“Yeah. I’ve studied that thing more than you,” Peter said.
Tye looked over his shoulder, checking if Tester had returned. He hadn’t, and Tye flipped the map over to where Tester had scrawled notes about the guidestone. A pencil drawing showed four large rectangular slabs of stone standing upright, each fanning out at an angle from a central pillar topped with a capstone decorated with signs of the turtle. Squiggly lines represented writing on the guidestone, and gray streaks of sunlight pierced through holes in the stones.
“You buying any of this shit?” Peter said.
Tye said nothing. He’d been asking himself why he’d left home more and more as they trudged across his old world gone sour. Tye missed Respite and wanted to go back. He’d never been a religious man, and this turtle stuff wasn’t far off from that crazy crap.
“What matters is the turtle,” Tester said. Tye hadn’t noticed his return. “We’re following my path.”
Ingo coughed.
“Our path,” Tester said. “You think Ingo is lying?”
Ingo complicated things for Tye because he trusted Ingo’s vision, so by association had to buy into the turtle. “I don’t doubt Ingo,” he said.
“Ingo said nothing about the guidestone. He hasn’t foreseen it. Why is that? He has plenty of information right here,” Milly said as she pointed at the map.
Ingo said nothing.
Peter said, “This is nuts. How would somebody move pieces of stone that big to the top of a mountain? Build something so large with such precision?”
“It is possible. The ancients did it,” Tye said.
“The final guidestone was constructed in 1980, decades before what you call The Day,” Tester said.
Milly harrumphed and Peter chuckled. “Someone knew eighty years ahead of time that the world was going to end? How is that possible? Am I to believe they time traveled?” Milly said.
Tester didn’t answer right away. He gazed up at the stars as he took a long pull on his burner. When he spoke, his voice was sad and forlorn. “You think people didn’t see the end coming? The signs were everywhere. Tye, surely you understand.”
“It was like everything else in life you don’t want to accept. We all assumed the end would come, no doubt about that, but nobody thought it would happen in their time,” Tye said.
“Except for the people who planned. The forefathers of Argartha knew. They anticipated the fabric coming undone,” Tester said.
“What of your military friends? They didn’t read the signs?” Milly said.
“Soldiers follow orders. Without them they’re like lost lambs. They don’t hold with new knowledge and faith. They’re probably still trying to contact central command in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.”
“The Airforce place?” Tye asked.
“Yeah,” Tester said.
“No word from them?” Tye said.
“Not that I’ve heard. The virus infiltrated even the most secure installations. Military are people, and it’s to be expected that family members would be smuggled in,” Tester said.
“And with them came XK119,” Tye said.
“What about the rest of the world?” Peter asked.
“The French broadcast, and there’ve been various random military transmissions over the years, but nothing specific or dependable,” Tester said.
“We’re going to a military place like that, right? A place like this Cheyenne Mountain Complex you mentioned?” Milly said.
Tester and Ingo laughed. “No,” Tester said. “Not a place like that at all.”
“Does Argartha transmit? What’s the place like?” Milly said.
“They transmit, and a reborn boosts their signal. You heard them, did you not?” Ingo said.
“Yes,” Milly said. “If it wasn’t for that message, me and my friends wouldn’t be here.”
“As to what it is, I know only of the myth. It’s at the end of the path of understanding, a society for the new world. A utopia where there’s no war, no famine, and no monsters,” Tester said.
“The first centurions of Argartha built the guidestones in secret before the fall, planning for a new world gathering. The guidestones are a trail of breadcrumbs of a sort, a path that if followed will lead to the turtle, and to Argartha,” Ingo added.
“You followed the path? Found all the guidestones?” Milly said.
“No. Many Bothans died to bring me this information,” said Tester.
Tye was the only one who laughed.
Tester sighed. “No, I didn’t discover all this. I pieced it together, but I wasn’t fully convinced until I met Ingo.”
“No, brother, it was you who reaffirmed me,” Ingo said.
“OK, we all love each other,” Peter said. “Can you give us a bit more?”
“The old calendar is the key,” Tester said. He grabbed his pack and pulled out a bound book. “This tracks the calendar from the fall until now. I can tell you what day it is if I do a few calculations. I’ve accounted for leap years, and haven’t missed a single update, which I do religiously once a month.”
“So, what does this have to do with the guidestone?” Milly said.
“Everything,” Tye said. He pointed at the drawing on the back of the map. “Those rays of light there? What are they?”
“Yes, you’ve got it,” Tester said. “We must be at the final guidestone on September 22nd at noon, and the location of the turtle will be revealed.”
“Climb the mountain that leads to the top of the world when day and night are equal and the bright noon sun will shine upon the final guidestone’s clue,” Ingo said.
“The day is the fall equinox, this year September 22nd, and the mountain leading to the top of the world is Cheaha Mountain,” Tester said.
“But you haven’t foreseen any of this, Ingo?” Peter asked.
“I have yet to see the final
