Chapter 1

Time: Friday, December 21, 2018, 4:05 p.m. EST, nine kilometers northeast of Burlington, Vermont

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Jada looked at the driver with only a tiny hope of getting her roommate to give up. Once Emily had her mind latched on an idea, she had the tenacity of a Maine lobster holding onto it.

Emily pulled the car over to the side of the rough country road and squinted at the signs ahead of them. The sun had been behind thick clouds most of the afternoon, but was finally making an appearance just when it wouldn’t do much good. It was ten minutes before sunset, and the road surfaces were already in twilight shadows. Only the upper half of the nearby pines and blue spruces were catching the day’s brief golden light.

“Enjoy the sun while you can,” said Jada. “There’s supposed to be a big snowstorm moving in tomorrow.”

“Uh huh. Not that big, I heard...” mumbled Emily as she stared at her map.

“Emily, are we lost?”

Emily looked up and gave a small sigh. “Nope. I know exactly where we are, right here...” pointing at the map display on her phone, “the intersection of Discovery and Lost Nation Roads.”

“Marvelous! I knew this place looked familiar!” Jada replied with mild sarcasm. They had spent the last twenty minutes making one and a half round trips down and back a short three-kilometer run of Lost Nation Road.

Emily gave a dismissive grunt and started up the car again, pulling into a turnaround on the deserted road and making an easy U-turn. “I’ll go more slowly. It’s got to be here somewhere. You watch the right; I’ll watch the left.”

“Oh, just drive. I can watch both sides.”

“Yeah, okay. Any driveway at all not leading to a house, tell me to stop...”

“Right...” Jada smiled at her friend as the car returned to the southeast. The task of inspecting the now familiar road was boringly easy, and she began to reminisce about meeting her roommate at the beginning of the term. Jada hated the thought of being prejudiced, but she was half convinced architecture students were an entirely different species from engineering students.

Jada’s first year as a University of Vermont undergrad had been filled with two major commitments. The first was serious study, spending many evenings working either at the campus libraries or at her desk in her quiet dorm room. The second commitment was fulfilling her training and competition requirements for her partial scholarship. Jada was an orphan, totally on her own and managing a scary package of student loans and a tenuous athletic scholarship. She thought her five-year path to a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering was very much dependent both on maintaining an excellent academic record and staying in excellent physical health.

At her dorm, Jada’s freshman year was filled with quiet study, but this past term a large herd of architecture students had moved into her area and the character of the wing had changed completely. Parties, loud music, boys wandering the halls at all hours, even during school nights; didn’t these architecture students ever have to study? Apparently not, but they paid the price as their term projects became due.

Jada smiled at the memory. Candice, the freshman dorm queen of midnight gothic and heavy metal, had finally been shown the error of her ways. A sophomore engineering student named Erica would pound on Candice’s door almost nightly, complaining that the loud music was preventing her from sleeping. And throughout the fall term, her pleas for quiet were ignored.

The moment for revenge had come two days ago at the end of the term when the architecture projects were due. After a semester of partying, many of the freshman students suddenly realized just how much time it took to build a professional model. A number of the students had waited until the last few days, and Jada was convinced several were using speed to stay awake to complete their work.

Late last Wednesday as midnight approached, Candice had walked out of her room exhausted, carrying almost a square meter of a very professional-looking building design, due promptly at 8 a.m. the following morning. It was a full layout complete with parking lots and landscaping and even tiny miniature trees artistically lining the access road. She had created something quite beautiful, and she left the model on the floor outside her dorm room for the glue to dry. Awake for over forty hours, Candice returned to her room and collapsed upon her bed.

Ten minutes later, Erica came out of the adjacent room, heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and what was in her way but the large landscape? It would have been so easy to walk around it, but should she, after an entire term of pounding heavy metal? No. Boom, boom, crunch, crunch, it was just like Godzilla going through Tokyo.

Jada was awakened by a tremendous scream shortly before 1 a.m. Fearing someone was being raped or murdered, she grabbed her robe and dashed outside her room, only to discover a shocked, horrified, and bewildered Candice staring at her 3-D model that was now in a completely 2-D state.

It was an act of pure revenge. Erika had confessed to Jada the following day that she was the culprit. Erika had no hope that Candice would take the hint and lower the volume on the stereo system. Erika’s action was one of pure revenge, plain and simple, and Candice currently had an incomplete in the course. She would have to rebuild her project after she returned from Christmas vacation.

Emily’s car reached the southern end of Lost Nation Road. The connection to Route 15 was now just a few hundred meters away. They could be back on campus in fifteen minutes. Jada turned to her friend and smiled hopefully. “Hungry? I could make some lentil soup. Maybe we could go see a movie afterwards. I hear Flashpoint Seven is pretty good.”

Emily frowned and looked at the clock. “The posting said admission would be open until 5:22 p.m. We still have another hour to find the place.”

“A strange time to turn away new guests, don’t you think? I mean, why not a simple 5:30 or something?”

Emily shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Jada sighed. “I think I do. The winter solstice is at 5:22 p.m. today. Hello, winter! The fact that they’re supposedly locking the party doors at that exact moment is a tip-off this is all ... well, don’t you find it really odd?”

“Oh, Jada, have a little faith.”

“Faith in what? That there really is a party god? Emily, get real! And besides, it’s getting dark.” Jada hoped Emily could hear the slight whine in her voice as she pointed through the window towards the east-northeast. “See that bright silver light on the horizon? That’s what we engineering types call the rise of the full moon. Aren’t you afraid of werewolves? And more to the point, how are we going to find this place at night if we can’t even see it in the daylight?!”

Emily’s eyes lit up, and she snapped her fingers. “Exactly! The castle’s lights should be more visible in the dark! Let’s make the loop again and look for the lights of a large building.”

“Uh...” But Emily was already making another U-turn, and Jada didn’t have the heart to argue the issue. She settled back and began scanning the trees, occasionally glancing at Emily and smiling at her roommate’s misplaced determination.

“Well, it’s not as if I don’t owe her a few favors,” Jada thought. Emily shared something in common with Jada. They were both Jewish orphans, and Jada suspected that was why campus housing had asked her if she were willing to room with the first-year undergrad. But unlike Jada, who had been abandoned, Emily’s parents had been killed a year ago in a car accident. She was now of legal age and on her own, but unlike Jada, she had almost a half-million dollars in inheritance and life insurance benefits.

And during their first week together, Jada discovered Emily also had a heart of pure kindness. “What’s this?” Jada had asked, walking into her dorm at the beginning of the term and discovering a large pile of brand-new textbooks on her desk.

“Oh, I was in the bookstore, getting my course books. You should see the lines!” Emily paused and added casually, “I thought I’d pick up yours too.” She turned away and started folding her wash.

Jada stared at the pile of mint-condition books and picked up one. “Yeah, these are my course books, all right ... How did you know?”

“Oh, it wasn’t hard...”

“Emily, you’re very sweet, but I can’t...”

“Sure you can. It’s not a big deal, just a few books.”

“A few books?! I know how much new books cost! I can use the library. That’s what I did last year. These I should return.”

“You can’t. They’re already marked up. The bookstore won’t accept them.”

“Huh?” Jada examined the pristine engineering text in her hand and then held the heavy book to her nose and sniffed. “I don’t think this book has been cracked open since it left the printers. Marked where?”

Emily took the book from Jada’s hands, opened the front cover, and with her pen, made a large checkmark at the top of the title page. “Right here where I’m showing you with my pen. Hey, stop that!” Jada had given a soft cry and had Emily locked in a fierce hug.

Jada eyed her friend now as they started making their third round trip on Lost Nation Road. What a joy getting to know Emily over the last four months. She was now like a sister to Jada, and a shining counter-example to Jada’s generally low opinion of architecture students. They both shared a love of knowledge and learning, and in the past few months, Jada had come to appreciate that her roommate was also a first-rate visual mathematician. Emily’s only flaw perhaps, was that she sometimes seemed to have no understanding of the word caution.

A few favors indeed! Books, clothes, meals, being invited on sightseeing trips during the beautiful Vermont fall. It had been the happiest time in Jada’s life. And whenever she was feeling stressed, she would open her textbook and stare at the checkmark and remind herself that she was now loved. No, Jada was definitely not going to fuss about this trip, even if her roommate was lost on a wild goose chase. Lost Nation Road? Hah! The pranksters had probably picked the street just for its name.

“See anything yet?”

“Sure, lots of nice trees, and I’m pretty sure we passed a raccoon about a hundred meters back.”

“Ja-dahhh...”

“Remind me again what this place is supposed to look like.”

“A building as big as a castle. It’s part of a new shopping mall with a bunch of residential wings mixed in. I’ve heard they’ve done some very innovative design work too; a lot of hexagonal themes in the architecture. Should be interesting, don’t you think?”

“Oh, I suppose...”

Emily could hear the skepticism in Jada’s voice. She gave a quiet sigh. “I know you think this is all a joke, but the building is real. You must have heard of it, Castle Commonwealth?”

Jada leaned back in her car seat and sighed, glad to be in the warm car and not the frigid air outside. “A little maybe, not really.”

“Come on Jada, the construction has been going on for years, big bucks too, really serious money. The place is supposed to be enormous.”

“Oh yeah? How big?”

“Uh ... I’m not sure I ever heard a specific number. But really huge, vast, going far north where the fires were. The mall is the cornerstone of the area’s recovery plan.” Emily was referring to an arson attack that had occurred several years previously.

“Uh huh,” her roommate finally replied, “And you heard Kappa Alpha picked this site for their frat house?”

“Yep, in the posting this morning. That’s where the invitation said to go.”

“Earlier I mean.”

There was a pause. “No, not earlier.”

“Which proves this is all a joke.”

“It proves no such thing. The building is real, therefore its access road must be real too. We’re just missing it somehow.”

Jada gave a quick derisive laugh. “Lost Nation as an access road to a big mall?!”

“Well, okay. You’ve got me there. I think we’re looking for a short cut.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Emily. The school is almost deserted. This is a crazy time to throw a party.”

“No, it’s not. It’s a Friday night, Christmas break is here, and there are still lots of students on campus.”

“Yeah, right.” Jada’s mind jumped to how deserted their dorm seemed when they left an hour ago.

