*********

​

Two years later, another individual paced between the alleyways and meeting rooms and assembly halls and gardens frightfully yet irritably as the genius he was. He was indeed a mammoth of their community.  In this case, this was a man not of the ministry, nor subjugated as a commoner, but the Chief Psychologist of the entire commune.  He was the chief mental health advisor, the vagabond of all vagabonds, the man who would sit and theorize on how to boost the mental wellbeing and performance of their entire retinue.

 

His personal story was short.  Blessed with wisdom burgeoning out of his corpus at a young age, he breezed through his studies, swept away yet further his early professional career and almost leapt into the role of Chief Psychologist like a proverbial tiger.   He didn’t have much to worry about.  He didn’t have a demon tugging him from behind like many others.

​

Those were the years when Earth was fighting against the legacy of their apocalypse.  Missions had traversed back and forth between the two planets, dwindling with stocks and supplies, vying viciously to quell the situation.  It was the great apocalypse of the third millennium.  The livelihoods were different, stark and bleak, against the barrages of warfare.

​

Terence, the Chief Psychologist, had ventured with the fourth battalion of storm troopers to Earth during the invasion.  They arrived on the plains of ice, plains of ice as they were accompanied by Cruisers, Hurricanes and Tamals – in effect their mass of machinery.  The invaders thumped down across the ice and immediately took stock of the impending logistics.

 

Most of Terence’s time was spent wandering through the absent lands of Earth.  It was an Earth of a population that had mostly fled, gone off-world in search of better circumstances.  They could see it for the wasteland it was destined to become, wiped away tears at its demise, yet joined amongst the throng seeking asylum elsewhere.  Terence, alternatively, was left to pace solemnly through the vacuum it had become, stroll through the grasslands of a derelict planet.

​

His accompanying trooper was a man by the name of Ben.  Together they were stationed on the south eastern realms of the planet, realms where cherry trees grew pleasantly across the rising and falling slopes of grassland.  They would pace in union, grasping their laser gun, listening to the radio waves, peering through the desolate remains of buildings, as they inspected the land for any remaining life forms.     

It was, as the two soldiers strolled through the deserted lands of the planet, that they came across a plantation of cherry trees.  The white cherry blossoms were breaking free of their stems and floated idyllically across the white cloud of the sky.  The sky was indeed white as the pervading embers consumed the atmospheres after the fires.  Terence, stopped for a moment and looked up at the blossoms.  He stopped and seemed struck by their gentle perfection.  Their beauty inspired him that morning.  He set a new course, something radically different.  He travelled to India to learn the practices of peaceful meditation.  He spent years upon years travelling alone, developing his skills as a psychologist.  It was said that from there that he developed his professions.  Evolving in mind and body, he even received dissident qualifications from exotic universities.  He set a course upon a train carriage, a voyage of wisdom, until the days passed and he found himself within the siege-like world of their citadel on Mars.  His days of a vagabond, a journeying pilgrim, were over and he was now the Chief Psychologist of their outcrop.  

 

 

*********

 

Two days were pervading the citadel, as it happens, they were pervading the citadel like the titanic pulverizing into its midst.  Newfound recklessness was gathering across the skyscrapers, gathering across the skyscrapers just as new developments had forced out some of the laws that had governed the castle.

 

On this occasion, however, most of the citadel had turned to a frenzy.  Normal order had somewhat been contorted by their sinister glares and newfound narcotics.  The control of the outcrop, that for long had been possessed in the bureaucracy of the government, now belonged in the devilish mob, whose gothic appetites and wild licentiousness held the castle now as a centerpiece, a centerpiece for savage revelry.

   

The throng of caricatures, wild fanatics, simple souls consumed by a new fire within them, pervaded the walkways and corridors across the citadel.  A new order had been implemented.  A new conduct of society had assumed the throne, as they danced around, glaring like wolves.

​

A room was laid bare beside them the other side of the wall.  It was ready for the apocalypse that was about to take place.  The grey, straight walls with the glass shimmering across one side stood hollow like a venomous mammoth.  It was about to host the victory of humanity.

   

Sweet shuddering insects and the proud bastion of humanity.  The furthering frenzies of the finished Phoenicians sang cries and tears like bountiful dragons reverberating in an Olympic Doje.  Its bountiful pleasantries lit up the soul of Daniel as he stood there, it lit up his soul as he stood there, holding a drink in his hand.

