The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  They placed Angel on a stretcher and disappeared below. In the next wave of people emerging, Talia appeared and sniffed the air.

  “Someone pushed the button,” she said.

  “Yeah. Mrs. Sheldon was the happy recipient,” Keith said. “That was perfect.”

  “I saw Angel.”

  “You can see his papa, too, if you want to, as soon as we roll the rock off him.”

  “Good to know he’s where he belongs, and I’m in no hurry to see him.” Talia kissed Keith. “I’m so glad you’re all okay. So we won?”

  “You couldn’t see it on the monitors?” Keith asked.

  “I was distracted by certain much-too-happy campers and a baby who wanted his daddy, I think.”

  “Everybody was okay sleeping down in the caverns, right?”

  “Those we could get to go to sleep at all,” Talia laughed. “Half the kids were cannonballing into the hot springs all night, or cave-exploring. Drew’s people are exhausted from pulling them out of crevasses and down off ledges. Oh, and there are bats. Many, many bats.”

  “Great!” Keith said. “We can sell guano and retire rich and smelly, if there’s still a market for it anywhere.”

  “You’ll want to see the other interesting relic we found down there,” Talia said.

  “More tech we can use to beat off the bad guys?” Jiggly asked hopefully.

  “One passageway seems to be … well … it is… held up by a giant ribcage,” Talia said. “We may have found a specimen of the creatures they got the dragon skin from.”

  “A fossil? Cool?” Keith said.

  “Amu says more like a mummified corpse,” Talia said. “We can see the skin texture in the walls. It’s … you have to see it.”

  “Okay,” Keith agreed. “I want to, but I think we’ll have to have a day of rest before we can do that, and finish the tour.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

  Drew approached to report. “We got some guys searching the forest, but everybody we found so far has been secured. Couple with minor injuries, and I sure hope some permanent hearing loss, but nobody dead except the oily spot in the pickup. Picked up the three weird sisters staggering who knows where, and they are on their way to the authorities. What is that smell?”

  Anne appeared with the Tesla. The Sheldons disappeared below with MR. Sheldon in the care of one of Dr. Cornell’s medics.

  Anne said, “I did not know about that button. I want one on my car.”

  “Oh! Stinky and blue!” Drew grinned. “Hey, Miss Kitty, can we bury our collective hatchets and ride off into the sunset together?”

  “Ooh. Painfully mixed metaphors!” Talia groaned. “My English teacher ears are aching.”

  “Never mind her,” Anne said with a smile. “I’ll hitch up with you anytime you’re ready, Marshal.”

  Drew pulled her into his arms.

  Jiggly groaned. “Another happy couple. Ugh.”

  “Your turn is coming,” Keith said. “Just hang on with all your mechanical fingers.”

  “You making a prophecy, Mr. ‘I see tablets under the waterfall?’” Jiggly grunted.

  “Yeah. I am. Wait and see. Not sure when, but your turn is coming.”

  “I’ll hold you to that vision,” Jiggly said, and did a mechanical hand fist-bump with Keith.

  “These trips to the airport are getting old!” Keith exclaimed. “I hope things settle down pretty soon. People need to make up their minds if they want to be at Precious Treasure I or II, or if they just want to put up with the way the world is out there.”

  Talia laughed and bounced Baby Dan on her hip. After three months to be sure the site had not been compromised, they had decided to settle at Precious Treasure I. Brad Shannon had been in court almost nonstop arguing claims by irate parents against Dr. Williams or severing ties for the Sheldons or other children or marriages ravaged by different satellite groups of the Relief from Belief Foundation. The organization itself faced numerous lawsuits. Keith’s dad had been cleared of wrongdoing and other administrators were being exonerated on a daily basis.

  Dr. Williams was in custody, still awaiting the full list of charges. Mrs. Sheldon was up on charges for trying to poison her husband. Jenny Kaine was in and out of the hospital. Dr. Ewing could not refrain from updating them now and then on her condition.

