The Legend of the Firewalker (26 page)

“But why?” asked Nathan. “You said that as long as I don’t use them, I should be safe.”

Malick paused. “Yeah, they won’t be able to detect you if you aren’t using your powers. However, it doesn’t help you any if you are forced to use your abilities to protect you
rself,” he said. “It also doesn’t help if you are unconsciously using them in your dreams.” Malick chuckled. “I guess it’s just another challenge to being a Dream Walker.”

Nathan shook his head. “You’re telling me,” he said. “It’s becoming more like a curse. Having the ability to see the future sounds good, but it hasn’t been working out for me.” He looked down at his hands again before sta
ring into the fire. “And to top things off, it’s probably going to get me killed.”

“We’ll figure out something,” said Malick. “And make sure Jonas doesn’t use his ability either.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, because I don’t think he even knows how to.”

Malick let out a slight chuckle. “Good,” he said.

“But wait,” said Nathan. “If you knew all along about the Space In Between stuff and about the Cahokia symbol, why did you try so hard to convince Jonathan that none of it was real?” 

Malick frowned. “Because Jonathan doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into,” he said coldly. “And the less he and everyone else know the better.” His tone suddenly so
ftened. “For his sake, he needs to stay in the dark as long as possible. Knowing this stuff changes lives, Nathan. I’ve seen it destroy people.”

“How?” What do you mean?”

Malick looked sympathetic. “Some people panic and become reclusive after discovering about the world that lies beyond their white picket fences. Others become obsessed,” he said. “They become fixated on knowing more to become a part of something new, and when they do, they either disappear, get killed or become a part of the walking dead.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like I have a choice,” said N
athan.

Malick got on his knees and took a deep breath. He slo
wly blew air into the wood chips and the rising smoke that kindled the last fire. “This is really strange,” he said. “Both you and Jonas can Pneuma Novo, but neither of your families are a part of the Order. I wonder what else is going on at this camp.”

17

HEROES

Nathan sat quietly in the small computer lab in the bas
ement of Lawrence Hall. He didn’t like being stuck in the square, white room another day while campers worked on their final leadership projects. He wished LaDonda had scheduled them in the much larger computer lab in Fisher Hall next door. Fisher Hall’s computer lab was on the first floor and had a nice view of the quad.

Nathan stared blankly at the black computer screen. Over the soft hum of the air conditioner and the sharp clicking sounds of neighboring keyboards, his mind wandered. Occ
asionally, his thoughts were interrupted by ongoing conversations about the end of camp and the closing ceremony and banquet on Saturday. They had been at camp for three weeks now and most campers were sad to be leaving their newfound friends. But still, for the most part, everyone was excited to finally be able to see their families and loved ones. Nathan was excited too. An entire week had gone by without an attack from the Shadow Creatures, and his dreams were just as absent of any impending danger. In fact, most of his dreams had been about food. In his latest dream, no matter how much he ate, his plate would automatically refill with a tall stack of his favorite food: pecan pancakes.

Nathan was also relieved. He had taken Malick’s advice and stopped using his powers, and he knew that soon Lea
dership Camp would be over. Every day since his first dream about Leah and the dream about Grimm Cemetery, he’d felt very responsible for Leah, Lafonda and Jonas.

He had an overwhelming sense of duty to help Leah and to keep his friends safe, but Leah was back home now, and soon Jonas would be too; and he and Lafonda would be back at the Devaro Mansion. Nathan couldn’t wait until this was all over. In fact, he often caught himself daydreaming about sitting ou
tside by the pool behind the Devaro Mansion.

Only a few more days now.

He didn’t want to think about anything other than what he would be doing for the rest of the summer, but his stomach continued to twist into knots. He tried not to think about all the unanswered questions that plagued him after he’d been discovered by Malick.

Nathan sat back in his chair and sighed. He had so many unanswered questions. And how long did Malick expect him to stay in the dark?

Nathan tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair. “Who is Argus’s brother?” he asked himself. “And why did Argus threaten Malick?” He tilted his head to the side as the slew of questions continued to spill out. “What did he mean by ‘don’t try anything’? What had he been afraid that Malick would do?”

A couple of campers were trying to exchange phone numbers, and Nathan tried to tune them out.
Who are these dark and terrible forces?
he pondered.

He remembered how adamant Malick had been about keeping him and everyone else in the dark.
Was it really for our safety
? he thought. And why did Malick know so much about Shadow Creatures and about the Order?

