Escaping the Cataclysm

by Keith Robinson

  “I took all of my blueprints and notes and put them in my workshop with the nearly complete pyramid,” he said, his face becoming confident once again. “I decided to seal up the workshop, knowing that someday in the future, someone would break the seal, find my notes, and, with their curiosity burning, they would complete the project. But, the moment they turned it on, it would follow the programming I placed into it and return back here to me.”

  “So dat was why we couldn’t control it,” Akwen breathed in frustration.

  Although Mack did not translate her statement, Arngrim’s comment made it seem as if he guessed at what she had said. “I give you credit, though. You gained more control over my Ark than I would have thought possible. I had programmed it to land here in this room. When it didn’t arrive, I nearly went insane with anger. Then, when Vidarr brought me word that a group of strange, pure-blooded visitors had come looking for me, I realized the truth.”

  A sudden thought struck Jeffrey with the force of a lightning bolt. Turning to Jerome, he gazed at him intently. “Did you hear what he said earlier? He sealed up the chamber with the technical journals and pyramid. But he wasn’t in there himself!”

  Jerome’s eyes widened. “Yet we found his dead body as well as the body of one of his Nephilim guards!”

  “Which means,” Jeffrey continued, trying hard to contain his excitement so that Arngrim wouldn’t suspect anything. “Something else happened to force him to lock himself in there.”

  “But what?” Jerome countered. “And how do we know that we haven’t somehow changed things by being here?”

  “I don’t know, but we have to keep stalling,” Jeffrey said.

  “Why did you put the book with the information on how to build a gravity control device in the antechamber?” Dr. Eisenberg asked curiously, causing Jeffrey and Jerome to cease their private conversation. “And how did you keep it from being destroyed by the Flood, yet accessible to people in the future?”

  “Simple. I didn’t want just anyone to stumble upon my Ark,” Arngrim stated after receiving the translation from Mack. “They may have unwittingly destroyed it in their ignorance. No, I needed to make sure that whoever found it would be advanced enough in technology to be able to finish it. So, I created a test. If they were intelligent enough to follow my instructions to build a gravity control device, then they should be able to complete the pyramid also. To ensure the survival of my blueprints, I sealed the antechamber with an anti-gravity field that was set on a time delay. Several years after the Flood was over, the field would disappear, allowing the antechamber to be uncovered.”

  “There’s still something I don’t get,” Jerome said. “How is it that Nimrod also had the technology to create a core for the Tower of Babel that was identical to the one designed for the pyramid?”

  When Mack had finished translating the question, one of Arngrim’s eyebrows rose questioningly. “So, you say that one of Noah’s descendents created a core that fit my pyramid. Very interesting. It would seem that my young cousin actually followed my instructions. That is good. That is very good indeed.”

  Disconcerted by anything that their captor might consider to be “very good,” Jeffrey frowned. “What instructions did Noah follow?”

  “Not Noah,” Arngrim said with a smirk, “but his son, Ham. Out of all of Noah’s three sons, he was the one that showed the most promise. Whenever we got into a debate, Ham seemed the most sympathetic to my views. Several years ago, he came to visit me without his father’s permission. At that time, I tried to convince him to take some scrolls on his father’s Ark that represented the knowledge and history of the gods so that future generations would know what our world was like before the Cataclysm.”

  An image of the library in the Tower of Babel flashed before Jeffrey’s eyes. “That’s where all of the legends of the pre-Flood false gods came from!” he said, stunned.

  “Yes,” Rebecca said, her eyes wide. “Ham must have hidden the scrolls aboard the Ark. After the Flood, he must have used the information in the scrolls to teach his children about the false gods. Once the people dispersed after God confused their languages, the truths of the pre-Flood world became embellished and turned into legends and myths.”

  “But, that still doesn’t explain how Nimrod was able to build an exact replica of the core,” Dr. Eisenberg said.

  Arngrim folded his hairy claw-like hands into the folds of his robe. “When I learned that I would not be able to complete the pyramid in time, I sent a messenger to Ham immediately with a package. I knew that if I wanted someone to be able to have the technology to complete the pyramid, I would have a greater chance of succeeding if the world already had the knowledge in their hands.”

