A long sip from a warm coffee when going up the Gondola never got old for Joseph Faroe. It was 8 minutes of total silent peace for the aging man. No annoying demands from the Family on top of the mountain, none of that new pop music, no 20 year old hippies sneering at him when he walks by. None of that. Just himself and his newspaper. When he ran out of puzzles to finish, he just thought. Thought about what lead to him doing this every week, he did this for his friend, for his "nephews"... At least the important one.. Ding! The Gondola had arrived to its location: On top of a grassy mountain in the Appalachian Mountain Range. He was here to meet the Appalachian Family, ironic eh? Ever since he was born he knew Jerry Appalachian. A great friend and a horrific human being. His actions led to the Appalachians being hidden to this mansion all the way up here, which come to think of it isn't too bad. Mikes sitting outside smoking a cigarette. He always had that friendly grin plastered on his face, his entire life seemed to always be the same. His blond hair was brushed the same way, white suit, black, pants, and a red tie were always on him. He cursed under his breath as his cigarette drops from his mouth when he goes to fix his glasses. Mike had married Amanda Appalachian, the bastard sister of Jerry. Amanda's birth in the Appalachians California vacation impacted Jerry in a tremendous way, not directly however. While Jerry's mother was in the hospital, his father, Seymour told him to leave and swim in the beach. Jerry was well old enough to traverse on his own by this time so he listened to Seymour and left. What Jerry found on that beach shaped him to the monster that he was today. A fossil. Jerry had found a fossil and was instantly enamored by it. While I was already dallying in the world of politics by becoming an intern to theGovernor of Massachusetts, Jerry had went onto college to study biology and DNA. After college Jerry had seemed to struggle to make money at first, he went straight to Joseph who at this point had learned a LOT about the art of black mail. It was simple really, Joseph will tell some politicians that he'll rat on them if they don't give Jerry any money. Slowly but surely, Jerry had enough cash to jumpstart his new company: The Dynosaur Youth Network Organization, orDYNO. That is correct. He was really insane enough to try and reengineer dinosaurs back into life. 30 years ago I tried convincing him it was insane. "It's a waste of money Jerry!" I'd yell at him. Deep down I wished he would succeed, wished for any result but it wasn't coming. For about six more months there was nothing.Complete silence from Jerry. I was about to cut him off but then out of the blue, he stormed into my office with a big crate in his hand a crowbar on top of it. He settled the crate onto the top of my desk and broke it open with the crowbar. "My.. God.." It was a egg, a big one at that. Too big to be a ostrich's. In an even twist, the egg started to crack. "Oh shit.. that wasn't planned I assure you." You know it was a marvel when Jerry, one of, if not the smartest man in the world is surprised by an event. That was all i needed to ensure even more funding to DYNO. But with that I would have to move up in the cut throat game of politics. I ran for Senator for Maryland, not for the moneythat comes with the initial positions but for the secrets that if i could grasp into my hands would basically secure Jerry with a limitless budget. Year after year, the company grew with its technology growing even faster. In 2002, afterthe unfortunate events of what happened the previous year, Jerry announced on the floor of the U.N that he had revived eras of the Earth's history. That he had technology which could revolutionize every single thing about humanity andits future. Unfortunately, what he meant by "every single thing" was truly every single thing. He signed contracts with China and the U.S to start productions on these dinosaurs which were biologically modified with bullet proof armorand for them to be easily trainable. For Joseph this was great news, he no longer had to handout money to Jerry and could keep it all to himself. He hated how much of a greedy piece of shit he was back then. Unfortunately however, thisfew month grace period was ended by the fact Jerry didn't tell either of them that the other had the dinosaurs eggs. When American spies found out that the Chinese Military were adapting the dino's, the U.S were furious and ramped up tensions by putting a large amount of the Pacific Fleet near the South China Sea. Then one of the Chinese Naval Vessels got a bit too close and.. War. It was nine years long and ended with the Chinese Government collapsing, but not before sending one last Fuck You to Uncle Sam by sending biological weapons to California. A majority of them were intercepted, but one got through and hit San Francisco. It was horrible. It left people disabled and paralyzed and scarred. Jerry, being a good Samaritan and seeing a chance for profits, went over to help these people with the Manual Machine Company (With a fine of course). From the simplest functions like blinking to your entire nervous systemgetting replaced, the M.M.C could do it. With all of these, Jerrys final business venture were the tornado stoppers. They were mostly just a bunch of weather nerds in lab coats, but some members were given these experimental backpack like machines which hung on their back. In an essence, these men could control the weather, however it was experimental and very expensive to use. Even after Jerrys fall from grace, one of the Tornado Stoppers, Hillie, stuck around with the Appalachians. Then, all of the fame and money and power got into Jerrys head. Made him be less kind and make irrational decisions. He started taking drugs that he took when he was working on DYNO. He became a frequent party goer, which lead to me cleaning up allof his messes. It was so frequent as well, at this point, I questioned Jerrys morality. He seemed to be becoming a creep to all the people who were with him. In secret he created a robot called "The Women Destroyer" when he was drunk. Its name stuck to the part and it would scan through the chromosomes of humans to see if they were male or female. Of course no women were allowed near the robot, but in my head I continued to think that this wasn't Jerry. He never waslike this, why did he start acting up now? Meanwhile, I tried running for President of the U.S after Jerry's first few signs of descend into what he was. It didn't work out and I dropped out of the race pretty early, and thank god too.It turns out that right under my nose, Jerry had been going to an private island with other rich folks and doing.. I don't even want to begin to know what happened on those islands. Witnesses and victims spoke out, revealing Jerry to be a sick pedophilic monster. I couldn't believe it, my own friend was a pedophile. I didn't know what to do I was so distraught. I drove over to Jerry's house where he was panicking, packing all of his stuff into his car. I asked him where hewas going and if it was true. He didn't answer my second question but he quickly shot out that he was going to stay at his sisters house. He drove off pretty fast after that. And that leads to right now. I push open the door and take a deep sigh. It had been seven years after that happened. Joseph was now 64 years old, and by god was he tired. In those seven years he had to shut down all DYNO facilities and kill every single egg. It was a waste. The Manual Machine Company and Tornado Stoppers were bought by Quantum Mining Co., which was owned by his other best friend, George Quantum. The only good to come out of all of this was that I got a portion of DYNO's money before it was shut down by the Government. Its all dried up now and that was what i was going to discuss with Amanda today. "Juan?" I called out as i entered the large spacious room. Juan Andreswas the personal servant of the Appalachians. He was a good man but was put under so much stress by the Appalachians. Juan scuttled over to me and took my dark blue jacket off and hung it on the coat hanger. He took my coffee and threw it into the bin and showed me into the dining room where Amanda was discussing with her son, Carlos. "Listen Honey, I know that you want to be an explore of the world, but school is too important to miss out on." Carlos was upset by her. "But Mom, I get much more IMPORTANT knowledge then I would get in school!" "You can't go, I'm sorry.." Carlos huffed and sat back down in his seat, his arms crossed. "Having trouble with the boy?" I said. Amanda turned to me andher strict attitude softened up into a warm smile. "Well hello there Mr. Faroe, I assume you're here for Jerry?" "Yes and something much more grave.."
