by Chad Brecher
“Shit,” Pieter muttered as his heart began to race. He struggled to regain his composure. Pieter rose to his feet and began to back away from the bodies of the two men. He continued to point his gun straight ahead as he carefully walked backwards in the direction of the pit from which he came. He stopped to listen for a moment and could hear the rattle of movement along the mountain slope.
A burst of wind appeared to catch the fog and swirl it upwards. He could see the deep blue sky peak out from the gray mist. As his eyes settled on the clearing fog, he observed as many as fifty men spread out along the side of the mountain. They were dressed similar to that of the slain shaman — flannel shirts, loose pants, and wool hats. He caught the eye of the Mongolian man closest to him who frowned and reached for his waistband. Pieter crouched and pulled the trigger of his gun. The rat-tat of the semi-automatic echoed across the outcropping and he could see the man clutch his chest and stagger backwards. The other men quickly scattered and Pieter took the opportunity to retreat back towards the pit as he unloaded several other bullets blindly into the mist.
A loud crack erupted from the fog as Pieter felt a searing pain shoot through his abdomen. The force of the bullet sent him stumbling backwards to the edge of the pit. His foot slipped over the edge and he found himself sliding uncontrollably down the dirt slope on his stomach. Pieter landed at the base of the pit in a heap and struggled to crawl to the hole leading into the tunnel. His hands began to tremble as he fought to grip the rope. He could hear above him a blood-curling battle cry. With a grunt he forced himself over the threshold of the hole and tried to seize the rope. Weakened, his fingers slipped and he was sent falling into the blackness below.
80
Ellie stared up at the repeating pictograms carved into the ceiling and walls. She frowned and ran her hands through her oily hair. When was the last time she had washed it? She could not remember.
“Can you decipher it?” Clay asked.
“I don’t even know what civilization wrote it. Most ancient scripts can be deciphered in two ways. The first is if subsequent existent scripts contain elements of the ancestral script. The second way is if you are fortunate to have an ancient text that has multiple languages. That was the way Henry Rawlinson helped decipher cuneiform from a trilingual inscription of Darius the Great at Behistun in Iran. It was in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. As far as I can tell, this is a bunch of symbols that could have only specific meanings to some ancient culture.”
“So it could be saying anything.”
“Yes and no. When I approach pictograms, it is sometimes best to take them for what they are. When I look at those four symbols, I think they were chosen for a specific purpose. Look at the two in the middle. There is a semicircle perched atop a line. It looks like a sun rising over the horizon. The one next to it is the opposite. The sun has set. It is a common motif in ancient languages. It’s the cycle of the day…the cycle of life if you will…birth to death. Some cultures like the Mayans worshiped the Sun as a god. Others were consumed with the stages of the Moon. It was a way to account for the natural order. If you bring these two symbols together you get a complete circle. Now if you take the two symbols on the ends and join them…”
“It’s a tree!” Clay exhaled.
“This goes back to what I said earlier. Most of human history was not lived in a Monotheistic mindset. Just think about Ancient Rome and Greece. There were multiple gods. Some were more major gods than others, but there was no single supreme being. If you go back further, many cultures found gods and spirits in the everyday — the sun, moon, sky, rocks, and trees. Many of these beliefs persist to this day. Tengerism or Shamanism is still practiced here in Mongolia. We would like to believe that there have been dark ages in religion, that mankind was unwittingly led astray in the infancy of humankind…that the Monotheism of today is the unavoidable end to man’s quest for spirituality.
“It reminds me of a question I asked my father when I was a little girl. It was along the lines of ‘do dogs go to heaven.’ I had learned about cavemen in school. I remember sitting in church, turning to my father, and asking if there are any cavemen in heaven. Jesus had not come — there was no such thing as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. He said that if they were good people then they would be in heaven with or without the teachings of Jesus. I sat there thinking about all the eons that passed by in which people roamed the earth, never going to Church or taking Communion, never reading from the Torah or reciting the Koran. I thought, how strange. I have come to realize that this is all an evolution. I believe that this could be ‘cradle of humanity’ of sorts — a glimpse into an ancient culture from which the great religions of today took root — the most basic yet all-encompassing view on spirituality.”
Solomon stopped pacing for a moment to blurt out, “That’s all very Kumbaya. Just get the door open, will you?”
Ellie glared back at Solomon and was about to cast an insult his way when the sound of footsteps stopped her. Solomon quickly glanced at Jonas. “You still got that gun on you?” Jonas nodded and pulled the pistol from the small of his back. Solomon leaned against the wall and trained his pistol at a figure awkwardly staggering forward.
“Don’t shoot,” Pieter urged as he stumbled and collapsed on the ground. Solomon darted to his side and waved Phillip over to provide light from his torch. Solomon reached over and turned the man on his back. Pieter’s face was ashen white and his breathing was rapid and shallow. He was clutching his abdomen. As Solomon pried Pieter’s hands from his abdomen, he found that the man’s shirt was saturated with blood. The bullet hole had entered through the epigastric region and exited through his right flank.
“What happened?” Solomon asked.
