<meta name="LineWrap" content="true"><TITLE>SR_Bk1 0083</TITLE><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0084.txt">Next (Page 84)</A><BR><P><P>Nesoffin, not impressed, said "Okay guys, I'm outta here," and walked back into the building.<P><P>"Grant, we have to get the others out of there and get going!"<P><P>"I know, but how? If we go down there, we'll get all caught up in it."<P><P>Daptin thought for a moment, and then took out a huge tin clock.<P><P>Reaching around in his pockets, Daptin asked "You don't have a pen, do you?"<P><P>"No, why?" Granticaine responded.<P><P>Daptin got out the geometric weight marker and sighed.<P><P>"See, you had one," Grant continued.<P><P>"I know but it's not a good pen."<P><P>"Why not?"<P><P>"Okay, shit, what the fuck," Daptin said as he carefully uncapped the magic marker and wrote the words '80-A CLARITY' across the face of the clock. He then carefully resealed the pen.<P><P>"Wish me luck," he said. "Super!"<P><P>He hurled the clock with all his superstrong might far off into the distance. It grew quickly until it hung several miles away up in the air, its pendulum swinging evenly, and its hugeness appalling. The words Daptin had scrawled were blown up to immense proportions across the face, readable by everyone for miles around.<P><P>"Cool trick," Grant said. "So what now?"<P><P>Soon a group of people came out onto the platform where Grant and Daptin stood, gawking in awe and horror at the huge tin clock in the distance.<P><P>"Okay, who put what in the water?" they heard someone in the crowd say.<P><P>Soon Iterator of Rail Avenue (with Pantry Lurkin sitting on her shoulders) and Wreckage Mallie came out onto the roof. Daptin and Grant went over to them.<P><P>"Say it!" Grant said.<P><P>"Eighty-A Clarity," Iterator of Rail Avenue said. "Wow, I see what you mean."<P><P>"What is it? Oh yeah, Eighty-A Clarity," Mallie said. "Okay, now I understand about the job and the mission and stuff, but what the hell does that have to do with a UFO disguised as a clock?"<P><P>"Eighty-A, Eighty-A, Eighty-A Clarity! Eighty-A, Eighty-A, Eighty-A Clarity!" Pantry Lurkin chanted. "Yahoo, I'm a pretty smart boy!"<P><P>"Daptin doesn't have the hang," Grant said, "so we'll have to help him along. But right now, we have to cross a physical distance of some length to get us out of here, okay? Let's go down the ladder and off down that road, hey? Okay?"<P><P>That's just what they did, and they were ten minutes into their walk when they heard a massive explosion as the clock fell to the ground. <P><P>"Damn pen," Daptin said, and just as he said it, they cupslipped again.<P><P>This time they heard a deep voice saying "Swish", and an image like colorful paint dripping into a whirlpool, along with a flowery scent.<P><P>When it was over, they were sitting in something like a bathhouse or swimming pool, on turquoise-tiled benches, except there was no water around. There were, however, a number of naked people nearby, some of whom were performing sex acts on one another. <P><P>Granticaine looked around and sighed.<P><P>"Give me one of those grenades, won't you, Daptin."<P><P>Without a word, Daptin handed Grant a situation grenade. Immediately, Grant pulled the pin and looked dumbly down at it. About ten seconds later, it exploded.<P><P>The five experienced a silent shimmering around them, and their benches were transformed into tree trunks without any of the group changing position. The sex palace was transformed into a hilly gray wasteland. In the distance, a huge tin clock could be seen wobbling wildly.<P><P>"Why'd you do that?" Pantry said. "I saw some sex I'm sure I did! I saw it more, but not today! Why escape such lovely peeking, deeny?"<P><P>"Look--" Iterator of Rail Avenue said, "over there--the clock. But I thought it fell."<P><P>"Yes, falling can be done well by a good clock! I fall too! I fall too!" Pantry said in a hyper manner.<P><P>"It's not the same," Daptin observed. "It doesn't have the writing on it. And this place looks awfully familiar."<P><P>"Could this be some...<BR><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0084.txt">Next (Page 84)</A>