Chapter fourteen
Pete in the garden of herbs
The long hours of fighting the different categories that had been awoken by the invisible watchers had culminated in Jenny's feet being bitten by a snake. So similar to how Pete had earlier been attacked before the unfortunate death of Uncle Pauli; Uncle Pauli had previously shown Pete the teleporting machines. These strange pods containing the teleporters had become the easiest way for Pete and Jenny to move from one place to another within the land of gold in recent times. They used the blue arrow indicator entrance to passages and corridors leading to the gold chambers containing the pods. When Pete and Jenny were inside these telepods, their body matter was converted into energy within the telepods after the direction program was completed and they were belted to their seats. Then this energy was teleported to a different pod at its projected or programmed destination or intended location of arrival.
At the destination pod or port of arrival, which usually contained a different teleporter or teleporting machine within a telepod located in a gold chamber accessed via the blue arrow indicator through its entrance leading into passages and corridors to these gold chambers, the energy was converted back to their initial body matter. Thus, the entity converted at the initial port of departure into energy would be reconverted back to its original form at the port of arrival. The gods of the land had developed these teleporters to facilitate their journey from one dimension to another, from one portal to another, or from one gold chamber to another within the land of gold. This eliminated the need for them to travel around the land on foot, trekking, walking, or running the whole distance via the usual passages and corridors that led to these gold chambers.
"Sorry Jenny," Pete kept telling Jenny after she was bitten by the snake. They ran back in the direction they had come from. "Don't worry, we will escape this time. We have killed the majority of all those creatures, and as soon as I get you your medicine, you will be back with vigor," Pete reassured Jenny. "Stay here and wait for me. I will be back soon with your medicine."
Pete stood up and returned to the veranda where Jenny was bitten by the snake. He reloaded his weapons and continued shooting the creatures until he had come close to exhausting his ammunition. He had killed so many creatures that there was hardly any place left to occupy their carcasses!
"My bullets are running out," Pete cried. "And there are still a couple of snakes and one giant creature over there. I have yet to kill those ones." Pete decided to go for his golden laser and fire gun and golden revolver, along with Jenny's golden machine gun that he had collected when she had just been bitten by the snake. He yelled at Jenny to go for her medicine while he remained behind to kill the remaining creatures. As Pete advanced toward a blue arrow indicator into a passage that led to the pods of teleporters, the snakes and the remaining giant creature approached and attacked.
Pete turned to face the snakes and started killing each one of them as they attacked him. When he was done with the snakes, he turned to the giant creature which was heading for Jenny. Pete rushed outside from the passage he was about to enter and aimed at the head of the giant creature with a series of his golden bullets. The giant creature fought hard to resist the impact of the bullets, but it eventually slumped to the golden floor made of tiles. Pete rushed and reached out for Jenny as the creature gradually changed from golden color to its natural form. "Jenny, are you okay?" Pete asked. "I have killed all the creatures, and I think we can escape out to the gates using the teleporting machine. I will program the direction to the garden of herbs, where you will get your medicine."
"Then hurry, Pete. I am dying slowly. It's time for us to leave this place for good," Jenny said. Pete carried Jenny and took her into the telepod, and programmed it to take them back to the garden of herbs. At the garden, Pete held Jenny over any plant he came across until he found one plant that glowed brightly. He dropped Jenny, then went forward and plucked the leaves and stems. Pete made the leaves and stem into a paste, then fed it to Jenny, who had become very weak. A little while later, she woke up from a deep sleep after taking the medicine. Then she called Pete and requested he help her up. Now she could return to the teleporting machine, which would take them to the golden gates that led out of the land of gold.
As they got into the teleporting machine in the telepod, within the gold chamber accessed via the blue arrow indicator entrance, Pete programmed the surface control actuation with the monitor above his head. Then he returned to join Jenny, who had been sitting in her seat and had fastened her belt. Pete sat and fastened his belts too, and not long after the violent vibration, lightning, and spirals the teleporter made, both of them arrived at a gold chamber with a blue arrow indicator that led out to the gold gates with huge statues that led out of the land. Pete held onto Jenny's hand as both of them approached the last passageway that led to the gates, surrounded by the big old walls made of stone all around the land of gold. Both of them could see the golden gates glowing as they approached the veranda where they had both sat down twenty-one years ago.
