Trouble Valley by Cody Knox - HTML preview

Chapter 14: The Great Tribulation

Of all the detrimental, idiotic and ill-conceived advice in the world, and there is much advice in the world that is detrimental, idiotic, and ill-conceived, perhaps the most detrimental, idiotic and ill-conceived advice in the world is to

'count your blessings', a phrase which simply means to check your privilege and look at how lucky you are.

It is usually used towards people who are recounting their troubles, as if being aware of how other people are worse off is meant to make you feel better about your current situation.

For example, a man might be tied to a chair and locked in a dark room slowly filling with water.

This man could say to himself, “Well, I shouldn't get too anxious about this scenario. I'm a wealthy, heterosexual white male; I'm quite privileged, actually. If I were a poor, black lesbian with no arms or legs, my desperate screams for help would be ignored twice as much as they're being ignored right now. I should really count my blessings and cheer up,”

Of course, most people in this situation would say “Aaaa! I'm drowning! Somebody help me!!! Aaaa!!! Help me!!!! Aaaa!!!!!!”

Straight away you can see the problem with the advice 'count your blessings', for while on the face of it, it sounds like great advice, is actually totally detrimental, totally idiotic and totally ill-conceived, because the simple fact is that you can't ignore terrible troublesome things happening to you simply by telling yourself that others have it much worse.

Also of note is the fact that it does not fix any problems. It does not fix one's own problems, or the problems of those that are worse off.

The phrase, to count your blessings, can therefore quite confidently be confirmed as a useless adage, yet it has somehow managed to survive the test of time, even though the advice in question is most clearly totally detrimental, totally idiotic and totally ill-conceived.

It is so detrimental, idiotic and ill-conceived that it is simply baffling to think that it has survived for so long without anybody stepping forth to question it, 'it' being the advice, the advice in this case being the advice to 'count your blessings', a phrase which simply means to check your privilege and look at how lucky you are, even though the advice does nothing to stop your current trouble.

The word 'trouble' has many synonyms that describe it just as well; these synonyms include, but are not limited to: problem, fuss, bother, difficulty, worry, disorder, inconvenience, perturbation, disturbance, pain and tribulation.

This should give you an idea as to what a story entitled 'The Great Tribulation' would be about, the title being a reference to the Bible Verse Revelation 7.14, the bible verse that had been recurring all over the village of Trouble Valley that was now no more but an old bomb shelter eleven villagers hid away in as the heroes of this story, Andrew, Jack, Monica, Julia and Matt headed for the Impenetrable Cavern, to finally set right what had once went wrong and bring peace to a universe torn asunder in chaos.

The title of this work, 'The Great Tribulation', does not refer to the biblical apocalyptic event. In the case of this story, 'The Great Tribulation' refers to the many troubles these five children had gone through while living in the small village of Trouble Valley. The name 'Trouble Valley' should give you some idea of the kinds of things that happened in Trouble Valley, which is to say, troubling things.

It would have been quite useless to tell these five kids to

'count their blessings', for though they were, in fact, quite fortunate not to have been killed or suffered any serious injuries in Justice's wave of wrathful destruction and death, they were still quite anxious. They were much luckier than the millions of humans Justice had destroyed through laser blasts and tsunamis, and were much luckier than the millions of aliens killed when Justice blew up several planets. And yet, they did feel quite worried about their current predicament and were finding it very hard to count their blessings, as were nine other aliens, marooned in the middle of the desert at this very moment.

These nine aliens hailed from the distant planet of Hesea, including the Hesean Governor, and here they were, watching as their compatriots were up in the sky battling Justice. It was hard to tell who was winning from here.

The Heseans tried to pass the time instead.

“I wonder how the battle's going,” The Hesean Governor said.

“I really hope the universe won't come to an end,” one Hesean said.

“The universe won't come to an end, it'll become an endless nightmare for all who dwell inside, stupid,” another Hesean said.

“You know, that cloud kind of looks like my mother,” one Hesean said.

“No, it looks like my mother!” Another Hesean said.

“Classic sibling rivalry,” yet another Hesean said.

