Ch. 4: Questions Answered

Masuda

    Takeshi was wandering through the dark halls of the temple desperately searching for a place to stay for the night. After such a lousy hunt and a close brush with death, he wasn’t looking forward to any more surprises for the rest of the night. Although happy to have found such a dirigible in the middle of nowhere, he did not seem to like his surroundings.

"This place is very creepy."

A brisk chill ran up his spine as the wind blew through each corridor filling him with fear. Aisle after aisle all Takeshi could see were more and more hallways each darker than the next. "There’s no end to this place." He thought. He began to think back to when he and Jinnai used to take martial arts classes together; they always did everything together whether it was laughing, fighting, or even shedding tears, it was always together. It seemed as if Jinnai was his security blanket, someone to lean on when times were hard.

But he’s not here now. Just the darkness surrounding him like a blanket and swallowing him whole.

Some comfort.

"I don’t think I can last any longer, at this rate I will die of starvation and freeze to death." Takeshi was fading fast. "I need a place to rest and quickly."

WARNING! WARNING! USER TAKESHI’S LIFE SIGNS DETERIORATING RAPIDLY WARNING!

"No shit." He thought. He wasn’t very keen on cursing all the time but since he was going to die he might as well live it up. It made him feel a little better. As he looked for shelter, he heard a familiar sound a sound he wished he would never hear again. "Oh no," he thought, "not again!" It was the creature he encountered before. He could not see where it came from, but he knew that it was coming for him. Takeshi ran for all he was worth trying to get away. The pounding of it feet increasing in sound and speed making the floor quake as it moved. Takeshi knew he had to find a place to hide now. He stopped at a hallway to gather himself, but he had to move quickly or it would be the end of him. The stress of his body started to take its toll on him as the creature was catching up. "What can I do?" he was scared. More scared than he had ever been in his entire life. He had then realized that he cannot fight back in his condition and he knew it was over for him.

"I guess this is the end for me." He thought.

"No brother, it is not over." A woman’s voice, in a haunting yet comforting manner, she said. "Follow me. I know where you can be safe. Hurry!"

The TeknoMage Clan called Takeshi many things, but "insane" was not one of them. He knew that he was not alone. In an instant, his claws were out ready to fight as his only defence.

"Just who are you? Come out and show yourself!"

A radiant figure appeared out of the air and began to descend upon him.

"Follow me. I know where you can be safe. Hurry!" she repeated.

"Why did you call me that? How do you know me?"

The image said nothing. Takeshi was getting annoyed now and began to clench his hands into fist. The image didn’t move. She then turned her back to Takeshi and moved down the hallway. "Hurry!" she said.

"Oh no you don’t." Takeshi snorted. "I don’t even know you. I’m staying right here" then the floor began to shake and he heard the creature running in his direction.

He felt a chill, not any ordinary breeze but one that seemed to send him towards an open room. He followed this feeling through twist and turns, corridor after corridor. Takeshi felt as if he was not in control of himself- like someone was a forcing him forward!

"Where am I going?" he thought.

Brittany

   "This couldn’t be any more boring." Brittany thought. " I could be at the Snu-T boutique right now." Brittany’s life was pretty basic: wake up, tag along with Gina, beat up the bad guys, go home with the gold and spend it all at the mall,

sleep, and repeat. That was pretty much her day and she was pleased to collect any treasure from any of Gina’s excavations. On every trip Brittany had met a monster, a rival or some ancient curse that Gina always unleashes – it was her job, after all.

Despite all the threats she has faced, the enemies she fought, she could never fight her boredom. "All I do is sit around and wait for Gina to trigger a trap." She mopped "Even though it’s the most fun I have all day, I wish something exciting would happen for once." Brittany sighed and pressed play on her Shockwave player.

