The Tune
Issue/Episode: 4, Volume/Season: One
The alarm clock rings as Kelly wakes up. The calendar in her room shows November, 1991. All For Love, by: Color Me Badd, plays on her clock radio, montaging her day. Waking up excitedly, bopping her head and tapping along to the song, she hops between her studies at Restless Minds.
She experiences the day/studies from her point of view as well as remote viewing through the students and teachers to study more thoroughly (she’s even taking classes in her sleep through remote viewing). Thus, letting her take her classes three times, able to ace each one.
Randall is sitting in front of Kelly, talking to the opening bass line of Feeling Gravity’s Pull, by REM an intrinsic beat is stuck in his mind. He’s wearing a “Fables Of The Reconstruction”, from REM t-shirt. Kelly stares wistfully at the “goofy idiot,” free from the stresses of perfection that constantly overwhelm her.
Throughout the upcoming weeks, P looks inquiringly in a way that’s prideful yet mildly alarmed when looking at Kelly accelerate in her courses.
Cut to her parent-teacher conference in P/Pamela’s Restless Minds office.
P:
(Sternly)
Your daughter is cheating.
Kelly’s father:
Isn’t that why she’s here?
P:
I mean, she…it may not be safe for her to stand out too much in this. Especially with her gifts.
Kelly’s father:
We…
Kelly’s mother:
Appreciate your concern, but
P:
(Sternly taking a deep breath, thinking about Tricia)
I’ve…seen others get…hurt for standing out.
So, she gets bullied in the regular school or worse, and now you’re pushing her out of your “special program”? So what the hell are we supposed to do?
P:
She…
(Pauses)
…We can put her on academic probation and keep her here
(sternly)
But SHE NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN
Kelly is sitting outside of the office, wanting to be good. She worried that it may be too late. She didn’t need to RV as she could already hear the disappointment from Pamela’s office. Being special is all that she’s ever wanted to do. Why couldn’t she excel and live up to her full potential? She wondered anxiously.
The next few months were largely more of the same. However, Kelly couldn’t help but feel a sense of rejection from those at Restless Minds who once lifted her up so much. Throughout that time, she became increasingly jealous of her fellow classmate Randall’s more light hearted nature. Why wasn’t he as plagued by this ever-present need for perfectionism? The banality continued to progress into an ever-growing sense of disappointment and layered shame.
Tear Time, by: Wilma Burgess plays on the radio.
Kelly lays in her bed contemplating the entirity of her heavy semester and potential/probable “end of an era”.
Kelly:
(Having a panic attack)
I just wa…I just need to…
(Projecting into Randall)
I need to be…
Kelly’s brain starts to collapse on itself, only remotely connecting to Randall’s brain in her minds eye. A brain-dead and void Kelly collapses in bed as a first-person beam transfers into a sleeping Randall.
Close up to Kelly, bored and stuck inside of Randall’s brain.
The radio begins to glitch up in tune with Kelly’s shattering psyche. Kelly’s alarm transitions into the alarm ringing at The Locker, resuming from last issue. The alarm sounds of the door to The Locker opening continues as the elevated entrance begins to descend into the heart of the facility.
PA System DJ 1:
Heyo, as the kids say, we’ve got new minds of a new kind
PA System DJ 2:
He’s a psychic, and she’s a pretty fly chick; it’s Pamela and Randall.
Bwam bwam bwam sound goes off.
The guard that Kelly is inhabiting gives Pamela headphones or ear-buds.
Kelly/Guard:
(Partially speaking as herself, partially the guard’s subconscious)
You’ll need these; I wish I had used them. Just write what you need while trying to be natural.
The elevator continues down, reaching the bottom as the trip feels enraptured and entrapped by the enormity of the installation.
Randall:
(Trying to connect with Pamela telepathically only got it to sound like an ethereal radio looking for a signal)
Hopefully
(Broken garbled words coming from an indistinct mental signal)
This
Work .
May
Need
Take one ear piece…
Out
…
if confront…
The elevator stops, and they’re all instantly blasted with a strong hit of artificial oxygen.
