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Chapter 6: The Light of Christ

During the first earthquakes, I thought it was kind of fun. I didn't really know what to expect, it was all so new, it was a novel event, I hadn't taken it seriously. But this one, this earthquake was far worse, it finally started to feel real to me.

It wasn't even the fact that the tremors were even harder than before or the pile of rubble we had cumulatively piled up was now all over the place, rocks jumping and breaking as if they were frozen bouncy balls. In fact most of. The people around were lurching towards the grass to get away from the stray rocks. But no, This wasn't the real reason I panicked so bad. It was the thought of my family, the realization of how this was affecting the people here in Texas even. But mostly the one that weighed so much on me was the one up in Oklahoma, my girlfriend. If she didn't die in the earlier earthquake, did she have much hope in this one?

I was having a panic attack, Elder Pachu gripped me and pulled at my scared stiff body I swear in that moment I knew he had laid hold of me, but I couldn’t feel it. But it was as if I was seeing it from third person, like my soul had left my body, but wasn’t quite paying attention to my surroundings, and although it was surreal and I felt like I was having an out of body experience, my companion Elder Pachu, he was still based in reality and was able to bring me, a two-hundred and twenty pound man to the safe grass with his sheer strength alone.

He was yelling, but the noise was so loud, the earth was screeching against itself, grinding, clawing. It was as if a giant beast was making its way up from the depths. I wish I could say I was paying attention in a crucial moment where everything went crazy. I’m ashamed to say that even as a missionary who knew the truth, who knew and had a firm belief in God, and a bright idea of where we would all be if we perished, I was entirely without hope or peace. I was in absolute terror. Again thoughts of my family started rising to my mind in the moments of lucidity I had, in fact everything came to me all at once, everything except what was actually happening. I remember hearing lots of shouting, especially my name. And I also remember seeing movement all over, as if everyone was scrambling, but I, I was pinned to the ground because I could hardly breathe. I think I was clutching at my chest trying desperately to pull the air into my lungs, but I’m not even sure, because everything following that meeting is a blur in my memory. I really don't remember a single thing. In a critical time, when things really started to hit the fan, I was useless.

Actually, I’m pretty sure there is a saying, something about how, “You know who to depend on, based on how they react in a situation like this.” I failed this test.

-

"Elder Todd, Elder Todd, are you okay?"

Someone with a thick accent was shaking me.

I looked up, It was Elder Pachu. His manner of speech somewhat comforting to me. I blinked several times. The landscape around us was thick with smoke and fire. The air around was hazy and dusty. Was I even still in the chapel parking-lot?

I tried to speak but first a hacking cough erupted from my throat interrupting me. "Elder Pachu, what--what happened?" I looked at him. The only clear object through the dimly glowing smoke and dust.

“I-I think a volcano must have erupted, or something, the earth is just erupting dirt all over, but not just that, the creatures out there are setting everything ablaze, something has come over them and they have gone wild running at everything lighting it on fire.”

“Where are we? Do you think its all over? The earthquakes?” I asked.

Elder Pachu grunted, “You’re asking me, Elder? We are just in the grass still, we haven't moved anywhere.

I looked down, and put my hand on the ground feeling the grass, indeed it was soft and wet, but a smudge of wet dirt also smeared all over my hand as I ran it through the freshly mown grass.

I looked back up at Elder Pachu and noticed the side of his head was bleeding, as if he had been hit by a bouncing rock. I felt all around my head and my body, once I realized I was okay, I tried to get up, but the dust made everything super disorienting.

“Move, why are you so close to me?” I said to my missionary companion.

I looked around then back at Elder Pachu. “We should do something.”

“But what?” Elder Pachu looked at me.

Only now did I realize how ghostly pale he was. It was hard to see through the dust and his darker skin color, but I had been around him long enough that it wasn’t just the paleness, but his expression too. Everything was getting to him too. I stumbled away from him.

“Elder Todd!” He elevated his voice, and crawled after me. “Do not leave my side, it is in the missionary rules!”

I looked at him, “Elder, do rules even apply at a time like this?”

He looked at me, “Elder, these are God’s rules, not some corporate list of random demands.”

