The Runners: Chapter 11
Chapter 11
The four friends and hundreds of travelers milled around the big gate after clearing the security check point. As the friends talked about their destination, they were able to hear conversations around them like white background noises that started from afar and finally coming into their range of hearing. The noises came and went in droves. The nearby conversations were reminiscent of the sounds of birds chirping away. But, they were simply noises in the background without any logical cohesive contents.
There were also people walking about amazed at the size of the structures and the security system the travel agency ostensibly displayed. All these elements added to the level of excitement of the friends’ trip. Naturally, they spoke to each other louder than usual even within the small space they had managed to form for the purpose of their conversation inside the crowded terminal.
“Jane, this will be a great trip. Have you traveled with VTT before?” Jacob held Jane’s hand as he asked.
“My first time here as well,” said Jane, concealing the fact that she had taken prior trips using VTT agency to California and Mexico few times in the past.
“I am going to take many pictures of long extinct flowers, especially, chocolate cosmos that had disappeared a hundred years ago.” Jacob, who was enrolled as a world history major at the University of Wisconsin, was an avid photographer of nature. He had seen numerous photographs of the old Amazon region and the Yellow Stone, a captured sight of the grand Iguassu Falls, and the Old Faithful of the past. He had collected the images of old photographs and longed to see the nature as it had been in their past glories in person. This was the trip of a life time for Jacob, who savored every bit of life that was afforded him.
“I am glad. I’m looking to just relax on the beach by the pool, not to mention sunbathing that I want to experience for the first time.” Jane responded quietly and looked around before fixing her eyes on the guard station at the far upper right side of the wall. She met the eyes, although very far from where she was, of a man standing next to the armed guard behind the glass window. She seemed to exchange subtle nods, but with reservation. Curiously, looking back and forth between Jane and the guard station, Cathy noticed these subtle movements.
“Jane, what are you looking at?” Then, Cathy looked up and saw only the armed guard.
“Nothing, Cathy. I’m just taking in the grandeur of this place.” Jane responded, quickly turning her head right towards Cathy. “Nothing,” Jane repeated.
Then, there came a loud sound of horn thru the PA system. Abruptly, the entire waiting area went silent. Hundreds of conversations, laughter, people stretching their arms and yawning, every motion, and noise came to immediate halt. Then, a digitized woman’s voice followed.
“Ladies and gentlemen, dear loyal customers of VTT, welcome to the best vacation destinations designed by VTT! For those of you who are repeat customers, we thank you for your loyalty and for those who are first time travelers with us, we look forward to impressing you and wish to see you back on your next journey.” Then, the voice continued on for a couple more minutes to explain the rules of the travel, safety cautions, and other usual information with respect to the VTT passenger policies. Then, she touched on the subject of the agency’s legal liabilities since it was required for everyone here to sign the VTT waiver forms prior to being allowed to go on these trips. Finally, the voice moved on to more helpful instructions.
“In five minutes, the door that you see in front of you will open. Please do not enter the gate until the ‘Enter’ sign is lit. The area inside will be a large hollow dome. As you enter, please look above. You will see today’s destination placards being displayed prominently at the top of the corridors. Alaska will use corridor #1, it will display the word Alaska on the corridor with white LED light stretching all the way down to the entry of the corridor from the top center of the dome. There will be seven corridors for the seven destinations that will be served today. Please look at the following color codes with your respective destination:
Alaska: Corridor #1; White LED; 1st Left
New Delhi: Corridor #2; Yellow LED; 2nd Left
Seoul: Corridor #3; Blue LED; 3rd Left
Mexico: Corridor #4; Red LED; Center
North Pole: Corridor #5; Green LED; 1st Right
French Alps: Corridor #6; Purple LED; 2nd Right
Bangkok : Corridor #7; Orange LED; 3rd Right
As you enter, please proceed to the corridor of your destination. You will only be allowed to enter thru the corridor of your destination for your safety. Have a wonderful trip and hope to see you again soon!” With that the voice died out and the PA system went silent. Soon, the travelers came back lively again as they returned to their interrupted activities before the announcement first came on.
“So, we are number four, red, center or straight forward. That’s my destination, BABY!” Jason shouted out at the top of his lungs. People around them turned to his direction and stared at Jason, some laughing quietly with approval and some with cringing expression as if it was some sort of a shameful behavior. But, he was loud nonetheless. Embarrassed, Jason quickly covered up his mouth with the palm of his right hand and lowered his head deep into his shoulders.
