Secrets of Our World

Chapter 5 - Antilia

"Where are we? Where did I take us?" I started walking frantically around. We were in a forest.

"A forest." Liam answered bluntly.

"Really? What country? Province? State? City?" I yelled while almost tripping over a fallen branch, but Liam stopped me.

"Antilia. Calm down. OK?" he said as he put his hand on my shoulder.

"OK." I nodded and sat down on the trunk of a tree.

Liam paced around for and bit and stated, "I think that we are in Lebanon."

"The country?" I replied while giving him a puzzled look.

"No. The city, in Kansas. We are in the US."

"How do you know?" I quizzed him.

"I've been here a long time ago when I was a child with my father and a friend of hi. This looks just like that same forest. "

"Well, I didn't mean to bring us here. I wonder why we would end up in this place." I looked around hoping that someone would appear and help us. Finally, like a mirage, I spotted someone, but she seemed as lost as we were.

"Liam, do you see that woman or am I seeing things?" I pointed out past some fallen trees where a Japanese woman sat cross-legged.

"Yeah, I do. Is she holding a cat?" He squinted in the direction of the figure we saw. "She is. The same thing must have happened to her. Let's go talk to her."

We started walking toward her, through some plants, then over fallen tree limbs and finally now about 50 metres away, she sat there befuddled. When we reached her, she appeared frozen.

"Hello?" I said.

"She must be in shock, that's why she isn't responding." Liam thought out loud.

"Oh. How do we ....... Un-shock her?

Instead of replying, Liam cocked his hand back and was going to slap her across the face, when something incredible happened. Her hand, appeared to transport as fast as lightning to catch Liam before he hit her. She said something in Japanese that I didn't understand, but apparently, Liam did. It took him aback and he replied to her in Japanese.

Ugh. I felt like the only person who couldn't get the joke. I wish I knew Japanese. While I was waiting for them to finish their conversation, I took in my surroundings. We weren't very far into the forest, just about 100 metres away from the edge now. There were may native plants and trees. Spending so much time in the city, I had forgotten how much I loved nature. Seeing the sunlight glisten off the leaves, as it descended through the gaps in the foliage, and shine on the bushes, flowers and tree trunks. It illuminated all the different colours and shades. It was so beautiful, the green, the gold, the ...... everything.

I looked past the edge of the forest seeing what looked like the motels from American movies, and past that a road. On the other side of the road, open fields as far as you could see.

Finally, Liam and the girl finished their conversation and he turned to me and recounted what she had said. Her name is Nagama and she had no idea where she was. One second, she was sitting on her bed in Japan and the next she was here. She had powers too. She had the ability to run so fast that nobody could see her.

"You speak English." Nagama asked with a heavy Japanese accent. "I speak, too. "

"Oh, Tres bon. My name is Antilia." I told her.

"An – til – ia. OK. Nice to meet you." She spoke slowly as if she was translating something in her head. "I'm Nagama," she pointed at herself, and then at her cat. "This is Hikenzo."

I nodded and patted him on the head.

"You, Lee-am." She confirmed.

"Now that we all know each other, we need to find out what we are doing here."

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Several arguments over money and an hour and a half later, we had managed to buy the motel manager's beat up car, for twice what it was worth.

"I still don't see why we couldn't have just stolen a car. After all that motel owner just robbed us." I complained.

"Because, it's wrong," Liam said without taking his eyes off the road. "So, I guess I should fill you guys in on what I know. Nagama, can you understand?"

"Yes, yes. Go ahead, tell." She was nodding her head furiously.

Liam started, and I sat there in disbelief my mouth wide open, as he recounted the story, a story at the same time too amazing and too horrible to retell.

"You can't be serious, that's so terrible. Who could ever do such things? Who could act like that? Aren't we an evolved society?"

"Oh, people can." Nagama said with a said look on her face. Something told me she knew about such things first had. "Technology, evolution move forward, people thinking not. People minds stuck in caves. Maybe worse." She said slowly.

A silence fell over the car. The only thing you could hear was Hikenzo's quiet purrs as Nagama pet him and the clanking sound of the car. It sounded as if it would break down at any time, stranding us.

"Hey, what's that up ahead?" I pointed out the windshield at two crowds trying to get at each other. They were divided by what seemed to be an invisible wall. They were standing in a green bean field by the side of the road. At the front of the crowd closest to us, there was a man. About 19-20 years old with black and silver hair, and sharp features. He wore a back pack over casual clothes. He was speaking, trying to get the attention of the crowd.

The crowd furthest from us had a woman who seemed to be just a few years older than the man with the same hair and features. They looked to be related, possibly brother and sister. As we got closer, I could see that a large number of people in both crowds were hurt and that was not all. There were bodies everywhere all over the fields. About 50 lay dead, but this was nothing compared to what could happen. The man's side seem to have fewer casualties.

Liam stopped the car about 70 metres away from both crowds. The three of us got out.

"Well, what do we do now?" I asked. " Which side do we join? Or do we walk away?"