I adjusted myself on the root to see around the massive trunk. The woman was standing on the ground ahead of me, looking up into the tree branches. She must have seen me. I opened my mouth to respond.
But a new voice answered, this one sending chills along my skin.
“Doessss it matter who I am?” the voice replied. At first, the voice sounded soft…just shy of friendly. Its source was closer to me than I thought. But where was it? I searched the canopy, trying to follow the woman’s gaze.
“I suppose not.” She started to braid a section of her hair. She seemed indifferent, like she couldn’t feel the danger lurking in the shadows.
“Have you ever wondered what it wassss like to be like God?” the voice asked innocently.
Something…something was terribly off.
I searched the tree branches frantically. The wind whistled between the leaves. Empty.
The woman frowned. “Like God? No one can be like God.”
“That’ssss what He wantssss you to think, my girl.”
Goosebumps pinpricked along my spine. There was danger in that voice. I didn’t know how I knew.
Or how she didn’t know.
She paused. “Really?”
“He told you He didn’t want you to eat from thisss tree. Didn’t He? He sssaid you’d know thingssss you’ve never known before. But what if,” the voice continued. “What if He told you that becaussse He knew you’d be like Him? And power like that? It’ssss unimaginable.”
That was when I saw it. The dark half of the tree was so black, it was almost impossible to make anything out. The serpent slithered forward from the dead tree branches, his tongue vibrating in an elongated hsssssss. He drew closer to the woman, the rest of his body wrapped around the ashy tree limbs and unwinding slowly. His slinking, scaly body dipped low enough to meet her face to face.
“Why don’t you try it, my girl?” His tongue flicked forward, inches from her lips. The snake’s tail wrapped itself around one of the tree branches. He pulled it down so that the branch bowed near her chest. One of the fruits, rich and ripe, clung to the branch by a single stem.
“Eve, tasssste it.”
I saw her reaching for the fruit through my milky glazed eyes, and I snapped awake.
“What are you doing? Stop!” I started to shout.
The serpent’s head flicked towards me. His eyes were blue, the irises swirling with darker flecks of color. The flecks turned black, then the eyes turned red, flaming like a fire after gasoline had been thrown into it.
“Too late.”
Eve bit into the fruit.
“No!” I shouted. But it was done.
The lights blinked out.
Chapter Sixteen
“He saw that everything
they thought or imagined
was consistently and totally evil.”
Genesis 6:5 NLT
When I opened my eyes, I was already running.
The sounds of the city crashed into me like a wave. Dirt roads replaced the meadow grasses and the smell of rotting food, fire smoke, and filth hit my nostrils. The streets were narrow and lined with houses of mud brick and stone. A crowd pushed through the thin space, the people elbowing each other and shouting. I flattened myself against a wall at the last second as a cart pulled by a mule shoved its way through the cloud of ash hovering above our heads.
I peered up the street. I spotted the dark entrance to an alleyway up ahead. I made a break for it, keeping to the outer edges of the road.
“Almost there,” I told myself. I dodged an elbow that nearly nailed me in the head.
Ten more steps and I’d be there.
Suddenly, two bodies tumbled into the street in front of me. I stopped abruptly, missing them by inches. One of the men threw a punch, shattering the other man’s nose. He bellowed and pulled back his fist and connected it with flesh. They broke through the crowd, disappearing in a sea of bodies.
I sprinted towards the alley and ducked into the shadows, trying to catch my breath. I coughed violently and leaned my hand against the wall. My chest was aching.
I lifted my hand off the wall, something sticky covering my palm. The stench of fresh blood wafted into my nose. Bile rose in my throat and I tried not to think of vomiting. Looking down, I tried to wipe my hand on my jeans.
But my jeans were gone. I was now wearing a thin tunic that reached down to the tops of my feet. It was cinched at the waist with a belt and a head covering covered the rest of my head and hair. My sneakers were now a pair of simple sandals.
I slowly wiped my hand on my tunic. Panic struck me in the chest.
I needed to get out of here.
I checked the street to see if the coast was clear. The road was still packed and several brawls had already broken out along the edges. Across the street, a man grabbed a woman by her hair and dragged her back into one of the buildings.
I felt dizzy. The road teeter-tottered.
I shut my eyes. “Focus, Gen. Find a way out of here.” I opened them and searched for a break in the crowd.
There.
I wouldn’t get another chance like this. I narrowed down the spot and prepared to bolt.
A hand wrapped itself around my arm and yanked me backwards. I spun and hit the ground face first, the wind knocked out of my chest. A foot pressed down on my back, crushing my ribs into the ground.
“Regretting standing around in an alleyway, girl?”
Someone ripped off my head covering and pulled my head back by my hair. I screamed, pain shooting up my neck and back.
“No one will care if you scream.” He shoved his face into mine, his stinking breath choking whatever air I had left. Somehow, I knew he was telling the truth.
He took his foot off my back and lifted me up by my armpits. My back smashed against the wall as he slammed me into the mud brick.
“Something tells me you’re not from around here,” he hissed into my face, and the serpent’s eyes flashed in my mind.
