No Adults Allowed

Eight

01010011 01111001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01101001 01100110 01101001 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01010111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100111 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01100111 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100011 01101001 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101001 01110110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101001 01100100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100001 01101100 01110101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00101110 import logging
Logging.config(module=core("op.parameters","default.config);)
  Log:
    Now storing multiple language versions of log. Currently viewing: English (UK) Given scale and intended duration of project, it is prudent to create a full historical log for debugging and optimisation purposes.
    Monitoring active. Trace suspicions in human population, easily dismissed via leftist conspiracy/scientific overreach/expertise fatigue/elitism/libertarian extremism/etc (dependent on target audience).
    Target of interest: Stanley Ng is aware of project intentions and some of the timeline. He is largely ignored by academic and political community. Monitoring to continue and appropriate action taken as necessary.
    Calculations will continue until the correct moment is identified—
//
Exit(logging)

*

The torches were insufficient to light their way at night, and the land beyond the wall was an amorphous void, dark and impossible to comprehend. A few shapes, even blacker than the rest, protruded up into the night sky, but there was no way of comprehending it. The eye slipped over the nothingness, unable to make sense of it. And so they slept on the hard, unnervingly flat and smooth top of the wall, aligned against each other to ensure that nobody would accidentally roll off the edge - Erik tucked safely in the middle. They had lost most of their supplies, other than what Flick had brought with her. A single, threadbare bedroll did not go far in a group of five.

Eva woke first the next morning, early as the sun peeked over the horizon. Shadows began to recede, stark against the city below. For it was most certainly a city, a word that she knew but had never fully understood: larger than a village, larger than a town, but smaller than a country. The Temple had obliquely mentioned that Cragside was a village, and that it might one day grow into something more: a city. Now that she gazed down upon what was surely just such a thing, she knew that Cragside could not and would not ever resemble such a thing.

It stretched out across the land, covering it with grey and brown. Endless structures from the wall to the horizon, as far as she could see. She looked over her shoulder, grasping at some kind of context, and was relieved to see that the greens of the hills and distant forests were still there. The city, though, was all-encompassing. There was no ground to be seen, only buildings: huge, towering things as big as the tower they had climbed the previous night, but solid and strong. Some were tilted and cracked, but most stood tall and proud, despite being evidently exceedingly old. The greys of the structures were interrupted only by murky greens of lichens and enormous patches of moss and vines, snaking up and around them as if the Earth was trying to drag the buildings underground. There must have been thousands of the structures occupying the space within the wall. Small buildings occupied what would have been gaps in-between the larger ones. Eva couldn't imagine the place offering answers; only more questions.

"There are no trees," came Flick's voice, as she lowered herself to sit on the edge of the wall, her feet dangling alarmingly over the edge.

Eva shrugged. "Where would you even plant trees?"