by J. K. Haugen
She looked around trying to find other clues that the same people from the shipping port may have visited the area. “Maybe, who ever made the waterway had seen something similar somewhere and just liked the design.” she thought, shaking her head in amazement. “We need to mark this area,” she said to John, “so we can send an excavation team back to look for more artifacts.”
John almost couldn’t believe his eyes when Sarah quickly jumped back up, pulled her red shirt off over her head and started tearing pieces from it. She began tying them around all the tree branches in the area.
She didn’t even flinch as John’s face turned a very blush red. Her long red curls falling down covering her black lacey bra. John had never seen anything so unusually sensual, which just added to his embarrassment.
She then reached into her bag and grabbed her leather flight jacket and put in on.
“You ok?” she asked John, with a teasing smile and a wink. “Never seen a girl un-dress before?” She laughed and gave him a small love tap on his right shoulder.
“Not one quite as beautiful.” he said aloud. He wasn’t really thinking about his response before he spoke, which just made him even more embarrassed.
Sarah wasn’t worried about the comment, not even a little. She actually was beginning to fall quite hard and quite fast for this shy, good looking boy. Not to mention she was sort of having fun being a tease and seeing him begin to squirm a bit. He actually made her feel kind of sexy, and she hadn’t felt that way in a long time.
John put the piece of metal into the box and closed the lid. He put everything back into his bag, and they continued to walk down the trail alongside the stream.
“Sooo...” said Sarah with an innocent sound to her voice, “I know we're stuck in the woods, and...”
“Yeah?” John interrupted her.
“Well,” she continued, “I was just wondering, if you had any chance to look at the scrolls yet? Do you have any ideas about what they might say?” she asked.
“Oh!” said John, with a hint of disappointment.
“What?” she asked.
“Ah, I just thought maybe you were gonna ask me about something else.” He was really thinking she was going to ask him if he was feeling the same way about her, as she did about him. Or at least that’s what he was hoping anyway. He felt silly, when it ended up just being about the scrolls.
“What’d ya think I was gonna ask you?” she asked with a smile. She already knew what he had been thinking about. It wasn’t like he was a big mystery to her; not like he thought he was anyway, but she really wanted to hear him say it.
She'd been studying ancient cultures and relationships most of her life, yet she never could quite get it right in her own life. This time, she was going to take her time and not rush into anything.
“Ah...nothing…ne…never mind.” he answered in a shaky voice. “What was the question?”
“Have you had a chance to look very close at the scrolls?” she asked again. “Or do ya have any idea about what they say?”
“Do I tell her, or not?” John thought to himself.
The sun was beginning to set behind the mountain and over the tops of the trees. “Maybe we should set up camp again.” he said. “We'll take a look at ‘em together. I really want to hear your thoughts and get your ideas about some things.”
“Okay” she said with a smile. She looked down and realized that they had been holding hands as they had been walking. She really hadn’t noticed when they started, or who actually started holding whose hand first. However she thought it felt incredibly nice. So she just squeezed his hand a bit and they continued to walk a while longer, until they found another small clearing in the woods.
This time John gathered the firewood. The whole time, he was thinking about how to tell her what he had read, without sounding like a nut ball.
“Oh...by the way, the words and letters on the scroll, magically changed into English right in front of me!” he thought to himself, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. “She'll never believe me,” he thought, “but I’ve got ‘a tell somebody. No ya don't.” he thought as he continued to argue back and forth with himself. That is, until he thought, “Wait a minute, you’re an expert, she won’t know that you’re not actually just translating the text, so what’s the problem?”
He felt stupid talking to himself, walking around alone in the woods. “Maybe I am crazy!” he said aloud with a nutty grin.
He walked back to their campsite and found Sarah sitting on the ground next to a circle of rocks she had made for the fire. It was starting to get dark. He put the twigs and small logs on the ground and arranged the wood within the ring, making it into a small bonfire.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the silver Zippo lighter he always carried. His dad had given it to him before he passed away, saying “You never know when you'll need a light son.” He said the words out loud in a super low voice, imitating his dad's. “Thanks dad,” he said with a grin, raising the lighter up towards the sky. “You always were prepared for everything huh?”
He lit the lighter and heard the popping sound of the flames on the twigs and moss that he had collected. As the logs erupted into flames he looked over at Sarah. The orange and red light from the flames moved over her face, giving her hair glowing red highlights.
He didn’t normally associate God with fire, but she just truly looked like an angel with the glowing aura that it gave her. Her smile seemed a bit magical, and her eyes seemed to dance along with the rhythm of the flames. He couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone so incredibly beautiful.
Was it the situation they found themselves in? Or was he really beginning to fall in love after only two days? He didn’t know the answer, but at that moment, he didn’t really care.
