by David Elder

Created on: June 29, 2009   Last Updated: September 08, 2010

The Keepers

He stood helpless as the gargantuan figures rose slowly from the churning waves. Their expressions were identical; implacable, and imbued with a promise of unimaginable power. The sound when it came was overwhelming, shattering his eardrums and creating a vibration that separated his bones from their joints. He watched in horror as his skin sloughed off of his body, collecting in a puddle around what was left of his legs. And still they came.

The resonance of that hideous tone destroyed everything and everyone in its path, clearing an ever growing swath of death and destruction before their terrible advance. The evidence of Man's existence was swallowed in a vengeful stroke of supreme strength, punishing those who would tamper with the balance of nature that had been nourished over eons. Arrogance was rewarded with extinction as the Moai hovered above a ruined land, cleansed at last of the plague of mankind.

"No!"

Jason awoke from the nightmare, sweat pouring freely from his body. His breath hitched painfully from tortured lungs as he reached over to the nightstand to remove a cigarette from the pack. It was getting worse, he thought, as he lit the object of his obsession and felt the familiar burn fill his chest.

Yeoman Jason Freeburg looked around at the meager furnishings of his apartment and felt the relief of familiar surroundings. He supposed that his dreams were caused by a sense of guilt for what he was involved in, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice. The Navy tended to frown on suggestions that ran contrary to their mission. If he had learned anything since enlisting, it was that the military was definitely not the place to go against the grain.

But what twisted part of his psyche had come up with Moai as a threat to humanity? Until he started having the dreams he hadn't even known the names for those ancient enigmatic statues that were found on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it was rightfully named. A small amount of research had helped to inform him of the mystery surrounding those ancient monoliths. He chuckled softly to himself at the notion of something as innocuous as a statue holding such awesome power. It was like something out of a B horror movie.

"I'm really going to have to lay off the beer before bedtime" he mumbled through a whiskery smile. "Or maybe I could have Godzilla take the place of those creepy stone carvings. Raunch the rockets!"

Fearing the wrath of his chief more than that of an oversized marine iguana, Jason

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