I shouted back at him, “God’s rules? What did God descend from heaven and give these rules to us now? When did I miss that?”

“Elder you know the scriptures and what they say, the mission rules are given to us by the apostles and prophets of our church, and in the Bible, God says ‘Whether by the voice of my servant or the voice of my own it is the same,’ therefore, yes it is God’s rules, and it is at times like this that these rules were most meant for!”

I stopped walking away from him not entirely because of what he said, but because of what was right before me.

Elder Pachu caught up to me and for the first time as his companion, I heard him swear as he looked at what I had just stumbled across.

Despite our circumstances, his curse made me chuckle and remember that he was also human. “Elder.” I said. “That scripture you quoted was from Doctrine and Covenants 1:38, not the Bible.”

Elder Pachu covered his mouth and quickly said “Oh I’m so sorry. You didn’t hear me say that.” Then he bumped me with his elbow. “See, you do know the scriptures. Plus, it's like the same thing.”

I rolled my eyes. “Elder, the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants are not the same thing.”

“Yes they are. They are both God’s word.”

He had me there. I looked at the mound in front of us. It looked like a cave. A literal cave had just risen from the ground. Was it safe to enter?

I looked at Elder Pachu, “Should we go in?”

“Elder you are insane. We are not going into that thing.”

-Ping!

My missionary interface just blinked in front of my vision, and I could see it appeared in front of Elder Pachu’s vision too.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

- Enter the Dungeon. Slay the Boss. Free the saints within. Secure a safe-haven around you.

My eyes went wide as I turned to look at Elder Pachu, but he was still reading it, the meaning of the prompt that had just come up, clearly hadn’t come across to him yet.

Then his eyes went wide and he looked at me. And almost impossibly his composure went paler.

Then quietly, we both obediently entered the dungeon. Our first dungeon. His Last dungeon.

-

“It’s dark in here.”

I could hear our steps loud and clear, but I couldn’t hear anything.

“Maybe we should turn back Elder. Maybe we need a light source.”

This time it was my turn to quote the scriptures. “Elder, the Lord will provide a way.”

“Elder, that’s silly, why would the Lord provide us a way, when we could probably leave and find a flashlight.”

I thought about what he said. “And when are we going to find a flashlight? Tomorrow? Next week? My phone is dead, Elder, yours is too. Are we going to just let our church members that are trapped here stay down here until we find a flashlight?”

“Let the blind lead the blind.” Elder Pachu muttered.

This was a surprising side of Elder Pachu I never expected to see. And more than that, I was surprised with the sudden burst of courage and confidence I was feeling.

Feeling our way down, the cave actually was pretty convenient. Like a hallway. Straight to Hell.

“Elder. I can’t keep going without light.” Elder Pachu said after about five minutes of slow descent. “This is too far. What if we can’t find our way out?”

I looked at the direction of Elder Pachu’s voice and then nodded. These were definitely valid concerns.

“Let’s say a prayer. Let’s ask for light, and whether we should continue down or not.”

I assume Elder Pachu nodded because he then said “Okay, say it.”

We both knelt down in the cave where we were, the rocks and dirt were incredibly uncomfortable on my knees. And then we offered up a prayer to heaven, to our God above, whether he wanted us to keep going down this cave. And that if he did, we asked for him to provide some light.

“Amen.” We both said. And sat there in silence for a moment. Then I opened my missionary interface just to look at it and think.

There, blinking on the corner of my interface, was a button that said “Dungeon vision.” I was about to tap on it, then Elder Pachu interrupted me.

“Elder! I can see you! Your interface gives off light!”

I chuckled, “It’s more than that! Open your interface, there is a dungeon vision button!”

I finally clicked on it, feeling a wonderful gratuitous feeling overcome me that God really did answer my prayer and my faith.

Immediately I started glowing. But it was a weird thing. It wasn’t what I expected. Like maybe some night vision, or some digital analog vision in the dark, but instead, we both emitted a very soft glow, one in which the ground two feet in front of us was illuminated. Neither of us were actually shining, but we emitted some sort of dim light.

“I can see again!” Elder Pachu’s excitement overwhelmed my quick disappointment at how pathetic this illumination was.