“This conversation is detrimental, idiotic and ill-conceived, but at least we're far away from the centre of the battlefield,” The Hesean Governor said.

“Justice will come down and destroy us before long too if they lose,” Another Hesean said.

“Well that will surely not happen, I have confidence that the combined force of every Hesean combined battling against Justice will bring an end to him once and for all!” The Hesean Governor said, though looking up at the battle scene folding out in the sky, he was not quite sure.

“We're going back into the fray!” One of the Heseans said, and thy jumped back into their space-ship and flew away, leaving their Governor behind in the middle of the desert.

“Fine with me,” The Governor said, “I'll just wait for my fellow Heseans to rescue me when this is all over,”

The eight Hesean Warriors rose up in their space-ship and wondered how best to join the battle. However, they did not have long to develop their stratagem as their ship sprung a leak and ran out of Abel Energy.

“I think we sprung a leak!” One said.

“We're out of Abel Energy in this ship!” Another said.

“We're going down, down, down!” Yet another said.

Meanwhile, Andrew, Jack, Monica, Julia and Matt were currently walking through the picturesque landscape of the Nevermore Forest, though they had no time to enjoy the scenery.

They were very busy heading for the Impenetrable Cavern.

“Look, everyone! It's the Impenetrable Cavern!” Jack said.

The others looked and it was true; they were indeed standing a few hundred feet away from the opened doors of the Impenetrable Cavern. The five of them went inside, observing the structure and looking all around the cave. They had never noticed it before, but the cave was really rather pretty.

Andrew saw that the Black Sun had been opened, though he knew not the significance.

“Now what?” Monica asked.

“Let's set up a perimeter around that hole, then we'll focus on our next course of action,” Andrew said.

The others did so.

“What happened here?” Julia asked, looking at the deceased bodies of Suzie, Sam and Lian.

“My guess is Justice happened. The three of them must have removed that black sun, and Justice managed to escape out of that hole, and he rewarded them by killing them,” Andrew said.

“We don't know a lot, do we?” Jack said.

“So what's the plan? We're gonna shove Justice down that hole and put the black sun over him? That won't work, he's too powerful!” Matt complained helpfully.

Andrew did not appreciate Matt's complaining.

“We're going to do this, you guys. But we might not all make it to see tomorrow. Listen, if something happens to me, if I don't make it, I just want to let you know that you guys have been the best friends I've ever had,” Andrew said.

“We feel the same way about you,” Julia said, and the others nodded their heads in agreement.

“Why do you think Justice is doing this?” Monica asked.

“I don't know, Monica. Maybe he really thinks that he's saving the universe, maybe he's just a monster hiding under the label of justice; either way, we must save the universe from him. He is a force for pure destruction and evil whether he intends to be or not. But don't worry; good always triumphs over evil...right?” Andrew said. He looked unsure.

The five looked up into the depths of the cavern. Saying good always triumphs over evil is another useless adage, for though it may very well be true, it usually does not help in the current situation in which one is stuck in. It is one thing to simply say that good always triumphs over evil, it is quite another thing to go out and prove it, especially since the latter is much more likely to get you hurt.

And so, they waited.

Andrew said, “Matt, go outside, and watch for danger. Those demons could still be out there. Alert us if you see anything bad coming our way,”

Matt nodded and proceeded to walk out the cavern and shut the doors.

He stood there for a while, thinking about all the incredible events that were happening, and wondering what could occur next.

Suddenly, a Hesean space-ship fell out of the sky! It struck the ground a few feet away from Matt, and eight Heseans poured out.

“Wow, what a ride!” One of the Heseans said.

And then, the sky grew incredibly bright as the combined efforts of millions of space-ships continued to push Justice towards the ground and towards the singularity.

“Oh my, it seems that our fellow comrades are executing the Fibonacci Defense Shield Over-Ride!” Another Hesean said, slightly startled.

“What does that mean?” Matt asked, running over to the Heseans' crashed spaceship.

“It means, dear human, that you and any others around here need to get out of here as quickly as possible! They're going to drive him into the singularity!” The Hesean said.