“Jada, if the fraternity wants to throw a Christmas party now, why not? It’s not just me. Other people have seen the postings.”

“The guys’ dorms too?”

“Heck, how am I supposed to know that? Maybe not, but why would the fraternity brothers invite guys anyway? Do you think they’re looking for pledges?”

Jada laughed good-naturedly. “I don’t think this fraternity even exists!”

“Oh, it’s here somewhere.”

“Kind of far from school, don’t you think?”

“It’s not that far. And look how pretty it is here...” They drove the rest of the way in silence. It was almost 4:30 p.m. by the time they reached Discovery Road again. The sky’s gray twilight was fading rapidly.

Jada looked at the dim intersection and smiled at her roommate. “Like coming home to an old friend.” She paused for a moment and took genuine pity on Emily’s distress. “You don’t suppose it could be north of here, do you?”

Emily frowned. “No. The invitation said south of Discovery Road.”

“Don’t you think it’s diagnostic that we’ve seen no other cars trying to find this place?”

“Not really. The invitation said the festivities would start before 2 p.m. We’re very late.” Emily stretched and thought for a moment, her fingertips idly drumming on the steering wheel. “I suppose we could try to find a house and ask.”

A thin rolling band of clouds began to cover the moon on the horizon, and the dark isolation made Jada shiver. “Oh Emily, in a few more minutes, it’s going to be pitch black out here. Do you really want to do that?” She hoped Emily would hear the worry in her voice.

There was a long pause as Jada’s concern finally got through to Emily. “No, I suppose not. Okay. You still interested in Flashpoint Seven?”

“Sure!”

Emily nodded and made yet another U-turn and began her final trip down Lost Nation Road.

They had only traveled a minute when Emily noticed another car behind them about a hundred meters back, the first car she had seen since they left Route 15. She watched the car for a short while in her side mirror as she drove back to campus, and then gave a small gasp as the car disappeared. “Huh?!” she exclaimed as she braked the car suddenly.

“Emily, what?”

“The car behind us, it just made a left turn!”

“So?”

“Left turn, Jada, left turn! Towards the lake area! There are no houses on the left! Where the hell did it go?” In the gathering darkness, Emily carefully turned around and headed back. A few minutes later, she stopped before a narrow path. “Well, it makes sense. This is the direction towards the open areas. But how did we miss this, six times in a row?”

“Well, the very last time we weren’t looking, but yeah...” Jada examined the trees lit by the headlights for a long moment. “It’s an optical illusion. The trees further back are bigger, right where the road curves. It makes them look closer. In the daylight, I bet this road is almost invisible ... I guess...” Somehow the explanation didn’t seem quite right, and something else was bothering her too. The road was dirt and very narrow. Their small car would be scraping pine branches on both sides. “Emily, this can’t be a road to a shopping mall!”

“The mall isn’t open yet. Construction access is temporary, further north, through some private land.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Uh ... I forget. In the newspapers I think. Jada, I’ve been here four months. You have a full year on me. You say you never heard of Castle Commonwealth? There are articles about it all the time.”

Jada shook her head. “Oh, I might have heard something I guess. But it was completely outside of my ... areas of interest. Before you, I hadn’t been to a mall since high school.” Jada raised her eyebrows as Emily started to approach the path. “You sure you want to try this?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. This is it. And it doesn’t have to go to the mall itself, just to the frat house.” Emily nosed her car to the start of the narrow path. “I’ll be careful. And we can always back out.” She switched on her high beams and entered the forest.

Chapter 2

After the first minute of following the forest path, Jada didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. But she finally decided she didn’t want to disturb Emily’s intense concentration, so she kept silent. The road was a nightmare, numerous tight curves often hidden by the overlapping pine branches. The surface directly underneath them was hard-packed and dry, but there were deep ravines everywhere along the sides, often less than a meter away from the wheels. If they drove into one, it would take a tow truck to pull them out, and no tow truck could ever make it in here. Emily drove silently, her hands gripping the wheel with white knuckles as she inched her way forward.

Jada had a horrible premonition of the road abruptly ending with no place to turn around. Their only solution would be for Jada to stand outside in the cold Vermont night and try to talk Emily through the turns as she backed up. It would be a miserable, bone-chilling job, and in the dim light of the backup lights, their two-minute trip into the forest would take hours to unravel.

But then there was a final sharp turn and they were out of the pine trees. They both made soft unconscious moans at the release of the tension. Before them appeared a modest overflow parking lot. It was full of cars, and beyond that an enormous building loomed in the darkness. The impression of a vast castle was very strong. It was the theme of the mall.

“See any place to park?” asked Emily. She guessed the lot held about thirty cars, perhaps a few more, and it was packed.

“It’s not very well lit. Nothing over here though...” Jada looked to the left and right. There appeared to be acres of parking nearby, but the areas were on the other side of temporary chain-link fences. She finally turned and pointed behind her. “Try over there. You might be able to park on the grass.”

“Yeah.” Emily drove over to a small grassy area near where they exited the forest and shut off the car. She sighed and then shuddered from the harrowing experience of the drive through the pine trees. “Jada,” she said quietly, “I rely on you to be the better part of my decision-making. Why didn’t you talk me out of this?”

“Uh ... I tried to, a little.”

“Why not more?”

Jada took the question seriously and thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I guess I was like you, curious.”

“Hmmm.” Emily’s face relaxed as she accepted the explanation. “Well, anyway, we’re here.” She looked at the clock and smiled. “ ... with time to spare.”

Jada couldn’t help but grin as she got out of the car. She took a deep breath, savoring the coldness of the frosty air. “Well, we’re not there yet. You still want to party? We can get back in the car and be on Lost Nation Road in a few minutes.”

Emily closed her door and locked the car with her remote. “Heck no! We’ve come this far. Let’s check it out!” It was the answer Jada was expecting, and the two women walked across the dark lot and towards the imposing building.

There was a short row of glass doors next to the parking lot, with an arc of portable lights out in front. It looked like a typical back entrance to a mall. The only distinguishing feature was the wall above the doors. The area had been decorated to look like a drawbridge. It looked like an obvious fake, but Jada hoped maybe they weren’t finished with the artwork yet.

One of the doors had several additional portable lights by it, and instructions for how to proceed to Kappa Alpha. Jada tried the heavy glass door and was somewhat surprised to find it unlocked. Kappa Alpha might still be a hoax, but if so, the pranksters had somehow procured access to the unfinished mall.

Following the directions, Emily and Jada began to follow a winding path, picking up new directions at each leg of the journey. After the first ten minutes, Jada had the impression they were playing a childish game of treasure map through endless corridors. Their walk was full of twisty turns traversing shopping areas and several eating pavilions, one with a great hexagonal food court with a spiraling motif in the floor. Jada thought most of the design work was okay, and occasionally the novelty was interesting. A few things though looked rather gaudy.

As their journey progressed, they came to other areas that were obviously going to be residential. There were slanting rows of apartments with a modest pool and tennis courts nearby. They walked down one row and then seemed to backtrack half the distance on another. Their path was becoming so convoluted, Jada began to suspect it was intentionally complex.

They both shivered in their coats as they walked through the unheated corridors. It seemed colder inside than it was out. And the moon was shining brightly again. Jada saw dim images of a great exterior hexagonal courtyard in the silver light, overlooked by what would be future garden condominiums adjacent to a food mart. It looked like it would be a convenient place to live. Perhaps having a frat house here was actually possible.

Jada was amazed they were able to walk through all the unfinished areas unchallenged, but except for the lit signs guiding their way, the place seemed deserted, and the smell of heavy construction was everywhere.

Eventually their path took them back to a commercial shopping area. Jada guessed the mall was months away from opening. Most of the stores they had passed were empty shells with bare concrete for floors and walls, and the few shops that did have shelves and their signage up were devoid of merchandise. And they often saw staircases that were roughly poured in concrete but still unfinished.

In the final part of their journey, they took a stairwell two levels below ground to what looked like a very long and poorly lit maintenance tunnel. In the far distance, they could see a much brighter light. As they walked the tunnel, Jada began to feel uneasy and debated whether to voice her concerns to Emily. She finally decided to wait until they reached the far light. She coughed and realized her throat felt very dry, and she mentioned the fact to Emily.

“Yeah? Mine too. I just noticed it. I could really use something to drink.”

At last, they came to their first indication of hospitality, several tables with lights and a large selection of refreshments. Their trail ended in a small room with the tables to the right of a single elevator. The room was at the top of a T intersection, with new corridors running left and right into the distance. There was also a steel door to the left of the elevator, which Jada assumed was a stairwell. The underground room felt very drab, with damp air and an almost freezing temperature. All the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of simple concrete.

On the lit tables were plastic cups and all sorts of cold sodas and hot drinks in electric urns. There was also a large sign that read, “Have a drink, choose an access code, enter a party before expiration. Kappa Alpha.” Jada noticed a large trash can nearby nearly overflowing with used cups.

Emily smiled happily and gloated as she grabbed a new cup and poured herself a large drink from one of the urns. “Oh yee of little faith. Hot chocolate too, my favorite!”

Jada raised her eyebrows. “I admit it. I’m shocked we’ve gotten this far. But I still don’t hear any music. This place is as quiet as a tomb.”

“So what? We’re below ground now. The party must be upstairs. Hey! This hot chocolate is delicious! Try some.”

Jada shook her head in disbelief as she looked back at the bare tunnel. She couldn’t shake the feeling of being vulnerable. She walked to the left of the elevator and tried the door. It was unlocked and did indeed lead to stairs heading up, but the stairwell was completely dark and silent. Jada shivered in the damp air and let the door close by itself. “Emily, it’s creepy down here.”

“Well, we’ll be leaving soon. Hang on.” Emily looked at a clock embedded in the frame surrounding the elevator. It had a double digital readout, and the first white number was 17:08:02 and counting upward, the green number beneath it was 00:14:07 and counting downward. There was also a small notice below the clocks stating that the maximum capacity of the elevator was eighteen people.

Emily glanced at her watch and thought the time was accurate. It had taken them a half hour to walk here from the parking lot. It was over two kilometers of walking, but they appeared to have made their goal with a little time to spare. She smiled happily and poured a second hot chocolate and handed it to Jada.

Jada took a sip and frowned. “Yuck. It tastes like metal.”

