Charred Earth 1: The House Read online

  He continued following the sheep towards the sound and found himself part of the flock as others from surrounding parts of the forest came to join them. The sheep did not pay any particular attention to him, quite a contrast to the rest of his walk when they, and every other animal he thought he could see had come nowhere near him.

  Char froze when he saw the figure. The sheep continued on, streaming past him, straight for it out into the clearing where it stood. Why were they still moving, where was their caution? He thought this for a brief moment then realised the absurdity of his thinking. Gathering himself together he crouched down and slowly crept his way towards the figure. He stayed within the mass of the sheep.

  As he got closer the figure became more clearly defined: it was a female and she was holding a staff with one hand. On the end of the staff was a piece of metal, shaped into a type of bell which she was hitting with a stick held by her other hand. She was wearing trousers and a waist length jacket, both shades of brown. The trousers were tucked into boots, again brown; everything gave off the impression of being very practical. Her hair was black and tied up out of the way. She had a build that matched Char's, was only slightly shorter in height and appeared to be around his age.

  He stopped moving closer and hid behind a trunk a few meters from where the clearing started, by now all of the sheep were in the clearing. She noticed the sheep had stopped coming out of the forest. She put down the staff and stick and walked to a type of low flat bed trolley, with big wheels, that was near her.

  On it were several sacks. She opened two and emptied them out onto the ground; grass clippings came out of both. The cut grass looked moist and freshly cut. The sheep swarmed round the clippings and proceeded to eat the distributed contents. As they did so the woman pulled out what looked like a notebook and pen, and appeared to count and take various other notes about the sheep. Char wanted a closer look but did not use his binoculars in case the sun reflected off a lens and gave his position away.

  A couple of minutes later the woman was finished. She pocketed the notebook and pen, turned to the trolley, grabbed the handle that ran across one of its widths and pushed it along with her. He was quite curious, there were still several full sacks left on it and the thing itself looked bulky enough that it would be heavy empty; heavy enough that she would not be able to casually walk it along with one hand.

  He watched for a few more seconds, and then the inner wrestle started. He was overcome with the overwhelming urge to announce his presence, to do something that would get her attention. But what if she, oh sod the buts; he dropped a Waypoint marker, walked out from behind the tree and out into the clearing.

  A couple of deep breaths later, 'Err umm,' he managed to half shout, half stumble out, his mind deserted him, it was all he could muster.

  The woman casually turned around, saw him and smiled in the way a parent would smile at a small child trying to kick a large ball, 'Yes, hello?' she replied.

  Hello: the word sounded alien for a moment, then its meaning filtered through and his mind returned from its temporary desertion. Char could not help feeling out of his depth, everything had been so simple now in comparison to this; this attempt at conversation with another human.

  'Hello!' came blurting out, a bit too eagerly. He managed to restrain his speech the second time, 'I, I think I've got myself lost, can you help me?' Well, it was true in a manner of speaking.

  'Lost? In the forest?' There was no malice or condescension in her reply, it was genuine puzzlement. She continued to smile at him though, looking him up and down now, especially his clothes. He thought she was quite amused at everything about him.

  'Well, yes,' he replied as he walked towards her. They had been almost shouting at each other across the clearing and he felt that his first conversation with another person should not be yelled.

  'Where are you going?' she politely enquired.

  Now this is where jumping out and shouting at people gets you, he scolded himself.

  'Er, around, just having a look around the area. I know how to get home, I was just wondering if there is anything other than the forest around here?'

  'Not lost then, just curious, you're an odd fellow,' she frowned now, not an angry frown, but puzzled again. She tensed her lips, looked him up and down again and gave the slightest hint of a shake of the head, as if she had a moment of realisation but dismissed it all in the same moment.

  'You can come with me then if you want, I'll be heading out of the forest soon enough, I've just a couple more errands then we can go to the nearest Street. That should help you orient yourself. Though of course, I forgot, you're not lost,' she winked at him then continued, 'I actually mean it'll be something to interest you other than the forest.'

  As she said this, she brightened up again and smiled at him, with that same completely honest smile, then said, 'I'm Eliza by the way.'

  Another name. How wonderful to hear one, 'Thank you, I'm Char.'

  He felt in his trouser pockets, and found he only had two Waypoint markers left. He paused for a moment then asked, 'Is it far? If it is, will you be able to take me back to this clearing later? After the Street?'

  'It is all in easy walking distance and easy enough to find your way around, especially back here. But I suppose I can show you back,' she let him know, dragging the final sentence out in mock and jovial exasperation. He recognised the humour in her voice and had an unexpected response in the form of a small chuckle.

  'Thank you,' was all he could come up with.

  She turned back to the trolley and they both set off, walking side by side towards a path in the forest on the other side of the clearing. He asked her what errands she was on her way to do. Eliza looked down at the trolley and its sacks and then at Char with a puzzled smile on her face.

  'I'm feeding the sheep for this parish and making sure they're all fine. What do you think I'm doing?'