​

He barged casually through the ranks of people.  Empty glances and disinterested stares consumed most of the throng as their electric faces shuddered the night.  Thankfully he met Emma and Ben standing behind a person, waiting to collect drinks from the bar.

​

Emma glided forward and withdrew her phone, ready to order a round of drinks.  She collected six shots of Xeon, two for each person.  Immediately each of the retinue swung their heads backwards and downed the shots.  They paced towards the midsection of the room, finding room to peer up at the reverberating synergy, as if it were a rushing gale, ushering forces against them.

​

The liquified frenzy spread through their veins and arteries.  It sent a proverbial Roman Knight to set them upon a carriage as the night swept them away.  Those around them gleamed in ecstasy, dancing in the form of intermediary statues.  In fact, they jumped in between mystical forms, fighting against the euphoria as if were racing past them.

​

Light-footed as they were, masked as free-flying Muses of Apollo, the lesser gravity of Mars began to take them into a dream-world.  They floated in synergy, paraded in the discombobulated void, akin to a floating tulip gleaming bright in full life.  At last, they flung their conduit forward into the synergy… a synergy that was met in gentle tranquil.  Holographic images began to pervade the entirety of the room.  It was mostly parallel beams depicting elaborate snowflakes or water droplets.  Yet it permeated the room as if snowdrops in Walt Disney’s “Bambie”.

 

The crowd was staring around at all corners.  Most others continued floating in the dream world.  They felt the gentle uplift into the sky, conjoined themselves to the hologram and let the euphoria unravel.  The liquified images continued to burgeon around them.  It commanded to float alongside them, instructed the beholders to let drift of reality.

​

With a smash, an alarm bell rang out across the entire building.  It rang out in true, undiluted reality.  All of the dream-fliers were delirious, dumbfounded in unconsciousness as the lights came on and the music stopped.  Immediately, some of the cack-handed leaders directed them to make their way to the viewing point where they could gather and escape the fire.  Rumour sparked that a comet had been seen.  Wild rumours spread that a comet had fallen from space and stuck the citadel.

​

Immediately, James turned to Emma.  “Let’s head to the secret exit through the great stone at the basement.  Then we’ll be able to see this comet everyone is talking about!”

​

Emma seemed wild in exuberance in reply.  “Yes!  Yes!”  She screamed.  “I hadn’t thought of that!  Now let’s go!  Let’s go!”

​

Emma and James rushed their way down the stairway.  They darted across like two mystical pixies in love with the night.  Absent faces seemed to cross them, idle stares of people making their way to the viewing point as they had been instructed.  But they didn’t care.  They wanted to sprint to the ancestral rock, sprint to it like the beauty of something different was awakening them.

​

After several minutes and James arrived at the ancestral rock.  They stopped and glared up at the barren stone as they emerged at the bottom of the staircase.  Immediately Emma observed its primordial troughs and smooth bulges like she had never seen something so old.  Yet it seemed to gleam towards James, and he remarked upon its beauty within is primitive self.

​

The rock had a noticeable indent.  The indent ran across the centre, inclining upwards as if a symbol of gradient.  It was deep and powerful.  Its gentle indentation in the stone had an eccentric, beckoning demeanour.  It was as if it were uncertain yet powerful and destructive in some strange way.

​

Bang!  Something struck the shoulder of Emma causing an enormous fright!  She was terrified with an unwelcome surprise.  She glanced around and saw that it was Terence and Daniel, who had also emerged at the bottom of the staircase.  Daniel had shoved his hand against Emma in attempt to waken the couple from their diligent inspections.

​

“It’s probably gonna turn into an elephant!”  Decried Daniel frivolously.

​

“Look!  Look!”  Furthered Terence.  “It’s beginning to talk to me!”

​

“Stop acting like children!”  Shouted Emma furiously.  “There is something special about this rock!”  She continued fervently.  “It looks like it has some supernatural capabilities.”  She ran her hand across the stone.  “But what it is I cannot work out at this moment!”

​

“It’s probably gonna burst into flames like the rest of this shit-hole castle!”  Bludgeoned Terence glibly.

​

“Can you stop for a moment!”  Decried Emma once again.  “Look at this indent across the stone!”  She murmured peacefully.  “It is as if it knows both time and infinity!”  She appeared to caress the stone.  “It knows wisdom a trillion miles away from these lands!”