“What? Mine doesn’t.” Emily grabbed Jada’s cup and took a long, slow sip. She shook her head.

“You don’t taste it?”

“It tastes like dark chocolate. I love it.” Emily handed the cup back to Jada.

Jada plucked a cube from an ice bucket to rinse out her mouth. She sucked for a few seconds and then spat the cube into her cup. “Oh hell! I think it’s in the ice too.” Preoccupied with her drink, she failed to notice the elevator control light flicker on.

Emily picked up another cube from the same bucket, licked it lightly, and then crunched and ate it. “Jada, are you playing with me?”

“No, I swear. There’s a salty metallic taste. Maybe it’s faint but it’s there.”

“Oh Jada, it’s just the tap water.” Emily returned to reading their latest instructions. “There seem to be six party themes. They’re all disco oldies. We get to choose which party we like.”

“Yeah? How strange.” Jada looked at the selection list: 1) It’s My Party, 2) Great Balls of Fire, 3) House of the Rising Sun, 4) I Can See Clearly Now, 5) In the Year 2525, and 6) Stairway to Heaven. “This is ridiculous!” she said, turning to Emily and laughing.

Emily was grinning too. “Wow, I haven’t heard Zager and Evans sing that chestnut since junior high.”

“Yeah, well, 2525 is the only one I don’t like. Pick something else.” Jada studied the instructions for a moment, muttering to herself. “This is so absurd! Twenty-character access codes to ride in an elevator?!”

“And where do we enter them?” Emily muttered back. There was only the single lit button recessed in the wall, so she pushed it. The elevator door obediently slid open, and she entered. It was a cavernous elevator, obviously designed to hold large freight, three meters wide by four meters deep. Emily thought it was capable of holding eighteen people easily. “In here!” she called out.

Jada entered the elevator and saw a small keyboard protruding from the wall on her left. There were absolutely no other controls inside the elevator, and the setup was so odd that the lack of an emergency call system and fireman’s override went unnoticed. Jada idly typed randomly on the keyboard, filling a one-line display with characters until she stuck her twentieth key, at which time the keyboard gave an angry beep and the display reset to empty. “Is this some kind of joke?” she wondered.

Emily walked outside the elevator and called out, “Type C V 5 W...”

“What?”

“I’m giving you the access code for It’s My Party.”

“You actually want to try this?” Jada called back as a silent, fleeting thought crossed her mind. “What the hell are we getting into?”

“Sure!”

“Emily...” A second fleeting thought and shiver: “This is so incredibly absurd!”

“Come on, Jada! C V 5 W...”

A third and final fleeting thought: “Oh, what could possibly happen? Just do it.” Jada typed and called back, “Entered C V 5 W.”

“B H D Y...”

“What do you want to bet all six codes go to the same place?”

“We’re running out of time! B H D Y...”

“Entered B H D Y. And that place is right here. The elevator doesn’t move.”

“S Z 9 K...”

“This is so stupid ... Entered S C 9 K.”

“What?! The second letter, did you say Z or C?”

“I typed C as in cat.”

“It should have been a Z as in zebra.”

“Emily, there’s no backspace on this keyboard.”

Emily glanced at the green display counting down to zero and grunted. “Come on Jada! Just type in garbage and start over! C V 5 W...”

On a hunch, Jada tried a blue key at the far left of the keyboard and saw all her previous typing disappear. She was finding it very hard not to laugh. “Let’s forget the elevator. How about we try walking up the Stairway to Heaven instead? We could use your phone for a light.”

“Jada! C V 5 W!”

A moment later, Emily entered the elevator as Jada typed in the last four keys of a correct code. The elevator door closed silently behind them. The small display started flashing two blue sets of numbers, a static 037:110 and what appeared to be a time index of 00:03:28 that was counting down in one-second intervals.

“Oww,” cried Jada. “I’m feeling a headache, really painful. What the hell is happening?!” She stumbled, almost spilling her drink and looking as if she wanted to lie on the floor. The pain was so intense she dimly wondered if she would vomit. It was a terrible and uniquely tearing pain, as if her mind were being pulled apart from the inside.

Emily held her friend in compassion and then, to keep her from falling, “You want to sit down?”

“I want this pain to end! Oww!”

“Try taking a drink!”

Jada did what her friend suggested, taking a big swallow before remembering that she didn’t like the taste. The effect was immediate and profound. Within seconds, all of her pain disappeared.

“You look like you’re feeling better?”

Jada stared at the cup in her hands. “I feel fine. No pain at all. This is so randomly bizarre. How did you know I should drink?”

“I feel it too, a slight decrease in pressure. I think the elevator is rising.”

“What?!” Jada looked at her friend, totally bewildered. “It didn’t feel like ear pressure.”

“It didn’t?”

“No, not at all. Emily, what the hell is going on?!”

Emily looked very confused and shrugged. “I was always pretty good at sensing pressure changes. I think we’re rising, a lot too.”

“But that’s impossible. This is a shopping mall, not a skyscraper.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Yeah, I know. Well, what do you think the elevator is doing?”

It was Jada’s turn to consider. The sensation of movement was subtle, a vague feeling of motion without any mechanical vibration. “If I had to guess, I think we’re heading down, very slowly. And ... Oh, this is so absurd. I’ve also had this feeling of great speed at the same time. Don’t ask me to explain it. It’s just a ... Do you feel any vibrations? I don’t.”

Emily pressed her fingertips lightly against a wall. “No, and we’re not going down. We were underground already. We can’t be going down. Besides, my ears don’t lie.”

“Oh Emily, I know you’re not lying. But maybe your ears are being deceived. Why did we ever get into this trap?!” Jada looked around critically, for the first time awakening to the possibility of danger.

“This setup is ridiculous! There are no safety features! Look at this thing! No phone, just a crazy keyboard! Do you see an emergency stop button!? My gosh, look at the ceiling! And the floor!” The floor appeared to be a single piece of polished stone, and the ceiling and walls were smooth metallic surfaces with dimples of white diodes. “There’s no escape hatch! Who would build something like this?!”

Emily winced. “Do you think this elevator is a prank?”

The question brought Jada up short. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She looked around for a moment and considered. “There’s absolutely nothing amateurish about its construction. Look how the keyboard flows out of the wall. It’s a beautifully integrated design. Could a bunch of frat boys build something like this?”

Emily ran her hand across the walls and door. The interior cage was rock solid, huge, and seemed to be constructed of several different types of burnished alloys. The net effect was one of unique power and beauty. “No. This elevator is no hack job. I don’t understand...”

“Neither do I. It’s beautiful precision engineering but without safety features.”

Emily grimaced. “Which should be impossible! Nobody builds like this! How could we have been so stupid?”

Jada thought for a moment and remembered something from her one elective course this term. It covered the history of science. “I think it’s our culture. We rely on technology for everything. We’ve learned to trust it, and our trust has become blind. We never saw the danger. If Vermont Power & Light has a blackout right now, we’ll be in really serious trouble. Nobody even knows we’re down here.”

“Oh, don’t go there, Jada. When we leave the party, we’ll take another way back to my car, okay?”

“Absolutely. We’ll take the stairs.” There was nothing else to do but wait, and the wait wasn’t long. After a short period of time, the blue counter reached zero and the two women jumped when the side wall opposite the keyboard began to slide open.

Chapter 3

Jada and Emily were somewhat amazed to see a normal-looking party before them. People were chatting, spread out over a very comfortable and well-appointed lounge area. The area was pleasantly heated and very spacious, and the two women gladly took off their coats.

Jada guessed the lounge to be about 240 square meters in area. It had very square proportions except for two slightly beveled corners on the wall containing the elevator. Jada turned around and studied the elevator as its door closed. Exiting 90 degrees from the direction they had entered surprised her greatly. She had been in numerous elevators in her life, which opened on both ends, but never one like this. Facing the elevator, she also noticed a door to its left. Jada assumed it would lead to the stairwell she saw in the basement.

Jada turned around again and joined Emily in examining the room and the party. It looked like a very nice place. There were generous four-meter ceilings in the lounge and also in a huge kitchen area further on. Jada took a few steps and paused. She felt a bit light on her feet, a little out of balance. She took another few steps and sensed her body adjusting. After a moment, everything seemed fine. Jada shrugged and thought it might be an aftereffect of the strange and terrible pain.

Meanwhile, Emily had done a quick headcount and was standing there frowning. There were a lot fewer people here than she had been expecting. Besides Jada and herself, there were perhaps a dozen women and only three guys, with everyone looking about undergraduate age. She sighed in disappointment and examined the room again. There was some soft disco music coming from an impressive sound system along the wall behind them, and a very expansive buffet was laid out on their right alongside a long bank of dark windows. The food smelled enticing, enough to make Emily feel hungry.

A handsome young guy noticed the new arrivals and came over to greet them. “Welcome to Kappa Alpha land. I’m Mark.”

Jada had a good first impression of the man. He was polite, very good-looking, tall, and most importantly, his eyes were both cheerful and respectful. Jada nodded at him but felt compelled to complain. “Thanks for having us. I’m Jada, and this is my roommate, Emily. Mark, we really have to mention your idea of an elevator is horrible.”

Mark raised his eyebrows. “Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to deceive you. I’m not from Kappa Alpha. We just got here a short while ago. Are you that car that pulled in behind us?”

Emily cocked her head. “Uh huh. Us?”

Mark turned to Emily. “I came with my kid sister and two of her friends. They’re all seniors at BHS.” Mark turned back to Jada and gave her a long, curious look. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Jada laughed. “Oh, I’ve heard that pickup line before!” She was surprised to see Mark give a genuine blush.

Emily spoke up, coming to Mark’s rescue. “BHS?”

“Uh, yeah, Burlington High School. And I agree with you, that elevator is one weird piece of work.”

Emily nodded and then recognized a couple of her classmates getting seconds from the buffet. She excused herself and wandered over to say hello. Three other women came by and said brief hellos to Jada but seemed more interested in the elevator. Mark filled Jada in. “We were just having a discussion when you arrived, what would happen when the countdown hits zero. This is my sister, Madison, and her friends, Ashley and Hannah.”

“I’m betting the boys of Kappa Alpha finally appear,” said Madison. “We’ve been asking around. Everyone here is a visitor. No one has seen a host yet.”