  “That woman’s bedside manner really needs work,” Talia said as she read the latest text update from the good doctor. Apparently Jenny Kaine had lost all her hair. Dr. Ewing seemed downright cheerful about a recent series of painful facial skin grafts and an ear surgery that had failed to restore any hearing.

  Keith read over her shoulder and grinned. “I like Dr. Ewing’s manner just fine. Just wish we weren’t all so scattered. She sent that from Pakistan, didn’t she?”

  “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Talia said. “Everywhere. Translators are popping out new texts in contemporary languages on the modern version of orichalcum sheets every day now. It was such a blessing to discover that device for the communication system can sort of send faxes – a copy of a tablet will just be created on-site –”

  “Ancient 3D printer, more like,” Keith said. “That was so cool!”

  “Yes! You’re right. They wanted me to come and help at the Turkish headquarters, but I’m staying here and running the campground at least a year, because it’s still our world base. And Danny is not ready for globe-hopping just yet.”

  “David and Cindee went to Turkey,” Keith said. “Naddy and Sophie are in Greece. Where’s Jiggly?”

  “I think he’s back in Mexico,” Talia said. “He jumps around more than anybody. And he loves having a full-time assistant and Spanish translator. He and Angel really hit it off, didn’t they?”

  “Tom’s parents actually wanted to adopt Angel. They really thought he was a teenager. Not that he couldn’t use some good family time. And Jayna asked if she could write to him. It didn’t even faze her when I told her he might be almost ten years older than she is.”

  “Yeah. I could tell he was a little torn, but he and Jiggly make a great team. They never stop moving. Everybody wants a taste of what Britomartis’s ax can do, and it’s hard to build an apparatus that can vary the test parameters as easily as Jiggly’s arm can. He’s like a sentient sonic boom-maker.”

  “The different effects he got in that one try repelling the attacks on the ball court! He was amazing. I wish I could have watched all of it.” Talia sighed and checked her watch. “They should be headed toward the baggage carousels anytime now.”

  Keith sat down on a lounge seat. “Oh, man, I am already feeling winter’s approach. The pins and bolts and stuff are creaking right along with me.”

  “You are a Miracle Man, though, just like you told your grandmother,” Talia said, dropping down beside him. “We are all walking miracles, aren’t we?”

  “This guy will be too, as soon as he starts walking,” Keith said, taking Danny from her and swooping him up in the air. “Hey, Mister Danny, you sure you aren’t ready to go flying around the world yet?”

  Danny giggled and shrieked. Keith dropped him into his lap and blew on his belly, producing more giggles.

  “Here they come!” Talia cried. Tim, Lynette, and Ruan Holden approached. Talia ran to hug Lynette and Keith shook hands with father and son.

  “I’m so sorry about your mom,” Talia whispered to the young woman.

  “She never woke up from whatever happened to her that night,” Lynette said. “We were so glad Dr. Ewing took care of her, and thanks again for spending that time reading the Bible and praying and singing to her.”

  Tim’s eyes were still red. “Sometimes, you could see things in her expression – she never showed that anger anymore. We’re praying we’ll see her someday.

  “So many people came to the funeral. Kids from the class, other teachers from Bradley Central – Oh, there’s your dad. The plane was so crowded we couldn’t get seats together.”

  Joshua Bradley joined them. “Congratulati
ons on getting your Masters, son,” he said as he hugged Keith. “That Dr. Marks fellow really must have been impressed with you.” He accepted and dispensed hugs and kisses and received Baby Danny to bounce and make faces at.

  Keith grinned. “He sure did surprise me. When he told me to write up my findings on the ancient tech , I thought it was just for the Guardians, for reference or something. I had no idea he’d publish it and submit it for that special program his university has. And he’s the Chairman of the Department. I had job offers like crazy all week. Gonna try to fit in some contract work for some of them. That way Naddy and the foundation won’t have to keep paying all the bills.”

  “We wanted to come with you for the funeral,” Talia said. “But somebody had to be here for the long-delayed renewal of vows when it finally came off.”

  “They really did it, huh?” Ruan said with a grin. “They kept changing their minds, right up until we had to go.”

