Lovers of Babel

by Valerie Walker

  “Sage, hold on! You have to!”

  I tried to pull the right side of my body back toward the cliff, but my left hand was too hurt and bruised to hold on tight enough. Then it began to slip.

  “Chad, I’m going to fall!”

  Since I had the rope, I figured I could just use it to climb down, but my hands were too damaged to even hold the rope.

  Finally, my left hand lost its strength and I was dangling from the rope around my waist. I could feel the rope starting to give under my weight. I loosened up the rope from around my waist to give it some slack and tried to lower myself by putting my feet on the cliff and walking down. This worked for a while, but the rope was beginning to break from all the strain. I increased my pace which only made the rope break more.

  Suddenly, I heard a loud SNAP and I went falling down toward the desert floor.

  Chad was right below me and stood there with his arms out ready to catch me. I plummeted about twenty feet right into his arms and we fell over creating a hole in the sand.

  Everything went black for a while.

  When I opened my eyes, I rolled over and saw Chad’s limp body surrounded by sand.

  “Chad, wake up!” I shook him.

  He sat up and rubbed his head. His body had made a three foot indentation in the sand.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I feel like I got hit by a mammoth.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “You fell on me from twenty feet in the air. That’s what I’m saying.”

  “Fine. You can stay here a while and nurse your wounds while I go explore.”

  “Hold on. I’ll be up in a minute,” Chad said wincing as he tried to lift himself up.

  I looked around my new environment and saw nothing but sand. How boring. The climate was extremely dry and the temperature was much hotter than I had ever experienced. I wiped my brow and realized that I was sweating profusely.

  I looked up into the sky and saw the sun. I couldn’t believe it.

  “Chad, look, it’s the sun!”

  Chad looked up with his mouth agape.

  How could it be that the sun was there, but not in the Equinox? I began to wonder how far we had traveled. The world outside the grid must be way bigger than we thought.

  Chad finally got up and walked over to me.

  “Wherever we are we must’ve travelled far to be in the presence of the sun.”

  “Let’s start walking.”

  After hours of walking through the scorching desert, the intense heat and dryness started to affect us. The Equinox was very cold, and in order to not freeze to death we wore body suits that were equipped with thermal protection to keep our bodies insulated at all times. Some people wore the suits under their normal clothing, but Chad and I decided to wear nothing but our suit and terrain shoes. That was our first mistake. There we were, sweating profusely under the desert sun in space clothing.

  The heat and exhaustion were weighing us down and our pace began to slow to that of a snail. Then, we began to feel a sensation that we’ve never experienced before: thirst.

  We decided to take a break and sat down on the hot sand. I reached into my backpack for my H2O inhaler, wrapped my lips around the mouth-piece and took a deep breath. I could feel the water molecules making their way throughout my system, cooling me down from the inside out. One inhale of this was equivalent to three bottles of water, but there was only enough for ten breaths. I handed the inhaler to Chad.

  I stood up and surveyed the environment. From where we were I could see nothing but sand mounds and the occasional dried up cactus plant. I walked a little further out, leaving Chad behind. There was no protection from the sun in this place. Thankfully or body suits protected us from extreme sun burn. Every part of our body was covered except for our faces and hands. My cheeks were pounding.

  I climbed a nearby sand mound to see how much further we’d have to go before we reach some sign of life. I kicked my feet in the sand to get a better grip to climb. Once I reached the top, I looked behind me and saw Chad watching me. I looked ahead and saw something protruding from the sand a few miles into the distance. It was hard to make out from where I was, but it looked to be a large white triangle in the sand.

  “I see something! We should go check it out!” I yelled.

  I steadily made my way down. Chad walked over and we headed toward the strange object in the sand.

  When we reached it, it was much larger than it seemed originally. It was a type of triangular structure with decorative ridges in the inside rim. It looked to be a part of a bigger structure. Maybe a building.

  “What is this thing?” Chad said.

  “I think it’s a part of a building that got buried by all this sand.”

  This made Chad start, and he grabbed my shoulders in excitement.

  “Remember when we learned about our ancestors in power school? About the apocalypse? What if this is a structure from the old age?”

  “Let’s start digging.”

  We began to paw at the sand like eager tigers searching for a meal. The shots of H2O revived our energy. The sun was getting lower in the sky.

  The triangle began to grow into a structure. The further we dug the more we were convinced that this was a buried building. I decided to dig further out away from the triangle while Chad dug near it. Suddenly, I heard Chad gasp. I ran over to him and looked down toward the triangle only to see that the sand was beginning to cave in. Chad must’ve found a hollow spot.

  Sand began to pour into the cavity like water. It started caving in faster and faster as the structure revealed itself. Suddenly, the sand all around us began to cave. We needed to run.

  “Run, Sage! This thing is about to give way!”

  We tried to run towards the opposite direction, but the sand under our feet was pulling us backward. It seemed like we were running in place and not making any progress. We began to frantically pull at the sand with our hands while pushing up with our feet. I looked over my shoulder and saw two pillars forming.

  We were getting closer to the hollow of the building. I looked down into the hole that was forming and realized the fall would be deadly.

