by Joe Kelly
The inside of the house was much like anywhere else. Family pictures, comfortable furniture, most of which were real wood, and hand made by an expert, were artfully placed around the house.
“I suppose you came here, to see if I have answer’s” Gayle said as she shed her coat, revealing an almost painfully slender figure. “you could say that,” Jared replied.
“The coat adds forty pounds” she remarked casually, sounding much younger than she had outside. Hanging her coat on the wall mounted coat hanger, she pulled off her knit cap, her fell down past her shoulders a silver cascade with strands of jet black, and hung it beside her coat. Once her guests had hung their own coats she led them into her study.
The study was a large room with a wood burning stove in the corner that made the room warmer than was comfortable for Jared who wore a flannel shirt and thermal under shirt. He looked around as he rolled up the sleeves of his flannel shirt. There was very little in the way of store bought items in her home and all of the furniture was well made. Interspersed between the tall books shelves were family pictures, three generations worth from the looks of it, John Graham was in many of them.
“My husband built this home and made most of the furniture,” she told them, touching the arm of a hand carved chair in fond remembrance then motioned for them to sit on the couch. “I guess it was both pride and stubbornness that kept me here, and by extension all the others that are sheltering here. But it is a decent place to try and survive.” She commented. “Used to be I could see up into the woods, and watch the bears and deer. Then I could watch the zombies, now all I see are metal walls.” She said with disgust pointing at the large windows that overlooked a snow covered back yard and part of the Semi trail wall. “Its almost as bad as a nursing home.” She said then lowered herself into the chair behind her desk.
The desktop was neat, well organized, a thick leather covered book sat in the center of the blotter. The only modern thing on the desk was the open laptop. “My great granddaughter and some other family live here with me and help keep the place clean. It might seem foolish to keep it looking clean and neat considering what’s going on in the world, but work soothes the nerves.” She said as she pulled a small bottle of lotion from a desk drawer than began to rub some into her hands and fingers.
Great Granddaughter, Jared thought revising his estimation of her age upwards, she was one of those people that looked far younger than they were, she could be anywhere from sixty-five to eighty-five, and judging by the book titles he could see on the shelves, she was well read, and probably well educated.
“the one real pleasure in my life, books,” she commented having seen where Jared was looking, “and in a way partly responsible for why you’re here.”
“Why exactly are we here?” Jill asked with a glance at Jared who seemed to be lost in thought.
“to give you this” She said touching the book on her desk. “but first I wanted to talk to you, ask you some questions, answer any that you have, assuming I have the answers.” Gayle said as she folded one hand over the other on top of the book.
“Ask a way” Jared said after a moment.
“your tattoo’s, why did you get those two in particular?” she asked.
“how did you know I have tattoo’s?” Jared replied with a question.
“the honest answer, is that I was told in a dream. Till just now I did not, in fact know that you had tattoo’s.” She replied, her lips quirking into a smile. “May I see them,” She asked. “I have a reason, though if I were thirty years younger, my reasons for getting you to remove your shirt would be different.” She said humorously. Jill laughed softly deciding that she liked this woman.
There was no way he could roll the sleeves up high enough to fully expose his shoulders, so he just bit the bullet and removed his shirts. Jill hid a smile behind her hand seeing Jared blush, “I suspect your chest is bigger than mine ever was,” Gayle said with another smile that faded as she motioned for him to come closer so she could inspect the tattoos. Donning a pair of glasses, she leaned close and studied first one then the other tattoo. “very nice work, whomever the artists were, they were masters at Celtic knotwork.” She said as she settled back in her seat.
“aside from oogling my pecs, is there any reason I can’t put my shirt back on.” Jared asked.
“I envy you young lady” Gayle said, then motioned for Jared to dress.
“I wanted to see them for a reason, and not to look at your pecs, which as a secondary result was worth the moment. Did you get them for a reason, The tattoo’s, to mark an occasion or moment in your life.”
“no?” Jared replied as he sat back down beside Jill.
“You just got them on whim?” She asked.
“why? I fail to see the importance in my having Tattoos much less why I got them.” Jared said as politely as he could.
“because of what they represent, the triskelion, a Greek word by the way, is a powerful symbol. The earliest known examples are over seven thousand years old, and a part of many ancient cultures. To some it was a symbol of light, good if you will. Three spirals originating from a central point, in its self a spiral and yours is surrounded by yet another ancient power symbol, the circle.”
“it’s, was a popular design.” Jared pointed out.
“granted but, you’re the only one with that tattoo that I’ve been told about in a dream and has survived the coming of the dead.” She said. “and then there is the tree of life, another symbol of the light, and one with three roots, and three limbs, surrounded again by a circle.”
“look I appreciate that your highly educated on ancient symbols, but I suspect you’re going somewhere I won’t believe with all of this.”