  “Just like a couple of teenagers,” Keith snickered. “My grandmother was the one who finally got through to them. ‘I think you-all are enjoying this break up to make up thing. Time to stop all this foolishness. They are called vows for a reason!’ That convinced them.”

  “So Mr. And Mrs. Summers are for real again?” Ruan asked.

  “They are, at last,” Talia answered. “Except when they’re Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty. We had to bring horses to the honeymoon cottage for them, and …”

  “TMI! Too Much Information!” both teens groaned, clapping their hands over their ears.

  “Mrs. Summers will still teach the girls’ PE class, right?” Lynette asked when Keith and Talia stopped laughing. “My online college courses require a real PE class.”

  “She wouldn’t even think about giving it up,” Talia assured her. “And Mr. Summers will keep right on with firearms safety. I finally talked my Mr. Bradley into learning to use a gun.”

  “I hope I didn’t miss too much school,” Ruan said. “Your Biology class is really hard, Mr. Bradley.”

  “I’ll get you caught up, Ruan,” Keith promised. He mussed the boy’s hair. “After all, you’re one of the few people taking the class live. It’s still a lot easier for me to answer questions in person than by email or Skype.”

  “Come on. We brought the van, since we have a crowd,” Talia said.

  “Aww. I still never got to ride in your car!” Ruan exclaimed.

  “I promise you, I’ll take you out tomorrow,” Talia said. “But you better resist the urge to push that button. It costs a lot to reload the dye and stink.”

  “Whose phone was that?” Keith asked when a camel bell chime sounded.

  “Yours,” Talia said.

  “No, it was yours,” Keith insisted. They shuffled the baby back and forth until Joshua Bradley grabbed him again.

  “Long time no see, Grandson,” he said, kissing the little boy.

  “It’s Jiggly,” Talia said. “He said Amu and Zanamu sent him an urgent message that they needed him in Greece. He flew there, and …”

  She stared at the tablet screen. “Oh! Oh! I don’t believe it!” She started jumping up and down, waving the tablet and chattering in Farsi.

  “What?” Everyone asked half a dozen times before she stopped and held out the tablet. A picture was still forming on the screen. Jiggly was easy enough to identify. The pretty young woman and the toddler with a mass of black curls brought questioning looks into everybody’s eyes.

  “Who is that?” Lynette asked.

  “Who are they?” Ruan corrected.

  “I think I can guess,” Joshua Bradley ventured.

  “Your prophecy came true!” Talia hugged Keith. “It’s Maria! She didn’t know she was pregnant when we took care of her on Naxos. When she found out she got scared and left. Finally she went back to her family in Italy and they’ve been helping her take care of the little girl. But Cindee has been trying to find Maria ever since Jiggly got himself straightened out, and she finally located her. She and Jiggly met in Greece and they’re getting to know each other again. The little one already loves her robotic patty-cake with daddy and her ‘Uncle Angel.’”

  “What’s the little girl’s name?” Ruan asked. “It better be something we can say. Still feels weird calling Mr. Jiggly that, but both his other names – man!”

  “Their daughter’s name is Juliana,” Talia reported after consulting the text message. “Jiggly says, ‘I am so stoked to be a dad! God make me worthy.’”

  “Go him!” Keith said.

  “That was Amu and Zanamu’s surprise. Jiggly the Cyborg, Jiggly the Ball Master, and now Jiggly the Daddy!” Talia said.

  “Wow,” Keith said. “And I thought I was the Miracle Man.”

  Coming Soon – Join the quest of the three daughters-in-law of Noah to protect and share Adonai’s true Words in the Cradle of the Stargate Serial Ancient World Fantasy. These stories will feature elements introduced in The Great Thirst serial including ancient civilizations and technology combined with historical and scientific truth about the post-flood world. Following is a sneak preview of the first installment: Harappa.

  Chapter One – A Meeting and a Death

  Taberah chose her footing carefully down the side of the gorge, shoving the eager goats contending for space aside with her rod. She pushed her thick black curls out of her face and squinted to see Jerah a mile distant disappear beneath an outcropping with the last of his sheep and mended her pace downward.

