Chapter 4
As Martin and Alena came around the caldera, Martin was immediately distracted by some interesting remains. Something had died – and it wasn't indigenous to the desert.
"Look," he said, pointing at the skeleton, "This is an aquatic animal."
Alena looked at him as though the heat had gone to his head. Martin gave her an annoyed look and pointed to the bones. "They're more porous, to allow whatever this was to be buoyant."
Alena, however, was focused on another burlap cloth hanging in the jaw of the deceased animal. She walked up and touched it, and noticed that this time, the thumb and about half of the palm glowed their bluish color.
"There are seven," Martin stated. "There's the thumb, the Half-Palm, the Full-Palm… that makes three… and one for each of the four fingers. Just a guess…"
Alena nodded, "Makes sense. So where are the other five?" Martin continued walking, wondering the same thing. They found the third on the back of the silver trailer, but there was nobody home. Martin discovered a page in what looked like a discarded fire pit. It fit perfectly in the book he wore at his hip, but when he went to pinch it in there, he gave a startled yelp as the page ripped free from his fingers and fused with the book. The page glowed green for a moment, revealing a spiral image with a moon and stars. He scowled at himself for being startled and walked up to the silver trailer. The door was ajar, and Martin decided it was an invitation to go inside.
Nothing. Not even a phone. Martin scowled slightly. He was not in a good mood. He couldn't even remember how the hell he got here.
Alena gave a yell from outside, causing Martin to dash out as though the devil were chasing him. Alena had found a deep fissure, and it looked like a small village had been built in it. Martin was fascinated. The houses were carved out of the sides of the fissure, and he was vaguely reminded of the Anasazi Cliff Dwellings that could be found in the southern U.S. Martin noticed there was a unique windmill that seemed to go through the ground next to it. It probably went into one of the 'houses'. Did whoever built this have electricity?
"Let's go…" he muttered, climbing down a ladder that led into the cleft. He was promptly confronted with a decision – two bridges spanned the lower part of the canyon. He quickly chose the one with the least cracks, but discovered it wasn't the safest.
Alena laughed loudly as the bridge snapped, dropping Martin about seven feet into a puddle of water and wet moss. He scowled up at her, his dignity shot to hell. Luckily, another bridge that had snapped due to age provided a ladder for him to climb.
Upon reaching the top, he was greeted by the image of the fourth cloth hanging in the wall of a small chamber.
He touched, it and the thumb, palm, and index finger glowed that same frosty blue. Alena joined him shortly after, and pointed into the only large room. It happened to lie across the fissure, and Martin saw his only route across.
Oh crap…
After a rather tricky balancing act across a trio of two-by-fours, he had finally achieved his goal of reaching the other side of the cleft. He dragged himself into what looked like a hobby room or lab. The one thing that caught his eye, however, was a small dirt pyramid with what looked like a radar dish on top and a dial on the front.
"Marty, look!" exclaimed Alena, pointing to an engraving on the wall next to the door.
Marty? He walked over and examined the symbols. They were identical to what was on the strange device he had found except in one case. He examined the object again, and touched the out of place symbol. For some reason, after dealing with those cloths, he wasn't really surprised to see the symbol change from one to another. He matched the symbols to the engraving on the wall and pushed the glowing blue button in the center.