From the Beginning: The Old World Read Online Free PDF Page A

hope and joy. For a few minutes, we were just laughing out loud. 
     
    With Roan’s guidance, I descended with four other men who volunteered to help. We did not want too many people standing on the bottom of the crack. After all, this was the mountain’s peak and an avalanche like the one we had could occur once more at any given moment.
    While Roan’s crew was busy extracting people stuck on the opposite cliff, I started exploring the newly gapped terrain.
    As mentioned before, the gap wasn’t too deep. If the water levels went down by about twenty-three feet, the whole area would not exceed sixteen and a half feet in total. I deducted from there that we were about six and a half feet above sea level. On the other hand, the area’s width was in my assessment about fifty to sixty-five feet from cliff to cliff.
    My gaze stopped on a gap created between the two cliffs that led the other side of the island. My awakened curiosity urged me to check it out more closely. As I was walking towards the narrow opening, I counted my steps from one side of the island to the other, which was now revealed.
    I calculated at least 100 feet. In fact, quite a wide terrain had opened up before us, safely guarded by the small cliffs.
    Plans started forming in my head as I carefully moved forward checking the turfs of the island: the ground was very firm. I saw no reason to climb back up to the top of the cliff. We will be better off staying down here. During the day, the walls of the cliffs can shield us from the heat of the sun and at night protect us from the cold winds. Even though the sun was once again shining, performing its task of warming the world, now when the sun was about to set, this consideration may be a crucial factor in our ability to find shelter from the chill of the night.
    The water, heated by the rays of the sun, preserves their warmth during the day and emits that heat when evening falls and during the night. Now that the sea levels had risen so high, the sun was once again heating the first layers of water. If we stay up there, we will be exposed to the cold. Down here, we shall be closer to the warm waters that had already started emitting their warmth.
    The more I got closer to the edge of the island I could feel the warm air currents caressing me. Right here the distance between the cliffs grew narrow, and the walls almost touched each other. I placed my hands on the stone walls, with my heart pounding, I stuck out my head to take a peek at the other side of the world. The sight revealed before me made my head spin! I fell on my knees with tears choking my throat.
    Spectacular pinkish sunset colors were brushed across the skyline, but all I could see all the way to the horizon were vast and endless open seas! From one end of the world to the other I could not spot another peak. Suddenly, an awful and inconceivable thought hit me: we are alone!! For a few minutes, I struggled to breathe. My mouth opened and closed on and off shocked at the sight before me as tears rolled down my cheeks. 
     
    I turned back, looking at my surviving friends reaching out for each other, finally driven with the newfound sense of hope and I knew that, at the time, I would not say anything. Of this sight, I would not tell anyone, although it was crystal clear that sooner or later other members of the group would come here and witness the same horrific view I had just seen, and the harsh reality would strike with full force. At the time, there was no point in putting a damper on their happiness. Part of the heavy responsibility that lies on the shoulders of leaders is to know when the right time to deliver grave news was.
    I wiped the trace of my tears off my face and turned to join the group when I felt a cold, damp gust of wind. An opening, large enough for a grown man to pass through was formed in the wall of the cliff. Because of the rock’s texture, the opening was hidden in the wall’s formation. That is why couldn’t see it