​

Yet within an instance, something monumental happened.  Something monumental happened as if the trees of a forest were evaporating in front of them.  Initially, a faint glow appeared from the crack in the stone.  It was a mere line at first, a simple linear radiation across the surface.  Yet suddenly it grew more and more fierce.  It grew so fierce that both the indent and the light began to increase in volume.  The manifestation lit up the space in front of them.  It mesmerised the collection of them, beguiled and electrified as they were while the vibrant light burst forward.

 

They stared down towards a new citadel.  They stared down towards a new cathedral.  It was a new Olympus before them, one that wrenched forward and shook their hearts.  It electrified their minds, electrified their minds towards new lands. 

​

The radiation continued to swarm in front of them. The bulging crack was ever-increasing, pilfering space in the rock to set forth its ecstatic wonder.  The glow was heavenly.  It had a welcoming aura as if it were an animal, attempting to communicate with them.  With a devilish mystery, Daniel turned aside and stared at them all.  “Well what are you all waiting for!!”  He screamed mystically.  With a delirious wildness, he stretched forward and jumped through the crack in the wall.  He was gone and now one with the gods.  Indeed, mesmerised by the almighty spectacle, the remaining three of them could only think of a similar decision.  Following Daniel’s own delirious gaze, they reached forward and leapt through the empty space, leapt towards new lands. 

​

 

*********

 

Morose and grey, the land they emerged at was the written legacy of their turmoil.  This zone had little sunlight.  In fact, the only light came from a dwindling moon that was hidden behind some clouds.  Yet it was a larger moon.  It was a moon that had seen centuries upon centuries of its own control.  As such, it was larger than normal and gave a reasonable degree of illumination across the plains.

    

Yet the land of this world was largely dry and barren.  Few troughs and eddies lined the plains, accompanied by odd dots of trees and bushes here and there.  What commanded the geography with most clarity was the great mountain at the far end of the savannah.

​

Emma, James, Terence along with Daniel fell into a heap on the dusty ground.  It took several minutes, while they lay in a painful huddle, before any of them could wake up and realise where they had found themselves.  The dusty, grey soil was light and enlightening and they all breathed in the soot before lifting themselves up from their back.  Immediately, Emma raised her head and peered at the mystical surroundings.  “What the fuck has happened??”  She mumbled with dispirit.  “One moment ago we were in the safety of that godforsaken castle.  How can we suddenly end up here!  Shit like that doesn’t happen in the real world?  We’re supposed to be normal human beings with normal human beings’ lives!”

​

“It looks like normal human beings have died here!”  Interrupted James frivolously.  “Look all around you!  We’re surrounded by a graveyard!”

​

Indeed, immediately, all four of them stared with fear at the gravestones surrounding them.  They were all stone, some, it seemed, stemming back several centuries of years.  Yet in the middle, above all else, one appeared more powerful than all others.  Rather than bearing a name, as the others did, it brandished a peculiar statement inscribed across the stone.

 

Daniel reached over inspected the slab of stone.  Emblazoned across it was the following statement:

​

“Greetings my friends!  What you find before you within this land is a feature of your lives!  You must find something but something special – something you can imagine!  The thing you are searching for is something imbedded in a memory from a dream that is the reverse of time.  Find it and you shall save your citadel forever!”

​

Emma, James, Daniel and Terence stared glibly at the inscription in front of them.  Bereft of inspiration or any other idea, there was a moment’s silence while they all looked dumbfounded.  At last Terence perked up first.  “The citadel was always atop a mountain!”  He said with clarity.  “I reckon the item that we are searching for is atop the mountain on the far side of the savannah!”

​

“So you’re talking about a massive trek across a barren wasteland??”  Interrupted Emma adamantly.

​

“It doesn’t look like we’ve got any other choice!”  Furthered James despondently.  “Look all around you!  There is only once place where that trophy could be!”

​

“Set up camp here for now!”  Mused Terence from the far side.  “We need to regroup and set a plan for the upcoming troubles.  It will be a battle!”  He said further.  “It will be a battle in which we all must be ready to fight!”