“Burrrrr...” said Sarah as she scooted close to the fire, “Gonna come sit down?” she asked, patting her hand on the dirt next to her.
“Yeah” he replied smiling. He hadn’t smiled so much in his entire life. He didn’t really seem to mind either; since he had been stuck in the woods with Sarah, his life just kind of made sense. He wasn’t sure why, but everything just seemed right in the world.
John sat down next to Sarah and wrapped his arm around her as they both tried to get warm from the fire. She had pulled the first scroll from his bag and had it ready for them to look at together. She couldn’t believe how strange it was that she was so comfortable with him. It was like they had known each other their entire lives.
The hike throughout the day was a lot harder than she first thought that it would be. It was taking much too long to get down the mountain and find help. She was starting to worry about how long they could survive in the wild living on berries. However, with John’s arm around her, it somehow had made her feel safe.
His other arm was beginning to really look red and swollen where it had been sliced open during the crash. She could feel his skin getting hot from the fever of the slight infection in the wound. And yet, he never once complained to her. His only concern seemed to be her comfort and safety.
Had she really met the last good man on the planet, she wondered, and would they get to safety soon enough, before John’s infection spread or before they starved to death? “That’d be my luck,” she thought sarcastically, “find the scrolls, humanity's most important discovery, and the perfect guy all in the same week, then die two days later.” She smiled and rolled her eyes.
“You’re burning up Johnny” she said as she put her hand up to his forehead.
“No worries,” he whispered back to her with a smile in his voice, as if to mock her for saying it before. “Everything’s gonna be all right.” he said, as he pulled her close, and held her tight.
“That’s my line.” she said, laying her head softly on his shoulder.
She was so excited earlier to look over the scrolls, but now she was beginning to feel incredibly tired; it had been such a long day. So she put the scroll back in the bag and closed her eyes.
> John couldn’t sleep, he wasn’t really tired yet. So he just sat there looking up at the stars. Wondering about everything that had happened and thinking about what he had read in the scrolls.
He couldn’t help but ask himself if everything was happening for a reason. If there was some grand master plan that God had set forth, like Ayden had talked about in the book, or if everything and everyone in the world had just been victims of some massive cosmic accident. “Are we all just fumbling around this world without purpose?” he asked himself. “Although,” he thought, “someone certainly has been watching out for me by bringing this amazing woman into my life.
Sarah was fast asleep leaning on his shoulder. She must have been dreaming because she was smiling. He didn’t want to wake her up by moving, so he decided he would read more of the scrolls. He was hoping it would make him tired enough to fall asleep.
He reached in and pulled the scrolls from the bag. He shuffled through them until he found the third page. He was only guessing that it was the third one, because they weren’t really numbered.
John was uneasy about touching the scrolls with his dirty hands. He didn't want to ruin them with his bloodstains or mud from the crash and two day camping trip. Much to his surprise the pages were completely clean. However, since the crash, he had only handled the box. The pages that Sarah had looked at and the ones that he had just gone through were completely clean too. They seemed as old as they should be, but they also seemed to be protected from smudging and things such as fingerprints and dirt. He turned the scroll over to what seemed to be right side up, and as the words became legible, he began to read...
Chapter 3
~The Man in the White Robe~
…They say there was a man who came to our world, a man in a white robe. He was kind and good and pure of soul. They even say he may have been Agodah himself. They say that he had come down to warn us and to save us from ourselves. They tell stories of incredible miracles that he had performed and lessons that he tried to teach our people. However, they did not listen. One of the most important of these stories is of the final day that he was in our world and among our people.
As he was walking with his followers one day, he told of a particular time that would come upon our people. Not just affecting the people who came from one land, but people from all lands. A time when the ground would tremble more often and with more rage then ever felt before.
The lands would flood and the people would lose all that they owned. There would be talk amongst the people and stories told, of huge amounts of animals that would just fall to the ground dead. Birds, by the tens of thousands, would fall from the sky without reason and great beasts from the seas would wash up to shore and dry up. Small fish and water animals would float to the surface with all the life taken from their bodies, and this would only be the beginning of the end.
The man in the white robe, told his followers to watch for these signs. Even though such fantastic events should not be hard to miss, they indeed would be missed. The people, who would reign over the lands of the world, would explain away the mysterious deaths and land tremors. Giving them simple explanations most people would be all too eager to believe.
There would then be incredible storms out of the oceans that would be greater in force, than anyone alive would have ever seen before. Great twisting winds would then lift up and destroy whole cities. He told them of gigantic waves that would move across the seas faster than one million ronabeasts. The waves would come up across the land and take with them entire civilizations back into the oceans. And again, all this death and destruction, though tragic, would largely go un-noticed.
The people in power, he told them, would most certainly know that this would be coming, and they would prepare. However, they would not tell their people to prepare. That would be the responsibility of his followers until the end. They would be tasked to watch for the signs and warn the people of what was approaching.
