Chapter Two

The peasant farmer walked into the field carrying his sack. The field was tilled and rough. He reached down the sack’s throat till he felt the seeds flow around his fingers. He grasped as many as he could in his fist. He scooped them out, spilling them from between his fingers here and there, and tossed them in front of him. He threw them far and wide. Each seed needs room to grow. Some landed too close together, and only a few survived. Each seed needs the nutrients of soil. Some landed on barren rocks, and never grew. Each seed needs to be strong. Some withered and died, and had not the strength to grow. Most found some spot on the good earth and flourished.

Quinton and Lona built their lodge against the boulder in the meadow by the flowing stream. It was strong enough to withstand the cold and the weight of the snow in the winter. The roof was composed of bundles of thatch. The foundation was stone and mud, dug into the ground to keep the temperature mild. The rest of the lodge was made of logs and mud. A crude opening in the roof allowed the smoke from their fireplace to exit in the rear.

Other families had settled around the lake. Most lodges were in sight of each other. Quinton and Lona would see the other "lake people" when they brought their pots to the stream for fresh water. The men would talk of hunting trips and compare fruits and vegetables that they had grown. The women would talk of their children and share the herbs and medicines the Father had shown them in the forest. Meat, and its preparation, was carried out as per the instructions of the Father. For instance, carcasses were hung upside down to drain the blood. This helped preserve the meat. This blood was not to be drank, for it could spoil quickly and become poisonous. All these things were taught by the Father in the machines. All the people of the lake group were good students, but they had no suspicion of the challenge that was to come. Quinton first learned of the Father’s request to see him from one of the children who had been receiving instruction in the machine. Quinton entered the machine and the Father spoke.

"I will soon be moving all the people in the Garden to a new place called Earth."

"We have not the desire to leave, Father, we love being here! Father, why are you doing this? Have we offended you? Are you angry with us?

"You now have all the knowledge and training you need. The final phase of this started when you and Lona ate the apples from the snake river together," replied the Father.

"How would you have us leave? And where is Earth?", Quinton asked.

"The decision for you to leave the Garden is mine!" bellowed the Father. "It is I who will move you from the Garden to this place I have chosen. There will be no harm to come to you or your people, for I will carry out the act. I have chosen to tell only the leaders, like yourself. When you tell the others, they will know it is true for the machines will no longer work. In two days time, the sky will turn a pale orange, and in one day’s time after that, the act will be done. At this time your group must be together at the lake.’

Quinton was afraid. "Why are you doing this?", he persisted.

"Do not fear this, Quinton, for you and your people have learned all you need to know. You now have the knowledge you need for the next part of your journey. I will not be with you in the machines on Earth, but I will watch over you like a shepherd watches a flock. The knowledge I have taught you will protect you. You and your children will flourish and multiply. You will have dominion over everything that inhabits the Earth. As long as you follow my laws, your children and millions of your children’s children will grow and prosper on Earth where there is much more than in the Garden. The Garden is too small to hold the great numbers of your descendants that are to follow. Many years from now, when your descendants have grown in great numbers, I will return to reward those who have followed my laws and will bring them back from Earth to a much greater, more beautiful place called the Kingdom of Heaven."

"What must we do to prepare for Earth?" asked Quinton.

"Nothing. You must only wait. My last words to you are: when you have problems, you must gather in my name and call to me as you have done in the machines, and solutions will come."

The Father’s image slowly faded from view. The blue light surrounded Quinton and slowly dissolved. He sat feeling alone on the bench as the door slid open. As he stepped out, he paused to watch the door slide closed behind him. The small green light that activated the door slowly dimmed, till it went out.

Within the hour, Quinton gathered the lake group together in his lodge and told the message of the Father as best he could remember. He then sent two of his men over the mountain to talk to the group in the desert to see if they had received the same message. The women and children ran to the machine, but found the little green light was out. The door did not open. The machine was surrounded by an eerie silence. They knew Quinton was right.

All but the two travelers assembled in Quinton and Lona’s lodge that night. Some grieved the impending loss of the Garden while others cried in fear. They all asked,

"Why?"

"The Father said we have all the knowledge that we need!", and, "It is the Father’s will!", was all Quinton could say. "The Father said we will grow in numbers till we would overflow the Garden. We will be moving to a larger world, Earth. He wants us to remember his laws, and, someday, he will reward all those who do."

