We left the auditorium with hurried, broad steps. Outside, the people that attended the meeting earlier were starting to split in smaller groups and move into different streets. Noah broke into a light jog as soon as we had exited the building and I followed. Although my leg was injured, it was a bruise, nothing crippling. I was sure it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Look, mate. I want to use the temple as our main reference point when navigating this place. My plan is to use it to cut across its midpoint. We will be passing really close to the thing, are you ok with it?” Noah spoke beside me.

“Temple? You mean the pyramid?” His decision to call it a temple got me more curious than worried about the implications of what he had said.

“It’s not just a pyramid, mate. That is a temple. I have been to Machu Picchu enough times to recognize an Incan temple when I see one. Although this one is much bigger than anything I have seen before.” I felt enlightened through Noah’s words for some reason.

‘A temple, huh.’

That, combined with the speech of the emissary, made things start to look mythological. But if there was an entity capable of creating everything we were experiencing here, he had to be a mythical being or close to one. Even if everything he was doing was through technological means.

“Do you believe in what the emissary said? Were we kidnapped by this new God of his?” I asked without thinking how crazy I sounded. Somehow, I felt that Noah was an approachable person. It was hard to put my finger on exactly why, yet I felt like I could talk to the guy. He was unusually genuine.

“Don’t know. Don’t care. Didn’t care about the Gods before, why should I care now? Unless the wanker came down himself to smite me, why should I? To be honest, even then I wouldn’t. Not like I could do anything at that point, right?” He almost laughed at his own words. He had such a pragmatic approach to the supernatural that I felt like our problems were somehow smaller.

“Look, I am sorry if I offended you because you are a religious person and whatnot. But if we are ants in a glass box, should we really worry about the giant eye in the sky that watches over us? I think our energy is better spent worrying about bringing home food and growing the colony. Although, we are not really ants, so the last bit doesn’t make sense. I think.” This time Noah actually laughed at his own words, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at his antics.

“You are a funny guy, Noah. But to answer your first question, I don’t have a problem with getting close to the temple. I was planning to investigate it at some point.” He turned his head to face me and seemed to try and peer into my eyes for a few brief moments.

“You are fucking serious. Investigate the thing? I mean, sign me up. But you are a fucking loony, mate.” Noah declared wide eyed while waving his hands around. He seemed to have fun at over-dramatizing stuff. I chuckled again.

“You're speaking like you weren’t planning to do this yourself already.” I poked back at him.

“Planning? Way ahead of you, mate. I already did. Although I didn’t have much time yesterday, with John breathing down our necks and all.” Noah’s words surprised me. For the obvious reason of him already having investigated the temple, but also because he shed some light on John’s behavior. The man was still a mystery to me. I know I had already decided to join the group, but it didn’t sit well with me that I didn’t even know the other leader. Maybe John was more of an authority within the group than Johann.

“You did? Bloody hell, what did you find?” I asked, not containing my excitement.

“Some things are better seen than said, mate. We’re almost there anyway.” Noah pointedly increased his pace. I struggled a bit, but managed to keep up.

Engrossed in our conversation, I had failed to notice how close we were getting to the temple. Its ominous presence loomed over us as we approached it. It might not have been an extremely tall structure, but when I realized how wide it was I couldn’t help but shiver. This thing was massive and I wasn’t even there yet. From a distance, I could tell that there were engravings all over the stone blocks that formed it. They had a dull golden color, as if dirt and time had removed the luster of the mineral.

With a few more moments of intense jogging, we finally arrived at the base of the temple. Noah suddenly stopped a few meters away and I stopped beside him.

“It’s really amazing, Leo. I have never seen such a beauty before, it makes the ones in Peru look like sand castles.” His eyes almost sparkled as he spoke. “You see those engravings on the stone? They are not the same as what you could find in the temples of the Incas, or even Aztecs for that matter.” Noah spoke in a tone of awe as he approached the stone blocks.

“Do you know what they mean?” I followed him close while totally engrossed by the sight. The amount of details on the carved stones were astonishing. Although I wasn’t a mason, I had been to my fair share of museums.

“What? No! I don’t even know the Inca or Aztec language. How would I know this when I don’t even know its name?” Noah turned to face me, completely flabbergasted.

“Oh. Right…” I felt stupid. The excitement from earlier drained from my face. Noah laughed.

“I am joking, mate. Don’t take it so seriously. But I really don’t know what they mean. They are cool though, right?” Noah said with a smile and turned back towards the cut stone. We were so close now we could touch it. I didn’t mind his joke; actually, I quite enjoyed his sense of humor. 

“I don’t know if cool is the word I would use to describe it. Certainly a marvel of engineering from the ancient times. Whatever era this thing is from.” I said as I stepped closer.