  'W-what you said. Just making sure I still have my wits about me,' he realised it would be a good idea to keep any attention off him, especially about his motives and origin. He decided further questioning would only result in more questions coming back his way. She laughed at his last comment, though he had intended it to be serious.

  As they walked Char was quite relieved that Eliza was happy to stroll along in complete silence with a stranger she had only just met. They followed the path for several minutes and came to another clearing. Eliza followed the same routine that Char had previously observed, and several minutes later the last sack was emptied into the final clearing of her errands.

  'And now we're off to the nearest Street,' Eliza said with a bright smile. They doubled back along the path and past the original clearing where they had met. After following the path they reached a T-junction where the path they were on ended as it joined onto a wider track. This was no more defined than the one they were on and did not seem to be used more. Both paths were covered with a short layer of tough looking grass. Char looked for a discernible landmark to remember this junction for his return journey but none came forward. All the trees on either side of the track were the same species, had the same growth habit and were pretty much the same height.

  Without stopping Eliza turned right, Char picked out one of the last two Waypoint markers, stopped at the junction and looked to the left. He feigned curiosity about the way they were not going and dropped the marker into the undergrowth at the side of the track. He looked at Eliza and started walking to catch up with her, he was sure she had not seen him drop it.

  They continued on the track for about twenty minutes, Char, looked at the sky and noticed that by now the sun had past its highest point and a slight tinge of worry went through his body. He felt he needed to be back before the sun set, before the dark came. He asked how much further till they arrived at the Street and Eliza let him know not long at all, they were very close.

  He looked at the sky again, which was almost cloudless. Out in the clearings it had been quite warm, hot even, but
walking along these paths in the forest the trees gave just the right amount of shade, taking the edge off what could be uncomfortable heat out in the open.

  Eliza had not lied; the sounds confirmed that. He heard distant varying low frequency humming, interspersed with frequent interruptions of slightly higher frequencies and occasional dull thuds. There was a sharp bend in the track they were nearing which he could not yet see around. As they neared the voices came next.

  They followed the bend out onto a clearing unlike any of the previous he had seen and much larger. The path they were on took them to a view on the edge of the forest. They could see out for just over half a mile ahead of them and about a mile in total looking side to side. The ground fell away from them in a shallow decline towards a long strip of differing structures, none of them bearing any resemblance at all to the house. They were mostly shades of earthen brown with elements of leafy greens. The layout and structure appeared to have no plan or sense to it; there were many shapes and sizes of rectangular prisms. They were from human size right up to towers several stories high. Due to the lower elevation, even the tallest of the buildings were still below the height of the surrounding tree line. They were laid out with the same randomness as their sizes and proportions. Some were on their own, some stacked on top of each other, some stacks were inter-connected with bridges and walkways. The order with which they were stacked showed no sign that the laws of gravity affected them. Char looked on in wonder; partly at several large assemblies that were supported by one much smaller box tucked into a bottom ground level corner of the large collection. It allowed people to walk under. No memory was coming to him about what these things were or what this place was.

  From Char and Eliza, the path ran towards the structures through a meadow of longer grass. The meadow contained many more tracks. All came from the forest that circled the clearing this side of the structures. The forest on the far side of the clearing appeared to come a lot closer to the structures. A lot of the tracks were larger and had people going to and fro along them, with the usual variation of people seen through history: busy people heading somewhere obviously important, couples idling along, groups chattering and almost everything else in between.

  Smaller tracks led off the bigger ones, some away into the forest and others into circles in the longer grass. Some of these were simply circles of shorter grass while others had benches, tables and even gazebos. The circles too contained all levels of human interaction; from one person reading while sat on the grass, to a group of friends enjoying a meal at a table. Out of all these differences there was one surreal (to Char) commonality the vast majority shared: a wheeled basket or trolley.

  Char looked out over this scene and could not help feeling there was something absurd, even humorous, about everyone having these wheeled carriers. Some were plain and simple, while others were decorated to within an inch of being recognised as a wheeled carrier.

  He had not realised he had stopped walking and was smiling to himself until Eliza entered his field of vision, 'What's up with you?' she asked.

  'Just enjoying people I guess,' he turned to her and answered, still smiling. Over everything he could still hear the humming coming from the structures. He wanted to ask Eliza what exactly was going on down there but he thought better of it, deciding he had already come across as someone out of the ordinary from her perspective. No need to draw any more unnecessary attention to himself.

  'Right, okay then,' she responded almost laughing to herself as they set back off towards the structures of what Char thought must be the Street. As they headed down Eliza started humming a tune to herself. Char was surprised that he recognised it and then began to worry. He was not recalling this melody the same way he had been doing with everything else and it was not something new to him like the Street. It was in his head though, and he knew what was coming next in the tune, before he could control it he was humming along with Eliza.

  'Ahhhh, so you are from this Shire then! Thought so!' She twirled on the spot looking at him, joy in her features.

