Transcendence. Torments of Nate Deon

Prologue 2 THE WANDERER

How long has it been?

Hundred and fifty. Hundred and sixty. Hundred and eighty. Ninety?

No…! it’s been long. Too long. Two hundred years and over has passed since that day. At least I think that’s how long it’s been. The sense of time was lost to me long ago. It’s been so long I’ve lost the actual count of days.

The event: an unforeseen cataclysm which wiped out all of life leaving but a fraction… So they say, but I know the truth, even though I’m uncertain of how or why it really happened.

Three months wandering on this ocean of sand, searching. I’m searching for something I did not know. Rather someone.

It’s clear that I have no sense of direction and I may have been walking in circles all this while… but deep down I feel something drawing me in. Where I’m being called to, I have no clue. Not like something like this has ever happened to me before.

Should this be possible, even in my current state?

How I survived this long on a wasteland of a planet is still a mystery to me now as the day I saw what I was, a few decades ago.

It’s been three months since I set on this journey.

Where I was before, I had not gotten the answer I desired so I made the decision to move on in search of that answer, staying any longer would have been a waste. Till now I have found nothing. The journey is long. Not that I’m worried or cared about myself but I am still perplexed… as I have been since I awoke.

I’ve had only so much as the rain to quench my thirst but it’s been over a week and there hasn’t been even a single drop of it.

Yes, it’s not a miracle that rain fell in this messed up world— the weather from the past is still around for some reason even though the ecosystem was destroyed. There I go again with words I don’t remember; but it still is a wonder—only to be dried up by the sun of the next day. So one must do their best to have their fill before it stops.

Fact, I should have been dead from dehydration but I have had no such experience. My strength is still as it was the day I started this journey.

An impossible feat for a normal human, I know, but I am not.

Two weeks passed no food and yet I haven’t died of starvation…

I’ve been walking a full day nonstop and not a single trickle of sweat can be found on me…

Coupled with the thought of whether a place will come into view is myself. Decades of being on this sandy terrain and yet I still have nothing more than the general clue of what I am. At this point nothing surprises me anymore, whether an outside force or myself…

I know the sun is blazing hot. It baked the very ground I walk and the clearly visible heatwaves it bled out is a dead giveaway, but I feel nothing—

“Grrr…”

Except for that!

That’s a sound I haven’t heard in a while?!

It’s been two weeks since my last meal and my stomach has been screaming ‘feed me’ the past hour. I’ve only had to sustain myself with the scraps I found laying on the desert floor on my journey. It wasn’t filling but just enough to keep me going. By far, it’s the longest I’ve gone without any sustenance.

As far as I can remember I was never affect by the change of the weather in this world. I never did bear it in mind, really. It didn’t matter whether it was hot or cold I just didn’t feel a thing. Whether snowy, rainy or sunny there never had been any changed my body’s temperature. Then again I don’t even know if I have one to begin with, since I am not affected by the fluctuation of the one around me.

I wonder. Does it apply only to the weather? I paid no attention to it back then.

What if I were to touch someone or something would I be able to tell if that person or thing was hot or cold? Though I’m pretty sure, the hot or cold thing only has to do with the weather. I haven’t had a circumstance which proves otherwise… But, considering how I get no read from touching my own body I am in the right to assume the same towards others.

I wish I could remember what it felt like, to be cold, to be hot.

I’ve held back my hunger but now it’s just too strong. It feels like my stomach would soon turn to feed on myself if I make no effort to fill it. Any longer and I would lose it, knowing full well what it means. I crave for something… new.

I must hurry!

Find a place to get something to eat…

But there’s nothing in sight but a large dune—it’s calling to me.

I wonder. What lies beyond it?

Since nothing of this sort has ever happened I can’t help but wonder what the reason is? I answered the ‘call’ without break in my steps.

Quicker than I thought the dune was an easy climb… and now I stand atop its peak.

Waves of sand as far as the eye can see.

At this time the sun is setting.

The ocean of sand grains radiate the bright orange-pink glow of the about setting sun.

I see something…

What was it?

Focus my sight.

I see it, clearly from this distance… like it’s already before me. A small desert town.

 … A Ruin.

It’s peeking out from its burial ground. It looks like it had gone through so much over the centuries. Then again everything has, incurring drastic change—there is no resemblance of the world from before. The massive desert I walk on is evidence.

Well, at least that’s what I know from the little I remember from my past.

The surviving buildings indeed were in ruins, decrepit. It was just a matter of time before they come crushing down. Broken walls and sections coated the grounds with slabs of concrete and iron, parts of it reflecting the glow of the setting sun.

One in particular, the entrance into the desert town, had already collapsed and was leaning on another.

The pull I feel is stronger than before. There’s no denying it, this is where I’m being called to. But by what? Or whom…?

Each step I take makes my hunger grow and very soon, truly if not attended to, will turn ravenous.

I must sate myself!

The structure looks menacing…

Are those, people?

Drawing closer I see people walking around and playing on the inside of the sleeping building.

It could come down at any moment and they are playing?!