10

Lodestone

While the others were off doing their own investigations, Trillion's own comings and goings about as mysterious to them as their new found powers, Dan and Mary decided to investigate his findings on the map.
Their investigation took them into the desolate and lonely North Industrial District, a place full of abandoned boxcars, long, low gray stone and metal buildings built before the 1930's, potholes, wide tracts of littered land and train tracks everywhere. In fact, half of it was basically a railyard. Feral cats and dogs sometimes haunted the place, and the occasional warren of wild rabbits.
With the exception of a few trailer trucks rolling in from the single main road into the yard it seemed quiet for miles on end.
"So, what are we looking for again?" Asked Mary fumbling with her phone.
"Something. . .something big. You know like what we may have located on the map, remember? A place emanating with a lot of power. Try to feel your way around here if you can. I know that sounds all woo-woo and everything but-"
"I know what you mean," she smiled.
"Good."
'When are we going to meet with Trillion again?" She asked.
"I don't know. Soon, I hope." We still need guidance, he thought.
They spread out across on of the old unused traintracks half-buried under concrete. New working tracks had been layed down beside them. Mary seemed especially jumpy, hopping at every shadow and kicked up pebble.
"What?" Asked Dan.
"I just want to make sure no one is following us. Remember that dark red car I told you guys about? Sometimes I would catch the car following me down the street coming home from work."
"Oh yeah. Jack said he'd seen it before too."
"Well, I call who ever drives it The Watcher." Dan recalled his encounter with the hoodlums that threw him in the river. Were they all connected with this Watcher? Did they work together or for different, disparate parts of an organizational whole? No matter how, they all worked against humankind. Dan and Mary walked for some ways, sometimes investigating old train cars, abandoned truck trailers and such. Besides finding a few holes and vagrants sleeping in them, there was nothing else really they'd found.  But the district was very large, stretching all the way toward Swan Island to the Broadway Bridge. A train was approaching from far off, a freight train. They could hear the whistle wailing in the far distance.
"My legs are tired. I haven't done this much walking in years," said Mary after about an hour. The slipping whirl of the Max light rail train sounded just outside the industrial district to the right. From there were exits off to the highways.
"Let's rest a bit." Dan was getting tired as well. So far they had no luck. The dull roar of the light rail, cars going off the highway to the freeway and just the general noise was tiring and taxing on the sensitve mind. He went and sat on a large piece of log. Mary plopped down beside him, catching her breath. Between that and the noise coming from the road before them and the general noises of the rail yard, he'd nearly missed it. But something was coming to him. He could feel it like a low heart beat. At first Dan thought it was his imagination.
"Listen to yourself carefully. Do not dismiss a single feeling until you have examined it to the full and know it is mere minutiae." Came the voice of Trillion from a previous lesson. He closed his eyes and stroved to block out all mental noise. Then the layer of physcal noise receded until he could focus on the slow thrum. It was there, scattered seeming around this particular spot. Thud. Thud-thud. Thud. Thud-thud. It was low but it was there, and constant. He opened his eyes finally to see Mary with a look of pure concentration on her face and her hands to the ground as if feeling the power flowing from the ground. Now that's an intersting way to examine it. he thought appreciatively.
"You feel it too now?" he asked. she nodded. Then she took her hands from the ground and wiped them together to get rid of the dirt.
"You were right. If there's a power source like the one in the bookstore, it's here."
"I'd say it's coming from the west, so we need to walk west of here," he said. They got up and set off west and the farther they traveled the railyard, the stronger and louder the power source became to them. The highway noise was distant when they finally stopped. Dan could feel the power underneath them surging like the heartbeat of some mighty animal. They finally approached a long roll-like building before them. It was a non- desctript looking place with shaded windows, some of them boarded up and a parking lot full of gravel. It was a two-story building and on the outside it had a sign that said: Rocket Ready Corp.
