Chapter 7

Jasper

"Hey Jasper, are we there yet?"

"No."

"Ok, what about now?"

"Nope."

"And now?"

I abruptly stopped walking and closed my eyes. Inner peace, inner peace.

I turned around and bent down to Noah's level.

"Yep, we're here! Welcome to paradise!" I pointed behind me and exclaimed with a loud voice and a pained smile.

Right where I was pointing, the desert terrain gave way to a large body of water. From where we were standing, you couldn't even see the other side. We were at the edge of the desert, entering a new territory. Even I hadn't been this far away from any city before.

"Hey, that's not paradise. That's just a bunch of water."

"Well Noah, paradise is what you make of it."

Noah stomped her foot and crossed her arms in frustration, flaring her nose. I let out a slight chuckle—her face gave off more cuteness than anger.

I stood up to take a look at the small group of people still walking with us from Jebediah's compound. Everyone looked tired, hungry, and lost. Frankly, I had no idea why they were still following me.

"Hey, you guys know you don't have to follow me anymore. There's really nothing much I can do."

Aaron, the young man who'd unlocked my chains when I was in the cave, came forward. He had light brown hair and fair skin—looked about as plain as anyone could get.

"Jasper, thank you so much for bringing us this far. To be honest, we don't have anywhere else we can go."

He paused, his weight shifting back and forth, not sure if the words he was about to say should be uttered out loud.

"We've heard the rumors of the New Promised Land. Most of us are pilgrims who were originally on our way to this land as well. But some of us were captured and forced to remain in Jebediah's compound for years."

He spat out the last few words as if they were a disease.

"Look, Aaron, I'm so sorry to hear that this was your experience, but how do you think I can help?"

"Jasper, can you be honest for a second? Are you a Light Keeper?"

Everyone just stared at me. Even Meesh and Noah stopped what they were doing and waited to hear what I would say.

I closed my eyes for a second, opened them, and looked straight back at Aaron.

"Yeah, I am. Or at least I was."

Everyone's eyes widened in disbelief. A few people whispered amongst themselves, but Aaron stared back at me with a hard gaze—almost as if he was testing me.

"Then you know how to get to the New Promised Land. You know the way to paradise—something everyone here longs for. That's why we're following you."

I hesitated. Did I really know the way? My father believed the prophecy, believed the time had come. But me? I wasn't so sure.

Still, these people were looking at me like I had all the answers. Like I could save them.

Maybe I didn't have a choice.

"Ok, yeah, I understand. Fine, you all can come. But everyone has to pull their own weight. It was hard enough when it was just the three of us, but now our group has tripled. I don't really want to get into all the details right now because we all look tired and hungry. So until we sort everything out, why don't we end the day here, rest, and make camp?"

After that revelation, the group broke up into different teams to set up camp. I made sure to help grab some firewood. Afterward, I looked at the rations we'd taken from Jebediah's compound and realized we only had food for maybe two more days max.

If we were going to survive out here, we needed to find more food. Quickly.

I went and asked the others if they'd brought any food with them. Everyone either shook their heads no or wouldn't respond to me. On top of that, no one had been this far out before and didn't know of any nearby cities.

Ok, this is frustrating. How are we supposed to survive if no one wants to help each other out?

I walked over to where Meesh and Noah were and helped them settle down for the night. It was another stressful day, and I worried how long they'd be able to keep this up.

No, don't stress too much. You're doing this for them.

I laid my head down next to them as my mind continued