“Really?” replied Jada. “That sounds ... so odd.” She turned and looked back at the elevator. In the frame was a triple digital display, somewhat similar to what was in the basement below. A white number was now registering 17:20:35, a green number 00:01:34, and there was also a static blue number registering 037:112.

Jada felt a shiver as she watched the green number count down. She had the weirdest feeling her last chance to escape was somehow slipping away. She looked at Madison. “Well, we’ll find out soon enough. So you think we’ll meet our hosts, huh?”

Ashley piped up. “My guess is all the lights will go out and we’ll find out how haunted this is.”

“Oh, knock it off, Ashley! I don’t want to hear it!”

Jada turned to Hannah. “You’re worried?”

Hannah blushed. “A little. That elevator ride was creepy!”

Jada nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, it really was.”

They waited around for another minute, watching the final seconds expire. Zero hour was a bit of a disappointment. The only visible change was that the green number changed to red and remained a static 00:00:00. Curious to see what would happen, Jada pushed the button to open the elevator and it opened immediately. After stepping inside, she tried the keyboard console and found it was without power. Suddenly feeling nervous, she quickly left the enclosed space. A few seconds later, the door silently slid closed.

They chatted for a few minutes and then headed to the buffet. The food selections were fabulous: fresh shrimp and lobster, spicy chicken and prime rib, and an unusual seafood entrée that tasted somewhat like scallop but was the size and color of a golden pancake. There were also platters offering a great variety of tasty vegetables and delicate sauces. Jada and her new acquaintances loaded up their plates and sat down, and then enjoyed their meal so much that little was said until they were finished eating. After a bit of persuasion by Madison, she and her two friends began busing a large pile of used dishes into the kitchen.

“That was remarkable,” Jada finally commented.

Mark nodded and looked up fondly from his empty plate. “Yes, exceptional. Madison and I spend summer vacations in Europe with our foodie parents. We’ve eaten at The Fat Duck in Berkshire, El Bulli in Spain, Pierre Gagnaire, and the Guy Savoy in Paris. Nothing was ever better than this.”

“Really? But who could cater something like this here?”

“I don’t think this was catered. Look at these serving trays. See the Kappa Alpha logo? I think the trays all came from the frat’s kitchen.” Mark thought for a moment. “Maybe Kappa Alpha has a world-class culinary prodigy.” He blinked his eyes. “And that large golden scallop, I’ve never tasted anything like it. Fabulous stuff.”

Jada laughed. “I know nothing of gourmet food! I agree, the dinner was great and redeems the frat from their horrid elevator. But I was commenting on the fact that your sister persuaded her friends to help clean up.”

Mark smiled and shrugged. “Well, our parents taught us to be considerate. I feel like helping out myself.” Mark looked around at the lounge. “Wow. This place is a real mystery.”

Jada studied their sofa and nodded. “Is this genuine leather? It looks very expensive.” She focused for a moment. “Maybe synthetic. It’s too perfect to be leather.”

“Not just the sofa. Look at this place! It’s a beautiful palace, not at all what I was expecting from a frat house. And the fact that no one from the frat is here...”

“Yeah, that’s really bizarre. Aren’t they worried some uncouth guests will start trashing the place? Such a beautiful room...” Jada paused for a moment, her hand on the sofa idly stroking the soft, luxuriant surface. “Uh, were you serious about helping to clean up?”

“Sure.” A moment later, they joined the clean-up crew in the kitchen.

In its own way, the kitchen was just as opulent as the lounge room, though half the size. Like the party room, the kitchen ran the full width of the building, Jada guessed about sixteen meters, and its depth was about eight meters. On both of the long ends of the kitchen were pleasant eating areas adjacent to large banks of windows. Between the two eating areas was a fabulously well-appointed kitchen. There were polished granite counters, gleaming stainless steel sinks, restaurant-grade appliances, and sparkling white, blue, and gold tiles everywhere. There was a soft ding from the dishwasher. “They can’t be done that fast,” said Hannah as she opened the appliance. “I just started the cycle a few ... Wow, all done; nice job too. They’re even dry.”

Jada and Mark started telling each other about their lives as they worked with his sister and friends. Mark talked first, describing growing up in a rich section of Burlington. He was now a junior at the university majoring in physics and was an avid amateur astronomer. After the girls left, Jada gave back a little of her own history as she dried dishes with Mark, talking about growing up in a poor section of central Indiana. She avoided telling him about the horrific family experiences of her high school years.

“So you’re only eighteen and already a sophomore?” he asked. “I’m impressed. That’s my sister’s age, her two friends too.”

Jada nodded. “Yep, that’s me. I’m a millennium baby. January 1, 2000.” Jada gave a yawn and stretched, realizing she felt a little ... what? Sleepy? No, not exactly, though the thought of cuddling in a warm blanket seemed to have an unexpected appeal to it. She looked at the kitchen clock, 18:57:01, certainly too early for her to be tired. But she wasn’t tired, not exactly. She paused from her work and took a moment to stroll to the windows, trying to figure out what her body wanted.

It was very dark outside, with two lit-covered walkways meeting at an angle nearby. Beyond that, Jada stopped paying attention. She felt a little sleepy, but not exactly sleepy; a little tense, a little ... a little what? Excited? Yes, sort of, but it felt like a child’s excitement, awaiting the coming of tomorrow’s birthday presents. Jada blinked in surprise. She hadn’t felt like this in years. She felt eager, a child’s eagerness clear and strong, as if she couldn’t wait for the future to unfold.

Meanwhile, Mark had finished putting away the last load of dishes. He then opened a large walk-in refrigerator and peered inside. “Almost full,” he called out, “but still a bit of space. How about we save the rest of the buffet? That stuff is so good, it would be a crime to let it go to waste.” He gazed at Jada kindly for a moment as she stared out the window. She appeared to be preoccupied. “Jada?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure. Save the buffet. Good idea.”

Taking down the large buffet was a bit of a job. As they worked, Jada commented how much she liked the food storage facilities of the kitchen. It wasn’t just the walk-in refrigerator and freezer. There were numerous shining metal cabinets that closed with a positive hiss and snap, vaguely electrical in nature. They seemed superbly designed to seal their contents.

Hannah wandered back into the kitchen, looking a little flushed, and offered to help. They were a cheerful team for a while, and then Hannah started flirting with Mark, nothing outrageous, just bumping into him, putting her hand on his arm or shoulder as she passed near him. Mark looked surprised at first and then just amused at how affectionate Hannah was becoming. And then Hannah took the flirting to the next level. The pats on his arm became caresses, and Hannah would lean on him, looking as if she expected to be kissed.

Jada didn’t understand the dynamics of what was going on. Mark’s facial expressions were very hard to read. It seemed he was looking for some polite way to tell Hannah to cool it while simultaneously desiring to accept her advances. Jada began to feel she was intruding on a complex emotional situation, and was just coming up with a polite way to excuse herself when Hannah reached over and hugged Mark and held him tightly to the front of her body, grabbing him low on his butt and pressing her pelvis against his, making a slow sensual gyration with her pubis directly against his groin. The gesture was lewd and the proposition unmistakable.

Mark groaned with desire, grabbing the sides of Hannah’s hips to lock her position. He arched his back to thrust his hips forward and grind into this delightful vixen. But then he gave a strange cough, gave Hannah’s butt a playful swat instead, and pulled away from her grip. They stared into each other’s eyes for a brief moment.

“Hannah, what the hell are we doing?”

Hannah was panting with sexual desire, but her face was a mask of confusion. “Yeah. I’m so sorry, Mark. I’m acting like a clown.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” Hannah took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m heading back to the lounge,” she said abruptly. A moment later, Jada and Mark were along again in the kitchen.

Jada cocked her head. “What was that all about?”

Mark looked truly bewildered. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Are you two going together?”

Deep in thought, he just stood there motionless.

“Did you ever?”

Jada’s persistent questioning seemed to wake Mark out of a daze. “Huh? With Hannah?! No, not at all. She’s just my sister’s friend.” He paused. “She’s a wonderful person. Maybe a little shy socially, but ... Hell, what just happened here is way out of character for her.” He took a moment to shudder. “And the strangest part is...”

“Yes?”

Mark looked directly into Jada’s eyes with his own eyes somehow asking for forgiveness. “For a moment, I wanted her.”

Jada shrugged. “Well, she is a very pretty girl.”

“Oh, it’s not that. I know the true Hannah. She thinks of me as an older brother. The true Hannah would be horrified if I...” Mark seemed to have trouble completing the thought.

Jada smiled slightly as she heard this. The feeling of eagerness was back, stronger than ever. Her body felt tense, excited... “Excited?” she thought. “Am I hot for Mark too? My God, am I?!” She said out loud, “It seems a little stuffy in here. Do you feel it?”

Mark looked at her and blinked. “Yeah, I guess I do. It’s a bit hot ... I feel revved up ... a little strange actually. My mind doesn’t want to let go...” He didn’t finish the thought.

“Want to head back to the lounge?”

“Uh, yeah.” Mark shook his head as if to clear it. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep an eye on Hannah for a while. Want to sit together?”

Jada felt her heart race as she heard his question. “I’d love to,” she blurted out immediately.

“Jada!” she thought to herself angrily. “Don’t act so easy! You’ll scare him off!” And then she paused for a moment astonished. “Scare him off?! Why did I think that? What am I afraid of?” She tried to reflect for a moment. “What do I want?”

She grabbed a drink of water by the sink and took a moment to think. Her mind seemed to be going in unexpected directions. “I’ve only just met him. What am I expecting?” She felt confused, and just hoped again she didn’t sound too eager. Mark brushed his hand against hers as he walked by, and Jada put down her glass and happily accepted the offer, glad to have latched onto one of the few guys at the party, and this was such a nice one. Hand in hand, they walked back to the lounge.

Jada and Mark were surprised to see the party was almost over. Both the music and lights were turned down low, and most of the remaining people were drifting off through the door to the left of the elevator. Hannah was near the music console chatting with Ashley, and Madison and Emily were sitting with another woman Jada didn’t know. Everybody else was leaving. Jada and Mark found an empty sofa across from Hannah and Ashley and sat down.

