A Quest for Knowledge

784 words



The dust swirled in the faces of a team of anthropologists. Sandstorm devils rose like upside down tornadoes…
“Professor!” Marianne pleaded. “We can't go on, can we? All traces of Professor George and Miss Mayhew have been wiped out by those sand devils! If we go further, we won't have any landmarks to guide us back to base.”
The professor stopped, perplexed, ahead of them hundreds of sandstorm devils danced. And behind them, faintly visible, above the moving clouds of dust, were the last arches of the ancient city ruins. She was correct again. They must return.

They hunched against a corner section beyond the entrance and out of the blunt of the storm. Their equipment piled together created a small wind barrier and they were able to place a warming fire in the furthermost corner. Marriane leaned against a brick. It shifted, revealing a stairway leading down.
“Look! I’m going in.” She said as she reached for her backpack and flashlight.
Everyone, except two to guard the entrance and wait in case the others returned, followed her. The air was cool. The sounds of their footsteps, against stone, echoed far below them. She quickened her pace. She thought she saw a flicker of light far ahead. What could it be?

“Wait Up!” she heard as she felt herself fall. It was as if the steps just disappeared. She yelled something. Then landed with a thump on a cloud of dust two feet thick. She coughed.
The beam of light from the phone flashlight revealed that she was on a ledge. How far had she fallen? She shone the light above her but there was only darkness. She wasn’t hurt but a creeping panic slowly engulfed her mind. Calm down, remember your training. From her pack she retrieved her homemade head gear, (ski mask made with flexible bullet proof fabric mess, sewn in protective eye shield with special infer-red lenses, nose, mouth and ear filters, and luminous motion detecting sensors and powerful all-around lighting and 4 cameras linked to her phone and her teams' phones.) They were all in a face-time call waiting for her.
Then the stones began to shift. A sound from deep beneath them warned of danger.

“Retreat!”

“And me without my jet pack again!”

“Mari, stay where you are.
Everyone else out NOW!”

The cameras kept recording. Camera 4 began glitching horizonal lines, between blinks were images of a stairway winding down. She waited. Above her was a perfect arched stone ceiling. Her entrance was gone.

“I don’t see stairs, but the camera did so is the ceiling there? Anyone? Hello?”

In her vest pocket were pistachio nut shells.
She threw them in every direction until 1 landed on a step in the direction of camera 4. Her phone service disappeared but her flashlight still worked.

She followed the stairs then came to a large opening chamber with shining medal antiques and carved stone creepy monster statues. Her three cameras were still recording. A motion detector sensed movement behind her. She turned to witness a roll of carpet unwrap itself. It looked miraculously clean and bright and welcoming. So, she sat on it. Instantly it rose and carried her out of the chamber. At a turn in the tunnel, she smelled a spice-like scent. It was pleasant but not familiar.

Then she saw a glowing light ahead. It was a rare shade of violet, pale, and humming. Was that a hum, or a vibration? She couldn’t be sure. It touched a part of her that she wasn’t aware of before. Did she taste this color/vibe thing? It seemed as if all her senses were affected. She was infused with it. She had become one with it.

She had been absorbed, her mind and body diffused like puzzle pieces linking with matching components of it. Then it replicated the piece and exchanged it with the original version of her. The carpet carried her along a track, extracting then returning bits and pieces of her along the way. Until finally she could see smell and hear familiar things again. Her once violet colored skin returned to tan. She heard a rumbling, saw sunlight and then the carpet disappeared, and she dropped to the ground on the far side of the ancient city ruins.

Everyone cheered when her phone service suddenly linked them again.
Eight hours had passed. The storm had passed. Professor George and Miss Mayhew were back with the team.
All her memories were erased as were all the images from her phone. The only thing remaining was a feeling that the secrets of the ruins were safe and perhaps the knowledge exchanged was more for the benefit of "it", than for humanity.




written for "Short Shots: Official WDC Contest"