Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) (27 page)

stairs, stairs!” He was sure that this would get him out of
here. Peering further up the curved stairway, he saw that it
was absolutely black up there.

“I have to go,” he thought. He looked back at the cavern and the
glowing platform across the way, trying to think of anything he may bring
as a weapon.
Nothing.

Jan had no choice. He had to go up that narrow, low-ceilinged stonecut stairway in pitch black. He slowly made his way up the stairway. He
stopped and listened for any noises ahead, and there were none.
That’s a
good thing.
Step by step he went up. After twenty minutes of climbing, he
wanted to stop and catch his breath, but could not.

“I’ve got to see how this ends,” he said to himself. He continued, and
found that the spiral stairway was no longer rock.
“This smells like iron,” Jan said. It was iron, he realized, as he
dragged his weight ever upwards. About ten minutes later, he saw a dim
light coming from above him in the staircase. “Light!”
Jan’s pace quickened and in no time he found himself looking out
from an iron shaft, and he was over two hundred feet from the ground.
“Hello!” he yelled, hoping for the remote chance that someone might
be out there. He hollered for a while, and stopped to listen.
Do I hear
something? My contiss!
“Karot!” he yelled, “Karot!” He definitely heard contiss footsteps
down below coming his way.
“Jan!” he heard from the other side of the iron shaft.
It’s Buz! What’s he doing here?
“Buz!” Jan shouted, “I’m up here!”
Buz came riding around the corner of the iron shaft, and Jan started
laughing. “He has no idea! Nobody ever looks up,” Jan chuckled to himself.
He looked and found little loose pieces of the shaft sitting beside him. He
picked one up and threw it towards Buz. It was a great shot, beaning Karot on
the back of her hind end, and Karot reared up, throwing Buz off her.
Himself startled, Jan yelled out, “Hey, I didn’t mean to do that buddy.”
Buz got up, and looked around again. He was OK.
Jan laughed some more. “Buz, I’m up here!”
Buz finally started looking upwards, and after a moment spotted Jan’s
arm waving out of the iron shaft above.
“What the hell are you doing up there?” Buz hollered. Then Buz
followed with, “
How
the hell did you get up there?”
“I came up from inside it! Listen, I’ll tell you later,” Jan yelled back.
“Go ask Winoni to come here. He’s got a big ladder to build!” Then he
remembered the book he had been carrying. It had become wet, and when
he opened it now, the pages were much more fragile, and tore easily.
“Wait!”
Buz stopped his actions to mount the contiss, and looked up.
Jan hollered, “Be careful with this! Give it to Dr. Scrib, and tell him
and Jasma to come down here. Bring Ziba, too!” Jan tossed the book
down to Buz, and it bounced hard off the ground. The cover and a few
pages came off, but it was otherwise intact.
Buz mounted the contiss, and he heard, “Wait!” once again from
above. He looked up. “What?” he yelled.
“Bring flashlights and be ready to swim!” Jan shouted.
Buz thought about asking why, but he wanted to get up there and see
this himself. He couldn’t do it without Winoni. “OK,” he yelled back, and
left in a hurry.
Buz rode Karot back to town, and found Winoni and the others. He
showed the book to Dr. Scrib, who declared that the book was an
exceedingly ancient treasure.
Since Dr. Kalep was with him at the time, he came along, too. They
both appeared to be very excited.
After Buz described the lean of the shaft and how high Jan was in the
shaft, Winoni gathered his main crew, and loaded up a wagon with the
equipment and supplies they would need to build a ladder of sorts.
Rebecca and Jasma came along too. Martha was out helping with the
developing mines, and did not know what was happening. Rachel stayed
home with Jo.
It took a couple of hours to fabricate the ladder on site. It required
braces because of its height. When completed, they all climbed it to the
entry in which Jan was waiting.
They followed Jan down the staircase, but this time they were carrying lights.
On the way down, Jan asked Buz, “Why were you out here in the first
place?”
Buz answered, “Karot came to town without you, and when I asked
Rachel, she said you went fishing. I know you fish out this way, but Karot
pretty much led the way.”
Jan smiled to himself, “Good old Karot, she’s a keeper.”