  “The package you gave Ham was the technical blueprints for gravity control and the pyramid!” Jeffrey said.

  Even as Arngrim nodded in acknowledgment of Jeffrey’s comment, Lisa had already begun speaking. “So that’s why the technology that Nimrod had is nearly identical to the technology before the Flood! The gravity control devices, the core, the flying platforms—Ham had the specs to create all of it!”

  “And after the dispersal at Babel, no one could read the blueprints anymore,” Rebecca added. “Which is why the technology was lost, except for a few of the devices that survived, such as the ones the Mayans had—”

  Rebecca was cut off in mid-sentence by a mighty earthquake that knocked everyone to the floor, including the Nephilim guards. When the trembling ceased, Arngrim quickly jumped to his feet, the confidence that graced his expression moments ago having evaporated.

  “It seems that this world’s time is nearly up,” Arngrim announced as the guards and their prisoners regained their balance. “Fortunately for me, while you languished in the dungeon, I spent the entire night preparing for my journey. And so, I thank you once again for finishing my Ark and bringing it to me. It is time for me to depart. My lovely concubines are already on board, and I don’t want to keep them waiting any longer. The New World awaits its master!”

  Even before Mack had a chance to finish his translation and realize what was happening, Arngrim spun around and headed back toward the pyramid.

  “Wait!” Jeffrey called out, causing the Nephilim guards to quickly take up positions on each side of the prisoners, the lengthy spears in their hands turned sideways to prevent the prisoners from moving either forward or backward.

  “Oh, God!” Lisa called out in fear. “He’s going to take the pyramid and leave us here to die!”

  Jeffrey felt his own mouth go dry as he realized that there was no escape now. Once the pyramid disappeared, they would be doomed. “We have to stop him! There’s only two guards. If we all attack at once, they won’t be able to catch—”

  The shaft of the thick spear butted into the side of Jeffrey’s head, sending him crashing to the floor dazed. Staring down at the puny humans less than half their size, the wolf-like Nephilim soldiers began to salivate, as if hoping for a fight.

  Lisa knelt down next to Jeffrey attempting to staunch the flow of blood that was trickling down his face from the small cut he had received from the spear. Dazed, he and his companions looked on in despair as Arngrim, master and creator of the Pyramid of the Ancients, stepped through its entrance and shut the door behind him.

  24

  Arngrim’s Fury

  Rebecca felt a hollowness settle in the pit of her stomach as the door of the pyramid closed. Beside her, she heard Lisa begin to weep softly. Then, to Rebecca’s surprise, she heard her begin to pray. “Oh Lord, please take care of my girls. Jesus, protect them.”

  Turning to face her one-time best friend, who was still kneeling next to Jeffrey, she stared at her, conflicting emotions of compassion and hate rushing through her. Sensing Rebecca’s perusal, Lisa looked up at her, an expression of utter regret and sorrow on her face. For several long moments, the two women stared at each other in silence. Rebecca could almost feel the silent plea for forgiveness that was expressed in Lisa’s eyes.
Yet, Rebecca’s mind rebelled against what she knew was right, bringing back images of Lisa’s betrayal to use as a shield to ward off any feelings of compassion for her friend.

  Jeffrey sat up slowly, drawing Lisa’s attention. She helped him to his feet, and then surprisingly stepped away from him to stand next to Mack. Rebecca’s gaze lingered for a moment, then scanned the faces of each of her other friends, their faces mirroring her own feelings of defeat and grief. The two Nephilim guards, although keeping an eye on the prisoners, were nevertheless watching the pyramid with intense interest.

  The sensation of someone’s hand slipping into Rebecca’s own broke through her swirling emotions. Glancing to her right, she saw Dr. Eisenberg smiling sadly at her; the resignation she saw reflected in his expression caused another pang of sorrow to sweep through her.

  “We have little time left, Rebecca,” he said. “Will you go into eternity harboring unforgiveness in your heart?”