Pieter looked at him as if he was seeing a stranger.
“Pieter, what happened?” Solomon asked again with a stern voice.
Pieter raised his head slightly off the ground and whispered. “They’re dead. Bryce…Frederick. They’re DEAD! There’s too many of them. They are all over the place.” Pieter was overtaken by a coughing fit, which sprayed red arterial blood into the air and left blood at the corners of his mouth. His lips were dusky. He drew Solomon closer bringing Solomon’s ear to his mouth and whispered: “They are coming. You need to get out of here.”
Solomon could feel the man’s grip of his shirt loosen. He turned his head and slowly laid Pieter’s lifeless body back on the ground.
Phillip held up the torch and looked down at Solomon. “Commander, I’m afraid we are getting a little thinned out here.”
Solomon ignored the comment and rose to his feet. He drew his gun and leveled it at Alex and Ellie. “I’m going to tell you this once more and only once. Get that door open and get it open NOW! Otherwise we are all dead.”
Solomon swung around and knelt beside his knapsack. He gripped the zipper and opened the bag. He removed the clay-like blocks of Semtex and made a pile beside the wall of the tunnel. Solomon began to unspool a long length of wire and stripped the ends with a blade, exposing the uncoated wire.
Ellie looked down at him incredulously. “What are you doing? Have you forgotten what you said?”
Solomon glared at her as he began placing the explosives along the walls of the tunnel. “I know what I said and I know what this stuff does. Just get that door open.”
Alex bit his fingernail as he stared at the marble door. Ellie gave him a concerned glance as she watched Solomon arranging the final touches on the explosives. Jonas defensively drew his weapon and pointed it down the tunnel.
“In the fourth book Polo says that the soldier Genghis Khan sent out in search of the Garden of Eden told the Khan’s staff where the location was and gave them a clue: the sky has fallen…lift it up to enter.” Alex looked up at the ceiling again and studied the writing.
“What does it mean that the ‘sky has fallen?’” Clay asked as he sidled up beside them.
“I’m not sure, but in the Mongolian culture, the sky was the most important
of the spirits. They worshiped the Eternal Sky above all else. If the sky had indeed fallen, I imagine this must have been something calamitous.”
“The whole natural world would be out of order,” Ellie added.
“You needed to ‘lift the sky up to enter’ if you follow the clue,” Alex said.
“Well how do we do that?” Phillip chimed in as he peered down the darkened tunnel apprehensively.
“I don’t know,” Alex responded.
“I’m losing faith in your golden boy, Redmund,” Phillip growled. He stopped as a loud warrior cry echoed through the tunnel. “We are going to get slaughtered here.”
The primeval cry pierced through Ellie’s body as she stared down at Pieter’s motionless corpse with dread. She followed the coagulating blood draining from his wound onto the stone floor. In spots it covered the small gems incorporated into the stone ground and seeped into crevices. Ellie suddenly felt nauseated and weak. She backed away and squatted against the wall to settle her breathing. Across the ground she could see a multitude of gems flicker in the torchlight like tiny stars. Stars!
Ellie sprung to her feet.
“Alex, look at the ground! See the jewels built into the stone. They look like stars.” She pulled Alex, Clay, and Phillip back towards the wall to provide a better vantage point. “The world is upside down…the sky is on the ground.”
“The sky has fallen!” Clay exclaimed.
“This is the clue to open the door,” Ellie announced.
Clay backed further away from the Cherubim and surveyed the celestial scene. “I’ve been a bit of an amateur astronomer since my father bought me a telescope as a child. This looks like a map of the stars. There’s Pleiades.” He pointed to seven gems arrayed across the floor.
“The Seven Sisters. They’re mentioned in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,” Ellie responded. “This makes sense. The stars are a part of almost all ancient cultures. They are fixed entities…predictable. And better yet, they have stories about them. They peer down from the great unknown. What better way to leave a clue.”
“Well, how do we ‘lift it up?” Phillip asked impatiently.
Alex peered up at the ceiling. Ellie was quiet and bit her lip.
“What if we are looking for a constellation or a star?” Alex mumbled.
Ellie smiled broadly. “That’s it! In certain ancient cultures, particularly shamanistic cultures, the stars had spirits associated with them. Some of these spirits played distinct roles. The polar stars were felt to keep the sky up! We need to find Polaris… the North Star!”
All eyes moved to Clay who held up both hands as if to ask for some time to examine the celestial map. “O.K…let me think for a moment.” He walked back and forth, pointed at various gems and mumbled to himself. “We need to first find the Big Dipper. It’s a part of Ursa Major.” Clay frowned, frustrated by his close vantage point, and continued to move further down the tunnel until his back hit up against one of the stone Cherubs. He looked up at it with a mix of apprehension and opportunity. He stepped up on the statue’s feet and climbed up until his arm was slung over one of the wings of the beast.
“Be careful,” Ellie warned, expecting the sharp blades to suddenly slice through the air.
“This is better,” Clay muttered and surveyed the star map beneath him. Alex watched as the man appeared to be connecting stars in the air with his index finger. “O.K. There are seven stars in the Big Dipper — three for the handle and four for the cup. By my estimation, Ellie you are standing on the handle.”
