Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Encouragement (among believers) (11/08/07)
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TITLE: AFTER THE RAIN | Previous Challenge Entry
By mick dawson
11/09/07 -
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An attractive raven haired woman scanned over a human skeleton. She then placed her scanner in a hollow receptacle for the main computer to save the information.
A myriad of gathered facts projected itself as a holographic table in front of her. It listed his age, blood type, cause of death along with a plethora of other data.
“What’s your story?” she asked aloud to the skeleton.
She made to speak into the mainframe microphone, then paused.
“What was the date?”
A newspaper left behind by one of her colleagues caught her eye.
“This is professor, Lisa Fulton.” She announced. “The date is the 23rd of September, 2367.”
She paused the computer.
“MOST EXCITING ARCHAEALOGICAL DISCOVERY OF THE AGE!” read the headline.
Lisa knew it to be the truth. The subject was a walking armory. The army bomb deposal squad was called in to diffuse hand fashioned grenades before he could even be brought to her examination table. Apart from that, he was wearing a baldric of knives and holsters for hatchets.
In the dig, were also retrieved a bible and a solar powered laptop. (An item she had learned to be prevalent in the new millennium.)
His knuckle guards and boots were clad with steel spring loaded claws. Later research had told her that they were newly invented by the S.A.S. of the 2030s as a stealth weapon and also a climbing tool to scale even the sheerest of cliffs.
Lisa shrugged him off as a soldier, possibly elitist, but no more than that.
She did find one thing peculiar though. According to his age, he predated the aftermath of the 3rd world war and lived to old age. No one had ever done this before, according to her findings. The world was reverted to no more than a ‘primordial swamp’ with all manner of mutations.
The archaeologist sighed heavily. Lisa should have been exhilarated at the honor of being the first to examine the find but at the moment, nothing moved her.
Her husband had abandoned her less than a year ago. Because of her work, she had no friends to speak of and of late, her son had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her.
She was afraid to pray for any relief. God had said “no” to her prayers for so long that she was afraid to ask anymore.
The staff at the electronics department had assured her that the solar powered laptop was in working order, but then she expected nothing less. There was a saying at the museum of the older inventions.
“The more sophisticated machinery is; the more can go wrong with it.”
She aimed the lens at a blank space on the wall and switched it on. It flickered once then showed in perfect clarity a scene of people gathered in the open. A man stood to the forefront, preaching on the beatitudes.
She smiled faintly.
“A church service.” She whispered.
The surroundings of the nearby settlement looked crude, to say the least. The date illuminated on the laptop 15.2.2031. These people were the initial survivors of the holocaust.
Unmoved by the words she scanned the surroundings for anything of interest.
A sign denoted that the town was called “Haven.”
She looked among the faces. They were all smiling serenely. Why? They lived in the ashes of their former world. Then a face commanded her attention.
In the rear two rows of the worshippers sat a man in a red and black costume. A crossed, empty baldric ran over his shoulders.
“Who are you?” she said frustrated.
Lisa fast forwarded to the last entry of the computer diary to see the prone form of the same man.
“I am ‘the Missionary’, as I have been affectionately named by the people of Haven. Due to my injuries I am afraid that this could be my final entry.
I have been commissioned by God to reach pockets of survivors, wherever they may be to preach the gospel.
My most fervent hope is that the word reaches the ears of those of us that remain.
As man teeters on the brink of extinction, I pray that Christ uses me as a beacon to civilization, because I know one thing… man can neither change nor progress unless Jesus is the foundation for their lives.”
As the message played, Lisa looked out the window at the thriving metropolis feeling a warmth pass through her.
There was hope for tomorrow after all.
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