|
BOOKS
| |
Chapter
Thirteen
THE ARCH
"Arch? What's
that?" Dan asked.
"It can be used as a time machine, but it also
teleports a person from one area of the planet to another."
"That's how you got here?" Laura glanced at Belinda
just as she caught sight of two spidery shadows out of the corner of her eye. She took
Phil's flashlight and shone it in the area, but saw nothing.
"Yes, The Arch is on the other side of a narrow tunnel
not far from here."
"Who else is in here besides us?" Laura
questioned.
"Demons." Phil whispered.
"They have boundaries beyond which they cannot
go," Belinda offered. "They can't follow us through the arch. Demons are
territorial. We may encounter others. These will flitter off and make their report to
Zeus.
"Follow me. We need to get through that tunnel.
Perhaps when we get to that room beneath the Sphinx and you can read that book, we'll all
have the answers to questions that have intrigued mankind for millennia.
"As you can see, I'm not young anymore and the sooner
we get there the better. I grow quite weary." With that Belinda led the way down a
narrow passage that ended in a very narrow tunnel They would have to crawl through it in
single file.
Fear filled Dan causing his stomach to knot. He hated tight
places. "Is this the only way to get there?"
"I'm afraid so," Belinda said. "I hate tight
places. Even going through the tombs of Egypt terrified me, but there is no other
way."
"If she can do it, I can do it," Dan mumbled
under his breath.
"I'm scared," Laura said as she eyed the dark narrow
tunnel.
"I'll be right behind you. All of us are with you. You
won't be alone." Phil reassured her.
Belinda put her flashlight through a strap on her shoulder as she
got down on hands and knees and entered the tunnel.
The others followed reluctantly.
After what seemed an interminable length of time, they saw
light at the end of the tunnel.
They found themselves in a large cavern with light coming
from an indeterminate source.
"The Arch is there." Belinda pointed to what
appeared to be the entrance to a large tunnel, but on closer inspection there was an Arch
with symbols written on it. It was big enough for all of them to go through at once.
"The symbols look Atlantean, but by themselves like
that I don't understand their significance," Phil said.
"What do we do; just step through it? Doesn't it need
some kind of power turned on or something?" Dan examined the Arch carefully.
"I don't know. The Arch at the other end just turned
itself on. I didn't know what it was. There was a swirling light in the middle and a tone
like music. I had nothing to lose so I stepped through and ended up here. I'm still not
sure where here is. I know it's an island. Thera perhaps; although I always thought Thera
was ruled Poseidon not Zeus. Who knows? I'm a historian and a librarian, not an explorer
and there are many theories about this time period. We'll have to find out for ourselves
which answers are right, if any. I just came along with friends as a sort of adventure. I
certainly got an adventure, all right, but not quite what I had planned. At any rate the
Arch took me back in time and from Egypt to what I'm guessing is part of the Greek
Islands."
"We do not want to go back in time again, but we do
want to go to Egypt. How do we do that?" Jeremiah began helping Dan study the Arch.
"Oy, I found some control buttons, I think."
They all gathered around the area Jeremiah was studying.
There were four, square raised places with symbols on them.
"Atlantean again. We can do this." Phil said as
he and the others looked closely at the symbols.
"This says, 'on', Dan said pointing to one of the
squares, " and this says 'time forward,' this says 'time backward' and this says,
what? It looks like a straight line."
"It means travel in the present," Jeremiah said,
beaming as understanding filled him. "We must push the 'on' button and this
one."
"Let's do it," Dan said as he pushed the 'on'
button. The sound of wind and musical notes filled the cavern. Swirling lights filled the
Arch. Dan pushed the square with the straight line. The tone changed and the lights
changed colors.
They all stood looking in fascination then Dan approached
the light and reached out his hand. As soon as his hand touched the light it seemed
to pull him in and he disappeared.
Jeremiah followed and then the others. They all stood
amidst the swirling lights. The occasional wail and transparent forms of others who seemed
lost and wandering, crossed their paths.
Alarmed Dan stared at their surroundings. He could just
barely make out several arched doorways with symbols above each one. "Which one do we
take?" He asked no one in particular.
The others stood in shock. Terrified Laura hid her face
against Phil's chest.