  'So why are you back packing round here again?'

  'Just because. Bye.' He turned and ran back into the forest, he thought he could hear Eliza call after him but she was not giving chase.

  He was absolutely horrified. His head was spinning and the tune would not leave. It was not coming from what he knew to be him, instead it was seeping into his mind from somewhere else in his brain. It was like some other person was remembering the tune for him, showing him more and more, leading him to the source of the tune where something else waited: something that wanted to come to the surface of his mind.

  Char dropped to his knees, looked up at the sky and cried out. His cry silenced the tune. He knelt there, panting, and let the sound of the leaves gently rustling above calm him. A few seconds or minutes later, he was not sure, Char stood and briskly walked off. He used the Waypoints to find his way back to the house. He had lost track of time and was scared of still being out at night, he did not want to know what the dark brought to the forest when it came and so sped up his already brisk pace. He kept the Waypoints where they were as he passed on his way back, so he could retrace the journey back to the Street. He still had an intense unshakeable curiosity about the place.

  By the time he returned back to Charlotte he had composed himself and decided to keep his bad experience to himself for the moment.

  He entered through the same window he had used the very first time he had left the house and was greeted with a, 'Hello,' and an excited 'We are not alone.'

  How did Charlotte know? Had she been able to track me? Why only tell me now that she had been following me? Char worryingly contemplated.

  But Charlotte had been having contact of her own, 'I found a satellite! And I could talk to it and even have a look through its sensors. I looked down on this area and there are definitely other people and buildings about. I was able to make out the movement of people and the structures they must have built.'

  'Well hello to you too, yes, we are not alone, it seems both of us have had eventful days.'

  'Oh wonderful, do tell me.'

  'First things first, let me settle in and grab some food, then we can have a nice old chat.'

  Char listened to Charlotte as he ate. She described how after constantly scanning the sky she had finally found something she could communicate with: a satellite drifting above that must have been used for observation. At first she could only confirm it was operational and then it drifted out of range. She had managed to communicate twice with it since then. In roughly ten minute windows due to the nature of its orbit, and both times she looked down onto the area they were in. The first time she found her location in the forest and the second time with greater accuracy and resolution. This was when she realised there were people out there.

  'Planet Earth,' she stated. Char looked up from his food. 'That's what I saw at the end of my last viewing. I zoomed right out and my senses were filled with a great curved horizon made of a precious blue glow that separated us from the black emptiness of the space above. I knew then I was looking down on Earth, a planet, the planet of our origin.'

  Planet Earth Char thought to himself, and yes, information started to surface: a blue globe orbiting the sun, one of many. This was comforting for him.

  He let the information rise into his conscious, it was different to the way the tune had invaded his head earlier.

  'Something comforting about knowing where we are isn't there?' he said.

  'Yes, I suppose there is.'

  With that, Char decided it was his turn for story telling and recounted his events of the day. Still at this point not wanting to discuss the tune.

  'I think I saw those structures, what an odd place. I was actually able to see a few clusters of them, so I'm not sure which one you went to,' was all Charlotte responded with at the end.

  During the night Char could barely sleep. The tune haunted him as he heard echoes of it every time he started to drif
t off. The next day Char felt groggy and irritable. He either lounged around the house, sat outside staring at the grass or used Charlotte's tree top view back inside, to gaze at the horizon. Charlotte tried conversation, especially about her further satellite contacts, but he did not want to know and shut them down rapidly. He could not shake the thought there was a fragment or echo of someone else residing in his head. As the sun was setting he gathered his thoughts and convinced himself that, no matter what or who was going on, he was still himself and he would fight to remain that way. It was with this decision that he decided to tell Charlotte about his experience with the tune. She offered no explanation, but expressed concern, offering Char a medical scan, which he politely declined.

  That night he drifted to sleep and did not wake till the morning. The tune only came to him in half remembered dreams. With the morning came a determination that had been entirely lacking the day before. He rose with the sun and after breakfast informed Charlotte he was off again, back to the Street.

  With the same gear as his first journey, he set off following the Waypoint markers, using the compass. He reached the clearing, where he had met Eliza, and walked to the centre of it and looked around, occasionally gently scuffing the grass with his shoe, hands on hips. It occurred to him, after a few more times scanning the tree line, that he was half hoping he would see her again. He was not sure why. They had parted in what he thought was a terrible manner though the tune she hummed had shocked and frightened him to his core. Maybe he wanted her as a guide again or someone to shield him from this ever expansive world. A world where not everything he saw would come back to his memory, if it was ever there in the first place.

  Allowing himself some further reflection he eventually regained his confidence and pressed on with his main task of the day. Retracing the route, he came to the edge of the forest that looked out over the large clearing. He looked down on the structures below, and his apprehension returned. He found himself involuntarily swallowing and felt his heart race. He decided to use the network of paths around the structures to circle and gradually move closer to the Street, attempting to take in as much detail as possible.