I know. Social media isn't the place for vulnerability. It's a place of smiling pictures and happy facades. If that's what you're looking for, keep scrolling.
I won't keep you.
I wrote a letter to my father. You don't have to read it, but I know he never will so you might as well.
Anyway
Today's your birthday. That's okay. It's just a day. But if there was never you, there wouldn't be me. I'm here anyway.
I baked a cake you'll never taste. That's okay. I burned it anyway.
I wrote a song you'll never hear. That's okay. I'll never sing it anyway.
I wrote a book you'll never read. It's full of all the words I never said. That's okay. I'll never say them anyway.
I look in the mirror and sometimes I see your face. Sometimes I see mine. That's okay. We both have gray hair anyway.
It's been 450 days since it started raining. It doesn’t feel like it ever stopped raining. That's okay. I built a boat, but it rains anyway.
The country you loved and spent 25 years in was invaded two weeks after you left. I wish I could say the war is over, but it's not. It's not okay, but they're still fighting anyway.
It's not okay. We're not okay. I’m not okay. But I have to be anyway. So I will be anyway.
You told me to keep my heart tender. I can't count the number of times it's broken, but that's one promise I kept anyway.
You warned me about the ticking clock of time. I can hear it now. I can see thestrals now. If they were real, anyway.
Just because I actually had two stored up that I never got around to posting….. Yeah, go back and check the post below this one. Surprise!
Unfortunately, that just means it will probably be a while before the actual action scene.
I know. I'm mean.
The Promised Land: (Part 32) Blindness
Once they reached the bottom
of the staircase, Eden realized they were in some sort of subway system. An old
subway car sat on its side, halfway into the station, blocking one end of the
tunnel. The car on the other side looked as though it had been torn apart in
the middle and each side was used to block both ends of the tunnel. As a
defensive position, in looked pretty sturdy. Whatever “monster” they were
trying to keep out, they made sure it had a hard time getting in.
Caden went to the middle of
the platform, where a large map stood, and took a pamphlet from the side.
Sitting on the concrete ground, he opened the pamphlet and traced his fingers
over a map of the underground tunnel system. “This is where we need to go,” he
said while pointing to a blue circle close to the left edge.
“Where are we?” Eden asked.
Her voice echoed louder than she expected.
Asher pointed to a red circle
close to the middle. Eden followed the red line until it connected with the
blue line then followed that until it reached the circle Caden pointed out.
There were a lot of other lines crossing the path they needed to take.
“We’ve got a long way to go.
Hopefully we don’t get lost.”
Caden nodded to Shiloh’s
light, “Once that dies out, don’t use another one. We’ll be in monster territory
then. They’re extremely light sensitive. We don’t need to give them a reason to
hate us.” He looked over and Asher and muttered, “Try to restrain yourself.”
“Monster?” Eden echoed.
“They’re more like werewolves,”
Caden replied in annoyance. “We just don’t have another word for them. We
should get going.”
Eden grabbed a couple extra
pamphlets in case they got separated while Caden tucked away his map. The twins
hopped down onto the track with Eden and Asher right behind.
“So these monsters…” Eden
whispered hesitantly, “…werewolves?”
“Not exactly,” Asher
replied. “They’re more of a wolf and coyote hybrid, but much bigger. Long,
sharp teeth, creepy eyes, fur and skin in patches so they look like the dead
brought back to life. They stink too.”
“And how many have you
killed?”
“Just a couple dozen.”
“Liar,” Caden interjected.
“Ok, I’ve never killed any.
They’re too dangerous to handle by myself. They hunt in packs and they almost
always stay underground, unless they need food.”
Eden shivered. “So where’s
the good news?”
Asher thought for a moment.
“They burn well. So what’s your gift?”
“My… oh, I … uh…”
“She doesn’t have one,”
Caden tilted his head back to Asher. “She’s a pure.”
“Ah, makes sense why you
don’t have a tag. Do you have a sword or gun on you… or something?”
“Not really,” Eden muttered
to her future relative.
