The Awakening

by Ryan Sova

  Garry had made an estimated guess that his dream world had actually occurred about 250 million years ago. For one, this date fits somewhere in the middle of the original estimate that he read off of Wikipedia which was 175 to 335 million years ago. For two, the image of Pangaea that he saw said that it resembled an Earth from 250 million years ago and that image just happened to match up with what he saw in his dream.

  As Garry was conducting his research about Pangaea, a question came to his mind. Have humans really been on this Earth for 250 million years? Garry did not have to look far to find his answer. No, not even close! This left Garry feeling bewildered. Garry thought to himself sarcastically, well that’s nice, my dreams are only about 249.8 million years off on the birth of the human race.

  Garry kept on searching the web, trying desperately to find some answer that could possibly make sense of the very implausible date of his dream world. He continued searching for hours and finally stumbled on something that was very much unrelated to this topic, but none the less provided him with an interesting answer.

  He was looking up scientific facts that were subsequently proven wrong when he managed to stumble onto an interesting subject. Our solar system has been quite well understood in this modern age, or at least we thought so. We all used to know that there are nine planets in our solar system and an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This was the limit of our solar system right up until the mid-1990’s when our understanding of the solar system started to dramatically change. Back then, we started to discover what we know now as the Kuiper Belt. A massive asteroid belt past the orbit of Neptune that is twenty times as wide and two-hundred times as massive as the asteroid belt that can be found between Mars and Jupiter. This asteroid belt holds multiple planets, comets, and asteroids. All and all, over a trillion objects are believed to be located in this newly discovered Kuiper Belt.

  As Garry was studying this data he thought to himself, so this Kuiper Belt has always been here. From the birth of our world 4.5 billion years ago and the beginning of all life on this planet, this Kuiper Belt has always been here. Yet, no one knew it was here. For centuries, mankind gazed at the stars, named the planets and no one had a clue it was here. We built massive super-powered telescopes and sent probes out into the far reaches of space and still, no one had a clue it was here. With all our scientific knowledge we couldn't find something this massive, this numerous, that was literally right in front of us for billions of years. How then do we really know that humans didn’t exist millions of years ago?

  As Garry continued to contemplate this possibility, he concluded that the only reason we have the birth of humanity dated at two-hundred-thousand years ago is that we have not discovered evidence yet that sets this date earlier. In other words, we haven’t discovered this prehistoric mankind yet, just like twenty-five years ago when we had not discovered the Kuiper Belt yet.

  Garry was starting to become more and more confident in his answer to this impossible date for humanity, but there was still something that bothered him about this new theory of his. If there were really 250 million years of generation after generation of humanity that lived on this Earth, there would be an unfathomable about of arcological evidence left behind. So if this is all true, why haven’t we found any of it?

  A short while later, Garry came across an answer. A terrifying and horrible answer. It is known by modern science as “The Great Dying”, a global extinction event that killed off 96% of all life on Earth and just happened to occur about 251 million years ago, right around the same time as Garry’s dreams were taking him now.

  “Humanity was killed off. They all went extinct and must have stayed that way until two-hundred-thousand years ago,” Garry said out loud.

  Garry continued this dialog in his head, that would explain why we have not found archeological evidence yet. It would be nearly impossible to miss 250 million generations of human life, but a human civilization that died off that long ago would be much harder to find. My dreams must be showing me the events leading up to “The Great Dying”, but why? Could this be happening again now? Even considering that such a global extinction event might be occurring right now, in the present day, was terrifying. But Garry knew that his dreams must be showing him all of this for a reason and that reason all had something to do with these random creepy people that he was seeing in his dreams and in real life.

  Garry continued with the remaining part of his day. Most of the morning and afternoon hours had been consumed in Garry’s quest for knowledge about the ancient Earth that he saw in his dreams. He spent what little time that he had remaining in his day watching television. All and all, Garry felt relieved. His many hours of study had paid off and provided him with a clear and logical explanation for what he had seen the previous night. He actually looked forward now to visiting his dream world again tonight. After a few hours of watching TV, Garry was finally ready for bed. He turned the TV off, shut off the apartment lights and made his way to bed.

  As Garry was finally starting to fall asleep, another realization came to him. There were many creatures that he had been seeing lately in his dreams that were unfamiliar to him. He had not seen this so much at Nephal’s farm in Homestead, but in Cragword there were certainly some strange new creatures that he had never seen before. Garry had initially dismissed this as just another part of his fantasy dream world, but now he realized that he was actually seeing something totally different. He was seeing prehistoric life that has long since gone extinct.

  Garry took a moment to marvel at this and felt completely exhilarated that he was getting this rare opportunity. An opportunity to see these prehistoric creatures first hand. Not in some recreated skeleton or an artist's conception of what they might have looked like. He was getting the chance to see them as they really were in prehistoric times.