As they continued down the staircase, Jan described the cavern and
the containers. The people with him could not contain their excitement.
“A well-preserved Platac!” Dr. Kalep exclaimed with glee, “This is
wonderful!”
Dr. Scrib almost fell down the stairs a number of times because he
was trying to read the book Buz had delivered.
Once they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, those with Jan quickly
realized that Jan was not kidding about the swim. Nothing was going to
stop any of them now, and they all went into the water to swim across to
the dry area.
Rebecca froze. She just stood there on the ledge, looking. She had
become silent as they descended the stairs, and now, seemed to be in
some kind of shock.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jan, as he stood there with her, watching
the others swim across.
“I don’t — I don’t know,” Rebecca stammered. She had a look of fear
on her face. “This place makes me feel so sad.” She looked at Jan and
asked, “Why?” with a searching look on her face. “Why do I feel this
way? It’s so weird. It’s the way I felt when we first entered the city.”
“Just come over and look,” said Jan. “It’s OK, there’s nothing down
here to hurt us.”
Rebecca reluctantly followed the others, swimming with Jan. When
they got to the other side, Dr. Scrib was already surveying the bookstand,
and Dr. Kalep was studying the sarcophagus.
Winoni and his crew were marveling at the technology. “Don’t touch
any buttons!” Winoni barked to everyone there. “This is some kind of
suspended animation system. These items have not aged one bit!” After
studying the magnetic iron shafts, he said, “I think these folks found a
way to power all this from these shafts! The energy field gives off this
light here.”
“Come here!” Dr. Kalep called to Jasma, “You’ve got to see this!”
Jan and Rebecca went over to the sarcophagus as well, Jan saying,
“Look at this guy,” to Rebecca.
As they approached the sarcophagus, Rebecca took hold of Jan’s arm,
digging her fingers into it. As they looked into the glass top, Rebecca
shrieked, and fell on the sarcophagus, crying uncontrollably. She looked
at the corpse in the sarcophagus one more time, then turned and ran away,
and started vomiting at the water’s edge.
Jasma and Jan followed Rebecca, perplexed at what had happened. So
was Rebecca. She sat down at the edge of the water, shaking with emotion.
Jan sat next to her and put his arm around her, “It’s all right, nothing’s
wrong here, Rebecca. What’s happening? Why are you like this?”
“I don’t know,” Rebecca howled. “I have to get out of here!” She
gritted her teeth. “I can’t stay here.”
“OK,” said Jan. “We’re not going to stay for that long.”
Rebecca twisted around to look at the sarcophagus again, and looking
at Jan, she replied, “I’ve got to leave,
now
.” She then dove into the water,
and started swimming.
Jan stood up, looking at her. “What was that all about?’ he asked
himself, and then looked at Jasma, who was standing there perplexed as
well.
Jasma shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head. “I don’t know, but
she’ll be OK, this place
is
a bit spooky.”
Jan watched as Rebecca made her way across the small, trapped lake.
She got out onto the ledge, waved to them and said, “I’ll see you when
you come back!” and made her way up the stairs.
Jan abruptly turned his attention to Dr. Kalep who had suddenly
shouted, “Scrib! Get over here!”
He also went over to see what Dr. Kalep had found.
Sitting there were two thick notebooks in their own container, completely made of glass
—
the top book was larger than the one beneath it.
Their container was sitting upon another much larger container, about
waist-high. Dr. Scrib came over, and they opened the top container that
held the books. Dr. Scrib removed the top book, opened it, and started
translating it aloud for the others there —
“Whoever finds this book, in this temple, is blessed. I am Natchu,
King and Chief Priest of the Platac Nation. Our faith is in the order of
Milchexidike of the Cathaws. This sacred temple has always remained
hidden from the world of death above. Everything you see in this room
has been, or soon will be, eliminated from the surface of D’ot by the
Mortiks…”
Dr. Kalep interrupted Scrib, apparently disturbed, “The Mortiks were
us, the Aletians, about five or six thousand years ago. They also had
another race in the Mortik nation then, the Tomaks.”
Dr. Scrib looked at Kalep as if, “Are you done?” then continued —
“I Natchu, seeing what has happened, and been shown what is to
come, have prepared and preserved these creations for the return of the
El’j — the White Dragon. It has been given for me to see, and the El’j will
bring this treasure to the surface again.”
