Chapter 6 - Is it Worth it?
“Sir, Prince Roz travels freely, always watching, always demanding destruction,” said Eli. “How much longer will he be allowed in this world?”
“The Day of Judgment surely comes. But until the Books of Life are complete, two paths remain before wounded humanity. Guilt drives men to compromise. Grace draws men to redemption. Prince Michael has been dispatched. He will stand against the Prince of this realm.”
As Peter was walking back to his truck, the overhead flood lights in the hole went out. He was instantly plunged into absolute darkness. He could not even see his own hand in front of his own face. But it was not just the dark that troubled him. It was a kind of skin-crawling, creepy darkness that felt almost as if it were alive. It was the kind of darkness that makes grown men run and hide.
“That’s not funny Tobias,” Peter yelled back up the dirt road. “Turn those lights back on right now!”
Standing perfectly still, Peter waited a few moments hoping Tobias would have a change of heart and flip back on the switch at the main electrical breaker box topside. But nothing happened. Realizing he was on his own, Peter tried to concentrate on the exact location he last saw his truck. Making a mental note of its position, he decided the best way to get back to the vehicle was to keep the image of a clock in his mind.
“If I walk straight towards eleven o’clock,” he concluded, “I should run right into the tailgate.”
Guessing the truck was about ten steps ahead, he began to walk slowly towards his vehicle. Peter reasoned that the sound of his voice would help steady his nerves, so he counted out loud.
“One, two, three...Augh! What was that?” he cried out. Peter felt icy cold fingers touching the back of his neck and he thought he heard the sound of heavy breathing close by.
“Calm down old boy!” he said out loud. “This freaky darkness is just playing tricks on your mind.”
“Four, five, six…Ouch!” Peter felt as if he had just been punched in the face.
Staggering a bit, he shouted, “Who hit me? Where are you?” But no one answered.
“Seven, eight, nine...Ugh!” Peter stumbled and fell face down in the dirt.
Terrified, he screamed, “Who tripped me? Tobias, I swear you’ll be sorry!”
Peter got up on his knees and thought, “Ok, now which way is the truck? Let’s see. I fell forward so it should still be just one or two more steps directly ahead.”
Peter realized that in absolute darkness, it was easy to lose all sense of direction. So he figured he had a better chance of reaching the truck if he stayed on his knees. And he gained a small degree of comfort knowing his hands were connected to something solid. So stretching out his arms in front of him and methodically moving them from side to side, Peter continued to inch his way forward.
“Ten…eleven…Aahh! At last!” he sighed heavily as his hands brushed against the edge of something rubber. He guessed it was the rear tire on the driver’s side.
Peter stood up then carefully felt his way around the body of the truck until he reached the driver’s door. As the door opened, he was momentarily blinded by the dim cab light. When his eyes adjusted to interior lighting and Peter could see what he was doing, he quickly jumped inside behind the steering wheel and locked both doors. Putting the key in the ignition he looked up and screamed.
There on the outside of his windshield was a snake. It’s long, slimy body was twisted and sprawled across the glass from one side of the truck to other. With mouth wide open and fangs exposed, its’ head lay pressed against the glass right in front of steering wheel. Two bulging, yellow snake eyes were fixed on Peter.
Unnerved, Peter automatically switched on the windshield wipers hoping the blades would push the reptile off the hood. That’s when he realized the creature was already dead. Although the wipers were not strong enough to remove the serpent, the blades did shove its’ lifeless body over to the passenger side of the windshield.
Turning on the headlights, Peter exhaled deeply. Much to his relief, a sense of security and courage were restored as the brilliance of the dual lamps dispelled the intense darkness inside the hole. With a large portion of the glass exposed, Peter was then able to see enough of the ground ahead to safely maneuver the truck.
He spent the next hour or so slowly driving back and forth throughout the entire length of the pit hoping to spot whoever had been tormenting him three stories beneath the surface of the earth. Though he saw no one, the mysterious, invisible voice returned. This time Peter heard the message loud and clear. “Get out of this pit! Get out now!”
“No problem!” Peter shouted out loud.
He spun the truck around and quickly drove out of the hole leaving a trail of dust behind him. But as Peter reached the surface he discovered the security lights were off topside as well. The entire construction site was dark.
“What in the world is going on around here?” he wondered out loud.
Invisible to human eyes, the moment Peter’s truck was topside Triumphant Ones sprang out from behind massive iron rollers inside the equipment yard. At the same time, Shining soldiers covertly buried deep inside enormous mounds of dirt shot straight up into the air like exploding stars. Other Radiant Warriors flew out of gigantic concrete drainage pipes where they had been hiding, awaiting the call.
