Living Forest (16 page)

“We are Goliath, the protectors of this realm. Heed our words mortals, stop killing and build your colony. The survival of your race depends on it. When we return, if there is not peace... All will die.”

I move away from the city back to my original destination. After I put a few miles behind me, I stop and look back. The destruction seems to have subsided, though I’ll know more when I return. The land quickly changes to being flat and dusty. Running for almost an hour, in the distance I begin to see one of my oil refineries. A sigh of relief overwhelms me and even though the journey wasn’t all that long, this metal desperately needs an oil bath.

Slicing the top off of a large storage tank with the diamond like sword, I climb inside and sit down. The gold plating squeaks and squalls even after I sit in the soothing soak. After a few minutes rest, I become curious on how long it’s been since this Goliath has seen any oil. A really angry female voice replies,

“Never!”

Stern male voice buts in,

“Yes it has, I used Greek oil right before we were deactivated.”

A kind male voice interrupts,

“This arguing gets us nowhere. We need to focus on where our enemy is. We have to bring Sleeping Star to justice.”

All voices besides my own speaks at once,

“Agreed! Hollister, it’s time for us to end this threat once and for all.”

Standing up like a track superstar, I start running back to where I came from. With each impacting stride, an oily footprint is left in the soft sandy dirt. Tracks follow behind me until the land shifts from soft sand to rock infested hilly terrain. Many miles pass me by before cities start appearing in the horizon.

The city that was in massive chaos before seems completely deserted now. No deceased bodies pollute the streets any longer as they once had. Maybe the spirits harsh words provided the initiative needed to move forward, and now I can move forward.

“BOOM!”

A massive explosion quakes the upper atmosphere on top of the protective barrier. My free hand raises above my head as a natural protection mechanism. The sky turns red from fire for miles, coloring all I see in a fiery red glow. Someone tried to bomb us, but because of the prismatic barrier the attempt is a failure. I keep running towards where I last witnessed Sleeping Star.

Running past the first haven I encountered, the survivors scamper out of sight. Within a few minutes I’ll be back at the golden temple top. In the distance, that direction, thick fumigating fog rolls on the ground like clouds pulling in for an April shower. Purplish-grey figures swiftly move through the congestion. The ground clouds part into two giant walls as if Moses is parting the red sea, but I still can’t see who it is that’s harnessing this otherworldly power.

I’m preparing myself for Sleeping Star to surprise attack me. From between the two walls marched a big, beautiful, and proud woman riding on top of a horse which looks like a ghost. She holds a long wooden staff with a gold chalice attached to the top of it in her left hand. A royal blue and gold cloak with the hood up barely exposing a crown drapes over her body like a curtain covering a window from strangers. A familiar feminine voice yells,

“Bring me the head of that monster. KILL!”

Hundreds of thousand voices echo with shrieks and screams of rage from the clouds. The clouds flow across the ground stampeding towards me. The closer the clouds approach me, the louder the shrieks invoking terror become. Seconds before I’m engulfed in these clouds, my sword glows brightly. A sound resonates from it echoing back at the screaming in fluctuation of alto and soprano tones.

“Wawawawa... Wawawawa... Wawawawa.”

Stored electricity flows off of my golden suit, circling around me. Encapsulating me in an electrified ball. Holding my hand up, I go to sound off the horn.

“............”

Nothing came from me. Upset, internally I speak to the spirits,

“Ha ha, very funny, I can use some help now.”

An angered female voice replies,

“From where we stand it doesn’t look like you need any help. Don’t worry young one, the spirits can’t break through the electricity.”

Confusingly I reply,

“Spirits... I don’t see anything. Only clouds.”

After saying that, the clouds just sizzle around me as I flinch and prepare for the impact. Ecstatic laughing proceeds from the other spirits inside of Goliath. A male voice mockingly says,

“Are you scared of everything Hollister Wolf? You know you’re already dead right?”

Quickly blurting, only to silence their joy,

“I’m not dead. I can see, talk, and run. That tells me I’m alive.”

A calming feminine voice I haven’t heard before speaks softly to me, nearly whispering though I can still hear her just fine.

“Hollister, its okay to be scared, we all were at first. You don’t feel pain. Your heart no longer beats because there’s no heart in Goliath. Even though you can talk, it’s not your voice because you have no lungs to breathe and no vocal cords to speak with. My name is Joan, and I’ll guide you to greatness as I too have been bound to be a guardian in this suit. We’ve waited since the dark ages to be reborn.”

The shrieking clouds stop. They part once more revealing the woman once again. I swear I’ve seen her before. It almost looks like... No, it can’t possibly be. The angered woman riding the ghostly horse responds in rejection,

“I don’t know who or what you are, but nothing is going to stand in my way on getting revenge on that worthless immortal that killed my father and the man I truly love. I’m the new Queen of Souls, the Queen of North America. All those who’ve committed crimes will be punished.”

If I had a heart it would’ve just stopped. If I had a body, chills would flow up and down my spine. A face I dreaded to see again stops and looks intently at me spirit to statue. A thought overwhelms me,

“Shit, run. It’s Elizabeth.”

Frozen to the ground, I feel the spirits inside overpowering my decision to flee. Like an astonishing act, the angry woman vanishes into thin air, with Elizabeth and the other spirits hidden within the clouds. The woman bent on vengeance resembles Elizabeth, making me wander if it’s really her. It can’t be though, it can’t be Amanda Mason.

No matter which direction I look, there’s nothing. There remains no traces nor evidence of Sleeping Star, no trees return back from the war, and definitely no screaming ground clouds. It feels like everything’s dead, but the wildlife. The wildlife... They’re angry now, gathering in packs.

