Lovers of Babel (26 page)

“Let’s start digging.”

We began to paw at the sand like eager tigers searching for a meal. The shots of H2O revived our energy. The sun was getting lower in the sky.

The triangle began to grow into a structure. The
further we dug the more we were convinced that this was a buried building. I decided to dig further out away from the triangle while Chad dug near it. Suddenly, I heard Chad gasp. I ran over to him and looked down toward the triangle only to see that the sand was beginning to cave in. Chad must’ve found a hollow spot.

Sand began to pour into the cavity like water. It started caving
in faster and faster as the structure revealed itself. Suddenly, the sand all around us began to cave. We needed to run.

“Run
, Sage! This thing is about to give way!”

We tried to run towards the opposite direction, but the sand under our feet was pulling us backward. It seemed like we were running in place and not making any progress.
We began to frantically pull at the sand with our hands while pushing up with our feet. I looked over my shoulder and saw two pillars forming.

We were getting closer to the hollow of the building. I looked down into the hole that was forming and realized the fall would be deadly.

“Let’s try to leap!”

Chad
grabbed my hand and we leaped as far as we could away from the structure. We were able to jump a few feet away. We kept jumping until the sand underneath us was solid.

We plopped down in utter exhaustion. The structure that was forming from under the sand put us in shock. We watched as the two pillars grew to four and then behind the four
was another set and another until there were twelve pillars holding up the triangle roof. Then there were windows and a balcony.

“This looks so familiar, but I can’t seem to remember where I’ve seen it,” I said.

“In history class.”

I looked over at
Chad who’s eyes were wide.

“This structure is ancient. In fact, it’s infamous. Sage, we’re looking at the president’s headquarters of ancient America. This structure isn’t technically a building. It’s a house.
The White House.”

I looked in awe at the ancient relic that was before me. I was convinced that the apocalypse burned everything on the surface of the earth and nothing survived the fire. The White
House should’ve been turned into ashes just like everything else, but apparently it survived. Which meant the structures around it would’ve survived as well.

“So this is ancient Washington D.C., the capitol of the United States?”

“It seems so.”

“So just a few feet underneath us
is an ancient city that has been buried in sand for decades?”

Chad
nodded.

“I wonder if my father knows anything about this.”

“I doubt it. If the Authorities knew they would’ve dug everything up by now.”

“So we are the first to find this.”

“Two teenagers discover an ancient structure from the old world that has been preserved by the desert sand. We should be rewarded with enough credits to last a lifetime.”

“
Chad do you know what this means? This isn’t a natural desert. Underneath us is a city once inhabited by people. I hope they were dead before the sand came and buried it all.”

“Let’s just hope we find some vegetation before the sand buries us too.”

We walked for another hour or so, and the sun began to set over the horizon. We decided to rest for the night and set up camp on top of a sand hill.

The next morning we had packaged eggs and sausage for breakfast and a couple hits of H2O that would last us half a day. I felt refreshed and ready for another day’s journey, but I was craving a shower.

“This suit is starting to fuse to my skin. I really wish I had brought an extra pair of clothes. What was I thinking?”

“Well
, at least we have water to keep us alive.”

I grabbed the inhaler from my pack and there was a digital number 5 on the screen.

“For now. We only have five breaths in between the two of us.”

“We need to find a water source soon.”

The sun’s rays were reflecting down on the sand creating a hazy blanket over our path. I began to get tired of walking and was tempted to create a vehicle to ride the rest of the way. We agreed to not use our powers here because my chip would send a signal to the grid Authorities, alerting them that I was outside jurisdiction. I thought of Mia and how she was getting along being me. I wondered if anyone noticed her transformation.

Chad
and I talked for hours to pass the time. We discussed our dreams and fears. We reminisced about our childhoods and memories of growing up in the Equinox.  The desert didn’t seem as lonely with Chad by my side. In fact, it wasn’t lonely at all, it was safe and secure like the mammoth forest or like being in the comfort of my room reading books with Chad.

“Hey
, I’ve been  meaning to ask you something,” I said.

“What is it?”

“Our last night in the Equinox when we were saying goodbye to Mia, what was it you whispered to her?”

Chad
froze for a second then continued to walk.

“Oh
, that. Um, I just told her to visit my parents from time to time to make sure they’re okay.”

“Is that it, because she looked a little
flustered when I walked into the room. And you with your head down, I-“

“We were just preparing to say our goodbyes. You know how Mia gets in these situations.”

“Hmm.”

The sun
lowered in the sky, and it felt like we’d been walking forever. We had each taken two more breaths of H2O and there was only one more left.

I got a sudden jolt of panic
that we’d been walking in circles all this time, but when we came across two arrows that were sticking out of the sand, I knew we were getting close to civilization. Unfortunately, arrows weren’t the warm welcome we had hoped for.

Chad
pulled an arrow from out of the sand and inspected it. It looked like it was carved at the tip to form a point. There were splatters of blood on it.

“Whoever shot this thing hit its target for sure.”

The thought of being hunted in the desert sent a chill through my body.

I wanted to take my mind off of the idea of being prey to a group of hunters
, so, I decided to play a game with Chad. When we were little, Chad and I used to read an ancient comic book about some type of blue hedgehog that liked to jump and tumble through different obstacle courses. Years later, we learned that this book was based off of something called a video game where people could manipulate a pixelated character on a television screen. We realized it was similar to the virtual reality hologram simulators that we play with.  Anyway, we were obsessed with this hedgehog and would create our own real-life video game obstacle courses where I would create the obstacle and Chad would try to teleport through it. We hadn’t played video games in years, so I wanted to take advantage of the desert’s open space.

