There’s no time.

Don’t think.

Thinking now is poison.

Faster.

This is the entrance, if the manuscript is correct.

I stumbled upon the third stone in the depth of the cave with the sole of my boot. This is where I should be starting. I carefully step on the rough stone.

Something clicked underneath.

Back to the first step…

I memorized the sequence of moves in advance since the manuscript said you only get one chance. One mistake and a giant boulder will roll down from above towards the intruder. There’s a reason why this part of the cave tunnel, the place where my boots tap out the password using three stone buttons, is the same size as the boulder. If it rolls, not even my legendary hat would be recognizable afterwards.

The second…

The third…

Done.

The earth shuddered, causing the sand to hiss. The far wall of the cave retreated into the shadows, opening a small gap. I could hear boulders tumbling, moving heavy levers. The wall was going to close again soon, cutting me off from my escape route. I had a couple seconds left. Taking one last farewell glance at the setting sun casting its crimson light, I plunged into the darkness.

***

Of course, I could have sent someone younger underground while I stayed at the excavation site, only occasionally visiting the cave. Indeed, why should an old man bother to go in here?

An old man…

They haven’t the slightest clue how old I am. Thirty-nine years ago, a shaman in Alaska cast the “Shaman’s Disease” on me. I was sixty-eight then, but I’ve changed little since that moment. Having to edit my biography from time to time to avoid certain questions has been the only inconvenience so far.

This expedition was meant to be a cover for my idea with the chamber. Sometimes, I really did toss a few bones to those dimwits in Washington, so that they would keep the digs going. For years, they were hovering near the underground chamber, waiting for “someone younger” to return from underground. This lost cave was approximately seven kilometers from our archaeological dig and I was the only one who knew how to get to it.

For this expedition, I was playing the role of an independent, respected, antiquities consultant who specialized in the history of the Maya.

I had promised Washington I would deliver the reason for the disappearance of their civilization on a silver platter and they had immediately written a massive check for the expedition. To tell the truth, I had learned the secret behind the disappearance of the Maya, as well as their civilization’s rapid rise, a long time ago. All one needed to do was to compare the Mayan heyday more than three and a half thousand years ago with the passing of the legendary planet Nibiru, which travels along an elongated orbit that passes by our backwater planet every 3,600 years.

According to the text of the manuscript found in the library, the Nibiruans had visited Earth more than once, and the plateau whose depths I was now venturing towards was the final landing site for their ships. They had set up a teleport linked to the mothership, which we mistakenly considered a wandering planet, with this dungeon. Now that ships were no longer needed, the gods could teleport directly to the planet to pursue their plans.

The manuscript explained why the Nibiruans – or the Annunaki,[1] as they were previously called – came here, what their purpose was in stimulating the Mayan’s development, and what they were going to do on Earth during their next visit.

And that was why I had decided to go to the teleport myself.

And that was why I had nicknamed this cave the “gas chamber”.

The scripture read:

The Annunaki shall descend from the Winged Disc and assess whether the souls of the planet are ripe. If not, the gods will help them acquire greater experience, knowledge, and skills so that they may develop as quickly as possible. If ripe, the Annunaki will gather a bloody harvest and absorb all the souls on the planet. Then the next cycle shall begin, but this time for new souls.

Two arrivals earlier, 7,000 years ago, the Nibiruans helped Asian and European civilizations develop, advancing them from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. 3,500 years ago, they visited Central America, giving the natives a light kick before installing a teleport here. Afterwards, they helped raise the Mayans, a people who previously lived in huts like the three little pigs, until they thrived in stone palaces. Under the Nibiruans’ guidance, Mayan writing, astronomy, and natural sciences flourished like never before.

But either the boost wasn’t strong enough, or the Mayans turned out to be hopeless, because soon after their mentors left, Mayan civilization fell into decay, leaving behind only vague ruins of their once magnificent cities and their calendar that demonstrated marvelous thinking, which, by the way, has a well-defined end date.

Now the Nibiru are close again, and there is no one in need of a “boost.” All of us are already quite ripe, and in some places, even overripe. If all this was true, I had to hurry. I hoped that on my return, I would not be the only one left on Earth who would be able to admire the crimson sunset.

***

The teleport perfectly matched the picture in the manuscript. It was as simple and unsophisticated as the logic of a Nibiruan gardener who was used to raising us like cucumbers in a greenhouse. Or pigs for the slaughter. Only instead of fattening us, they helped us develop our knowledge and experience until we reached an average level of global evolutionary development, which it planned to raze and harvest after several thousand years of waiting.

My flashlight caught a glimpse of a circular platform in the darkness, and a smooth wall behind it. Running up the wall, the spot of light fell across a single button of stone. I stood there, looking up, admiring the ingenious simplicity of the unit. Despite the simplicity of the design, it was difficult for me to use. The problem was that the teleport was huge. It was impossible to estimate its size without referring to familiar objects. It was truly gigantic!

The button was set at the height of what would be the second floor, so I couldn’t even jump up to it. The size of the structure gave me an idea of the Annunaki’s size. My mouth went dry and my stomach plummeted. I had absolutely no idea what was waiting for me on the other side of the teleport.

Stop panicking.

What was wrong with me?

