Seasons of Heaven (20 page)

The oxygen was thin and because of Ani’s medical problems, Yann noticed he was having difficulty getting a good breath. Yann picked him up in his arms and carried him over to the side of the path to get some water. They started on their path once again and in the darkness, Yann began to slide. As he was sliding it was as if time was passing, but in slow motion. He slid until he fell flat to the ground. He had his eyes closed and when he stopped moving them, he opened them up and saw that the place they’d been in and this one were not the same.

********

If Yann had been asleep he would have recognized what happened next as simply a nightmare, but how could he call it a nightmare when he continued to stay awake? He and Ani had gone from sliding along a muddy path one minute to sitting in the four wheel drive of Yann’s parents the next. Yann was in the driver’s seat with his hands on the steering wheel. He turned his head to the right and he saw Ani, sitting in the passenger seat.

As the vehicle passed the security rail of the bridge, the glass and plastic exploded into the air and the wheels took flight. A thousand feet or more underneath the car, the water stagnated and the fall of the vehicle carried Yann and Ani away. Yann watched through the shattered window of the car, powerless to do anything but be an unwilling participant in the scene. The water was dark like an inky pool and Yann tried to scream as a huge shark jumped up out of the water with its mouth wide open. He was so paralyzed with fear that no sound came out. It was all happening in slow motion and as time dragged on Yann’s terrified heart threatened to beat out of the inside of his chest….Just as the entire scene disappeared and Yann and Ani were once again back in the cave.

“I have a headache, are you all right, Ani?” Yann asked, still shaking from the trauma of what they’d just gone through.

Ani barked and Yann went on to say, “Ok… that was terrifying, and so strange. It felt like I’ve already saw that scene... I don’t know if that was real but I heard Mummy shouting...”

Ani barked again and Yann told him, bluntly, “I am sure...”

Yann got up and looked around. There were more signs along the wall with the same writing as were on the small piece of paper that he had found. There were two of them, attached to the strings of the samurai armor. Scattered pieces of paper were all over the ground beneath the signs.

“Look Ani, more pieces of paper. Let’s pick them up and I will put them in my backpack.” He picked one up and told Ani, excitedly, “Look at this one, it is really nice...It looks like…Let me see…Like a dragon.”

He observed each piece as he picked it up, wondering what a samurai could have been doing in this cave. Is it possible that somebody else could have been there before them? There must have undoubtedly been others, Yann thought.

A sudden scream rattled the cave and sent a chill running through Yann’s body. The mysterious thing must have found them. The air in the cave became suddenly colder and the atmosphere darker. It was as if the monster was able to announce its presence even without sight or sound. Yann’s spine tingled…

Yann realized that they needed to hurry if they were going to find the stones before the creature found them.

“Let’s go, Ani!” They ventured further into the dark, moist environment of the cave until they were completely engulfed in a chilling blackness. The only light was the orange and blue flicker that danced off the torch that Yann carried, casting shadows across the ovoid shaped walls that smoothly curved to the floor.  Yann used the smooth wet walls to hold onto and Ani stepped lightly as the loose stones shifted and slipped underneath their feet with every step. The noise the rocks made underfoot echoed off of the dense stone walls and beyond that they could hear the sounds of water dripping into water. When Yann held the torch up high he could vaguely see the giant stalactites and bat roosts that loomed overhead. The walls became more covered with the strange writings, as the sounds of the water loomed closer. The journey through the cave was long and unsettling but the two adventurers pushed forward until at last coming to a body of swiftly running water. The water in the stream started with a crash and a foamy white rush where a curtain of white water washed over the rocks and dropped down into the wildly churning pool at the base of the cave. Yann stopped and surveyed the environment trying to decide what to do. The water seemed to be the only viable exit from the cave. Yann could see a small wooden boat tied up near the slick, rocky embankment. After some consideration he decided that it was their only choice. “Come Ani,” Yann told him. They stopped in front of the boat and looked around in awe of the way the cave shimmered with blue light that seemed to be suspended from the ceiling.

