Everything was alive, it seemed. Nothing was right.
Every object was unlike everything I knew in the city.
Back in that dome was a city of straight lines and right
angles, circles, triangles, and little else. Nothing grew there,
aside from people. It was comfortable and unchallenging.
Outside, everything challenged me every moment.
For the first six or seven hours I found myself wanting
to sleep from sensory overload as I saw things twining and
bending and curving. No two things were identical in this
world. There was no simple geometry or intelligent plan I
could comprehend. Myriad things frightened and enthralled
my senses, every second my eyes were open.
Our rooms touched down together as a cluster a few
hours after we departed our safe-haven home. I woke up
toward the end of the ride, an hour before we settled. First
we landed on the ground in a clearing within organic shoots
rising high above the Earth. Next, they unhooked us. When
we emerged, I caught a glimpse of the transport vehicle leaving
us; it was high in the sky, chains retracting, path soon vanished
behind the puff-greens above us. The flying machine was
a queer combination of metal shapes, most geometric and
relatively simple. Air was thrust down on us as it made noises.
Then it was gone, the sound diminishing over a few minutes.
No one said anything. These people worked as if
having endlessly done this routine before. I watched and
stayed near.
The set of four rooms had been tightly conjoined.
Central seating had a sliding door to close the structure, seats
became lackluster beds, as did the floor and other tubes and
slats folding out higher on the walls. We could all retire there
in a huddle. Fronts and backs of the room housed odd supplies
to one end, food and necessities to the other end. Those large
closets were lockable. We had everything for a week, perhaps,
I figured.
Everyone waited for items to be doled out. A handful
of foodstuffs was followed by a set of toiletries, followed by
weird metal items which were useless in my hands. I stowed it
all within simple, rough, dark colored carriers we slung on our
backs, fronts, and sides.
A couple of these worn ogres were left behind to
protect the rooms as the majority of us trooped outward into
the world. Our true motive was a mystery. There appeared to
be some intelligent hierarchy within the group; some specific
men were communicating with grunts and simple commands I
couldn’t fathom.
We marched and marched as a fairly disorganized
bunch. It gave me time to attempt to become familiar with
everything around me.
Land wasn’t nice and flat like in the city. This place
was always up and down, always small dips and rises. My
footing had to be constantly aware and coordinated.
It was always cold at first. After walking for hours, it
was always hot.
Everything jutting upward was living, but unlike
any life I ever saw. Dark, craggy skins and pieces always
branching off into smaller parts. Every bit of ground was
covered by something. Solid shapes like the stuff we use for
buildings and floors were scattered as rounded lumps and
craggy spires. Nothing moved to harass us, which was good.
Terrifying noises would come from overhead every
so often, randomly. There were creepy things living here that
looked like deformed, small humans with hair. Other creatures
I couldn’t see clearly were flying above us. Nothing wanted to
attack, but their wide, dark eyes were disturbing, when able to
see them look at us before running or flying away. This world
had endless varieties of monsters to challenge or threaten us.
No one seemed to care.
I began sneezing and sniffling. The air was affecting
me. My sleeves were used to wipe the running mucus away.
Those comrades from the lower city blended into the
world. Their clothes and skin were perfectly matched to all the
things around us. When we would stop to rest, those remaining
still were hard to detect quickly. I now understood their gear
and styles to some degree; the reason for being so was still a
mystery.
We did seem to have purpose as we moved. Most
looked left and right repetitively while hunched. It engaged
fears within me: fears of encroaching danger. My mind was
creating worse and worse anxieties every moment as all these
shapes and colors and life forms overwhelmed me.
Relief came when I realized these people weren’t
laughing. If they were laughing, I would have expected
something dangerous. Everyone was typically emotionless.
That thought was my anchor to sanity.
Above, I noted a bright sphere far in the sky. It was
hurtful to my eyes. All light came from that thing, and the
light burned me slightly as it fell on my pale flesh. After hours
of observing shadows, that circle of light was clearly moving
slowly above us. Weird thing.