And the evening wore on. Mark and Jada continued to hold hands as they chatted with each other. Both seemed tired, and when Mark finally put his arm around Jada, she accepted his affections at once, snuggling into his arm and wrapping her arm around the front of his waist. She sighed in contentment and nestled her head into his side.

They shared a first kiss, and then spent some quiet time engaging in gentle foreplay, simple caresses, and kisses, nothing overtly sexual, not in the demanding sense. Everything was light and playful. Mark caressed Jada’s cheek with his fingers for a while. He was smiling at her, his eyes full of hope. After a while, Jada leaned back, and the arm behind her head became a comfortable pillow. Mark other arm came to hold her body, caressing her lightly by the side of her ribs. He was delighted by the feel of her muscular body. “You are so incredibly beautiful,” he mumbled as he petted her.

Jada giggled. “Oh, I bet you tell that to all the girls you make out with!” But she was pleased with his comment, and she sighed and reached up and gave Mark a long, sleepy kiss. Her kiss wandered, ending in a dry tongue that licked his ear, long, soft strokes up and down the ridge of his ear. Mark shivered with the ticklish sensations. And then her teeth finished the job by giving a playful nip to his earlobe. It was all the approval he needed. A moment later, his caressing hand wandered up and cupped a soft breast.

Jada sucked in a deep breath, held it for a long time, and then let it out very slowly as Mark fondled her. Her body was in an extremely unusual state, her mind almost asleep and free of inhibitions, yet her body was in an advanced state of sexual arousal. In a dreamlike state, Jada’s hand dropped to Mark’s groin, and her fingers traced the full erection beneath his pants. Light as feathers, her fingers danced around his stiff cock. “Such a nice daydream,” she thought lazily. “And where will it go?”

“Do you like this?” she asked in a teasing, floating voice as she slowly pinched the end of his cock. She purred happily as Mark nodded. He thought her purr was the sexiest sound imaginable. His hips began to rock back and forth uncontrollably as Jada continued to tease his cock. Mark was signaling he wanted more stimulation on his groin, and Jada rewarded him by pushing in with her fingertips with increasing pressure.

His lips sought hers again and found them eager for more contact. Their tongues playfully danced with each other as their hands fumbled with each other’s clothes. There was no concern at all for exposing themselves to the other people still in the room. Jada’s dress had buttons up the front, and after a moment of fumbling, Mark had her dress open, and his hand squeezed in up against her bra, feeling the firm flesh through the soft cotton, rubbing and cupping the tips of her breasts with the palm of his hand, feeling her nipples swell and harden from the stimulation.

“Like my bra?” asked Jada dreamily. “It was a present ... Hmmm ... That feels so nice...” One of her aroused nipples was now caught in a vise at the bottom of Mark’s index and middle fingers. He was giving her rhythmic squeezes, and she thought it felt as if she were being milked by a baby ... or a lover...

“Do you like my bra?” Jada asked again. There was no verbal response, just Mark’s fingers caressing the soft undersides of her breasts. She drifted, feeling his fingers probe into her flesh, down at the bottom seam of the bra where it met the top of her ribs. He pushed underneath the seam, searching for her naked flesh. Jada sighed deeply and put her arms behind her head, taking a deep breath, displaying and offering her breasts to Mark. She hoped he would find them attractive. And his caresses felt so nice. “Like my bra?” she mumbled.

Jada’s sleepy thoughts were filled with affection and desire. She loved how gentle Mark was being with his advances, loved seeing his smiles and sighs as she accepted him as her lover. She was delighted by his happiness, and soon the room’s cool air was brushing against her naked breasts. “The clever boy must have found the clasp,” she thought dreamily. Jada wondered briefly where her bra could be now, but then the delightful warmth of Mark’s hand cupped her, his flesh against hers, and then his wet tongue. The last thought of her bra flew from her mind as Jada hissed and kicked off her shoes.

She arched her back and presented her breasts for suckling, deliriously happy with the feel and the sexuality. Her left nipple felt super sensitive and was being pulled high and tight against the roof of Mark’s mouth. His tongue pulsed along the underside of her breast and nipple, and Jada dreamed of her milk flowing into his greedy mouth. Her hands meanwhile worked and managed to free Mark’s erection from his clothing. At last! It came out of his pants with a pop. She glanced down. His head was in her lap, suckling her from below. And his penis looked so beautiful, felt so velvety and sexy. She was smiling brightly that he was allowing her to hold it. So velvety soft and firm, both at the same time. Such a wonder...

Jada stroked his penis as he suckled her, alternating firm grips with light caresses, matching the suckling pull on her breast. Her sleepy mind filled with fantasies of two lovers synchronizing their rhythms before copulation. After a timeless period of floating, she bent her head down and felt her wet nipple pop out of Mark’s mouth. He groaned in disappointment for a moment, but then sighed deeply as Jada returned a suckle of her own. The feel of the penis head against her lips and tongue felt magical. Jada shook her head briefly with the penis half in her mouth. She felt so sleepy it was difficult to concentrate.

She blinked her eyes trying to stay awake and decided to swallow his penis, pulling it into her mouth with a suckle as far as she could without choking. She curled her tongue and licked the penis as it slid in and out of her mouth, tracing a large vein on its underside with the tip of her tongue. Mark was shuddering and gasping in pleasure.

Jada re-coupled the penis to her mouth, sucking greedily until she felt his glans at the back of her throat. She could actually feel the beat of his heart with her tongue, and then she licked upward to the tip, kissing the penis head as it left her mouth. Mark’s cock was now super slick, covered with her saliva. It trembled in her hands and she began to play with it. She was delighted Mark was allowing her to fondle his sex organ and tease him, and she squeezed the top of his sensitive glans with her strong fingers until she popped open his urethra slit. She lapped into the opening and tasted a salty drop of pre-cum leaking from him, and then she pushed the tip of her tongue directly into the tiny opening. Mark began to shake from the stimulation on the super sensitive skin.

And the time drifted by. Jada was floating from dream to dream. She had a vague feeling of watching a delightful series of erotic movies, each movie building layer after layer of sexual tension within her mind and body. And then she blinked and half woke up, as if from a long sleep. Her hip muscles felt a bit tired, as if she had been thrusting for a long time, but it was so hard to remember what had just happened.

Jada was flat on her back on the sofa, a pillow under her butt, her socks were off, and her bare legs raised high. Her labia and anus felt sopping wet, and she had dim memories of an intense orgasm with Mark’s head between her legs. She thought it was a dream...

But it was no dream. And now Mark was mounting her, lying between her legs, his pants and boxers down around his ankles. He was kissing and nibbling on her neck, and through her pubic fur, a stiff and eager penis was sliding back and forth, wet from her vaginal flow. Mark was breathing in gasps, and Jada could feel his desire for her, feel his eagerness to couple.

Jada was eager too. Yes! This was what her eagerness was for. Of course! She blinked again and stared up at her toes. They were high above her head, and they were curling in sheer pleasure with each penile thrust against her pubis. The rhythmic pulses of pressure against her uterus were slowly driving her to another orgasm. And for this one, Jada definitely wanted Mark to be inside her. Her mind was totally without concerns or inhibitions, wondering only briefly if she would stain the expensive sofa when Mark entered her virgin body. She happily smiled the thought away and lifted her pelvis, giving him the perfect angle to couple. She would accept this handsome male above her into the core of her womanhood. She would accept him now.

Mark groaned as the head of his penis slid down through the folds of her wet labia, parting the soft and silky lips. He pushed hard and felt the wet knob of his cock slide down and nestle into the moisture around Jada’s anus. Jada grunted at the pressure and shook her head no.

Mark grunted too and pulled back as Jada lowered her legs slightly. He thrust again. This time the angle was perfect. He felt his cockhead slide down the open folds of her labia and notch into her vaginal opening. He cried out in pleasure at the feel of the moist, silky heat, and shifted his body so he could work himself in. Jada gasped and smiled and nodded, spreading her thighs wide open to show she was ready. And then Mark felt the tight barrier and gasped at the shock that Jada was offering her virginity to him.

The vision of his cock sinking into her played out in his mind. One powerful thrust and he would break her, penetrate her deep and tight until he pushed up against her virgin cervix. His cock would be buried inside her, coated with blood from her torn hymen. Mark gasped and cried as he looked upon her face. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing in great gulps of air. And her toes were curled, her feet lifted high and her powerful legs tense with the anticipation of being deflowered.

The realization that this sweet and precious creature beneath him was offering him her virginity finally broke through Mark’s dreamlike trance. He groaned and lifted his weight off her, supporting himself on one elbow. With his free hand he gently pulled down Jada’s bunched-up dress, covering her exposed sex. With infinite tenderness he kissed her.

Jada whimpered in dismay and lifted her dress back up, thrusting upward with her naked hips into the open air, trying to encourage him to couple. “Take me,” she swooned. “You won’t be sorry.” And her sleepy thoughts were filled with fantasies of sexual frolics and delight.

Mark shuddered and cried softly and then lifted from his mount position. Both of Jada’s bare legs were now lifted right in front of him, and he gently grabbed her right ankle and left calf with his hands. He gently but firmly nudged her legs down and to his right, kissing the shapely calf as he swung it across his body. Her legs lowered, he laid himself down behind her and by her side.

Jada whimpered in dismay at the delay and tried to lift her leg back up to offer him a side entry point for copulation, but Mark pushed her leg back down. His hand affectionately lowered her dress again and then he hugged and petted her from behind, pressing against her womb through her dress with the palm of his hand. “Jada?”

“Hmmm?”

“I’m so sleepy ... This doesn’t seem right...”

“I love you...” she mumbled in her dream, “ ... and I want you inside me.” There, she said it. He had her permission. Jada took a deep breath and held it, waiting to let it out slowly once Mark started sliding up inside of her. She wanted him so badly. She began to tremble from her eagerness.

She heard a deep sigh, and then the wonderful male hand stroked down to caress her bare inner thigh. She opened her legs immediately, hoping he would stroke her sex, and then the hand drifted up to cup her womb, this time underneath her dress, fingers sliding lovingly in the silky pubic curls and then holding her, the strong fingers pressing down against her womb, the palm pressing up against her open sex.

