The Gift Is Given

The pacts had been made, Andreas had no idea how they would appear or take shape going forward. He simply knew that there would be tasks assigned to him. The mysterious group of individuals who had contacted him at his offices, at the Military Labs in Santiago, would not leave his mind.

They had presented him with a neatly wrapped brown paper box, with specific instructions to open at a very specific moment. At a very specific location. None of this made sense to him at the time. He had never met, or spoken with these individuals prior to their bizarre, and almost magical, appearance in his office. They had warned him not to open this package if he was in a state of fear or suspicion. They had stated that he would need to take the box, and leave the city. To go to the co ordinates they had specified, so he could meditate and become connected with the planet. They had provided him with a map to an ancient ruin, not yet known to modernity.

All of this was way outside what he had ever experienced. He did not do yoga, or meditate. He did not walk barefoot on the earth. Feelings of suspicion and fear arose every time he looked at the box. It was unnerving, as the people who gave it to him said it was a gift. A gift, without which, humanity would cease to exist. He could not imagine why on earth he had been chosen to be responsible for this box.

Struggling to get his mind around getting into a state of “fifth dimensional consciousness;” as he had been instructed, was as foreign to him as a language he had never spoken. A bachelor, with a science degree, and a military research background, he liked logic, he liked data, he liked tangible evidence.

Granted the box was tangible evidence. It mocked him ruthlessly, as it sat there, on his desk, in his lab. He had attempted to lift finger prints to identify his benefactors. To no avail. He had scanned the contents via x-ray. It had appeared that the suspicious box was in fact empty.

Was this some kind of hidden camera prank? Was this a practical joke on the part of his peers?

“I am Andreas Corazon Demetrius Cortez!!!”

He affirmed to himself as he stood there grasping at sanity, in what he could only convey as a complete stripping of all his belief systems up to that point. Why had he had received this package, along with instructions of those mysterious individuals?

However odd, and out of the ordinary this visit had been, he was not comfortable dismissing it, or the instructions given to him. The existence of humanity was somehow connected to him, and what he chose to do with this perplexing brown paper package.

Exasperated, he ran his hands through his thick black hair for the thousandth time, furthering his disheveled appearance. He caught his reflection in the glass cabinets where he kept all manner of equipment that was meant to remove all doubt. To measure, weigh, and scan. None of which had been able to de-mystify his current circumstances.

He laughed out loud, at himself and his predicament. He grabbed the box, the map, some water, and snacks, stuffing them unceremoniously into a backpack he had purchased for this, in his mind, completely insane endeavour.

Shaking his head he sat down to install the hiking boots he had purchased along with the backpack. Two items he had never owned prior to this mission he had been assigned. A military researcher with high level clearances, he was most often found in a lab coat and a nice pair of Merrells.

It was late, everyone else had left, as he exited the facility. Approaching his jeep, he unlocked it with a bleep of his key fob, opened the door and carefully put the box on the passenger seat, throwing the backpack into the backseat.

Andreas was in the midst of an anxiety attack as he situated himself in the drivers seat and began to take stock, once again of his circumstances.

“GILLIPOLLAS!” “LOS COJONES!!!”

He struck the steering wheel in frustration as he wrestled himself through this inexplicable moment, before he embarked on his un-characteristic adventure into the unknown.

He was to head to Patagonia, to a remote location at the very end of the paved highway, where he would have to hike, through un-charted wilderness, up the mountainside, where he was told he would locate an obelisk.

Logic and reason were vanishing in the distance of his rear view mirror as he barreled down the Carreterra Austral, also known as X Region 7, or Ruta 7. Andreas attempted to calm himself with the soothing sounds of his ancestors, the pan flutes of the Andes, resonating through him. As the miles between him and his lab grew, so did his sense of calm and connections with the surrounding landscapes. The 1000km drive to Patagonia, and the end of the paved road, would have him arriving at at 7 am.

He decided to stop for a few more supplies at the last town before he was in truly uncharted territory. He located an expedition outfitter and got a tent, a larger backpack, a sleeping bag, some camp food, and stove. The four hour hike to the peak would have him arriving many hours before the time he had been instructed to be there, at 2:22 am, ready to deliver this god forsaken box.

What on earth could be the purpose of this? How on earth could his deliverance of this paper box save all of humanity?

Despite his perception, that this was ridiculous, he remained unwilling to risk it, as he pulled out his wallet to pay for his supplies.

