《Gaia: The Path of Three Worlds》 The Fathers Journey Begins "We will be passing over the center of the anomaly in an hour sir, would you like to do a final check?" asked his ship''s captain. Jacob sighed "no I think I''ll get some rest with the other crew before I have to answer to General McCarty about where all his well spent funding went." The captain didn''t respond. He kept his eyes forward and continued course over the strange energy field. Jacob walked through the hall and found himself in the barracks. He grabbed a picture out of his bag and laid back in bed. Before he closed his eyes, Jacob took a long stare at the picture and muttered something barely audible under his breath. "At least you will be happy to see me bud." He placed the picture on his nightstand and drifted asleep. He had a long day ahead of him. On March 12th, the world changed. A rumble deep in the pacific shook the world. Slowly across every continent people rose from their bed, got up from their desks, took their attention off the tv and stared. The rumble was the slightest of peoples'' disturbances because for the first time in mankind''s history, every human stopped what they were doing, everyone was awake, and everyone was focused on the same thing. A mysterious prompt appeared in everyone''s line of sight reading. Quest for every human: Reach Gaia Reward: - unlock attributes and system interface Quest for every human upon reaching Gaia: Reach the tower Reward: -Unknown Good luck and enjoy this disaster, Sincerely yours, Mark The fear and confusion that most people felt, was more so for the obscure message blocking out most of their vision, giving them all splitting headaches, than the outrageous things this message said. What and where is Gaia? What are attributes? What is this tower? What is going on? But most importantly¡­.. "Who the fuck is Mark?" murmured Jacob as he got out of bed and waved his hands wildly in the air trying to get this quest thing out of his head. "I don¡¯t know¡­. But you may want to come here and see this," Jesse said as she pointed off towards the front of the ship. "I see the message Jess. We all do." Jacob waved his hand revealing all of the other formerly sleeping crew members wide awake in the barracks holding their heads in pain. "Not that.. There''s¡­ something coming out of the water, and it just¡­. keeps coming." If it wasn¡¯t for the headache this message was causing Jacob, he would have ignored the girl and gone back to sleep but he thought that maybe some fresh air would ease the pain and somehow clear the message. Jacob sighed and walked out onto the ships deck, nudging Jesse aside as he walked by. AS he reached the front of the ship his head tilted up, his eyes following an ebony tower ascending through the clouds and into the heavens. As more and more of the tower emerged, something in the water suddenly changed. Waves started cascading from the base of the tower and structures (made out of some white material he was unfamiliar with) came into sight all around the tower. The longer he stared the more of the structures, he now recognized as some type of city, began to emerge. Following the city came huge trees the size of Redwoods. He could make out streams, cliff faces, and giant mushrooms the size of houses all along the island slowly emerging from beneath the surface. He even thought he saw something moving within the forest but shook his head in denial thinking some poor whale or shark just had got caught up in the emergence. Just as the waves began to settle and his heartbeat began to slow, a metal gate appeared at the base of the island. The metal connecting to the gate wrapped around the bottom of the island reaching almost 100 ft into the air. The city vanished from his site and all that was left as the water settled was this rusty looking metal and pristine gate. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Months before the Rumble Of March and emergence of Gaia occurred, Jacob and his team of fellow scientists were heading to a spot in the Pacific Ocean fifty miles south east of Japan to research an anomaly in the Kuroshio current. This "anomaly" was causing planes to fall from the sky, signals to become lost and fried any electronic within a 20 mile radius. But governments all over the world weren''t racing here because of the Bermuda Triangle knock off, they were there for the energy this anomaly was emitting. After months of research into the strange energy, nothing was found aside from the readings that the energy was dwindling. After long hours and fruitless results Jacob and his team of scientists were the last of the nations there, hovering the vacant spot in the ocean, hoping that by some chance they would have a break-through. The break-through never came, but the lack of funding did almost immediately. Which led to Jacob and his team of scientist to leave their post and head for home in Portland. Leaving Jacob and his crew in this world changing situation. The ship''s captain ran from the deck with a look of bewilderment in his eyes. He ran up to Jacob and stood beside the man as they both continued to stare at this huge metal laden island in front of them. "I think we found where that energy was coming from Jacob." the captain said still facing the island. A moment went by and Jacob turned on his heels and ran into the equipment room. Seconds later he returned holding the tool he used to read the ambient energy the anomaly released and screamed something barely audible to the captains ears. "It''s gone! It''s gone!" He kept repeating as he raced back,face red from all the shouting, to where he had left the captain. "What''s go¡­." he couldn¡¯t finish his senetence. "The goddamned energy is gone!" Jacob wheezed, out of breath from the slight run. "Probably should have done that last check before we left huh?" The captain scoffed, hiding a shit eating grin from Jacob''s eyes. Jacob hated this bastard. Sufferable Sweetheart Jacob sat on the deck of the ship holding the energy reader and muttering words under his breath and sat there staring blankly at the endless tower and gate that surrounded it. He turned to the door as heard groans leading to the barracks as the sleeping crew held their hands over their eyes as the bright sun blared down onto them. He watched as faces of pain turned into pure shock and astonishment as each crew members eyes finally adjusted and saw what laid before them. He laughed and lightly said "right! That''s what I''m saying". Jacob truly was a sufferable man. He turned back towards the tower and felt a rush of wind so strong that the ship began to shudder and rotate away from the island. Following the roar