She sighed happily, unaware she was nodding her head in encouragement. She drifted in her arousal. “Hmmm, that feels so nice ... Will you drop down a bit?” The wonderful fingers honored her request. They slid between her legs and began to play with her, seeking her, exploring the folds and the hood just above her vagina. “That’s right. Yes, right there, on the clit ... That feels so nice ... Don’t stop...”

She gasped and cried and shivered as the wet finger picked up moisture along her inner folds and then stoked her exposed clitoris again. She felt the finger start to drill her, try to wiggle under the protective hood at the top of her labia. She wiggled back in dreamy anticipation, helping the wet finger find its target. Her coming orgasm would be tremendous. “That’s right ... Right there ... Drive me...”

A tender voice at her ear, “I’m so sleepy ... I don’t understand ... Later?”

“Hmmm ... What?! No! I want you now...” So sexy, the wiggling finger was pushing her down the chute for sexual release, and Jada was breathing in gasps, eager for the ride to begin. She felt her clitoris pull away from the intense stimulation, felt a lifting sensation in her groin that she knew was a sign of extreme arousal. Jada was almost at the tipping point where her orgasm would become unstoppable, and she dimly thought she was in the dream of a perfect orgasm. “My handsome male,” she mumbled, “mine...”

“This feels wrong ... Jada ... Are we drunk?”

“Hmm?!” The direct question shocked Jada’s mind, pushing her from her dream. Her mind fought and won a brief fierce battle, raising her equilibrium point to halfway between awake and asleep. She was now slightly more awake than before, still floating but now able to consider Mark’s question. And her semi-awake mind realized the victory over sleep would not last.

“Mark ... Have you ever been drunk?”

“No.”

“I have, once. My parents forced me. We’re not drunk. This feels different ... a lot different ... so sexy ... Oh no! Don’t stop! Please don’t stop!” The sexy finger that had been fondling the area around her aroused clitoris had left her.

Jada heard great tenderness in Mark’s sleepy voice. “Your parents got you drunk?”

She cried, “What?! Yes, once ... Oh, please come back! I don’t want to remember! Not that, not now! Please come back, please!”

“Jada...” Lots of soft kisses on her cheek and the side of her nose, but still no finger returning to her clit. Jada whimpered in dismay. Mark pulled up his hand and sniffed it. His fingers were wet with Jada’s vaginal flow, and the smell was intoxicating. His mind drifted. Intoxicating? Jada’s parents got her drunk? “My beautiful Jada ... An accident?”

Her mind drifted against her will, reliving the awful memory. “No, they did it on purpose, forced the bottle into my mouth ... it burned my throat ... vodka ... then gin ... up my nose ... It was horrible!” Great tears began to fall from Jada’s eyes, and she sobbed uncontrollably.

Mark gave a strangled cry. “Oh why...”

A scene Jada had tried to bury for the last two years began to play in her mind. It was unstoppable, as if she were being forced to watch the ghastly memories against her will. “To blame me,” she sobbed. “For something they did ... something awful ... I was so ashamed ... I never told anybody ... not the police ... not even Emily...”

“I remember ... Emily...”

“Yes,” Jada cried through her tears. “Someone loves me now! And I love her ... but I’ve kept silent...” Jada gave a deep sigh, her sleepy mind floating in the conversation. “But I’m telling you. Isn’t that strange?”

A gentle hand was holding her and caressing her body, breast to stomach, slow and caring strokes. But it no longer felt arousing to Jada, just infinitely tender. She felt like a young child, an infant, ancient memories buried for so many years. She was being cradled. She felt loved and cradled, and she began to unwind slightly, still deeply aroused but falling away from the need for sex. Mark lips were at her ear, her cheek, her lips, kissing her. “Yes, strange ... Why tell me?”

Jada gave him a dreamy giggle. “Hmmm? Because I trust you ... And I think I ... Oh, I’m so sleepy. I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”

“Tell me what?”

There was a sleepy pause. “Will I scare you away?”

“Hmmm?”

“I don’t want to scare you away. Oh no, I don’t want that.”

“You won’t. I promise.”

“You sure? Will I scare you away if I tell you I love you?”

“You do?”

“Uh huh. Are you scared away?” Jada’s lips began to tremble.

There was a long moment of silence, and then Mark stirred. “No. I think I love you too...”

Jada whimpered. “Then love me for real. Mount me, come inside me...” She cried softly, “You don’t think I’m pretty?”

Soft kisses began to cover her naked breasts and nipples. “You are so incredibly beautiful ... Sweet Jada, we should wait...”

Jada frowned, her mind reacting with the directness of a child. All the adult layers of social politeness had been polished away. She whined, “But I want you now!”

More kisses at her breasts, tasting her nipples and then drifting up to her throat, and then to her ear. A gentle whisper, “Later ... Please?”

“Hmmm...” Jada felt her body and mind sinking into a deeper sleep. She would soon lose what little consciousness she had. She made one last struggle for consciousness and found herself gazing into Mark’s eyes, and then his tenderness somehow made the need for sex unnecessary. But the core prize of love was still in need of being captured. “Well, okay I guess. Promise?”

A big yawn. “So sleepy ... Yes, I promise ... So sleepy ... Promise what?”

“It’s a promise now, a promise to love me.”

Mark was rapidly sliding into his own state of deep sleep. “Yes ... to love you...”

“Okay ... Don’t forget ... ever...” In her dream, Jada tried to say something more, but the battle was over, and everything became softness and love and peace.

Chapter 4

Mark woke with a slow blink of his eyes, his mind barely making it to consciousness. There was bright, early-morning orange sunlight shining on the northern wall of the lounge. It was coming in horizontally from the southeast through the long row of windows across the room, behind where the buffet had been. The light had forced his mind awake.

Mark glanced up to one of several digital clocks mounted in the walls of the lounge area, just a few minutes before eight o’clock in the morning, somehow a tad later than he would have guessed. He turned his head away from the light, and his mind started to drift back to sleep immediately. He sighed in contentment and smiled in his dream. He was cuddling with a delightfully feminine creature. He could feel the warmth of her body in his arms as he slept, and holding her felt absolutely wonderful.

Mark blinked again, becoming instantly and fully awake. It was now close to 8:30 a.m., and the first thing he saw was that some high clouds had moved in and were obscuring the morning sun. He turned his head and looked about the room.

Hannah and Ashley were lying on a nearby sofa entwined with each other. And across the room, his sister Madison was sleeping with Emily and the other woman Mark did not know. Mark felt a rush of embarrassment. He was surrounded by half-nude sleeping women. And he hadn’t seen his sister’s naked breasts and pubis since ages ago, when he walked into what he thought was an empty bathroom just as she was stepping out of a shower. So long ago ... Mark tore his eyes away after several seconds of staring. He had not realized how cute his sister had become. And her pubic fur, such a natural, lovely, and unusual color...

And Jada! She was lying cradled in his arms, sleeping peacefully, the front of her dress knotted from their earlier sexual play. Her breasts were completely out in the open.

His mind wandered to the previous night. “Where the hell is her bra? Probably on the floor somewhere. Oh my God, what is she going to think?!” Mark had a beautiful girl lying bare-breasted in his arms, peacefully sleeping. Such a lovely face, so beautiful, framed with soft curly dark hair tied in a simple ponytail. Mark remembered her gentle laughter and smiles when he stroked her hair during their earlier foreplay, so soft and clean...

Silent, frantic thoughts filled his mind. “Oh my God, Jada! I hardly know you!” He worked the problem of how to wake Jada without embarrassing her. Could he untangle himself from her without waking her up? It didn’t seem likely. One of his arms was a pillow for her, and the other tucked under her dress and legs tight against her butt. He could feel the warmth of her bare butt and the backs of her thighs against his arm. And the side of her hip was resting against his naked groin. Hell, his pants were down around his ankles! He had to do something! But what?

Mark looked at Jada and was relieved to see her dress was covering her hips and legs almost to her knees. Except for the skin contact, at least she was semi-decent now. But he remembered everything from the previous night, everything, including her bright joyful smile and dreamy laugh when he took her panties off, and how she cried out when he first lapped her labia with his tongue, how she gripped his head with her thighs. He remembered everything, how tightly she held him with her thighs, how she gasped as he licked her, how salty she tasted, oh the overwhelming emotions of tasting her ... and the heady scent of her flow...

Mark gazed upon her, this beautiful, precious creature. Was there any way to wake her without embarrassing her? Mark stared at her breasts for a moment. So beautiful ... He watched their quiet rise and fall. So beautiful ... He was lost in their beauty. And then he saw her breath catch, her breasts tremble. His gaze lifted to her face. Her eyes were open. She had been watching him stare at her exposed breasts.

“I...” Mark was deeply chagrined, at a total loss for words.

Jada gave him a hard frown.

Mark finally managed a hoarse whisper. “Can we leave without waking the others? I don’t want to embarrass my sister.”

Jada sat up, looked around, and realized what Mark was talking about. She gave him a stiff nod while still glaring at him, her jaw clenched in obvious fury. She got up, bared her teeth in revulsion at the sight of his limp penis, and then spun around and grabbed her purse, shoes, and panties. She took one last look at Mark and then stormed off into the kitchen, her taut breasts bouncing slightly as she almost ran.

Mark got up and found her bra behind the sofa. He quickly followed her, pulling up his boxers and pants from his ankles and forgetting about everything else.

Jada walked across the width of the large kitchen and left through an opposite door. Mark walked through the door a few seconds later and found himself in a large, empty pantry room. There were metal storage cabinets everywhere, similar to what was in the kitchen, and also a row of what looked like washers and driers for clothes on the left. There were also a few chairs by a table at the windows on the right. But where was Jada?

There was another door ahead, and Mark went through it and entered a large and opulent bathing area, with numerous sinks, toilets, shower areas, and even a full-sized Jacuzzi as the centerpiece of the room. Mark had a fleeting thought that it might be a women’s bathroom. He didn’t see any urinals.

What he did see was the back of Jada, the top of her dress still twisted in a knot by her shoulders. As the door from the pantry swung closed behind Mark, Jada whip-turned to face him. Her breasts were flying with her dress still fully open across her chest.

She hissed, “You! You monster! I remember last night! I remember everything! I have never been so humiliated!”

Mark walked to her and held out the bra sheepishly. “I found this.” Jada snatched it out of his hands with a lightning snap of her arm and she shook her closed fist at him angrily.

