Last Goodbye - Billy Boyd

Here it is, at long last; the end of the year post.

I feel like this song couldn’t be more appropriate for this post.

This last semester has been particularly busy, but it has ended well. This whole year has been long and busy, but the ending is so much more than the beginning.

In September, I started my first official (not part of school) job.

On the 12^th of December, I graduated college with a B.A. in Bible, a minor in Computer Science, and a minor in Business Management. I also got to see the last of the Hobbit trilogy, marking the end of a long journey through Middle Earth.

I’ve heard that every ending is a new beginning.

Just as the ending of the Hobbit trilogy leads into the beginning of the Lord of the Rings, the phases of my life lead one into the next.

The 13^th of December, I set out on a lifelong adventure with my best friend. I don’t know what struggles we will face in our new life, but we will face them together and we will overcome them together.

Bilbo and Frodo certainly couldn’t know the perils they would see or the hardships they would face, but they grew to be better people because of the journey.

Many places I have been

Many sorrows I have seen

But I don't regret

Nor will I forget

All who took that road with me

As this year ends, a new one begins; a year filled with its own beauties, toils, lights, shadows, hills, and valleys. The important thing to remember on any journey is to stay the course, to not forget the purpose. Without a destination, there is no journey. It’s important to keep your focus on God. Remember Him in the good times and bad. Remember Him when the path is clear and when all seems lost.

The best part about living a godly life is that there is no final farewell for Christians. Many of the friends I have parted with in airports in other countries and at graduation, I will see again. Either in this life or the next.

Україна - Ірина Федишин

Finally, another post. It's been far too long.
Lots of things have happened.

Finished another semester.
Spent the summer back at home working with the congregation.
Got engaged.
Visited another city for 11 days to hold a Bible camp.
Had a birthday.
Planned birthday stuff.

(С Днем Рождения, Дорогая)


Anyway, without further delay...

The Promised Land: (Part 30) Echo 

Eden clapped when they were done. “That was amazing!”

Asher smiled as he rested the guitar on the ground. “Glad you liked it. Did you recognize it at all?”

Eden shook her head. “Never heard it before. Is it new?”

“No, it’s actually pretty old.” He shrugged. “It’s all right. Most people haven’t heard it. I was just wondering. Any requests?”

“Yeah,” Caden cut in holding up the bags. “Let’s eat.”

“Nice to see you too, Blitz.” Asher stood up and clapped an arm around Caden’s shoulders. The blonde towered a good foot above his friend. “Thanks for the food,” Asher said as he made a grab for one of the bags.  Caden ducked out from under the giant and handed a bag to his brother. “Nice try.”

Reaching into the other bag, he pulled out a box and gave the bag to Eden.

Peeking into the bag, Eden saw a white box similar to the one Caden had. Taking it out, she opened the cardboard container to find rice, beans, and green vegetables that looked as though they had been canned or dried at some point. “Lovely,” she thought. She took a fork and started eating. “I wonder how long they’ve been eating like this. When was the last time they had any real food?”

As they ate, Asher and Blitz exchanged various stories of their adventures. Asher said he continued to search for someone with a name that sounded like Churro. Apparently, this person had been missing for a while. Caden talked about a couple missions he and Shiloh had been sent on. Eden was particularly interested to hear what he and Shy were doing in Freedom before they met her, but he didn’t seem to mention anything about that. Every now and then, Shiloh would get asked a question. He would respond in sign language and Caden would verbalize what was communicated.

At first, Eden enjoyed the stories. They were full of adventure and close calls. However, Eden lost interest as they went on. The three guys had such different experiences from hers. Aside from her time in this future, Eden really had nothing with which to compare. Her life up until now had been fairly average. Born to two well-off parents, her life might have been better off than most. She never lacked for anything, much less the necessities. Here, these soldiers talked about scrounging supplies off dead bodies or abandoned houses. Eden lived in a house too big for her family with the full assurance of security, but she listened to stories of hiding in poor living conditions while being hunted. She had nothing close to the tales of injuries and scars. There was that one time she fell off a horse, but that was it. Try as she might to ignore it, the gap between these four lives was ever apparent to her. When Eden stopped to think about it, she found herself growing homesick.

Eventually, the chestnut-haired woman from the meeting earlier came by.

“There you are!” She approached the group and gestured to Eden. “I have a room ready for you. Blitz and Boomer, you’re in wing three. Room eight, as usual.”

“Thanks, Misty,” Caden replied.

“No problem!” she said cheerily. “Oh, Blitz! Before I forget, the professor wants to see you first thing tomorrow.”

“Of course. You headed this way, Ash?”

“Just a few rooms down from yours,” the blond stood and picked up his belongings. “I’ll walk back with you in case you’re still scared of the dark.”