Entering The Locker proper, they feel the first bit of a reprieve on this descending journey (even if it was from an artificial oxygenated high)
The people throughout the institution moved with a light, floating nature. The skin on their face and body all looked young over older, layered nerves, looking paradoxically worn and drained yet endlessly rejuvenated. Like their worn older skin is layered with fresh, more vibrant clay instead of allowing it to age naturally. Caked in artifice
A doctor who’s worked with Pamela outside The Locker begins to approach The Four.
Doctor Calvin:
(Blissfully aloof)
Well, this is a surprise. Todd mentioned he was trying to show you around the old locker for years, but you always seemed…trepidatious.
(Unnervingly wistfully)
I’ve never understood…
(Taking a deep breath/hit of oxygenated lightness)
…Why…
(Gives a deeply artificially blissful meets overwhelmingly maniacal laugh)
lt’s always good to see you, Pamela.
Kelly/Guard:
(Interrupting)
She needs to see…
(Searching the guard’s mind for the codenames)
Kelly/Guard:
The “New York bed pans”
Doctor Calvin:
Ooo, we’re going old school today.
(Laughs again)
They’re in the same place they’ve been for years.
Doctor Calvin shows them down the sterile, long, ominous halls of the operating units.
A smiling doctor nearby approaches them with literal blood still on their gloves, which he’s jubilantly indifferent to.
Doctor H:
(Smiling excitedly)
Hello, it’s finally that time, isn’t it wonderful?
Doctor Calvin:
Is…is he ready for them?
(Excitedly)
They tell me that it’s his day, but we’re approaching his time.
(Smiling, blissed out on an “unnatural high”)
His time, his time, bliss is time for his time.
The four try to brush off the unnatural nature of everyone in The Locker.
Pamela:
I’m going to find some info on Restless Minds.
Randall:
I…
Pamela:
(Interrupting Randall with his own logic)
You can’t say that you’re not looking for answers about them too.
Randall:
Be fast; we will be.
Pamela agrees as she heads towards the archives room in The Locker as the other two look for Kelly and Tricia.
Randall and Kelly/Guard find a room of comatose patients connected to The Locker, Restless Minds, and their subsidiaries through various surreal events. Kelly sees her original body and points out Tricia’s.
Kelly, through the guard, touches her own forehead, reconnecting her consciousness into her core body, as Randall does the same with Tricia’s forehead, feeling a sudden jarring, jolt of consciousness expelled from Randall’s hand into Tricia’s brain.
Both of them very slowly but surely begin to connect and awaken. The guard that Kelly is inhabiting becomes unconscious as the guard’s outside stop whistling. That starts to draw their attention to “the bedpan room”.
Meanwhile, as Kelly and Tricia are being connected with their original bodies, Pamela looks through the vending machine with a giant “Fragrant Garden” sponsor on the machine and products therein. Pamela sees a giant nationwide map showing each of the states that goes from color coded to a peculiar “code of arms” when the mouse hovers over it.
(California is a snake in a tree, Hawaii has a large x over it with a frowning face (labeled incompatible, New York City is a giant hellish stalactite chiseled into a skyscraper, Mississippi’s is a gavel with the hilt shaped like a sword with a dragon behind, Texas is a skull in a vat of oil)
She sees a video on the bottom of the screen labeled “Introduction to Code: 999”.
Clicking the video shows a PSA featuring The Soundtrinket Music News jingle (and logo in the corner)
THORN, CEO:
(Smiling, giving a warm yet excited PSA)
World wars,
Toppling regimes,
And everything in between
The world sure is pretty.
(Clears throat)
Pardon my French,
(Clearing his throat about to be…saucy)
Damn
(Returning to conversational normalcy)
Complicated, isn’t it? …Well, what if it wasn’t?
That’s the higher goal of our grander purpose.
Rejoice in this year of 1999 as he is coming.
It’s time for something new; that’s the ultimate goal of Restless Minds and our subsidiaries
(Smiling jubilantly)
With help from the lower one, we can all be elevated into a higher future,
When the ball drops, he will be activated into a specifically chosen, programmed member of Restless Minds or our otherwise named landlocked national programs.