  Garry did not get to see any dinosaurs though in his dream world. His dreams pre-dated the birth of the dinosaurs by about 20 million years, at least according to modern science that is. Garry laid awake pondering all of this until he finally fell asleep.

  Things started to get more strange for Garry over the next six weeks. The number of random creepy people that he was encountering in his store was now growing rapidly. This number had now reached over fifty people. Every day now at his store, Garry would face at least one of these creepy people. Sometimes, he would even face multiple creepy people in a single night.

  Garry had not heard again from Detective Grant since his phone call with him six weeks ago. In this time, he had come to the understanding that for his friends at the police department, he was truly retired now. His murder vision dreams were finally gone, most likely for good.

  Garry’s dreams of Nephal had continued, though. The journey to the capital city of Bragsdale was still very much underway. Their journey had continued on a south-western course for eight-hundred miles until they reached a crossroad that would take them due south for another three-thousand and two-hundred miles, after which time they would finally reach their destination. This journey was expected to take just over a year and in the meantime, Garry was left with nothing but questions as to what they were going to learn once Nephal finally reached the capital.

  The kingdom of Noah, Garry learned, was laid out in such a way that any traveler, whether he be a merchant or a soldier, could reach any destination in the kingdom on foot with little or no provisions. The way that this was accomplished was that every city, town, and village was conveniently spaced only forty to sixty miles apart on the many interconnecting roads that the kingdom had to offer. Therefore, no matter where you traveled to in the kingdom, you would never have to spend more than a day or two on the road before reaching the next city, town, or village.

  Author’s note:

  This diagram is provided to give the reader a visual reference as to the layout of the prehistoric world

  Garry soon learned over the past several weeks that the long journey to Bragsdale was not going to be nearly as long for him as he
had first feared. It was most certainly going to be that long for Nephal, but not for Garry. Every single night, Garry’s dreams would jump forward about one week in time. He had no explanation for this sudden change in his dreams’ behavior. It was as if his dream world had suddenly decided to hit the fast-forward button. For Garry, this meant that instead of having to wait a full year to see what was at Bragsdale, he would only have to wait about two months.

  Another strange event that occurred was that Atonick’s prisoner decided to commit suicide. About two months into the trip, she stopped taking food and water. She was clearly intent on dying rather than remaining chained to the inside of a cage for any longer. Captain Ollendar suggested shoving a funnel down her throat to make her eat and drink but Atonick decided against it. He didn’t want any of the soldiers coming near their prisoner.

  It took the prisoner a week and a half to finally die after she stopped eating and drinking. After her death, people assumed that Atonick was going to abandon his quest and head back to the Borderlands, but Atonick was still insistent that the girl be delivered to Bragsdale and he was also

  insistent that her corpse be left undisturbed. Nephal could not understand this behavior, nor could he understand how both he and Eliak could still feel a creepy horror feeling around her dead body.

  As time went on, the men of the detachment soon learned that there are things that smell worse than a woman covered in her own piss and shit. Over time her body started to rot and decay leaving an unbearable stench around her cage.

  The time was starting to draw near to when Nephal would finally arrive at Bragsdale. Garry calculated that this arrival would probably take place sometime between ten and twelve days from now at the current rate of speed that time was progressing for Nephal every night that Garry would sleep.

  Garry had just arrived at work. It was a Monday night, one full work week before his next weekend break. By now, almost everyone had put Garry’s meltdown two months ago behind them. Work at the store had become fairly peaceful for Garry once more. With the exception, that is, to all the strange creepy people that he was constantly facing. That was never easy for Garry, but he had learned to cope with it. He had to. His job depended on it.

  The day passed by fairly normal. Garry only faced two creepy people at the store tonight and they were both repeat offenders (people who had frightened Garry before now). Once Garry had reached his car, he turned his phone on. Garry would normally turn his phone off before the beginning of his shift. He soon noticed that he had received a text message while he was at work. He touched the icon to open his messages and discovered that it came from Detective Grant. Garry opened the message. It stated, “Give me a call when you get this message.”

  Garry thought about this message for a moment. What could he possibly need from me, I’m not a psychic anymore, at least to them I’m not? After a moment, Garry decided that he was going to go home first before answering this message.

  Upon reaching his apartment, he called Detective Grant.

  Detective Grant answered the phone promptly, “Garry, I’m glad you got my message. There is an old abandoned church nearby that I need to meet you at.”

  Garry was puzzled, “Why, I’m no use to you anymore?”

  Detective Grant answered. There was a sound of urgency in his voice, “Yes you are Garry. I just didn’t realize how until just now. I am going to text you the address. I need you to come as quickly as you can. Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” Garry answered.

  “Good, we will talk more when you get here. I’ll text you the address as soon as we hang up. See you soon,” Detective Grant said and then hung up.

  The text message came moments after the phone call ended. Garry made his way back to his car. Upon reaching his car, he entered the address that Detective Grant gave him into the Google Maps App on his phone and then started heading towards the abandoned church to meet up with Detective Grant.

