Map Seekers: The Brotherhood

Chapter 5

A good night sleep was just what Hunter needed and what a doctor would have prescribed . Unfortunately, Hunter's mind didn't fill that prescription.

After the run-in with Mr. Bogart at church, Hunter found it difficult to go to sleep and once he finally did, he was plagued by stress dreams all night.

He failed to tell his parents about Mr. Bogart because he knew they would make him give up the piece of the map. Strangers approaching him in church... they wouldn't see that as a good thing.

When he woke up to his alarm clock the next morning he felt like what the zombies on The Walking Dead must feel like. He had never felt so tired in his life. All he wanted to do was tuck his head under the sheets and close his eyes, but he knew he couldn't. He had to do the exact opposite.

His grandpa had been telling the truth. This map was real and evil men were set on getting a hold of it. The dilemma was figuring out who was evil and who was good. Hunter didn't know how he knew Mr. Bogart was evil—it was either a hunch, or as his pastor would say, "The Holy Spirit," —but Hunter was sure of one thing: that man could not be trusted.

Hunter's resolve was solidified in knowing he held a part of history and he would not let his grandfather down protecting it.

Hunter called Sheldon as soon as he wiped the sleep from his eyes and his voice sounded more like a croak.

Sheldon was already awake and had been working on their "project" for over an hour.

Once Sheldon locked on to a problem or riddle, he rarely let go until he solved it. It was a family trait he picked up from his father, who could never leave a crossword puzzle unfinished.

While Hunter had been at church, Sheldon had been searching for more information about the map. Specifically, he had turned his attention to the ancient script that was written all over the fragment.

Sheldon reasoned that if they could translate the writing then they would be one step closer to understanding what the map was. Sheldon confirmed what Hunter's grandfather had said, that the script most resembled Aramaic.

This was a language spoken from at least 2000 B.C. until around 50 A.D. As the Roman Empire spread and gained power through the Middle East, Greek and Latin replaced Aramaic as the common language. Now it was mostly considered a dead language.

Sheldon was able to find information from a university website that included the entire Aramaic alphabet and some words. Unfortunately that was about as far as he could get with his research. Languages were not Sheldon's strongest subject. Sure, he knew HTML, XML and PHP for the computer but when it came to languages from around the world, he was at a complete loss.

That was where Maricella would come in handy. Sheldon knew she had been raised speaking Spanish, English and even Portuguese, and was currently taking French in school. She loved languages like most kids her age loved Zac Efron.

Sheldon knew if anyone could translate the writing on the map, it would be Maricella.

"Bro, are you just waking up?" Sheldon asked incredulously.

"Not all of us can exist on four hours of sleep and still pass AP classes," Hunter responded.

"Sucks to suck."

Hunter ignored him. It was the usual Sheldon arrogance.

"Listen, I had to tell Maricella a little about the map."