“Laugh it up, Ash,” Caden punched his friend. “You were the one who jumped, remember?”

The two continued talking as they walked away. Eden stood to follow Misty. Turning to Shiloh, she asked, “Are we meeting somewhere tomorrow?”

He shrugged then pointed at the floor with raised eyebrows.

“Meet back here? Sure. I don’t know when I’ll be up.” She was already planning to sleep in as long as she could. “See you tomorrow.”

She followed the patient Misty down one of the halls. Her guide tried to get her to talk about various interests, but Eden had already used the last of her conversational energy. She was anticipating a full night of sleep.

~*~*~*~

Shiloh walked out of the doctor’s office and took a deep breath of air that didn’t smell full of antiseptic chemicals. He was never particularly happy to see Doctor Ross. He was a decent enough physician, if one had to rate doctors who prodded him with sharp instruments. But the doctor often seemed to look on the twins with contempt and Shy had a pretty good idea why. Ross didn’t approve of the general’s use of children in military operations, no matter how capable they were. Shiloh actually would have sided with him, had his opinion carried any weight. “He probably just doesn’t like that Grace’s healing ability is better than anything he could pull off,” Shy thought, subconsciously rubbing the most recently added scar. “I don’t know why I’m the one who keeps getting hit. I’m practically invisible everywhere else, but I still attract all the bullets. Maybe I’m magnetized.” The last wound wasn’t his first brush with death, but it certainly was the closest one so far. Shy headed toward the hub. Cay would eventually catch up when he was finished with the doctor. “In the meantime…” Shy looked around for a particular girl with long blond hair. He had just caught sight of Eden when a loud siren went off. A thunderous boom broke out and the whole complex shook. The ever-white lights flickered and dust rained from above. Screams instantly filled the halls as well as Shiloh’s ears. He searched the area again, this time with more urgency. People ran by him in all directions, making it impossible to- there! A glimpse of her familiar face and Shiloh took off in that direction. Fighting through the people, he made it to the spot he saw Eden last just as another blast shook the complex again.

“They found us!” someone shouted. “They’re going to bury us!” a woman cried out. Shiloh pushed by a couple guards who were running toward the exit. Protocol demanded that he join them and protect the base, or more specifically the package. But he ignored protocol and continued looking for Eden.

“Shiloh!”

He turned to his left and saw her, just a few yards away. Shy started toward her, but a force from behind knocked him to the ground. Landing hard on his side, pain laced up his body from the healing gunshot wound. Clenching his teeth with a cringe, he rolled onto his other side.

“Shiloh!” Eden was beside him again. “Are you ok?”

The flickering lights died and the base was shrouded in total darkness.

Hey Brother - Avicii

The Promised Land: (Part 29) Hey Brother 

Eden tilted her head toward the stranger’s guitar. “You play very well.”

“Thanks.” The blonde said while extending a hand. “They call me Asher.”

“Eden.” She shook his hand once and let go.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around these parts before,” Asher commented as he rested the guitar flat across his lap.

“Yeah, I’m not really from around here.” Eden admitted, looking the stranger over again. Something seemed incredibly familiar about him, but she couldn’t quite place what it was. He looked to be about either late twenties or early thirties. The leather bomber jacket on the stair next to him looked fairly old and well worn.

 “I’m not either.” Asher shrugged. “I just drop in every now and then.” He seemed to contemplate something for a few seconds. “Eden… That’s an interesting tag. Or is that your name?”

“Um… my name, I guess?” she replied, trying not to sound too ignorant. “I’m not entirely sure what you mean by ‘tag’.”

“Oh, you weren’t kidding,” Asher said with a slight chuckle. “Almost everyone in the resistance has a tag, especially the gifted. It’s an extra hurdle for the Atari. Not letting them know exactly who you are makes it a little easier to slip through their fingers.” After a pause, Asher raised his eyebrows. “You’re not a maverick, are you?”

“What’s a maverick?” Eden briefly wondered if her genuine cluelessness would somehow cost her later on.

“Someone who sides with the Dictator. You don’t usually find a whole bunch of them outside star cities, but the ones who are think they can get some sort of benefit from it.”

“Oh, ok.” Eden nodded in comprehension. “I don’t think so. From what I’ve heard, he doesn’t sound like a nice guy.”

“Ri-ight…” Asher chuckled again. “Where did you say you were from?”

“Tennessee.”

“East or West?”

“Uh… West, I guess…” Eden kept a mental note to ask Caden if Tennessee had split into two different states in the last 90 years.

“Really?” Asher’s eyes narrowed to a skeptical look. “Where’s your accent?”

“We moved around a few times. My family’s originally from Texas.”

“Mine too!” His lopsided grin, although warm and pleasant, struck a chord in Eden’s memory. “Small world,” he continued. “Whereabouts?”

