Blood and Sand (10 page)

THE END

23

“A who?” I ask. “What’s a who?”

“The End is the who,” Kane says.

“Who’s end?”

“The End’s,” he replies.

“I’m confused,” Omar says shaking his head.

“Who’s The End, Kane?” Nicole asks getting back on course.

“The fourth elder,” Kane answers.

“Oh…crap,” I mutter.

Kane quickly retells the legend of the four elders and its significance to where we are standing and why I’m not too excited.

“So some archaic senior-citizen wanted to enslave or destroy the world and his buddies didn’t like it,” I say wrapping up the book club-like discussion.

“When the fourth elder left his
order
he changed his name to, The End of All Things, and vowed vengeance on the others,” Kane says. He finds a spot clear of debris and body parts and sits down. He takes a healthy swig from his water valve and sighs.

“The End, along with the other elders were supposed to have special abilities, if you believe in that sort of thing. He, in particular, was supposed to be able to control the elements around the world. Earth, air, water, fire and what not.”

“Water and air?” I ask and relay the events on our flight over. Things are starting to fall into place, things I didn’t think were possible.

“So are we to assume the spouts were this End-person trying to stop the Boyd’s from getting here and the lightning was the three elders keeping him at bay?” Omar asks with a look of what looks like wonder on his face.

I shrug again, feeling a little disturbed by the gleam in his eyes, “I guess so, but at least someone is on our side in this supernatural circus.” There is some weird crap going on, but it all has to be connected. I can sense it.

Kane stands back up and dusts himself off.

“Why do you think The End hasn’t shown his face more over the years?” I ask staring back up at the ominous warning.

“Who says he hasn’t?” Kane replies.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“If this guy can control the elements of the entire globe…who says he hasn’t influenced major storms and other natural disasters over the years. Would it shock you if we find out that the Tsunami that wiped out a large chunk of Indonesia was caused by him?”             

Silence fills the eerie tomb entrance again, but thankfully not for long.

“So, now what?” Omar asks.

Good question
, I think.
What the hell do we do?

Without much of an answer to give, I say the only thing I can, “What we’re here to do. We head in the direction of the Tassili mountains and see where it takes us.” I turn around and look at Dad, “What direction?”

He pulls out a compass and checks it, “The Tassili’s are northeast of our current location.”

“Fine, northeast it is,” I say. “Kane, would you mind?”

He ejects his magazine, checks it and slams it home. It seems to be a thing with him.

“Okay everyone, eyes forward, weapons at the ready and safeties off. Keep your barrels pointed away from each other. Let’s not have an accident down here, alright?”

We all nod.

“Hank, up front with me. Dr. Boyd and Omar behind us.” He glances over to Nicole, “And you and the
boys
…guard our rears.” He gives her a smile like he just told the best joke ever.

She stares daggers into him not finding anything humorous, but Kane doesn’t budge.

I laugh, but get cut off when her cold stare turns to me.

Not funny.

I, unlike Kane, melt under her gaze, “Please?”

She rolls her eyes at us, drawing her other Ruger, and files in.

Kane turns and faces northeast towards our objective.

“Okay, let’s move.” He takes a step and pauses, turning back to us, “But, if a mummy or something jumps out at me, I’m gone. Back up the hole.”

24

The next hour dragged by with nothing out of the ordinary happening. The tunnel wound back and forth like crazy which caused a distance of about a mile to actually measure out to be closer to five. I have also noticed that we’ve been moving ever so slightly downhill, deeper underground.

Thankfully, the ambient temperature below the surface was considerably cooler than the surface. “Quite comfortable,” as Dad put it. Kane and Nicole were the only ones to still have their weapons drawn, although Nicole did holster one of her two Rugers.

The walls kept our attention off of the time and monotony of the hike.

“The inscriptions and pictographs are incredible! I’ve never seen anything like it before!” Dad exclaims. He has been so focused on the very ornate carvings in the tunnel walls that we sometimes catch him stopping and reading them. We had to forcibly drag him away from them once or twice already.

“Dr. Boyd,” Kane says. “We need to keep moving. We don’t have a lot of time—”

“Give him a second would you?” I interrupt. “This is why we’re here after all.”

Kane relents and I join my father and add my light to his. Nicole and Omar aid in as well, doubling the view. We light up a section of wall that most definitely has a very large pictograph etched into it.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It’s a battle…I think?” Dad says. “Omar, would you mind getting a few photos?”

Omar steps up and pulls out his very expensive looking Nikon and starts snapping some pictures. His flash lights up the room twice as good as our flashlights do.

When the first flash blooms, it causes my eyes to dilate. In turn I get a little light headed too. I grab the wall—the one with the intense combat—for support. As I make contact with the wall I black out and start seeing strange visions.

FLASH!

Lightning, raining fire, like a volcano erupting and a blizzard, together.

FLASH!

A tall man in what looks like black robes is in the middle of it all, hands outstretched. He calls to the elements, beckoning them to listen.

FLASH!

Three others, also hands outstretched, try to block the onset. Then I see them, people…thousands of them, fleeing from the maelstrom at the coast.

FLASH!

I let go and fall to the ground, panting.

Dad rushes to me, “Harrison! What happened?”

“I…I don’t know. I just touched the wall and…”

I open my eyes and look up at the picture. It’s exactly the same, the three trying to stop the one. I actually saw glimpses of the final battle that destroyed this lost civilization.

That doesn’t solve the issue of what I’m going to tell the others though. If I tell them, they’ll think I’m nuts. I’ll give it some time to stew and come back to it later. Maybe, I’ll have more answers then. Either way, this place is starting to give me a really bad feeling. Unfortunately, I think this was just the tip of the iceberg too.

“It’s fine. I’m good. I’m just tired and my nerves are still shot from the fall. It may have just been my shocked system telling me I need some rest.”