“The stone has to be here,” Yann said. The walls were covered with drawings of mechanisms and Yann decided that it had to be some kind of ancient workshop. Yann saw a large rock just behind them with a large puncture that opened it up so that metal or something like it could be seen from the inside.

The atmosphere suddenly got thicker and Yann knew before he saw it that the monster was close. With fear ripping through them, he and Ani got into the little boat.

“Hurry Ani! He’s right behind me.” They jumped into the boat but the monster wasn’t deterred by the water as half of it was immersed and the other half of it remained stuck to the walls. They were both shaking from the terror, but a beam of sunlight ahead beckons them like a savior. The long, slimy looking tentacles of the terrible thing were swinging around them, grasping at the air as it tried to capture them. It was almost like the arms were so far from its brain that it had a hard time controlling them. The monster was so huge, black and shapeless that if it weren’t for its terrible, glowing eyes it would have blended in with the walls of the cave. It had to be thirty feet high or more, but as large as it was, it moved quickly. Yann found himself suddenly looking into the strange orange eyes and for a second he thought he might have glimpsed something inherently human deep inside of them.

While Yann was mesmerized by the eyes, one of the long tentacles struck the boat and it was shattered to pieces. Yann was ejected and his small body was thrown against the wall of the cave and knocked into unconsciousness. As Ani plunged into the water, desperate to save his friend, Yann was scooped up by the monster and carried away. Ani swam towards the bank in a desperate hurry. He had to find his friend….

CHAPTER TWENTY

“REYNALD”

             
Reynald was an exceptional man, with extraterrestrial origins. He was a member of the Ancient People, originating from Mars. Four billion years ago they used to be a very advanced people, more advanced than the human civilization. Not much evidence still exists of their inhabitation of earth.

They had to leave Mars because of the global warming and because of the excessive consumption of combustibles. As they faced environmental degradation, the leaders decided there was no other chance of their survival but to leave the planet. The entire population of the planet couldn’t be evacuated however so the people who were chosen to go were children, pregnant women, doctors, intellectuals, architects and politicians. The other members of the community stayed on the planet and ultimately perished, suffering through volcanic explosions and glaciation.

The final explosion of the planet propelled billions of bacteria and germs into space. Some of these germs arrived to the Earth. At that time it was the only planet that was capable of developing organic forms of life. The local bacteria mixed with the extraterrestrial ones, resulting in an extraordinary richness of the ecosystem. Some mutations very likely caused the appearance of the Cro-Magnon man.

Those who fled the planet made their journey into the nearest solar system. They had enough supplies for a very long journey but they had to find a new planet before the provisions ran out. The leaders decided to stop on the blue planet “Earth”. They explored the planet and decided that they would be able to survive there and for thousands of years they made it their home. They lived simply for all of that time, rejecting all ideas of progress and technology, communing in harmony with nature and using the resources of the planet in a way that protected themselves against the animals and the difficult climate.

Very quickly, the extraterrestrials met the humans and mixed couples began to appear. The mutations of the terrestrial endemic genes met and mingled with the genes of the Ancients. By 10,000 B.C. the humans were being helped to create the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza by the extraterrestrials. They also helped them design the empire of the Mayas and the stone spheres of Costa Rica. They were all unique monuments, meant to exist for spiritual reasons and as a gigantic calendar. The refugees served to help the humans become an autonomous civilization.

As time went on, there was some dissention amongst the terrestrial peoples. Some of them wanted to stay on Earth and continue to help humans so that they wouldn’t make the same mistakes that had driven them from their own planet. Others of them wanted to quit the planet Earth and begin a new civilization somewhere else. The discourse caused a split amongst them that lasted for centuries and only worsened as the ones who advocated for leaving also tried to prohibit mixed unions, citing the disappearance of their own pure civilization.