"What is this place?' Jeremiah looked around him.
"Are we in a place of departed spirits?" He looked at Belinda who was studying
the various inscriptions above the doorways.
"I think some of them have become trapped here for
various reasons. I saw them when I came through before and tried to lead them out, but
they did not want to leave. Most of them are afraid to leave. It's a mystery, but right
now I need your help to decipher the symbols so we'll know what doorway to go through. Is
it Atlantean?"
They all shook off their feeling of strangeness at
their surroundings and studied the symbols.
"They look like pictures rather than language,"
Phil commented.
"Here's one that looks like the Sphinx." Dan
pointed to the symbol above an arched doorway in front of them. "That's probably the
one we want."
Belinda nodded along with the others.
"Let's do it," Dan said as he stepped through the
opening.
"How do we know he's right?" Laura hesitated as
the others stepped through. Finding herself alone she fearfully followed behind them.
The walls glowed just as Belinda had described. "The
body of the old man is over there," she said pointing. "I'm going to sit and
rest awhile. Let me know when you find out anything." She sat down on a golden bench
with scarlet cushions, leaned over and promptly fell into an exhausted sleep.
"Let's find out if we can read his book. Maybe it'll
tell us how to get out of this room.If we don't get something to eat pretty soon, we'll
all be falling on our faces," Phil said as he went the way Belinda had previously
pointed out.
"Yeah, my stomach is rumbling so loud I can hardly
hear you," Dan moaned rubbing his empty stomach.
"She also told us something about going to the
underworld, " Jeremiah said.
"I'm hoping she forgets about that," Dan said as
he eyed the body of the old man and climbed up in his lap to see the book.
"Hey, Phil, come look at this. It looks like a history
of the Atlantean culture. This last page tells how it all ended and about a black box that
an angel named, Michael, put in here along with a book. This man's name was Adonix, the
last of the believers in the Most High.
"You read this book, Phil. Jeremiah and Laura
can help me find the black box."
"Black box. Black box. Didn't you say those creatures
who abducted you, were talking about a black box?" Fully recovered from her past
ordeal, Laura excitedly launched herself into their new quest.
Dan stopped as wonder and amazement filled his face.
"You're right. This has got to be it. This is what they wanted so bad. It has to be
even more important than the book in the old man's hands."
"We'll find it. It has to be here somewhere. Who even
knows about this place to take it?" Phil gazed around them. Thick dust covered
everything. Only their footprints disturbed it. "Just think, we're probably the first
people to be in this place in thousands of years."
"We can think about that later," Jeremiah said.
"I am going to look over on this side of the room. We need to find it and then go
find some food."
"Yeah, My stomach thinks my throat's been cut."
Dan groaned again at the mention of food.
"Wait!" Laura searched inside the folds of her
flowing blue and gold tunic. She pulled out some dates and some fruit that looked like
small oranges. "I forgot I had these. These folds are made like big pockets. I
had quite a bit to eat before you found me, so please, help yourselves. Perhaps this will
keep us going until we can get out of here."
They saved one orange and a few dates for Belinda and
hungrily devoured the rest.
Dan studied the folds of her tunic. "Try out some of
those others folds or pockets. See if you have any more."
Laura shook her head as she searched. "I'm sorry,
that's all I have."
Phil wrestled the book out of the old man's stiff hands and
laid it out on the floor to study it. "The rest of you go on. I'm going to read this
while you look for the box. We can't afford to waste anymore time. No telling how long the
air will last in here."
They all headed in different directions to search as Phil
read the book.
XXX
"It is here!" Jeremiah shouted triumphantly. He
blew the dust off the translucent cube and looked for a way to open it.
The others rushed to his side, including the now awake,
Belinda. "God, how do we open it? It has no seams." Jeremiah stared in
frustration.
They all stared at the cube that was almost transparent. It
seemed to have dark clouds in moving in it.
Phil reached out and touched it. "Lord, in Jesus name, show
us how to open this box." He ran his hands over it's surface searching for some
pressure point.
Jeremiah placed his spread out hand on top of it.
Suddenly the clouds in the cube stopped moving and the box
opened.
Chapter 14
ranksch1.htm
|
