Open the Gate

Open the Gate

982 words

         After spending several months exploring the vast Sahara desert wastelands on a secret expedition, Sam Adams and his team found a hidden cave following a mysterious map and note that had been delivered to their offices at the Cosmos Institute in Berkeley, California.

         The note said.

         “Travel to 21N,21E, and you will find what you are searching for. “

         Sam reported this to his supervisor, the elusive and mysterious abrupt Maria Lee who was rumored to have been a high-level spook and had contacts in high and low places.

         She surprised him by telling him the board had approved a secret mission to the Chad/Libyan border region to track down whatever was in the letter. She stressed that this would be a secret mission and she assigned several staff members to go with him. They would all meet up at the N’Djamena airport, the capital of Chad, under the cover of a US Military assistance team helping fight the Islamic terrorist group active in the border area. They would all be sworn to secrecy and have to sign a new non-disclosure agreement and read in Top Secret SCI sensitive compartmentalized Intelligence before going to the airport. They could be gone three to four months and the institute would contact their landlords and pay the rent for six months in advance.

         Maria met them and gave them their clearance and said,

         “Where you are going in a very dangerous area of the world. Elements of the US special forces, the French foreign legion, a few Local Government people, and local translators as well will join you as well. If you find what we expect you will find, it may be a huge archeological find – the gateway to a rumored ancient city that may have been an offshoot of Atlantis. I am putting you in charge because you are the world’s leading expert on ancient civilizations. But, you may not tell anyone outside the team what you are looking for. You cannot trust anyone even the military special forces have not been read in. If you are captured, we may not be able to rescue you. ”

         Sam Adams was joined by Jake Lee and Arthur Ruben who had been on many of their journeys together. The Cosmos Institute liked to think of itself as a “real life X file” and cooperated with the various intel agencies which funded the institute.

         It took several weeks to assemble the team, get permission from the skittish Chadian government and finally, they arrived in the capitol. Sam and his team thought the capitol was much more cosmopolitan than they had imagined. Col. Robert Jones who had a lot of time on the ground told them,

         “Guys, once we leave town we will be going into a very dangerous world. Not too many people, lots of wildlife including lions, but most importantly Islamic terrorist groups. If they find out what we are really up to who knows what might happen to us? From this point on, I am in charge. We will defer to Sam and his team if we reach the target alive. Follow our orders and you might live and make it back home. “

         They flew towards the north in helicopters and landed about ten miles south of the destination and had to hike the remaining distance through high mountain deserts, they encountered wildlife and a few nomadic tribal groups who stayed away afraid of encountering trouble.

         Finally, one morning they saw a cave on the side of the mountain and they entered the cave. In the middle of the cave was an ancient shrine. In the middle of the shrine was a book written in Arabic. Their Arabic translator took the book and said,

         “This is the infamous Necronomicon. It opens the gateway to hell. I am out of here.”

         Col. Jones pointed a gun at his head and said,

         “Translate this for us and we will let you leave but I doubt you will make it back alive. We saw a pack of hungry hyenas following us and you know as well as I do that they sometimes hunt people. Your best bet is to stay with the team.”

         Reluctantly Abdul Mohammed agreed.

         Col. Jones received a phone call went outside and came back, and said.

         “Ladies and Gentlemen, our orders have changed. We are to spend the night and secure the shrine and book but not to open the book until reinforcements arrive tomorrow.”
          They made camp in front of the cave and started a watch system. The hyenas attacked at dawn but they were able to fight them off. A few of their local guides had disappeared along with the translator.

         At about noon, their reinforcements came in including Sam’s boss, Maria Lee. She conferred with the military and said that the military and others non-mission critical would wait outside to provide security. Six people entered the shrine, Maria Lee, her boss Mr. Smith who was a scary-looking intel operative, Sam, Jake, and Arthur.

         Mr. Smith looked at the book, nodded, and said,

         “Maria, you know what to do.”

         Maria said,

         “Well, Sam this is it. We have been looking for the gateway to our planet Sirius for thousands of years. We are descendants of the ancient Sirians who conquered your planet thousands of years ago. When Atlantis was destroyed we lost most of our knowledge and technology. But we waited until now. Once we open the gate, we will be in touch with our home world.

         They may decide to send a new invasion fleet or they may decide to take us back home. Either way, we can’t let you go back, you know too much. So either join us or not. If not, you will be killed and everything will be blamed on an Islamic militant attack. What will it be?”

         Sam said,

         “Open the gate.”





Were you to travel to latitude/longitude coordinates 21N,21W or 21S,21W you'd find yourself in the Atlantic ocean. Were you to travel to 21N,21E you'd be near the border between Libya and Chad. 21S,21E takes you near the border between Botswana and Namibia.

Write a story or poem about traveling to one of those locations in search of something.

Be creative! Are you looking for the lost city of Atlantis? A crashed alien ship. The treasure was hidden by an ancestor whose journal you've just found? The rift opening upon a dimension of Lovecraftian horror? The location of the last radio transmission of your true love? Etc.

One of your genres must be Action/Adventure.