Ark: Book VI Above

By John Heldon

The old Sunnyside College gym, nicknamed the Ark, has a paranormal portal that gives a chosen few a glimpse of Doomsday, which is near and unavoidable, unless these few can convince mankind a change in its approach to life is needed.
Ben, Cal, and John clear what they thought was a major hurdle, only to find it’s a step into a vast abyss making all they’ve overcome to reach this level seem like child’s play. Not only are their tasks more difficult, the relentless Evil still in their way is even more determined to thwart them.
Mary, Phyllis, and Genna are finally privy to their husbands’ quest. Mysteriously, they’ve been made to feel like long lost sisters, forming a sextet from a trio. Their trips into the abyss are filled with intriguing instructions and riddles from their ‘Mentors’, while they discover ‘holes’ in their reality above ground.
The Ark’s appearance is acting strangely, for all around to see. This event is what the sextet are hoping will allow them to spread the message they’ve been asked to deliver. Inexplicably, it has no impact on humanity. This happens again, and again. Their deep faith in the redemptive message keeps them trying, with near fatal consequences.
They discover the Nemacole secret to a life near perfect. How to get other basically good people to see it that way is the message they’re to deliver, but it may be too late. The world isn’t listening, and the monstrous Evil force that speaks, but is unseen, is battering them toward defeat, and Doomsday.
Despite the hopelessness, their ‘Mentors’ never abandon them, as long as they never give up. The six are shown a final vision of what could be, with two endings. The hopeful one requires an upheaval to the current way of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Heldon
• Release date: Jun 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311101129

John Heldon

John J. Heldon, Jr.(1947-) I was born and raised in Bergen County, NJ. and attended Rutgers University. After a long career in sales before founding my own business, I 'retired', to work and love twice as much as a writer. I've always been an avid student of human behavior, from its funny side and foibles, to its disgust and profundity. "Ark Book IV: Ghosts" is my first novel of the Ark series. I live in Boynton Beach FL, with my wife, better half, and inspirational character, Ginni, along with our hyperactive Maltese, Lily, who keeps us young.

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Book VI: Above

A Fantasy Novel by John Heldon

Copyright © 2016 John Heldon

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1523841931

ISBN-13: 978-1523841936

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016902286

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, North Charleston, SC

Disclaimer:

This book is a work of fiction. The events, characters, locales, establishments, roadways, etc., are products of the author’s imagination. They are solely meant for the entertainment of the reader, and any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.

Once again to Ginni

Acknowledgments

Again, thanks to all mentioned here, starting with my mother and father, Laney and John Sr., whose combined age is 182 years. They have continued to give me encouragement since the day I was born, and even now when I’m also a senior.

To my wife and son, Ginni and Geoff, who have put up with my irritability, distance, and the lesser qualities of being a Gemini during this process.

Again to my wife, as my in-house editor, whose keen eyes never miss the typo mine did.

To Cal Schwartz, author of Vichy Water, Internet host of NJ Discover, and volunteer for countless good causes. Being a ‘character’ in real life inspired a character in this book.

To Barry Sheinkopf of the Writing Center in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Thank you for planting the seed about twenty years ago, from which another bloom emerged this day. I owe you my gratitude for every book that comes out of me.

To the Taub brothers, Jordan and Benjamin. Jordan, for cover design help, and Jamie, for invaluable advice and counsel regarding publication.

To Rob Ducker, a dear friend, for helping me to see my writing on a whole new level.

Finally, to an assortment of friends and neighbors, who at one time or another, gave me an idea for a character or trait, which I shamelessly used.

Thank you all, again.

John Heldon - May, 2016

I hope you enjoy my words once more.

Chapter One

Even though our eyes are closed, we can still ‘see’ each other, and everything around us. Calvin, our metaphysical leader, barks an order, as one by one, our ‘spirits’ descend feather-like into the portal.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT open your eyes!!

This ability to still see with eyes closed is hard to understand, and I hope the reader can tag along with his explanation.

