Chapter 3: journey to the ice age

Josiah and Shelly had packed what they needed for their trip to the ice age. Ken wasn’t coming. He had made that clear to the two of them. Shelly had tried in vain to convince him to come along with them but she knew her brother too well. He was too stubborn and talking to him was only wasting their time.

They made their way to the time ring room, making sure they had everything ready, and then activated their watches. The rings were golden and round with a glass barrier to protect the room from time energy that flowed from the rings. The time route was on and ready for them. This route was activated for the Pleistocene era millions of years in the past.

The watches were designed and programmed to travel through time at the designated time period in the past and future.

The scientists informed Josiah and Shelly that it took approximately five hours for the watches to recharge after use and would take less then five minutes to get them back to full power. Each of the watches five small green bars would fill gradually in less then four hours, providing they got in the rays of a strong sunbeam. If the sun was shinning with no clouds in the sky then the energy needed to power the watches would amplify.

A steady hum of the rings intensified as the two kids set themselves up for their time traveling journey to the Pleistocene era. The instructors then gave them the ok sign which meant the coordinates were set. With that done, Josiah and Shelly activated their watches. The feeling of time travel was like three sonic booms and then vanishing without a trace. Josiah knew those sonic booms all too well. He’d closed his eyes to prevent himself from going blind even though shelly reassured him there was nothing to worry about.

The whirring grew louder until there was a flash of white light, leaving two empty rings.

From a window outside the room, Ken watched the two disappear into the past.

Even if he wanted to go, none of them would have appreciated his help. And even if he did join the two, he’d probably be attacked again by some wild ferocious beast. As much as he hated being lunch to some animal in the past, he couldn’t leave his sister and Josiah by themselves to face the dangers of the ice age alone.

The urge to join them was strong, and Ken could see that his time watch was still in on the rack, waiting for him to put it back on his wrist again.

Squeezing his fists tightly, he made his way back to the uniforms rooms.

The first thing that they saw was the snow. Small flakes of snow that rained gently on them.

There had been the triple flash of light, followed by the sonic booms. Josiah realized that he and Shelly must be in the Pleistocene era. All around them was vast tundra and valley with snow, trees, and blue sky’s.

The valley looked like the wild plains of a prehistoric world.

A world that time forgot. It was slightly cold but the sun was out and shinning giving the air slight warmth.

Josiah took this chance to survey the area. Using the wrist communicator on the right side of his arm, he scanned the forest for a few seconds. The gadget gave off a few blips as he moved his arm in every direction around the forest.

When it was safe with no hostiles, Josiah turned it off.

“The areas clear, Shelly,” Josiah said. “Not a mammal in sight!”

Shelly stood staring out at the tundra. Josiah walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Shelly said admiring the landscape. “Mammals rule here. It would be perfect for a holiday retreat lodge, don’t ya think.”

Josiah breathed in the sweet wintry air and sighed. “Yeah. I can definitely get use to this.” Then he added. “But without the chilly weather.”

The two gathered their things together and walked through the frozen tundra. If they located the hole in the ground before nightfall, the two would go in and follow the underground chamber’s tunnel and then they would arrive at the secret world of the dinosaurs.

They followed a clear path of dirt that was formed by animals and trudge along through the dense forest. There was no sound accept for the ones coming from their shoes that made steady crunching sounds as they walked.

As they continued searching for the hole, Shelly looked to her left and saw something in a clearing. She stopped to check it out. “Hold on, Josiah,” she said walking over to the clearing.

“What is it?” Josiah asked, concerned. “You see something?”

She didn’t say anything but continued to walk over to the clearing. When the two of them got their, Shelly’s mouth was hanging open. They were standing in the middle of a ruined playground. The place looked like it had been destroyed by rampaging kids on high sugar rushes.

Josiah took in the damage all around and scratched his head.

“This place is totaled,” he muttered under his breath.

“What could have done this?” wondered Shelly. “This place doesn’t look like a 21 century playground and already its destroyed.”

They wandered around the clearing poking about and taking pictures of various spots like the vine swing, ice slides, glyptodont shell roundabout, and obstacle course. All of which were demolished.

At first they thought that the Cro-Magnons made this. The problem was, Cro-Magnons couldn’t have had the knowledge of building a playground for their kids.

A playground like this was too advanced for Cro-Magnons to build and where would they get the idea?

No. In the kids eyes this place had been built by someone else. The question was who made it?

Josiah got down on his knees and picked up pieces of an ice mobile that he had spotted on the ground near a tree. It had been decorated with a once large glittering crystal that dangled from a broken tree limb. But now the bright green crystal was broken into many pieces. Alongside it were other pieces Josiah couldn’t identify because they were shattered and partly melted.

He got up and went over to Shelly to show her the pieces of the mobile he found. Shelly bent over to study the pieces up close. After she was done, Josiah put the mobile back where he found it. Shelly then turned to her partner. “I think we should fix this place up,” she said.

Josiah shook his head. “I think we should leave it as it is,” he replied.

“We can do it. It looks easy fix,” Shelly urged him.

“May I remind you that we have a world under the ice to find,” Josiah reminded her. “We can’t go around doing a good deed. We have a schedule to keep.” He pointed to his wrist communicator and showed her the time. It was 10:04 in the morning.

Shelly gave him a demanding look. “We are going to fix it and that’s that!”

“Okay, okay.” Josiah relented. “You win. Lets get to work.” As much as Josiah liked Shelly it was never a good idea to get her angry.

So for the next half hour, the two kids worked on the battered playground together. A few things had to be replaced and a snow man had to be rebuilt. Josiah worked on the heavy stuff while Shelly handled the stuff that had to be put back together again.

By 10: 59 it was done. The playground was as good as new. Maybe better. Josiah had built a brand new swing and had brought in two massive logs for seesaws for the kids. Shelly had redone the ice mobile and smoothed out the slides and obstacle course with a fresh coat of ice.

“We did it, Shelly,” Josiah said proudly but tiredly. “This playground is officially fixed and ready for use!” He sat down on the log at the entrance and wiped his brow with his hand.

Shelly came over and sat down next to him. “It’s amazing, Josiah,” Shelly said.

She had also done a good job. She had fixed the ice mobile so that it was as good as new. It glittered while hanging from a tree limb. The suns rays caught the crystal’s base and it glittered radiantly bathing the playground with an emerald shine.

“Oh, Josiah,” Shelly murmured, speechless for words. “It’s beautiful.