“Abilene. Um… Now that I think about it, don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but you look really familiar.” Eden’s curiosity got the better of her. “Would you happen to have a relative named Sam Teknia, by any chance?”

Asher’s eyes widened and his grin fell. He looked at her for several long minutes. Eden couldn’t tell if his expression was one of horror, surprise, confusion, or all of the above.

“Do I know you?” he finally asked.

“Oh boy, you’ve really done it this time,” Eden thought as she shook her head. “No, why?”

“How did you know my name?”

“Quick, Eden, say something! Do something!” she thought in panic. “Oh, so YOU’RE Sam! I had no idea, I really didn’t. How’s life, Sam? That’s a really great name, by the way. Did you get that from your father or something?”

“Grandfather, actually…” he said, still lost in confusion. Eden hoped he would overlook the complete breach of confidentiality she displayed by blurting out his actual name instead of using his “tag”.

“Ah, cool. It’s a good name. Sorry if that was borderline creepy. It’s just that you looked familiar is all.” Her self-conscious apology delivered, Eden looked around for a way out of the conversation without making it any more awkward.

Shiloh was actually making his way toward them, carrying his violin case over one shoulder. “He seriously takes that thing with him everywhere,” Eden realized.

“There’s a familiar face!” Asher said as Shiloh walked up. The two bumped fists and Shy planted himself on a nearby step.

“You two know each other?” Eden asked with surprise.

“Sure do,” Sam answered then turned to Shiloh. “You been practicing?” Boomer shrugged while opening the case and taking out his violin. He took a minute to make sure everything was in order then pointed at Asher’s guitar with the violin bow.

Sitting the guitar up, Asher briefly swept his hand across the strings. “I haven’t really practiced in a while. I’ll start off with an easy bass and you can go from there.” With a short nod, Shy placed the violin on his shoulder and held his bow in position. Eden sat on the ground in front of the two with her legs crossed.

Asher strummed a couple repetitive notes before Shiloh picked up with the melody. Eden didn’t recognize it, though apparently Asher did because after a few lines of melody he started singing.
“Hey brother, do you still believe in one another? Hey sister, do you still believe in love, I wonder?”

He wasn’t an amazing singer, Eden thought, but he had a decent voice. On the next line, a second voice chimed in.

“Oh if the sky comes fallin’ down, for you there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do.”

Eden turned around to see Caden come up with a small bag in each hand. He sat on the other side of Asher and they continued to sing back and forth. “What if I’m far from home?”

“Oh brother, I will hear you call,” Asher answered.

“What if I lose it all?”

“Oh sister, I will help you out.”

“Oh if the sky comes falling down, for you,” they sang together, “There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.”

Their voices became silent while Shiloh’s violin melody turned into it’s own solo.

Goosebumps rippled up and down Eden’s arms as she watched the three continue singing and playing together. If there were ever a moment in her time here that she wanted to capture and play over and over again, this would be it. The harmony, the camaraderie, and the enjoyment were all things she wanted to savor.

After Shy’s solo, Asher started singing again. “Hey brother, there’s an endless road to rediscover. Hey sister, do you still believe in love, I wonder?”

Caden joined in again where he did before. “Oh if the sky comes falling down, for you there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.”

“What if I’m far from home?”

“Oh brother, I will hear you call.”

“What if I lose it all?”

“Oh sister, I will help you out.”

“Oh if the sky comes falling down, for you there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.”

Shiloh had his own solo again, but it wasn’t as long. When he finished, the entire song ended. Eden enthusiastically clapped when they were done. “That was amazing!”

(Because Shiloh's violin skills should be heard, not read)

Wake Me Up - Avicii

The Promised Land: (Part 28) Little Talks 

“My name is Eden,” she said with a pleasant smile.

“Xidorn,” Caden interrupted with caution. “Before she continues any further, what do we know of Zeta’s technology?”

The white-haired leader scratched his chin. “Only that he has more of it than we do.” He briefly gave General Cyrus a questioning glance. “Why?”

Caden hesitated for a moment before blurting, “I suspect that he might be trying to develop a method to travel through time.”

Both Eden and Xidorn gave him surprised looks.

“Time?” Xidorn questioned in bewilderment. “For what purpose?”

“I… I don’t know.” The teen looked uncomfortable, fully aware of how unfounded the claim sounded. While Xidorn simply looked confused, Eden’s look of surprise was replaced with a huge grin. “Nothing like a little leap of faith,” Cay thought to himself.

Xidorn rubbed his wrinkled forehead. “Where would you get such an outlandish idea?”

“From me,” Eden cut in. “I’m from the past. 2012 to be exact.”

The elderly man stopped to look her directly in the eye. “How did you get here?”

