4-8: Bright and Songless

In which two Pilgrims attempt to traverse a desert within The City Unending.   

This episode was written by Nathaniel Blake Johnson and performed by Suzanne Darrell, Moses C McGruder, and Nathaniel Blake Johnson. 

The City Unending is a collabrative project lead by Monte D. Monteleagre and produced by Wolf Mountain Workshop (@wolfmountainworkshop). 

Go West, Pilgrim. 

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Transcript

EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS

In the midst of the Solace Desert, a brother and sister wandered not sure of where their feet were taking them, trusting the setting sun would guide them closer to the Horizon. The song they sung along the journey thus far had been silenced by the particles of dust flying into their lungs. Whenever the sister began to open her mouth, the brother’s hand would cover it. He knelt down to her and with his other hand, took his index finger diagonally to his lips, then to the top of his head, then to his sister’s hand tapping out the beat of the song. The sister nodded to him and tapped along on the palm of his hand that refused to let her go.

An interlude.

The winds shifted the sand underneath them, but they were still covered by the tarp the brother setup. The poles holding up the tarp wavered without buckling under the pressure, though the wind did its best to uproot them from the hole the brother dug. The sound of the wind and the sand whipping across the metal was all they heard.

“How did we get here,” the sister asked.

“We’re still on the right path. There’s more to the Borough Arid than the map showed,” the brother elaborated. "We’re still in The City Unending."

“I can’t tell.”

“Where else can go from a glacier in the Borough Gelid to where we are just by crossing the street?”

They settled under the tarp for a nap to hide away from the sun at its most unforgiving point of the day. The brother only laid there with his eyes tracing a map drawn from memory. His frustration raised because the certainty he had in his mind waned just like every footprint he and his sister left behind them.
The compass his dad gifted him was lost in The District of Consequence during the last bomb strike. The alarm boomed through the entire neighborhood. The few belongings they carried with them were swept into their backpacks. He snatched his sister into his arms and ran through the shattered glass window of the furniture store they quartered themselves into for what they hoped would have been at least a week. When he reached the street corner, he suddenly felt the absence of the compass chain rubbing against his fingers. It had become an extension of himself as the chain had come to be wrapped around his fingers since leaving their family home. He turned once he remembered he left it inside one of the drawers of the dresser that was marked down “75% off. Must Go! End of Manufacturing!” He stepped one foot back to return into a running stance, and found himself jolted into the air flying the opposite direction.

An interlude.

A new sound was building in the desert. His sister turned over with a gentle sound a child makes out of being partially awaken.

“Grrrrr.... Goo-grrrr...”

He heard that sound emulate from his body over the last days, and he sacrificed to
ensure that the sound would not come from his sister. Sadly, his food portions ran their limits for them both. They were to continue traveling to Monarch Wing, which was two and a half miles from where they supposedly were. He looked at his sister and wondered the use of waking her up only to have her remember that her stomach was empty.

So, she slept. Eventually, he slept.

An Interlude.

Midday became early evening, and the stars were more visible. The sister felt a chill come across her and she felt around the ground for something to wrap herself inside, but she could not find anything. She opened her eyes to see the sky lighted. The stars held her gaze, but the lower her eyes came, the bigger they grew. Her mouth opened, but she did not care, nor was she aware of the dirt entering. She stumbled onto her feet letting her eyes be her guide. Her breathing grew huffier as she reached back for her brother not taking her eyes off of what was in front of her. Her fingers reached his hoodie and she yanked at it in the same
pattern of her breathing. He woke up slowly to the section of his hoodie being tethered. He jumped when he recognized it was his sister’s hand. He sank to his knees in front of her not understanding what was wrong with her but seeing the urgency in her eyes.

“What? What?”

She pushed him aside throwing her arms to the space ahead. He turned and
immediately his eyes equaled the size of hers.

“The Horizon,” the sister marveled.

The expanse of space held a mountain range traceable along the dark canvas.
Protruding from the pointed lines of the multiple peaks was a light that stretched as far as the mountains. Its brightness seemed a dull glow, but the radiance reached for miles into the sky above it.

“The Horizon.”

“It can’t be.” The brother rubbed his head turning the opposite direction.