Back on the road now, he drove for another three hours, arriving at the proverbial “end of the road.” Pulling onto the gravelly shoulder of the unpaved roadway, he surveyed his surroundings and pulled out his compass and map to locate his entry point, which they had marked on the map as due East.

June 21st 2025 7am;

Loading his pack and making sure he had the box, the map, and compass. He located what appeared to be a very overgrown pathway, heading east up the mountainside. Though Andreas spent most of his time in the lab, a lot of his free time was spent in the gym, training endlessly. Working to develop his strength, and endurance. As he began to sweat in the balmy tropical jungle he was navigating, he thanked himself and whatever Gods might be listening that he had not allowed himself to become flabby and overweight, as many of his senior co-workers had. After he had been ascending for close to four hours, he came upon a clearing, a plateau far, far above the valley. He could not see an obelisk, as they had indicated, but decided he would make camp here and catch a bit of a siesta, as the sun had risen to a blistering angle. He set up his tent at the edges of the clearing in the shade of the jungle. He sat down, and took a bottle of water out of his pack. As he sat and allowed the water to hydrate his cells, to really feel its’ repairative components, he suddenly became aware that he was completely serene. Here on this remote plateau, where his ancestors had un doubtably wandered. Serene is not a word he had ever used to describe himself; but here away from the rigidity of the military, he began to feel the freedom of his pre-decessors. He began to surrender to the simple breath of the living world. A world he had forgotten. A world full of vibrance and beauty.

As he continued his immersion in this place, he became aware of a subtle buzzing. It wasn’t a sound, but a feeling. Curiously, he removed his boots and socks, and stood bare foot upon the verdant green grass. He closed his eyes letting the vibrations move through all of his atoms, taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes, and saw that his arms and hands were now emananting a bright green light. Only mildly concerned he noticed that he was completely surrounded by this light that seemed to be coming from HIMSELF.

Instantly he found himself standing on what appeared to be the bridge of a ship, control panels surrounded the perimeter, three chairs seemed to mark navigational stations. He turned around perplexed; to see if he was alone, to get this bearings, while he struggled to regain the serenity he had been experiencing, only a moment ago. The feeling began to return, simultaneously three beings seemed to wobble into existence before him, first appearing only as bright white light and gradually materializing into three very tall, very beautiful, beings, with indescribable visages. Wide set almond shaped blue eyes, and bluish opalescent skin. They seemed to vibrate like his body had been, a moment ago in the clearing. He stood there, calm but speechless, as they all surveyed each other for what seemed like an eternity. Then he began to hear static and ringing in his ears for a minute when gradually, words became decipherable.

“We when they are here” “We can will when they are here” “we can and will help, when they are able to arrive here”

They all had their hands over their hearts to convey further their communication.

All that Andreas could think is “what’s in the box?”

This box that had filled him with suspicious feelings and thoughts, this box that had wielded such insistent power over him.

“The Box is empty”

“Then why have you asked me to deliver it here?”

“To deliver yourself to this place, where you know the truth of who you are, and what your purpose truly is.”

“Stand before the obelisk at the time we instructed, and all will be made clear”

With that he was back in the clearing, now it was nighttime, the abundant starlight softened all the edges of utter blackness, of this light pollution free territory. As his eyes and his mind adjusted to this sudden relocation, there in the center of the clearing stood the obelisk. It had not been there earlier , but now, there it was, glowing the same bright green that had been emanating from within him, before he had been transported onto the visitors ship.

He approached the obelisk, with his hand outstretched, stepping slowly toward it through the dark. When he was just about to touch it, green lighting shot out from the ancient stone now covered in bright green glyphs he could not read, sending a bolt straight through his heart. The ground seemed to vanish beneath him as he was lifted into the sky. A thousand images flew through his mind each second, as he was levitated, parallel to the top of the obelisk, trembling with the power of the light; as each glyph on the face of the stone was imprinted through his brow, one after another, after another. He fell in a slump on the cool green grasses as the green light receded. He fell into the deepest sleep he had ever known.

He woke in the morning, laying in the clearing with no sign of the obelisk, and a smile on his face. He had the answers to all that had been an obstacle to his research, the missing piece, the always elusive ingredient for human expansion into the greater galactic community.

Was just Love over Fear,

Wisdom over war

Abundance over Lack.

He crawled into his tent and went back to sleep, the return to his lab, the very last thing on his mind.