“How foolish and weak is the Light! Such an assault was anticipated. Arise evil comrades,” ordered Commander Deobolas. “Defend what has lawfully been seized.”
In a flash, supernatural battles erupted in every corner of the construction site as wicked warriors once again engaged their holy attackers in an age-old struggle for dominion. Using earthen objects as weapons of destruction, unearthly combat sprang to life. Like miniature children’s toys, heavy-duty compaction equipment was tossed on top of advancing holy warriors. Bales of barbed wire were overturned on the ground to ensnare pursuing unicorn hooves. Holy winged soldiers were kicked against scrapper blades and sent tumbling over the top of watering trucks. Triumphant Ones were chased through office trailers and empty steel dump trucks. Long dark horns relentlessly jabbed and poked the glowing fighters, chasing them from one end of the site to the other. At every encounter, General Victor’s forces appeared to be outnumbered and out maneuvered.
In a final, massive coordinated attack, Deobolas succeeded in defeating his holy opponents. Half of Victor’s soldiers were utterly routed off site through the main security gates and driven west over the Mediterranean Sea. All remaining warriors were driven high into the sky above the earth, in apparent defeat.
Peter phoned the emergency repair number to report the electrical outage. Within minutes a repair truck was on site. Wanting only to go home and get some rest, Peter was forced to wait on site until the electrical repairs could be completed.
While waiting for the repair crews, Peter poked around the grounds in search of a metal rake. Picking up the dead serpent still laying on the truck, he threw the body into a nearby dumpster. The creature left a trail of gooey, yellow ooze on the windshield.
“Great!” said Peter sarcastically. “I just had the truck washed. Now I’ll have to scrub the glass all over again.”
The electrician had no explanation for the outage. Perplexed and increasingly frustrated, Peter decided it would be prudent to make one last loop around the entire site just to make sure everything was secure before he went home. The last thing he wanted was to receive an emergency call to return to the site just as he was crawling into bed.
With security lights fully restored and flooding every square inch of ground, Peter drove slowly past the row of construction trailers parked near the entrance. He then circled south around several mountains of dirt, drove past the vehicle yard, and slammed on his breaks. The inside security gates were wide open. One grader and one of the watering trucks, which had been delivered along with the other compaction equipment earlier that day, were gone.
Raising his arms, Peter cursed, “What the @#$%!”
&nb
sp; Before taking any action regarding the missing equipment, Peter felt he needed to finish the site inspection. Continuing, he circled around another mountain of sand and abruptly stopped the truck once again. Directly ahead of him in the southeastern corner of the lot he found the watering truck. It was upside down leaning against the chain-link fence.
“That is the most bizarre sight I have ever seen in my life,” exclaimed Peter.
Driving along the eastern edge of the lot, Peter then turned and slowly headed northwest towards the entrance to the lot. That’s when he spotted the grader. It was resting on its side at the top of a mound of medium-grade gravel. The blade was sticking straight up in the air and embedded deep inside the mountain of rock.
Astounded Peter exclaimed, “How in the world?”
Peter then drove around the last mountain of dirt and saw another alarming sight. The gates to the supply and materials yard had also been unlocked and were wide open. Getting out of his truck for a closer inspection, Peter discovered that every bundle of stainless steel concrete rebar was gone. All that remained were impressions in the dirt where the bundles had been placed a day earlier.
“Is this what Tobias meant by ‘handling everything else?’” Peter wondered. “My God! The man’s crazy! What’s next?”
Peter had no choice. He called the police and then he called Zuriel.
Peter did not get home until 1:30 in the morning. Exhausted he walked into the bathroom to wash his face before trying to get a few hours of sleep, grateful his unusually challenging day was finally over. He turned on the sink faucet and waited for the water to get hot. The warm water felt so good on his weary eyes. He put down the wash cloth, reached for his toothbrush and looked into the mirror.
“Aaah!” he screamed. Staring back at him from the vanity mirror was the image of a huge, grotesque figure running towards him. It was a hairy black creature with two legs, two horns, a deformed nose and mouth and piercing black eyes.
Peter jumped back up against the bathroom wall and raised his hands to protect his face. “No! Get away! Leave me alone!” he screamed.
Micah’s phone rang at 1:00am. “Collins,” Micah said still half asleep.