And suddenly we were going through something
somewhat familiar, but eerily unlike what I found common:
buildings. These were obviously built by people of some sort.
All structures were somewhat destroyed and overgrown with
life. Small parts of architecture were plainly visible, as were
openings of windows and doors. Roofs were angled, like Mr.
God’s spire, not flat.
Some of my group were going in and out of these
structures, nervously looking for something.
We trudged on. Buildings multiplied and grew closer.
They were taller and had flatter tops far out of sight. Some
buildings were several times higher than the ones lining all
streets and avenues in the city. Everything looked awful, but
their mysterious craftsmanship made me crave to discover more
about the people that made them, lived and worked there, and
what happened to them.
This was an ancient city. It was a constant challenge to
me.
After a good while, the leaders of our group were
waving and grunting, shouting simple words to everyone. I
followed the lead of everyone else following the signals of
those in charge. We hid. Most of us slouched into the greenery
against buildings, some into opening where they peeked
outward into the street.
It was boring and confusing to me. We waited and
waited. No noise was allowed to be made. No one moved.
Noises were soon coming softly from somewhere
ahead of us. I figured one of us was being randy or fidgety,
until another figure unlike any of us appeared in the shadows
along the side of a far structure. It was human, and it moved
cautiously. The frame was slender and small, about two-thirds
my height. Clothes were rags, or very worn, by the way jagged
edges and threads flapped away from the silhouette as it moved.
Silence. It paused. Several minutes passed.
When it moved again, it went across the open street.
It looked like a child, but I wasn’t certain. The person
was smaller and looked young from a distance. It seemed
asexual, so I figured it was immature. Hair was black, eyes
dark, skin deep-brown, all limbs extremely skinny. Feet were
bare, body sheathed in unusual fabrics. Whomever it was, the
person was nervously progressing before halting completely as
one of ours slowly walked out to it in the street.
The kid watched, face wide in fear at the approaching
man.
A hand was raised by the shyly ambling figure
emerging from our side. It formed the symbol of two spread
fingers.
“Peace-peace!” greeted the older human tenderly.
The child turned to run. Loud claps rang out from
somewhere between the figures in the street. The child
crumpled to the ground, bleeding.
Everyone came into view to stand over the fallen
outsider. The body was dead, slumped over with fear still
etched on its features. Some of my group were giggling and
giving shorts words of praise.
I deduced quickly that one of the bent metal pieces
we carried was used by the man confronting the exterminated
child. Whatever the instrument was, it cut holes in the flesh.
My mind was starting to fear again.
Feet shuffled and wandered away, my group was on the
move again. I acted as if I was going to leave with them. For a
few hundred feet I trailed, then ducked away and went back to
the corpse on the road.
Turning over the body, I found it clutching something
close. Once pried away, I saw the object was like a slate,
but with lots of paper inside attached to one side. Plentiful
symbols were filling every bit of the papers. I had no idea what
the strangely manufactured article meant. Dark brown material
covered the white papers; it help an imprint of a cross in the
center of both large outward sides. I took it.
There was nothing else of interest on the person. No
other possessions were available aside from the one I took.
This meant there were other people in the world which
didn’t exist within Mr. God’s realm. There were other people
who made things and created their own fancies. I had to
know who they were. If a young one was alive, elders were
somewhere. It seemed as if the group I followed from the
city were sent to kill others outside the walls of our home. I
couldn’t begin to understand a reason, yet.
I had to know who these others were.
I had to know what they were doing.
I had to discover the history of humanity.
I had to find answers to all these challenges that were
starting to torment me.
There was a much larger and confusing reality
suddenly crowding around me every second I existed. Same
as in the city, I needed to know, to find the limits of knowledge
and experience, and I needed to discover everything I could
find. It was such a wave of fear, anxiety, and happiness inside
of me. All my emotions blossomed and mingled that moment
in the streets of this wrecked habitat.
Somehow I would meet these other humans. My
resolve was strengthened by curiosity. I stood and left,
going outward in this crumbled city, on a different path from
my comrades, to attempt to find anyone that could help me
comprehend... everything.
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