The Book of Fate Part 3: The Journey

The rooster crows at the crack of dawn.

Jekyll gets up and yawns. He gets up and opens up his backpack and picks up the map. He looks around him and ventures near the entrance slowly. He listens outside but just hears chatter in the distance. He opens the tent just to check if anyone is there and sees a young Asian woman in safari gear with black hair. She asks, “Is fish alright with you for breakfast?”

He says, “Yeah, that’s fine. Is that you Justine?”

“Indeed. Could you not recognize me outside my uniform?”

Jekyll answers, “No, it’s not that. I never expected you to be wearing safari gear.”

“It is merely practical for our journey. Now I must return to my master Pyro. Good day,” she says before she bows and walks away.

Jekyll closes his tent and puts his map down. He changes into yet another purple hoodie but with some weird diamond mark made out of several smaller diamonds. He puts it on and changes his pants and underwear to go along with it. Afterwards, he puts the map back in his bag and zips it up. He exits the tent and goes to the fire. Pyro was talking to Jeff who is now dressed in a fisherman’s outfit. Pyro nods his head and motions to Jekyll.

“Come on. The fish turned out just fine,” states Pyro still in his business suit.

Jekyll sits on a log and he grabs one of the fish on a stick and begins devouring it. Pyro says, “While we’re here let’s address the elephant in the room.” Jekyll stops eating for a moment and looks at Pyro. “Let’s see your map.” Jekyll swallows and responds with looks of horror, “What do you mean? You got my map, already.” Pyro gets his fingers into a snapping position and replies casually yet menacingly, “Don’t play dumb. I already got Jeff to check your belongings last night. I know you got a second map. So, let’s see it or do we find out if you can live a second time against them.” He gestures towards his ninjas and Jekyll resigns. He opens his backpack, pulls out the second map and reluctantly hands it over to Pyro, who unfurls it and it writes, “Oh crap. Are you the whacko we need to beat into submission?”

Pyro says unamused, “Your map is very rude.”

Jekyll nods in agreement. Pyro moves next to him and says, “Show me your secrets.”

“Fine, but I don’t like it,” replies the map nonverbally before drawing itself. He hands it back to Jekyll before retrieving his map. He unfurls it and it draws itself too. He takes the map back from Jekyll and puts them side-by side for comparison and observes, “Interesting, so the maps have different paths. Yet the destination is the same. This will make it worthwhile. If we do some cross-referencing we could possibly shorten the journey by half a day.”

Sparks are flying in his eyes as he looks at both maps in glee. He says to John, “Inform everyone that we will be leaving in an hour. That should be enough time to find an optimal path.” John salutes him and goes to inform everyone else. Pyro clears his throat and says failing to contain his glee, “Come on Jekyll, we got work to do. The secrets of the past aren’t going to discover themselves.” He grabs Jekyll’s arm who is a little shocked by his reaction and is dragged with his fish towards another tent.

An hour later, everyone was packed up and ready to go. The ninjas were no longer in the uniforms they wore yesterday instead opting for more casual attire better suited for long distance travel and hiking. The ninjas themselves proved to be very varied in terms of diversity, personality, etc. John got a phone call. He picked it up and it was George asking how they were all doing and if Pyro needed him to come into work today. He tried calling Pyro earlier but couldn’t get through to him. Pyro tells John to tell George that he is not needed for work today. John delivers the message and hangs up. Jekyll and Pyro were all ready to go and in a gesture of good will, Pyro swapped their maps so Jekyll is now reunited with his family’s map much to the disapproval of the other one. “Ok, everyone thanks to the two maps I’ve chartered a course to the temple that will only take half the time. There is a small space between the two mountains and while they’re displayed on both maps by comparing them side-by-side I have found a safe route between the two. We’ll be taking that route,” Pyro explains before they leave.

As the group embark on their long journey, Pyro and Jekyll have a conversation with each other throughout the entirety of it.

“I’m surprised you actually gave me my map back,” starts Jekyll.

“Like I said, I’m a man of my word. I told you I would give you back the map, and I gave it back. It just happened sooner than expected since you had this second map, even if it’s rude as all heck,” replies Pyro.

“I agree. By the way, why do you want this book so badly anyway? I tried asking Justine, but she wouldn’t say anything.”

“I would rather keep that a secret. Let’s just say I don’t have good experience with Nulls like yourself.”

“Now that’s just rude. Nulls is a really insulting term.”

“Yet, a term nonetheless. However, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll refrain from calling you as such,” responds Pyro begrudgingly.

“I don’t know what to say about that. Are you some kind of racist or something?”

Pyro sighs before replying, “Sorry, it’s not you it’s me. Let’s just say there’s a reason why I need a therapist.”

Jekyll replies harshly, “Ok, but I’m not sure if I trust you or not.”

Pyro responds, “That’s fine. We’re fine.”

They arrive at the passage between the mountains. As they take a moment to admire the gaze of the valley, the ground begins to shake. An ominous sound was heard in the distance. They look towards the source and spy a boulder heading towards them. Pyro’s hands ignite but a white skinny guy in a Hawaiian shirt shoots ice out of his hands and freezes part of the mountainside. It collides with the ice greatly cracking it but not hard enough to break through instantly.

Troy yells, “We need to get out of here before the ice breaks.”