The members of the lake group busied themselves by gathering their possessions as if they were to be traveling. They told their children to stay close to the lodges around the lake. Only Quinton and Lona continued on with no preparation. Two days passed and they awoke to a pale orange, cloudless sky. The sun did not rise. At the end of that day the two travelers returned with their news that the desert group had been told the same thing by the Father. The ground would occasionally shake. Low, rumblings would be heard. All the members of the lake group gathered in and around Quinton’s lodge.

"The Father said there is nothing to fear", Quinton kept trying to reassure them. They were still fearful. "Let us all be quiet in the name of the Father!", Quinton commanded. A hush fell over the group. Stillness surrounded them. A soft breeze blew through the trees and they began to feel drowsy. Some succumbed before the others. By the time they were all asleep, many were huddled with their arms around each other: mothers and children, brothers and sisters.

When they awoke, it was just before sunrise. The early morning light filled the blue sky. The lake was still and reflected the images of the lodges around it. Far beyond, high in the background, stood the twin rocks. The sounds in the air were deeper. The wind seemed stronger. For a couple of hours they huddled together and tried to absorb what they could see and feel. There were mountains far away passed the twin rocks they had not seen before, and, in the other direction, other strange mountains could be seen beyond the boulders behind Quinton’s lodge.

"We are now on Earth, and the Father has sent the lake with us, so we will stay here", was Quinton’s first statement.

Quinton sent out explorers in four directions for a day’s journey to assess the land and report back to the group. They found they lived on a forest covered plateau extending north for more than a day’s journey. There was game to hunt, fruits to pick, and other lakes to fish. To the west, beyond the twin rocks, was a wide, flat valley with a shallow winding river, just as before, but wider than the one in the Garden. To the south, the plateau rose in elevation, reaching into foot hills. Beyond these foot hills stood a great mountain that extended up beyond the timberline where they could see snow on its barren rocks. It was too high to climb. To the east lay a ridge of one foot hill, stretching above their lake. On the other side of this ridge they found a valley that extended far to the north. They found no magic machines. They were gone. The magic of the Father’s knowledge remained.

Because they were not sure of what dangers might lurk in this new world, they decided to extend Quinton’s lodge to accommodate all of them. On one side of the lodge was built a two story, covered structure large enough to house three families on each floor. On the open side of this structure was a place for a large fire. The two story structure extended around the fire as a covered area extending on the inside from a surrounding stone wall. Five other families lived under this shelter. An aqueduct from the stream supplied water without having to leave the safety of the walls. The downhill side of the surrounding stone wall was built low to the ground so they could deposit their waste and compost which landed in a pit outside the wall. This whole building took four months to construct under Quinton’s leadership. As they cooked one evening, the odor of the meat and vegetables, boiling in their pottery, drifted across the lake, past the twin rocks, and down into the valley. The faint odor stimulated the nostrils of some very peculiar creatures. These were thinking, two legged creatures. These creatures decided to view Quinton’s lodge from afar. They stood briefly across the lake to watch in curiosity, but were not seen. The Lake Group was not alone.

Three days later, Quinton was called to the ridge between the great twin rocks that overlooked the valley. He stood in amazement with those who had beckoned him as they gazed down into the valley. There, far below them, toward the middle of the valley, they watched a drama unfold. A herd of twenty, or so, long hair swine were running up the valley through the fields with six or seven, what looked like, men chasing them. These men were different. Their bodies were very muscular and hairy. Their heads were large with profound ridges above their eyes and a large, extended nose and lips. Their arms were long, and they ran like the wind. Even so, the swine were out-running them. There were others ahead ready to ambush the swine as they ran past. They ran out from their hiding places and pelted the swine with rocks. Their aim was deadly accurate. Some swine dropped immediately, while those that were stunned were wrestled to the ground, clubbed, and finished with a hale of thrown rocks. These hunters threw the dead swine over their shoulders and marched away, down the valley till they could be seen no more.

"Who are these people?", questioned one of Quinton’s men.

"I don’t know, but we will call them the "stone-throwers," replied Quinton. "We shall have to use caution. The Father told us nothing about this."

Several days passed before Quinton decided what to do. He assembled a group of ten men to travel off in the direction of the stone throwers’ hunting party. They took provisions, spears, knives, and three live rabbits bound and placed in a sack.

"Our mission is to locate the stone throwers, establish contact, and learn of their nature," instructed Quinton.