​

 

*********

 

The following morning all four of the constituents woke up far more replenished.  The sleep had done them wonders and they looked out across the pretty environment pleasantly.  Terence had taken the trouble to scan the geography from afar.  It seemed like their nearest obstacle was a set of trenches ravening the land horizontally.  There was the several hundred metres of what seemed like barren wasteland directly ahead of the trenches.  Further beyond was what seemed like some idle forests and then grassland filtering across like breathing wildlife.  Past that was several hundreds of metres of rocky terrain that led up towards the mountain at the far side.

   

At first, however, Daniel moved forward to sing a song to them all – that is to breath music into the air.  He sang sweet melodies from his pulsating throat enlivening all life across the escarpment.  As he gazed out across the low-lying plains, the blissful moment gave all of them a sense of hope right there right then.  It gave all of them hope that their citadel might be saved.

 

No sooner than that afternoon, the quartet set a course to descend the escarpment and make their way towards the trenches.  Admittedly these ravines across the land appeared shabby and by no means suitable for human life, but they wanted to make quick progress and sweep across the savannah.

 

Having descended the rocky terrain of the arid escarpment, Terence kicked aside some sand and jumped straight into the aged trench.  Its width was as little as metre in length in some cases.  Each kept a stringent gaze at the mud around them.  They did so in an effort to prepare and practice themselves against any unfortune.

 

The whole complex of trenches was barren and deserted.  There was no life here other than fossilized skeletons – past of memories of former glories.  The whole area stank of decrepitude.  It was like the smell of decay now swarmed over these lands like a vulture.

 

Terence, however, strolled through the muddy trenches until at last something of note happened.  Something appeared intriguingly in front of him.  He stepped back and was held aghast by the recurring symbol.  It was like a monster in the shadows.  There, in front of him, was another gravestone, this time with a different engraving.  Ushering over his compatriots, he read out the message for all of them to hear:

​

“So, my friends!  If you are reading this message you have embarked on the challenge and are following the correct route thus far I might add!  However, these trenches must be left, I’m afraid!  They must be left like the poor, wicked plight of former soldiers!  But greater challenges await you in these tales of misfortune.  You see for as you pace across the barren wasteland you will find computer systems are there detonating bombs randomly.  You must dodge and dive them and hope your luck is with you.  If you run quickly and fiercely, you may have success in evading the bombs and make it to the finish line!  That is your only hope and I wish you the best!”

​

All four of the quartet were dumbstruck in silence for several minutes.  What bastard had written that!  What self-indulgent cunt thought they wanted these hardships!  What arrogant fool would come out with such a thing!  They all collectively thought these thoughts to themselves again in a misery – a collective school of misery!  Time was right to say a swell goodbye to this mysterious arena.  It was time to send a merry fucking punch diving towards the idiots who were trying to connive and beguile them.

 

Yet they had lost their focus.  They had lost their concerns. They were now swaying drunkards holding on to the bottle of vodka they had brought with them.  They were bobbling eddies about to be engulfed by an ocean.  Daniel raised his hands to the top of the trenches and began to lift himself up.  With a heave he pulled himself above the ditch and onto the flat pastureland.  Taking a moment to soak up the wondrous view, he gathered almost immediately its emptiness and absence of life.  “Its safe!”  He pressed down to the group underground.  “Climb up the trench and come and join me!”

​

Eventually all four of the group made it out of the trenches and onto the level field.  Terence took a despondent swig of vodka.  It was an aged vodka bottle he had found surviving in one of the caves.  He took a swig of the vodka and shoved it towards the hand of James.  Each of the quartet took turns in downing the alcohol until their drunkenness was precipitating.  It was enlivening and destabilizing them wildly.  Amongst the frenzy, Terence perked up and uttered some words.  “There’s only one way out of this!”  He cried fiercely, with blood pulsating across his face.  “Either we die or we die trying!”

​

Emma returned a devilish grin.  She tossed aside what was her acerbic dependency on proper conduct.  She tossed it aside and began to dance in a childish wonder.  In fact, all four of the quartet seemed mesmerized in beaming energy.  Call it drunkenness, call it Dutch Courage, call it even a loosening of the mind, they grew into beasts.  They grew into magnificent professors, simple caricatures gleaming out to the universe.

​

They charged.  They swept forward like the vampires of the night.  The grassy plain was before them.  It was before them as they blazoned true beauty across its heart-aches.  Rushing, diving, cavorting, they made their way across that plain.  They did it crucially without being struck by a bomb.

