when suddenly the lead car cuts in front of him. The driver of the vehicle sticks his head out of the window and starts yelling back at Tim. The small sports car slows down to ten miles an hour causing the three behind him to do the same.
The lead car continues to block the road as its driver continues to yell at Tim. The surprisingly strange behavior of the man begins to turn Timothy’s shock into anger. Several times Tim lunges his car as he tries to get the individual to move, but he does not. Finally Tim sees that the other two have fallen back far enough so that he will not endanger the two vehicles behind him. So he swings around the lead car and stops in the middle of the road to find out what is the cause for the strange behavior of the man that cut him off.
The moment Tim gets out of his car he is met by an onslaught of angry and foul words as the tall black haired man in his late forties jumps from his car. Within seconds the other two men join their companion. Tim listens as the dark haired person accuses him of violating the law. Then the oldest of the three men threatens to beat him up. Timothy looks in shock as he hears the threats from the man in his sixties.
He then shows the three men that his family lives in the neighborhood. The man who started all of this situation suddenly falls silent as he walks away from the abuse being shoved into Tim’s ears.
Tim politely, even though still angry, asks the men for an apology from them for their behavior. As he does so, the third person, who has been quiet till now, abruptly jumps into the argument. He spews out foul language from every other word that leaves his lips. The man demands that Tim move his car for the tenth time as another car shows up. Seeing a fourth car and after hearing the third man’s remarks, Tim, being the youngest of the men present, knows it will be fruitless to pursue for the apology he knows he deserves. With this he returns to his car. As he does so, the rage within him speaks. “I hope you enjoy Hell you hypocrites!”
The eldest man looks at him. “What did you say?” he angrily spits out and so Tim repeats his statement. The man is suddenly silent as a look of shock pales his face.
:10:03 p.m.
Still upset by the events that took place earlier, Tim struggles to sleep in his bed, but finally he relaxes and falls asleep.
The slow rolling motion of the floor tells Timothy that he is at sea. He walks up the steep stairwell to the main deck of the vessel as he hears the sails flap momentarily in the wind. He looks up at the white sail and then out to sea. In the distance he sees a dark ominous island with thick black smoke bellowing out from it. He turns to his comrade, a tall blond-haired man, dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt.
“How much longer till land fall?” Tim asks as he returns his attention to the island.
“About fifteen minutes,” the individual replies.
“Good, I’ll get everything ready.”
They step out of the large rubber raft onto the black shore of the island. Each man holds his crossbow at the ready, with his sword still sheathed at his side. Slowly and stealthily, they climb the rugged terrain. Working their way towards the mouth of a cave above them and being always careful not to cause any small rocks they step upon to fall down the dark rugged slope.
Within minutes they enter the cave and cautiously begin to work their way into the blackness. For the first time, in a while, one of his dreams brings sound to his ears. At first he hears only what sounds like the snapping of a whip, and what they both feel are the screams of women as both men look at each other. Soon though, they start to hear chains and then moans of hundreds of people a sound that makes the cave seem as if it is haunted.
“Light,” Tim’s comrade whispers, and they slow their pace to a point that they are barely moving.
“You will serve the master!” a harsh voice shouts as they hear a cracking of a whip once again. “You will continue to act like you serve God! You will break the laws of man and ultimately break His laws!” Again the whip cracks as a heavy moan follows it.
Timothy is the first one to see the originator of the voice and signals his companion over to him. Once they are together, they both look at the creature. He is totally human in appearance except for the hair that looks more like the mane of a male lion. They see his sword, which is sheathed at his side, as he snaps the whip within his hand. He stands upon a natural rock bridge overlooking an open area below. Slowly Tim looks around the corner of the tunnel. Here he sees another tunnel leading downward towards the lower level, which the two individuals could not see into from where they knelt. Tim can make out another stone bridge above and to the left of the one that the creature now stands upon. On this bridge he can see several people, both male and female, pulling an ore car across it. He watches as two of the creatures hit their whips against the backs of the miserable forms.