Gayle sighed heavily, “I honestly do not know, but I find it more than coincidence that I dream of you, and that the tattoos you have are associated with the research I have been doing.”
“which leads me to a question, what research?” Jared asked.
“I am a cultural anthropologist and historian by training, thirty years ago, I ran across a legend that intrigued me and began to research it, it became almost an obsession to be honest. If my husband had been a lesser man he would have left me because of the time I spent buried in papers and library stacks.” She replied. “this research was outside of my field but I found it intriguing.”
“And?” Jared prompted.
“You’ve heard of Atlantis correct?”
Jared managed not to roll his eyes as he nodded an affirmative. “on the academic level its existence is still argued, though there are far more nay sayers than believers and for good reason. but Atlantis is not alone, there are others, a string of civilizations, many of whom we had legends of but did not know existed until chance discoveries revealed the truth.
The legend I stumbled across was part of a study of the population around the bay of Cambay, it dealt with a city that had fallen to the Vetala, spirts who inhabit decaying corpses, unlike most legends about the Vetala, all of which call them evil, these Vetala attacked and ate the living at the bidding of a dark spirit and over ran the city. In the end the Gods, led by Vishnu went to battle to destroy the evil, but the Vetala were stronger than the gods had thought and in a council of despair they devised a plan. In the end they caused the ocean to swallow the city.”
“So, we need to build an ark, or capture a cruise ship then make it rain for forty days and nights to wipe out the dead.” Jared commented. Jill gave him a very old fashioned look that should have had an extended middle finger on display for emphasis.
“Don’t act like I’m a crazy old bag lady, hear me out first.” Gayle said. “considering the state of the world today, that legend is much more believable, but as I said this was thirty years ago, I found it intriguing because of the interesting differences in the Vetala from other legends and because of certain symbols that kept popping up in relation to this lost city. Then in 2002, a city was discovered on the floor of the bay, it was argued over of course. I would
say the experts were about evenly divided over natural or manmade.
Then expeditions were mounted to learn the truth and after much exploration there was no doubt that it was in fact a city, unlike places such as Yamaguchi where people continued to debate and argue about what it was due to lack of solid evidence.
The size of the city was striking, five miles long and two miles wide and the immensity of many of the structures was remarkable and no one knows what civilization built it. The site, turned out to be over nine thousand five hundred years old, five thousand years older than anything we knew about. It caused an uproar, because if the dating is correct the history of human civilization is wrong.” She said. Jared looked at Jill, he was growing impatient. Yes, the basics of the legend about the Vetala sounded like what was occurring today, but that was it and it was only a legend.
“I have seen the data and believe that the dating is correct, then in 2005, using submersible drones, they cleared debris and sand from a section of wall.” she said pausing as she pulled a folder from a desk drawer, she pulled a large glossy picture from inside and passed it to Jared. “they found a triskelion carved into the stone, the legend that started my research had stated that was the symbol for the city.”
“So, what does it have to with me,” Jared said stubbornly as he glanced at the picture.
“my search started with the legend of the lost city of Cambay, but as I worked my way through archives, I began to discover the same types of legends from around the world. Ancient cities and cultures, all considered lost, myths with no real substance like Atlantis. Except some of them were later discovered to have actually existed.
And one of the main themes in each of them was that some dark force, Evil, if you will, attacked or destroyed these places and the symbols and themes associated with them all are variants of the triskelion, the number three and multiples of three. Variations of the tree of life also appeared. Both symbols were wide spread in the ancient world but their source has only been speculated on.”
Jared settled back realizing she was just hitting her stride, and listened as she began to talk about how extensive the belief in the power of the number three had been woven throughout the cultures of history. It was fascinating to him, and as strange as it was to be listening to a historical lecture about myths, symbolism and magic while the undead roamed the world it was oddly fitting.
“…The ancient Celts had the triple aspect goddess, the Oak, ash, and thorn were called the fairy triad of trees, the three legged spiral or triskelion, which had multiple meanings, all of them bound up in groups of threes, the most common meaning applied was creation, preservation and destruction as well as the three worlds, the spirit world, the world we live in and the celestial world. The druids like many Shamans from around the world believe that they stood in three worlds at once.
Celtic heroes traveled in groups of threes’ and usually had to solve three challenges. There are thousands of examples in just Celtic culture alone, almost every ancient culture had just as many. The Norse, the Chinese, the Hindu, Greeks, Scythians, Persians and others, and those beliefs were so powerful that they still crop up in modern religions, and civilizations.
Christianity, has the trinity, which was from the Irish, it is or was believed that when demons wanted to show themselves to torment man or possess a person they will manifest most often at 3 am as a mockery of the trinity and but also to mock the traditional time that Jesus was believed to have died at 3pm.” She paused and smiled at them. “I apologize, Lecturing is in the blood” She said.
