First of the Fallen (Neophyte Series 1)

3. A Ghost in the Fog

                 TIME HAD LOST ALL meaning. Concepts like morning, day, and night become irrelevant in absolute confinement. The lone prisoner would spend most of his time reading, mainly because there was nothing else to do, but there was a part of him that hoped that if his captors were truly watching, following orders might gain him some sort of leniency. It was a rather pointless endeavor to read scripture seeing as he was an agnostic at best. He was raised on it, after all, and knew the stories as well as any child's fairy tale. Perhaps the small details had faded from memory with age, he would admit, but the bulk of the stories remained intact. This particular Bible was a version he'd never come across in his youth. The New Testament seemed much longer than the Old, which was very much the opposite of his recollection.

    Though Michael had been selectively reading only the stories he actually enjoyed as a child, he couldn't help but notice the odd change in the small differences he had forgotten, or perhaps they'd always been there, he thought; alternative or added information that seemed to change the perspective of the story completely, which in turn, somehow, made each seem more plausible.

    As he read through each story, he was beginning to wonder if the book had been tampered with.

    The Eden story had always seemed a bit far-fetched considering how much Michael had learned about the big bang and evolution in his childhood studies, so it came as a bit of a shock when he found that the word "day" had been replaced by the word "cycle" bringing a slightly different perspective to the concept of a seven day creation. In that same book he would read about thriving colonies of underdeveloped humanoids—would-be humans who roamed the earth before the walls of Eden had erected. According to this strange version, Adam was the first to develop original thought, deeming him the very first official human being. The towering walls of the Garden seemed designed to keep out any who would harm both he and his mother, a not-so-human woman by the name of Judith. The whole story read like a scientific breeding experiment, where the prime subjects were kept in isolation in order to multiply safely, away from the threats of the world, as there were many described.

    One such creature was referred to as the Behemoth, a gargantuan creature described in great detail that would hide in the mountains, and feed by lowering its mouth into rivers, allowing the fish to rush into its mouth. It had a tail that would swing like the trunk of a palm tree, its neck of equal length but thicker. The book even described its gentle nature, and Michael couldn't help but think of a creature straight out of Jurassic Park.

    'There are dinosaurs in the Bible?' he scoffed one evening, almost positive that he was reading a farce, but continued nonetheless.

     Noah's Ark seemed most curious, if there was a hint of truth to it. Unlike the version he had studied in Sunday school, these pages described a thriving bloodline split into three tribes of varying habits. Abel had been referred to as the graceful of the three—humble farmers gentle in nature and faithful to a fault. From what Michael understood, this bloodline seemed to lack a sense of wisdom, borderline naïve in nature. The Tribe of Seth seemed to carry the same faith, but was much more wise and aware of the world around them. This was a bloodline of tradesman and skill workers, shepherds and architects, and when the mass genocide of Abel would come to pass, the survivors were said to flee to the mountains, where the two humble tribes merged into one. The first born son of their conjoined sect would be named Noah—a white and blue banner with a fist and hammer that marked the tribe as both fierce and creative and this name would thrive in the mountains for five-hundred years strong.

    Caine, on the other hand, was a tribe of like-minded people with highly questionable morality. His people would breed through force, marriage not a consideration when it came to conception. According to this strange adaptation, this was the only one of the three referred to as fornicators, murderers, slavers and nocturnal blood-drinkers who would thrive in the dark of night. Their banner was of crimson and black, a great dragon the symbol of their bloodline. Suddenly, Genesis read more like a Bram Stoker novel than scripture, he thought.