The Flats Chapter Four

Three hundred years ago a great war was waged among the people of this world, the Architects as I know you call them. The weapons that were used devastated the land, burning the soil and clouding the skies. The land was made unfit for any life, and yet we survived. We, whose ancestors demolished their own managed to live of all things. The food you have eaten today, that is synthetically created to simulate meat that was once plentiful on this green world. Many different forms of life once existed, but most are now dead. You have probably not seen the creatures that survived or you would not be sitting here now. Besides the demon beasts that have mutated upon this land there is not one animal left alive, at least not of my knowledge. 1

When I was young, much younger before I found this citadel and its many machines, I was a wanderer. I had no part in the violent clashes between Dre’ald and wished no harm to anyone. During my travels I came across a chasm in the world. A canyon so large and so wide that it spanned in all directions before me. It seemed that the only place to go was back. I felt that I must have reached the end of the world, but I was insistent on ever going further. 2

So I began to scale this canyon and for days I climbed, rarely finding places to sleep. My food supply was gone and I had nothing left to quench my thirst. The temperature was making the rock hard to climb so I wrapped my hands in scraps of my shirt. I began to think that it would never end, but it was too late to turn back. The lack of food and rest made it all but impossible to descend any further so I found a stable cliff and collapsed. 3

Days passed while I lay out on the rock, refusing to move. I felt death coming for me but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Yet, as I lay there I felt something calling to me; a pull on my mind that urged me to resume my climb into this abyss. Despite my better judgment I resumed the trek. I could no longer think and the only thought pounding in my head was “CLIMB.”

Eventually, I reached the bottom of the seemingly endless pit. It had taken far too long, now, safe in this tower of mine I can only guess that I must have traveled two or more weeks after my food had run out. I do not know how I managed to make it so far or how I managed to survive, but I can only guess that the Deeps kept me alive. 4

All around me was melting rock and black, dead earth. The heat was unbearable and I do not know how my body could find the moisture to sweat. At first it seemed that this travel was at an end, for I could see no way around the magma everywhere, however, seemingly just as I thought that, I found a path. A path of solid steel was directly in front of me and it was upon that that I chose to walk. The metal was hot, but not nearly as warm as it should have been. 5

The pathway ended at a building and as I approached the door opened for me. Inside was a large, round chamber with a light so bright it hurt my eyes to look, but I did. A hole in the floor was filled with this bright, blue-green mist. This was the whole, the place where all the essence of humankind is gathered. I could see humanoid shapes flying up out of the essence and into the void above, presumably to fill some new child’s body. It spoke to me in my head, telepathy. It called itself the Deeps of Life where all that made up the living creatures of the world lay until it was ready to take on a tangible shape. It told me all about the war of our parents and how they had damaged the Deeps ability to expand with the extensive damage done to the world. As I listened and spoke to It, I noticed that there were black, darkened shapes within the Deeps that occasionally faded and disappeared. It told me that these shapes where dead essences that would fade with time and could not be reused to inhabit another living creature. 6

All that I told you earlier was told to me now, here by the Deeps, and I believed it. For what else could such a magnificent thing be? There are not words to describe the immensity I felt, nor the connection that I felt to It. Although I, like you, doubted what this…place said I felt that it was telling the truth for it felt true just as how you felt it when I told you.7

Upon telling me all of this I was directed toward a metal structure behind another metal door to my left. The structure behind the door had several unintelligible buttons and levers but I was also directed on which of these to operate. I was then told to enter the small chamber connected to the console, which I did. Inside there was nothing, but a slight whirring noise began soon after I closed the door. Before I knew it, I was here! And here I have remained ever since because of the luxury of life this mechanical creation allows me. As far as I know it is the only remaining building with working machines. 8

When I first came here mostly everything worked very well, but over the years many of the machines have broken down or malfunctioned. I wonder now how much longer it will all run. I have secluded myself in here for a long time, a very long time and I hope that I will die before being forced to leave.9

You see, what I didn’t tell you was a promise I made to that entity in the ravine. I promised to go back, to bring help and to solve a way to fix the world. Instead I stayed here living in luxury rather then face the real world outside these steel walls. I hope to diminish some of the guilt within myself by sending you five there.
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