I looked at him and saw how happy he was, and I couldn’t help but feel happy too.

I inspected the ground and it was just like it felt, stones jutting out of soft dirt. The walls were no different. The path ahead was still darkness, but the steps right in front of us were now visible. How I was going to slay any “dungeon boss” like this, was beyond me. But I kept the stories of Ammon from The Book of Mormon, and David and Goliath from the Old Testament, close to my heart, believing that anything was possible with my God.

After getting used to the dim light, we marched further down. Into the depths of the dungeon.

Everything was going smoothly until we came across a crossroads. There were two paths we could take, right or left.

“Does it really matter which one we go down?” I said looking at Elder Pachu.

“Maybe we should pray about this one too.” He said.

I nodded thinking about it. We prayed and then looked at each other, still neither of us feeling partial towards a path.

We eventually decided to go down the left path.

“Elder. What if there are monsters down here. Like those things on the surface.” Elder Pachu Said

“You mean those little things that were on fire? They seemed pretty stupid to me, I’m not really worried about that.” I said.

“Yeah, those small ones. But Elder Baker told us of another kind of monster. A bigger, more aggressive-“

Right as he said that, I thought I heard something and we both immediately hushed and crept forward listening, dead silent.

Then we came to a wooden dungeon door. I looked at Elder Pachu with confusion burgeoning on my face.

“Is this a house? A room?” I asked, more to myself than anything.

Elder Pachu then said “Elder, let's go back and check out what the other pathway held.

I held no compunctions against his suggestion, I was curious as well. So we backtracked and then entered the right pathway. At the end of that branch, there was a similar door, but this one was solid stone, etched just like the previous wooden door to look like its twin. We pulled at it, but it would not budge, and so eventually we shrugged and went back to the wooden dungeon door. And when we opened it, our interface lit up on both our faces.

-The Pit

“Did we just enter the dungeon? That entire descent was just the entryway?” I asked dumbfounded.

“I think so.” Elder Pachu said.

Then we entered The Pit looking around, it was just as dark before. But now, we heard moaning sounds.

Despite my earlier bravado, I opened my interface again. There has to be more for us. It can’t just be some flimsy light.

Again, there was another new button, Do I have to earn my upgrades? I thought as I read aloud the flashing button

“Equipment.”

I pressed it. And immediately I was holding a stick.

I looked over at my companion, and he was wielding an iron sword. Fully clad in iron armor.

“Very heavy.” He muttered.

“What the. Why did I get a stick?”

Elder Pachu laughed, he bellowed a laugh and barely got out a comment, “The Lord works in mysterious ways Elder.”

His laughter must have attracted attention, because there was a light turning a corner in front of us, it was a flaming gremlin. And it was waddling pretty quickly. As if it had gone from a monster toddler that could barely walk, to a veteran monster toddler of six months of walking. This one seemed aggressive too, like it was after us.

I hid behind Elder Pachu who swung his sword and dispatched the creature.

“That easy?” He complained.

“Don’t even ask for it. There will be a boss at the end.” I glared at him.

Elder Pachu turned around in his bulky armor and then laughed again at my pithy sight, a missionary in a dirty white shirt and tie cowering behind him, holding a literal stick, or a branch, that had a leaf at the end of it, as if to point out the fact that it was in fact just a plain old branch. The worst part was that it wasn’t even that big.

“Elder, make use of your branch and light it on fire so we can have more light.”

I looked at him “No way.” For some reason I couldn't help but be defensive of my branch. This little guy deserves better than that, I thought.

He laughed again and then said “Fine, fine, I have another Idea.” And he decapitated the dead monster’s head from the upper half of the already severed body. It wasn’t until then that we noticed that the monster wasn’t even dead yet. It was writhing on the floor.

"This is a little grosser, but I've butchered animals bigger than this guy." He said proudly.

But I’m pretty sure we both blanched at the still squirming body.

Elder Pachu stuck the gremlins' still flaming head on the end of his sword, and used it like a torch, to light the area a little more. The gremlin head started crying at us and screaming. We almost left the head with the body, but then we decided to keep on using it as a torch as it provided much more light than our subtle glow. But the thing was incredibly unsettling.