Neolithic

I am an avid traveler. I have quite a few destinations on my bucket list. India, the Congo, basically anywhere in the eastern hemisphere. I love that kind of stuff. On my travels, I have seen quite a few sights. I have discovered new cave paintings on a hike through Europe, though these cave paintings did not make much sense. They looked like a jumble of stick figures. 
I was on a trip through the fertile crescent. It was a backpacking hike from Jordan to Baghdad. This was quite a challenge, but to see the area where civilization started felt almost like I was home. A home I never knew I had.
I finally got to Ur in Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This, right here, is the birthplace of society itself. It's an absolutely gorgeous place, not because it is exactly scenic or anything, but because of how it feels. You see the old ziggurats that are thousands of years old, and it makes you appreciate how far we have grown, how we live today, and yet you also grow an appreciation for your ancestors and the people that made your current life possible.
I met another traveler just like me. His name was Mohab. He hailed from Egypt, carried a large knife to his side which he was always grabbing the handle of, and had set out on the exact same mission as me. He wanted to see the origin of civilization. He spoke English about as good as I spoke Arabic, and vice versa. We communicated well enough to make it through the trip.
Mohab told me a story of his grandfather, who also was a traveler. His grandfather died after going when Mohab was 5. He went into the Great Ziggurat of Ur, trying to get to its bottom, and was never seen again. Then, Mohab told me about his real plan for his trip. He needed someone to go with him. He wanted to enter the Great Ziggurat and see what was really inside.
We were about a kilometer from the monument, so we decided to head towards its area. We arrived and entered the Ziggurat, which is surprisingly touristy. But Mohab was very assertive on where we needed to go. He didn't care what was open to the public or not. He wanted to go as far down into the Ziggurat as he could. 
There were many staircases leading further and further down the Ziggurat, getting darker and darker. We had flashlights to light our way, and we got to what appeared to be the last level. It was absolutely barren. Nothing there. Just a small, dark, empty sandstone room. We continued to explore the room to find anything. I was already unsure about this trip, but if it meant helping this man solve a family mystery, I guessed I had to.
I stuck close to Mohab, though it was hard for me to even move. I was freaked out by our own echoes. I was shivering uncontrollable. He pointed me to a doorway he found and shined his light through it, wanting me to go in first. I couldn't do it. I tried to run back up the stairs, but Mohab stopped me. He grabbed me and dragged me through the doorway. He shined his light through the doorway, then drew the large knife from his side. He told me to get in there and look around. He followed me.
I shined my light more, and the darkness was an abyss, soaking up all light that I could shine at it. I could at least see that the walls behind me were covered in Sumerian Cuneiform text. Mohab grabbed my shoulder and pushed me behind him. He yelled at me to follow him. We walked seemingly aimlessly through the darkness, until we heard some sort of clicking.
I was done. I tried to run away, but Mohab kept grabbing me and keeping me close to him.
He shouted at me to look and pointed to a wall. There was loud squeaking and clicking coming from that direction. I closed my eyes, but he kept forcing them open.
I saw the source of the clicking. It looked like 4 skinny, naked men. They were about 2.5 meters tall. They had mouse-like teeth and large bat-ears where their eyes should've been. They had long, clawed fingers. I saw one of the men grab the wall and crawl onto it, making loud squeaks. They were surrounded by human bones, which one gnawed on.
Me and Mohab left the area. Not fast enough, but still quickly. We almost made it to the ground level, but there were U.S. soldiers surrounding us. They pointed their weapons at us. 2 of the soldiers grabbed us and pulled us up.
We were dragged to the back of a truck. They handed us clipboards and pens. The paper was an NDA. Basically, they were telling us to write our signatures on this piece of paper and forget about this.
I wish I could...
Category:Places
Category:Beings
Category:History