Gold Riders of Belasdor

The sun was setting as they raced across the rolling New Zealand hills. The dust from their bikes hung in the air, marking their trail for miles. They had found the signpost back in the small town of Timaru.

The sign said: Belasdor - 3 days.

There was a drawing of a three-pointed star and an eye. There were no landmarks, no place names or well-known features. But they had trudged on anyway, driven by the promise of gold and glory. All day they had raced towards the horizon, guided by nothing but hope and anger.

By late evening they finally took a break and set up camp at the top of a ridge that overlooked a long valley. They could see for miles now that there was no longer any dust to obscure their view. It was almost dark, but they studied the valley below them anyway, looking for any sign of civilization.

Then something caught their eyes. A few hundred meters down the valley there was a bird flying back and forth over some rocks. The bird appeared to be agitated, so one of them went to investigate. He reached the rocks just before sunset and realized that the bird was sitting on top of a human skull! It took him several minutes to scrape away all the dirt and rubble until he uncovered more bones: two arms, two legs and half a torso with ribs reaching up towards the sky like dry fingers reaching for rainwater in a desert. He started digging again, this time faster and with more urgency. One by one he uncovered more bones; ribs, leg bones, vertebrae, teeth…until he got to the pelvis bone where he stopped digging and yelled frantically at his friends to join him at once! When they arrived he pointed towards what looked like two pelvic girdles resting against each other with two sets of skeletons inside them! There were four skeletons in total with their skulls facing each other as if deep in conversation when death suddenly surprised them all! The bikers stared in awe as if hypnotized by what they saw until something even stranger happened…the birds suddenly became silent!

They looked up into the dark sky searching for an explanation for this strange event when suddenly hundreds of birds flew overhead screeching loudly as if out of fear! Then it dawned on them…they were not looking at birds but at arrows flying through the sky towards them! They quickly ducked behind their bikes just in time to avoid being shot at again! At first they thought that it might be another colony or a rival gang who was trying to sabotage their expedition but after studying their surroundings they realized that they were surrounded by natives! These must have been some kind of Stone Age tribesmen who hadn’t seen white men before because instead of killing them right away they seemed to be trying to communicate with them somehow! All except one man who walked into their camp holding a bow drawn as if ready to shoot anybody who makes a wrong move! The rest of his tribesmen hid behind rocks and trees watching closely what would happen next!

The tribesman walked closer towards them until he was standing just in front of him face-to-face now staring intently into his eyes while talking gibberish at him! The biker tried responding back in English but this only confused him further because he obviously didn’t understand what he was saying! So instead he tried miming ‘friend ship’ between them by shaking hands with him which seemed to work because soon enough they were shaking hands with each other like old friends while smiling happily at each other like kids on Christmas Day who had just received all their wishes granted on one single day! Now it was time for gifts…the biker opened his backpack and showed him some thing shiny inside it…a lighter that spat fire when you scratched its surface! Next he produced some little colorful squares that made a crackling sound when you crunched down on it hard enough…they were mints from Timaru confectionery shop called ‘Sugar Loaf’ that sold sweets so sweet that you could get sick from eating them sometimes! Both men laughed aloud at this gift and then produced some little things from his backpack too…a small mirror from which one could see his reflection clearly unlike anything else known back then in these parts and lastly some colored papers made out of cotton that could wrap around your finger like rings without getting wet or dirty for years…indestructible jewelry made especially for those who live in harsh environments such as deserts or rainy jungles where everything is either eaten or burns instantly upon contact with any fire source whether accidentally or purposefully caused regardless if they are made out of paper or cotton or plastic or rubber or glass or edible candy bars wrapped in shiny paper adorned with lines written only in colors red, green and blue…no matter how old you are…no matter how rich you are…no matter how many titles you possess…whether king or slave…everyone loves colors especially children which these men definitely were because right away they started decorating themselves with rainbow colors until all four men looked like clowns straight out of circus! Then both groups sat down together around large bonfire filled exclusively with wood gathered from local forests where nothing grew anymore due to constant deforestation caused by greedy men wanting more gold than nature could supply freely back then making everyone go hungry including these very tribesmen whose faces were now lit up brightly by flames dancing around inside great wooden pyres where once there used to be endless fields full of life giving foodstuff growing freely everywhere under skies filled with birds singing songs of joy as milk flowed freely from cows grazing peacefully among peaceful herds roaming freely amongst these fields without fear as sharp fangs bit flesh without provocation …now turned into desolate lands covered only by ash barely able to sustain even bugs let alone larger animals running scared away by smoke rising high into air filling lungs causing coughing fits alongside panic attacks followed by painful deaths caused mostly not by poisonous smoke itself but lack thereof since trees breathed oxygen while people did not leaving suffocation lingering longer than usual…so it didn’t take long before silence fell over valleys once filled with laughter while small fires spread quickly filling every corner leaving behind nothing but piles of ashes where dreams lay buried beneath blackened ground which nobody tended anymore because nobody stayed anymore because nobody lived anymore except darkness which spread further spreading coldness wherever it went leaving behind nothing but stillness accompanied only by occasional screams sounding far away muffled by thick walls blocking all sounds coming outside so well nobody heard anything anymore including cries for help because nobody cared anymore about anyone else anymore than themselves anymore including those still alive who had chosen to stay believing maybe someone would notice if this ever stopped happening so maybe we should do something about it before it is too late?