  Turning away from his convicting gaze, Rebecca stared at the pyramid. A blue glow began to appear under it as the engines revved up. Tears burned her eyes as she considered his words. “You’re right, Doc. It’s just…it’s just so hard to let go of my hate.”

  “Ask God to give you the strength,” he said softly.

  Casting him a grateful smile, Rebecca took a deep breath and stepped over to where Lisa stood staring at the pyramid which had begun to rise off the floor. As she touched Lisa’s arm, she turned toward her. Then, without a word, Lisa fell into Rebecca’s arms and began to weep profoundly, her words of regret spilling out like a flood. “Becky, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…” Moved by her friend’s brokenness, Rebecca embraced her, tears running freely down her own cheeks.

  Lost in the emotion of the moment, Rebecca was startled when Mack spoke next to her, the confusion in his voice jolting her back to their current predicament.

  “What’s he waiting for?” Mack asked.

  Breaking her embrace with Lisa, Rebecca looked over at the pyramid and noted with interest that it was still there, hovering several feet off the floor.

  “Maybe he’s just toying with us,” Jeffrey stated, his right hand still pressing against the small wound on his head.

  Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone in the room, the engines began to slow down and the pyramid came to rest on the floor once again.

  “What the…?” Mack said, his brows furrowing in confusion.

  Before anyone could even begin to venture a guess as to the cause of the turnaround, the door of the pyramid opened once again and Arngrim strode out, his face reflecting his fury.

  At his approach, Rebecca and the others instinctively shrank back. However, the bull-like guard behind them used his spear to keep them from retreating further.

  Reaching out with one of his hairy, claw-like hands, Arngrim grabbed the front of Mack’s robe threateningly. “What did you do to it?!”

  Nearly collapsing in terror, Mack stuttered a reply. “I…I…don’t….don’t know. What…what’s wrong with it?”

  Arngrim narrowed his eyes. “As if you don’t know. Tell me how to fix it. NOW!”

  “Pl…please. I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with it,” Mack pleaded. “Perhaps if…if you told me—”

  Anger raging through him, Arngrim threw Mack to the floor of the chamber. “I don’t have time for these games. The ship will not travel through time!”

  Cowering on the floor, Mack stared up at him. “We didn’t do anything to it! We were never able to control it much.”

  The ape-like man’s face suddenly relaxed. With a supreme effort, he reigned in his rage. “I will make a deal with you. If you tell me how to fix it, I will take you and your friends with me. You can serve me as slaves, but at least you will be alive.”

  Mack trembled, his voice strained. “We can’t help you fix the pyramid. WE DON’T KNOW HOW!”

  Leaning over Mack, Arngrim’s eyes widened as he lost the tenuous control of his anger. “You will tell me what I want to know, or you and your friends will suffer!”

  Without Mack’s translation, Rebecca and the others were forced to merely watch in fear, wondering what was happening. Straightening up, Arngrim suddenly froze as if listening. Outside, in the corridor, the faint sounds of booted feet could be heard in the distance. After a moment, he turned back to Mack and spoke again, then barked out a command to the two guards. Immediately, they picked Mack up from off the floor and began herding the prisoners toward the exit. The bull-like guard opened the door, looked both directions down the hallway, and then began leading the group quickly through the halls, Arngrim following close behind.

  “Mack, what’s going on?” Jeffrey whispered as they were ushered down a stairwell.

  On the verge of tears, Mack began to explain. “The pyramid won’t work! He thinks we did something to it, and he doesn’t believe me when I tell him we didn’t!”

  “So where’s he taking us?” Jeffrey asked as he glanced behind them at the agitated form of their captor.

  “He wants to…force us to talk,” Mack said, looking like he was going to be sick. “Jeffrey, help me! It’s going to be just like it was with Nimrod at the Tower!”

  Before Jeffrey could respond, he heard Jerome suck in a breath sharply. Whipping his head around, he began to search for the cause of Jerome’s reaction. “What? What’s wrong?”