What we’re ‘seeing’ now is what’s being ‘imaged’ for us. Our brains are seeing what ‘He’, or ‘She’, wants us to. Talk about cerebral PowerPoint presentation! The three of us are actually still standing at the portal by the Ark’s pool downstairs. If one of us opens our eyes, it would be like pulling the plug on our LAN computers; the spiritual imaging will be lost, and we’ll be back to flesh and bone, standing around the closed portal, like none of this happened.

Ben and I trusted him, which sufficed to make his fantastic explanation believable. Besides, what we are beginning to feel, we don’t want to end.

Once singly through the portal, the space opens to car tunnel proportions. Cal reaches out. He puts one arm around Ben’s shoulders and one around mine which gives us both shudders and chills. The tactility is that real. At the same time he links us together, the initial feather-like speed changes rapidly. We begin whizzing through this tunnel-like structure at an indeterminate speed, best described as very fast. Think of being drawn into the middle of a rainbow, brilliant prism colors everywhere. We are turning around, sometimes head first, straight, then up and down. It is thrilling, like an amusement park ride, without a hint of nausea. It’s better than just standing still inside the mecca of Sunnyside College sports and entertainment, affectionately known as the Ark. Ben seems none the worse for wear either, despite the trauma he endured earlier this evening. He directs his comment to Cal with a slight chuckle, he too enjoying the ride, So this iss a wormhole!?

So it seems, Cal answered. Remember, this is my first trip, of this kind. I’ve had mind trips before, but this’ll make a true believer out of anyone. Also remember, we’re not ‘making’ this up. These images are being dictated to us from our ‘Spiritual Advisors’.

Cal has a way of putting the right words together to conjure an apt description. ‘Spiritual Advisors’, although a commonplace term, is a suitable use here, for the uncommon ordeal unfolding.

Our journey into the portal has begun. We are able to utilize forces of the Universe no one on Earth understands. We are given ingredients of a recipe for a different dimension. Not knowing what lay on the ‘path’ ahead, my gut expected a series of leaps, one stop after another, providing some answers.

Where will the roller coaster stop first? Such a ‘ride’ for amusement would bring us back to where we started. This isn’t for our amusement, and to paraphrase what Dorothy said in Oz, ‘We aren’t in Delaware any more’.

A split second later, we do stop, but we have to guess where, and at what: outside of a huge ‘craft’ of some sort. I mean Huge! At this point, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around not only watching a movie on a giant screen, but also being injected into it, emotionally and tactilely, yet we’re really just standing in one place!! Everything core to our beings, beside flesh and bones, has been commandeered from us.

‘Craft’ needs more description. I can’t say spaceship, because my guess is our minds and senses are somewhere deep in the bowels of the Earth, having snaked and tumbled our way here. Cal still has his arms around our shoulders, and we are suspended in a void outside this huge object. The three of us float airily around the void which encompasses it… ‘It,’ I’ve decided, is more like a small moon. At this point, to hell with not being in outer space. It’s oval instead of round, like the tiny moons recently discovered by the Hubble telescope. Tiny, in comparison to space objects, but looking at it here, it’s big, like a world unto itself. Don’t hold me to it, because at times, I’m poor with dimensions, but I’m going to say it’s, plus or minus, two miles wide and three miles long!

It’s pulsating a red orange light which gives the void an eerie cast. Mineral deposits glisten between pulses, creating an abstract painting of multi-colored twinkles, like stars surreally winking back at us. Cal and Ben rival my wonderment, speechless mouths agape, but taking it all in. The shell of the craft has a rusted texture, much like that special steel which corrodes its surface, protecting itself from further decay. This structure, with the shape of a giant egg, is resting in a murky, rusty colored lake. The ‘skin’ of the craft has leeched this dark reddish brown hue into the lake over eons, no doubt. This seepage was the same color of the Nemacole River’s brackish waters around the towns of Marlton and Red Shoals. Did it seep to the surface through underground springs?

Another ADD tangent of mine, but not so far-fetched.