I felt inexplicably drawn to it. Although I feared what might lurk inside, I was curious about the structure itself. I reached out and, after a brief moment of hesitation, touched the cold stone. Nothing unnatural or unusual happened. Although smooth looking, the cut stone felt abrasive to the touch. The engravings had been made by some extremely accurate instrument. If someone told me this was laser cut, I would have believed it. I couldn’t see any imperfections in the shallow depressions.

“I am sorry to cut your vibe, mate. But we gotta keep moving. I am also curious as shit and would love to climb this thing and check it out.” Noah paused mid speech. He took a long, hard look at the thing. “Although I am not so keen on getting inside after what came out earlier.” Noah stepped away and started jogging. I removed my hand from the cut stone and backed up. 

Satisfied with my interaction, I jogged after Noah as he took us around the temple. After we covered a brief distance, we found a large gate in the temple. It was closed, but unusually tall. More than double the standard height of a single storey house. 

“This must be where they came from. But why so large?” Noah wondered aloud.

“I hope it's for aesthetic purposes and not utilitarian ones.” I said offhandedly.

Noah suddenly stopped and I almost slammed into his back face first.

“Do you mean they might have something in there that NEEDS a door that big? You are kidding, right?” Noah stole glances between me and the humongous door.

“I obviously can’t be sure. The engravings could be an aesthetic choice, but also a utilitarian one. We don’t really understand the norms of this new reality, like Johann said.” I held my tongue while organizing my thoughts. “Maybe there is something big enough to require a door that size or the engravings on the cut stone are mystical symbols of power, but how can we be certain of anything? Even if the former is true, it’s not necessarily a living creature, right? Could be a massive mobile construction.” I spoke as the ideas came to mind. It was a good exercise to say the things I thought out loud. It certainly helped me organize my thoughts better.

“DUDE! None of these options are good! Giant creature or massive weapon? Are the symbols magical? You just shagged my fucking mind.” I couldn’t tell if Noah was acting or being sincere here. He had shown a certain penchant for the theatrics.

“Let’s just… get moving, alright? We have a lot of ground to cover.” Noah said, dejectedly. I hadn’t expected my wild supposition to have such an effect on the man.

 He moved away and I followed. The pain on my leg was faint, probably due to me running. We eventually saw another gate after we turned a corner and continued around the temple. I suspected there was one for each side of the rectangular structure. After we left the vicinity of the pyramid and made our way to the opposite side of the city, I decided to check the sky clock.

21:07:39

The next few hours were hard, they reminded me of military school. The fact that I had decided to bring my weapon didn’t help; I had to do my best to keep up with Noah’s seemingly endless stamina. I constantly had to move the weapon between my hands. Balancing myself with the extra weight was proving a tiresome task.

We had stopped to check out the inside of a few promising buildings and took the opportunity to look for food and water. Noah had brought a bag with some stuff, but said it was always better to scavenge when possible. I agreed, and we spent a few minutes here and there looking for food. We found a jacket, another small hammer and a crowbar. We decided to hide it in an inconspicuous spot inside a random building. I doubt I could remember, but Noah guaranteed he would.

Noah bragged that the system had given him a skill called ‘Navigation’, and that he was a master in it. We didn’t talk much, I mean, I didn’t talk much. It was hard enough for me to keep up with him while not speaking. I don’t think I would have managed if I started chatting. I felt tempted to spend a point on vitality, it was a great stat. It would increase my overall endurance and life force. Endurance sounded pretty straight forward, but life force was a bit more mysterious. I tried to get some details from the system by thinking very hard about the words, but nothing showed up.

It took us four hours before Noah was finally satisfied with our results. I could barely feel the pain on my leg, unless I touched it. Hopefully all this exertion wouldn’t make it worse the next morning. 

We had found two potential spots. One was by the barrier, a large two storey building with a narrow stair access to the flat rooftop. There were five choke points we had to man. Two on the left, two on the right and one in front. What was good about it was that the pair on the left and right side were very close to each other. 

It would be a matter of seconds for one to be able to support the other. The one in the center was a narrow alleyway that only two people could stand side by side comfortably. The large building was flanked by even larger structures that were crossed by the barrier, making it impossible for anything to go around it and to our rear.

The second was a large building four stories tall. It was impossible to defend it from the outside, but inside the stairway would provide us high ground as we retreated. The building was large enough to accommodate all of us and there was tons of furniture we could use to reinforce our position. Personally, I preferred the first option. We would at least have something to fall back if the first line of defense fell. On the second one, although the stairs were somewhat long, we wouldn’t have a place to fall back if we were overrun. In any case, it wasn’t for me to decide. 

On our way back, we passed by the temple once again, and I couldn’t stop myself from staring a bit too long at the gigantic gates.

Senna

This chapter has been reviewed and edited with the help of Densor.

Enjoy!