Chapter 1

I held my breath, not daring to make a sound or movement. The thought of 'Go…go…move on. Nothing here for you to eat.' kept running through my head while staring at the scaled, metal clawed foot. It seems a might bit bigger than a smart car. My eyes took in with disgusted fascination of the purple glop dripping from above, landing with a wet splat on the sand. The harsh winds quickly brought the fumes inside the cave and completely overwhelmed my nose. Immediately my eyes watered and I pulled the shirt collar over my mouth and nose. 'Why does it have to smell like a huge skunk?'

What has my life come to? I'm stuck in the middle of a desert, crouching in a hole in a wall of rock, badly bruised, trying to hide from gem-bedded, giant, ugly, mothe*… -Sigh- The term of "be careful of what you wish for" comes to mind. I made a wish and I have it. Now I'm wishing that I took that term more seriously. To think that all this trouble began fourteen days ago.

Two weeks prior: "Whoo! Finally!" I cheer. I've been planning this trip for months. I'm about to go to Death Valley for a week. Hopping out of bed, I started dragging all of my mostly packed equipment to the center of my room. Just as I was about to mentally categorize everything, the light flicked on.

"Good, you're up." Quickly blinking my eyes, I looked up to see my mom staring at me, "I'll get your breakfast warmed up." Smiling, I gave her my thanks. Making sure the door was completely shut, I went for my previously set out outfit. 'Need to hurry. Time passes quickly when you haven't had your coffee.'

Let's see, blue shirt with sleeves hacked off, biker shorts beneath black kilt, steel to boots, and black fingerless gloves. As I was about to go get my much needed coffee and breakfast, I reached out to my desk and grabbed my Seal of Mar. The Seal was a different one. Instead of orange, it was black. The owners of the trinket shop where I first found it said it was found buried in the storage room with no history of it in the computer. I really didn't mind that piece of info. Back then, all I really cared about was that I had a Seal of Mar to add to my obsession of the Jak and Daxter video games. Tucking the necklace on . . . "JEN! Oh good, you're dressed. Come on out and eat." Mom said. "Mom! Don't do that." I yelped, nearly dropping my hearing aids that I have yet to put in.

She ignored that remark. This is a routine that happened too many times to count. With that, I pressed the ear molds in and headed straight to the coffee machine. Once I was finished with breakfast, it was already 5:30 am. 'Half an hour already? I need to be ready to go in 30 minutes.'

Bolting back to my room, I scanned through everything. Big plastic bin filled with enough non-perishable food and snacks to last a week. Pushing that to the side, my navy-blue duffle bag has rope, one pack of hearing aid batteries, camo scarf, head light, med kit, sunscreen, sleeping bag, helmet, mask, and wallet. That one finished and pushed next to food bin. Time for the smaller blue duffel, two pairs of shorts, one pair of pants, six shirts and smallclothes. The bike is in the garage. The bike's saddle bag has other bits of stuff I will need along the way. And most importantly, ten gallons of water safely tucked away in the trunk. 'Now to get all this in.' Putting my glasses on, I grabbed the first bag.

It's been five hours into my drive so far. So far, nothing major happened. There was some road raging between two cars going on about an hour ago, but thankfully they went their separate lanes as a highway police car came along. I made a stop every hour to avoid getting stiff and take a few photos. Smiling, I finally drove by the Welcome to California sign. 'Only forty more minutes to reach the spot.'

Five minutes later, I was bored. 'Five minutes of no excitement and my nerves go out of order. Huffing in frustration, I reached for the radio, anxious to keep my mind stimulated. "There has been a big increase in the winds lately. Due to months of no rain, dust storm warnings are now in place. The areas believed to be affected are . . ." SQUELCH "Thank you for tuning in." Damn it! My ear molds just had to slip out, forcing me to shove them back in, therefor leaving me unable to hear the radio. 'Great, now I need to pull over and GOATS! No, it's desert bighorn sheep.' With the herd of my favorite horned mammals and ADHD working together, I completely forgot about the warning.

"Finally made it." I muttered to myself, pulling up to a previously disturbed spot. Stepping out, my muscles screamed in relief after being stuck in one position for too long. After slapping a note explaining where I was heading to and for how long beneath the windshield wiper, I started to rummage through the trunk for overnight supplies. "Let's see here, sleeping bag, check, gallon of water, check, food, check, small toolkit, tarp, sunscreen, first aid, hiking permit and insect repellent. All checked. And, last but not least, keys, wallet, phone and solar charger." Now that I had all I needed, I wrapped the camo scarf around my head, locked the car and started walking.