My wonder of this leaps away as I begin to calculate our bearings, just for the sake of argument. Even though we are being ‘fed’ these images, what we see is so real, the thought of a dream never occurs to us. It seems like everyday reality, with a bird’s ability to soar. The tiny diagram we found on the cylinder we recovered suggests we are under the Ark. How far I'll take a stab at. The diamond mines in South Africa are roughly four miles beneath the surface, and they require air conditioning for the workmen. It feels between 75 to 85 degrees F, just enough to make our skin feel clammy and damp. In our ‘imaged’ state, we must be about three and a half miles down. Just after I surmise this, we three arrive at a spot next to the craft, which is still pulsing, yet not emitting any heat. Remember, we are floating, not walking, over the lake surrounding this huge egg. I run this calc past my other two journeymen as Ben, with fixation, asks again.

So I guess we weren in a wormhole?

Cal smiles,

No, Ben, we’re not yet in another part of the universe, but I hope we still get to take that ride!

The next bearing I sought is surprising, but it shouldn’t have been. I look at my watch, chagrined the dial just has a dot in the middle, with no hands. To verify, I ask them, Have either of you checked your watches?

Ben glanced at his, Cal didn’t bother, just saying matter of factly,

This dimension we’re in has no time! Remember the first instance the portal was opened for us? No time had elapsed when it was over. I’ll bet ‘forever’ and ‘for the time being’ have the same meaning here!

There go his words again. I don’t know if this warp is causing a bend in our reasoning, but Cal’s plausibility was just that: worthy of consideration.

The next reveal proceeds on my cue. Directly in front us, the shell of this large craft emits a grinding sound as a ten-foot circular portion of its crust crumbles its edges as it moves in a counterclockwise direction, unscrewing its grip on the craft’s rusty skin. One full rotation frees it, and a belch of air coaxes it weightlessly to the right side of the opening. I can’t see a hinge or track; it just floats adjacent to the opening that had been sealed moments before. Some other kind of physics again.

At once, rays closest to sun or daylight spill forth miles below the surface, illuminating this void around us. A burst of air from the craft evaporates the dank moistness that clings to us, much more quickly than those machines that do the shirts at the dry cleaners. The twinkling mica and mineral deposits lose their luster, and now it seems like early dawn inside this bubble of earthen space. As bright and powerful as this light is to do this, we are not blinded by it; instead, we are drawn to the opening and the hint of promise this ‘day’ may bring.

A faint smell of jasmine tickles our noses, making us realize how dank the air in the void has been. Separately (Cal had released his shoulder grip), we float through this new, larger portal, sensing a new leg of our journey.

Chapter Two

I love the smell of jasmine, as much as I hate the smell of chlorine, which the three of us almost died from. It’s like passing under and through an arbor of jasmine, just by the smell, but we aren’t. After the shiny ten-foot circular metal door jamb, about 100 feet of cave-like, earthen walls open to a vast, ‘fresh green breast of a new world,’ as F. Scott Fitzgerald might have described it: trees and flowers, any color or kind one can imagine. We soft land on this ‘ground’, no longer floating. Honestly, it is good to feel something under my feet again. We touch the leaves and branches, we crumble the soil between our fingers, just to be sure that sense is intact. Palms to pines, and rainbows of flora, are kaleidoscopically mixed: the giant terrarium spelled Paradise. There is bright light within, without a sun. The ‘sky’ shines like a white, untouched canvas.

What pictures will be painted for us down here? With a few broad strokes, His words about the past begin to paint the future.

You are in the vessel We left in the earth ages and ages ago, as We do with all worlds we visit and manage. This is how Our kind have done it for billions of years. In all of these worlds, We try to sow the seeds of knowledge, and the answers to achieve harmony with nature. Alas, most of these worlds neglect Our plan, reach a crash point which destroys their world and ends its days. The polluted and fouled cells of this body, the Earth, have become a cancer which is consuming its host. This takes millennia to happen, but it is happening. Having said this a key ingredient of Our Eternity is optimism. We are still looking for the world to repair itself. We wish Earth will do that, and that’s why you are here.

Cal is the first to blurt a query, never the shy one,

"So what You’re saying,