Chapter 4 The Monument

Everyone stood at the exit doors of the aircraft, with a small stair way infront of them leading to the ground. Everyone took in the landscap that was spread out before them. The chipmunks hadn't hadn't been to France since their concert were Dave got hurt.

Mark was standing just behind them, putting the ray gun in his belt and hiding it under his shirt. "I'll stay here and watch the aircraft" said Dale as he approached Mark, with the same stern look on his face. Mark gave a nod as he as he turned to everyone else. "Just be ready at a moments notice".

Dale gave a nod as he turned towards the cabin of the aircraft and walked away. "I still don't trust him" said Brittany as she looked at Mark. "He a good man" he replied, "like I said, give him time". Everyone just gave a small sigh as they turned and walked down the stairs.

At the bottom was a rental car waiting for them. "Vimy Ridge is a few a half hour drive" said Mark as he moved to the drivers seat, "we better get moving".

Everyone hopped in as Mark started the car. As they made their way to the monument, everyone took in the sights of the beautiful French country side, everything was green and covered in beautiful colourful flowers. After about a half hour of driving, they pulled into a small parking lot and all quickly hopped out.

They all looked out over the landscape and saw the monument in the distance, on the top of the ridge, and around, green grass that was uneven and rough from all the shell impacts from the war. The air was quiet, no birds were chirping, no wind.

"It's erie" said Mark as he looked out over the area. "I can now see why Tyler studied this stuff". "You never did?" said Brittany as they all started to walk towards the monument. "No" said Mark as he looked down. "I was never into that stuff, I found it very boring. But Tyler, gee. Everyday, he was either watching history movies or documentories, or reading history novels".

Mark then gave a sad sigh as he began to remember all the memories of his brother. "Man, when I look back, there was a lot of stupid things I hated about him. How he would always chuckle at everything. How he would listen to country music all the time, just stupid things".

"You two were very different, were you?" said Theodore. Mark nodded, looking a head at the monument. "We were complete opposites. He was a peson who like doing hard physical activties, biking, farm work, all of that. I was more of the kid that perfered to sit by a computer and work that way while listening to rock and rap, but were always there for each other".

"He was always there for us to" said Alvin, "He help us with so much, and comforted us when we needed it. A lot of the words he said to us still stick with us today". "Tyler had that affect on people" said Mark with a sad chuckle, "Whatever your problem was, just by talking to him, it seemed like your problems were solved".

Before they even realized it, they reached the monument. The two huge pillars towered above them, blocking out the sun. "So where do we start?" said Jeanette. Everyone turned to TJ, who just stood there with his hands in his pockets.

When he saw everyone was looking at him, he rolled his eyes and pulled out his hand, and held it up. To their surprise, the marking on his hands had changed. The imagin of the Earth had changed to what almost looked like a compass. "That's new" said TJ as he looked at his hand. TJ moved his hand left to right, the arrow shaped object moved as well, pointing in one direction. "Lead the way" said Mark as he stood next to TJ.

TJ then began to walk, following the direction of the arrow. Everyone followed close behind, as TJ walked around to the back of the monument where they were hidden from view. Soon, TJ stopped at a far corner of the monument, the arrow on his hand flashing like crazy.

The marking on his hand then began to change, turning into a what looked like an array of circles spinning against each other. Everyone looked closely at the wall and faintly saw the same symbol outlined in the wall. "Try placing your hand on the marking" said Alvin.

TJ slowly placed his hand on the stone, and almost instantly, the stone wall lit up, displaying alien symbols mixed english words. Everyone looked up at the wall, mezorized at what they were seeing. Simon then broke the moment as he began to read the english words. "Lady Lex wasn't the only fair lady on the sea. Her elgant sister out lived her, but the two were the biggest. Made into something that they were not suppose to be".

"What does that mean?" said Sandra as she looked at the symbols. Everyone shrugged, at a loss for what it ment. "He must have been standing here" said TJ, sounding excited. "Who?" said Sandra as she moved next to her brother. "Our dad" he said, "he must have been standing here, doing the exact same thing".

TJ then pulled his hand away, and as he did, the alien symbols on the wall, moved into his hand. Once again, the image of the Earth appeared, with three new alien symbols on it. "Care to translate Alvin" said TJ as he held his hand towards him.

Everyone almost gasped, it seemed like TJ was getting exited about finding his father's spark.

Alvin looked at TJ's hand and read the symbols. "This one means harbour, this one means surprise attack, and this one means memorial". "Great" groaned Simon, "more confusing clues". "It must be another war site" said Eleanor, "but the question is which one".

"Something to figure out on the plane" said Mark, "we shouldn't be here to long". Everyone nodded in agreement as they went back for the car.