Ryan was scanning for metals that were worth digging up in a nearby area. Realizing it was a waste of time, he decided to move on to the next room. He saw Gina and Penny were hard at work on some writing on the wall they discovered. Britanny was by herself listening to music in a corner. He’s had more fun watching paint dry and today he wouldn’t mind doing it at this moment.

"This sucks." He managed to yawn out. "I feel as if I’ve lost my passion for this line of work." Ryan waited for a response, but noticed that no one heard him. Undaunted, he continued his work. As he disappeared into the next room, Gina and Penny were making progress. "Jinkies. These markings are nothing like the ones we deciphered by the saurians two years ago. This seems to predate them by thousands of years." Gina gasps as she looks at Penny. "Do you know what this means?"

Penny nods. "We existed before the dinosaurs. We truly are the oldest species on the planet." Penny examines the wall little more. "And this proves it, the markings say that the saurians started to appear out of the primordial ooze while humans were just inventing the wheel. It’s all here."

"We just discovered a lost chapter to our history." Gina exclaimed. "Or have begun to write a new one." She smiled with excitement.

"Damn, I’m good." They thought. "Where would she be without me?"

Ryan had gone through four rooms without finding as much as a toothpick. Frustrated, he thought that he would check out one more room and go for lunch.

As usual, the room was filled with a whole lot of nothing in the first corner and pretty much the same until he saw the most unlikely sight – a computer terminal. Even more odd, it looked older than the pyramids yet as recent as a Pentium 4. Investigating the terminal further, Ryan noticed that there were no keys on the keyboard as if it was to be merely touched rather than pressed. "Finally, something interesting." He thought as he searched for the "on" switch. He waved his flashlight on the wall and his eyes widened in disbelief and confusion. On the wall was a message that had been hastily scratched in. alongside the message was the fingernails of a person being dragged away. He followed the trail and realized the trailed ended in a dark corner as if the victim was dragged into the wall. His flashlight showed him a stain that resembled blood that started from the floor into the ceiling with the trail of nails marks following the blood. Now Ryan was officially freaked out.

"GIIIINNNNNNAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

"Jinkies, what’s your problem?" Gina said in between breaths. "What’s so important that I had to run here?" Ryan pointed to the wall. " Care to explain what the hell that is?" Gina gasped in shock. "Oh my god. It’s a computer!" Ryan shook his head. "Forget that, look at the wall." Gina examined the markings, especially the blood.

After five minutes, she called for a meeting.

"I have deciphered the markings on the wall that Ryan had found and I I’m afraid that the results not only baffle me – it frightens me."

"Well," Penny said. " Don’t keep us in suspense. Out with it."

Gina cleans her glasses and continues. "Our mystery writer goes by the name of KaayPoc, a Kryn engineer that witnessed a massacre of men and women murdered by a shadow."

"A Shadow?"

"I know, it’s weird, but that’s what the message says. He probably wrote it as the killings were taking place. He most likely tried to escape after the bloodbath but fell victim to whatever attacked this place."

"So what does the message say?" Ryan asked.

"The message is basically what I just told you. Before he was killed, he left a bloody epitaph." She paused. "It said: someone please save us and: death lurks in the shadows." Brittany was confused. "So what does it all mean?" Gina shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t know, perhaps a warning for anyone who discovers it. But what really confuses me is: how do the Kryn have to do with the temple? Are they Distant Travellers?" Penny was not intimidated by the message; she dusted herself off and picked up her gear. "Whatever attacked these people shouldn’t bother us much. The creature probably was some beast that preferred the dark."

"That walked through walls?" Ryan asked. "Yeah right. How do explain that?"

Seeing that she painted herself into a corner, she tried to change the subject. "In any case, whatever it was, is probably dead; nothing can live that long." Gina gave a sigh of relief as if that was what she was waiting to hear. "I guess your right. Let’s proceed to the next room." Gina and her team of explorers gather their equipment and entered another dark hallway, not noticing the shadow that followed them from the previous room, drooling its saliva along the way.