Suddenly, a cloaked figure appeared from the shadows. I dropped to the ground as he grabbed the man and threw him back against the opposite wall.
“Where’s my silver?!” the cloaked figure screamed into his face. It was another male’s voice. The first man choked against the arm pinned over his throat.
“I-I told you I’d get it to you.”
There was the sound of choking as the figure pressed harder against his throat.
“So where is it?!”
“I-I don’t know!”
I heaved a few breaths and stood up shakily, trying to regain my balance. The alley spun in circles and I dropped back to the ground.
I crawled back towards the street, heaving. The road was starting to look clearer now that oxygen was in my lungs. I forced myself to stand up. I sprinted up the street as fast as I could in a robe, trying to put as much distance between me and the alley behind me.
When I thought I couldn’t run anymore, I slowed to a stop. The streets were still narrow here, but I’d taken so many turns I had no idea how to get back.
Not like I needed to get back.
There was less of a crowd here, but I felt just as uneasy. Two women in sheer robes with slits up the thigh passed by, the gold chains that wrapped around their waists and draped over their head coverings jingling as they moved. They glared at me as they went by. Several vendors selling beads and woven scarves lined the side of the wall, but it must have been towards the end of the day since they were starting to pack up their carts.
I spun in a circle, trying to catch my breath. I jumped out of my skin when an older man brushed passed me, a bundle of sticks on his shoulders. I rubbed my shoulders, remembering the man’s hands pinning me against the wall.
“You’re not from around here.”
I shuddered. This city was dark, and I needed to get out of here.
I felt someone pull gently at my cloak. I turned around to see an old woman crouched over herself, a scraggly robe draped over her frail body. She turned
her sunken face to me, mumbling a sentence with thin, cracking lips.
“Rain is coming,” the old woman gasped, tightening her grip around my cloak with gnarled fingers.
I tried to free the cloth from her hands, but she grabbed on tighter, dragging me closer to her. Her eyes were yellow and webbed with red veins. She opened her mouth and a foul breath blew in my face with a view of black, rotting teeth.
“Rain is coming,” she repeated with an eccentric look in her eyes. “Rain is coming.”
Chapter Seventeen
“And rain fell on the earth
forty days and forty nights.”
Genesis 7:12 NIV
A rock whizzed between my face and hers.
She let go of my cloak, wailing as if she’d been hit. I fell back in surprise, catching sight of a group of teenage boys laughing and running towards us from down the street. Their robes were tattered and scattered with holes, and as they drew closer, I could see bone beneath their skin.
I shot to my feet as another rock hit the ground next to me. The old woman was cowering beneath her cloak as the boys reached us.
“Abner, look what we have here.”
The five of them circled around me like a pack of wolves. They snarled and licked their flashing teeth. I didn’t want to imagine what they were thinking.
“What’s a nice girl like you doing here?” Abner grinned. He scanned me up and down.
I stayed silent, searching for an escape route. They were surrounding me on all sides, slowly closing in on me so that my back was nearly touching the wall.
“She does not speak,” the first one snickered.
“Better that they don’t talk,” another said. The five of them laughed at that.
I took another step back and my feet hit the wall. My heart sank.
There was no way out.
“What do you want?” I finally said, trying to buy myself time. My heart was beating so hard I could have sworn they could hear it.
“Hm, what is it that we want, Rafi?” Abner grinned at his friend and they both snickered together.
“Why don’t you make this easier and just come with us?” Rafi turned to me, drawing closer. His eyes flashed greedily as he reached for my arm.
Just then, the caravan of carts that had been packing up their merchandise wheeled passed us. The vendors knocked the boys out of the middle of the road, cursing at them and shouting for them to make room. The boys cursed back angrily and shoved each other out of the way. Rafi turned towards the commotion in the street, irritated. He pushed Abner out of the way and shook a fist fiercely at an older man pulling a cart.
I took my chance.
My feet kicked up the dirt behind me. I didn’t look back once, not even when I heard one of the boys shouting that I was getting away and the sounds of five pairs of running feet thundering behind me.
I just ran faster, hoping I had enough of a head start. After a few turns through the maze of buildings, the sound of the quiet streets behind me told me I’d lost them. I tried to calm down, but I didn’t slow my feet. It was enough to bring me out of the city.
I must have been already near the edge, because it wasn’t long before a field came into view. The rolling hills stretched on passed the horizon. The city was centered high up on top of a hill. There were a few scattered trees in the distance, but behind the natural dips in the land, I could clearly see the sun setting.
I stopped, catching my breath for the third time today. I shot a glance behind me, making sure I wasn’t being followed. The streets were dark and empty. I let my shoulders relax.
That was too close. I was stuck in this world, wherever I was, until I got kicked out. When and where that would happen, I had no clue. I was only just now getting used to the fact that everything I touched was real just as much as everything else that touched me.
And it was completely freaking me out.
Hammering sounded somewhere over a hill. I frowned. It looked like there was only land past the city. Were people down there? I glanced one more time back at the streets.
I knew which was better of the two.
I picked my way down the hill, trying to follow the sound. Once I reached the valley below, I started to climb back up the second hill. The pinnacle loomed above and I pushed my legs harder.
