Lovers of Babel

by Valerie Walker

  George now had Chad against a wall. Chad was looking up at him with a look somewhere between fear and annoyance.

  “Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s just a rumor.”

  “If you don’t want your face to be pounded in front of the entire Tourney you’ll tell me where the room is!” George’s face was so close to Chad’s that I imagined he could smell the processed meatloaf and asparagus he had for lunch.

  “What? Are you afraid to be beaten by someone two years younger than you and half your size? It must kill you to know that all the hard work it took you to bulk up won’t amount to anything in the Tourney. It’s the quality of the mind that matters; not the girth,” Chad said.

  That received a standing ovation from the audience.

  Suddenly, George wrapped his massive hands around Chad’s thin neck. There was a short struggle and then in the blink of an eye they were gone.

  The scene switched to both boys standing in the midst of a white room. George released Chad from his grip and gawked at his surroundings with his mouth wide open.

  “Where are we? Where have you brought us Blondie!?” George asked.

  Chad was in awe of his surroundings as well. It looked like they were in some sort of void. There was nothing but white all around.

  “Could this be…it?” Chad said to himself.

  “Hello! You teleported us here. Now what the heck is this place?”

  “You wouldn’t have had to come with me if your hands weren’t around my neck.” Chad looked at him condescendingly.

  Once George was put in his place, the boys decided to explore the void. They began to walk forward, which was a challenge on its own, because there was no since of direction in a formless void. Everything was white. The only thing that allowed them to determine what was up and what was down, was the fact that they were walking on the surface of something. They walked for what seemed like five minutes and then there was a dark hole that appeared in the distance. At first it was the size of a key hole then it got bigger the closer they got until they saw that it was a dark opening where a door would be.

  The boys looked at each other, then at the entrance.

  “I think you should be the first to go inside,” George suggested.

  Chad was unenthused. He examined the entrance trying to see what was inside, but it was pitch black. He even tried to look around the opening, but it was like an optical illusion where the entrance appeared in the same place no matter what angle he was looking at it. There was no way to see around the entrance. It was as if this was where the void ended. They were forced to enter the black space.

  “We both go.” Chad stated.

  “Hold on, hold on a minute. Someone needs to wait out here to be on the lookout.”

  “For what? We’re standing inside a white void of nothingness.” Chad responded flatly.

  George lowered his head slightly nodding.

  “Common’ let’s get this over with.”

  They began to walk toward the entrance and as soon as their feet touched the blackness everything went dark. With the infrared camera, the audience could see them in the dark. They each instinctively looked behind them and the void was gone. It was like it had been swallowed up by the blackness of the place they had entered. Their breathing became more hard and breaths more frequent. They started walking forward which was harder to do than in the void. The absence of any light was extremely disconcerting. As we watched the boys drift away into the dark they appeared to be walking away from each other unknowingly. The audience yelled at the screen in vain for them to stay together. Eventually they were so far apart that the camera began to switch between two scenes; one with Chad and the other with George.

  George was the first to make his solo debut in the blackness. He started to call Chad’s name, but got no response. Once he realized that Chad was gone he started to whip his body around in search of his friend, Blondie.

  “Chad! Okay I’m sorry for calling you Blondie all this time…and the choking thing. Sorry. Common’ where are you?”

  Chad was standing still. He called for George, but got no answer.

  “I would teleport right now, but I really think this is the Room of Worthless Creations. Gotta find that portal, but how?” Chad was talking to himself.

  He continued to walk through the darkness and came across a hint of light in the distance. He began to increase his pace. In the horizon was a thick fog that hovered close to the ground. It was so thick that the ground was hidden. He looked around to see if there was anything else in this deep morbid expanse, but there was nothing. He began to walk through the fog and with every cautious step, the fog got thicker and thicker until it was difficult to see. Chad tried waving the fog away from his view, but to no avail. Then he heard faint sounds coming from all around him. He looked around to find where the noises were coming from when suddenly his foot kicked something that was on the ground and it let out a pained grown. He immediately bent down under the fog to see what it was. There, underneath the fog, was a hybrid creature of some sort with the face of an owl and the body of an alligator.