On the first day they traveled fifty miles down the valley. Finally, they turned to the west, at the valley’s opening. They could see the light of a fire, half way up a cliff two or three miles away. "We will camp here," said Quinton, "but we will not light a fire. Tomorrow, we will climb the ridge and observe them from the high ground above their encampment."

At break of day they began their ascent. Once on top, they crept low just on the other side of the ridge. By noon they had positioned themselves fifty or sixty feet above the encampment. They observed the stone throwers gathered around the mouth of the cave below. The children played in the sun on the rocks surrounding the opening. Adults could be seen sitting here and there. The carcasses of the swine lay on the ground next to the fire. One had been thrown onto the fire, whole, and burned as preparation for eating. They watched as one member of the stone throwers pulled a piece of meat from the burned, smoldering carcass. He chewed off pieces of it and passed them to others who stood around. him. One of the pieces was passed to an old man with a withered arm. Two or three women sat nearby breast feeding their children. There were no spears, or knives, nor were there any structures, or pottery. They would go to a clear pool of water at the bottom of a nearby waterfall to drink. They laid down next to the pool and put their mouth into the water. Hours passed. Quinton was patient and restrained his men to sit and watch longer. "These people are not from the Garden. We must be sure of their nature before we approach them."

As night fell, the stone throwers gathered around their campfire and began to chant. The language was strange to Quinton’s ears. Their activity was building. The men began to dance. They acted out a hunting trip. Some were the hunted animals, while others were the hunters. The men playing the hunters would slay the "animals" in an acted play. The women, who were watching the dance, seemed to be working themselves into a trance. As the animals were slain in the dance, the women disrobed and offered themselves to the hunters who would copulate with them from the rear. The participants all breathed in unison creating a rhythmic incantation, hyperventilating themselves into a manic trance. Sweating profusely from the heat of the fire. Soon, they all sat around the fire, exhausted, with no conversation. One at a time they would disappear into the cave.

"These people know not the laws of the Father!", said Quinton. "I see nothing we can do for them, and nothing they can do for us. However, before we go tomorrow, we will show ourselves and give them the rabbits we have brought to prove that we mean them no harm. We will approach their encampment not from above or from below. We want to give them neither advantage nor fear."

The next morning they quietly slid down the bluff and gathered at the cave entrance. The stone throwers were not yet awake. One by one, the inhabitants of the cave arose and stood at the cave entrance, no more than twenty feet away from Quinton’s group, men in front, women and children to the rear, till the cave entrance was full. Both groups stood silently and looked at the other. Quinton pulled out the sack of rabbits and tossed it to the stone throwers. One stepped forward, opened the sack, and picked out the rabbits to hold them high for the others to see. There was a quiet cheer from the cave when they saw the rabbits. The one who stepped forward moved back into his group with the rabbits, now, back in the bag. Another man stepped forward and began pacing back and forth. As he did this, he continued to look at Quinton’s group. He began gesturing with his arms and talking loudly. Quinton was now not so sure if the gift of the rabbits had impressed them enough to communicate his peaceful intentions. Other members of the stone thrower’s group then stepped forward. One of them picked up a rock. Holding it in his hand, he moved toward Quinton without raising it. He held his arms with their elbows out, showing his massive shoulders and muscular arms. He suddenly turned away and hurled the rock with such force that it shattered against a boulder. This was a feat no one in Quinton’s group could match. Quinton stepped forward with his spear. With it’s tip he slit open the swine carcass near the fireplace, stabbed it, and flung it across the encampment. The stone throwers responded by picking up more stones. The first one screamed and signaled Quinton’s group "to leave" by movements of his arm and hand, as though he were in the act of pushing them away. Quinton’s group began to withdraw, carefully, with their spears pointed toward the cave. They withdrew laterally, across the bluff, till they were far enough away to be out of throwing range. They descended rapidly. As they walked away from the bottom of the cliff, they looked back to see the stone throwers’ group still in front of their encampment, peering down on them, showing no restraint in their happiness with the lake group’s retreat.