 

They could feel the occult rushing past them as they charged.  Portals appeared here and there collectively engrossing their minds.  It felt as if tokened memories of past mysteries.  Sensuous collisions brought previous inhabitants, crying howls from the land of the dead, gleaming flat across their faces, barging them, enlivening them even – an arctic tundra of all realms that spread across the universe.

​

At last, they made it to the forest security and fell down in a heap beside several trees.  The light of the moon was dwindling away and they collapsed down and fell to sleep.  As the stars traversed the black sky above, the quartet fell into a long, relaxing stupor.

 

 

*********    

 

They dreamt of a wild world as they slept there that night.  They foresaw of billowing meadows with white horses galloping full steam.  A wandering pony, ripe with attraction, ready to seize upon another, would circle in on the meadows.  It was like the realm of passion had met the realm of retribution.

​

Emma, James, Terence and Daniel were their very own cogs in this conveyor belt shifting forward.  They were each stepping stones… stepping stones to something far greater.  They sucked in the air as they awoke, breathed in the oxygen.  They drew a proverbial game-face across their cheeks.  They were ready to rumble.

​

With provisions low, it was a small task for each individual to gather their possessions.  They turned and marched onwards.  They merged into what seemed like an endless forest.  To them it scanned the entirety of the continent.  It was like a dragon seducing them inwards.  In fact, they were walking all day with no respite.  The journey had taken its toll and swept them up like insects.  Incensed and frustrated they threw their luggage aside and instituted what was known as a communal break.

​

They lay down across the arid sand and peered up at the clouds above.  In the intermediary space, white fluffy Cumulonimbus beasts passed across the sky majestically.  It was a moment of wonder for them all, a moment of perfection.  Yet it was a moment that took a stark shift almost instantaneously as Emma began to take notice of an almighty manifestation forming above.  Indeed, the clouds formed into what seemed like a face in the sky above.  The image was somewhat peculiar.  It depicted a man with a long, manicured beard and chiselled face.  To Emma and Terence, it appeared like one of the primordial ancestors of the Martian citadel – a man named Jeeves.

​

Yet further, Jeeves began to utter some words down towards them.  As the quartet rested dumbfounded on the sand, the apparition bellowed the following information:   

“Greetings, my friends!  I am a memory of the man who once walked and talked amongst your citadel on Mars.  But, alas, I am now since deceased and cannot leave the realm of the dead!  However, I am here to say that fate has led you up to this point!  You have been individually selected based on your attributes.  In the Martians’ objectives to save their species they have turned to you.  They have turned to you because you have the greatest chance of achieving the mission!  Now go!  Go forth!  You have it all inside you!  All hail the Martians’ victory!”

​

All four seemed struck at the celestial wisdom of their former clansman.  They smiled and congratulated the poor apparition, before falling into a lethargic huddle.  The team went their separate ways and set about constructing a camp for the night.  All contingents thought it was best regather after the momentousness of the revelation.

​

They, in fact, remained camped in the forests for two more days.  Morale was low.  They didn’t know who to turn to, where to go, or even any idea how to find this legendary object that could end the sandstorms.  So they decided to stay camped in what safety they knew.  They grew lazy for two days, reclining and relaxing within their primitive shelters.

 

At last, Terence compelled them that they must venture onwards and continue on track to this legendary mountain.  He urged them all that they must make it to the grasslands before dusk.  Emma was conversely lethargic after the exploits.  She now commonly assumed an aged limb, struggling in pain with her left ankle.  The other two of Daniel and James were in a better condition, but wearied nonetheless.

​

They strolled through the forestlands as the moon beat down heavy upon them, colouring the whole environment in a wolf-like mystery.  The light radiated off the trunks of the trees, offering a silvery glow, while the silence and lack of wind subdued the arena like a sparkled chamber.  It was a serene mystery, an idyllic ghost-world that shook the collection of them all at their foundations and they tried as might to power onwards.

 

A few hours later they made it to the grasslands and immediately set up camp.  Daniel stretched a canvas awning across two trees, leaving them a comfortable space for them to sleep underneath.  Terence, meanwhile set up a campfire.  A few seconds later they gathered around the fire and sipped on what little water they had collected.  Daniel, himself, took an idle sip of the water and gazed loathsomely across the fire.

