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(Cont.)
And the Volcano awoke early in the morning, and he called Yeshua the Zealot over to his tent, and he told him to prepare the multitudes to make a big move, for they were going to stand up and leave the rim of the Grand Canyon, where they had settled, and travel several paces in the direction of Las Vegas. They could rest again when they reached the farthest edge of the Great Basin shrub-steppe, where it borders the city.
So, after resting for three more days, all the town criers were sent through the masses, barking out instructions: “When you all see the Volcano’s ark of remembrance beginning to move forward,” they said, “stand up and start to shuffle after it. But maintain a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: do not crowd the Volcano. He will guide you, otherwise you won’t know which way to go, for you have never passed this way before.”
Then Yeshua the Zealot and his Midianitish wife Lilith took their places by the ark where Bryan the King and his black panther Myala used to stand whenever the caravan traveled. And the Volcano manned his vortex, which maintained the position that was formerly held by Moses.
“Gyah! LIGHTSPEED, my Leviathan!” cried Yeshua. And the multitudes of the workforce began to inch forward, following the ark of remembrance.
And the Volcano gave instructions to the bearers of the ark, who were King Bryan’s artificial firstborn and grandson, the robo-butler Satyajit and his mechanical offspring, Man:
“Lo, my dear ark-bearers, give ear,” said the Volcano. “As you can see, we are currently entering the Great Basin Desert. We are right on the brink of it. Now I would like to perform a feat that will remind the people that I am their powerful savior, because I wish for them to trust me to lead them on a tour through many lands; and I aim to avoid the type of fearful outbreaks of savagery that the group committed at El Cortez and upon the Infraborians – it is my desire that there be peaceful communion and interchange between our people and all the nations that we shall encounter in the days to come. For I aim to introduce our populace to the Harvardites, the Cornellians, the Brunonians, the Princetonians, the Dartmouthians, the Columbians, and the Yalies. Perhaps even the Penn Quakers and the Persian Fire-Worshippers, if we have time. Now, here is my idea:
“As you two carry the ark of remembrance into the shrub-steppe, I will cause the Great Basin Desert to fill up with floodwater. Only, here’s the catch – I will fix the liquid so that it hovers in the atmosphere, at a safe distance upward, and we shall all walk underneath it. This shall remind the people of what happened when I helped Moses to cross through the Red Ocean.
“The problem is that normally there is not water in the Great Basin Desert. But that will make this incident even more memorable; for I will command rain to fall where it has never fallen before, and I will additionally make the accumulation float. That should be a sufficient amount of magic to impress the working populace. So, if you happen to see fluvial and lacustrine globules oozing about the air overhead, O Satyajit and Emmanuel, do not worry your motherboards about it: it will not drip into your electronics and cause you to short-circuit. While you walk, you will remain completely dry, down to the soles of your hooves. For I will put a firmament below, and the waters of the Great Basin shall be cut off in the sky: and they shall hang there in an heap.
“Thus I shall fulfill the prophecy that I spoke through Isaiah (35:6), and I quote, ‘in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert,’ and this shall be like a paved path for my wayfaring workforce, a red carpet leading into the city.”
Thus, it happened that, when the multitudes trekked forward into the shrub-steppe, to pass over the Great Basin Desert, following in line behind Satyajit and Man, the heavens above began to storm, and the rain came down; but every droplet stopped in midair, several meters above the earth. And the multitudes marveled at this fluke.
And they watched as the robotic bearers of the ark stepped forth beneath the suspended waters. And the waves raged and crashed above them, but their legs remained dry, and their soles barely dipped in the puddles on the land. Thus the salt sea failed to saturate them, as the people passed clean over the Great Basin Desert.
So that is how the Volcano motivated the multitudes of the workforce to pick up their tents and ambulate to their new destination. And they re-encamped there, where the shrub-steppe meets Las Vegas.
§
Now, once all the masses from the traveling workforce had made it across the shrub-steppe of the Great Basin, the volcano of potential spoke to the multitudes, saying: “I need ten volunteers to accompany our two ark-bearers on a mission.”
And those same individuals who had participated in the original scouting of Emerald City raised their hands. Their names were as follows (I named them before, but I’ll name them again, because I like them): Regina, Kelly, Ikie Ess, Kym, Gretchen, Jennifer, Melanie, Sarah, Haban, and Becky. These ten joined the robo-butlers Satyajit and Emmanuel to form a company of twelve brave souls. And the Volcano instructed them, saying:
“Look backward to the scene we just traversed. Note that what was once dry desert is now a flourishing rainforest. Every type of green plant and flower is now growing there: the colors are cheerful, and there is a mist that has generated a rainbow. Note as well how the body of water that I caused to fall from the sky has remained risen and still waits there in midair. The reason I left this lake lifted up is that I want the twelve of you to go back and stand in the middle of the Basin, under the waters, and install at that place, each one of you, a personalized plaque, to commemorate our accomplishment.
“So, in the faraway future, when your great-great grandchildren ask their mothers ‘What mean these plaques?’ then you shall appear in a cloud and answer them, saying: ‘When the waters of the Great Basin shrub-steppe dropped out of heaven and stormed upon the ark of remembrance, as it passed through this jungle, back in the times when it was a desert, the waters halted in the sky, where they remain to this day. And they shall never come down: they shall stay up there forever.’
“And when the little children ask ‘Why forever?’ you shall say: ‘Because, this way, there will never be any doubt that our team’s passage through this area was miraculous. For, if the water were to return to behaving normally, then you people of the future might assume that our claims were just tall tales. But now you can see for yourself the plaques on the ground that feature our names, and the pool above: so peculiar! It is proof that the Volcano was triumphant.’”
Then the girls followed Satyajit and Man back out to the heart of the Basin, and they used cement to install twelve brazen plaques under the floating water-glob. Then they lodged there for the night, and they all slept well. And those twelve plaques remain standing there, to this day.
So that is how the multitudes in the caravan navigated the shrub-steppe, and why it is now called the Hanging Pond of the Great Basin Rainforest.
A total of forty thousand people participated in this phenomenon, originally; and many more visit the site now, daily. It is a national attraction.
So there stood the masses of the workforce, with the Volcano in their midst, and the ark of remembrance being carried by two fine androids. And Yeshua the Zealot was with them too. They came up out of the desert on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Hanging Pond, near the border of Las Vegas.
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