Third Genesis

Chapter 17: Mount Sodom

The picture above is the "Lot's wife" pillar on Mount Sodom, Israel, made of halite.

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"Are we almost there?," I asked Andra, who's driving, for a hundredth time.

We were driving for at least seven hours and has already covered a thousand kilometers from the Tower of Babel. I was trying to determine the locations we were going through but I can only understand the numbers for what were inscribed in signposts were all Urdu. We left the hotel in 7 AM and now the time on the dashboard tells it was already two in the afternoon. Raven said that we better drive towards our destination so they can save a lot of energy for the next possible battle.

"You keep on asking, Eve. It's annoying," Andra replied irritatingly, she was driving nonstop for hours so I can't blame her.

"We're almost there," Shaun said, smiling at me patiently.

We were on a road, somewhere, as I read, on Route 90, then Andra turned right and we were now driving on a bumpy surface.

"Are we in the right path?," I asked after noticing that none of any cars were driving here compared to a number back on the highway.

"Being with them doesn't lead us to any right path," Adam said, he was looking out on the window with his arms crossed.

Andra suddenly stepped on the brake, causing all of us to almost yank off of our seatbelts. "Watch your mouth, human," Andra said, glaring at Adam through the rearview mirror. She went out of the driver seat and walked around to the passenger seat, "Move."

Shaun moved on the driver seat and he was now the one who's driving. "I suggest to the two of you to behave, bickering won't do any of help," he said wisely.

After a few silent minutes, we past the Dead Sea and we're now driving on a plain. Shaun slowed the car and stopped in the middle of nowhere. We all went out of the car and stood at the desert sands.

As I looked around, no signs of life can be seen in the surrounding but rocks, tar pits, and weeds.

"Are we in the Mount Sodom?," I asked incredulously, not believing that any of the big rocks were considered as a mountain.

"Not yet. Mount Sodom was stood behind this city," Raven answered.

City? I looked around, not seeing any possible dwellers nor shelters throughout the area.

"What?," I asked dumbfoundedly.

"I don't need to repeat myself."

I huffed, rankled with Raven's grumpiness. Instead of staying longer near him, I just walked towards one of the massive rocks instead. I stared at its folding and faultings, apparently telling its age beyond the years or more so passed by.  I reached my hand to touch it and tried to grasp it, but as I do, it crumbled in my hands and inside, the hard crust revealed compressed ashes.

"That was once a fortress."

I turned my head to my side and saw Shaun standing behind me, also watching the stone before us.

"We are actually in Sodom and Gomorrah, cities mentioned in the book of Genesis and throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and in the deuterocanonical books, as well as in the Quran and the hadith."