“You take the lead!” Cathy said with an approving laughter and lightly elbowing the side of Jason’s waist. Seeing Jason’s reaction, Jacob and Jane smiled at each other as well.
The crowd heard a giant hissing noise coming from the direction of the gate. The door began to open slowly. As each side was pulled from the center, disappearing into the thick walls, a caution light above the door lit up as people gathered closer to the gate. As the gap opened wider, there appeared transparent red beams of light, connecting the two ends of the doors in horizontal orientation. Then, they grew longer with the growing space of the opening. The beams were about a foot apart from one another covering the entire height of the now fully exposed gate.
The travelers peaked inside through the door and saw a vast empty vacuum space. The brightness of the light beams intensified, visually warning the travelers not to enter the room yet. With a series of hisses and thumps, the gate opened to its maximum width and the red beams disappeared. Four guards stood on either end of the gate and an indicator light came on for the travelers to enter.
The travelers moved quickly thru the gate. From above, at the guard station’s vantage point, it appeared as if the excited vacationers were like space particles that were being sucked up into a black hole. When the first person stepped into the room, the ceiling lights lit up guiding the person to his destination corridor. Purple light lit up instantly followed by green and red and the rest. When Jacob’s group entered, they looked up and saw seven beams of light connecting the center top of the dome down to each respective corridor. The height of the ceiling was several times tall as Jason and the space was relatively bright with the LED light beams. Instantly, the travelers dispersed into seven directions, forming seven ad hoc groups as they moved to their respective corridors.
Jacob’s group followed the red light straight ahead and leading the pack at the front was Jason.
“Come on this way!” Jason urged the group motioning his arm to follow him. They reached the beginning of the corridor. The entrance was as tall as a full grown palm tree with an opening big enough for two grown elephants. There was what appeared to be red murky liquid suspended in the opening of the gate.
“Red passengers please enter the capsule!” A voice came on. Seeing, what was there, people at the front hesitated and the entire procession came to a stall as Jason stopped his forward progress. Unfamiliar with the mechanism and what they were seeing, no one wanted to be the first to enter through the gate. Instead, the travelers around Jason looked at him and encouraged him to take the first plunge since he acted so bravely earlier.
Jason’s confidence as the leader has now abandoned him. He became nervous and didn’t want to be the first person to venture through the gate.
“Are you going to go through or not? What happened to the cocky young man, who had screamed that Red is my color, BABY, at the top of his lungs, huh?” An old lady in her 80’s looked up at Jason and dared him to enter with obvious sarcasm.
“Murky red is not my color, ma’am. Red is my color!” Protesting, Jason looked down at the old lady who have grown impatient and even appeared angry. By tilting her head towards the direction of Jason, the old lady made a motion to her friends who were traveling with her. Four other elderly women came and surrounded Jason from all directions. Stepping away from Jason were his dear friends Jacob, Jane, and Cathy giving the elderly ladies clear path and room to grab and restrain their friend. Then, they began pushing and pulling Jason towards the gate. Horrified and embarrassed, Jason yelled out, “Wait, wait, please stop, I will go when I am ready to go, please—”
With a yank and a push, the elderly ladies had managed to launch him thru the murky red liquid as Jason disappeared into the other side. The point where he had entered thru the liquid briefly showed an opening in the shape of how he had physically entered the gate and closed up again. Upon seeing this, the travelers, who were laughing and enjoying the commotion created by the gang of old ladies, gasped including Jacob and Cathy. Upon making the unwilling entrance, Jason became extremely apprehensive and his legs gave up. He fell on to the ground on the other side screaming, “NO!”
“Sanitization complete!” declared a digitized voice. A second later, from the other side, came Jason’s voice, this time with pride, “Guys, I’m fine. It’s OK to come across!” He dusted off his shirt as he slowly stood up on his two feet.
People began smiling and laughing at learning what this murky red substance was all about. Then, all the passengers began bravely walking in through the gate. The five elderly ladies walking tall, leading the way, had received big ovation from the crowd.
“Hey, guys! Over here!” Jason hollered as he located his friends.
“You, alright?” Cathy got to him first and asked Jason, still laughing at what she had seen.
“Good as ever!” said Jason rather subdued.
“Man, that was classic! Did you all see those ladies man handling Jason? I would want those ladies on my side when going gets tough, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.” Jacob said amusingly and belittled his friend. The entire room broke in to laughter and this left Jason all the more feeling embarrassed.
