The Quest for Paradise

To a man or woman of them they all appeared both a bit shocked and something else. Excited. They were excited. They were excited to be in what felt like the bowels of hell to me.

I heard doors shut and glancing back I noticed that the auditorium doors were now solidly closed with armed guards standing in front of them. The point of no return had very much been reached it would seem for not only me, but everyone else as well.

I very much wanted to step aside and sink unseen into one of the seats and have all the reality of what was going on just drift away and be replaced with the screen behind the center stage coming alive with a movie, but there was no movie scheduled to play today. Instead I was supposed to address these people and bring them up to speed, which seemed ludicrous, but here I was.

Slowly I mounted the stairs of the stage with Frank close behind me. This was a much different feeling than teaching a class of college kids and anxiety threatened to overwhelm me as the chattering of the flock of magpies ceased to a quiet murmur behind me.

The audience's excitement was something to be felt in the air. For them this expedition was the crowning achievement of their life's work and they felt proud for it. I, on the other hand, was now wishing that I had never graduated college.

I glanced to Frank as I was nervously unsure of what to do next. He wasted no time, but stepped past me to fill the space behind the stage's lone podium and began to commandingly talk, "Ladies and gentlemen I'm sure you're all quite wondering at the things you've seen today and at the mission that lies before us to accomplish. Well some of these answers to your questions are coming, but first it's important to discuss two items. One is that you are all committed to the task at hand. There is no backing out now. If you prove contrary to doing your assigned tasks then you will be remanded into custody for by the nature of the secrecy of this facility you will be held indefinitely without trial at our sole disclosure. Do I make myself clear?"

Silence beckoned his declaration of hostile intent even as concern marred the faces of more than half of those seated, while the remaining number only looked impatient for things to begin.

"Alright I'm glad we got that out of the way, but now you all have a rude awakening coming your way, unless there's something we don't know about you and I very much doubt that. To assist you in your reeducation please welcome Samantha Anderson."