"It's coming from there. I can feel it." Mary simply nodded. In the distance they heard the rattled groaning of a trailer truck heaving over old rails and coming down the gravel roads.
"We should hide!" She urged. They ducked behind the large blue garbage bin to the side of the building. Sure enough, the truck came careening up the driveway of the building. The engine shut off and someone climbed out. Dan could only hear the crunch of footsteps coming up the gravel and then up the steps into the building. He peeked out just in time to see the glass doors close slowly.
"Did you get a look and see who it was?" Mary asked.
"No, couldn't see them but the building's unlocked. If only we could get in without having to deal with the receptionist or help desk," he said.
"I could probably get us past that. I used to work, briefly, as a dispatcher for a railer transport company years ago."
"Really?"
"Yep. Can't promise we'll make it past the door but I'll give it a try."
"How?"
"We're dressed a lot like transport drivers. I'll pretend we're coming in looking for work and that we'd heard about openings."
"Okay. Let's do it."
"By the way, what are we looking for once we get inside?"
"Anything that pings our senses to the power source. You can still feel it can't you? This is a sensing mission."
"Yeah. Like a heavy low buzzing that grows louder and more powerful with each step." she said. They moved from behind the bin after Dan checked over the scene to make sure no one was watching and they went up the steps and inide. Dan was the first to open the glass doors. Inside was the reception desk but no one was there. They heard movement and voices somewhere in a room down a hall, copiers going, a fax and other office sounds, but the front room was deserted. The lights were on and it did look as if the building was staffed with people, however.
"Come on before someone comes out!" he whispered. They tip-toed around the counter and off down the right side of the hall. When they got down to the end there was an exit door and then another door leading downstairs. Far down toward the other end of the building they heard shuffling and someone coming out of a room. Dan tried the door. It opened and they both went down the stairwell and into the basement.
"It's stronger down here," she said quietly. 
"Yeah," he whispered. He could feel it and she could too an inexhorable thundering on the mind. Power, a great source of power was here. In fact, he could feel it thrumming, beating in his bones and teeth like the deep drum of a great heart.
"I think we've found a lodestone, so to speak. I wonder how many exist," said Mary. They came to a door on the third level down the stairwell. This door felt warm to the touch. Dan slowly ran his hands over the surface, trying to understand what might lay on the other side. The door had a window of thick, dark glass.
"If we get caught we could end up in jail," she said.
"If we get caught we could end up worse. But this is the only way we'll find out anything. Ready?"
"Ready, no matter what," she said heaving a sigh. He touched the door handle. It was warm and he felt a buzzing sensation through his skin. He could detect no obvious lifesigns behind the door. He turned the knob. It opened to him and they were inside what looked like a boiler room. The door clicked shut behind them. Mary nearly jumped. Dan held her close and her face turned beet red.
"Sorry," she said. He smiled. They moved through the boiler room and rounded a corner and both of them felt a jolt like an electric shock. Around the corner was what looked like a large mass, or machines covered with diaphanous materials, curtain-like that swayed and moved slowly. Light under it pulsed rythmically. This object, whatever it was, was a great source of power.
"Is it a doorway or a hole in space and time?" Mary asked quietly.
"I have no idea. Wait here." Dan said and he crept forward, taking out his phone camera getting ready to take pictures. Mary brought out her iPhone to record what he was doing. Dan gingerly crept forward to the mass of light. At certain intervals it seemed to flicker and pulse louder than usual, then it would go back to its regular movement and slow pulsing. Suddenly, the door to the boiler room opened. A blinding realm of red light flashed before his mind's eye. Mary had a terrified look on her face.
"Run!" Dan hissed. "Hide!" The mass began pulsing violently with red and violet light and Dan lost his balance and fell in. Mary screamed right has deliberate footsteps turned the corner. She turned and made to scream again but then covered her mouth in shock, shaking her head in fright.
"Help! Help!" She finally shouted.
"A little late, don't you think, my dear? YOu have no business here and you've come to the wrong place for help." 

* * *Look for Part 2 of the blueshifters in the Fall of 2014!* * *
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