The police cars, seeing Mack enter the dense desert fog, stopped the pursuit. They would need dogs and helicopters now to find Mack because the cars in the fog could barely illuminate 10 meters in front of them.

THE NEXT DAY

By the shadow of a bolder, inside a small natural cave.

Mack knew if he attempted to go to any city near the desert he would meet a road blockade or cops waiting for him, so he chose to just wait until they cancel the search thinking he already left the area.

Time solves everything, and Mack had food and water for days in his backpack.

He also had already decided the place to hide the book as his father asked, so now, the only thing that remained for him was to memorize every single word on the book, and that would take time, but he had plenty of time in the next few days.

It’s not like they could find him. After all, this was an entire desert that covered itself with dense fog by night. It was a lot easier to find a needle in a haystack than to find Mack in this desert..

Mack had made plenty of distance between him and the search party last night, and today he would rest by the day and walk to another place by night. He would keep this routine for the next days to come until the sound of helicopters passing in the sky disappeared.

But right now Mack was looking at the dammed book his father made him dig up yesterday.

“Time to see what’s so important about this book.” said Mack aloud, opening the first page.

And to his surprise, he saw a familiar runic language written in it.

His father used to teach him this same runic language when he was a kid.

‘So that why father insisted on teaching me this dead language.’ Thought Mack, realizing that his father planned this way before he was born.

Reading the first runic symbols, Mack got stunned by the translation and could not keep himself from saying aloud.

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

“One is the Law, the Law is one.”

“Life lives on Life.”

Reading these three disconnected phrases, Mack could see how hard it will be to memorize the entire book. “And here was I thinking it will be something like math or just some garbage story….. tsk… another shitty day ahead”.

The entire page composed of runes translated to that 3 sentences, Mack then turned the page and started reading again.

Reading more pages of the book, he found various quotes like the first three. They seemed profound and disconnected but also connected somehow. But he could not pinpoint where this feeling came from.

Unknown to him, something inside him was slowly changing but was not his body, but the way he thought. It was like a seed, slowly growing in his mind. Giving birth to a fresh way of thinking, just like one would feel after a shower.

But the oddest thing Mack found in the book was on page thirty-three. It was a picture of a naked man with various unique runic symbols over his body. Those runes had no translation. They were as if symbolizing something more abstract.

And in some of the next pages of the book, he saw something that looked like a breathing technique from yoga.

Today Mack was not trying to memorize the entire book, he just skimmed through the pages to get an idea of the book, and seeing that the book seemed to be some kind of cult stuff, he was not sure of what to do.

Should he really memorize everything? But remembering it was his father’s last wish….. he could not avoid doing.

And just like that, another five days went by.

In those five days, during the daytime, Mack would read, sleep and eat and by the night he would change location.

FIVE DAYS LATER

“I still can’t memorize those dammed tattoos on the naked man, it’s as if every time a remove my eyes, in a matter of minutes I will forget the correct drawings. I need to memorize them quickly I’m already where I want to hide the book.” said Mack, looking at the Llullaillaco volcano in front of him.

Chile was indeed a cruel place for life. Not only it had a desert, but also an active volcano.

After walking a few kilometers more, Mack could see a camp in the volcano’s base. It seemed someone was up to climb the volcano today, and not only Mack.

At the base of the volcano, five men were disarming some barracks, and doing that one of them stopped and looked to the west. Where he saw the shadow of a man walking straight to them.

“Hey Luke, is that guy for real? He will climb alone?” asked one man in a mocking tone, seeing Mack walking straight to them.

“Who cares, there always some crazy bastards.” said the man called Luke.

“Yes, but that crazy bastard is coming straight to us. I don’t want to be dragged down by someone else.” said the man.

Then the man called Luke turned his head to the west and saw the distant figure of Mack walking amidst the blazing sun, alone, without a car, and using a black jacket, and for some reason, the man called Luke felt like bad shit was about to happen.

“Ok, let’s hurry and leave we already delayed too much. But double-check everything before we go, safety first guys.” said Luck turning his focus to the task ahead.

Mack, seeing them depart in the distance, stopped, drank water from his canteen, and continued walking.

But while walking he started humming all the phases quoted in the book like a mantra. It had become a habit of his so he could memorize the book easier.

And this scene, to the five guys, hearing a faint and barely audible mantra-like song in the middle of the desert by the foot of a volcano, could not sound more bizarre.

Mack was a person of a strong will since birth, but he knew that climb a volcano with only water and military rations in his backpack would be a hell of a task even for him.

Not only that, but the Llullaillaco volcano was the second-highest active volcano on Earth, only losing to ‘Ojos del Salado’.

But Mack chose de Llullaillaco, not because of the altitude, but because at his summit there was an excavation site where Incas Mummies were found.

The Incas used the Llullaillaco summit to offer sacrifice to the god of the mountain. They had even built an altar at such an altitude.

And because of the historical value of these discoveries, the government of Chile and Argentina declared the Llullaillaco as a National Heritage Site for both countries.

And being one National Heritage Site, no more digging was ever allowed again.

And that’s why Mack chose the Llullaillaco to hide his father’s book.

But the problem with the unique runes on the naked man’s body was driving Mack inpatient. He could not understand how could this happen, and worst, he had no solution for that too.

He could only hope to be able to memorize everything by the time he reached the summit of the volcano.

TWO DAYS LATER

At the summit of Llullaillaco, the second highest active volcano on Earth.

HUF HUF HUF

Mack walked around trying to keep himself warm, but he was also without breath.

He could not stop himself from panting while the thin air and the cold winds made him want to sleep. It was a frustrating experience.

But the view, oh that was worth all the suffering, In one side he could see the entire of the desert and by the other the Argentines plateaus. It was like the Yin/Yang of life. one green and full of life and the other reddish and completely devoid of any life.

It was one of the best views in Mack’s life.

Unknown to him, he started humming the mantra-like song he created to memorize the book. It was like he was in some kind of trance at that moment. Like something was clicking in his mind

Then like a rock hitting a calm lake, a voice came to wake up Mack.

“Hey Man! You really did it. All alone and even before us.” said Luke.

Waking from his dream-like state, Mack could only mutter a single response as usual “Hmmmm”. Said Mack, turning his back to the man and walking toward the Inca altar.

Luke, seeing this, felt offended but was not like he knew the man, so he walked back to his group and went in the other direction to take pictures and appreciate the view.

Mack sat on the Inca altar and started to remove one of the stone bricks.

After removing the brick, he drew a rune on top of the brick.

It would be the sign of which brick contains the book.

Then, like lightning striking, an idea came to his head.

‘If I can’t remember the unique runes in the book, I will tattoo them, exactly as it is in the book!!’

‘Why! Why! Why didn’t I think of this before?’ thought Mack, cursing his stupidity. He was at the summit of a volcano! Where would he find something to do tattoos here?

Then Mack stood up. He remembered the guys from before and started screaming “Hey You! Wait!” and walked in direction of them, with the book in his hands and a brick.

After a few minutes Mack catch up to them and said “Hey you guys, you probably have some kind of pencil or permanent ink, a needle, or even a flare gun, right?”

“Hey man, yeah, we have a flare gun and a needle for stitches, but why would you need that? It’s only one day to go down from the summit now. And you seem to be fine. Did you lose your trekking equipment?”

“I never brought one.” Said Mack.

“And why would we give ours to you? Go fuck yourself or die for what I care!” said another man from the group, clearly pissed off because of this shameless man.

PAF

A brick hit the man in the head.

“Because I have a brick. An ancient one.” said Mack, looking at the unconscious man on the ground.