​

“Before the years of Mars and that citadel, I was a peat farmer across the northern basins on Earth,” he uttered first.  “Those times knew many howling storms across the valleys.”  He stretched his arms forward to relax himself.  “I would go out in our group of ten and dig for the most part of the day.”  He stared around at all of them and continued his story.  “It was, during one hot day amidst the summer that I came across a group of dogs nesting below a tree above an escarpment that looked out across the river.”  He smirked indolently.  “I walked up towards the tree,” he continued.  “I walked up towards the tree and found a nest of dogs living in the roots and ditches beneath it.  Yet,” he continued adamantly as if he was getting to the crux of the story.  “Underneath the tree, living alongside the dogs, was a human baby!”  He looked around him emphatically.  “There was a human baby being brought up by a pack of dogs!”  He then calmed himself nonchalantly.  “In the end, I picked up the baby and brought it back to live with me on my farm.”  He puffed concerningly.  “I brought the human child back and called it Will.”

​

Those around him looked dumbfounded at Daniel’s most peculiar story.  They shuffled and scoffed uneasily and imagined the wondrousness of what they had heard.  After a few seconds, Terence perked his head up delicately and began to utter his own story.

​

“Years ago,” uttered Terence gently.  “Many years before the world of Mars and that citadel as you yourself, Daniel, were neither living in, I was actually a professor within the enormous city-states of Earth.  I would live thousands of kilometres up into the sky in a massive skyscraper that grew higher than the clouds.”  He paused and peered around him.  “I, in fact,” he continued delicately.  “I was a lecturer in the art of comedy.”  He pronounced his words with pride as they all seemed intrigued.  “I would hold lectures, seminars and tutorials on the art of comedy, whether it be “stand-up”, “drama” or simply the art of conversation.”  He smiled pleasantly at them all.  “Our community of scholars blossomed over hundreds of years as we cultivated and practised the quintessential of what our art was.  It lasted,” he murmured further.  “Roughly four hundred years as we entertained guests and set forth our wondrous principals.”

​

The crowd looked despondent at the shame that such an art was no longer continued.  The quartet heaved a wry sigh, while pondering to themselves at the wonder it must have been.  They drank their water profusely, relishing in the escapism, knowing fore-well the trials and tribulations tomorrow would bring.  Within an instance, the group settled down to their sleeping-quarters before almost instantaneously collapsing into sleep. 

​

 

*********     

 

The moment ahead of them lay heavy like a foaming giant.  The moon stood tall in the sky for this very purpose.  The mere air of this mystical world was tainted with nitrogen to divide between the masses.  It was there to divide between who wanted it and who was destined to be swept away in the Martian currents.

 

It floated in the distant sky like an absent pixie.  It dived and soared above like a foreign bird, ready to give her verdict.  They had trained all their lives for this purpose.  They had trained to be heroes.

​

But hearts were heavy, physical circumstances were even worse.  Emma was pretty much disabled with a broken leg.  The rest of them were like insects, carrying the burden of this world as if a leaf three times their size.

 

Terence had assumed the role of captain.  His sinister glares were enough to cajole anyone.  Most just wanted to sit on his back as he seethed out his anger on this world.  He seethed out his anger like a venomous serpent.

 

They dressed and attended to themselves in preparation for the oncoming bout.  Collectively, they tied the laces of their shoes and stood upright against the sky like a group of futuristic knights.  They could see its treacherous presence.  Their valiant stature wanted to dismember it like the inbred it was.

​

Together they moved onwards like orienteers surmounting their mountain.  They circumvented the rocky pathways, climbing upwards against the arid rock that grew steeper the further they progressed.  Before long they found themselves upon an open plateau.  It was an open plateau that was encased by stone on all sides.  Terence was the first to peer around and attempt to address his noble squires.

​

“Look all around you!” He cried resolutely.  “This is the land our forefathers have always sought to surmount with their bravery and wisdom.  It is the devil’s tongue that has breathed fear into our citizens for all these years.  We must wrestle its ignominy, take down its wretched wrath and liberate our citadel in the freedom it deserves.  Join me friends and we shall emancipate ourselves for eternity!!”

​

And so they began to charge up that hill.  Nay, they began to run. They were soaring eagles, darting up the stone here and there.  The peak seemed to become visible.  Its wretched guise now seemed to be reachable several hundreds of metres further ahead.

​

They swept up viciously against the wind.  With their heads downwards fighting their stamina, they darted through the stone like the wind was blowing their sails.  Their hopes were rising, their spirits bulging.  The stone was now rushing past them.  The small cresses and ravines seemed like spectres, they themselves like electrified rats.