Ellie blushed and moved aside.
“Now if I am remembering correctly, there are two pointer stars within the constellation. They are stars that direct you to another star or constellation. If you draw a line from the two stars that make up the part of the cup furthest from the handle…” He connected the two stars with his index finger and continued to extend the point of his finger away from it. Ellie watched as his finger traveled between the two Cherubim behind him and settled on the headless body of Ox.
“From my calculations, the North Star is well…under him.” Clay slipped off the statue and back onto the ground.
Solomon looked over his shoulder while toggling through a rectangular transmitter.
“Great job. Who’s going?” Solomon anxiously asked. They could hear footsteps in the distance.
“I’ll go,” Alex said. Ellie cast him a look of concern.
“Alex, it’s suicide,” she wailed.
“It’s the only way out of this. What other choice do we have?” Ellie reached out her hand and caught the tip of his fingers. She tried to pull him back towards her but his fingers slipped through her grasp. He peered back at her and smiled. “I’m going to be alright.”
“That’s what all the important people in my life think,” she moaned.
“This is going to be different.”
Ellie watched as Alex adjusted the strap on his leather satchel until it rested on his back, crouched down in front of the two Cherubim, and finally placed his body prostate on the ground. Using his arms and knees, he began to pull himself along the floor between the two statues. He nervously glanced up at the stone figures but found them frozen. As he neared Ox’s torso, he could see the bloodstain on the marble door and swallowed. Somewhere behind him he could hear a chant in a foreign tongue fill the tunnel with foreboding. Alex pulled himself alongside the muscular body, reached out, and gripped Ox’s shoulders. He tried to push the body aside but was unsuccessful. Alex could feel his heart pound in the depths of his chest cavity as he slowly propped himself up on his knees. He slid his boot out, wedged the tip of the boot and his fingers underneath the man’s right shoulder, and pushed up with all his might.
He could hear the sound of a rope tightening.
“Alex!” Ellie gasped with horror.
Suddenly there was the sound of a twang. The crescent blade sprung out of the wall with a screech. He could feel a hot breeze across his right ear and a tug at his shoulder. The leather satchel slid off his back and onto the floor. He caught the cleanly cut edge of the leather strap and stared at it with amazement.
“You O.K.?” Ellie anxiously asked.
Alex could feel the hairs on the back of his neck sprout up. “I’m OK. It missed me by…” He stared down at the strap. “…by a couple of millimeters. Redmund, I’m sorry about your father’s bag.”
Alex fought the desire to crawl back to the rest of the group and resumed his task of trying the push the heavy body up. With several painful pushes, he gradually elevated the man’s right side until the torso was resting completely on its left side. A final heave sent the body toppling over. Beneath the man’s body was a circular diamond. His fingers probed the edges and found it loose. He rocked the gem back and forth until it popped out and revealed a hole dug into the stone surface. Alex slipped two fingers into the hole and was able to seize a golden ring attached to a cable.
From the darkness of the tunnel he could hear a voice boom in accented English: “This is a holy place. Do not disturb the gazriim ezen. Stop now and you will die with honor.”
Alex gripped the ring tightly and pulled it out of the hole. As he pulled, he began to meet considerable resistance from the cable. He braced his feet against the marble door and continued to tug as hard as he could. Sweat rolled down the nape of his neck as the golden ring dug into his knuckle. With a creak, the cable gradually released. He could hear a loud knocking noise. He released the cord and could feel the tunnel begin to rumble. Ever so slowly the marble slab began to shake and slide aside. A roaring noise filled the tunnel as the door opened and wind blew across Alex’s face. Alex felt heat on his face as he squinted at what was before him. A wall of fire filled the opening.
81
“Oh my God,” Ellie whispered. The end of the tunnel was filled with a brilliant red glow as flames leaped into the air as if a luminous curtain were draped over the opening. “It’s the ring of fire surrounding the Garden of Eden! The legends are true.”
> Jonas leaned against the wall and continued to train his gun down into the blackness of the tunnel from which they had entered. The sound of chanting was growing louder and louder. He glanced back momentarily, mesmerized by the fiery spectacle behind him. When he returned to his defensive stance, he could see a Mongolian man creep out of the shadows clutching an AK-47. Jonas dropped to his knee and pulled the trigger. The man gave a startled cry and was sent spinning backwards. His AK-47 discharged erratically, sending rounds ricocheting throughout the tunnel. Solomon ducked as a bullet struck the hoof of one of the Cherubim behind him.
“Son of a…” Solomon cursed and grabbed Ox’s discarded machine gun. He quickly advanced down the tunnel and peppered the area in front of him.
Ellie crouched down and wiggled her way to Alex’s side. She lifted her head and peered into the flames and down at the palms of her hands. “What do we do? We’ll be burnt alive.” She covered her head as a bullet whizzed by, flicking aside several strands of hair and sending slivers of stone showering down upon her. Behind her she could hear Jonas and Solomon returning a long stream of deafening firepower.