  Chad recoiled in shock and fell to the ground. The creature was barking at him like a dog. Chad began to crawl away and in his eyesight were countless other creatures and creations that cross the boundaries of insanity. There was an octopus with a woman’s head, a bird with spider arms, and a lion with the body of a mouse. These were the creatures that made even the most eccentric soul turn its eyes away in disgust.

  Among the strange creatures were even stranger objects. There were life-like dolls that could move, but refused to be played with. There were compasses that constantly switched direction and the infamous willow tree that eats humans. Chad was crawling in a gravesite with the biggest freaks of nature that ever existed. He tried to crawl faster, but he was surrounded. He was forced to pick up creatures with his hand and move them out of his way. Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name in the distance.

  The camera switched back to George who was walking through the fog.

  “What is this place? I don’t believe this is the Room of Worthless Cr-“ he tripped on something suddenly and fell flat on his back. He was grabbing his back in pain when he noticed a human hand clutched around his ankle.

  “What tha!” George tried to kick it off, but the hand’s grip strengthened. The hand then began to pull George. He struggled to pull himself away in the other direction. His fingers were buried in the soil grabbing onto the earth in a desperate attempt to get away from the evil hand.

  “Get off me!” He yelled with one last kick that sent the hand soaring through the fog.

  “This has got to be the Room of Worthless Creations. Why else would there be a living hand lying in a graveyard? What a freak show!” George heard Chad calling him in the distance.

  “Chad! Hey! Hey, I’m over here!” Suddenly a gold light coming from under the fog caught George’s eye. He crawled toward it.

  The scene switched to Chad, who apparently saw the same light, because he was crawling toward it as well. Chad reached the golden orb first. It was no larger than a fist, but the light permeating from it was very bright. Chad had to squint his eyes to get a better look at the orb. He reached out and grabbed it. As he surveyed it in his palm, his face glowed in golden radiance.

  “This is it. This is the Portal of Antiquity,” Chad said to himself with a smile.

  Unknown to Chad, George was watching him from behind.

  “What do you have there?” George asked, startling Chad almost to death.

  Chad flinched slightly then turned his head around to look at George.

  “Oh, uh, it’s nothing,” he lied placing the orb in his white jacket pocket.

  “I just saw a light coming from where you are and now it’s gone. I know you saw it too.”

  “Light? No, I didn’t see any light. You know I don’t think we’re in the right place after all. I’m gonna trek,” Chad said while standing up.

  “Don
’t lie to me Blondie! I see the light coming from your pocket!”

  George pointed at the orb that was slightly poking out of the jacket exposing some gold light.

  Chad looked down.

  “Oh, this thing? It’s just—,” suddenly Chad dashed away in an Olympic sprint.

  “Hey! Get back here!” George yelled running after him.

  A different camera caught an aerial view of the chase. The audience was laughing at how funny they looked hopping over the creatures under their feet. Occasionally there would be the sound of something breaking and we’d know that they crushed a creation. The audience winced with each crunch.

  George was gaining on Chad. Chad looked behind him and started running faster. George made a giant leap towards Chad and tackled him to the ground. They fell on top of a pile of piranhas with crab bodies. Both boys were yelling and struggling to get to their feet. During the struggle Chad dropped the portal and it fell on top of the piranhas. Like an army of ants, the piranhas started to carry the portal away in a straight line.

  “No! Stop them!” George yelled. He tried to take the portal, but they were biting his fingers and he kept snatching his hand away in pain.

  Chad was looking around for anything he could use to catch the portal. He came across a burlap sack that was lying near a large rock underneath the fog.

