A Life In The Dust

Lawan and I snuck out of the village today. She's been begging me to take her with me the next time I went out. It's hard enough getting past our guards when it's just me. It's even harder with the two of us together. Her dad, Chief Onwai would be pretty angry. He doesn't want any kids sneaking out, especially me and her.

I brought my sketchbook as always but I also took one of the holobits from the schoolhouse. It's pretty old and worn but it still works. They had been trying to repair it. Sometimes the AI works. You can hear a voice even if it's choppy at times. I took a picture with the holobit too for Lawan. Just before it flickered and shut off. Lawan loves the view. I've seen it before so I don't see what's so special about it, but I like to see Lawan happy.

We went pretty far from the village which even made me nervous.It's different when it's just me out here. Lawan was so excited. She kept asking a bunch of questions about the structures we saw. I just told her what the other kids and adults would tell us. She said she just likes hearing me tell her, but sometimes we have more fun asking the holobit, whenever it would come back on. So instead I just started sketching what we saw. Lawan said she wants to keep the drawings I did today.

I showed her one of those giant stone heads that are throughout the Punished lands. She asked me who is it supposed to be. No one knows, but I heard the elders believe it's a tribute to someone super important long ago, during the time of the civilization of before.

Whenever the holobit started working again, Lawan wanted to play with it. She wanted to take a picture of us together but I don't like to have my picture taken. So she just took one of herself. She called it taking a selfoo or selfah? Not sure if that's right but she said people used to do it all the time with their technology. I think it's kind of weird to use all this high-tech stuff just to take an image of your face. I do think Lawan is pretty though but I'm too scared to tell her that.

There was this old robot just sitting in the middle of nowhere. It looks like it shut down while looking at this Teddy Bear. Maybe it was trying to play with it. The elders tell us about the machine tribes. Robots who have lived a long time. I think there are some who were people first then later became machines. I heard that some may have existed before the Cataclysm. I would like to talk to a robot person. We have drones and robots in the village but I wonder what it would be like to talk to one that was once a human. I would ask them about the world of before. I have so many questions!

We got to see one of those rocket things take off today too. Everyone in the village says we should make a wish every time we see one taking off. The elders say they are ships carrying people who hope to find a better world. I bet it would be so cool to travel up into outer space and look back down. I wonder what the other worlds are like up there. Some of the elders believe there are no other worlds and they are flying away for nothing. I like to think they are going to a real heaven like the one in the books our teacher tells us about.

We found the giant crack in the earth. They say no one should get too close to it because you could slip and fall down into the center of the earth. Not sure if that's true. I wonder where it came from? I heard these large cracks all over the world. When the Gods got angry with the civilization before us, they shook the earth so hard, it began to crack and break. Many people fell into the cracks. I'm not sure what's worse. Falling inside the earth or being sucked up by one of the Portal Storms. I don't ever want to find out.

I showed Lawan this giant sign that is part of the earth now. I think it was for telling people about one of those flying car things from back then. Lawan loves watching old videos of those machines flying around. A lot of them could fly by themselves. I wish we had one. I hear some towns and even other tribes have them. I want to see or fly in one someday.

The AI would chop in and out, but sometimes it would tell us where we were and what these structures used to be. I guess some really rich people used to be in these old structures. I can't imagine being so wealthy you didn't have to hunt or trade for supplies. You had servants and if you wanted to trade you could trade large amounts of supplies to get even richer, instead of just trying to keep you and your tribe alive. Chief Onwai says people had more than what was necessary.

We ended up finding a crashed airplane. The hunters and guards would tell us stories about seeing them and how some people live in them. They could fly thousands of people all around the world at one time. Some even went above the sky into space to take people to different parts of the world. They even used them to fight wars in the sky and space. I bet that was scary and kind of cool.

Lawan wanted me to draw her standing on an old shell of those vikle things. Or is it vehcyc? Veehiller? A Vissle? One of those car things. I wonder how fast it could go? I hear some people use them throughout the Punished Lands but only very powerful or scary people have them.

We found more of those skulls on sticks that the guards and hunters warn everyone about. They say if you see them to turn back and run away. It means to warn trespassers. I feel bad for those poor people who didn't turn back. Chief Onwai says if you ignore such signs then you will become the sign.

Later in the day, I showed Lawan one of those looping tunnel tube structures. This one had one of those capsules sitting kind of buried not far from it. It must have flown or fallen out when the tunnel was destroyed. They used to be able to take people all over cities really fast. People could even get across the world and under the ocean in no time. Lawan really wanted to climb up inside one and explore with me but I told her next time. It's really hard and she's not a good climber. I like climbing by myself anyway.

I showed Lawan this place where there are these old houses that sit along a caravan route. Travelers use them to camp and sleep in as they move from different towns and villages. I guess this place used to be near a large body of water. There are these old dead ships that sit around. I guess they used to carry all kinds of things. Many of them used to catch and carry animals called fishes. They used to be in all the water that was around the world. I heard there were these things called whales and they were not fishes even though they had fins. They were big too. I bet it would have been so cool to see them.

Not far from one of those old houses we found this thing. I think it's one of those fishes. I can't believe water was all around us. I wonder how deep it was. Lawan says she always wanted to go swimming. I bet the ocean was awesome! We saw pictures and videos of people playing on a beech. Lawan says it's spelled beach but I think she's wrong. She tells me my writing is getting better but my spelling needs work. Whatever. Anyway, people would just hang out and go swimming and play in the waves. I wish there were oceans still around.

We hid from this guy riding his camel. We think he was part of a caravan and got lost. Not sure but we were told to avoid people if we were not in a group or carrying weapons. I have my knife and rope hook but Lawan said it's better to just hide. He was traveling along some buried structures. He seemed confused. I wonder how long he's been out wandering the Punished Lands.

The land there looks kind of cool. It's all black and gray. We heard there might have been a volcano there and it exploded during the time of the Cataclysm. The structures in the earth do look like they kind of melted so I could believe it.

On our way back home we found this flower thing. Lawan says it's called a Dandy. They used to be everywhere and people treated them like things called weeds. We thought it was pretty and I wanted to take it with us but Lawan said it deserves to stay right where it is. It's earned its place there. I won't fight with her about it but it would be so cool to take it back home but oh well.

One thing I wanted to do was surprise Lawan with this locket I found. She wanted me to draw us inside of it sitting together like we did when we got to see another rocket take off. It's rare to see one take off but we got to see two on the same day!

She gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. I hate it when she does that. She said that one day when we grow up she wants to marry me. I don't know. I just want to go on adventures and build things. She says she wants to do that with me too and forever. She is my best friend. I hope I do get to go out again but we have to be careful. Chief Onwai would kill us.

We were able to sneak back into our village. I was able to get one more picture just before the holobit finally died. It was this old broken tower structure just outside our village. It's buried in hills of dust.

Out here you never know what you might find. Sometimes that's all you can see throughout the Punished Lands is just hills of dust. Other times there are the old structures and stuff like the dead car things. It's hard to believe there was so much green in this land. Plants and trees everywhere and there were all kinds of animals. Technology we couldn't imagine being used by everyone. It must have been great!

The elders say even though we live a life in the dust, we are still connected to everyone and everything. That the Gods punished the civilization before us because they forgot that connection. There is something peaceful in being out here even though the Punished Lands are dangerous. Maybe one day Lawan and I can travel the world together even if it's just more dust. There has to be more out there.