“The Singularity?” Matt asked.

“Yes; we're not quite sure of what it is, but we do know that it's the only force capable of holding back that spirit of revenge and wrath, that calls itself Justice!” The Hesean said.

“But they have to trap him inside The Singularity, and the only way to do that will be for the Heseans to sacrifice themselves; the release of Abel Energy so close to The Singularity will create an unbreakable force-field that can't be opened by any living thing for at least a thousand years!

It's how we trapped him last time.

The only reason this beast escaped is because nobody good and pure was protecting the Cavern for so long. But now, there must be a sacrifice to stop the beast!” Another Hesean said.

Matt had little idea what was going on; his head was spinning.

It was almost like the Heseans were speaking some strange

alien language6. But then he took some deep breaths and tried to understand, keeping ahold of his tenuous grip on reality.

“They're surrounding Justice with an inescapable force-field that Justice can't escape right now, but in order to hold it, at least one Hesean has to die in front of the Singularity, so that the force-field lasts,” The Hesean explained.

“But what if they all die before reaching The Singularity?” Matt asked.

“Then, all hope is lost! The universe is doomed! In any case, you really ought to run as far away from here as possible, so you don't get caught in the crossfire,” The Hesean said.

“There must be another way... Eve said that humans could absorb Abel Energy too. It's unpredictable and dangerous with humans, but it's possible! If I could corner Justice, he'd have to obey me, because if he killed me in front of the Singularity, I'd activate a force-field automatically, right?” Matt said.

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“Maybe. This would be a very desperate measure, of course.

We could give you all our Abel Energy combined, but it would turn you into a walking bomb, set to go off at the slightest instant!” The Hesean said.

“But all that energy combined could kill a single Hesean; there's no telling what it could do to an ordinary human!”

Another Hesean said.

There was an explosion. 400 space-ships exploded in an instant. Justice was gaining the upper hand. Just a small gap in the force-field and he could escape and go back to tearing apart the universe.

“I don't think we have much of a choice; we need to create a failsafe, or the whole universe could be doomed to eternal pain and suffering forever and ever!” The Hesean said.

“Listen to me, human child. Inside the Impenetrable Cavern, you will find a black sun. Underneath it, at the bottom of a grand staircase, you will find The Singularity behind two giant, 50-feet tall gates. You must draw Justice there at the right opportune moment!” The Hesean said.

And then, all eight Heseans shone energy beams upon Matt, bestowing him with all their power until they became puddles of goo.

Matt felt newly strengthened. His eyes glowed like the sun.

Not a second to lose, thought Matt.

He rushed through into the Impenetrable Cavern, barely taking notice of his friends. Without a second through, he jumped down the hole instead of taking the stairs, and he began flying to the bottom.

He vaguely heard Andrew yell, “Matt, what are you doing?!!?”

Matt did not just fall many feet down the hole.

Matt fell many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many feet before he reached the bottom, which he hit with a very loud thud and found he could not rise for what felt like hours.

But he managed to rise shakily onto his feet, bruised heavily, his clothes torn to shreds, but still alive. The gates opened, and there before him was The Singularity in all his glory.

Matt had seen many strange things in his life. He had seen alien spaceships crash in his backyard, he had seen grass that drove anyone who walked across it into an incredible hunger.

He had heard stories of possessed teddy-bears and walking trees. He had heard of strange situations befalling his friends and peers, such as when Monica met a greedy planet

salesman, or when Sunil had a brainwashing device installed on his head, or when Jack discovered a reptilian spaceship.

But nothing he had seen was as incredible, as remarkable, as so utterly mind-bogglingly insanely strange and weird as The Singularity.

What struck Matt most was how much it glowed, which was quite strange as black should not shine so bright, but it shone nonetheless, illuminating the entire room in a black glow.

The Singularity spun like a spiral, each of its trillions of shadowy tendrils kissing the walls at something like 100 miles a minute. It was like a massive, shining black hole.