It was at least a quarter mile to the rock face that held the destination. I read somewhere online from other hikers that there was a small tunnel that lead to a cave, which has a 15ft radius and 10ft high. I check with the rangers to see if it was alright for me to stay overnight, and when they learned that I planned to sleep with just the sleeping bag and tarp, it was a ok. Therefore, it was the perfect spot. Nothing could go wrong now.

'And I just jinxed myself. Maybe the bad part is that a dust storm will come along.' Hmm, dust storm, why does that ring a bell? Shrugging, I tossed the thought away as I reached the rock face and started looking for a shade to stop in. It was time for a water break anyway. Although, I had to keep my hand over the opening. The wind was really starting to pick, thus sending sand everywhere.

Fifteen minutes have passed and it became clear on what the bell was about. It was the dust storm. "F***! Now I remember!" Hacking, I kept going at a steady pace, hoping to reach the cave before it got too much for me. It was at that moment when I had a gut feeling about something. Something was behind me. Slowly turning, I was barely able to bring my arms over my face when a wall of sand bowled me over.

It was time

The Seal has waited long enough

In the cover of the storm, the Seal of Mar released the energy

Energy that was withheld for generations

I let out a yelp as I was punched in the gut. Whipping my head around, my eyes scanned the surroundings for what could have . . . "Ach!" Now my back? This unseen enemy kept pummeling me like a punching bag. I don't know how long it lasted, a minute, an hour? My body was ready to collapse and maybe shut down when it stopped. Gasping, I fell to my knees. My brain began to register the pain seeping down from skin to bone. "Augh," it hurt so bad.

With the dust storm winding down and eyesight bleary, I saw a small dark object right in front of me. Thinking it was a bug, I reached up to brush it off. But then another dark object came to view. No, it wasn't an object. It was a hand. A hand bruised to black and blue. MY bruised hand. Looking further down, my arm was black and blue all over. There was no sign of the usually lightly tanned flesh anywhere on it. Before I could finish checking my state of health, a large shadow fell over me.

Looking up, I barely choked down a scream. There was a broad metal chin with tubing running down the underside of a huge, long body. Bringing my head down, I saw the tunnel. A three feet high entry to safety. It was only six, seven steps away. Slowly, I stood up. No reaction. First step. Still nothing. Steps two, three, four . . . ow. My left shoulder went right into a cactus. Step away, steps five, six . . . a guttural sound came from behind me. Throat hitching, I ducked down and scampered in to my haven.

The tunnel was around 100 feet long, three feet high, two feet wide and dark. When I reached the cave, I finally gave in to the throbbing pain and collapsed on my front. Just as I was about to surrender to exhaustion, my left shoulder stung me back to reality. 'No, no sleeping yet. Sleep after you remove the cactus needles.' Shuddering, I pushed myself back up, and dropped my backpack to grab my head lamp and tweezers from the front pocket. It took me a while to pluck all the long, thin thorns out and drop them in a small pile. Crawling to the other side of the cave, I gave into the need for sleep.

When I started to wake up, the still throbbing pain immediately chased away any hope that it was all just a dream, although, that thing from before did look like a . . . "No way that was a metalhead. No, no, no." I said. "I was drugged by something, people beat the crap out of me, I got away. That's what happened." I took this moment to take a damage report. Hearing aids and glasses were fine. Head lamp was still shining. Every last inch of my body was heavily bruised. My left shoulder looked like I repeatedly stabbed myself with a needle. 'Going to the bathroom is so going to hurt now. Is that water trickling from the wall?' Walking over to the wall right of the entrance was a collection of rocks surrounding a stream of water, forming a small spring. "Huh, nice to know." Filing that piece of info away, I looked back the tunnel. I have to find out the truth.

Bending down, I grabbed a decent sized rock in my left and from the pocket, a switch blade in my right. Steeling myself, I ducked into the tunnel and went forward. Apparently it was nighttime. But so far, no one was nearby, no giant beasts, nothing. Just the sky with different colored stars shining down. Staring at the sky in confusion, I barely noticed the yellow light zig zagging towards me. Only when it reach my line of sight did I freak out. A giant metal scorpion with a glowing forehead. It screeched and the tail lashed out. Hopping to the side, nearly getting stung, I swung my knife down onto its back. Hissing in pain, the scorpion tried to grapple onto my arm, forcing me to swing my other arm down onto the head.

The glow just popped out. With the light separated from the body, the bug fell still. Panting, I stared at the abomination until I was certain that it was dead. It had metal plating covering the majority of the body. I turned my attention to the glow that fell to the side. It looked like a gem. A metalhead gem. The truth hit me. I was in the Jak and Daxter video game!