Nathan sat up in his chair. He saw his reflection in the black computer screen. He paused for a moment, stopped ta
pping his fingers, and then suddenly decided to turn on the computer. “Shadow Creatures,” he mumbled.

The black screen came to life and he clicked on the web browser to launch the search engine. Nathan typed in
Shadow Creatures
and pressed enter. “Shadow Creatures,” he read to himself, “also known as Shadow Men, Shadow Ghosts or Shadow People.” He raised his eyebrows and huffed, surveying the claw marks still visible on his shoes. “I know one thing,” he said to himself, “these scratches weren’t made by ghosts or people.”

He leaned in closer to the screen and clicked on another website. “Paranormal entities,” he read, “that are seen mostly in peripheral vision.” He chuckled. “Sounds like Necrocri
tters to me.” He turned around to see if anyone was watching him or listening. Hugo and Andy had looked up, but buried their heads back into their computers. Two nearby campers were chatting about sending friend requests over a social networking site and weren’t paying attention.

“Let’s see,” Nathan said. He typed in the word
Necrocritters
. “I guess that’s how you spell it,” he said, underneath his breath. The search results produced nothing on the word, just alternative spellings that he was pretty sure were completely off.

He typed in the phrases
the Space In Between
and
Pneuma Novo
and the search engine produced several results, but nothing relevant to what Malick was talking about. He then tried
Dream Walker,
and the search engine took him to a website that described a Dream Walker as a person who works through dreams to understand others, to guide and to teach. 

“I don’t know about that one,” he said to himself. “I don’t understand half the stuff that has happened to me and the little that I do know is because of Malick. How on earth would I be able to guide or teach?”

He took a moment to stretch his neck and then his back, then typed in the words
the Spirit Realm
and got back 30,000,000 similar results. The first website he clicked on related the Spirit Realm to the realm of the Angels, which was similar to what Jonathan had said about the Fallen Ones at the first bonfire.

“Wait,” he blurted out. “Are they real too?” Nathan r
ecalled Malick saying something about the Fallen Ones being just a myth, but considering Malick’s “hero complex” of hiding things to keep people safe, he decided to type it in anyway. 

The search results for the Fallen Ones didn’t return an
ything about the Cahokia legend, but he did stumble upon a website that talked about Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels with humans, but nothing specific about the Fallen Ones being fallen angels. 

He yawned and tried to see what would happen if he searched the phrase
Dark and Powerful Forces
, but got back a list of websites that were more about
Star Wars
than anything else.

Nathan was frustrated. He had hoped that with the Inte
rnet searching he would find answers. For fun he typed in
Black Cloaks
,
Red Cloaks
, and even
Dark Cloaks
, but much to his dismay, only images of various cloaks and several links to where he could buy them popped up. 

Nathan took a deep breath and sighed. He decided that his best bet for answers was Malick, but he was sure he wouldn’t be getting anything out of him. Maybe Argus could help. But Nathan was almost certain that if Malick wasn’t telling him anything, then for sure Argus wouldn’t either, especially if he was a part of the Order. “The Order,” he blurted out loud. 

Nathan looked around to see who in the lab had heard him. Hugo and Andy had looked up from their computers like before, and Eva Marie Evans, who was walking past him at the time, kept walking and sat down at her computer.

Nathan typed in the words
the Order
and pressed enter. The search engine returned over 520,000,000 relevant results. He scanned the first few pages of links and quickly read the descriptions, but none of them really seemed to fit. He almost gave up, but came across a link to an article written by Dr. C.W. Colvers entitled
Brotherhoods, Secret Societies, and Secret Government-Funded Organizations
. In the middle of the article, the Order was mentioned in a list of about 200 secret organizations, right between the Secret Order of the Throne and the Order of the Sphinx. 

Nathan laughed. “The Order of the Sphinx,” he said. “Isn’t that like a Harry Potter book?” He glanced at the long list of organizations again. “Is this guy for real? That’s a lot of so-called secret organizations.” He sighed. “Well, this is the best I’ve got. Maybe this guy knows something.” He typed in
Dr. C.W. Colvers
and a slew of articles popped up. From what Nathan could tell, most were self-published in Colvers’s online newsletter called “Now Is the Time to Know.”

“Really?” he mumbled. “That doesn’t sound too cred
ible.” Nathan twisted his lip in defeat, sat back in his chair again, and tapped his fingers in a rhythmic pattern on the arm of his chair. “I don’t want to waste time trying to find this guy just to hear him ramble on about conspiracy theories,” he said to himself. “There’s got to be another way to check him out that doesn’t involve me reading a bunch of articles or me having to call him.” 

