No Adults Allowed

Twelve

#

We've been walking for DAYS and not seen anything. Well, we've crossed lots of fields, gone through many forests, waded across rivers. Seen lots more ruins - including a REALLY massive set that extended as far as we could see, out to the sea - but no people. No actual LIFE, outside of animals.

Talking of which, we're starting to see new types of animals. More monkeys, more insects and some snakes we're not familiar with. I'm not super-keen on some of that. Further south we go, the more there is: and it's getting warmer. Every day it gets stickier, and it's not just because of the time of year. The temperature is actually hotter the further we go.

#

Lots more ruins. Smaller groups, but more of them. Maybe lots more people used to be here? But what happened to them all?

Ramin said an interesting thing today (got to give him that). He was wondering how old people get. The oldest in Cragside were about 16 - Harry and Tommy, a few others. Ramin pointed out that we have NO idea how long people live. We've all been getting taller as we get older. If we live to 35, do we keep growing? Do we get as tall as the trees? That'd be pretty cool.

But if we did live that long, why is no-one around? Maybe there are other settlements, but they're so far apart we can't see them?

Maybe we'll find something down south.

#

Could swear I saw someone in the trees today. We were walking through a forest - really steamy one, water droplets on everything, the air actually felt wet - and I thought I saw movement up in a tree. The others think it was just a monkey or a squirrel, but it looked more persony to me. Might have to sleep with one eye open.

#

It's been weeks. Weeks and weeks. I'd meant to keep a log in the diary, but totally forgot, and now I've no idea how long we've been walking for. We're all tired, but getting on OK. Tilda is actually not bad once you get to know her. I'd always thought she was really stuck-up, but I reckon that's just a front.

Annoyingly, I've been enjoying Ramin's company, too. I'm having to grudgingly admit that he's kinda cool. It still kills me whenever I see him holding hands with Eva, but whatever.I've no idea how Erik is keeping up. I mean, he's always been a tough little bastard, but even so. I give him occasional piggybacks if we're trying to up the pace a bit, but otherwise he's right there with the rest of us.

#

Landscape got a lot rougher. Huge, great undulations in the land, some of them full of water and so big that they are basically lakes. Others just barren. You know when you drop a stone into some sand, or dry dirt, and it leaves that little impact crater, with the rim around the edge? It's like that, but for MILES and miles, all around. No trees, no animals. We had to move through that whole area really fast, because we'd run out of supplies if we stayed for too long. Plus it just made us all feel weird. Even the Talkies started behaving strangely - they had all this hissing interference noise, like something in the air itself was getting in the way of the signal.

These craters were MASSIVE, I'm telling you. No idea how they got there. Eva says they couldn't have formed naturally. Which didn't really help to explain anything.

Over the lip of one of the craters, a ways off from where we were, I thought I saw a human figure again.

#

We got through Crater Land and out the other side. The blasted landscape turned back to something more normal: grass, trees, rolling hills, meadows. There's something on the horizon, something in the far distance. None of us can quite make it out.

Tilda's been feeling pretty sick. We're all just a bit tired, but she's feeling it more than the rest of us.

#

OK, there's definitely something there. All the way along the horizon, more-or-less. Something long and low and dark, like someone's got some charcoal and smeared it in a long line all the way along.

#

Now that we're closer, we can see it isn't low. It's massive, whatever it is. Like a giant wall, built all the way across as far as you can see. In fact, that might be exactly what it is.

Also, we think we've seen a settlement! An actual settlement! Not ruins, but a place with Living, Breathing People. It's the first one since we left Cragside. We must have been walking for over a month, easily. We're still a ways out and don't want to head in too quickly. It was late afternoon by the time we spotted it, and we don't want to accidentally sneak up on them in the dark. Better to wait until tomorrow and go in nice and easy, so they can see we're friendly.

Definitely people, though. There's smoke coming up from some of the structures. Robin is pretty sure he can see a Temple in the middle of it, too. The settlement is pretty much halfway between us and the Wall. It's definitely a capital 'W' Wall. We'll head to the settlement in the morning, say hi, stock up on supplies and see what we can learn from them. They're so close to the Wall, they must know more about it. Who built it, why it's there.

Can't wait to get back to Cragside and tell them all about this.

I'm going to write such a good book.

Thanks for reading! Bit of an unusual chapter, this one - I hope you liked it. Do support the book over at patreon.com/simonkjones or by voting and commenting here! Thanks.