I had the idea to create a wall of bees to block Chad from walking any further. Chad was completely oblivious to my plan, which made it even more fun. Without warning, a giant wall of bees appeared in front of Chad who made a high pitched shriek. Then he grabbed my arm to run, but when he saw that I was laughing, he realized what I was up to.

“Oh, you want to play games now? You do realize that we’re in the middle of the hottest most deserted desert in the world and we only have one breath of water left? We don’t have t-“

I couldn’t bear to hear another word so I sent the swarm of bees after him.

Chad wasted no time leaping through time and space to get away from them.  He looked like a human strobe light flying through the air while screaming, “SAGE, I’M GOING TO GET YOU!”

At that point I was hunched
over in laughter and for a minute, I had forgotten about our troubling situation. All of a sudden, I felt an arm grab my waist and before I could blink, I was in the sky teleporting from cloud to cloud with Chad. I hated heights more than anything and Chad knew this. We landed on a sturdy cloud and Chad let go of me. I was stiff as a board and was looking at Chad with eyes to kill.

“Chad! What
are y-you doing!? This isn’t funny anymore. Take me back down now!”

“I thought I’d just leave you here for a while to think about what you’ve done,” Chad said with a sly smirk.

“Okay I’m sorry about the bees, but you’re taking this too far!”

“That wasn’t a convincing apology. I’ll be back once you’re really sorry.”

Then he disappeared. The powerful current that was created from his teleport knocked me off my cloud. I began free-falling toward the sand unable to scream anything, but Chad’s name. I felt like I had fallen for hours when I felt myself land into his arms.

He placed me softly on the sand like a new born baby, although I looked more like a mounted cat that had been knocked over. I couldn’t move anything
, but my lips to say, “I kill you.” Chad looked thoroughly amused by my vulnerable state. I hadn’t seen him laugh so hard since—well, since never.

Then, Chad stopped laughing and looked out toward the endless mounds of sand that were ahead.

“What is it?” I asked while regaining feeling in my legs.

“I don’t know. I just got this feeling like we’re being watched.”

I rolled over on my stomach to take a look ahead. I got the same feeling.

“Maybe it’s the bees. They might be out there buzzing around still.”

Chad nodded his head and appeared to brush off the feeling. He bent down and held out his hand.

“Here, let me help you up.”

I grabbed his hand and just as he pulled me up, I pulled him face down into the sand.

“Hey!” He tried to yell with a mouthful of sand.

“That’s what you get for making me fall off my cloud!”

Just as the last words left my mouth
, we heard a sound coming from the distance. It sounded like voices. I tried to wait a while to see if it would come again, but it didn’t.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Chad said while brushing sand off his face.

“I thought I heard men’s voices.”

“Let’s keep going. If we come across something suspicious we can just use our powers.”

After walking a few more hours
, we began to get extremely sluggish. Our bodies were reaching the late stages of dehydration. I looked ahead into the reflections in the sand and saw an image of a white horse galloping toward us. The horse was of the purest white and it had wings that made it glide smoothly over the sand. It neared and I saw the faint image of a man riding it. He was robed in white. The white knight.

Chapter 6: Halo

Chad looked over at me and saw my wondrous expression.

“W
hat do you see?”

I said nothing, but kept looking ahead.

“I see an ocean full of clear blue water,” Chad said.

He
smacked his lips and licked them.

Neither of us
were right. What we saw were mirages. We were hallucinating big time.

After a few feet
, the extreme thirst made me snap out of my fantasy.

“
Chad, I think you should take the last hit of H2O.”

“No way.
You do it. Besides, we’re getting closer to the ocean.”

“There is no ocean.
It’s a mirage. Look, take the shot so that you have enough energy to go and look for water. I’ll just stay here and rest.”

“I’m not taking it
, no matter what.  I have to protect you,” he said.

We continued to fumble forward ins
ide the sun’s oven. Finally, we collapsed from exhaustion. Neither one of us was willing to take the last hit of H2O. We laid there in the sand and then our world went dark.

I wasn’t sure how long we were passed out, but when we finally opened our eyes
, we were no longer in the desert but sitting strapped to a tree inside a forest. Our arms were tied around it with rope. I looked over and saw Chad who was shirtless with his head bowed. I looked down and saw that I was wearing a white linen dress with one strap going over my left shoulder. Chad was wearing white linen pants.

“
Chad! Wake up!”

I kicked him in the leg and he
woke groggily. He opened his eyes, closed them, and opened them wide.

“Where- how did we get here!?”

“I’m wondering the same thing.”

“We’re tied. Oh man
, I think we’ve been captured. Quick, try to pry yourself out of the rope.”

We tried, but to no avail. We were tied very tightly and could barely mo
ve our arms. We looked around and saw nothing but tall trees. Then there was the sound of rustling leaves in the distance. Chad and I braced ourselves for what was to come. Suddenly, a dark man appeared, adorned with a white head wrap and white linen pants, carrying a spear in his right hand. He walked over to us and bent down to get a better look. I noticed a deep scar under his left eye that made his appearance harsh and threatening.