Pyro echoes, “You all heard Troy, let’s go.”

Everyone starts running to the other side of the passage. Jekyll trips and his map starts glowing. He takes a brief look at it and it says, “Thou’s next trial is underway.” He closes it and continues running as he stuffs back into his pocket. The ice continues to crack. Jekyll kept running. Pyro considers melting the ice closer to Jekyll and letting him perish but ultimately decides against it. More boulders started coming down. Jekyll catches up with them and they run towards the other side. Pyro is ashamed by his own murderous thoughts. They keep running as the ice shatters and the boulders come rolling down threatening to crush them like pancakes. They manage to make it to safety with the temple in sight, but their path back is blocked. Their maps start glowing. Map 1 says, “You passed.” Map 2 congratulates with written enthusiasm, “Congrats on passing that test!” Pyro asks, “Are you sure you really want that map?” “I am positive,” proudly states Jekyll.

They walk over to the temple. Upon arrival, Pyro surveys the area around them, which was completely barren with an ominous wind blowing. Pyro takes a deep breath before he starts barking orders, “Ok, everyone. We got work to do. I want a work camp established ASAP. Janice, get some Wi-Fi working over here. Troy, you’re on tents along with Samuel. Justine do you know how to set up a portable cellular tower?”

“No sir,” answers Justine.

“Ok then. Me and Jekyll will set that up. The rest of you will go over inventory. I want a full list of our current supplies in the next two hours. Come on Jekyll, we got work to do.”

Pyro grabs Jekyll who tells him, “I have no clue how to set up a portable cell tower,” with Pyro responding, “It’s alright. I’ll teach you,” and everyone gets to work. Tents are getting pitched everywhere, way more than there are people. Janice is working on a special router to enable Wi-Fi access even in the middle of nowhere. Pyro is teaching Jekyll how their portable cell tower works in conjunction with a satellite network via a famous cell phone company. Once the cells are working, Pyro borrows Justine’s phone and makes a phone call. “Hello, this is Pyro. Our plane crashed about a day and a half ago so naturally we don’t have the proper tools for an excavation. I want you to send another plane or copter over to our location with proper supplies for an excavation. How soon can it be here? A few hours? Good. Send it over straight away.” He hung up the phone. He says to Jekyll, “When it comes to archaeology you need the right tools for the job and due to our plane crash earlier, we don’t have those. We’ll need shovels, drills, possibly explosives if the need arises. We prefer not to destroy anything though if we can help it. Rope and hooks are an essential tool when it comes to exploring ancient temples. We will also need a trap disarming kit as well. The ancients were sneaky.”

“Does all this effort go into every dig you do?” asks Jekyll.

“Yes. Besides, we can’t get you home until the copter gets here anyway. However, I believe you should come with us. You might be necessary for some of the tests that will be in there.” Their maps start glowing and they open them. “Ye who seekths the power of fate must topple the counterbalance in favor for himself,” states Map 1.

“The counterbalance, I guess, is supposed to fight the fate dude. But wait, we switched owners so shouldn’t we be switching lines too?” inquires Map 2.

“It is of little consequence,” says Map 1.

“Everything is of little consequence with you. Remember little Jerry’s birthday party?” complains Map 2.

“We agreed never to discuss that,” lashes out Map 1.

Jekyll proposes, “I vote we leave these maps here to work out their family drama.”

“Approved, but we got to at least place rocks on them,” agrees Pyro.

They nod in agreement and find a couple of suitable rocks and place them on the maps. They get up and get out of the tent. Pyro goes to announce the arrival of the helicopter to his colleagues. He is handed a list of their supplies and calls his company to inform them of their current status and supplies. Once he hangs up, he goes to return Justine’s phone and check up on how everyone is doing. All the tents they have are pitched up. Their Wi-Fi is operational, and all their food is safely stored away. Pyro goes to his tent to have a meeting with the board of directors or as he calls them, “a bunch of hound dogs.” Close to sunset, a helicopter arrives with a whole bunch of supplies, including a new phone for Pyro, and additional staff. They set up bases of operations, sleeping quarters, a proper storehouse, etc. Soon, their research camp was complete. Pyro gave it the thumbs up and so did Jekyll to Pyro’s amusement.

In the middle of the night, they had a toast to a job well done, “Cheers!” They began drinking their non-alcoholic drinks since alcohol was not allowed on-site. Pyro says, “You know Jekyll, you’re not that bad of a guy. I was honestly expecting much worse out of you. I got a new proposition for you, instead of opposing each other in silence we should just team up to get the book. What do you say?”

“I say that I still want to know why you want the book in the first place,” answers Jekyll a bit rudely which immediately darkened Pyro’s mood. He flashbacks to a woman yelling, “Run!” before a gunshot is heard. A man stands in front of him with his back turned while another man holds a gun aimed at the man. The one not wielding the gun’s hands ignite but he is shot, and his corpse falls to the ground. He snaps out of it and says, “I can’t tell you that. Sorry.”

Jekyll catches the strain in his voice and just nods. He wonders why Pyro won’t say anything, but he figures it must be something traumatic. He thinks back to something Pyro said earlier, “Let’s just say I don’t have very good experience with Nulls like yourself.” He wonders if that’s connected to his quest for the book. He goes back to his tent to rest.