 

Yet that world and that mountain had set another obstacle for their wretched souls.  It had set its wrath through a different medium.  As they reached the top of the mountain, boulders began to fall from the crevasses ahead.  They were tumbling boulders, vicious rocks that would kill with an instance if they struck any of them.  Terence gathered under the shelter of the rock and attempted to reassure his followers once again.

 

He looked down at them bravely and uttered the following words: “Our plight is bleak!”  He cried wretchedly.  “The heavens have sent serpents and trolls and wolves in an attempt to destabilize us!”  He looked down with a grimace across his face.  “But we can never let it happen!”  He continued.  “Neither the wrath of Olympus, nor the plagues of the world nor the winds of the sky will ever bear us down.”  He smiled and looked like a fervent dog snarling at them.  “We are superheroes ready to seize the wonder of Mars.  We are the brethren of all brethren!”

​

And so they attempted to stumble further across the rock.  Within an instance it appeared as if their exerts were working.  They were reaching further and further towards the top.   Terence shoved an arm against the plateau and lifted himself to the top.  The rest of them were several metres below, climbing desolately aboard the cliff.

​

But Terence’s history and legacy upon that universe was reaching its counterpoint.  The great constellations of stars that had lit up his soul were reverberating like a pounding tundra, echoing the electromagnetic waves that beamed his soul across infinity.  With a relentless hatred, a boulder came tumbling across the plateau upon which he stood.  The bastion smashed into his corpus, struck his legs forward and pulverised his standing feet.  Within an instance Terence was flying down the mountain.  He was flying to his death.

 

The remaining three contingents stared in dismay at his sorrowful demise.  They stared in languishing tears, their hopes of success, it seemed, fluctuating badly.  Yet their souls had been written across that stone that day in unity.  A lugubrious shadow, it seemed, was circling in on them, aiming headlong at their necks.  They were destined to witness the same improbability.

​

The boulders swept prodigiously across the plateau.  They were electrified like wolves now.  They were beaming stars sweeping all in their way.  They cracked and brandished themselves, chiselled the stone like daggers, until, unfortunately, they smashed into some of the incumbents.  Emma and James were immediately hit.  They were immediately hit and tumbled to the ground.  Their life was over and they would never see Mars again.

 

Daniel screamed in dismay, looked onerously at their bodies below, before wiping away the venom from his mouth.  Staring up at the enemy above, he purified his mind and instantaneously sanctified his soul into a holy crusader.  He readied himself wholeheartedly to face the devil in front of him, to battle its evil across eternity.

​

Like a spider circling a web, he ducked and dived across the stone, never for a second giving this scumbag a chance to provide a similar fate.  His energy was pulsating, his eyes focused on the delivery of its defeat once and for all.  His right hand reached up and he found himself on the top of the plateau.  A few metres further ahead was a white flag, spread across the ground, but one that looked ready to be struck firmly into place.

 

He reached over and grabbed it firmly.  Holding the flag in his hand, he looked out at the clouds in the sky surrounding him.   “If we do this there’s no going back!”  He shouted to himself.  Grasping it nervously, he took a moment to look at the atmosphere of this sordid world, to witness its desolation.  Yet, regathering his mind a second later, he knew the task he had to do.  Proud like a bastion of all bastions, he shoved the flag momentously into the ground.

 

He found himself back within the citadel on Mars.  A queen approached surreptitiously, inching closer before she arrived, stretched forward and swung a medal around Daniel’s neck.  “Congratulations!”  She cried heartily.  “You have aided this civilisation immensely!  Now,” she cried emotively.  “Relax, feast and join in with all the pleasures of this citadel.  You are our saviour.  Hero in and hero out!”

​

That was the last of the tale of this citadel.  They had veritably stormed Olympus, traversing the echelons of the mind in the process.  They had started a new world of love and prosperity.  And when you hope and dream know that that is wrapped up in your mind.  It is an archer to your concerns and wisdom.  Know that you will never live, never perceive, without your mind.  Take the spot from which you were born, the very crux of your livelihood, as the beacon glowing most powerfully.  Take the free running Labrador beside you as the wilful token of apathy.  Turn towards the path onwards, turn towards the next partner you meet, and know that you are free and human!

 

THE END