of wind, a loud bell rang, so loud that the wind seemed to be a side effect. Jacob cursed and stood up holding his ears. He noticed a moisture rolling down his hands and pulled his hands away from his ears finding his hands red with blood. What had done this? Was that damn bell that loud? Jacob panicked at the sudden blood loss and tried to run into the barracks to find the ship''s doctor. Right as his body turned towards the door, he noticed a man lying on the ground convulsing, covered in what seemed to be at least a liter of blood dripping from his ears. It was the doctor. He ran to the doctor, flipping his position over from his stomach and onto his back. He watched as the man''s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he continued to flail and foam from the mouth. Blood continue to trickle down from his ears and onto the deck. He didn''t have long. Jacob didn''t know what to do. He looked around the ship to see if anyone else could help, but he found that everyone else was either passed out like the doctor or running around as blood slowly trickled from their ears like his. Jacob stumbled and lost his footing completely and collapsed onto the doctor. Something appeared on the prompt that had been clouding his vision but he ignored it, focusing on the doctor and his now almost nonexistent breathing. Suddenly hope filled his eyes as Jess and the captain appeared from the ships deck, holding their ears and stumbling towards Jacob and the doctor. "Help! The doctor''s not going to make it, and I''m not far behind without him!" Jacob softly slurred, truly only worried about what the doctor could do for him, but they didn''t know that. His vision began to cloud and his head began to feel faint as darkness began to reign over the dwindling light that was now his vision. As the lights began to fade completely into nothing, he noticed the doctor and Jess weren''t bleeding but their hair and clothes were covered in blood but were otherwise coherent and healthy. How are they okay? Why aren''t they bleeding? "How.....How are you okay?" He said mustering up the last bit of strength he had to get this final words to fall from his lips as his vision faded out of existence. Was this it? He didn''t really care truly, but he at least wanted to see his son one last time. Jacob lived a life of luxury. Being the head of Victrus, the governments only scientific research department tasked with finding and researching new energy resources to aid the government''s military might(oh and help society of course}, left Jacob with all the money a man could want. Jacob could care less about that. Yes, he enjoyed the small things that luxury brought, but it didn''t give him time. HIs son Gunner was 9 and he could count the amount of times he had seen him this year on one hand- it''s almost June. He had promised Gunner after his journey to the anomaly that he would take a month off where it would just be the two of them. Months went by at the anomaly with him making no progress, but he felt that his research into the strange energy was at a breaking point. Then suddenly the energy dwindled and he was called home, he was upset at the lost discovery but he knew a failure here would only lead him to the place he wanted to be- with his son.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Thoughts of never seeing his son again tore Jacob apart. He needed to see him again. No, he would. He fought his all against the might strain that was leading him into the light. He fought as he felt millions of tiny hands try to guide him into the bowels of the afterlife. He grabbed at something in the distance and took ahold. Jacob pulled with all of his might until he felt like the light was receding. He pulled and pulled every fiber of his being was shaking in agony. he could now feel the nails of the millions hands begin to dig in to every part of his body. He cried as flesh was puled from bone and eyes were scraped to nothing, but just as soon as it all began, it stopped and the light receded and Jacob finally felt the wind and warmth of the light of being on the deck of the ship. Jacob''s hand still held on to the object that was helping himself out of the void of the afterlife. He looked at his hand and what he saw made him wish he had just gone into the light. His hand was stuck around the throat of the doctor. Ringing the last bit of life that the man had left. The doctor''s eyes bulged from his skull as Jacob finally realized to let his grip go of the man. The doctor''s ears still bled but he wasn''t convulsing anymore. Small victories right doc? Jacob tried to assess the situation around him as he still layed on the deck beside the doctor. He grabbed at his ears and a blaring pain threw Jacob back to the ground. He wasn''t healed, he was still on the verge of death. Panic began to set again as his vision darkened. This was it. Just as he was enjoying the flashbacks of his life, Jess kneeled down and screamed into his face. Her words were distorted from his annihilated ear drums. All Jacob could hear was what sounded like the muffle of aluminum foil against his eardrum. Jess realized her mistake almost immediately and began mouthing words and pointing up and out in front of her eye. Was she wanting him to look somewhere ... ? Just as the thought came in Jacob''s mind, he began to search his vision and there he saw it- a yellow light flashed on the small prompt in his vision. He focused on the yellow light and suddenly a message appeared. Message from Mark, Oops! Sorry about that loud noise. It seems I don''t know my own strength. I was just trying to open the gate softly..... Never mind that now. Even though a mass culling was imminent in the future.......sooner rather than later never hurt right?.... Any-who, if the brave few around the world are savvy enough to find this message during their suffering, I suppose a gift would work to get you chosen humans back into tip-top shape. Yours truly, Mark Accept reward from Mark? yes/no Jacob smashed yes as hard as one could with their vision. As soon as he did the message disappeared and a vial appeared. He quickly examined the vial and read the tiny description on the bottle. -Heal yourself and your bloodline from any ailment currently affecting them. That was odd he thought, but Jacob didn''t care, he would be dead in seconds. He quickly pulled the cork off the vial and downed the green viscous liquid. Immediately warmth flooded through Jacob''s veins and he felt his headache slowly dwindle. He slowly got up from his position next to the now seemingly dead doctor and felt his ears for blood. Nothing. Jacob lived. He could see his son. He would make it home.