  “I really hope this sack isn’t some worthless creation,” he said to himself while crawling over to it. Once he gathered the sack he ran over to the piranhas that had made their way to a small moat in the soil. He was looking frantically for the portal. There, just a few feet away from the moat, was the portal being carried along in a vibrating rhythm. Chad immediately threw the sack over the portal, as well as the piranhas that were carrying it, and closed it.

  As he was standing up and began to throw the sack over his shoulder, there was George looking at him with an evil smile on his face.

  “Thanks for making my job much easier. I’ll be taking that from you now.” George held out his hand.

  Chad smirked at the audacity.

  “No you won’t. You see I’m leaving now. And you, you’ll be here for a while.” Chad said while backing away slowly.

  George laughed.

  “No you won’t. You are going to give me that portal like a good little Blondie or I am going to make your life miserable when we get back to school.”

  George was patiently walking toward Chad.

  “Well, even so, that won’t be any time soon, because you see, you don’t know how to get back. Do you?”

  “What?”

  George was getting more annoyed.

  “The Tourney, you monstrosity! I saw that word in a book once, but you wouldn’t know anything about that now would you? No, of course not. You don’t have time to read. You spend your time bullying other kids who are smaller than you. Well, let this be your learning lesson. Never try to chase someone faster and smarter than you!”

  George started at Chad.

  “Oh, and I hope you can swim,” Chad said as George lunged toward him, but just as soon as Chad was in his grasp, Chad disappeared. George was grabbing the air with his arms as he belly flopped into the moat.

  The audience burst into hysterics. I knew after witnessing this that I wanted to be friends with Chad. He was my hero.

  Chad appeared in the middle of the Tourney almost unrecognizable. His white track suit was stained with mud. His blonde hair was blackened with more mud. And his smile was the muddiest I’d ever seen. He was suddenly aware of the grit in his teeth and spit on the lawn of the Tourney. He looked up at the audience and with a big sigh, lifted the burlap sack into the air. The audience applauded.

  “Now wait one minute. I have yet to examine the contents of that sack and until I do, there is still no winner of Quicktrek,” the Herald said ruining the excitement.

  Above our heads on the screen was George struggling to get out of the moat. With the size and stature of him along with the mud that had engulfed his body, he looked like some type of mud monster. When he finally made his way out of the moat, after first fighting off a frenzy of piranhas, he stood up and stomped his feet in a tantrum. For me, this was the highlight of the Tourney.

  “Now, bring me that sack.” The Herald commanded a Tourney worker.

  The worker hurried over to Chad who was holding out the burlap sack that was moving from the piranha hybrids trapped inside. The worker reluctantly grabbed it and rushed it over to the Herald’s seat. He placed the sack inside of a black basket that was attached to a pulley on the side of the Herald’s seat. The worker then pushed a button on the side of the pulley and the basket rose steadily to the top of the throne where the Herald was waiting.

  “Let’s see what we have here,” the Herald said.

  He slowly pulled the sack open by the draw strings, looked inside, and immediately closed it back. He looked at the audience and let out an embarrassing chuckle. He looked down towards the worker who brought him the sack and called him to the seat. They deliberated for a moment and then the Herald sent the basket back down with the sack inside.

  The worker wiped his brow. He opened the sack slowly and after a deep breath he dipped his arm into the sack. He let out a comical scream and immediately pulled his arm back out exposing teeth marks all over it. He grabbed it with his other hand and looked to be in severe pain.

  “Somebody get this man a doctor!” The Herald demanded with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

  Chad walked over to the injured worker and grabbed the bag. He dumped the contents of it on the lawn of the Tourney. This was the smarter move.

  There it was, amidst the dozen or so piranhas flailing around on the grass; the Portal of Antiquity. It was shining so brightly it could’ve been a star. Chad bent down, picked it up and showed it to the audience who was cheering.

  “Here is your proof, Herald! Now, is it over?” Chad called up to the Herald.