(Laughs awkwardly)
I would say…someone new, but I doubt anyone is that formal with them. They are here, and they are ready. To reignite a flame long gone out in a broken and cynical world.
“The Song Of The Hour” begins with loud chamber like tones as the clocks strike 6, feeling like the sound itself is compressing the building into an unnerving tube of sound, fully controlled by a mysterious sound system.
(In an unearthly yet ethereal choir)
To be one with all the lightness,
To bear his greatest fruits,
To be treated in his garden,
He is there for me and you.
He is in everything we say and do
He is in me,
He will be in you,
Once he’s awake,
Then you’ll be dead
Programs and coding,
He’ll end up owning
Their world
Randall and Kelly (having been reconnected to her physical body while Tricia is still trying to fully wake up) while being unnerved by the song filling The Locker.
Randall and Kelly:
(Simultaneously)
F*** this noise
P uses the computer, searching through projects, finally feeling a freedom she never knew if she’d get another chance as she sees a map of the whole landlocked United States, states connected to see different sections of The Locker underneath a majority of them. Each state has a label of a percentage of success. Each state has a percentage to fruition, as if they were searching or waiting for…something.
The song Night on Bald Mountain starts as it eerily mounts up in tune to an ascending crescendo as Pamela is overwhelmed by a staggering realization as Randall and the gang interrupt her running down the hall.
Randall:
(Rapidly)
Come on, if you’re coming, we’ve gotta get our ass outta here.
P looks and sees a countdown to the New Year’s Eve “activation” code program as she takes off running with The Quatro.
They run through the facility as they get to a garage with “supercarts” (souped up custom golf carts with giant NOS connected engines. They turn on their cart as Miss America, by: David Byrne, begins to play on the “supercart” as the “Qualified Quatro” activates the NOS in their cart number 8, reeling down the open “Cartobaun” (complete with nine mm pistols in pouches on each side of their cart).
Pamela unloads 3 rounds of her nine into the gate lock for the “Cartobaun” opening the door to the fast-paced golf cart superhighway. Three other souped-up NOS-powered golf carts with armed enforcers follow suit.
Proto versions of weaponized drones exit through vents in the ceiling, chasing The Quatro. Pamela drives as Randall grabs a desert eagle and starts to open fire on the drones. They take down two of three drones.
Kelly and Tricia are still trying to physically return to their physical bodies. Pamela intermittently gives them a shock to their heart with her taser. She begins to have a slight reprieve. Her arms and legs start to twitch with renewed vitality and energy.
Kelly:
(Woozy trying to reorient)
…Gun
Still unable to get up fully Kelly woozily aims the pistol at a fire extinguisher, covering the drone’s cameras in foam. Kelly grabs a taser to rejuvenate her heart and speed up her physical awakening as she grunts in pain from using her muscles for the first time in years.
Kelly:
(Anxiously)
We got adrenaline in here for Sleeping Beauty?
Kelly holds her hands on Tricia’s brain, trying to focus on her mental electric current to try to realign her mental and physical neural pathways to normalize her wakeup recovery/stabilization.
Randall fires at the chasing super carts, trying to hit their wheels to slow them down. In between, Randall checks through the carts’ glove box to look for anything that can help balance out…huh, an adrenaline shot. They really are prepared for everything.
Randall gives Kelly the adrenaline shot as she focuses her psychic ability to steady her arm as she pushes the adrenaline into her heart as she fully awakens. A drone shot blasts a mirror out, going clear through nicking Randall’s elbow causing him to drop his pistol.
Randall digs into the glovebox to find a bandage to wrap themselves up before he can bleed out. Kelly closes her eyes and focuses on one of the guards fast approaching them, causing them to rush into another speeding cart, flipping both of them.
A loud bellowing noise is starting to ramp up to…something. The cart road begins to heat up with an expansive flame exiting the vents around them as though the devil themselves was breathing. The flames bellow all over from the sides and rear; Tricia (while still tasering a current to her heart with one hand) tries to force herself to sit up.