He told them that even though all of these events would begin to happen in a single rotation of the earth around the sun. No one would understand that they were all connected. The people would be led to believe that they were each separate incidents and natural events. However, they would not be.
Not until the world would catch fire from all of the people standing up at once against their leaders, would the truth begin to become clear. He said that because of corrupt leaders, the weather, and the great floods that would destroy the crops, starvation and famine would ultimately be the cause of the uprisings.
The man in the white Robe then told his followers how the end would come. This part of the Beclay was conveniently lost for centuries. However, we have been told that the next sign after all the others would be fire and deadly gas eruptions from our oldest sleeping mountains.
I, Ayden, am the direct descendant to the followers of the man in the white robe. My family and fellow White Agodahns have been searching the world for the missing pages of the Beclay. We have also been watching for the signs that would start the beginning of the end. As I begin recording this message to you, I believe that the signs have begun and that I am living in the exact time that was foretold.
We have recently found the missing pages of the Beclay and all of our fears have come true. The fact is if you are reading this, then you also are living in the time of the end. We had discovered these final pages too late to save our people and our world. However, you may still have time to save yours.
By now you may have realized that the book you hold in your hand is a lot more than it appears to be. If you are reading this, than you are of the same bloodline as I. We are brothers. I have hidden the final chapters of the Beclay within the walls of the city. It is your bloodline and the key of Tamarac that will help you find them.
Please understand that before the destruction of my world and the beginning of yours, the Beclay was hidden from my people. It was given to the ones who were to repopulate our world. I believe that from the beginning of your time as you know it, the true leaders of your world would have kept the most important pages of the Beclay hidden from their commoners as well. They did this so that they could remain in power and ensure their bloodline would rule at the beginning of the next world’s time.
Because of this I have left my own book for you and hidden the last pages where only you would find them. Billions of lives are in your hands and billions more in the next world. If you do not find those pages, learn the truth and save your people, then both worlds will parish. I believe that, as our rulers did, yours would keep the truth from you. That is why I have hidden these pages in the safest place I know. You must find the city. Save your people, our people my brother....
John was confused and intrigued all at the same time. “What did all this mean?” he thought. “Was Ayden talking about me? Some of those things have been in the news lately. Could it really be the end? Is this a fictional tale? Or is this real? How would Ayden know that the person who was reading his book would be related to him, or be the one who will save his people?” As John read more and more of the scrolls, he ended up with two more questions for every answer that he found.
His mind was reeling. He needed to rest so that he could process everything that he had read. Sarah was still sleeping but she had moved her head to his lap. Would she believe him, if he told her what the book had talked about? He would have to tell her when she woke up. He could no longer keep these secrets all to himself.
He leaned back and rested against the tree that they had sat down in front of and faded off to sleep. He dreamt of the man in the white robe. Only in his dream, he was that man. It seemed weird to him that his dream was in color, so vivid that it seemed like he was actually living it. He also thought it was strange, that he was in control of his dream. So much so, that he actually knew it was a dream.
He dreamt that Sarah and he were together. They went around the world spreading the word of the Beclay and trying to warn others that the end was near. And even with as much proof as they had, n
o one would take them seriously. They were constantly called crazy and called fear mongers. Those in power, who did not want the message to get out, spent trillions of dollars to discredit them.
He awoke with tears in his eyes, still pleading his case. He had not slept well, as if he had tossed and turned the entire night. He must have, because Sarah was not lying on his lap anymore. She had moved next to him, close to the fire to stay warm. John moved the logs that had all but turned to ash and rekindled the fire. He felt hungry, because his appetite had been lost last night due to his fever. However, he felt incredible this morning. His fever seemed to be gone and his shoulder was no longer hurting.
As he was praying that he had something to eat, he noticed a small group of pheasants walking around on the ground near the waterway. One seemed to have a broken leg. John was not a hunter, in fact, he loved animals. He had both a dog and cat that he’d grown up with. He had always thought that if he went hunting for sport, that it would bring him to tears to watch an animal die at his hands.
All of his uncles and cousins had been hunters. He had to admit he loved the taste of the jerky and fresh meat they would always have. But he could never kill an animal himself. He thought that shooting Bambi would be like killing his own dog.
But John was hungry, and he knew Sarah would be too. They had not eaten anything but a handful of berries in almost three days. They would not have the strength to make it down the mountain if he did not find them food soon and he was not about to die lost in the wilderness.
So John took his pocket knife out of his front jean pocket, “Thanks again dad.” he said with an uneasy grin. He approached the small beautiful bird. It looked frantic as it saw him coming near. With fear, it cawed and flopped to its back, then jumped back again to its feet. He had not even touched the bird, yet it was making such a terrible noise that it startled John, as if it knew what was about to happen next.