The button was high? No big deal!

My faithful whip let out a deafening crack, as if a shot was amplified by the echoes against the cavernous walls. The button wavered before slowly sinking into the wall. A moment later, I was no longer on Earth.

***

The Nibiru was prowling around the Solar System, methodically checking each planet with its scout ships. Stealth mode had been enabled long before it approached Neptune’s orbit. The mothership absorbed all radiation and signals, allowing it to remain undetected.

The Devourer of Souls paid close attention to progress, planning to start the harvest on the outskirts of the Universe. He was the one that civilizations often called God.

The consciousness of the planet Nibiru was pure information and energy and, although it was intangible, the Devourer of Souls moniker truly reflected its essence.

The Devourer of Souls initially intended to start by harvesting Jupiter. During their previous visit, the natives were fighting one another. The aggressive celestial hunters had nearly consumed all the clumsy atmosphere floaters. The Devourer had to intervene by providing weapons to the fat natives to maintain a balance of power. Now the inhabitants of Jupiter ought to be fully ripe for the cleansing.

Next would be Mars and Venus, which were both in a prolonged pause, following the previous harvest, but it was time to prepare them for a new season.

Earth, which was almost ready the last time, had been left for dessert. It was only lacking a little icing on top. By now, a lot of tasty morsels had to have ripened on the blue planet. The remaining objects of the Solar System were of no practical value.

After passing through the orbit of Uranus, the teleport on Earth went online, and the Devourer of Souls noticed the signs of a primitive mind invading its data-energy field. It was likely some bug from the local fauna that accidentally teleported into his mind and was now frantically scurrying about, trying to find a way out.

The Nibiruan mind deemed the incursion an insignificant trifle unworthy of attention. Yet as it turned out, from that moment, things began going wrong. An irrepressible thirst for exploration and adventure suddenly came to life within the Devourer of Souls. Instead of purging Jupiter, for some reason, he sent ships to Saturn, an effort that would not be in vain. On Titan, a moon of Saturn, the Annunaki discovered biological life. The simplest of microorganisms were already buzzing about the moon, energetically absorbing frozen hydrogen and stuffing themselves with acetylene. The Devourer of Souls marked the place for future monitoring to indicate Titan was now of interest.

Such a delay jeopardized the entire plan for passing through the Solar System. Since Nibiru’s speed remained unchanged, the scouts simply did not have time to return to the ship after performing additional tasks. The Devourer of Souls tried to get back on schedule by sending a landing party to Jupiter, but there was another unexpected situation on Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter. Or rather, under Europa. The ocean broke free of the thick icy surface as geysers punched through. The water, deep below, was apparently much warmer than at the surface and underwater anaerobes had long been chewing at hydrogen sulfide from the eruptions of underwater volcanoes.

Again, fussing with such small things resulted in a loss of precious time. The Nibiru pushed on without making allowances for the adventures of its “God”. The Devourer of Souls was livid as he was definitely losing control of the situation.

Finally, the Annunaki burst into Jupiter’s atmosphere and rushed to reap floaters drifting in the thick clouds of ammonia. Giant carcasses burst like huge shapeless airships, not being given the time to comprehend what was happening. The brisk, nimble hunters were more resourceful than their lazy, sluggish counterparts. They entered the lower layers of the atmosphere in their attempt to flee the blood reapers, but most were caught and destroyed in the cold layers, while the rest burned up in the gas giant’s boiling hydrogen ocean.

The scouts barely managed to get back to the mothership as the Nibiru had already moved quite far from Jupiter. The Devourer of Souls realized that no time was left for dessert, even taking into account the ability to land reapers through teleportation. Earth’s harvest would have to wait until the next visit.

Now there was only enough time to conduct a cursory inspection of Venus and Mars. The Devourer of Souls gazed glumly at the blue planet, noting as he did so that there was no longer a primitive being in his mind.

With that, the Nibiru left the Solar System.

***

It’s a good thing I took that flashlight, I thought, as I cranked the handle to turn it on, gazing into the darkness of the underground chamber. Who knows how many years have passed on Earth while I was gone? The batteries could have run out.

A ray of light danced along the walls and I spotted a button at the exit of the chamber under the arch of the cave. The Annunaki didn’t indulge in a variety of engineering solutions.

One deafening crack of the whip.

The button pressed.

The rumbling sound of the moving wall.

Freedom!

I took a step outside and breathed in the fresh air through my nose, admiring the sun’s disc as it descended behind the mountains.

Life felt so good…

All right. The supplies check.

My hidden supply cache was still where I had left it.

The first thing I did was grab a can of food, open it, and devour the contents inside.

With dinner finished, I stood, slung my backpack over my shoulder, and set out to find my jeep. I maintained a shred of hope that the jeep I had hidden nearby would still be there to give me a way out of here. It’d be nice to make it to camp before dark.

“So much for nothing, Devourer,” I laughed. “For now, so long and hopefully I’ll never see you again,” I muttered. “But for now, get out of here and don’t leave your Annunakis behind!”

[1]The American writer Zecharia Sitchin (1920-2010) popularized the theory that a humanoid race of aliens from the planet Nibiru known as the Anunnaki (also often written incorrectly as "Annunaki") established contact with ancient civilizations.