  Garry’s nerves were on edge while he was driving. It was dark now outside which made his nerves all that much worse. What Detective Grant needed to see him about seemed to be very important. Garry still couldn’t understand, though, how he was supposed to be able to help. As Garry was driving, his mind returned to the Rachel case from four months ago and the special secret that John had for his sister Rachel that took her into a dark and abandoned forest.

  “Stop it Garry, you’re being paranoid!” he yelled angrily.

  Garry turned his car radio up in an attempt to calm his nerves. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally reached his destination.

  The church seemed to be in good condition. The parking lot was very large and had a few overhead lights on to illuminate the area. The church structure itself didn’t seem to have any broken windows, graffiti, or show any signs of being run down in the slightest. It actually seemed to be quite fancy and an expensive piece of real-estate. The parking lot was completely empty save one car. As Garry drove up to it, he recognized it as Detective Grant's car.

  Garry pulled in next to Detective Grant's car. No one was in or by the car. Garry shut down his vehicle and proceeded to approach the church. An entryway light was on and the front door had been intentionally left open. As Garry continued to approach the church, he realized that there were no lights on inside the church, aside from the emergency lights that remain on 24/7.

  When Garry entered the church, he found himself in what seemed to be a large waiting area. There were several furniture chairs and couches on each side of the room. At the end of this room was a long hallway that ran in what seemed to be the full length of the church building. From this waiting area that was located just past the entrance at the center of the building, you could either walk to the left down the hallway or to the right. The church interior was dimly lit as the only light inside the building came from the emergency lights. Garry took note of the quality and cleanliness of the furniture, carpeting, and the condition of the building as a whole. This did not look like an abandoned church.

  Garry walked to the end of the waiting area and looked down the hallway on the left and right. There were several doors on the right and left sides of this hallway. The hallway also turned and continued at what seemed to be the edge of the building, most likely making a full square around the church. There was a door that had been propped open a short distance away heading right from the waiting area and on the left side of the hallway. As Garry turned his head to examine the hallway in both directions, he noticed a dark shadow in the silhouette of a person dart into the room with the doorway that had been propped open. He then heard some whispered voices from that room.

  “Detective Grant, is that you?!” Garry yelled.

  No one answered.

  “IS ANYONE THERE?!!” Garry yelled as loud as he could, now almost in a panic.

  There was still no answer. Garry proceeded cautiously down the hallway. He was sure that he had seen someone and that he had heard voices. He didn’t know yet what was going on, but he was starting to become terrified. There is something wrong here, Garry said to himself. He thought about running back to his car and driving home as quickly as he could but decided against it. There is someone here. Garry was sure of it and he wanted to know who it was and why. He also knew that Detective Grant had to be here as well. His car is here, so where is he, Garry wondered?

  As Garry approached the open doorway, he noticed that it was pitch-black inside the room, aside from the light coming in from the open doorway. Garry entered the room. He could see the faint image of church pews and immediately realized where he was. This is the chapel, Garry said to himself.

  Garry took a few steps into the black room and explored it the best he could. Everything he saw was pure blackness except for a few church pews that were just by the doorway. Suddenly hundreds of voices called out of the darkness in unison.

  “SURPRISE!!!”

  A light switch was thrown in the chapel and immediately the room filled with light. Standing before Garry were hundreds of
police officers, all of whom were in the cheerful attitude of celebration.

  “What’s going on?” Garry asked, still very confused. Then Garry finally saw who he had originally come here to meet, Detective Grant.

  “This is your retirement party Garry,” Detective Grant said joyfully.

  “You asshole!” Garry said with a smile on his face. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!” he continued.

  Detective Grant laughed as did many of the other officers. Now that the lights had been turned on, Garry could easily make out his surroundings. The many officers were all in their police uniforms. In fact, Garry was the only person who was not in uniform. The chapel was large and could fit around five hundred people. The room was filled with church pews that seated people during Sunday services. At the far end of the room was a stage with a pulpit and behind the pulpit was a large image of the crucifix. A large Bible lay open on a small table just in front of the pulpit. The walls of the chapel were lined with balloons and several strands of garland were drooped across the room just over the heads and out of reach of the crowd. At the far end of the room, right in front of the crucifix, was a large banner with two lines. The first line read, “In remembrance of 10 years of dedicated service, we salute you!”

  The second line read, “Garry Henderson.”

  “How did you all get here? There were no cars in the parking lot?” Garry asked.

  One of the officers answered, “We all gathered at the precinct and then used private buses to get here. We started showing up about two hours before you arrived.”

  “Yes, we started planning all of this about a month ago. Detective Klaben pitched in and helped a lot with the preparations but unfortunately she was not able to make it tonight,” Detective Grant added.

  Garry and the officers continued to socialize for several minutes, when Detective Grant interrupted, “It’s time that we get this thing started everyone.”

  Everyone in the room started finding their seats. Garry walked to the front of the chapel and started to find his own seat.