  “Bring it to me so that I can examine it,” the Herald said.

  Chad placed the portal inside the black basket and sent it up to the Herald. The eccentric announcer held it in his hand with as much caution as if defusing a bomb. The light from the portal was so bright that it made his face disappear from the view of the audience. He cupped the portal inside of both hands and the light disappeared.

  “This is it. The Portal of Antiquity has been found at last! And we now have a new winner; Chad Pilgrim!” The Herald announced excitedly.

  The game masters came down from the stands to greet Chad, something they didn’t do for the previous winners. They placed a glass crown on his head that was adorned with a jewel encrusted air symbol in the center. The audience applauded. Chad Pilgrim was the youngest teleporter to ever win the Tourney.

  After a few minutes of applause, the Herald raised his hands in a gesture to silence the audience.

  “Everyone please quit down. There’s still more to be said. As you recall before Quicktrek I mentioned that an extra prize would be given to the winner. Well, I have that prize in my possession right now.”

  The Herald raised his closed right hand out to the audience and opened it. The light emitting from his palm shot through the glass ceiling of the arena. The audience was stunned. The extra prize that would be given to Chad was the actual Portal of Antiquity.

  Chad looked up at the Herald with his mouth agape.

  “But you will not receive it now,” the Herald said and closed his hand again shutting out the light.

  “This gift will be presented to you by the headmaster of all power schools, Amias Riley!” He announced.

  The audience was inundated with “ooh’s” and “ah’s”. Chad looked slightly confused and unsure how to react to the news. What on earth would he do with such a powerful thing like the Portal of Antiquity? From my seat I could tell that this is what he was thinking.

  Later we would find out that the Quicktrek competition was actually a test to find the best teleporter in power school. A couple years later my father, Amias, woul
d ask Chad to embark on a journey to find the ancient book that had been stolen. He would tell him to use the portal to help him find it. If Chad knew then the consequences of his victory, he mightn’t have fought so hard to win, but this was the way things operated in power school. Each assignment was a test of our abilities. We were constantly being held under a microscope. I know now that it was all a part of my father’s plan to create perfect gang of young power players who would lead the Equinox into a militarized society. But before he could do this, he needed that book.

  After witnessing my first Tourney, Chad, Mia and I became friends. Our friendship would spark something in me that would never die; my hunger for the truth.

  Chapter 2: Mammoth Forest

  It was my sixteenth birthday and I was unenthused. For a girl with so much responsibility I could care less about the carousing that goes along with another birthday party. But there I was seated on the radiant birthday throne made up of ten red dwarf stars, 200 tiny neutron stars that twinkled twenty times per second and 50 blue-white stars; it looked like Christmas, from what I’ve read about it. The light was so bright that I couldn’t see any of the faces eagerly wishing me a happy birthday or the fact that most of these faces were strained from all the fake smiling. My father made it imperative that I get the royal treatment on this day. He had the top creators in town make me a seven-foot tall edible cake made to look like a tall stack of 75 of my favorite books. This was the only thing that pleased me that day despite the gorgeous hovering constellations necklace that my father created for me. I heard he had been practicing that hex for two months just for me. It would have pleased me if I had not had such a sour feeling about hexes.

  If it hadn’t been for Chad and Mia my birthday would’ve been extremely boring. While all of my father’s friends and associates were carousing we decided to sneak off to our favorite place: Mammoth Forest. This forest was the very first creation ever made by the hands of a human. They call it Mammoth Forest because supposedly the guy who created it saw a Woolly mammoth coming toward him. Of course this would’ve scared him because at that time mammoths had been extinct for centuries. Now, we coexist with mammoths and other prehistoric-like animals. Some people think once the Equinox happened the time/space continuum changed and it brought back creatures from the past. I think because of the extremely cold climate and the ice age that happened after the apocalypse, the animals adapted to the climate and grew fur. Either way, compared to what I’ve read about the old world, this place seems magical.