His sister felt a rush and sprinted towards the mountain range. For the first time in so many months, the sister mustered the independence to strike out on her own without the need of her brother’s hand holding hers. She did not need his reassurance that they were proceeding on the right path. For a split moment, she forgot that he was with her on this journey. The first few steps were new until the steps following became her freedom.

“We didn’t travel that far from the District of Hammers. I am not sure...”. He returned his gaze back to his sister running towards the mountains. He could not believe how far she had ran in that short time he took his eyes away from her.

“Stop,” he yelled. He jerked back. His body had a delayed reaction time to his mind, and his feet were already in forward progress. “We don’t know what that area is!”

His yellingwas in vain. Both he and his sister ran without will: she ran for the promise of the Horizon, and he ran to protect her. “Stop! There could be traps all around us.”

The chase appeared like a cartoon. The motion from their legs in the night mixed with the dust kicked up in every lunge. Each step created its own mini-whirlwind around their feet.

Every time the brother reached for her, he had to lower his upper body to attempt to catch any part of her. He would be within inches, but the dust entered his eyes or mouth sending him back upright. His irritation enflamed and his attempt at gripping her without harm was foregone.

He readied himself before catapulting his body towards her. He caught one of her arms, and they both hurdled into the ground rolling like tumbleweed. When they finally came to a stop, the brother laid on the sand sprawled out limbless. The sister rose disoriented but still set on the mountains. She crawled to a stand and kneeled to the right before straightening herself.

Suddenly, she found herself moving her feet in mid-air and her body turning a half-circle to face her steely-eyed brother.

“Don’t you ever run from me like that!” The silence after squashed all of the sister’s
jubilation in the previous seconds. “There is no way that is the Horizon. I may not know where we are, but I damn sure no where we ain’t.”

“But it’s everything people told us it would be like,” she countered with her chin
lowered afraid to meet his stare.

“You have to start thinking. If these people who talked about what the Horizon looked like actually saw it, they wouldn’t be any other place except the Horizon. I know you are only eight, but you’re going to have to start thinking a few years ahead of your age.”

“You’re only fifteen!”

“If that’s not the Horizon, what is it,” he winced while trying to stand. A pang shot
through his left side.

She saw the glow again and the waning happiness started to peek back again. “We have to find out.”

“What is it?” he repeated.

“What do you want me to say?”

“It’s a trap!”

“You don’t know that.”

“We’re going back,” he concluded as he grabbed the back of her jacket forcing her
further from hope.

“No,” she fought out her mouth. She slapped at her brother. “Please, please, listen to me. Please.”

“If you don’t stop hitting me, I’m going to drag you back.”

She kicked him in the back of his calf, and they fell backwards. She put her body weight on top of his side, and he squirmed in pain. She turned to face him. “But they’re still people. They’ll have food and water and we are about to die. We can at least see what they got.”

He rolled her over, “Get off me.” He rubbed his left side relieved somewhat his sister

was receptive to advice. “You’re right. That’s good thinking.” She got to her feet first, and he stretched out to her, “Help me up.”

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. Just landed a little too hard when I tackled you.”

“Sorry for running off like that.”

“Just don’t do it again.”

“I promise,” she said sheepishly evoking the imagery of wounded deer.

“What’s with the voice? You haven’t talked like that since you stopped wearing Pull-
Ups. That may have worked on dad but give me some credit.”

“It worked on mom, too.”

“Not since diapers.” He scanned the ground they covered and could barely see the spot they set up their temporary camp. He let out a deep sigh, “We’ll walk back for our things after we see what’s behind the mountains. Either way we have to go back.”

They walked the rest of the path quietly assessing what awaited them. The longer they walked, the mountain seemed to distance itself further from them.

An interlude.

“Are you going to be able to climb it,” he asked with heavy concern.

“I will.”

No sooner had she made the statement did she commit by placing her foot
deep into the incline of the mountain. With a deep breath that she exhaled in pulling her weight up, she embarked upwards.

The brother waited until she was a few feet ahead. He studied as best he could the
outline of the mountainside. “Once you go up about seventy-five feet go to your right. It looks like it goes flat and you can walk up for a little way.”

“I don’t know what seventy-five feet looks like.”

“I’ll tap you on your heel when to move, then.”