That was when they had just entered the land of gold, and their brother Charley had been killed by the creatures painted on the walls on the other side. Charley had touched both paintings and statues of creatures, not knowing they would come alive and kill him. The invisible watchers had returned to the gods of the land of gold to inform them of Pete's and Jenny's near success in finally escaping the land of gold. They told the gods of the land of gold about how Pete had made his own golden weapons and the great battle he and Jenny had engaged in, fighting the multitude of snakes and creatures of the land of gold. How Pete and Jenny had discovered all the hidden secrets in the land, including the teleporting machines in the gold telepods found inside those gold chambers accessed through the blue arrow indicator entrances.
As the invisible watchers continued their narration of all the experiences Pete and Jenny had gone through while still in the land of gold, they re-enacted scenes that occurred to make more emphasis on the matter. The invisible watchers left no tale of Pete and Jenny's experience in the land undisclosed to the gods; they even narrated how Uncle Pauli had shown Pete and Jenny the garden of food and the garden of herbs before he committed suicide.
"Look! You worms, we are not going to allow those two trespassers to leave the land of gold just like that while we sit here and listen to all your stories," the gods yelled with a loud voice in response to the news the invisible watchers had reported.
The gods continued, "They will not just leave this place after twenty-one years. No, no, no. With all our gold? Many people have trespassed those gates and spent close to a hundred natural years, only to die or get killed without ever successfully finding an escape outside the land of gold. How can we sit here and watch those two people walk out with our gold after twenty-one years? We have done everything to keep those two from thinking of leaving the land of gold, from the death of their brother to the terrorizing creatures we sent to kill them several times. They cannot be allowed to walk out of here just like that."
Pete and Jenny had just come out of the passageway they had earlier followed into the chambers, which had a black arrow indicator. They had followed this set of passageways and corridors with entrances that led into several kinds of golden chambers. The passageways or corridors had paths that were tiled and sometimes had golden obstacles littered all over the floor.
As they approached the gates, the gods and their invisible watchers, who had protected the land from intruders for hundreds and thousands of years, decided to appear before Pete and Jenny to threaten them from making the final attempt to escape outside of the land of gold. Immediately, Pete and Jenny caught sight of the presence of the gods and invisible watchers, they screamed for help, calling on the name of Jesus. The gods had chosen to appear to Pete and Jenny in their real golden and super luminous state, making it hard for Pete and Jenny to look directly at them. However, as they screamed for help over and over, the gods kept saying a bad, bad, and unwanted name!
"You two intruders, stop calling that name here now! Stop now." All the gods and the invisible watchers could not stand the name Pete and Jenny had been calling on for help – "Jesus".
Eventually, all the gods and invisible watchers disappeared, and the bright light they had brought with their presence gradually faded away. Pete and Jenny opened their eyes when they noticed the silence.
"Pete, they are gone," said Jenny. "God, thank you we are alive," she praised. "I told you that Mom once said that name was dreaded by anything that was evil," Jenny added as they rushed towards the golden gates with huge statues. "Wait, Jenny, I have to go and touch Charley's statue over there on the other side, with those walls that had gold paintings." He ran fast towards the bridge where Charley had crossed to see the paintings on the walls on the other side twenty-one years ago where he was killed.
Pete crossed the bridge in no time, recalling how he and Jenny had crossed the same bridge to see what was happening to their brother Charley when they first entered the land of gold. As he stepped out of the bridge, there ahead was his brother's statue, just as they had left it, running away from the creatures that had killed him. Pete slowed down and stopped for a short while as he stared, seeing that there was not a single statue, creature, or painting on the walls anymore. He stretched forward his arms and then touched Charley's forehead. Before he could remove his hand from Charley's head, he suddenly vibrated and shook violently; within a few seconds, Charley was back to life again. He opened his eyes and beheld his brother Pete.
"Hey, Pete, Charley," he shouted. "Hey! Charley, you are alive again. You had been a statue for twenty-one years after you were killed by those creatures you touched when we first entered the land of gold," Pete said.
"Pete, you have changed. What happened? Where is Jenny? Is she okay?"
"Yes, yes, Charley, she is okay and waiting for us out there."
They both ran across the bridge and gradually approached their sister Jenny, who had been waiting for them. "Jenny, Charley shouted as he ran towards her, "I am alive again," he yelled. They hugged each other as they cried.
Outside the walls of the land of gold, Charley, Pete, and Jenny stood as they once did when they first entered the land of gold. They all faced directly towards the golden gates and looked intently at those walls which had once held them captive.
As the three of them walked gradually through those lonely paths with mountains and forest, the road that once led people from Kalkulta city to the neighboring city of Zinatano, it was now twilight. The city lights had begun to appear ahead of them. The weather was very cold. They looked very tattered and shabby.