It was only at the top when my mouth fell open.
The rest of the valley opened up beneath me. An oasis of trees and a running creek covered the terrain with lush flora. A wide meadow stretched itself across the plain, hidden between the folds of rolling hilltops. And smack-dab in the center of all this was the body of a massive boat.
By the looks of it, the skeleton was over four stories high and over 500 feet long, most likely the size of a smaller cruise liner. And it was built entirely out of cypress wood.
This was no boat. It was an ark.
I stumbled down the hill, taking in the valley below. By the looks of it, the boat had parts of it unfinished. Men were hanging from ropes as they hammered nails into the planks. An ox pulled a cart loaded with long wood beams to the side of the boat.
A crowd gathered around on one side of the ark. I drew closer but kept my head down. The last two situations from the city had left me shaking and on high alert. As the group snickered and cursed, I had a gut feeling these people were no friendlier than the last.
I didn’t notice the man standing on a ramp leading to the ark until he spoke out into the crowd. “Rain is coming. All who stay will be wiped out by the hand of God.”
The man’s hair was almost entirely white, save for a few gray strands that framed his face. His hair was wrapped in a ponytail that rested down his back, and a full beard reached to the middle of his chest. His face was wrinkled and seemed it had been for years, but he looked undeniably strong. He gazed confidently at each person, despite the murder in their eyes.
“There’s no such thing,” a woman in the crowd exclaimed. “You are a fool to think we’d listen to you, Noah!”
“This man is crazy,” a man in the crowd followed.
“Do none of you feel the changing of the wind? The panic in the air? God has it set in stone, and rain will wipe everything out. He’s told me so.”
“God!” the first man spat. “A worthless and childish name only used to scare little children!” The crowd around him burst into laughter. By that time, I had made my way to the back of the crowd and continued to listen.
“We can do what we want, unlike you, the servant of a God that doesn’t exist,” he continued, encouraged by the crowd’s response.
“My only regret will be that you all meet the death you could have avoided had you listened,” Noah said quietly. One look at his eyes told me he meant it.
“Go back to building your boat, Noah!”
The crowd cheered their agreement and started to pick up rocks from the dirt. They chucked them at Noah, who held up his hands and disappeared behind the unfinished belly of the ark.
I ducked behind a boulder, panic rising in my chest. Flashes from the pack of boys swiped through my vision. Thankfully, the crowd dispersed after a few threatening rocks peppered the side of the ark. I waited until the last had climbed over the hill before I let myself breath.
The ark seemed even higher now that I was closer. I walked carefully to the side of it and peered up at the top. Staring at the top was just as dizzying as it would be looking down from that high up.
“Well, are you coming?”
I jumped away from the ark, startled. Noah stood quietly at the entrance. A dove perched on his arm. He stroked her feathers with his fingers.
“Wha-what? Who? Me?”
He chuckled, stroking the dove’s head. “Unless you want to go back with them.” He nodded towards the group that was heading back towards the city.
“I saw you lurking in the back,” he admitted. “You did not seem like you were one of them.”
I swallowed skeptically. “You might be right.”
He smiled at me and turned towa
rds the entrance to the ark. A beat later, he and the dove were shadows that matched with the darkness.
In that moment, I realized I had two choices—enter this abnormally large boat or take my chances back in the city. I had no idea how long I’d be here, but until I knew, I had to try to survive.
The last thing I saw was the sun shooting red and orange streaks across the hills as I stepped into the dark hallway.
A long passageway led from the entrance into the heart of the ark. Torches clung to the walls, and the hallway split off into separate corridors and rooms. The sound of Noah’s feet and his moving shadow led me forward. Suddenly, he slowed down and turned to face me. I halted, practically bumping into him.
“What’s your name?” Noah asked me. The dove on his arm shook its wings.
I paused. “Genesis.”
He scratched his beard. “Well, Genesis, do you have any idea why we are building this ark?”
“You told everyone rain was coming.” The old woman’s face wouldn’t seem to leave my mind.
“Not just rain,” Noah said solemnly. “A flood.”
“But what’s all of this space for?” I turned in a circle, gesturing towards the ark.
Noah looked at me and smiled slightly. He stepped forward, the golden glow of the sunset shining through the unfinished wall and illuminating his ocean blue eyes.
“I would move out of the way if I were you.”
I frowned at him. “What?”
Noah sidestepped just in time. I had barely enough time to get out of the way before two large horns appeared from out of the shadows. I flattened myself against the wall, an African buffalo trotting past us from the opposite end of the hallway. Its horns were an inch away from my face as he swung his enormous head. A female buffalo trotted after him followed by two white tigers, an occasional growl echoing against the walls as they disappeared down the corridor. I tried to blend into the wall as they went by.
I gave Noah a look and peeled myself off of the wall. “Was I imagining that or…”
“Follow me,” he grinned, and his smile made him seem younger than his years.
I didn’t get a chance to respond before he turned into another corridor. I followed after him, surprised to find a ladder that led up through the levels of the ark. He stepped onto the first rung and started to climb. I grabbed onto the bottom rung, glancing up at the top.
Worthy of Rain Page 6
