Landmarks

This Area by Shoes on a Wire

Outside night is doing the shift to day that we call morning. We slowly orbit into the solar bombardment that we need to thrive as living beings, and with it come a new beginning. That’s generally how we perceive things. They have a beginning and an end. Either that or it’s cyclic. It continues and repeats itself over and over. Maybe in different forms, but when it really comes down to it it’s the same. That used to be one of the differences between the East and the West. The continents, that is. What we look at as a story seems to change with time. But something that we usually need is a landmark that guides us trough it. Either one that helps us stay on the course throughout all of it, or several so that we can use these when the direction changes. Though you have to wonder, do the landmarks change the story, or do they just help us orientate? What would happen without them?

Take the cannibals inhibiting some of the shattered remains of the city this one was built on for instance. When you go down there you pass layer after layer of older cities. Like layers of sediment in the ground the city stands on. I found my way into what was once a church and there they where, sitting around small flickering screens looking at various hubs for the numerous spas and rest centers around the city. One of the elders came up to me after a while. He was wearing some type of brown leather and grinned at me with his white teeth. His beard made it hard to distinguish any facial features, but he was as pale as the rest of them. Probably a side effect of living down here, away from the sun. After talking to him for a while he told me that they where planning to attack several of the places they were looking at on their screens. Apparently the people going there “just taste better!” The fact that the people visiting these places usually just get a completely new body which they haven’t had the time to poison yet might have something to do with it. Of course they never find this out, because the defenses for most of these places are about the same as for other cities embassies. When they say attack, what they really means is ambush the people leaving it. The ones that look too natural to actually be real human beings are their targets, but sometimes the younger hunters gets someone out of the staff by mistake. Depending on which establishment they target, they either end up with a puddle of bodily fluids, or a human shock bomb which turns anyone close enough into a ball of skin filled with shattered bones and organs. This is standard for the health industry in general. In fact there are rumors circulating that none of the central spas have actually hired anyone for as long as they’ve existed. That’s probably because homemade staff is easier to control than someone with an actual personality.

But what was the point of the little musing on the base of stories in the beginning then? I suppose it all depends on which landmarks you’ve got, or which I give you while writing. Other times they’re missing, or worn and hard to interpret. But if you ask me, no matter the structure it takes, it’s not really a story until you share it.

By E.S the 3/9 2032