Phase 2, In which Micky notices something...

The Monkees have found themselves in a strange place with even stranger denizens, and are playing "Take a Giant Step"...

That was for the benifit of those who tuned in late! Now back to our show.

      They played for everything they had, expecting to get some response to the song, any response at all. They didn't get it.
      Strike that. They did get a reaction. Unfortunately, that reaction was that the people went in off the street, to lock themselves ignorantly behind their doors.
      They had nearly finished the song when Micky suddenly stopped playing. Without his backbeat, the song came to a grinding halt. The others turned to him, questioning and even a little annoyed.
      Micky was looking up. He stood up from behind the drumkit, clumsily putting the sticks down on the snare, never taking his eyes from the sky. "Hey guys," he said in a strange tone. "I just noticed something."
     "What?" asked Peter, clearly concerned.
      Mike stepped over. "Yeah man, what's wrong?"
     "There's no weather."
     "No weather?" asked Davy, incredulous. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! How can there be no weather?"
     "Look," said Micky, pointing up. They looked.
     They saw instantly what he meant. There was light, obviously, because they could see, but there was no sun. It was like the light of pre-dawn, directionless and sourceless, and a bit grey around the edges. No clouds. No wind. Just a vast bluish-grey sky. No warmth, no chill, like the inside of a perfectly controlled building.
     "Creepy," said Peter.
     "Yeah," replied Mike, "But I think we have bigger concerns right now." He directed their attention to the people coming back out of their houses now that the music had stopped.
     The four musicians had expected a conflict, hostility. Instead, the people ignored them, going about their business in apathy. Davy stopped one of them.
      "Excuse me, but what's going on?"
     The woman looked blankly at him for a minute, then said "Going on?" like she didn't understand the phrase. Then she slipped back into the crowd, and the thought crossed Davy's mind that he couldn't pick her out of that crowd again if he tried.
      Mike tried a different tactic, the direct question. "Excuse me sir, but what made everyone go in their houses before and come out just now?"
      "You did. What you were doing."
      "Man, I didn't think we were *that* bad," said Micky.
      Mike was persistent. "What was wrong with our playing?"
      "The government never gave us that, so we are not supposed to have it. It is wrong. It is a mistake. It will be corrected."
      "Wait a minute," interupted Micky. "What *exactly* do you mean by 'corrected'?"
      The man looked at them with the blank stare that was now becoming so familiar to them, and wandered away aimlessly. Come to think of it, everyone was wondering aimlessly. It was like the passion for life had been sapped out of humanity.
      Something occured to Peter then. He stopped a third person, a teenage girl this time. "What year is this?" he asked, near panic. The others' eyes widened as they realized what Peter was getting at.
      Unfortunately, the girl *didn't* see what he was getting at. "Year? What is a year?"
      "A measure of time."
      "Time?"
      Peter was getting frustrated. "Time. Like, what happened yesterday?"
      "There is no yesterday."
      Micky could see where this was going. "I guess we can assume there's no tommorrow either," he said sarcastically.
      "There is no tomorrow," she stated simply before the crowd swallowed her up again.
      The four looked at one another, and up at the blank, featureless sky. There was a long silence.
      "Guys," Mike said, breaking it. "I think we're in trouble."

End phase 2. Take it away Autumn!

     

The Beginning
Part Three, wherein...