I write this in the waning hours of the night at the end of our first day of climbing. The path through the mountains is harsh and treacherous. My boots are battered and worn after only one day of climbing, and my feet are blistered and sore. Everybody else has retired to the tent, and I plan to join them when I have finished this short account of the day’s events.

The beginning of our trek into the mountains was relatively easy. The path was comfortable at first, and the green grass followed us for a good while, although it eventually thinned and gave way to the sharp rocks.

After our first thirty minutes of walking, the path began to get steeper. For the next few hours, we gradually climbed higher and higher into the mountains. At one point, we were faced with a sudden drop off and the view was stunning. Looking back, we could see the houses of Ritnar nestled together in the woods below. The wind was crisp and refreshing, and we took the opportunity to rest ourselves before continuing our journey.

Most astonishing of the day’s events, however, was what happened shortly after our stop at the drop-off. Tess was leading the pack up the trail, and suddenly stopped. Then she quickly turned back and began running toward us. Lage, Wilder, and I stood still in the middle of the trail, wondering what had frightened Tess so much. Suddenly, Tess stopped and dove off the path into a field of boulders nearby. "Jump!" she yelled as she dove. As confused as we were, we all sensed something telling us to follow our companion, and, moving as one, we ran into the field of boulders and crouched down behind the large rocks.

Out of nowhere, a loud rumbling reached our ears. Lage looked up from his hiding place and pointed wordlessly at the top of the trail where it disappeared behind a bend. Crashing down the middle of the path was a large boulder. It was almost perfectly round, and rolled with ease down the path. It crashed past us, flattening the ground where we had been standing before. It then hit the rocks at the edge of the path, jumped them, and thundered into a ravine nearby.

Slowly, we emerged from our hiding places. Tess was the first to speak. "Crazy, isn’t it?" she asked.

"What’s crazy?" I replied.

"How did we know to get out of the path?" she explained.

"You mean you didn’t hear the boulder?" Wilder was amazed. "I thought that was why you turned back."

"No," Tess replied. "I didn’t hear the boulder until I had already hidden behind the rocks. I just sensed that I should get out of the way. You must have, too." We nodded our heads in agreement.

I looked at Wilder. His eyes were closed and his lips were moving silently. I knew what he thought, but I didn’t believe it, and I still don’t.

Lage spoke next. "What about that rock? No boulder can be so spherical naturally. It almost looked man-made. But who would have made it?"

"Aliens," Wilder said matter-of-factly as he opened his eyes. Nobody questioned him. It was all too obvious.

This recent adventure has further proved the intelligence and power of our enemies. They clearly transcend human abilities of knowledge, and seem to be almost supernatural. Our best efforts seem to be futile in the face of such power, but we can only try.

We have reached the foothills at the base of the mountains, and now those great towers of stone loom menacingly in front of us. We plan to rest for a few days before we begin our journey across. It will be hard and undoubtedly dangerous, and we will need all the strength we can get.

Last night we had an unfortunate experience. We were settling down to eat before we went to bed, and Wilder decided to pray beforehand and ask his "God" to protect us in the coming days. I do not accept Wilder’s belief in an all-powerful God and I asked him not to bring it up again in front of me. I have no room for a supposedly loving God who would allow any of these trials to fall upon us.

Wilder replied that despite my unbelief we would still need the protective hand of God if we planned to succeed in our mission. I told him in all honesty that I thought what he had said was complete nonsense and that if we expected his God to protect us after everything he had allowed, we might as well kill ourselves now.

Tess and Lage, who have never expressed an opinion on the matter, feared an argument and tried to get between Wilder and I. It was unnecessary, however, for despite my comments to Wilder, he never showed any anger and seemed to accept my disagreement in complete calm. This was most surprising to me, and I have vowed to not let the subject anger me so much in the future.

All in all, this argument has been very unfortunate. We have barely started on our journey and we are already experiencing conflict and division. We will all have to try harder to remain one united group, not four loners, or else our mission is doomed.

We have had a most disturbing and intriguing experience. We feel shrouded in mystery now, and we are all the more eager to cross the mountains and search for the truth. I will relate what happened.

Two days ago, Tess, while looking at a map, noted that we would soon arrive at the small town of Ritnar. Hearing this, we quickened our pace, eager to know what the fate of the town had been and to see a familiar face.

We arrived completely without welcome. The streets were deserted and nobody came out from the houses lining the streets to greet us. We walked slowly, our curiosity heightened. There was no sign of a fight, no bodies, no damage to the surrounding houses. Everything was normal, except for the complete lack of life. Lage grew impatient and ran up to the door of a nearby house. He pounded on the door and waited. Nobody replied. Finally, with my help, he broke the door down and stepped into the building, which was clearly deserted.

Inside, everything looked normal. Once again, no sign of a struggle. Wilder followed us inside and stepped into the kitchen. On the stove top a sat pot, with black smoke wisping out from under the lid. Wilder lifted the lid. Inside were the blackened remains of a meal, burned to a crisp. The burner on the stove was still on. "That’s a fire hazard," Lage remarked as he reached over and turned it off. "Why would anybody leave their stove like that and just let the food burn?"

"It looks like something forced whoever lived here to leave suddenly, and they haven’t come back yet," I decided. "The question is, what made them leave?"

