Psycho Gem

Chapter 11: The Village

We walked across the large plains of grass for around ten minutes, following the direction of the wind. We passed an odd lake and bush, we even saw a few critters running around.

"Y'know, it's kinda funny in a sense." Tracks said out of the blue.

"What is?"

"I never really got along with my Dad. I spent most of my life wishing I had a different one, and I never really felt that fatherly connection. Sure, I care about him but I never really thought of him as my real Dad. Then I find out that my real Father is some monster who wants to kill me, that's ironic."

"Will you ever tell your parents?"

"No! No, no."

"Why not?"

"My mum would go bonkers. When I learned Malcolm was my real Father, something clicked. Mum used to go paranoid, saying she was raped by the Devil in her sleep one night, but everyone told her it was just a nightmare. I realise now that the devil she was talking about was Malcolm. If she knew it was real, she would go completely mental."

I remembered how religious his parents were. Tracks was right, they wouldn't take that kind of news well.

"Speaking of mental..." Tracks continued. "...what's got you so dull all the time? I've never seen anyone as gloomy as you."

I took a second to organise my thoughts before answering. "If you must know, a couple years back, a while after I broke up with my group of friends I got a little too ambitious. I had Xynysus upgrade my mind. After that I saw things differently than everything else."

"Differently how?" Tracks interrupted.

"There's... no way I can explain it properly. I see new colours that I never knew existed, ghosts if I focus hard enough, and I see much clearer than the average person. But it's not just seeing things, it's the way I perceive things in my head. I can't do anything without it being ruined by existential dread."

"So it turned you into a full blown nihilist?"

"Well, I wouldn't put it that way."

I was trying to come up with a better explanation when we came across a giant hill. When Tracks saw it he sat down to rest.

"Why the hell are we even doing this? What do you expect to find? This place is pretty 'n' all but there's nothin' but nature!" Tracks said, flopping onto his back.

"You want to survive, don't you? If we want to fix you up we need to look for civilization. We'll be able to find things to help you there."

"What if there aren't even any people on this stupid planet?"

"There are people living here, check these tracks out." I pointed at some footprints across a patch of dirt. "Indents on the shoeprint have no pattern or design, they were likely made by raw materials from an old fashioned village. The steps were heading northwest, they were probably bringing supplies back to their civilization. Maybe we'll get a better view on the top of this hill."

"You go right ahead. I'm just gonna take a quick kip down 'ere." he said, laying his head back on the soft grass.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed him by the ankle, dragging him up the hill as I trudged to the top. I could hear his protests, but I didn't care. When I reached the top I looked ahead and saw another hill about 100 yards away, and coming from that hill was a faint light. I knew that on the other side of that hill was a town, or at least some form of civilization.

"Hey, Tracks. Take a look." I said, gently kicking his side.

He stopped groaning and looked in front of us. "Ugh, we're gonna have to climb that hill, aren't we?"