He could now hear the sound of familiar male and female voices behind him. It sounded like there was an argument about whether or not there was enough time to check r
esearch. Nathan’s face lit up. “Jonathan!” he said. He turned around and saw Erin Rosales and Jonathan Black in the doorway to the computer lab.

“It won’t take long,” Jonathan said. “I just want to check a few websites and my e-mail.”

“Just whatever,” she said, waving her hand. “Just meet us in Fisher Hall’s computer lab.”

“Thanks, Erin!” responded Jonathan happily.

“Do you have to be so happy about it?” she asked mockingly.

Jonathan paused, secured the backpack on his shoulder, and smiled.

Erin raised her eyebrows. “I am so glad this is almost over,” she muttered while walking away.

Nathan sprung to his feet. He wanted to catch Jonathan before he walked past him. He quickly bent over his chair and peered at his computer screen to see if the art
icle and online newsletter by Colvers were still open. “Okay,” he said. “Now I just need Jonathan to see this without telling him why.”

“And where are you going?” asked Lafonda.

Nathan was surprised to find Lafonda standing in front of him. They really hadn’t spoken to each other since the day he, Malick and Jonas had snuck out to Jonas’s house. He could tell by the look on her face that she was still upset. He could also see he was losing his chance to stop Jonathan.

Out of habit he checked to see if she was still wearing her white tennis shoes. She was.

“Um, hello to you too Lafonda,” he smirked.

Lafonda glowered. “Just in case you were planning on leaving,” she said, “we aren’t scheduled to leave here for a few more hours.”

Nathan watched as Jonathan approached them. “I’m not leaving Lafonda,” he said. He smiled sarcastically and then sidestepped her. “Hey, Jonathan,” he said.

Jonathan stopped abruptly. It was as if he was surprised to see them. His eyes were wide, and they looked irritated, as if he had been rubbing them.

“Hi, Nathan,” he said. “And Lafonda.”

Lafonda stood there; head cocked to the side and her arms folded. “Hi, Jonathan,” she said. “Shouldn’t you be in the ot
her computer lab?”

Jonathan hesitated. “Um, yes,” he said, “and I am headed there after this.”   

Lafonda tossed back a long lock of her dark hair over her shoulder. “And why can’t you just use the other lab?” she asked.

Jonathan sneezed and then paused to reposition his square-rimmed glasses.

“Bless you,” said Nathan, eyeing Jonathan suspiciously. “Do you have a cold or something?” 

“No,” he responded. “Allergies.”

Nathan still eyed him suspiciously. “Oh.”

Jonathan pursed his lips. “I need to use this lab because last night I convinced the tech guy on duty to allow me to dow
nload a large file from a colleague of mine in London,” he said. He held up the slim black drive that was in his hand. “I didn’t have a large enough storage device to get it off the computer. Pretty much any computer will do; the tech guy was nice enough to show me how to save it to the Lawrence Hall public server.”

Lafonda stepped aside so that Jonathan could pass them.

“Wait!” blurted out Nathan.

Jonathan jumped. He seemed startled.

Both Lafonda and Jonathan awaited an explanation. “What I meant to say,” Nathan said, “is that you can use my computer.”

Jonathan looked perplexed. “But I can use any computer. Look, there are plenty of open ones.”

“Yeah. What’s the big deal?” asked Lafonda. “Are you trying to leave, or something?”

Nathan cut Lafonda a disapproving look. “No,” he said. He took Jonathan’s backpack off his shoulder and placed it next to his computer.

Jonathan looked confused, but put up little resistance. “Sit down Jonathan,” Nathan said.

Jonathan sat down and repositioned the chair closer to the computer. He paused and then leaned in to the computer screen. Nathan could tell that he was reading the article.

“Find anything interesting?” Nathan said. “Is he a real doctor? I mean, does he seem legit?”

“Real doctor?” asked Lafonda suspiciously.

Jonathan stammered, “I-I don’t know,” he responded. “Is there a reason why you are looking at this?”

Both Jonathan and Lafonda stared at Nathan awaiting a response. He could hear Malick in his head, warning him to keep everyone in the dark.

“Oh, I stumbled upon it,” he said. “I thought it was interesting, his research on secret societies and stuff. The newsletter says he has a Ph.D. Do you think he’s a professor at a university or something?” He paused. “Oh, and if it helps, I also noticed he has several YouTube videos.”