Page 58 of The Diary of the Vam'pir Jacques

The Reckoning had exceeded our wildest dreams in thoroughness.

We scrambled towards our coffins as our internal senses warned us of the rising sun. Just before I slept, I saw a genuine grin on D’vid’s face. I knew D’vid was relieved that his brother was on the bottom of the sea. Claudias would no longer harm anyone, or so we assumed.

However, at that moment, D’vid noticeably relaxed and became more open. He had closed himself into a tight ball of worry, just in case Claudias came after him—or us. I wouldn’t have put it past him, either. Claudias truly hated D’vid with apassion unmatched by any, and where that rooted from, D’vid did not know. He had tried to love and admire Claudias, but it was too hard a job.

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One of the hardest things that I had ever done was tell Har’chen people that their parent country had gone. How do you explain something like that? You can’t. Witnessing the look on their faces and seeing them stumble back in horror or run away is an experience I never want to repeat. The Har’chens struggled to accept the reality.

The whole island had just disappeared under the sea; how could that happen? Questions were thrown at us from every direction. Where we sure it was Kaltos? Of course, we were. We had brought the proof back. Was it all of Kaltos? Could not the island have split, and only part of it sank? No, we were afraid not.

The ongoing questions resulted in further expeditions being conducted to search for any survivors. Surely, not all the Kaltons had died. They refused to accept that none of them had survived.

Each expedition came back empty-handed; there was no sign of civilisation or survivor camps.

The only humans that were encountered were the barbarians, and they were little better than animals scrabbling away in the dirt. Communicating with the barbarians was challenging, and we had no interest in dealing with them right now. We had enough troubles of our own.

From Kaltos, we savaged solar panels and other technologies, and these were set up to provide much-needed heating. We cooked over huge open fires, and we had fallen back ontodug sanitary pits. All trappings of civilisation fell away as we struggled to find a shadow of our former existence.

The Vam’pirs helped a great deal. In teams of four, we dove time and time again to salvage what was possible from Kaltos’s ruins.

Meanwhile the Har’chen worked bloody hard, cutting stone into blocks to build a town for our three thousand survivors to live in.

We had lost the young and old.

Fortunately for me, none of my family had been killed. They had listened to our advice and had done what we told them to do. The Reckoning claimed the lives of more than three hundred Har’chen.

Sadly, Har’ches had lost more people than what we had first counted, and we struggled to try and house those left.

Most of them had to live in caves as we began to rebuild the lost civilisation of the Har’chen people. History no longer remembers them or realises they existed. By their legacy is out there, in the world in the puzzles that they left for future humans to solve. The purpose was to ensure they wouldn’t be forgotten.

This was one of the hardest times of my life that I remember, and even though it was a struggle to live, I would do it again. For we actually pulled together as a community, and although we were that already, this just made us closer.

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Today’s people will never experience anything like it because you have gone your separate ways. You know nothing of sacrifice and working as a team.

Nowadays, the majority of you work in competition with one another. Keeping up with the Joneses is a popular saying andtrue. You are selfish and immature. What would you do in this situation? Fall apart.

I tell you that you would never have done what we did, and without your luxurious trappings, you would be nothing.

For centuries, I’ve observed you searching for a redeeming quality in humanity, and hope seems to be the only thing you have. Hope that we instilled in your society. It is my desire to see you grow, and that’s why I continue to interact with man and share my story with you. Hope is the best thing about today’s people. Some of you try to help others, and that is your most unselfish trait. But those are few and far between.

Who dreams of winning the lottery and helping others? Not many.

Most of you think that you would purchase the newest car on the market or the biggest house that money can buy. I can’t blame you much. The society that exists today only worries about material gain and not about spiritual.

It’s difficult to admit, but I’ve had millennia to cope with this, and I have. I may rave about it, but that is only because I see the potential in the human race.

Over time, you might transform into the Kaltons I initially introduced you to. You could be the most advanced and caring society that ever existed, and you should really learn from what happened to Kaltos.

There is no doubt in my mind that you have the capability, but you are heading fast towards destruction. When you achieve that, then maybe the bitter lessons learned by the survivors will stand you in good stead.

The Vam’pirs, of course, will still be here, and you might accept us and take the guidance we would offer you.

I would come forward today to lead you into the light, but you only consider this to be a story and not true facts. No matter howhard I insist that it is not a tale, you’ll not hear, and so this piece of ‘fiction’ will have to teach you.

Please learn from what I preach.

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