The Green Yonder

Inside

I was blinded by how bright it was inside. The light was unbelievable. It took my eyes a few moments to adjust. It was only after shielding my eyes, once they had adjusted, that I realized I was actually in relative shade compared to most of my surroundings. As I looked about I recognized the shape of the structures around me. They weren’t quite the same, but they resembled the great hollow rocks I had seen.

They were some kind of man made structure. It looked like people had lived in them. These ones were obviously in disrepair as well, although they were not in ruins like the ones I had found outside. There were mosses growing on them in some parts. It seemed funny to me, our world was in this world.

I spent a moment of time wandering around the broken buildings; there were rows and rows of them. Some were more ruined than the others, but they were all in decay. They reminded me somewhat of our homes in the village, they had windows, and rooms, and a way of moving through them. As I went through the buildings I saw enough personal items to know that these had been homes. I wondered what had happened here, why the people had left, or where they had left to.

I bent over to inspect some kind of child’s toy, what looked to be a bear made of some kind of cloth, when I was startled by minor rattling behind me. I turned to look and was met with a child, no older than 9 or 10. A little girl. Her face and clothes were covered in a thick layer of dirt. It looked like she had not bathed in some time. Her hair was matted and stuck out roughly on one side.

“That’s mine.” She cooed in an almost trembling fear. She held out a finger pointing at the bear I was inspecting. I picked it up and brought it to her.

“Here you go. “ I handed it to her and patted her hair lightly. She smiled up at me with broken teeth. I bent down to meet her eyes.

“What are you doing here? What is this place? Where are your parents?” I spoke with gentleness befitting the situation.

She frowned greatly and looked down. She turned her eyes away from mine her head bobbed back and forth a bit. “I don’t have any parents.”

“I see.” I stood up slowly. “Well who takes care of you? Where is your village?”

She turned to face me and looked at me in confusion. She held the bear to her chest as she spoke. “No one takes care of us, what are you talking about?” She shook her head in confusion
“Who are you mister? What’s a village?”

I looked at her in horror. Had she been left for dead? Where were the elders? The other people?

I looked down at the ground and muttered to myself in terror, “What is this place?”

I shook my head and when my eyes met the little girl’s she looked scared of me. “You’re crazy mister! I have to go.” She turned and ran before I could react.

I stood there in the empty room in the ruined building, having just met an abandoned child and frightened her off. I felt all kinds of new and powerful sensations. What was this place? What great horror was taking place here?

Before I became consumed with wondering on unknown evils, I righted my spirit and resumed my journey. I left the building I had been in, this time more slowly and cautiously as I now knew that I was not alone.

As I walked through the channels of structures, this time I was acutely aware of dozens of small eyes trained on me. I was being watched, and it felt like mostly children. As I walked I would occasionally catch sight of the less graceful ones. They were all as filthy as the young bear girl. Who had done this to these children? I wondered on many such things as I explored the passages between the structures.

After a time, I found the source of the great shadow covering the buildings; it was some type of massive metal ridge. In the area I had emerged in it was easily two thousand feet in the air, so I could not make out what it was, but on one end of the darkness, the ridge curved down to meet the ground and then went into some kind of tunnel. It hummed intensely like a great insect swarm, but a thousand times louder.