SmackDown: Back to Our Roots

Round 3: Man Lost - @TEBramble

In the trees, strange eight armed reptiles clamoured about hissing, barking and feasting on each whatever was food for them. Godfrey's eyes never stopped moving as he snuck from shelter to shelter, marveling at it all. He pressed on as the residents of the wild went about their lives, uncaring of the world.

He travelled on and on. Passing from sight to sight. His second evening came and he paused. Gazing up at the purple sky he found it odd he did not tire nor hunger nor thirst, even now as his hand grazed his survival kit, taking comfort in the week's supply of sustenance it contained. He smiled as he sat and looked at it. A week's supply of food and drink confined to chewable tablets and compressed water packed into a one kilo box barely bigger than his hand.

In his past life he would have to hull barely enough for three days on his back. He smiled as he laid on his back and let the world go dark, growing nostalgic as he reflected upon his memories. He took his datacore out of his pocket and smiled at it. Before long he put it back in place and got on with moving again.

Soon with the second sunrise every nerve inside his body jumped with excitement as he peered through a bush. Fascination, bewilderment and childish curiosity filled his mind as he smiled watching on.

He had found humanoids. Then confusion entered his mind. They were almost too human. All of the, they seemed like tall, skinny albino humans. Pale, almost pure white skin, already sunburned a light pink from a relatively cool day in the sun, strange holes for ears and pure white hair, their eyes were larger than normal and completely covered by eerie silver irises surrounding large pupils.

A floating platform carried corpses bound by wires as it followed them on their walk. Godfrey smirked. It was such a primitive, comically bulky thing that in his eyes that he allowed himself his immature spat. Then he smiled. Civilisation, a world full of technology. His chances of restoring his life were not so bad afterall.

They carried slender long barreled guns strapped to their torsos as they talked and moved on. He soon followed them as they settled into a car on the side of a road. He hid and watched as the platform was tethered to the car by a beam of energy and the corpses covered in a thin layer of metal.

Then they took off to the west. Without a second thought, he decided to follow on foot. Days passed and still no side effects. No hunger, no thirst, no exhaustion. The truth was obvious at this point. He was nought but a digital mind now. He laughed maniacally at his absurd mistake. It didn't matter. As long as he could restore his old life that is his only concern.

So he pushed on as tirelessly as his robotic legs could carry him. Over the weeks forest turned into grassland then into farmland. Here his saw many domesticated animals. Huge brown feathered birds more akin to an ostrich than anything and then small, sturdy six legged creatures that he could only describe as miniature cows.

A few more weeks, wandering ever westward just beyond the notice of the pale locals. They, however were never beyond his. Those who worked the farms were darker. Their skin turning fair but hair as snow white as ever. Were it not for that hair and those silver eyes Godfrey might even fit in with them. Regardless, he presses on.

-//-

Night and Godfrey's mind raced with contemplation as farmland turned into city. Countless smooth voices echoed in alien languages into the darkness as Godfrey wandered through the back alleys, keeping to the shadows, avoiding unwanted attention. Eventually he managed to get through enough distractions to find an oddly familiar sight.

Huge, stone pillars shooting out of the ground to hold up a triangular front and an angled roof. Upon it were recognisable depictions of figures in armour bearing shields and swords. Romans? Godfrey asked himself with a raised eyebrow. He looked around the building for an entrance.

It was a fascinatingly strange monument of a sight. Compared to the smooth, stainless steel plated curves of the tall skyscrapers of the surrounding buildings the rigid stone and broad faces of the monument make it look lost in an alien world. He finds a primitive electronic lock at the back and hacks his way in in a matter of minutes.

He soon found himself nostalgic as his feet stepped on smooth marble floors and all around were dozens of recognisable exhibitions. Bit by bit he felt like a child again as he walked from sight to sight and it dawned on him. He stared intently at the model of a tank, its pale beige paint spread across its flat square front as it confronted a green on with curved sloped parts.

He froze in awe.

World War Two?

He dashed to another one.

The moon landing?

He ran and ran as it kept showing the flow of human history only to stop before one last scene and drop to his knees. He saw the last great war humanity fought, suits of metal fighting amidst an ocean of fire, everything dying. Fantastical sights of troops teleporting from place to place, energy weapons carving through mountains. Colossal walkers towering over it all like revelling gods of destruction.

This can't be all that it came to. Is it?

Soon a light shone on him from behind. A gasp followed then silence. Then something in their alien language. Moments of silence followed only to be broken by slurred words from a female voice eventually forming the first recognisable thing had heard for days.

"Hu-humaan?"

He looked back at her and she shivered dropping her light onto the floor with a loud clunk. He nodded to the scene.

"Any survivors?" He asked her.

"None."

-//-