Dr. Scrib stopped, and said, “What does that mean?”
Jasma gave Jan a curious look, and said to Dr. Scrib, “We can find
out much more about the White Dragon in the bookcase, I’m sure. Please
continue, Dr. Scrib.”

“You will be ignorant about these items in this room. Do not open any —
life units — until you read this entire book, unless directed to do so.”
Dr. Scrib looked at those around him, and read on —
“
This book’s container is sitting upon another, much larger container. You may now open that container, and observe what is in it. It is
something that the violent and oppressed ones in our world can use in
order to break through the negative, and begin to learn peace. It is a
means, not an end. As a medicine for many ailments, it will become
indispensible. As a plentiful, renewable source of clothing, building
materials, and papyr, it is unequaled. As a supplemental food, it has no
match.
“As a brain-altering substance, this one is physically forgiving to
leave when the lesson is learned.
“This is Kana Bosm, it opens the way of peace and love to those who
know it not, those who fear it, avoid it, and those who have forgotten it. It
is not necessary for those few who have already found peace, but helpful
for the many who have not. It quiets the reptile, leaving trapped minds
open to expand for a while. Always remember, it is a means, not an end. A
clear mind that chooses peace, truth, and harmony with our Creator, this
is the end. God is sober, and He is the standard.
“The unbalanced or self-destructive soul will not be satisfied with
kana bosm. Such a personality will be overtly drawn to sedation, such as
excessive alcohol or the death march of n’o, and that person will abuse
the kana bosm. Because of its perceived innocence, kana bosm can
become a habitual part of one’s life, which is not the goal.
These issues are most properly addressed in the ‘Parenting Laws’,
which our people have refined over many generations. I have outlined
them here in their entirety. We could not escape these problems, and you
will not either. We must however confront them correctly in order to have
expanding lives available for all of us, without repressive laws and
penalties.
I have placed this here to be demonstrated first, so that you may know
the value of this room, and so that you will pay utmost attention to the
following instructions in this book.
This will begin to help to overcome your reptilian nature, and see
another way. The violence will decrease among those people who don’t
listen to anything else. This gift confuses the dragon for a short time, and
that is why it is I place it first before you.”
They were all looking at the container with the kana bosm in it, in
wonder.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Dr. Kalep stated, as he peered
into the glass top with the lights and buttons on the upper panel on it.
Dr. Scrib continued translating once again.
“You may consume kana bosm in food, but this limited quantity can
be used most efficiently by burning a tiny amount, and inhaling the
smoke.”
“What?” Jasma exclaimed. “What’s he talking about? Breathing in
smoke? These people were very primitive.”
“How can you say that?” barked Dr. Kalep, “Look around you! Does
this technology look crude?”
“Still,” Jasma retorted, “I’ve never heard of such a thing, we have
plenty of drugs to help us relax.”
“And they are all physically addictive!” Kalep retorted.
“I’ll try!” offered Buz.
Jan looked at Buz, and said to Dr. Kalep, “Why don’t we open the
container?”
Dr. Scrip interrupted and said, “Let me finish with this part,” and he
went on.
“The two jars that you find inside the larger container of kana bosm
‘kynds’ are to be used as medicines. The larger jar has ‘pikas’ that were
freshly placed. Please remove that jar, open it, and pull out a pika.”
They removed the container that held the two books from the top of
the large main one it was sitting on. Then they opened the top of the main
container holding the kana bosm, to get at the big jar referred to in the
book. Inside, and underneath the two jars, the main container was full of
round, fluffy-looking green things, about two to three inches long, and
over one inch around. Those standing there all gasped as the fragrance of
something amazingly rich and wonderful filled their nostrils.
Jasma looked like she was in a trance. “That is the most beautiful —
it’s, it’s — a perfume from heaven!” and she bent down, close to the open
canister in order to inhale the aroma wholly. Tears came to her eyes, “I
have never smelled anything — anything —” She couldn’t finish. Jasma
turned, and looked at the others pleadingly, “We can’t burn this!”