“You!!!” she screamed. “Who do you think you are?! I’m going to prosecute! I’m going straight to the police! You violated me!”

“Hey, wait a minute! Jada, it wasn’t me!”

“Like hell! I remember what you were doing last night! Are you claiming I wasn’t drugged?!”

“No, of course you were! I was too! Jada, I’ll go to the police with you. I’m a victim too!”

His plea of innocence brought her up short. “What?” she hissed. “Are you claiming you knew nothing about this?!”

“Absolutely!” He paused to catch his breath and thoughts. “Jada, think. My own sister was drugged. I think we all were. I’m not responsible for this. You’ve got to believe me!”

A long moment of silence passed. Mark maintained eye contact, determined not to glance down at her bare chest and ruin everything. Jada’s eyes finally softened. “Well, perhaps ... And if I’ve accused you unfairly, I apologize. How much do you remember about last night?”

“The same as you. Absolutely everything.”

Jada frowned. “My gosh...” Another long pause. “Everything?” she whispered.

Mark nodded and couldn’t stop his eyes. He glanced at the lovely breasts before him.

Jada glanced down and seemed to realize for the first time that she was still indecent on top. “Oh hell!” She turned around on the spotless tile and faced away from him and then slipped on her panties under her dress. Next, she tried to put on the bra, but her dress was twisted in a knot, and to straighten it, she needed to pull it off first. Mark couldn’t help but admire her beautiful, athletic body. Clad only in panties with her back to Mark, she quickly put on her bra.

Both her panties and bra were a royal shade of blue, a recent gift from Emily and matching the print of Jada’s dress. She looked as if she were dressed in a swimsuit, and Mark gave a small cry of recognition as he snapped his fingers. “Of course! You’re Jada Horowitz, aren’t you? The star of the women’s swim team!”

Jada turned to face him, her face blushing, her dress still bunched up in her hands. “Well, I’m not exactly ... I mean, yes, I’m the one who won the Conference All-around this year, but...”

“I knew it! I knew you looked familiar! I’ve seen all your meets!” he blurted out. “Last night, I just didn’t recognize you with your clothes on!” Mark gasped as he realized how he must have sounded, and he turned a beet red.

Jada’s jaw dropped. She stared at him in astonishment for a moment and then grinned, and then she broke into a cheerful laugh. Mark thought he had never heard a sweeter sound.

“Oh, this is so ridiculous, Mark!”

He nodded and finally remembered to turn around, giving Jada some privacy to finish putting on her dress. “Thank you for believing me.”

“Yeah...” Jada turned and glanced at him as she dressed, admiring his muscular back. He was wearing only a pair of pants, and she decided he looked very handsomely fit. Still, she decided, those were thoughts for another time and place. “Okay. I’m dressed now. Mark, do you have a cell phone? I still want to call the police.”

He turned and faced her. “Yeah, I sure do. And I’ll back you up with what’s happened here.” Mark reached back into his pants pocket and pulled out a rather large portable phone, staring down at it for a moment.

Jada gave a nervous frown. “Don’t tell me. Let me guess. No signal, right?”

“Oh, this phone is never without good reception.” Mark handed the phone to Jada.

“Really? How’s that?”

“It’s one of the new Leophones.”

Jada stared at him blankly.

“Leophone, you know, Low Earth Orbit. It’s a satellite phone. You must have heard the Leophone jingle on TV.”

Jada shrugged. “I don’t watch TV.” She looked down at the phone. It felt much heavier than Emily’s. “This thing looks incredibly expensive.”

Mark shrugged back and nervously tried to sing. He was a bit off-key. “The Leophone, ta-da, the Leophone, ta-da, the size of a cell, ta-da, but raised to the power, cha-cha, raised to the power of the skies, cha-cha-cha!”

Jada grinned at his performance and said with playful mock sorrow, “No, I guess that’s one ad I’ve missed.” She opened the phone, but before she could dial 911, the phone started ringing on its own. Without thinking, she answered the call. “Hello?”

“Jada? Is that you? I was expecting my brother. Where are you?” It was Madison’s voice.

Jada replied, “We’re a couple of rooms away on the other side of the kitchen. Mark’s right here with me. Hold on.” She handed the phone to Mark, and he put on the speakerphone so they could both hear.

Madison spoke up. “Great! We were all wondering where you were. Jada, can you come back to the lounge? Fatima was down in the underground tunnel before the party started. We were talking last night. There’s something you should know.”

Mark guessed that was the name of the other woman he saw sleeping with his sister. “Yeah, okay, Maddy, we’ll be there in just a minute.” Madison acknowledged and signed off. Mark saw Jada staring at him quizzically as he closed the Leophone. He shrugged in apology. “Uh, sorry, I have to take a leak.”

“Oh. Yeah, good idea. Me too.” Jada decided to put off her 911 call for a few minutes. She turned around and walked into one of the toilet stalls and calmly closed the door. After a second, Mark walked into another a few stalls away.

As he heard Jada urinate, he realized that by sharing a bathroom with him, Jada was offering him a large token of trust. He sighed and relaxed and voided his own bladder.

A minute later, Mark and Jada returned to the lounge and met Fatima, the woman who had slept with Emily and Madison. Mark collected the rest of his clothes and finished dressing, and after brief introductions, Fatima began telling her story.

“My friends and I arrived at the tunnel downstairs a few minutes before 2 p.m. yesterday, just before the elevator started working. There was a huge line of people in front of us, over a hundred. We were all waiting to be let in. There was a large sign saying the parties would open at 1:57 p.m.”

“I didn’t see any sign,” said Jada.

“No, there was a large crowd of fraternity boys from Beta Sigma Rho, twenty of them in all. They took the sign with them. They were crashing the party.”

“You know exactly how many there were?” asked Jada.

“Oh, it was easy to keep track.” Fatima paused for a moment and then added, “It got a bit ugly down there waiting for the doors to open.”

“What do you mean?” asked Hannah.

“The frat boys were roving the line, intimidating the few other guys there and asking the girls if they’d like a good time. I think about nine or ten actually said yes. I can’t imagine why. Their behavior was so lewd, ogling the girls who refused them. The frat boys also brought along a few dates.” Fatima sighed. “It was a large crowd, a very rowdy bunch. It was pretty obvious they’d been drinking.”

Mark frowned. Beta Sigma Rho had a campus reputation for being a magnet for professional party goers. “I’m surprised there were that many still on campus.”

Fatima shrugged. “They were the second group of people to leave via the elevator. Almost everybody else in the line was a woman. We were all relieved when they left.”

“But the elevator only holds eighteen,” said Ashley.

Fatima paused to take a breath. “Yep, they made two trips to party #5, 2525. The elevator was packed both times.” She looked around the empty room. “It’s a pity Husna left. She knows the people who came here a lot better than I do, the people that came to It’s My Party, I mean.”

Ashley looked bewildered. “Huh?”

“The first people in line were twenty students from the School of Nursing, all fifth years, I think, eighteen women and two men. The Beta Sigma Rho boys almost picked a fight over using the elevator first, but the nursing students held their ground. My friend Husna negotiated a compromise. Eighteen of the first group got to ride first, and the remaining two men joined my group at the end of the line. The two men wanted to rejoin their nursing group, so my group picked It’s My Party too, just to keep a fight from starting between the nurses and the frat boys. It all seems so ridiculous now.”

Fatima looked around at her new friends. “And that’s the way it worked. The rest of us in the line organized into groups going to the different parties. That’s what took most of the time, deciding who was going where and typing in the stupid access codes. I think the elevator would return within a couple of minutes after leaving. I was very surprised my trip took so long, three and a half minutes. It was a little scary. There was no sense of motion at all. We all thought the elevator had broken. I was very surprised the door opened when our countdown hit zero.”

Madison asked, “So the other parties got eighteen people each?”

“From the initial crowd, yes, the other four besides parties #1 and #5. People split up just to fill the slots and get out of the basement. There were four guys and eight other women with me in our ride to It’s My Party. We were the last ones to leave the downstairs hall. There was no one behind us at the time. We got up here about 2:30.”

Fatima adjusted her headscarf. “The eighteen women from the first ride were here. They were the only ones. They said they found this place deserted.”

Jada and Mark glanced at each other. Jada asked, “Wait a minute. You’re saying this place was deserted from the start? No one ever saw anyone from Kappa Alpha?”

Fatima shook her head. “No. The first group was upset by the elevator ride, upset with themselves really. None of them realized until they got here that there was no return code given for getting back to where they started. My group didn’t think of that either. I guess none of us were taking the access-code business too seriously.”

Mark nodded, remembering his own experience of typing in the code as a game. “It’s not our fault for not seeing the danger. Being in a building that you don’t know how to get out of is an unheard-of experience. It’s such a criminal violation of fire codes. No wonder we didn’t recognize the danger.”

Mark tried to picture the scene Fatima was describing. The University of Vermont had an intensive five-year nursing program granting RN degrees after four years and Master of Nursing degrees in five. He could easily imagine that twenty people who were already Registered Nurses and starting their professional careers would not put up with the childish and dangerous prank Kappa Alpha appeared to be playing. Mark wondered if the first group was also drugged. He asked Fatima, “Do you know if they ate from the buffet?”

She thought for a moment and then nodded. “I’m almost sure, yes. I saw a bunch of used plates when I arrived.”

“Actually,” Jada chimed in, “I suspect the drug was in the soft drinks at the other side of the elevator.” She briefly described her experience making the trip. Emily backed up Jada’s story and then prodded Fatima to continue.

“Well, we only met the nursing students briefly. They all wanted out of here. I think they were only waiting for someone from Kappa Alpha to show up so they could yell at them, and then when we showed up they gave up. They left almost immediately, certainly before 3 p.m., the two male nurses too, through the door by the elevator, saying they were going back to the parking lot.”

“Tell them the last piece, what you told us last night,” prodded Madison.

“One of the men mentioned they came in four Land Rovers.”

Mark’s sister turned to him and raised her eyebrows. “Sound familiar?”

“Yeah, I think I remember you making a comment. Weren’t there four Land Rovers in the spots closest to the drawbridge?”

Madison nodded. “Which means the group never made it back to their vans, after an hour and a half of trying!” She whined at her brother. “Mark! What the hell is going on here?!”