"The aliens?" Tess suggested as she came into the kitchen behind us.

"Possibly. It just seems strange that there’s no evidence of a fight. It’s almost like the villagers left willingly."

Confused, we left the house and explored the rest of the town. All over it was the same. In one house, an entire meal was laid out, some of it half eaten, yet it was now stale after sitting for so long. In another house, the television was still on, yet the screen had gone black. All programs had been canceled due to the alien threat.

At the cash register in the local general store, food items were laid out neatly on the counter, and the screen showed the order in the process of being rung up. At another register, the money drawer was open and there were a few bills and coins lying beneath it, as if the cashier had been depositing the money and had suddenly disappeared.

Yet even these were not the strangest things that we discovered. Stranger by far was the lone message we discovered on the bulletin board in the center of down. It was written on thin, beige paper in a flowing hand. It read:

"For those who will seek the truth after the disappearance: I know your strength and your determination. You can do mighty things. The future of this planet has been placed in your hands. By now you have learned of the fate of the villagers of Ritnar. What you do not know is that the disappearance is not limited to Ritnar. It has covered Silavron. Even those who have evacuated Blue Heights have been taken, too. You are the remainder, the one hope for Silavron. One of you has the truth. Listen to him and you will do great things. Continue in your quest and you will find me. I will help you. I will give you what you lack. But do not forget your mission. Find the truth. Be strong.

R."

This message has raised more questions than it has answered. Who is "R"? How did he know that we were coming? Has everyone really disappeared? Who has "taken" them? Is it the aliens? Which one of us has "the truth"?

The answers to these questions are not apparent. We have decided amongst ourselves that the only way to find out is to continue, just like the message says. We do not know who "R" is, but we are willing to let him guide us. We look forward to hearing more from him, in whatever way he chooses.

We have been traveling for over a week now. The forest has been cool and comfortable for the most part. It will be helpful as we prepare for the trek over the mountains.

A few days ago, Lage was feeling restless and ran on ahead of us. Soon after he disappeared around a bend, we heard a roar and a scream. We ran towards the noise, and slammed head-on into Lage, who was running back in the opposite direction, and bowled him over. He scrambled off the path and started talking excitedly between gasps for breath. We couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he was interrupted by another roar, closer this time. We looked up and saw, to our horror, a Voolky approaching us.

Voolkys are the terror of the western forests. They are a type of sloth, but are much bigger than the common sloth. In fact, they are bigger than most bears. Unlike common sloths, Voolkys spend their time on the ground, in caves, and are carnivorous. Their long, powerful legs sport fearsome claws and the strength to propel the Voolky at high speeds. Needless to say, we were terrified.

Reacting more out of panic than thought, we scattered and ran into the forest. Lage started climbing a tree, but was stopped by Wilder. Wilder is a naturalist and has great knowledge regarding the local animals and their behavior. He instructed us to spread out through the trees, encircling the fast approaching and very mad Voolky. Then, under Wilder’s direction, we began picking up large sticks and throwing them at the Voolky. He stopped his advance and roared in annoyance, batting at the unseen pests. The more the sticks bounced off of him, the more enraged he became. "He’s gonna kill us!" Tess cried out.

"Don’t worry," Wilder called, "he doesn’t have very good vision, he can’t see us where we’re hidden. Just keep pelting him!"

Just when we were growing weary of throwing sticks, the Voolky appeared to get weary of being pummeled by them, and he stopped flailing, dropped to all fours, and lumbered back down the trail, growling and sputtering the whole way.

Tentatively, we stepped back onto the trail and slowly began walking. Around the corner, we spotted a large cave set into a huge pile of boulders about fifty feet from the trail. "The Voolky’s cave," Wilder pointed out. We proceeded cautiously, but the Voolky did not reemerge, and we passed the rest of the day without incident.

Night is coming on fast as I write this. We are camping four or five miles outside of Blue Heights. We have already been through the painful process of saying goodbye to our city. It is already almost completely deserted. I trust that someday, in happier and safer times, I will see my city again.

The habitat on the shores outside of the city is lush. Once you leave the sandy beaches it becomes thick and green. The mountains are always rising before us. They are our current goal.

Blue Heights has always been protected because of its position on the Eastern side. The high mountain ranges to the west have for time immemorial provided a natural barrier to enemies. For this war, however, they are merely an annoyance. They clearly provide no barrier to an enemy who can land at any place on our planet at will, yet they provide a formidable barrier to us as we travel West. They could cause us to lose precious time in our efforts to stop this attacker.

We are quite alone here, for everybody else has evacuated to the East and the islands dotting the ocean. We are the only people who have dared to go West.

Already we have had adventures, and we haven’t even seen the enemy. As we were leaving the city, a tramp assaulted Tess and tried to take the food that she was carrying. He was small, but persistent. It took all of our combined efforts to drag him away and even then he managed to break free and run.

As he disappeared back into the city, our moods sank. There had always been enough to provide for all of the citizens of Blue Heights, but this has clearly changed. The enemy threat has caused people to hoard food, and with much of the workforce in Blue Heights evacuated, there are no industries to provide for the common needs of the people. Those who cannot afford to evacuate or have no place to go must now stay in the abandoned city and face starvation and poverty.

The more we see of the devastation this mysterious threat has caused merely by its presence, the more determined we are to succeed.