She takes Kelly’s lead, shooting at as many of the above sprinklers and extinguishers she can find as they accelerate like a literal bat out of hell, speeding through flames there barely protected from. They see an exit for Camelot, MI. Desperate for safety, they take the exit, running to get out of the cart while getting to the walking ramp.
The drones and fellow guards follow suit, desperately trying to silence the 1999 conspiracy.” Kelly taps “Shave and A Haircut” on her leg with each leg tap causing a sudden quick draw (controlling just the hands) head shot of three guards to off the other as Kelly tries getting her feet to work.
They see a giant exit for Camelot, Mississippi, arriving at an elevator which they exhaustedly stumble into as the doors finally mercifully close.
Randall:
(Woozily)
God da…
(After the recent reality he was living through decides not to chance blasphemy today)
PA System DJ 1:
Well, they’re on their way out, whatever they wound up.
PA System DJ 2:
Good luck out there, and we’ll be playing all of eternity’s hits for you here. Getting this close to the end is making us nostalgic for a little dirty from our first year here.
PA System DJ 1:
Who needs sleep or time when you have tracks this fine, from 1944 it’s: “Swinging On A Star”, by Bing Crosby.
The song begins to fade as the four are in the very long elevator ride heading up. Kelly is standing up, trying to get used to walking on her own feet again. Tricia is sitting in the corner of the elevator, still taking everything in.
Tricia:
(Breaking the silence
This is a hell of a reunion.
Kelly:
A regular center of gravity is a hell of a thing to adjust to.
P:
Hell, that seems to be what’s coming. Crazy bastards apparently have an…” Antichrist Code” to activate the “right” apparently student during New Year’s Eve 1999.
Tricia:
…Yeah…that
Randall:
So…
P:
What do we do now?
Randall:
How do we fight a Digital Antichrist? Are they the devil anymore?
(Contemplating speculatively)
Or are they something more…advanced
P:
The heck are you looking at me for?
Tricia:
(Angrily)
Take one damn guess
P:
You’re blaming me for the literal devil.
Tricia:
(Angrily)
You worked with them and sold me out; why not sell your own soul?
Kelly:
(Mildly defensively)
She tried with me
Tricia:
(Laughs mildly)
…Tried…
(Laughs more at the half-committed indifference)
A ringing endorsement. Hell, you invade minds; for all we know, you’re the damn antichrist vessel waiting to be activated.
P:
Look
(Takes a deep breath)
We’re alive, right?
(Laughs anxiously)
We got outta damn near hell, which isn’t nothing.
Randall:
One supposes
Tricia:
(Dryly)
Ringing endorsement
Randall:
(Half-heartedly defensively)
I guess someone’s gotta be the middle.
Tricia:
Do they?
Kelly:
(Sternly)
She got us out, right?
Tricia:
(Sighs)
So far
Randall:
So, what’s our next move?
P:
This is all uncharted territory to me, if for whatever reason, they haven’t changed my access, I can get you back into Restless Minds, but this is a whole new world for me.
Tricia:
Never felt so active yet exhausted in my whole life. Seventeen damn years gone, the world’s gonna be a trip.
(Laughing to herself)
No more tape decks; I’ll have to update my collection.
Kelly:
(Anxiously)
I hope that my parents are ok. I…probably “left” fairly suddenly eight years ago if they’re…
P:
(Reassuringly)
They’re alive
Tricia:
(Dryly, making her jealous)
Lucky you
(Nudging Randall)
What about you?
Randall:
I…
(The elevator doors open into a university)
(The elevator’s lower buttons are hidden by a sliding metal sheet blending the lab buttons into the elevator’s metal sheeting)
University PA:
Randall, Tricia, Pamela, and Kelly, Professor Merlin will see you now.
They all look exhausted and befuddled at the very odd day they’ve had.
Int.: Headmaster Merlin B, a man in his late mid 40’s-early 50’s with a long white beard and long dreadlocks, wearing a Soundtrinket Music News T-shirt with a dark, hypnotic blue, thick, and very comfy hotel bathrobe is seen deleting an email from “The Boss” labeled “They’re Here”. He takes a deep breath, having prepared for this moment for decades.