The corridor seemed to be a dead end. There was no connecting passage to anywhere. Shortly, the murky red liquid disintegrated in front of their eyes. Following this, a rounded metal door appeared from the right side to the left, sealing the opening.
“Please stand still. Preparing transfer to the final deck”
Immediately following the announcement, the room lit up with bright white LED tile lights in triangular shapes throughout the wall, floor, and the ceiling. The seams of each lighting unit were in clear black, but with the bright white lighting from the tiles gave grayish luminescence throughout the seams. The ceiling of the room was about twice the height of the door.
The room held over 300 travelers at this time. With a series of small hissing sounds, the entire room slowly began levitating. Every passenger felt slight movements as if they were on a life boat that was floating helplessly at the mercy of the ocean’s tide. The room swayed right to left then left to right in rhythmic pattern as if to rebalance the weight distribution of the room against its passengers. People held on to each other. Those who were at the outer perimeters, leaned against the walls to steady themselves. Although the movement was not intense, it was mostly new experience for the passengers that caused them some excitement.
Then, as quickly as it bounced around, the capsule came steady in the state of perfectly leveled balance. “Now, transporting,” came back the machine voice. Then, they felt the capsule move horizontally for a moment and then felt it vertically descend. But, there was not any swaying or shaking of the room. The capsule maintained its level as it traveled downward, initially slowly then, picking up speed with quietness that was almost eerie. In the last part of the descent, the room reoriented itself by completing a half rotation as it came to a full stop. All the lights blinked in the room for a couple of seconds before it made another horizontal movement. It felt as if some big suction machine was inhaling and pulling the gigantic capsule.
Then, a minute later, it came to a final stop.
“Oh”, “Yeah”, “WOW”, “…” The entire room burst into orchestrated state of relief and excitement.
“That was some ride! I thought we were floating in the air!”
“We probably were.” Jane said to Jason as she prepared to exit the room. Bustling sounds of people gathering their things, accompanying heavy breathing, and small talks ignited everywhere in the room. Passengers wanted to get out of the capsule as quickly as possible.
Above at the far end of the wall, a 3D display appeared, ‘Welcome to Mexico!’ As everyone was looking in that direction the room inside went dark. Then, an opening appeared, again, with red murky liquid at the same location of the capsule, which also became the only light source for the room. This time, travelers knew what the function of this murky substance was all about. One by one then in droves, the vacationers exited the capsule.
“Awesome!” “Beautiful!” “Wow!” “This is what I’m talking about!” “This must be what heaven must be like!” Everyone verbalized their first impressions into words that came to them when they stepped over onto a vast beach stretching endlessly, in front of them. From the distant horizon, the crystal clear blue, green, and white waves raced toward the beach. When everyone exited the capsule, the door closed behind them. What used to be a murky opening, has now, perfectly blended into the beautiful surroundings.
Looking beyond where the capsule’s exit gate was, the travelers saw tall palm trees, stretching up many tens of ft into the air, perfectly lined on either side, creating a tranquil passage in the sandy beach to the gigantic pool of the Hotel Arena de Cancun.
The ivory hotel was constructed with the support of giant white pillars that rose from the ground up to the six story height of the roof line. These columns stood, one at every tens of ft from one end of the building to the other end. They formed a crescent shape, concaving in from the pool as if the building was hugging the swimming pool. Rounded gable sections stacked up, one on top of each other, reaching the top of the building. Each gable seemed to represent a column of guest rooms.
The roof of the hotel was completed with red terra-cotta tiles with what appeared to be a rounded long string knot at the very top of the roof, running along the entire horizontal length of the roof top. It invoked the sensation, which one only gets from admiring those traditional roof tops of either the classic Mediterranean or Asian architectures. Every window appeared to be dark blue in color, seemingly providing blinding reflections of the Sun while protecting the inside of the room from the harmful UV rays.
Everyone was breathless and spoke very little as the tranquility and harmony resonated from the colors of the building, sand, water, palm trees, floating soft white clouds and the high blue sky. Beyond the hotel was a wall of trees separating a lush green forest from the beach and beyond the forest were green mountains with varying peaks. The white clouds that seemed to have touched down near the peaks of the mountains, reminded Cathy of a perfect photograph that people only saw in ancient post cards.
“Where are we? Have we traveled through time?” Cathy put her hands over her open mouth as she blurted out. “Is this place real?” But, no one responded to her inquiry as the rest of them were equally mesmerized by it all. But, Jane appeared to be one of the rare individuals looking unimpressed. She moved closer to Jacob, holding his hand then leaning her head on to his shoulder, without saying a word.