In 5000 B.C. the birth of one man would change everything. This man was born from the last union of mixed parents. His father was an Ancient and his mother a terrestrial. They named him Reynald.

During the first years of Reynald’s existence the conditions of life on the planet were harsh. A great deluge flooded a major part of the Earth, and, among other great things it destroyed the library of Alexandria. Numerous relics and documents concerning the past of the Ancient People were lost. The flood also wiped out a huge part of the civilization. Only about thirty of the terrestrials survived. A committee was created by these survivors to ensure the continuity of helping the humans. Reynald was appointed the ambassador. He lived discreetly amongst the humans, without revealing his real nature. He was present at every important human event such as the First Council of Nicaea, the construction of the pyramids, the birth of Christ and the creation of the New Testament...He was able to do this because of the particularity of children born from the mixed union that allowed them to get old very slowly and therefore their life was almost endless.

In 860 Reynald was contacted by archbishop Agobard of Lyon. He wanted to talk to Reynald about strange appearances. He had met some small grey people and Reynald thought that they could be the extraterrestrials. He used to hear these kinds of stories from his ancestors. Then, in the 12th century, Rapa Nui became a secret place of the Ancient People. They used the place to protect their memories and their own heritage. On the island they deposited their ancient vessel and this is how the story of Heaven began. Reynald wanted Heaven to be energetically self-sufficient; he needed only the energy to put it into orbit. He wanted to create for humans a possibility to live the last moments with their beloved ones, who had died somewhat too quickly. Amongst the Ancients some people were against this project and they did all in their power to delay its achievement. In 1614 Reynald assisted the marriage of Pocahontas. This event was what confirmed his desire to build Heaven. He was also impressed by the culture of the North American Indians and he recognized some similarity with himself. His last intervention in the human culture concerned the Indian Removal Act in 1830. Reynald felt profoundly shocked by its violence and hatred. He had held onto the stones that he and Olham had so painstakingly recovered ten centuries before waiting for the time to be right. Reynald had so many reasons for wanting to create a place where kind and decent people can live in harmony forever with those that they loved, but that single event solidified his plans, absolving him of any doubt he may have carried since that long ago meeting in Gaul. He was at last able to launch Heaven in 1840 and during the first forty years everything went smoothly. Heaven was an artificial construction.

Some sort of plasmatic energy covered it, so it remained invisible to the human eye. It was placed just beneath the ozone layer. It is comprised of 65% land, 30% water and 5% of the remains of its constructors. It had numerous beaches, three types of forests, mountain ranges and dark jungles, and numerous rivers that took their source at the lagoon at the Peak of Views. There was a city of a few hundred inhabitants. It was a magical place. The stars seemed to be bigger than seen from the Earth and the light was brighter. During the rain the water filtered into the Heaven. It is stored in an enormous basin, and is used for the city and for the vegetation. However, if it becomes too plentiful it has to be emptied. A special system was put into place for that. In the north-west portion of Heaven, a big white room with a small metallic cord exists. The cord can be pulled to release some of the water. The constructors used it only when Heaven was positioned above the oceans.

There was also an exit door built in. It was named “Infinite Field”. Those were vast golden fields with a door frame in the center that could be activated by the system of keys/towers. The constructors made this system that was quite simple in theory. One had to put two irradiated stones on two towers. Then the towers would enter the ground and the energy created by this movement made a little hole in the infinite field, in the middle of the door frame. Only at this moment would it be possible to see the beloved persons, waiting at the other side for the great journey through the four seasons. The chosen ones would travel through winter, spring, summer and fall and as they did, the awareness… that they existed with on Earth slowly evolved into something more brilliant….an incredible level of consciousness that would allow them to exist beyond the expiration of the body they had inhabited on Earth. When not used, the towers sunk into the ground and to activate them one had to go down to the caves and move two irradiated stones first. This elaborate system was a safety measure so that the passage may be used only for the chosen ones.