As the fragrance filled the area, one of the machinists with Winoni
snickered, “That smells like a skint!” A few of the other fellows started
laughing and nodding their heads in agreement.
After a few more remarks, they removed the big jar sitting upon the
kana bosm, and opened it. It had layers of thin green pikas, about three to
five inches long. They were thin, flexible, and obviously had moisture in
them. They were sticky. Their smell was different from the odiferous
dried lighter green things that filled the rest of the huge container. The
pikas had jagged edges and each pika came to a point on one end, and on
the opposite end became a firm thin little rod. After handling them, their
fingers smelled strongly of them.
Once they examined these, Dr. Scrib continued.
“These should be in the same state as when they were harvested, and
should be fresh. They are useful for healing stomach ailments, and for
treating other digestive problems which are prevalent in our world.”
“You can say that again,” said Dr. Kalep, whose old stomach was
rotting away.
Dr, Scrib looked up, and said, “It says,
“Chew on five pekas per day.”
Dr. Kalep popped one in his mouth immediately, and started chewing
on it. “It is — very tingly — hot, like nako, and well, I’ve never tasted
anything like it.” He continued chewing, and said, “It’s, it’s — disgusting!”
He started laughing, and the others did as well. But he didn’t spit it out.
Dr. Scrib then continued —
“Now, remove the smaller jar from the container. This is an ointment,
extracted from the kana bosm kynds. This is a great helper with the scale
diseases that our people often experience. There are many different types
of peta ‘sipas’ in this temple that will grow into healthy, diseasepreventing foods, which will help prevent sores from forming at all.”
They all looked at each other in astonishment, and most started reflexively scratching their sores.
“A cure for these sores?” asked Winoni, skeptically.
Jasma said, “Dr. Scrib, please continue.”
“The last thing in the container, which fills most of it, comes from the
top of the kana bosm peta. These we call ‘kynds’. These are what you
make smoke, medicines, teas, and ointments from.”
Dr. Scrib continued —
“The sipas in this room are all labeled on their containers. A container of kana bosm sipas is to the left of the kana bosm container.”
Jan was standing in that spot, and said, “He must have meant this
container of little stones,” and they all looked. Jan said, “These stones
must be the ‘sipas’. They look the pretty much the same as what’s in most
the other containers in here.”
Dr. Scrib went on reading.
“In the rest of this book, I will tell you exactly how to do this for
yourselves. I have supplied you with sipas for many different petas. I will
instruct on you how to prepare the ground. You will put these sipas in the
specially prepared ground, give them water, and they will all grow into
tall green petas. There is a limited supply here, and you must not make
mistakes”.
“This container is just a sample of the rewards awaiting you if you
follow my instructions, with no deviation from them.”
Dr. Scrib stopped, and looked around him at everyone. “I think he’s
talking about raising green animals — from the ground! From these little
stones! That’s crazy! These must be pieces of those animals.” He was
becoming a little woozy, dropping his head and shaking it.
Winoni chimed in, “Maybe they’re eggs!”
Dr. Scrib was a thin, bespeckled, private fellow. All this attention and
the bewildering information were getting to be too much for him. “Why
don’t we take a break?” Dr. Scrib suggested. “I can take this book back
with me to the city, before it becomes dark, and my secretary can type it
out as I translate it to her there.” He looked at the big book in his hands,
and lightly ran his fingers along the top of it. “Let me spend some time
with this, and do it right.”
Winoni spoke up, “He’s absolutely correct. That ‘Natchu’ priest was
right on target, too. We should read everything and touch nothing without
knowing what it is.”
“He told us about the kana bosm!” Buz piped up.
Nobody said anything.
“Let’s take it with us!” Buz persuaded, and Dr. Kalep said, “Well,
Natchu gave us permission to go this far, we should be able to take some
of it back with us, along with the book.”
They all agreed, and then they discussed the ‘peace’ spoken of. The
mention of love was equally intriguing. They decided to leave for the day,
taking samples of the kynd, the jar of ointment, and some fresh pikas.
These items and the book would stay in the safekeeping of the LERN
leadership.
Since Dr. Scrib saw the water damage to the fragile first book Buz
had come to town with, he had brought a watertight container in order to
safely bring more books out. They were able to put all the items into the
same container, with the exception of the sizeable jar of ointment, which
was already well sealed when closed again.