“Micah, this is Zuriel. We’ve been robbed and the construction site was vandalized. You’re not going to believe this, but all the steel rebar delivered yesterday has vanished. Massad has already made a full report to the police. No one was injured during the robbery, but it appears one of the watering trucks and a scrapper blade were damaged. I don’t see any reason to delay the compaction crews scheduled to arrive this morning. However, we’ll need to get a heavy-duty crane on site to rearrange the vehicles. You’ll understand what I mean when you get out here. Can you be on site by 6:00am?”
“Count on it!” Micah assured Zuriel.
Peter did not get a wink of sleep the remainder of the night. He kept thinking ghostly figures like the one he saw in his bathroom mirror were climbing all over the walls of his bedroom trying to kill him. He had no idea how real they were.
At 5:30am Peter got dressed and called Amir’s office. “What are you trying to do to me, Tobias? Are you insane?” he yelled into the phone.
Tobias Amir was unaware of the demonic forces now in control of his every thought, word, and deed.
“Now you listen to me, Massad,” Tobias replied angrily. “A lot of people are counting on you to fulfill your part of this deal. You’ve got to get a grip and keep that overactive guilty conscious of yours under control. You can’t go bonkers on us now. Otherwise, you may end up losing more than you bargained for. Do we understand each other?”
“Are you threatening me?” Peter started to say, but Tobias hung up.
“What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?” Peter started to wonder.
Micah was dumbfounded! “How in the world could anyone move that equipment into such a bizarre location without being seen or heard?” he asked Zuriel the following morning.
“Good question but I don’t have an answer, boss! I’ve never seen anything like it,” Zuriel responded. “We’ve either got a very creative prankster or a lunatic on our hands!”
“Where’s Peter? What’s his explanation? Didn’t he hear or see anything unusual last night?” questioned Micah.
“He seemed as perplexed as we are, however he was pretty shaken up by the robbery. I told him to get some rest and come in later this morning. He’s been through a lot this past year and we need him to stay sharp,” Zuriel told Micah.
Later that morning, compaction crews began their work right on schedule. Motor graders with their huge, long steel blades began to smooth out the rough spots and fill in the depressions in ground at the bottom of the pit. Watering trucks began spraying water onto the dirt, while rollers attached to the caterpillars moved back and forth to compact the soil beneath. The ground had to be perfectly level and smooth before the steel rebar frames were laid and the concrete poured.
Around noon, two heavy-duty cranes were delivered to the site. The watering truck was turned right-side-up and the grader was hoisted out of the gravel pile. There was a gaping hole in the side of the water tank and the blade on the grader was damaged. Both vehicles were trucked off-site for repairs. Micah and Zuriel went back to the office. Peter stayed on site. Work continued throughout the day without any further interruptions or problems.
Late Thursday afternoon, Micah got a frantic call from Zuriel.
“Micah, get down here quick! There’s been a fire. Fire trucks and paramedics are on their way. So are newspaper reporters and a TV camera crew.”
When Micah arrived the fire had been extinguished and the area secured, but the site was anything but quiet. Emergency equipment and crews still scurried about checking for any dangerous hot spots which could rekindle the flames. Most of the rescue workers had already left. But as Micah was parking his truck, an ambulance pulled out with its red lights flashing and sirens blaring. He spotted Zuriel speaking with the fire captain and rushed over to join them.
“Micah, apparently the fire was caused by some sort of electrical malfunction,” Zuriel explained. “It started near the power poles, right next to the generators and then spread to the row of temporary office trailers. The electrical contractor’s trailer was totally destroyed. Two of their electricians were injured trying to contain the fire. They were just taken to the hospital with minor injuries but it sounds like they will both be fine.”
“Thank God!” exclaimed Micah. “Where’s Peter?”
“The compaction crews said he left the yard just before the fire broke out. He probably doesn’t even know about the fire yet,” replied Zuriel.
“Right,” Peter said. “Call me after you reach him. And as far as the media is concerned, CEI will release an official statement tomorrow. Until then, no one is to speak to the reporters, clear? I don’t want any misinformation floating around the city which could potentially jeopardize the project.”
“But I’m telling you I saw him!” Peter insisted.
“I don’t care what you think you saw. You’d better find another explanation when your boss comes knocking at your door. Your son is sure a cutie. I’d hate to see anything happen to him,” said the man at the other end of the phone call.
“You leave Jason out of this. I don’t care how much money you give me. It’s not worth it. I want out! Your guys are going to kill somebody! I will not be a partner to murder,” Peter shouted at the top of his lungs.
“There is no such thing as ‘out’, Massad. Now don’t call me again until you have my money and a delivery date.”
Messiah's Message Page 6
