Zap and Troy: The Legendary Journeys

I went up to the attic to get my dad’s papers. I’d read through them all already, and I knew that most of them dealt with things other than the Ziox; digs he’d been on in Israel, Africa, Brazil, things like that. So I was able to sort through it pretty quickly. I grabbed the Ziox folder, of course, as well as a few that I thought might be helpful. I’d noticed some similarities between Inca and Ziox architecture, for instance, so I brought Dad’s Inca folder. I also grabbed one labeled “Lemon Mine.” There wasn’t much in it, just another old map my dad had drawn and an inventory of mining equipment and explosives. It wasn’t really connected to the Ziox as far as I could see, but I couldn’t rule it out, either. I stuck it in my backpack along with the other papers Rowsdower had asked for.

This only took me a few minutes. Rowsdower had told me he wanted to sleep for a couple of hours, so I had some time to sit and think.

After seeing him again so suddenly, I could no longer deny the feelings I had for Rowsdower. Part of it was that he always made me feel so safe, and helped me feel good about myself, and I loved him for that. But apart from that I also had deeper, more powerful feelings for him. Feelings that I could only classify as lust. It was weird to admit that, even to myself, but I had to be honest. I was in love with Rowsdower, and I wanted to sleep with him.

I just needed to find out if he felt the same about me.

By the time I worked up the courage to admit all this to myself, it had been a couple of hours, so I went down to wake Rowsdower up, and find out more about what was going on. I found him in the living room, sitting up on the davenport and drinking from his flask. He didn’t look any better, but at least the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

“Feeling better, Rowsdower?”

“Sure am kid, thanks. Say, does that Aunt of yours ever actually stay here?”

I thought for a moment. Somehow, I didn’t feel right telling him about Aunt Betty and Linda Covington. “Most of the time, yes. She just happens to be working night shifts right now.”

“Well no matter what we end up doing about the Ziox, we need to at least leave her a note this time. I don’t fancy dealing with the Mounties again. I like to keep my nose clean.”

“What are we going to do, Rowsdower? I’m not even sure what’s really going on.”

“Neither am I kid, but I know we’re in trouble. The remnants of the cult have gotten together, and they’re looking for some kind of artifact, something that’ll let them rule this land again.”

“But I thought that we’d stopped them when the idol was destroyed and I shot Satoris?”

“I thought so too, but they have a new leader, someone they call Caliban, and he’s got some kind of plan to use this artifact thing.”

“My dad’s papers don’t say anything about any artifact, look.”

We read through all the papers again, but nothing new came up. Zap swore quietly while I got up to get a drink. As I looked around the looked at the spice rack, something occurred to me.

“Pipper!”

“What did you say?”

“Mike Pipper, my dad’s old partner! I bet he knows something about this artifact!”

“Good thinking kid. We should get going pretty soon. I’m not in any shape to fight off those hooded thugs again.”

I left a note for Aunt Betty letting her know that I was safe, but that I’d be gone for a few days. I felt I owed it to her to say more, but Rowsdower reminded me it’d be safer for her if she didn’t know what was going on. “What she doesn’t know she can’t be made to tell,” he said, and I reluctantly agreed.

I gathered up my father’s papers and added them to my backpack along with some food. Rowsdower had found another pack in the basement, which he loaded with some supplies of his own, then we got in my car and took off. It may seem like wasted effort to bring a bunch of papers that we weren’t even sure could help, but I certainly didn’t want to leave behind to be found by goodness-knows-who. The only map to our destination had been burned during our earlier encounter with the cult, but I didn’t need a map at this point; I’d spent almost as much time at our destination as I had at home over the last year or so.

We were going back to the City of Ziox.

And judging by the black cars that passed us at the city limits, we weren’t leaving a moment too soon. And maybe too late.