Looking confused, Asher
turned to Caden. “Shouldn’t she have a shotgun or something? She can’t be
wandering these tunnels without a way to defend herself.”
Caden shrugged. “She’s done
fine so far. She can’t even shoot.”
“Really? She’ll have to
learn quick if we get mauled to death.”
“I don’t trust her aim.
Might get one of us killed. Besides, how do you know she won’t get eaten
first?”
Eden narrowed her eyes at
Caden. “Your words of comfort are exhilarating.” Even though she expressed
annoyance, she couldn’t help but be all the more terrified of their situation.
“Here,” Asher reached into
his rucksack and pulled out two black sticks. He gave one to Eden and held the
other in his hand. The top of the rod was made of metal, though had a rubber
handle.
“Watch this.” He swung the
baton down to the side of his leg to extend the rod. He pulled up the extended
baton and waited for Eden to do the same. She swung the baton until hers
extended. Lifting it up to inspect it, Eden noticed that the extended portion
had ridges all the way to the tip.
“I wouldn’t touch those,”
Asher commented. He pointed to a button on the rod. As he pressed it, the baton
instantly came to life with electrical energy. The rod sparked and crackled
with a blue glow. “It’s got a safety trigger you hold down,” Asher explained as
he let go of the button and handed the rod to Eden.
“You’re just going to give
these to me?” she asked in disbelief.
“Just until we teach you to
aim,” Asher winked.
“That is super cool. Thank
you!” Eden turned on both rods and swung them around a little.
“Ok, you have your glow
sticks, can you keep it down?” Caden whispered. His look of annoyance quickly
turned to high alert when they heard something skitter across the tracks. “We’re
producing too much light.”
Eden turned off and collapsed
her batons. Shiloh threw his light source back the way they came. They walked
along in silence. Eden’s eyes eventually adjusted to the dark, but she would
still bump into someone occasionally. At one point, they climbed on to the
platform of a station, went up a set of stairs, and crossed a bridge. It felt
like they had been walking for hours when Caden suddenly stopped.
“Wha-” Eden was shushed
before she could finish her question. A putrid stench hit her nose.
“Pack,” Blitz barely
whispered. “About thirty, at least.”
“Where?” Asher squinted into
the darkness, but he couldn’t see any more than he did before.
“Clustered. Center of
platform. Dormant. We can go around. Stay quiet.”
He led the way to the edge
of the platform and slid off without a sound. Shiloh and Asher followed. Eden
held her breath and carefully descended the platform. She couldn’t see the
individual monsters, only a large mass on the platform. The smell intensified
as they snuck by the pack. They didn’t risk stumbling over the monorail, but
continued forward. They were almost in the clear when a sharp CRACK echoed
through the tunnel.
Growls, clicks, and soft
thumps suddenly arose from the cluster.
So it's not that I forgot. Well, maybe I did a couple times, but it's been in the back of my head for a while.
Lots more life updates, of course.
Being married is awesome. Seriously. I married a pretty great guy.
Anyway, we went through another semester. He had school and work while I just had work. Then summer vacation hit and we both got new jobs.
So now in my spare time I do chores or play video games. Or help set up ladies' days, gospel meetings, or help out friends.
The family's back in the states, so that's cool.
All in all, staying busy. The new job has pretty good hours and weekends off, so hopefully I'll be able to get more posts out. That'd be cool.
On to The Promised Land.
The Promised Land: (Part 31)
Whispers in the Dark
Backup generators kicked
into gear and a string of blue lights lit up along the walls. Most of the
civilians were crouching or lying on the ground with their heads covered. Not
that such tactics would have done all that much good if the ceiling collapsed.
Shiloh sat up with a wince. His side was throbbing, but he stood up anyway. He
helped Eden to her feet.
“What was that?”
Instead of answering her
question, he led her to the nearest wall and opened a box filled with emergency
equipment. Shy took out a six-inch light stick, cracked it in half and shook a
couple times to get the white light going. Taking Eden’s hand, he twisted his
way through the area littered with terrified people. Whether she minded or not,
he didn’t know. Part of him hoped she would overlook the gesture. The other
part just really hoped she wasn’t offended by it. Why should she be? This was
only the third time he held her hand. Not that he was counting… He played it
cool nonetheless.