“Thank you.”

“If it gets too steep where there are no footholds or it gets dangerous, we’re turning back down. No questions asked.” He knew internally his sister was rolling her eyes. “Do you hear me?”

She climbed higher.

“Do you hear me?”

The deepness in his voice made her quiver, but she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he caused that reaction. She snapped, “Yes, I hear you. Anybody that is around is gonna hear you, too. Be quiet.” She reached a spotted rock, but she stretched her right arm too far.

“Put your foot closer to it, not your hand.”

“I know what I am doing.” Sweat formed in her hand making the rocks slippery when contacting with her skin. She caught the rock’s edge, but the grip on her index finger and thumb dropped. Her entire body clenched tightly.

“No!” the brother exclaimed. The sister’s fall was too quick for the brother to react
upon. His eyes grew wet before the fall happened. His eyes had the foresight into the possibility of the occurrence but dread its actuality.

A blue flash appeared underneath her and stopped her falling further. The momentum she picked up suddenly came to a halt, but she didn’t feel the pain she thought she was in for.

It was the exact opposite – she was floating. Confusion and curiosity allowed her to release the tension she built in preparation for a splat. She let her legs dangle. Her arms were free, but something blocked them from full extension. She was above the ground in levitation with nothing visible supporting her. She opened her eyes to her brother whose shocked disbelief could not express the relief he felt in his heart.

“I can’t get to my feet,” she struggled.

Slowly, black material began to appear in separate appendages. Her fear began to seize her. Her brother descended the mountain almost eclipsing his sister’s speed. Once able, he jumped to land falling to his knees from the pressure. He was in front of two half legs. The head was inches away from his sister’s face. They were unable to move as the unrecognizable object held them physically and mentally.
It stopped revealing anymore features and allowed the moment to set in.

“We love guests at Prism Prison.”

WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS̈

The Solace Desert was under the surveillance of a renegade camp that was funded by several defense companies, both private and public, and the City Council who managed to underwrite the camp’s foundation into several amendments in bills passed predating the inception of The City Unending. Among the amendments passed was a passage that their creation and the Solace Desert itself would be deemed as classified knowledge.

In the Borough Arid, the Solace Desert covered the southwest portion. The boundary line was at the end of the District of Reflection. Very few crossed over and none crossed back that were not granted permission to leave. Those that left never talked of the desert, their experience in the desert, or what was given to leave the desert.

Sky dots were placed at points along the boundary line for twenty miles. The dots
recorded any activity and transmitted the recordings to the camp’s headquarters at the base of the mountain range.

“There are two pilgrims located in Sector H2,” the marker reported.

“Load it to the main screen,” the Captain ordered. He approached the screen closer to ensure he was seeing what was being projected and what he heard. “Two pilgrims travelling together? How did they come this far into the City without being split? Track their path since entering the Borough Arid. If they were together before, trace back until their entrance into the City.”

“Do I trace them outside the City’s limits?’

“Nothing outside of the City’s parameters matter to us,”

“But if they were part...”

“If I did not ask, you don’t have to ask.” The Captain fixed upon the brother and sister, specifically the one hand holding the other. The contact they openly showed under the harsh conditions left an impression on him. He noticed the brother’s grip tightened as they continued further into the desert. “I’ll be at the fountain. Report to me once you complete the file components.”

“Yes, Captain,” the marker had trepidation in saying anything further, but he felt his
duty called him to be bold in such moments. “The sand is choking them. I don’t see how they can last much longer.”

The Captain recognized that the marker did not pose a question. He dismissed it,
because he was not focused on if it was said in sarcasm or out of the marker’s astute correction in knowing how to appease the Captain ever since he joined on the Captain’s last campaign.

“If they were able to sojourn into however many boroughs and districts they have
crossed since entering the City, it is doubtful that some slight windblown sand would end their travels. Something of a higher nature is at work.” He walked away with that something gnawing at his chest. His ability to maintain a demeanor that went unmoved by any minor intrusion or major obstacle was his signature that endorsed him into his current leadership role of the last twenty-eight years.

An Interlude.