  In the other direction Rachel struggled to get her goats in some semblance of closeness, lifting her skirts over the thick brush. Caleb moved along beyond Rachel, his sheep reluctantly responding to the swing of his staff, casting doubtful eyes down the steepest part of the ridge that their shepherd had chosen for them.

  Taberah glanced up at the sun, just appearing over the ridge above. With all the chasing and regathering of the flocks it would be two hours before they met up at the bottom, and probably near dusk before the caravan wound its way to where the river gorge made a great green meadow and they could all rejoin, shepherds, goatherds and the cattle-drivers of the family. Taberah's golden brown eyes searched the ridges but now she could not see her brother or her cousins. They would reappear soon enough.

  Jerah had been right, teasing her about wearing her wolfskin. It was already too hot to wear the new trophy of her goatherding prowess, as proud as she was of the lush, silvery-rust pelt. She undid the thongs under her chin and rolled it up, tying it against her shoulders. Sweat beaded under her leather leggings too but in this thorny scrub she was not about to take them off.

  She tucked her rust and white linen skirts tighter into her knotted leather and fiber belt, setting the bronze danglers jingling. She loved this belt, a gift from aunt Riga, Rachel and Caleb's mother. It sounded like the camel bells and all of the boys' teasing about another camel on the march could not stop her wearing it constantly.

  She adjusted her headscarf and fastened the bronze pin more securely. Her constantly searching eyes spotted a wide ledge where her goats were gathering, with a spring pouring down out of the mountain into a cut in the stones and disappearing again. Good! A drink before descending sounded most welcome to Taberah, and soft green grass was a welcome, if momentary, change from slippery stones and relentless brambles.

  Taberah ground to a halt when a man stepped out of a recess in the cliff wall, his broad back to her, his dark, shining arms bare, bulging muscles and decked with thick golden bands set with colorful stones in intricate patterns. His garments looked like an odd mixture of armor and festival wear, richly dyed red and purple linen, heavy gold fringe and embroidery, and lots of jointed golden plates and more stones glittering in the sun.

  His hair was as thick and long as Taberah's but someone had spent some time taming those waves with shears and oil and --Taberah could not deny it -- hot curling irons -- into long, glistening braids and ringlets. Taberah watched him scoop up a double handful of water from the stream and splash it carelessly over his splendid robes and jewe
led ornaments.

  As impossible as it seemed, Taberah realized she looked down upon a Babelan nobleman in full regalia. The pyramid city was huge, sprawling, she had always heard, but surely it was days away from here. The moment that realization hit her Taberah knew also that such a man, perfumed and bejeweled as he was, could not possibly be alone. She had stumbled onto a Babelan war party and did not see any way of escape.

  He turned around and looked straight up at her. "Good morning," he called with a huge smile. He spoke the Babelan tongue, all right, which her father had forced her to learn a smattering of in anticipation of this trip. The rest of what he said she gathered from the few words she knew along with his expressions and gestures. "I wondered who all the goats belonged to. Come on down. There's plenty of water for all, and it's cold and sweet." He said the last with eyes that traveled up and down her.

  Taberah did not move. Her eyes kept scanning for the rest of his men. She had already palmed her sling and a stone in the groove she had worn in her rod just for that purpose, and her skinning knife lay just under her right hand. But she had no delusions that her weapons would help her against even this one man with oiled wrestler muscles and a heavy, shining sword staked in the ground beside him.

  And she knew there had to be more than one. This man was a prince of high rank, no doubt with a score or more of retainers. Were they hiding somewhere just to attack four poor goat and sheepherders? Did they know about the caravan, or were they going to try to find out where she and her relatives had come from?

  "May the mercy of the One be upon me and mine," she whispered. The other herders were still out of her line of sight. She prayed they might pass unnoticed, but she had little hope for herself.

  "Here, let me help you down, goatherd," the man said, stepping up toward her, extending a hand. "You must be thirsty."

  Taberah shook her head, trying to watch her footing, the man, and scanning for signs of others all at the same time. She failed in the first endeavor and sprawled, skidding several rodlengths downward. He was upon her before she even heard him amid the skittering stones.