So, we ran through the wall which opened and suddenly we were in a city. It was like... A stunning metropolis of stainless steel and glass buildings. Really utopic and futuristic. Nevertheless it was completely devoid of people and fears homed in on me. I knew this place. Vaguely. I'd heard about it. It was The Empty City. A place... No. A thing. Still not right. It's a living, thinking location. An utterly malevolent thinking, living location. You could say it was another domain. Like The Path or The Catacombs and it sort of is but at the same time it is itself an entity. A monster like The Enemy or The Blind Man. It traps people inside and devours them. I turned to Trinity and asked her if she knew where we were. She nodded and started explaining The Empty City to me. I cut her off and asked her how we ended up there. She explained that apparently The City has a tendency to connect itself almost parasitically to other domains. With knowledge one can travel from domain to domain through The Empty City. She said she recognized the sign and brought us into The City. She said it was the only way she could keep us from dying. I informed her that we were still going to die and The Blind Man probably would have been less torturous. She then informed me that we wouldn't die. She claimed she has a slight agreement with The City and that it wouldn't kill us. It would let us back out into our world. When I asked to be let out however she explained that while it would let us out... It would do so grudgingly and would not make it easy. When I asked what that meant she merely replied that we should start walking. Time... Time moves different in The Empty City. Time moves different in the catacombs as well frankly. We were only gone for about maybe an hour or two in our world. We spent almost a day in The Catacombs and we walked for something like 4-5 months in The City. The City didn't kill us. It provided food and water. Not enough to keep us happy but enough to keep us alive. Permanently on the edge of dehydration and starvation. Sleep was possible but difficult and never lasted long. We didn't talk to each other much. We were far too weak and tired to keep up a conversation. I did spend a lot of that time thinking though. About Trinity, About my plans, The Enemy and the other creatures. I started thinking about that catacombs floor plan too... I might as well share with you the musings of my sleep addled mind.
I thought about why would the floor plan of The Catacombs be a human brain? Is it a joke of some sort? Does The Blind Man have a sense of humor? Is it a coincidence? Is the Catacomb actually mapped out like a human brain? I thought about this and then I started to think. Is it a brain? Is The Catacomb some sort of giant brain? Maybe The Brain of The Earth itself? Is The Earth alive? The passageways of The catacombs neural pathways. The Books memories and knowledge that The Earth has gleaned? Is The Blind Man the guardian or caretaker of The Earth's Mind?
Having given more thought on the matter now that I've rested the idea seems a little far fetched still... It's an interesting thought. Other musings passed through my mind during this torturous walk but none really important to share and none very conclusive. Anyway our torture lead us through the city, a jungle, a swamp and finally a sprawling desert before we came to a small shack in what appeared to be a bombed out city. We opened the door of the shack and tumbled forward into my living room.
We lay there for a bit. I think we might have even fell asleep just laying together on the floor. After that we had a feast. I had stored up food to last through a siege. We ate all of it. Well, probably not all of it but a fair amount of it. After that I wrote up the post and went to sleep. The next morning feeling rested I finally checked to make sure I still had the book. I probably should have done that sooner but it was so far from my mind when I first got back. I didn't. I had a single page of the book but the rest of the book was gone. Somehow though the page was exactly what I had needed. I'm sure something happened either while in the city or perhaps even while I slept. Someone purposely took the book away but left me what I needed.
Anyway so I got what I needed and spent an hours worth of months trudging through a living city and then slept almost for three whole days. I intend to sleep for more. It might be a bit before I update again.
No comments:
Post a Comment