“I don’t really know,” she admitted. “One day I’m in my dorm room at school, the next thing I know, I’m in a burning building in the middle of an apocalypse.” Gesturing to Shiloh and Caden, she added, “I probably would have been killed by the Atari if these two hadn’t found me.”

Xidorn looked back at Caden as the operative tried to explain himself. “Our squad was sent in to obtain the package and clear the complex. Most of it was destroyed when Atari goons jumped us. We found Eden with a party after our squad split.”

“Party?” Eden folded her arms. “It was an unwanted invitation, just so you know.”

“This is troubling news.” The old man rested his chin on the handle of his cane. “If Zeta has such technology at his disposal…”

“What of the other members of your squad, Blitz?” General Cyrus asked. “What happened at the rendezvous points?”

Caden ran a hand through his hair before speaking. “Our contact in Jericho was killed in a raid before we got there. The only squad member I saw in Briggance was Hunter. He admitted to murdering the other members and tried to kill me to get the package. I believe he’s been working as a spy.”

“For the emperor?” Cyrus asked.

Cay shrugged. “Not sure. He wouldn’t say, but I have a feeling it wasn’t for Zeta.”

“Very troubling indeed,” Xidorn leaned back in his chair. “I am sure this is not the only information you have, but what you’ve provided requires thoughtful review.”

“Xidorn,” Caden said, “Hunter was just one spy. There are more scattered throughout the resistance. Given the nature of Hunter’s ability, I’m not so sure I succeeded in elimination…”

The old man nodded thoughtfully. “Very well. Is there anything else that demands our immediate attention?”

Eden tentatively raised her hand and asked, “Is there a way you can get me back to my own time period?”

Xidorn frowned apologetically. “I am afraid not, my dear. The resistance does not have much experience with respect to time travel.”

“Much?” Eden asked with an ounce of hope.

“Any. Forgive me, my dear. There is nothing we can do to help you get home.”

Eden’s shoulders drooped, but Xidorn continued. “We are simply not properly equipped to handle such a task. The best I can offer is a home here. I know that is not the answer you want, but it is the best I can do under such circumstances. I regret to say that you have arrived at a very difficult time in history.” Gesturing to both Caden and Shiloh, Xidorn said, “Roaming with these two, I am sure you have seen enough to grasp the current state of affairs.”

“I got the gist of it, I guess.” Eden’s arms unfolded to hang in the air for a moment before planting themselves on her hips. “But what am I supposed to do here? I can’t just hide while the world falls apart. My timeline or not, I want to help.”

“I understand your point.” The white-haired man rubbed his chin. “We might be able to give you something to do… Have you any skills?”

“Um… Not really. That’s kind of what I was going to college for...”

The elderly man shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll think of something useful. In the meantime, I’ll let Misty know to give you a room.” Gesturing to the door, he added, “Now, I suggest you three get some well-deserved rest. One can only stand being on the field for so long before it takes a toll.”

With a nod, Caden turned to the general. “When should we be ready for transport?”

“You don’t have to worry about that, Blitz,” Cyrus said. “You and Boomer have done enough here. We’ll have someone else handle it.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Cay started, determination seeping through his voice. “I took on this responsibility. I would like to see it to the end.”

The general turned to Shiloh. “I suppose you stand with him on this?”

Boomer nodded.

“As expected. We will inform the professor, but you are not authorized to leave this facility until you are adequately refreshed.”

Caden adjusted the bag on his back and saluted the general. “Very well, sir.”

As he, Shiloh, and Eden left the room, Cyrus called out after them, “I expect a written report from both of you by tomorrow. And don’t forget to check in with Doctor Ross.”

Cay waved to signal his acknowledgement, but continued to lead the trio back down the wide hall. There were fewer people traversing the complex. Looking toward the ceiling as they arrived at the center, she spotted a huge cube hanging in the middle with a clock on each side. The hands pointed to 8:45. Eden’s stomach growled and she remembered that it had been at least since early afternoon since she’d eaten anything.

“Soo…” she started as nonchalantly as possible. “What’s the plan now?”

Caden slowed down and looked half-interested in the conversation. He also looked really tired. “Well, I don’t know where you’re staying, but I need food.” Turning to Shiloh, he asked, “Do you want to drop our stuff off while I grab dinner?”

After a nod from his brother, Caden handed off his belongings and asked Eden, “If you want to just stay here, I’ll bring back something for you too.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Going their separate ways down two different corridors, the twins left Eden in the center of the hexagonal room. The bustling center had calmed down significantly. Two or three people walked by at a time, meandering down one hall or another. Hearing some form of melody behind her, Eden turned to see the guitar player from earlier. Still sitting on the lowest stairs, the male’s blond head was focused on the guitar. When Eden walked closer, she had the strangest feeling that she knew this person. The guy looked up at her with big blue eyes and smiled. “Hi.”