“So, you think that we are going through the same thing now, the vetala are loose in the world.” Jill asked, despite the reality of the walking dead, she found it hard to believe that they were locked in some kind of battle between good and evil. But the thing in your dreams, you knew it was evil, and you knew that the dream was real in the sense that it seemed to come from outside my own mind. “and if so why?”
“no, Yes, I have no idea.” Gayle replied with a shrug of frail shoulders.
“Since the dead rose, and the dreams started, I’ve been looking at this knowledge from a new perspective, one that I would not have considered before the dead. I believe that whatever happened in the past, warnings were left, those warnings became distorted, and eventually became myths and legends. There is some truth to them but we do not have enough knowledge to know exactly what is correct and what is embellishment or later additions to the story. I was told you’re supposed to have this.” She said tapping the book “I wasn’t told why but I suspect as incomplete as it is, the answer may lie buried in these pages.” She said as she rose slowly from her chair, her joints hurting then walked slowly over and handed the book to Jared.
“and because of this and your dreams, you believe I have some big role in putting a stop to all of this.” Jared asked in disbelief.
“I have no idea how big a part you have to play, but think about this, you carry two symbols on your shoulders, you’ve spent your life learning skills and gaining knowledge that had limited utility in the modern world, you managed to place yourself in a position, without meaning to that gave you and your friends an advantage in surviving from the start.”
“There are, were a lot of people like me.” Jared said. Partly to point out that nothing she had mentioned was really all that special, and partly to give himself a little time to pull on the threads of the idea.
“True,” she admitted. “but from the stories you’ve told John that he shared with me, You have spent your life jumping in feet first to help people that you did not have to help, and when the entire world was going down in flames you rescued a large group of children and then decided to follow a dream that told you to protect those children and get them to a place where they will be safe. Tell me, did something happen to you as a child? Something that changed your life?”
Jared shifted uncomfortably on the couch, as a memory of the Mason house rose into the center of his mind’s eye. It had been a dark place, dusty shadow filled hallways, rooms that were going to ruin, a place where not even rats nested. A place where things moved just out of sight and you were glad for it, because if those things had scuttled out where you could see it, you might go insane. ‘and whatever walked there walked alone’ he thought remembering a line from an old story.
“yes” he admitted. She didn’t press for details, which Jared was thankful for, he had never told anyone what had happened that year. In fact, the only living person who knew almost the entire story was pappy, and that’s only because he had been involved and had been there at the end with Jared’s dad. “why?” he asked.
“I suspect whatever happened to you is connected to what’s going on now, maybe you were tested, maybe all of this started then, and maybe it has nothing to do with anything and I am just a senile old woman.” Gayle said or maybe whatever forces we are facing knew back then you would end up here at this time and tried to kill you, so you couldn’t threaten its plan, she thought but didn’t say it. She couldn’t have explained how she knew that something had tried to kill this man when he was child, but she did.
“let me say, that I am no super hero, in fact I’m not even a hero. I do what I believe is right, what happened to me as a kid, wasn’t supernatural.” Jared said, and though most of it hadn’t been, there were somethings that no one involved had ever been able to explain. Which, did not mean that there wasn’t an explanation, just that he hadn’t found it yet.
“Heroes are not born but made,” Gayle said. “and in the old legends and myths, heroes’ typically faced three trails or challenges.”
“a hero is someone who does his duty or doesn’t have time to think about what he is doing till later and somehow avoids earning a Darwin award in the process. Besides if your right then I am two trials short of the requirement.” Jared said trying to make a joke of it and failing badly.
“he can do this all night” Jill warned Gayle. “He likes to call it being glib, others say smartass.” Gayle’s lips twitch
ed like she was about to smile but then waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m not saying you’re the modern equivalent of Hercules, or a god reborn or any such nonsense. I’m saying I think you were chosen to do something important. Maybe all your expected to do is protect those children and that is important enough. But maybe in doing so, you affect more than just the lives of those kids. Just consider what affect your actions have had on the Farm and now Cherokee. Who’s to say what you will end up doing along the way to your destination.”
Jared snorted in amusement, “You actually believe all this, I grant that there are a lot of coincidences in all of the things you’ve shared. But….”
“I am Cherokee, and for most of my life I lived in the white man’s world, I respected my heritage and my people’s traditions, but I didn’t believe. I believed in the neat, tidy, logical universe where Magic, monsters and witches do not exist. Neither did the ridiculous concept of the dead rising, outside of movies. But that world is gone, it died the day the dead first rose. Now both worlds of thought have to coexist. You still fall down and not up, the speed of light is unchanged, the dead walk, the dreams exist and other surprises may await us. And you are still marked with two symbols of light, from myths about the end of civilizations and the rising of the dead. I would say that it is more than just mere coincidence.”