Dad helps me stand, “It has been a rough couple of days.”

I step back like nothing happened and do my leader thing.
  

“Omar, can you leave your flash on?” I ask. “I think I saw something else.”

Omar backs up as far as he can and turns on his flash. The wall is now in perfect view and it’s incredible. The detail is so in depth that it looks like it was drawn on a sheet of paper, not scribed into a wall.

“Whoa,” Kane says from behind us. “Is that…”

“The elders,” I say. “Locked in battle with a fourth. It also helps us understand where the legend came from—a starting point at least.”

“What’s he doing?” Nicole asks pointing to the forth elder.

Dad and I creep closer to further analyze the mural. It shows three figures fending off a fourth individual. The fourth has his hands up to the sky as if calling to it. Lightning rains down on the other three combatants along with fire and ice.

“Geez, this guy is bringing the kitchen sink,” Kane says.

You have no idea,
I think to myself, replaying the vision I just had.

“What does this have to do with kitchen sinks?” Nicole asks.

“It’s uh…nothing. It’s just a figure of speech,” Kane replies trying not to laugh. “It means he’s bringing everything he’s got to the party.”

“And then some,” Dad adds still in awe of the artistry on display. I don’t blame him either. What’s even more amazing is that this image is roughly three-to-four thousand years old—maybe older.

“This also leads credence to the belief that at least one of the elders had control over the elements. Just like the legend says,” Dad says in a trance-like state. “Plus, you have to assume that the other three had some talents of their own if they are trying to stop him.”

“Um, guys? There’s more,” Nicole says.

She’s turned around facing the other wall, behind Omar. Dad pulls Omar away from the wall and forcibly spins him to face the opposite side of the tunnel.

Wow.

These sets of images are a little more light hearted than the epic battle now behind us. It shows agricultural advancements, water travel in ancient ships and elaborate palaces. All of which is on an island, set into a massive body of water, but with a coast off in the distance.
Maybe the Sahara before it dried up?
I think. It also curiously shows
four
people at the center of the ringed island joined hand-in-hand in celebration.

“It’s…Atlantis,” I say in a whisper.

We just stare and marvel at the sight. This is the first ever concrete evidence of the ancient island nation. No one says a word. What do you say when you discover something as significant as this?

“So, what happened to this place?” Kane asks almost saddened.

Dad and I look up at him and then each other.

“Some say a storm wiped out the island,” Dad replies. “Others say it was a volcano that erupted. Some others say an underwater earthquake sank it.

“No one really knows…” I add.

“Yet,” Nicole finishes.

I smile and nod slightly.

Dad straightens, “Because WE are going to find out!”

The moral is high and the mood is light…until the ground rumbles and shakes like we’re in that volcano. Everyone stops and nobody breathes, five seconds later the shaking stops and we collect ourselves.

“Alright everyone, let’s get moving,” I say, glancing at the nervous faces around me. The words are empty. I’m officially scared shitless, but need to be strong for everyone else—or at least pretend it to be. The worst part is that we will be moving
towards
the rumbling, but I decide to keep that nugget of truth to myself.                

We all start on our way except for one of us.

“Keep moving Dr. Boyd,” Kane orders. “They’ve been here this long, I think they’ll be here on our way back through.”

Dad wants to, but doesn’t fight the big man’s logic. It’s like a paleontologist finding a dinosaur skeleton and being afraid it won’t be there tomorrow. 

“So, do we have any idea what to expect once we reach
wherever
we are going?” Omar asks from the middle of the pack.

“I have some theories, but nothing concrete,” I say. The truth is every hypothesis I have going on in my head feels like it should be in a screenplay for a low-budget sci-fi movie. I’m not even sure I even have a
real
supposition to speak of, just my imagination coming up with anything related to our location.

“Honestly, I’m not sure myself what to expect,” Dad answers truthfully. “All we have to go on is exactly that, theory.” He says looking at me. “None of which has ever been actually proven.”

“Hold up,” Kane says.

I join him at the front of the line, quiet as a mouse.

“What is it?” I ask softly, barely a whisper. All I can see is that towards the end of the beam of my head lamp the floor gives way, or at the very least slopes down. It’s hard to tell from our vantage point either way.

Kane puts his index finger up to his lips, the universal sign for
shut up
, then points to his ear. I don’t hear anything. Then I hold my breath and close my eyes. In the utter darkness and calmness of nothingness I hear it.

“Is that…water?” I ask still staying quiet.

“Sure sounds like it to me, maybe an underground river?” Kane says. “Have the others follow behind you slowly, stay about ten feet behind me just in case.” He pulls out a secondary LED flashlight, about the size of a standard Maglite and clicks it on. Our view doubles and we see an opening 30 feet or so in front of us.

Kane holds his flashlight with his left hand, palm down and crossed in front of his chest. In his right hand he has his gun positioned directly above it. He creeps forward as if he’s holding a medieval shield in front of him ready to battle a fiery dragon except, his
sword
has a very different type of bite. 

We group up behind him and carefully make our way towards the unknown. No one speaks. We keep our footing as soft as possible, which is easy considering the ground is perfectly smooth, like the finest marble floors in the world. I wish I had more time in this place to look around.

The tunnel’s exit is just ahead, maybe another ten feet. We are about to cross the threshold into the next chapter of our journey when Kane holds up a closed fist, signaling for us to stop.             

“Hank, would you mind?” Kane asks in a hushed tone.

I step up next to him, “What did you find—” I can’t fully get the question out. In front of me is something I thought I’d never find here in this place. All the speculation surrounding Atlantis has been completely thrown out the window. This is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen, but also one of the most shocking.

Taking in what I can see from where we’re standing, I can’t think of anything else to say except, “We’re screwed.”