"This is a sad day", said Quinton, "I am not sure what the presence of these people means. We should walk through the trees so that our journey will not be observed from above." They walked no more than two miles into the valley, when they heard a great commotion from the stone thrower’s encampment. They looked up through their concealment of trees to see another group of stone throwers moving down the precipice and dropping onto the mouth of the cave. There was screaming from men, women, and children. The sound of stones being dashed on unseen boulders echoed through the bluff. They could see some stone throwers in hand to hand combat, deadly combat. One of the group ran from the cave, trying to escape. He was pelted with rocks till he fell lifeless to the ground and tumbled down the embankment. One group of stone throwers was murdering the other. The group in the cave was out numbered. The result was soon apparent as the bodies of men, women, and children were being thrown over the precipice in front of the cave entrance.

Quinton and his men watched in amazement. They had never seen such a thing. Such an act of undeserving violence and murder. They now had a greater understanding of the fear these people carried within them. One of the members of the attacking group stood on a boulder above the lifeless bodies of the original group and screamed at the top of his lungs. He waived his arms above his head. From the top of the ridge, above him, came the women and children of his group, making their way down the bluff, ready to assume their new home. Quinton and his people quietly slipped away under the cover of the trees so they would not be noticed.

They arrived late that night to the lodge. They had traveled without break. The warmth of their friendly fire, the security of their lodge, and being surrounded by those they love had been the driving force in their homeward journey.

"We will have at least one of us awake at all times from now on. We must never be surprised by the stone throwers", said Quinton. "These people are dangerous. They are not frightened by the fire as are the animals."

That night everyone gathered around the fire as each of the ten men told their story. Everyone relived the experience ten times till they all understood the importance of the event and it became ingrained in their minds. Life was now not so ideal, there was a new danger. The member who stood guard knew that sleep was out of the question.

In the months to follow, there were more sightings of the stone throwers. They were mostly seen hunting in the valley. They were not seen on the plateau where the lake group hunted. However, they had no idea a new group of stone throwers was making their way up the valley over the ridge to the east. As this restless and sinister group finally crested the ridge, they saw the fire of the lodge by the lake. They were curious, for they had never seen such a structure. They decided this should be their new home. They climbed up the ridge each day to watch and formed their plan of attack. They camped and hunted undetected in the valley over the ridge. The smoke from their fire was not seen by the lake group. They planned their attack to be a surprise in the afternoon when the lake group appeared most preoccupied. Actually, they were only fifty feet from the lodge, running around the sides of the boulders, before the guard sounded the alarm. By the time the stone throwers were at the wall of the lodge, the lake group had their spears in their hands. Although stone throwing may be lethal at twenty feet, in close quarters it is a difficult tool to use. The spears were more lethal, and the attackers fell quickly. The defenders took advantage of their familiar ground and superior weaponry. The attackers numbered twenty-four. They all entered the stone walls and were quickly killed once inside, except one. He was tortured and, at a moment when they did not appear to be watching, allowed him to escape. A group of lake people followed him. He led them back to the camp on the other side of the ridge where they found a small group of men and all the women and children. There was no place to keep prisoners. Quinton’s group had to kill them all. He could not even spare the youngest of their children. As they finished the last of this disdainful chore, they turned to each other with a heavy heart. They gathered together all the bodies and buried them. They destroyed and scattered their possessions. That night, as they sat in their lodge, they thought of the faces of anger, hatred, fear, and desperation. The faces of the women, children and infants, facing death with the blank countenance of disbelief, and resignation. Some of the lake group wept. They built a small outpost on top of the ridge.

Quinton and Lona had to endure their own personal sadness. Tell, their oldest son, had been killed in the conflict. He was not even eighteen. In the years that followed, Able, his second child, became Quinton’s favored child and was well liked by the community. His brother Cain became consumed with jealousy and argued with Able constantly. During one of these arguments, Cain pushed Able to the ground where he died of a head wound. In despair and fear, Cain crossed the ridge and went far to the other side of the mountain to never be seen by Quinton or Lona again. Quinton lived to be nine hundred and thirty years old and spent his life teaching the laws of the Father and living with Lona who died with him on the same day.

Our researchers have found the Earth placement to be a success. Matching the Garden group with a planet already known to be suited for hominoids worked. The indigenous hominoids were no match for the garden group. The HB100 is far superior and has fulfilled our expectations.

Four Garden groups have been seeded on Earth. All were placed where the three continents connect. Earth has a fourth continent which will be available for further expansion at a later time.

We will be observing the progress and development of the HB100 on a regular basis. Researchers will be visiting the planet Earth to check on physiological, sociological, and psychological changes that might affect the HB100 development.

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