  “Let’s try to leap!”

  Chad grabbed my hand and we leaped as far as we could away from the structure. We were able to jump a few feet away. We kept jumping until the sand underneath us was solid.

  We plopped down in utter exhaustion. The structure that was forming from under the sand put us in shock. We watched as the two pillars grew to four and then behind the four was another set and another until there were twelve pillars holding up the triangle roof. Then there were windows and a balcony.

  “This looks so familiar, but I can’t seem to remember where I’ve seen it,” I said.

  “In history class.”

  I looked over at Chad who’s eyes were wide.

  “This structure is ancient. In fact, it’s infamous. Sage, we’re looking at the president’s headquarters of ancient America. This structure isn’t technically a building. It’s a house. The White House.”

  I looked in awe at the ancient relic that was before me. I was convinced that the apocalypse burned everything on the surface of the earth and nothing survived the fire. The White House should’ve been turned into ashes just like everything else, but apparently it survived. Which meant the structures around it would’ve survived as well.

  “So this is ancient Washington D.C., the capitol of the United States?”

  “It seems so.”

  “So just a few feet underneath us is an ancient city that has been buried in sand for decades?”

  Chad nodded.

  “I wonder if my father knows anything about this.”

  “I doubt it. If the Authorities knew they would’ve dug everything up by now.”

  “So we are the first to find this.”

  “Two teenagers discover an ancient structure from the old world that has been preserved by the desert sand. We should be rewarded with e
nough credits to last a lifetime.”

  “Chad do you know what this means? This isn’t a natural desert. Underneath us is a city once inhabited by people. I hope they were dead before the sand came and buried it all.”

  “Let’s just hope we find some vegetation before the sand buries us too.”

  We walked for another hour or so, and the sun began to set over the horizon. We decided to rest for the night and set up camp on top of a sand hill.

  The next morning we had packaged eggs and sausage for breakfast and a couple hits of H2O that would last us half a day. I felt refreshed and ready for another day’s journey, but I was craving a shower.

  “This suit is starting to fuse to my skin. I really wish I had brought an extra pair of clothes. What was I thinking?”

  “Well, at least we have water to keep us alive.”

  I grabbed the inhaler from my pack and there was a digital number 5 on the screen.

  “For now. We only have five breaths in between the two of us.”

  “We need to find a water source soon.”

  The sun’s rays were reflecting down on the sand creating a hazy blanket over our path. I began to get tired of walking and was tempted to create a vehicle to ride the rest of the way. We agreed to not use our powers here because my chip would send a signal to the grid Authorities, alerting them that I was outside jurisdiction. I thought of Mia and how she was getting along being me. I wondered if anyone noticed her transformation.

  Chad and I talked for hours to pass the time. We discussed our dreams and fears. We reminisced about our childhoods and memories of growing up in the Equinox. The desert didn’t seem as lonely with Chad by my side. In fact, it wasn’t lonely at all, it was safe and secure like the mammoth forest or like being in the comfort of my room reading books with Chad.

  “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” I said.

  “What is it?”

  “Our last night in the Equinox when we were saying goodbye to Mia, what was it you whispered to her?”

  Chad froze for a second then continued to walk.

  “Oh, that. Um, I just told her to visit my parents from time to time to make sure they’re okay.”

  “Is that it, because she looked a little flustered when I walked into the room. And you with your head down, I-“

  “We were just preparing to say our goodbyes. You know how Mia gets in these situations.”

  “Hmm.”

  The sun lowered in the sky, and it felt like we’d been walking forever. We had each taken two more breaths of H2O and there was only one more left.

  I got a sudden jolt of panic that we’d been walking in circles all this time, but when we came across two arrows that were sticking out of the sand, I knew we were getting close to civilization. Unfortunately, arrows weren’t the warm welcome we had hoped for.

  Chad pulled an arrow from out of the sand and inspected it. It looked like it was carved at the tip to form a point. There were splatters of blood on it.

  “Whoever shot this thing hit its target for sure.”

  The thought of being hunted in the desert sent a chill through my body.

  I wanted to take my mind off of the idea of being prey to a group of hunters, so, I decided to play a game with Chad. When we were little, Chad and I used to read an ancient comic book about some type of blue hedgehog that liked to jump and tumble through different obstacle courses. Years later, we learned that this book was based off of something called a video game where people could manipulate a pixelated character on a television screen. We realized it was similar to the virtual reality hologram simulators that we play with. Anyway, we were obsessed with this hedgehog and would create our own real-life video game obstacle courses where I would create the obstacle and Chad would try to teleport through it. We hadn’t played video games in years, so I wanted to take advantage of the desert’s open space.

  I had the idea to create a wall of bees to block Chad from walking any further. Chad was completely oblivious to my plan, which made it even more fun. Without warning, a giant wall of bees appeared in front of Chad who made a high pitched shriek. Then he grabbed my arm to run, but when he saw that I was laughing, he realized what I was up to.