The Fountain Room was a cavernous space within the mountains. The room was a
miracle of nature as the water shifted the lays of sediment since the beginning of time. At the entrance, the transition of the rocks ran smooth. It was only as one continued around the circumference of the room that the pattern would alter. One area ran jagged. Another was so delicate that once a foot stepped into it, tiny pebbles could be heard falling. Another section held countless holes furrowed by the water and other creatures that came to call it their abode.

At the exact opposite side of the entrance, the rocks layered themselves as steps of all different lengths and depths. However, the steps were not a stairwell as there was no exit, except at the entrance and in the middle of the room.

Fifty feet into the room, the fountain began and ran the full circle around the room.
Like the rocks surrounding, the fountain was nature’s construction. The distance between the water and the rock wall varied at points. The closest it got to the wall was at the rock stairs.

In the center of the fountain was a reddish orb of light whose color reflected from the rocks. It floated above the water, and the light emitted seemed muted. Under the orb was an enlarged circle of light was cast that bounced based on vibrations. The cast came from an opening at the roof of the mountains. A halo of light shined from either the opening or the orb. The formation of it was a source of mystery.
The captain’s favorite spot in the headquarters was at in this room between the
fountain’s edge and the rock stairs. He would stand there for hours. Whenever someone would enter, the individual would only hear the captain’s disembodied voice as the darkness hid three-quarters of the room. The entrance and the center of the fountain were the only portions visible by natural light.

He stared into the crystal water and the landscape of the Solace Desert manifested on the surface of the water. The winds swirled the sand like confetti, and as quickly discarded once it finished toying with its weight. He was able to espy the latest interlopers into his sanctuary. As they slept in the depths of their loneliness, questions on how two people managed to wander this close to his facility. He waved his hand over the water and the image shifted to the bird’s eye view of the mountains. He checked for anything that stuck out. Everything appeared normal, which only heightened his awareness. His hand guided the view
gliding across crevices trees that arched and reached, and their roots that crawled along the ground clawing into the earth.

“Access cleared to proceed,” the digital voice declared. The stone wall barrier divided into two for entry for the marker to enter. The Captain waved the opposite direction and the water’s image dissipated.

“What have you to report,” the Captain asked.

The marker no longer sought to communicate face-to-face with the Captain. When
inside the Fountain Room, the Captain would always cloak himself in the shadows. The marker never went past ten feet whenever he entered. 

“From the City’s limit, they never consorted with anyone. The pilgrims crossed into the City through District of Hammers continuing to District of Consequences to District of Vanities to Borough Gelid before coming into Borough Arid,” the marker reviewed.

“Six vicinities within the City, and they still have not been made to strike out on their own. Any pilgrim will feel the depravity of being alone. What about the District of Reflection? What did the sky dots there record?”

“Because our borderlines merge, I was not able to retrieve their images. Their sky dots blocked our reception. I submitted the request as per the Sky View Ordinance to them on your initial order. Eleven hours remain for them to respond.”

“In eleven hours, whatever plan of action those two represent could mount an attack,”

the Captain seethed. “Every district and borough in this wasteland they call The City Unending sends their revolters to me to maintain some semblance of order, and they have the gall to make me beg for permission to do my duty.” The Captain recognized his temper flaring and never wanted anyone to bare witness. “You are dismissed.” The marker turned to leave.

“Wait.”

The Captain’s mind was a constant labyrinth without an exit or center. Whenever he considered one path, he travelled to where it would split. However, he never made any choice over the other. He did like the crossways and split his mind to go down paths. He refused to believe that there was only one correct way.

“We’ll let them inform us of what we need to know,” the Captain plotted. He focused on the orb. “The mountains will have a setting sun.”

“What if they know the direction of the Horizon?”

“It has not detracted anyone before.”

“This will be my first time to witness it.”

“Have your preventative items nearby.”

“Would I be allowed to go outside to witness it in person?”

“No. Not foreseeing what may await us with those two or their allies, it would be
unwise for anyone to be off their position.”

“Yes, sir. What if they come closer?”

“The streaker will meet them. He has a talent for greeting people and separating them. The setting is scheduled for two hours. Ours will be activated. I will meet you in the Command Center. Dismissed.”

The marker left in one motion. Once the stone wall barrier closed. The Captain looked at the orb and a dull pulse sent the sphere’s light in and out.