He felt strangely terrified and happy at the same time, along with a string of emotions he would never feel again, yet felt so strangely familiar, something he felt when he first stepped onto the ground of Trouble Valley.

It was, without a doubt, the most incredible thing he had ever seen, beyond all mortal description; it almost looked like a living, breathing thing, and it looked older than the entire universe.

It was simply breath-taking, and for a moment Matt forgot why he was even there. But this changed as the doors slammed behind him and there in front of him, in the flesh, standing at 50 feet tall, was the enormous and terrifying figure of Justice.

“Well played, human! Well played...” Justice said, applauding in a sarcastic way. His cape was slightly torn from the battle, and his suit had a few scorch marks. But he still looked as smug, superior and holier-than-thou than ever.

“I understand what's going on here, make no mistake about that; you've come to trap me back inside the singularity. If I kill you, I will trap myself. If I let you live, you'll kill yourself and activate the Fibonacci Defense Shield automatically,” Justice said, his smile not faltering.

“And so this is how you finally defeat me. By finally resorting to violence after all! It's all about spilling blood in the end, isn't it?” Justice said, his smile growing.

“Of course, I know you. I know your secrets. You don't have the courage to sacrifice yourself! You couldn't even kill the girl who killed your parents when you had the chance! You are nothing more than a coward, Matt, and no matter how much you achieve, no matter what you do, you will always be a coward!” Justice said arrogantly.

“You don't know me at all,” Matt said.

Justice handed Matt a sword.

“Then prove yourself, Matt! Are you a lover or a fighter?

Come on, you coward! Do it! KILL YOURSELF!” Justice shrieked.

Matt rose the blade of the sword to his neck, hoping that his friends would live in a much better world once he was gone.

“Matt, no!” A voice yelled.

Matt turned around, shocked. His friends were coming in through a crack in the door.

“Matt, what are you doing? You can't kill yourself!” Jack said, though it was hard to hear him over the wind.

“I have to sacrifice myself to stop the beast!” Matt said, his eyes glowing.

“Matt, I know you think you're doing the right thing, but suicide is never the answer!” Andrew said.

“Are you even listening to me? I'm doing this to save you, my friends!” Matt said.

“Matt, we're your friends, no matter what! We will always love you and care for you! Don't kill yourself, Matt!” Julia cried, as his friends hugged him and he was inched closer towards the singularity.

“You don't understand, you're all in incredible danger! You need to run, you need to run NOW! I have enough energy inside me to blow up the planet!” Matt said.

“Oh Matt, we know you haven't been a perfect person, but no matter what this jerk says, you're important to us, and you can always make things better! You can fix all the troubles in the world, when you have friends!” Monica said with a tear in her eye, and the five joined together in a big group hug, and as tears streamed down Matt's face, Matt tripped and the five of them went flying into The Singularity, disappearing into the central void.

Suddenly, the void shone a bright light, striking Justice in the stomach and imprinting his image into the doors like a woodcut, where he remained forever, and the light spread across the universe faster than time itself, and everything turned white.

Andrew, Jack, Monica, Julia and Matt woke up outside the Impenetrable Cavern.

Everything seemed to be back to normal. No more spaceships were in the sky. The surviving villagers had come to the cavern and built a new village. An all-new Trouble Valley.

“How long have we been gone?” Andrew asked.

“Two weeks, maybe?” Sheila said, tending to her hens.

There were some cats, dogs, sheep, horses and goats around too. It was all quite Arcadian. A few simple structures resembling houses were there, and there was a crude stall made of chopped-down trees where Tipene and Wiremu sold oranges.

But then, a legion of Hesean Space-Ships fell down onto the grounds of the new Trouble Valley.

“Attention humans; do not be alarmed. We are merely here to erase your memories!” The Hesean Governor announced.

“Excuse me??” Julia said, surprised.

“We cannot let humanity learn of what has transpired today.

We have already wiped the memories of all the rest of humanity. Nobody on Earth will ever remember the events of The Great Tribulation ever happened.

They'll explain away all the deaths as being the results of disease. And now we must erase your memories, too. We will erase all memories of the otherworldly.

