Levon hikes along a poorly maintained service road. The path is warped and broken by weeds and tree roots. His mushroomfilled backpack is slung over his shoulder and he is carrying a long walking stick that's been sharpened at one end to form a pike or hunting spear.
Levon looks back. In the distance, he sees June standing on the road, chatting to Dixie. June sees Levon. She shouts at him distantly.
JUNE
Who’s laughing now?!
Levon smirks and turns around. He continues on the path. As he moves, unbeknownst to him, Soma spores drift out the hole in his backpack like wisps of cigarette smoke.
Levon looks down at his mangled smartphone. It glows red with a white number 403. He turns it over. June has written a message in whiteout on the back of the phone, “There is no roof on the world. ” Levon walks on. In the distance, Levon sees the Toronto Island airport, flanked by grey industrial parks.
After some moments, he approaches a sign marked Hanlan’s Point. As promised, amid the nearby trees, Levon sees a clay hill bulging from the ground like a boil. He approaches it with caution and investigates. A metrewide tunnel has been burrowed into the side of the hill. Loose earth has been spilled from the black, yawning mouth somewhat recently.
Levon is shaking. He digs in his backpack and pulls out a pinch of Soma mushroom and stuffs it into his cheek. He begins to mutter to himself. He paces. He pokes at his phone. We hear the voice of Terence McKenna once more, looping in Levon’s headphones.
TERENCE McKENNA
Wherever and whenever the ego function began to form, it was 135
SOMA | The Meme Dump
akin to a cancerous tumor or a blockage in the energy of the psyche. The use of psychedelic plants in a context of shamanic initiation dissolved as it dissolves today the knotted structure of the ego into undifferentiated feeling, what Eastern philosophy calls the Tao.
LEVON
You are history’s greatest killing machine... The Intercontinental Champion...
Levon creeps up to the mouth of the cave and stabs into the darkness with his wooden pike. He hits nothing. He tosses it like a spear. It’s length disappears into the barrow. Levon pulls his slingshot from his backpack and arms it with some scavenged pebbles. He climbs the hill. The tunnel points downward into the earth. He tries to enter it feet first, his slingshot at the ready, but he is unable to keep his balance. His butt slides on the loose earth and he’s carried into the darkness with increasing speed. Levon flails his arms and legs at the sides of the tunnel. A second later he hits the bottom.
Levon lies in the dirt, panting in total darkness. Terence McKenna's voice repeats in his headphones. Levon pokes at his phone. It lights up red. 406 missed calls. Levon directs the light ahead of him, but it is not powerful enough to help. He arms his slingshot and grunts like a caveman. He fires into the darkness. Nothing happens. Levon takes a deep breath, then surges forward. He crawls head first through the burrow, grunting like boar.
Soon he feels the tunnel moving upward again. A minute later he sees a light at the end of the tunnel. On the floor of the tunnel he finds a folded paper note and a freshly picked dandelion. It reads,
“Galing! Continue on to phase two, brave pledge. Ahead, there be treasure! Ahead, there be dragons! ”
The tunnel twists upwards at 90 degrees and opens at ground level.
Through the mouth of the tunnel, Levon can see the sky.