Merlin laughs knowingly, watching video footage of the four from their elevator ride up.
Merlin puts the needle on his vinyl player as At The River, By Groove Armada begins to play. A photograph at The Court: Bar and Grill of his fellow “Knights and Nots” sits on his desk. He takes an ancient parchment paper from his desk, rolling a j with it as he sits down, waiting for “The Day”
The door finally opens to the four entering the room.
Merlin:
(Smiling welcomingly)
Hi kids
The Quatro, further befuddled by this already very overwhelming.
Merlin offers them coffee.
Merlin:
How are things going “down under” today?
The Quatro are still befuddled, not saying anything, taking in the layers of weirdness.
Merlin:
We had an “earthquake alert” up here today. I presume that was “You Crazy Kids”.
(Reassuringly)
I know you big city folks aren’t as used to our southern hospitality, but..
(Notions to the couch by the door)
Please, sit
(Laughs pointing to the elevator footage)
Merlin:
I was just watching your little “soap opera”. It was very high drama.
Randall:
(Dry sarcasm)
Well, you know the whole Digital Antichrist thing.
Merlin drums a “badum bump” on his desk, not taking any of it as seriously as the four are.
Merlin smiling
Merlin:
Still hitting those punchlines.
P:
…And you are?
Merlin
(Tisking at P)
Pamela, Pamela, Pamela, I’m SO disappointed in you. YOU of the four don’t know who I am?
(Merlin gives a pouty face of disappointment)
Merlin:
Restless Minds education has really gone downhill for the teachers.
Merlin:
(To Randall)
What about you, Dangerfield? Any guesses?
Randall:
(Looks at his desk, seeing the B.)
You’re not….
Merlin:
(Sees Randall’s mental gears turning)
Warmer
Pamela:
Son of a bitch, you’re not…
Merlin:
(Excitedly)
Baby, you’re so hot you’re sizzling like
(Pausing as if waiting for Pamela’s cue)
Pamela:
Bacon?
(A mix of dubiousness and surprise)
YOU’RE Roger Bacon!
Merlin:
(Smiling mischievously)
I’m A Bacon,
(Teasing)
Up to you to decide if I’m original real deal pork or…just a turkey
Kelly:
What about….
Merlin:
(Interrupting Kelly excitedly)
You’re my action hero.
(Mildly rescinding his excitement)
Well, not MY action hero; I’ve already got a Sherlock Holmes type locally. Kicking a** and taking names, a regular local “Prince Valiant”. But you’re pretty damn cool.
Tricia:
(Sarcastically)
Who am I? The music journalist that saves the world?
Merlin:
(Sarcastically)
Who am I? The guy with all the answers?
(Gives a long pause)
I
(Dramatic pause)
…Like your tastes
Tricia:
(Disappointed)
That’s all?
Merlin:
(Annoyed)
I’m not a wizard, you know?
Randall:
Do we?
Merlin gives a shrug.
Merlin:
(Plainly)
I’m just a scientist.
Kelly:
(Gives an ahem and notions to his desk plate stating Headmaster)
Merlin:
Double jobs will be much more common in the future.
Pamela,
(Gives another ahem knowingly)
Merlin:
Something going around?
(Getting to the point)
Look, anti-Christ schmanty-Christ, you’re a team of super…or at least very interesting people with….
(Checks the calendar showing it’s currently July)
Merlin:
Enough time…
(Laughs)
What the hell am I even talking about with deadlines?
(Laughs warmly)
You’re time travelers; between the four of you, the bridges of time are to you what a comfy plane ride is to most.
Merlin presses a button, and his remote-controlled record player swaps as the needle flips as if changing from transmitting music to receiving it as I Am The Highway, by: Audioslave begins to play (three years before it was initially recorded)
Merlin:
(Smiles knowingly)
Now that you’re nearing the end, you need to go to the beginning. You’ll find your answers way before you have your questions. You should have enough to start now, and I have many more local adventures. Do be sure to check your mail. I may see you later.
(Smiling again)
Or perhaps I’ll see you sooner.