They went down one of the
hallways and into a room. It had bunk beds on both sides, but the back wall was
lined with lockers. People were hiding in here as well, in the beds, under the
beds, and on the floor. While the blue lights did a good job of lighting up the
smaller rooms, the light stick made it easier not to trip over some of the
curled bodies. Shiloh made his way to a bed and pulled out two bags from
underneath. One was a backpack and the other was his violin case. He took the
backpack and went to one of the lockers along the back wall. Opening it, Shy
stuffed all the contents into his bag before returning to the bed. He pulled on
a grey hoodie, put on the backpack, put the violin case on over his bag, took
the light with one hand, Eden’s hand with the other and left the room.
It was time to go. The
attack felt like a typical air raid, but it was far too close. The Atari were
closing in fast on the secret location of the base. Maybe it wasn’t so secret
any more. It was hard to tell how much information they had now and how many of
their spies were still active. Shiloh headed back to where he last saw his
brother.
“Caden will likely want to
finish the mission as soon as possible, but what do we do after that?” Shy
thought. “Maybe he’ll finally stop trying to be the hero. If he doesn’t, he
might get us both killed. I like helping people as much as the next guy. I
would even go out of my way to help my friends, but the resistance has their
own men for this. They can take over from here. I want to go back to living a
normal life.” Sure… a normal life. Life wouldn’t ever really be normal again,
but at least he would have the option of daily risking his life. Shiloh had
thought about what he would do if they ever got out of the resistance.
“Boomer.”
Maybe stay with Hope and
help her out with the orphanage. Seems simple enough. Probably too boring for
Caden, though he would enjoy the company.
“Boomer?”
Maybe Shy could find his own
place up in the mountains or someplace where plants still tried to grow naturally.
He had thought about setting up his own greenhouse. Trade in bullets for seeds.
Maybe start his own restaurant. That would be pretty cool. Maybe Eden could-
“BOOMER!”
He stopped walking and
looked at Eden. She pointed to something behind him. Realizing he was still
holding her hand, Shy let it go and turned to see Asher coming to meet them.
“Glad to see you two are
still holding up. I just saw Blitz at the office. He’s been looking for you.”
A number of people were up
and about again, checking to make sure no one was injured and leading some back
to the barracks. Even so, they were much quieter than before.
Asher spoke as he led them
back down one of the halls. “We figure they knocked out our power source. The
overheads should have lit up by now, but we’re still on generators. Cyrus sent
a team out to fix it. Everyone’s spooked. The boys outside say it was just a
drone, but they’re getting closer. Our guys are in position in case there’s a
second assault.” Asher turned to Shiloh. “Blitz said you’re heading west.
Seeing as I’m between jobs at the moment, I thought I’d join you. I don’t want
to be stuck here if another wave shows.”
“How often does this
happen?” Eden asked.
“Too often.” Caden pushed
his way past a few people and stood before them. “We have permission to leave.
Immediately.” He looked to his brother. The two shared an unspoken conversation
with only a glance and nod.
“What will happen to the
people here?” Eden asked quietly as they headed back to the exit they came
through the day before. None of her companions answered for a long time. In
fact, not another word was spoken or signed until after they were in front of
the woman with the clipboard and goggles.
“What do we have that’s
fast?” Caden asked.
“Except for the usual cars
and cycles, not much,” she replied.
“What about the monorail?”
“That’s been out for months.
Several of the tunnels collapsed.”
“What about the ones to Westgate?”
“That one should still be
intact, unless it was hit in the last hour.” Caden was about to leave when she
spoke up, “I wouldn’t advise going down there unless you absolutely have to. Monsters
roam those tunnels now.”
“No choice.” He kept
walking.
“Stay on your guard.”
The crew headed to a section
of the corridor Eden hadn’t noticed before. Through a set of doors in the wall,
they went down two levels of stairs. Shiloh cracked another light stick as they
entered to keep them from utter darkness.
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 12th 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 13th 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.