The group stood in tense silence for several seconds pondering Madison’s question. Then Hannah gave a small shriek. “My God, my God, my parents! They are absolutely going to kill me!” She ran and got her own cell phone and then stared at it in dismay. “Hell! Zero bars!”

Mark handed her his Leophone. “Here. Try mine.”

Hannah spent the next few minutes dialing and redialing her home number, becoming more frantic with each redial. She finally shouted to the crowd, “Hey everybody, Listen to this!” as she redialed and put on the speaker phone.

The group heard a recorded voice say in a flat tone, “All satellite circuits busy. Your call can not be completed as dialed. Please try again later. Error code sixty-three G.”

There was a brief second of silence. Ashley pulled out her own Leophone and tried dialing. After a moment, she said, “Hell. My dad spent a fortune for this phone. This is not supposed to happen.” She added sarcastically, “But at least we know it’s error code sixty-three G. That’s something, I guess.”

Madison felt like snapping back with, “Cool it, Ashley!” but then saw her attempt at humor seemed to relieve some of the group’s tension. Madison dialed Hannah’s cell with her own Leophone. There was no response. Then she dialed Ashley’s Leophone. It rang at once, and they briefly tested the connection. Then Madison tried dialing her own parents. Her grim face required no explanation. She finally closed her phone and said to her brother, “But we can dial each other!”

“Don’t you remember? Leophones have local switching and walkie-talkie ability. Our phones are syncing directly with each other, not going through the satellite at all.”

Jada tried dialing 911 on Mark’s phone and got the same error response. She handed the phone back to Mark. He took it and said, “It sounds like the satellite network is...”

“Down?” asked Fatima.

Mark shrugged. “I don’t know. All circuits busy? What could cause that? Maybe clogged is a better word.” He tried his phone for a moment, repeating Jada’s attempt. “And 911 isn’t working either.”

“Yeah,” Jada replied. “How can they not give priority to 911 calls?”

Mark sighed. “Oh, it’ll handle 911 calls, but Skylands warns you when you buy the phone that they’re exempt from national regulations. It’s an international phone, not a cell phone.” He looked down and noticed his battery was almost drained. “Hey, Sis, do you have your charger?”

“Sure do.” She ran to her purse and got it. A moment later, Mark’s phone gave a happy chirp to indicate it was being recharged. No one else had spoken for the last minute. Mark looked around the lounge and then at the group of six women, wondering what they wanted to do next. Everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. Understandable, thought Mark, but not very productive.

The realization brought him up short. What should they be doing? Try to get back to their cars? Of course, but how? Follow in the footsteps of the people who didn’t make it? Or maybe they should stay put for a while and concentrate on contacting the police. What should they do? Pondering the question, Mark wandered over to the bank of windows where the buffet used to be and looked outside. After a moment, the women joined him.

The bank of windows looked out from the corner of a trapezoidal park. The lounge room was on the second floor of a great two-story building which had the park as an enclosed courtyard. They were above the corner of a peaceful forest garden, with numerous pines and spruces and cobblestone walkways and even a few sturdy benches and tables scattered about. The park looked inviting, very pleasantly laid out. Mark sighed and looked up at the sky. Clouds were moving in. They had already obliterated the sun.

Hannah commented, “There was a weather report yesterday. We might get six to eight inches later this afternoon. Hell, can you imagine trying to drive through that awful forest road with eight inches of snow on the ground?”

Mark shrugged. “Right now I wish that was our problem. Don’t worry about the snow. Let’s see ... I know I saw the sun coming through these windows when I woke up earlier. Let’s call this direction east, which puts the elevator south and the kitchen to the north of us.”

Ashley and Fatima walked across the lounge to the western windows. After a few seconds, the rest of the group followed. It looked like another enclosed park, a mirror image of the trapezoidal forest park, but this one made entirely of sand. A few volleyball nets were set up nearby.

Jada gasped. “I do believe that is a genuine Olympic swimming pool. Amazing!” In the center of the sand, a stone perimeter was around what was apparently a 50-meter-by-25-meter covered pool, all bedded down for the winter.

Ashley squinted and called out, “Are those shuffleboard courts at the other end?”

“Yes, and bocce too, I think!” replied Fatima. “This would be a very nice place to live.”

Mark nodded. “I had no idea the residential areas would be so extensive. I thought this was mostly a shopping mall.” He turned to the six women. “So, folks, what do we do next?”

Hannah stared at him. “What do you mean, what do we do? Isn’t it obvious?! We leave this place. Now!”

Mark turned to her. “How?”

“Well, through that door, of course.” She pointed to the exit to the left of the elevator. “Is there another way? You want to try jumping out a window?”

“Well, not jump. We could probably make something to climb down though. It’s a possibility. There’s also a pantry and then a bath area beyond the kitchen, and a door out of that leading who knows where.”

Hannah frowned and shook her head. “But that’s heading north. Our cars are at the southern end of the mall, aren’t they?”

Ashley chimed in. “She’s right, Mark.”

“I know. But we have some evidence another group tried to leave by going south and didn’t make it. Doesn’t that count for something?”

Ashley gave a deep frown. “Well, I’m not going north. No way! Mark, it’s the Christmas holidays. This place will probably be deserted for the rest of the year! I feel lost now, and if we start heading north now, it’ll just get worse. We’ve got to head south and find your car before it starts snowing. We’ve got to get out of here!”

Madison spoke up. “We could split up, explore two or even three paths, and keep in touch by Leophone.”

“No!” said Hannah almost shouting. “I do not want us to split up!”

Ashley also shouted. “Well, I don’t care what you want! I am definitely not going north!”

“Excuse me, people!” said Fatima loudly, “but I’d like to point out we are lacking something we badly need, something we have the power to find.”

“A map of the mall?” asked Hannah.

Fatima gave a quick laugh. “Well, that would be nice too. But I was thinking of a leader.”

The other six people stared at her.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not soliciting for the job. But I am a political science major. It’s obvious to me we need a leader. We’ll fall apart without one.”

Most of the group seemed to take her suggestion to heart, but Ashley gave a deep frown. “Oh hell, Fatima, I don’t know. Part of my reason for coming to this party was to get away from my parents for a while. Are you saying we should elect someone I’ll have to obey?”

Fatima nodded, “Within reason, yes, as long as you want to be a part of this group.”

“Well, I nominate my brother,” said Madison. “He was an Eagle Scout.”

“Maddy...” whispered Mark with a grin.

Fatima shook her head. “Don’t choose on survival skills, or even the person with the best sense of direction. That person can be our chief guide perhaps. But our leader should be the person with the best leadership skills.”

Hannah looked interested but uncertain. “Which are?”

Fatima shrugged. “It’s a complex skill set. Pick someone who can lead us, keep us working as a group, and inspire us to do our best. Pick someone with good emotional stability, good negotiation skills, and pick someone who can make level-headed decisions in an emergency.”

“Do you want the job?” asked Hannah.

Fatima paused for a long moment. “Well, if elected, I would do my best. It’s a position of trust. Perhaps ... Is everybody agreeable to having an election?”

“Secret ballot?” asked Jada.

“Oh, I don’t know. Is that necessary? The important thing is we have to pull together as an organized group. We might find a better leader by explaining our choices to everybody. I think we should try to reach a consensus.”

Mark nodded. “That’s a good point. Let’s keep the voting public.”

Emily spoke up. “Fatima, how about you chair a meeting, with the agenda of us picking a leader by open discussion? Everybody agree?” There were quick nods all around.

“Okay, excellent,” said Fatima. They took a moment to all sit down in a circle, and then Fatima cleared her throat. “This meeting is now in order. I am the moderator. To speak, raise your hand and wait to be recognized. Now, this may sound very formal, but I think the first thing we should do is appoint a recording secretary. Any volunteers?”

“Oh, I’ll do it,” Emily said immediately as she raised her hand. Fatima nodded, and Emily got up and hurried to her purse. She came back and sat down a moment later with a small sketchpad and a pen.

Fatima continued. “I’ll get right to the point. I am entertaining nominations for leader, and you can nominate yourself if you wish. Be prepared to say why you think your choice would be the best person to lead us. I’m going to start off being as liberal as possible, with no time limits on speaking. Just have your say. Nominations are now open to the floor.”

“Huh?” said Hannah, looking down. “What does the floor ... Oh, I get it. Never mind.”

Fatima gave her a kind smile and a reminder. “That’s right, Hannah. Everyone here is on the floor except me. And I can recognize myself if I want, step outside my role of moderator if I want to nominate someone. Raise your hand if you want to talk, and wait for me to recognize you.” Hannah nodded.

Madison was the first to raise her hand, and after being recognized, stood up and said, “I still want to nominate my brother. He’s a hell of a nice guy, very smart, kind, and considerate. He’s a great listener, never bosses me around, and always gives me his full attention whenever I speak with him. And sometimes I even manage to change his opinion about something, which shows he has an open mind. He is absolutely unflappable in tense situations, extremely level-headed. We were right next to a car accident in Portugal a few years ago, and while other people were still screaming, Mark rushed in and helped a person out of a wreck before it caught fire. Vote for my brother, you won’t be sorry.” Madison looked at Fatima and sat down, nodding that she was finished.

Fatima nodded back in approval. “An excellent nomination, Madison. Speeches like this are exactly what I’m hoping for. Mark, do you accept the nomination?”

Mark was blushing from his sister’s praise, but he spoke with a calm voice. “Yes. I’d like to add that if I’m elected, I’ll do my best to deserve your votes.” He paused for a moment and noticed Ashley and Hannah were nervously holding hands together. “Heck, folks, I don’t know why those nursing students never made it back to their vans, but I’m still hoping we’ll be back at our cars in a few hours. How hard can it be?”

Emily wrote furiously and then waved her hand. After being recognized, she stood up and said, “I nominate my roommate, Jada. Everything Madison said about Mark, Jada is also. I think she is the wisest counselor I’ve ever met. I’ve come to rely heavily on her level-headed judgment. She’ll be a fantastic leader, and besides...” Emily looked Mark directly in the eyes. “I don’t mean to insult you, Mark, but we’re six women and one man. Can you imagine the reverse, six men and one woman electing the woman as leader? Can you?”