  “Oh, you want to play games now? You do realize that we’re in the middle of the hottest most deserted desert in the world and we only have one breath of water left? We don’t have t-“

  I couldn’t bear to hear another word so I sent the swarm of bees after him.

  Chad wasted no time leaping through time and space to get away from them. He looked like a human strobe light flying through the air while screaming, “SAGE, I’M GOING TO GET YOU!”

  At that point I was hunched over in laughter and for a minute, I had forgotten about our troubling situation. All of a sudden, I felt an arm grab my waist and before I could blink, I was in the sky teleporting from cloud to cloud with Chad. I hated heights more than anything and Chad knew this. We landed on a sturdy cloud and Chad let go of me. I was stiff as a board and was looking at Chad with eyes to kill.

  “Chad! What are y-you doing!? This isn’t funny anymore. Take me back down now!”

  “I thought I’d just leave you here for a while to think about what you’ve done,” Chad said with a sly smirk.

  “Okay I’m sorry about the bees, but you’re taking this too far!”

  “That wasn’t a convincing apology. I’ll be back once you’re really sorry.”

  Then he disappeared. The powerful current that was created from his teleport knocked me off my cloud. I began free-falling toward the sand unable to scream anything, but Chad’s name. I felt like I had fallen for hours when I felt myself land into his arms.

  He placed me softly on the sand like a new born baby, although I looked more like a mounted cat that had been knocked over. I couldn’t move anything, but my lips to say, “I kill you.” Chad looked thoroughly amused by my vulnerable state. I hadn’t seen him laugh so hard since—well, since never.

  Then, Chad stopped laughing and looked out toward the endless mounds of sand that were ahead.

  “What is it?” I asked while regaining feeling in my legs.

  “I don’t know. I just got this feeling like we’re being watched.”

  I rolled over on my stomach to take a look ahead. I got the same feeling.

  “Maybe it’s the bees. They might be out there buzzing around still.”

  Chad nodded his head and appeared to brush off the feeling. He bent down and held out his hand.

  “Here, let me help you up.”

  I grabbed his hand and just as he pulled me up, I pulled him face down into the sand.

  “Hey!” He tried to yell with a mouthful of sand.

  “That’s what you get for making me fall off my cloud!”

  Just as the last words left my mouth, we heard a sound coming from the distance. It sounded like voices. I tried to wait a while to see if it would come again, but it didn’t.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Chad said while brushing sand off his face.

  “I thought I heard men’s voices.”

  “Let’s keep going. If we come across something suspicious we can just use our powers.”

  After walking a few more hours, we began to get extremely sluggish. Our bodies were reaching the late stages of dehydration. I looked ahead into the reflections in the sand and saw an image of a white horse galloping toward us. The horse was of the purest white and it had wings that made it glide smoothly over the sand. It neared and I saw the faint image of a man riding it. He was robed in white. The white knight.

  Chapter 6: Halo

  Chad looked over at me and saw my wondrous expression.

  “What do you see?”

  I said nothing, but kept looking ahead.

  “I see an ocean full of clear blue water,” Chad said.

  He smacked his lips and licked them.

  Neither of us were right. What we saw were mirages. We were hallucinating big time.


  After a few feet, the extreme thirst made me snap out of my fantasy.

  “Chad, I think you should take the last hit of H2O.”

  “No way. You do it. Besides, we’re getting closer to the ocean.”

  “There is no ocean. It’s a mirage. Look, take the shot so that you have enough energy to go and look for water. I’ll just stay here and rest.”

  “I’m not taking it, no matter what. I have to protect you,” he said.

  We continued to fumble forward inside the sun’s oven. Finally, we collapsed from exhaustion. Neither one of us was willing to take the last hit of H2O. We laid there in the sand and then our world went dark.

  I wasn’t sure how long we were passed out, but when we finally opened our eyes, we were no longer in the desert but sitting strapped to a tree inside a forest. Our arms were tied around it with rope. I looked over and saw Chad who was shirtless with his head bowed. I looked down and saw that I was wearing a white linen dress with one strap going over my left shoulder. Chad was wearing white linen pants.

  “Chad! Wake up!”

  I kicked him in the leg and he woke groggily. He opened his eyes, closed them, and opened them wide.

  “Where- how did we get here!?”

  “I’m wondering the same thing.”

  “We’re tied. Oh man, I think we’ve been captured. Quick, try to pry yourself out of the rope.”

  We tried, but to no avail. We were tied very tightly and could barely move our arms. We looked around and saw nothing but tall trees. Then there was the sound of rustling leaves in the distance. Chad and I braced ourselves for what was to come. Suddenly, a dark man appeared, adorned with a white head wrap and white linen pants, carrying a spear in his right hand. He walked over to us and bent down to get a better look. I noticed a deep scar under his left eye that made his appearance harsh and threatening.

  “We found you in the lost desert. Your body temperatures were too high so we took off your clothes and put something cooler on you. We hosed you off and fed you water. It looks like you’ve recovered well.”

  The strange man had dark skin, but a clear complexion. His eyes were dark and aggressive.

  “And what about the rope? You didn’t mention when you decided to tie down two unconscious and defenseless strangers,” Chad said.