Predator’s and prey alike begin to ignore the laws of their nature to look for their homes. I see many of them flocking together heading behind me, flooding towards the safe haven I had just past. Really the only wildlife I don’t see is the ground dwellers. Out of all animals I see, cattle seem to be the only one’s not worrying. They just stand in open fields eating grass like it’s just another day.

Birds on the other hand look scarce. They are far and few between in the skies. Most of what I see flying is buzzards. Off into the southern horizon, a small band of trees now appear to be marching this direction. Doing everything I can to run away, the other spirits also in command have another agenda. Instead of falling back, I’m rushing forward into what quickly seems to be my demise.

The closer I’m pushed to them, the more they look like they are preparing to kill me. I begin to see the bloodshed they produced by the red painted bark, and the mass of deceased bodies hanging around by a limb forced through them like a shish kabob. The tree vines still have people constricted within them dead, like they’re nothing more than a swinging chime. Depending on the size of the tree is dependant upon the size of the Native standing inside.

Their arms stretch above them, as they would if they hang down from holding onto a monkey bar. Not all Natives look the same either. Each of them posses different features which separates them from who they are. Standing face to face with the few roaming trees, I lose all fear. Only because I’m bigger than any of them here, and the fact that I’m made from metal unlike them helps too.

The leader of this group steps up. As he moves through the front line, if I could breathe my breath would be taken. A feeling strikes my soul,

“Dad...”

Chapter Fifteen

In this chapter we’ll go back to the golden temple built by the Clovis. We will now learn about what happened to Amanda Mason after escaping certain death by the hands of Sleeping Star. Holding a torch in her right hand, she burns the rope anchoring the counter weight sealing her inside. I’ll now continue through a different perspective, continuing the story as the beautiful Amanda Mason.

The torch, nearly dying out, barely illuminates any area around me. Inside the temple, the temperature is about twenty degrees warmer than in the cave. I don’t know how I’m going to make it out of here. I can’t read this dead language, and what Hollister told me before his... well let’s just say it didn’t make any sense.

No other torches sit anywhere close to me. With little options before the untimely extinguishing of the flame, I tear off a shredded piece of my shirt and carefully wrap it around the torch to lengthen the time I have with it. The torn strip works, but it seems that it won’t sustain the quicker brighter flames for long. I quickly change shirts, to Hollister’s shirt he gave me, and keep mine to fuel the torch.

Being able to see more, I find myself standing in a hallway of immortality. Not that it will give immortality to me, but it’s given to those idolized by the gold totems etched with faces of Natives molded into them like a perfectly formed mask. There are thousands of faces on each totem, and hundreds of totems. Pain shutters deep in my gut, nearly dropping me to my knees. I say out loud in angered pain,

“I wish these fucking cramps would stop. This hasn’t been a good time for this shit. My head hurts, I’m cold, and I feel like I’m bleeding to death.”

Day three has always been the worse for me ever since I was ten, when this blessed curse began. Without it, I couldn’t give life. During the days I have it, I feel like I’m dying.

Walking down the long corridor, I find myself nearing the opening of the temple. At the opening, a small set of golden stairs lead to a torch. The torch rests inside a hole on a partial gold wall standing only five feet tall. Lighting the torch just before mine fully dies out again, it exposes an oil pit sitting between two gold walls.

Taking the torch and lighting the oil, a four foot flame races down the center. The flame suddenly drops down, like it’s reached a dead end. As I walk towards where the flames stop, I become astonished at what resembles a domino effect with flames dropping a minimum of forty feet further into the ground.

The temple is beginning to light in a bright orange glow, and I stand in amazement. A feeling beleaguers me,

“I don’t know how much air is left in here, and now it’ll burn up faster. The smoke pouring from the flames is already choking my breath from me.”

The flames continually move exposing a monstrosity of a labyrinth. Knowing there’s only one way out now, I follow the left wall where it’s plain and smooth. I adore the ancient mural that covers the entire right side from a distance.

Walking up to a T in this labyrinth, I continue to chose the wall that looks to have been rubbed smooth by hand through time. I try to remain strong and not move astray, but the finely etched murals make it nearly impossible. Deep down inside I feel that the beautiful wall will lead me to my death. So I continue to follow my path religiously, digging deep into my soul to not move astray.

What seems like hours of endless walking, the golden walls begin to hypnotize my eyes blending the two nearly together. Becoming leary, thousands of voices echo to my right, sounding like a congregation. Thinking out loud,

“People are alive down here! I got to see if they can help me get out of this place before I die.”

Drifting away from the left wall, cracking and rumbling sounds from underneath my feet. Two four feet by four feet gold blocks fall swiftly below. Looking down while falling, giant pikes line the bottom killing anyone who falls including myself. Just before my final breath, of this thirty feet drop of death, a mystical force of clouds surrounds my body and carries me out.

High above the labyrinth flames I float, moving to the right side of this identical maze of disorientation. The congregation of voices flow from within these clouds, but I can’t understand a word they’re saying due to them being muffled down below a whisper. They softly lay me down between two flaming gold walls. Quickly flowing in front of me, they disappear behind a giant wall made from a mirror.

The wall looks to be as tall as the temple, but the reflection is flawless giving the impression of an endless labyrinth. I don’t think man can craft something like this even with modern technology. Ducking down, I crawl through a three foot doorway. Inside is too dark for me to see. Only a slight glow is given through the flames from the doorway.

Crawling back out, a blue glowing spirit stands proudly in Knight’s armor. Stunned and shocked, profanity leaves my lips as I back up into the room.

“Fuck... what the hell is this shit? What in the world are you?”

The spirit speaks in the manner of a guardian,