(Merlin presses his comm button)
Merlin:
(Shoeing The Quatro out)
I’m ready for Mordy now.
(To the four)
You’ll find your car is in the staff parking lot professor Cardoba.
Merlin throws Tricia her car’s keys and teacher’s parking pass voucher.
Merlin:
(Smiles knowingly)
Best of luck to you, Professor Cardoba.
The Quatro embarked from the garage in Tricia’s new/old 1997 Honda Accord.
Pamela:
(Teasingly)
Welcome to the educational club, “professor”
Randall:
So…what’s our first move?
Tricia:
Our?
Pamela:
I guess we’re “an our” now…?
Kelly:
With caveats apparently.
Tricia:
(Still annoyed at working with the woman partially responsible for her years lost)
Chess-master b*** needs to do more than.
Kelly
(Defensively)
She didn’t HAVE to take you out of the coma.
Pamela:
F*** it
Pamela throws her cell phone out of the car window.
Pamela:
Three hundred-dollar damn phone gone
(Angrily)
Oh, thank you for the generous sacrifice of your phone, friends, AND CAREER so that we’ve had our damn beauty rest.
(Frustrated under her breath)
Not like I haven’t been regretting and worrying and trying to make right for SEVENTEEN f***ing years. Do you want me to burn down my f***ing condo for you too? Or kick my dog that I’m abandoning for you?
Tricia:
(Under her breath)
Must takes a b*** to raise one
Pamela:
(Defensively)
Don’t think I haven’t learned a thing or f***ing two from Todd about putting ungrateful ass b***s back in comas.
Randall:
(Angrily stressing the obvious)
Christ, fucking Antichrist to stop here. F*** me, f,***ing priorities.
Long quietude
Kelly:
(Excitedly breaking the awkward tension)
…Does anybody want a burger?
Tricia:
Holy s*** yes, all of the burgers my lord I’m still tasting the sludge they fed into me.
Upon picking up burgers at “Blissful Bites Burgers,” they’re presented with the next obstacle.
Randall:
So, where to next?
Tricia:
Man, I feel that I could sleep for days and run a mile at once. Gotta use these damn legs again.
Pamela:
I could get us a decent hotel room.
Tricia looks at Kelly suggestively.
Pamela:
With a little help
Kelly:
Better than a motel, I suppose. After a damn near metallic cheap ass mattress, I could use a decent sleep.
Randall:
There’s a gas station ahead. We can find maps to a hotel there.
As everyone else goes into the gas station, Tricia checks the glove box and finds a tape with a rubber band and a note with “play this in private, but please play this” written in red lipstick. It’s wrapped around a small Dictaphone.
She begins to play it as the rest of the group are in the gas station. Contemplatively taking in a new mystery with a further rush of emotions. The tape is unheard, but she pauses it as the rest of the group arrives.
Randall:
(To Tricia)
Are you ok?
Tricia:
Yeah, totally. What are the lodging situations?
Pamela:
Adam’s Garden resort
Tricia:
We are thematic today.
Kelly:
(Smiling excitedly)
They have beds that massage you
Pamela:
And finally some decent Internet
Tricia:
That’s gonna be something to adjust to
Randall:
(To Tricia)
What’s life like outta my noggin?
(Teasingly)
Boring beyond belief
Tricia:
(Still taking in what she heard on the tape while trying to downplay hearing anything)
(Chuckles somewhat anxiously)
It’s a new adventure.
Pamela:
Time to get to another page then
Kelly:
(Teasingly)
That sounded a whole lot cooler in your head, didn’t it?
Pamela;
I can’t say it wasn’t the main thing I was thinking of in the shop.
The four get situated in the car as Steal The Crumbs, by: Uncle Tupelo, begins to play on the radio. Its reservedly gallant strumming echoed throughout the car and throughout the night. The overwhelming thoughts of the passengers as they are heading towards and from parts progressively unknown. Fates simultaneously already decided, yet there’s for the taking.
End of issue/episode 4
© August 2026, Copyright by Lawrence Gaines, All Rights Reserved, No Reproduction Without Permission August 5th, 2026