seems to be happening more and more often. I wonder what’s going on. I really don’t have time to think about it right now, gotta find a place to hide these books. They’re getting heavy in my backpack.

I’m trying to talk myself into not being so scared of going into one of these caves. I’m just going to have to choose one and go for it, maybe with my eyes closed. NO, that wouldn’t work at all. Makes me tremble just to think about it.

Here I am, going in now, holding my breath, looking around, and listening for strange noises. Nothing yet, hopefully never.

But then, there’s a noise, just like last time. But this time the goblin is much closer. So soon? Heart in my mouth, I frantically turned to run, but just as I did, a black bag with a stench and an attitude was rudely pulled over my head. Panicked, screaming, struggling, I knew no more.

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Liam looked around at the desolate, depressing countryside, maneuvering between potholes and stray rocks. He hated this drive, but at least he only did it a couple of times a week instead of every day. Sighing heavily, he turned onto the long dirt-packed driveway leading to the rundown house, well hidden behind the bare rolling hills. As a matter of fact, Liam tended to sigh a lot on the first day of work.

Arriving, he reached up to grab the garage door opener and waited for the farthest garage door to slide open before driving into the spacious area. There was only one car in one of the bays, two bays were reserved for a shop area, and the fourth was for employees. He carefully drove onto the hydraulic ramp, scanned his retina into the state-of-the-art scanner, and sat back to enjoy the ride.

It was just like one of those carnival rides that make your stomach reach up to touch your head. And as a bonus, it lasted much longer than any carnival ride. The sensation was exhilarating, never growing old or boring. Liam despised and dreaded the drive to work, but he loved the descent to the office. Even the landing was smooth and pleasant.

“Hey, Liam, good morning to you, and welcome back. Did you have a nice couple of days at home?” The burly lift operator greeted him as the cobalt blue Mercedes came to a rest.

Liam spoke a few polite words of greeting as he stepped out of the luxury car into the massive underground entryway. The smell of chicken and ribs barbecuing triggered his hunger pangs, and as if that wasn’t enough to process, the sights and sounds like that of a rain forest assaulted his senses causing extreme tranquility to invade his mind and soul. Pausing to enjoy the moment, Liam breathed deeply, savoring the incredible entryway of the Intrusive Thoughts Corporation or ITC as those in the know liked to call it, preparing himself for the upcoming workday.

Liam stepped onto the people mover, relaxing as he drank in the sights around him. Huge wall-sized screens effortlessly showed off their prowess and expertise. Contrasting between unhurried and lightning-fast rain forest scenes, the images of the beautiful moist woods were everywhere. Under, over, and around. Constant movement, continual bombardment. This floor-to-wall-to-ceiling screening was hands down one of the most advanced technologies anywhere in the known world. Liam enjoyed the long ride to work, there was always something new showing on the screens — nature, news, and standup comedy, to name a few. He’d never seen any reruns in the five years he’d been coming to the office, quite incredible.

Even though the technology of the screens was impressive, it couldn’t come close to competing with the secretive, undistributed technology of the Intrusive Thoughts Device, or ITD as it was commonly called, not to be confused with ITC, the name of the corporation. The device was unknown to the known world, skillfully created and constantly perfected by the men carefully chosen for employment in this underground paradise.

After a long leisurely ride, Liam arrived at his destination. He reluctantly stepped off the mover and onto the plush carpeting of his generously outfitted office space. It’s not that he didn’t like his office. But he was so enjoying the tranquility of the rain forest that he didn’t want it to end.

Sighing again, shaking himself — waking even more — he got ready for the upcoming days of watching, listening, and talking.

The first thing that Liam saw when he stepped into his office was the wall-size monitor. He glanced at it, expecting movement on split screens but instead there was blackness like it was turned off. “What, that thing is never off,” he muttered to himself as he walked to his desk, flipping some switches and snapping his headphones into place. Ah, yes, there was sound, like someone breathing hard and muttering to themselves. But where was the video feed? Why was it black?

After checking all the components of his setup, Liam was satisfied that the equipment was working and decided Olana must be sleeping or possibly just have her eyes closed. But that didn’t make any sense either, even when she was sleeping, he could see through her eyelids to the ceiling in her stark apartment.

Deciding to put the video feed out of his mind for a moment, he sat back in his ergonomic chair and listened. Heavy footsteps with grunts, a screeching eagle, and more even quieter breathing. So two people, one heavy, one light. Sighing one last time, he resigned himself to a long day of inconsequential and uneventful listening. Implants activated, his every thought was transcribed to his personal log for review at a later time.

************************************************************

In the meantime, at Eagles’ Caves, a heavy-set and strong-looking man checked to see that Olana was breathing, secured the rough black head bag, picked her up as easily as a sack of potatoes and gingerly trudged down the trail toward civilization.

TO BE CONTINUED…