After swimming across the water, they all made their way up the
stairs, then back down the stairs outside. Aware of the treasure in the
temple, Winoni was concerned about looters. He had the supplies there to
have his crew fabricate a heavy door for the entrance to the iron shaft at
the top of the stairs. He would put a lock on later. They all agreed to keep
this information confidential for now and then left for the city.
The top floors of the hotel had the most security, as each floor had
their own network of supporters of the particular LERN leader. They
decided that one of the upper floors was the safest place for their bounty.
Jan was the only LERN leader that lived outside of the hotel.
Jan and Buz said goodbye to the others, and as they went back to the
apartment building, Buz pulled a big kynd out of his pocket, grinned at
Jan, and holding it out in his hand said, “Hey brother, want some peace?”
Jan turned his head, and saw the kynd that Buz had managed to snag
from the container. He smiled, surprised, but unexpectedly happy that
Buz had done it.
“I need some peace, brother,” Jan responded with a grin, and they
both went down to Jan’s apartment. They passed by some people on the
way home, and heard one say, “Does you smell a skint?” They both
started laughing their tails off.
Once down in Jan’s apartment, they found all three of the females in
the living room. They had been sitting there and talking about the newly
discovered temple. The baby was sleeping in Rachel’s room.
“What’s that smell?” Martha asked, not long after they entered the
living room.
Jan and Buz filled the girls in on what had happened after Rebecca
left. They got to the subject of the kana bosm, and the kynd they had, and
Rachel said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s try it!”
Buz pulled the kynd out of his pocket, and the girls were amazed at
the pungent odor emitted by such a thing.
Martha was concerned, “It might be poisonous. What an alien odor!”
“No,” Rebecca said, “It’s not poisonous.”
“How can you be so sure?” Martha asked, mainly because Rebecca
was not usually sure of anything.
“Because — I — I was there!” Rebecca said. Rebecca then faded
again towards the condition she was in when she first came back from the
temple.
Martha shook her head. After seeing the state Rebecca returned in,
she was distrustful of the “temple” they were talking about.
“We’re going to try it,” Jan said, much to the relief of Buz.
Jan, Buz, and Rachel went over to the stove. They discussed it for a
bit, and decided to crush some on a pan, heat it over the stove, and see
what happened. They did this and eventually smoke started rising, and
they pulled the pan off the stove. They took turns, putting their heads over
the smoke that was rising, inhaling it, and they heard Rebecca say, “That
smells wonderful!” from where she and Martha were now standing,
watching from the kitchen’s entrance.
After a few turns, Rebecca and Martha saw the other three grinning at
each other, and observing them, Rebecca looked at Martha and said, “I
want to try! You try too!”
Martha sighed, and asked, “Jan, what do you feel like?”
Jan looked at her and smiled and said, “I feel like —” and his eyes
stared at hers as he was looking for the right words. “I feel like I want to
daydream.”
“Well, daydreaming is not good!” Martha retorted.
Jan looked at her with a bit of surprise, and said, “That’s the NOV
talking. This is — this is good, I think. Come over here and let me know
what you think. I don’t feel bad, do you two?”
Rachel had lost the point of the conversation, and Buz just shook his
head in agreement because he wanted to see Jan’s mom get high. He
never thought about it until now, but Jan’s mom was pretty hot.
Martha shrugged her shoulders and said to Rebecca, “What the hell,
they don’t seem to be suffering,” and they joined the other three as they
were getting another batch ready for their new takers.
After passing around the smoking pan with the Martha and Rebecca
now, Rachel came up with the idea of playing some music. Martha got it
going, and then she brought out some splint cheese that she had procured
from the successfully expanding splint farm. Along with bread, it served
for something quick to eat. Then they ended up dancing, with Buz paying
almost too much attention to Martha.
In the midst of this, Jan had the urge to go upstairs and outdoors. The
elevator that Winoni recently had operating was broken down again, so he
had to walk up the four floors of stairs. When he arrived outside, there
was a cool breeze blowing from the west as usual, but it felt different.
Everything felt different. Jan’s perspective was different. For now,
different was better.