Chapter 1: A Stranger in a Stranger World

I woke up lying in the grass and heard a voice in my head. "Rise and shine, sleepy head!"

"Doctor Marcus?" I asked groggily.

"Well, you probably should get use to calling me by my real name. In English, you would pronounce it 'Mal – lok.'"

"Oh."

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Fine, I guess ... wait ... better than fine! I feel great!" I chirped happily.

"You should. You now have the general appearance of yourself when you were twenty. Your musculature and skeleton have been strengthened, giving you a slightly larger frame, but you are still about six feet tall. Your size and strength should allow you to survive in these hostile environs."

"So where am I?"

"You are in the South of France, about twenty-five miles from the Mediterranean Sea," he paused. You know, you can just think your thoughts and i will hear them."

"I'd prefer to speak most of the time, if you don't mind."

Malok's voice in my head laughed. "Suit yourself. Everyone here will just assume you're talking to the spirits or that you are just crazy."

I began to survey my surroundings for the next few minutes. Gauging by the position of the sun in the sky, it appeared to be morning. To the north, there was a sloping path up a hill right in front of me. I looked around and saw nearby wooded areas to the apparent east and west. Through the trees, I saw what appeared to be a mighty river less than a mile away. Nearby, I heard running water. "Probably a creek or small tributary of the river," I thought.

"Yes, it's a creek. There's also a nearby spring. That is the Rhone River to your West, by the way," came the voice of my friend, still in my head.

"Oh, I almost forgot that you were there," I thought.

"Well, get used to it. I'll be with you for some time, " I heard my friend's laugh in my head.

I decided to speak again, somewhat concerned about my privacy, but realizing I probably would not have much privacy ... well at least from Malok anyway. "Are you always going to be listening in on my thoughts?"

"No. I have my own life and the lives of my mates, in addition to the fate of the human race, to worry about. For now, unless it's urgent, I'll just check in with you every morning. If you like, I can be your seven A.M. wake up call."

I laughed, partly at his joke and partly at the divine absurdity of the situation.

"Well, if you climb that hill and look behind the brush over to the north, you'll see two pods," he said, and I followed his directions.

As I walked, I noticed it was a fairly gentle rise from my direction, but seemed to be a fairly precipitous climb everywhere else. When I reached the top of the hill, I saw that it was a plateau. It seemed to extend more than sixty yards to the west and at least thirty to the east. From its widest point It was about forty to fifty yards wide at the top of the winding rise. From the look of it, it tapered off to about twenty yards both east and west down into a more precipitous thirty foot drop on all four sides. The mouth of a cave entrance seemed to be hewn into a staggeringly huge boulder that jutted up from the eastern edge of the plateau. The cave and the rock ledge that topped it, seemed out of place with the plateau. That made me think that perhaps it was not built by nature.

Facing north, I saw the large stack of brush and started clearing it away. I then saw the two pods. One was huge. It easily rivaled the size of the large containers held by a container ship. It was at least ten feet tall and more than triple the width and length. The other pod was much smaller and only half as tall. It looked like the only entrance to the units was from the top. Both pods were made to look like wooden boxes, but were clearly made of some composite/fiberglass-like material.

"You might want to look in the small pod first," came Malok's voice in my head.

I opened the latch at the top of the smaller pod and looked inside. The first thing I saw was a ladder that seemed to be able to extend to twenty feet. I pulled it out, opened it up to the halfway point, and propped it up against the bigger pod. I then was able to climb up, open the latch, and open the lid.

I noticed a switch near the top of the wall and when I threw the switch, the pod was illuminated by a fluorescent kind of light. Between the morning light and the pods illumination, I could see some stairs, leading down into the unit. I climbed down and repositioned the ladder nearer the stairs and then climbed onto them and proceeded to the bottom. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a small corridor with four doors.

I opened the first door and it contained a number of tools and weapons. There were six composite bows, a large number of arrow shafts, and boxes of razor sharp arrow tips. At first glance, the arrow shafts appeared to be made of wood, but closer inspection revealed them to be made out of light-weight metal, probably titanium. The bows were made out of some composite material and like the arrow shafts, the bows looked as if they were made of wood at first glance.

There were also half a dozen fishing rods and kits containing a large number of hooks and lures. Additionally, there was a large supply of knives and blades of many shapes and sizes, along with saws, axes, picks, shovels, trowels, spades, hoes, post diggers, pitch forks, smaller hand tools with various fasteners, and other implements of destruction. Another wall contained plastic tarps, and bungee cords, buckets and more tools and fasteners. Finally, I saw three boxes containing tents. Two were nylon tents that slept five adults. The other was a canvas tent that was larger and more durable for bad weather.

I grabbed a "Swiss Army" style pocket knife and a Bowie Knife that had its own sheath and attached it to my belt. I then took a mallet and one of the nylon tent boxes and carried it into the small corridor. When I carefully looked at the stairs, I noticed that there were really two sets of stairs. The second set was inlaid into the first. I saw a release and pushed it, freeing the outer stairwell. I then pushed it up until it tipped over the side of the pod and the hinge between the stairs hung over the side of the pod. Hearing a crash, I realized that the stairs must have knocked over the ladder. I cursed my carelessness, concerned that I had potentially damaged an important tool (as everything was important in this savage land), until I was able to see that the ladder lay on the ground next to the stairs and appeared to be undamaged). I carried the tent up and down the stairs safely to the outside.

My father had always told me that the first thing you should worry about was shelter. I looked at the hairy overhang of the cliff over the cave. If the cave was empty, this would be a good place to establish camp; at least temporarily. As I was thinking this, I heard Malok's voice in my head, "Yes, the cave is empty. Feel free to establish your camp." This confirmed my theory that the cave was man-made (well, Malok-made at least). As I now trusted Malok completely, I started pitching my tent.

Once I had accomplished setting up my temporary shelter, I grabbed a meal pack form the smaller pod and had my nutritious, if not tasty, breakfast. I did a quick survey from the higher ground I was on. The more I thought about it, I realized that I had been placed here on purpose. The nearly football field sized plateau was large and flat enough to build on. There was only one easy way up the hill (from the south part of the plateau). With the added protection from the elements given by the rock ledge cliff, the storage that the cave would provide, and the flat land below for animal pens and to grow grains, with its proximity to fresh, running water, this was really the perfect place to establish my home.

After breakfast, I went back into the bigger pod and started removing the tools, supplies and weapons I would need for the rest of the day, as I explored the three other doors inside the main pod.

The room behind the first of the new doors contained two large wood cook stoves, tons of pots, pans, flatware, cups, and other kitchen related items (a ridiculous amount considering I was only one person at the moment). There was even a small table and eight chairs. It seemed that all of the metal items were made of titanium, based upon its relative lightness, yet incredible durability. The cups, other kitchen items, and the wood-like items were made of the same light, fiberglass-like, yet very durable material.

The next section of the larger pod contained a huge pantry full of canned goods and packaged items. It had a decent sized freezer chest that contained several months' worth of frozen meats, veggies, and other goodies. Another good sized chest held a large number of refrigerated items. Both appliances appeared to be made of oak (and were running!). I was told that both units ran on solar/wind charged batteries.

There were parts for several small wind turbines and a number of banks of solar cells (with some spare batteries just in case). This compartment also contained tons of seeds for vegetables and many large saplings for fresh fruit. I would survey the area to find a good location to set up my garden and orchard later.