The first creature then turns, so that its face is totally hidden by the large mass of hair upon him. Tim waves his friend on ahead of him into the new shaft he has spotted and quickly follows behind. Deeper they go into the enemy’s territory. Always alert to a sudden and unwanted sound. All they hear though is the creatures talking to their slaves.
“Go on; go to church, pray to God, and then go faster than the speed limit home. Home to watch your favorite sports. Curse the officials. Ignore your wife and children. Do what you want to do, and nothing else.”
Again the two secretive figures find an opening in the tunnel system. They look out and see that they have reached their goal. Before them is the lower level of the cavern, throughout the vast area are children.
“You are to save the children from the hypocrisy of their parents,” a voice comes to Tim; and the two men look at each other to see if the other spoke and realize quickly that neither did. They kneel down and scout out the vicinity ahead of them. They know of the creature above them and to their left, but they soon see that there are five more of them on the level where they are now. They count the children and see that there are about fifty of them. The two men nod to each other.
It begins as the twang of the crossbows is heard, followed by the hissing sound of the bolts flying through the air till they meet their marks with a thump. As the first two guards start to fall, the sounds repeat themselves to meet two more guards, just as they start to react to what befell the previous two.
Timothy re-latches the bolt string just as he hears the sound of his comrade’s crossbow fire with a sudden and loud thud directly beside him. He looks up to see one of the creatures with his animal like teeth exposed and clinched directly above him. The creature had drawn his sword and was about to bring the weapon down upon him. Now the long blade, which is above the beast’s head, falls behind the creature as it slumps down dead, a bolt protruding from its head.
“Thanks,” Tim says as he looks at his fellow who nods his acknowledgment. Quickly, the two rise men from their position and enter the main cavern. Timothy raises his weapon towards the bridge above them and finds it empty.
“Get the kids!” he shouts as he places the crossbow around his back and draws his sword. His cohort, doing the same, gathers the panicked children. Within a few minutes they are back in the tunnel as the children cry and whimper from fright. Timothy, in the lead, cautiously walks up the tunnel as his friend herds the little ones ahead of him.
As they reach the top of the shaft, Tim stops, looking carefully around for the missing guard. He listens warily for any hint of the creature in the near area but only hears the roars of other guards in the distances. He signals his friend to come ahead as he enters into the original tunnel they had used to enter into this place.
“Roarrrr!” The creature’s bawl vibrates through the small area as it leaps out from its hiding place in front of the group, its sword drawn and ready.
Timothy charges, knowing that he must pass this guard or they will fail in their mission. The metal blades clang together and the battle is joined. It feels like an eternity as the two beings fight each other, sword always meeting sword, neither breaking through to meet the flesh of the other. Then a tink
ling sensation begins to come over Tim. It starts at the top of his head downward till his whole body feels electrified. A feeling of confidence and joy fills him as he knows that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. The strength of the fight becomes more vigorous as the creature begins to surrender ground. Finally the fatal opening is found as Timothy’s sword is driven home in the left side of the guard’s chest. Stunned, the creature looks at his slayer and collapses down to the ground. Tim looks on, saddened as he pulls out his weapon from the brute’s form. Its blood flows to the ground quickly in a way that catches Timothy’s eye. It spreads upon the slick cavernous earth in the form of a flag, a flag that has red and white stripes with a field of blue in one corner and fifty stars.
A roar rings out from the lower tunnel a short distance away, and Tim remembers the children behind him. He turns to look at their dirty, scared faces.
“Come on!” he says as he quickly heads toward the surface of the island.
Timothy looks back at the smoke-bellowing island with two of the youngsters clinging to him for comfort as the small sailboat heads away from it. He notices other ships upon the water doing as they are when a fire ball bursts forth from the isle. Suddenly a blinding flash occurs upon