Eternal Springs

The story takes place in modern America. A bottled water company is in search of the next breakthrough in their variety of waters. Daphne, the head of the company, tasks a team of scientists to develop a formula to save the company from utter downfall. She gives them until the end of the sales quarter to come up with something and offers a promotion for the work.

The head of the scientists is Mordecai, with the aid of his partner, Morgan. They form a group with seven others to develop such a formula, but nothing seems to work properly.

One evening, feeling rather defeated, Mordecai visits a run down old pub, where he hopes to hear talk of something that might inspire him. The first couple evenings bring no such luck. People only visited the pub to drown out their own sorrows, or meet with friends for old time sake.

This leaves Mordecai feeling miserable, as the weeks start to fly by, and he's no closer to discovering any real answers.

Until one night, a strange man appears at the pub, seemingly out of nowhere, and offers to speak with Mordecai in private. He agrees, but the man doesn't want to lead him just yet. He says to meet him in two days at a specific address, a parking garage just outside of town. The man tells him it's top secret and he must go alone. Mordecai agrees once more, but is unable to ask any further questions, since the man mysteriously disappears once Mordecai is distracted.

On the second day, Mordecai meets with the man in the garage. Brandishing a gun, Mordecai is terrified, that he might be killed for nothing, but the man assures him it's for his own protection. He wants to be sure no one followed him, and fires off into the distance. The car alarms go off, and the man puts the gun back into his pocket, before pulling out a small manila envelope with the words TOP SECRET stamped across the front in bold red letters.

This is what could ultimately save or screw your job, the man tells Mordecai. In here is a secret formula to extend human life as well as the location to the source.

Mordecai doesn't believe him at first, asking him how he's supposed to trust him. The man laughs, telling him to guess how old he thinks he is. Judging from his unkempt appearance, Mordecai assumed he was no older than someone in his early fifties. The man laughed again, before revealing that he's over five hundred years old. He was originally born in the year 1295, just as the Crusades were ending.

Mordecai doubts the man's claims, but if there was any truth to such matters, in the name of Science, he vowed he would seek it out and try to disprove such wild claims. However, this formula was something that could save the company from ruin. So, Mordecai accepts the envelope with its contents, and hurries home to study it.

Another week passes, and Mordecai has yet to figure out this formula. Gathering the team, they travel to the place located on the map he was given and have to traverse thick jungle as well as harsh tropical weather before reaching the mouth of a cave deep in the Andes mountains.

This is where the story starts to fall apart. Without any kind of antagonist or competition, everything seems to go smoothly. However, the true enemy, I feel would be corporate greed, and human nature as a whole.

I have everything mapped out in my mind, as to how I want the story to progress. The end being the destruction of a sacred fountain and people living in fear of what it means to be without such life sustaining fluid.

Unfortunately, the middle of the story is usually where I get tangled up in side stories and plot holes that need to be filled. Also, my perfectionistic way of overcomplicating matters holds the story back. I tend to see potential where there is none, and focus on meaningless details.

I still hope to finish the story one day, maybe in the next few months. But, not without doing more research into the subject matter.