  Pale and shaken, Jerome looked at Jeffrey, his eyes wide. “Don’t you recognize this place? Don’t you realize where we are?”

  As Jeffrey looked closer at their surroundings, the blood drained out of his face. “Oh no.”

  “What? What is it now?” Rebecca asked, deep lines of concern carving themselves into her features as she studied the horror-stricken faces of her friends.

  “Dis is da floor above da chamber containing da pyramid!” Akwen stated.

  Now that it was brought to her attention, Rebecca could see the columns with their intricately carved designs and lettering. Although she had only seen the actual dig site a couple of times, she understood that her companions knew it well from the years they had spent studying it. If they were above the chamber, that could only mean that Arngrim was taking them to one place.

  His workshop.

  The Nephilim guard brought the group to a halt at what appeared to be a dead end passage. Arngrim made his way to the front of the group, looked around to make sure no one was in the vicinity, then depressed a hidden section of a nearby column. Suddenly, a portion of the wall moved backward revealing a staircase hidden beneath the floor, a blue glow preventing anyone from entering. Moving his hand to a column on the opposite side of the stairs, the ape-like human pressed another hidden button and the blue field disappeared.

  Arngrim led the way down the large stairway, the Nephilim guards following behind with the prisoners. As they descended, Rebecca remembered the sense of disquiet and foreboding that she had felt when she had entered the ruins for the first time and viewed it with new understanding. This place reeked of demonic power and activity. Jeffrey and the others hadn’t just made a simple archaeological discovery, they had uncovered a stronghold of evil.

  When they had all arrived in the antechamber, they could see that another blue field surrounded the wall opposite the stairs. Stepping over to the wall on the left side of the small room, Arngrim inserted a special key-like object into an unremarkable hole. A second later, a tiny, square panel opened up next to it, revealing three buttons. Pressing the one on the left, they heard the wall covering the top of the steps slide back into place, sealing them in. Arngrim then pressed the center button, and they watched as the blue field surrounding the door to the workshop disappeared. Opening the door, he stepped through it. Hearts beating rapidly, the prisoners followed as the Nephilim guards shoved them from behind.

  A poignant sense of déjà vu struck Rebecca as she entered the chamber. However, based on the expressions on her friend’s faces, she knew it was even stronger with them, for while Rebecca had arrived years after the chamber had bee
n discovered, her husband had been the first person to set foot in the room for thousands of years.

  The dimly-lit room was in nearly the same condition as it had been that day years ago when Jeffrey, Jerome, Mack, and Akwen had entered. The main difference being that instead of broken glass, pottery, and other items lying all over the floor, they were organized in an orderly fashion on the shelves and tables that lined the room. In addition to that, the only other things missing were lots of dust, and two dead bodies.

  One of the two “missing corpses” stopped and turned to face the captives once they had all entered the room. “Bind their hands and stand them against the wall so they can watch,” Arngrim commanded. Grabbing a length of rope that hung from a hook on the wall, the two guards immediately set about fulfilling their master’s command. As they did so, Mack began to plead once again.

  “Please! Mighty Arngrim, we…we honestly don’t know why the pyramid won’t work! Why won’t you believe me?”

  “Because you are just like Noah: stubborn,” he responded coldly. “The only thing you understand is pain.”

  As he made this last statement, he took from a shelf a pair of items that reminded Mack of the gravity control devices that they had used to carry the core out of the Tower of Babel. Only when combined with Arngrim’s words, the seemingly innocent objects suddenly took on a sinister air.

  “Go back upstairs and wait outside the hidden entrance. Make sure we are not disturbed,” Arngrim said to the bull-like soldier, who promptly turned and left the room. Returning his attention to his now bound prisoners, he smiled wickedly. “Down here, no one will hear you scream. And as you know, I have no time to be patient. You will tell me what I want to know, or I will torture you, then begin killing you one at a time.”

  Mack began to sob, memories of the Tower of Babel and Nimrod flashing through his subconscious once again. “I already told you,” he gasped, “we didn’t do anything to the pyramid. We started it up and it brought us here!”