“I don't want to forget the otherworldly; I don't think any of us do,” Matt said.

“Be that as it may, your memories must be erased, and that is that,” The Hesean Governor began, but was interrupted by, surprisingly, Jack.

“How dare you! We have been through Hell. The entire universe would be suffering from eternal misery if it weren't for us! We just saved the entire universe!” Jack said, angry for the first and only time.

“Our village will protect The Singularity. It's connected to us now,” Andrew said.

The Hesean Governor thought long and hard.

“Very well, humans, I will let you stay here, with your memories intact, and you shall forever be the protectors of The Singularity, but only under one condition: that it never, ever falls into evil hands,” The Hesean Governor said.

“How does that sound to the rest of you? Does that sound good?” Andrew asked the crowd of villagers.

Each and every one of the villagers answered in the affirmative.

And so, the Heseans left the village of Trouble Valley in peace, and returned to their home planet of Hesea.

Justice had finally been served.

Eventually, the whole village of Trouble Valley was rebuilt.

Some of the villagers had gone back to the ruins of the old village. They retrieved the bodies of fallen friends and family and gave them a proper burial a few miles away.

There was almost nothing else recoverable they could find.

Just piles of soot mostly.

“I'd say that's the last of the bodies,” Julia said, “we should get back to Trouble Valley before it gets dark,”

“Yeah, I was just thinking. You know, about Eve,” said Matt.

“Best not to dwell on the past. We all lost ones we loved that day,” Julia said sadly.

“But there's just some things that don't add up. Revelation 7-14. Did Eve put those messages there? Maybe she could have somehow done something so she didn't...” Matt trailed off.

“It's best to move on,” Julia said.

“Yeah, I guess you're right. Listen, Julia, I don't think I'm going to come back for a while. There's somewhere I need to go,”

Matt said.

“How will you get there?” Julia asked.

Matt looked at the burnt-out hull of a train nearby.

“I'll take the train,” Matt said weakly.

“Well, just remember whatever happens, we're still your friends, and we will wait for you to come back,” Julia said.

“Where's Matt?” Monica asked as Julia returned to the village.

“He had to go somewhere...” Julia said, “I'm sure he'll be back.

How's your garden doing, Monica?”

“Oh yes, it's looking quite nice. I think we'll have plenty of vegetables to store when Winter comes around,” Monica said.

“Good. You know something, Monica? I am so happy to be here, we all should be,” Andrew said, “Life is just so nice. So very, very nice,”

Matt walked through the ruins of the Revelation Hotel, until he came to Room 7-14. He looked around sadly, and thought back to all the experiences he'd had with Eve.

He stood on the creaky wooden floorboards, deep in thought.

Everything was completely silent.

He then heard a faint rolling sound. He looked down, and saw a red juicy gumball resting at his feet.

Matt looked up.

“Revelation 7-14!”

THE END.

Author’s Note:

Are you seriously trying to spoil the ending for yourself? For shame… In any case, here is where I shall answer the most persistent question asked about the book:

Dunderhead: Cody, why does the bible verse, ‘Revelation 7.14’

keep on popping up in your story?

Cody: I will quote from the ‘Simple English Wikipedia’ …

‘Revelation is when something is made clear or obvious that was hidden before,’7

Dunderhead: Ha ha, very funny. But what does it mean?!!?

Cody: Why did Douglas Adams choose the number ‘ 42’ to answer the ‘ ultimate question’? It means many different things depending on what context you’re using; for example from the actual story’s perspective, it’s an appropriated warning sent by some unknown alien force, symbolically it’s about cosmic connections, from a philosophical perspective it’s about how easy it is to apply meaning to arbitrary phrases and verses, from a thematic perspective it’s a red herring, because it seems like it has a religious meaning but is actually entirely secular.

Dunderhead: That’s too complicated for my small mind to bear.

Can’t you explain to me what Revelation 7.14 means to you, in just one word?

Cody: Think.

7 Revelation Source: http://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=4608673 Contributors: Auntof6, Eptalon, Lugia2453, Pmlineditor, 16 anonymous edits