Free Cupid's Revenge by Melanie Jackson Page B

its coming as a vibration emanating from the ground and traveling up my legs. 
    Being from California, Thomas’ first question was: “Is that an earthquake?”
    “Shit. Not an earthquake. Something worse.” I saw the earth several feet ahead of us begin to fracture as large stones were pushed up from beneath the ground.  It turned out to be a huge stone wall, an impenetrable barrier, being thrust up out of the ground between us and the nearest exit.  It rose until it stood twenty feet high and likely a mile wide.  Inevitably I heard helicopters coming from behind. Their engines were humming the theme from Apocalypse Now . We weren’t going to be leaving by the direct route.
    “The NarcoNazis must have woken up from their nap early today,” I mused as I turned to see twenty black attack-helicopters flying our way from out of the distance.  The Dream Police had found us out. 
    “That’s bad?” Thomas asked as he squinted at the helicopters. He sounded calm.
    “It isn’t good, but we’ll manage.” I sounded confident. It was very important that the lost have faith.
    As they neared our position, zip lines were dropped to the ground and soldiers, also clad in black and carrying heavy arms, descended those lines in waves.  I’d never seen so many Dream Police in one place.
    “Thomas, I hope you’re feeling fit and that you’re ready to lead these jerks on a bit of a chase ‘cause I’m not sure they’ll let you go home if they catch us.”
    “I’ve never felt better, actually,” Thomas said, looking more fascinated than afraid of the approaching army.
    “Good,” I replied as I watched the soldiers pursuing us form a line and point their armaments our way.  I concentrated on our opponents as their leader issued the order to fire.  Rather than hearing the rattle of automatic weapons and being riddled with bullets, the barrel of each gun in the line ejected a small rolled up flag that unfurled quickly and displaying a single word: BANG!
    Thomas found this to be funny.  I, on the other hand, knew that this would likely enrage them. As I watched, the soldiers threw down their rifles and came running at us brandishing swords which had appeared from nowhere. Obviously they didn’t share my sense of humor.
    I suppose this is as good a time as any to explain a few facts about the Dream Police and their operation within the Narcoscape.  First, their official function is to police the Narcoscape, keeping dream raiders— which they consider me to be— from traversing multiple dream canvases and thereby supposedly siphoning off dream energy, or polluting the Narcoscape and in other ways causing emotional devastation and mayhem in dreamers’ psyches — yadda, yadda, yadda.  I suppose that someone has to perform this function, but suffice it to say that these guys are no friends of mine.  Second, no one is exactly sure who pulls the strings of the NarcoNazis, but it’s widely assumed that they get their marching orders from somewhere amongst the loose association of dream authorizers my family calls The Absolutes.  Whoever or whatever it is that runs the NarcoNazis, they have substantial power within the Narcoscape and they wield a large portion of it via their Dream Police. Alone, Thomas wouldn’t have stood a chance against them.
     Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that these guys aren’t actually out to kill anyone, not outright.  Instead, they’re out to imprison one’s dream essence, bring the dream-self to trial, and expel the dreamer from the Narcoscape—sometimes for a few days, sometimes forever.  This last sentence is of course tantamount to murder since no one can live for very long or with any quality of life without dreaming.  I for one had no intention of falling into their hands, nor would I leave Thomas behind to face his fate alone.
    I wished passionately that Josh was there. My husband and I had been a great team. He would create the diversion and I would rush the package