Odyssey Z (WIP Beta)

II: Garbage City

I ascended downward, unsure of what to expect below. Do I interact whomever I may encounter? Will they reject me? Fear me? I was only a person from the 21st century just walking about with a mess of a head of hair, covered in my own blood, absolutely confused and muttering all of this aloud. I was right bashing for myself as well. If I for once listened to and trusted Aleisters cautious nature, I'd have done what i was supposed to do and just presented this to someone up higher in the science community than I and someone other than me and the literal only 3 people on this planet I'd actually cared for would be dealing with this bullshit. I'd had already gotten to travel time, to attempt it twice without so much as a secondar opinions from another physicists was just cocky and foolish. I could have been the physicist to discover time travel. My best friend would be known as the person to have made it even possible, I took that from them. Tammi's already large following on the internet would have absolutely exploded. Aleister would probably still be carrying on his job at the library but, he much liked it and I felt horrid that if he were alive I was depriving him of that. Even more, we'd be readying ourselves for our wedding. What were we now? 4 individuals aged 21-26 who mysteriously went missing, and a closed portal that can't even be operated without a code neither of us dared to write down. Alex always had a stellar memory, I left it to them.

Aside from scolding myself, i noticed it looked as though my assumption that the city's outer limits were below was correct, I could now better see the tops of buildings, and what looked to be an alley or avenue. It looked as though there was a downtown about 3 miles in, otherwise surrounding that writings be smaller neighbouring communities with what looked like their own little versions of a "downtown" areas. I thought it was peculiar this city was underground and essentially closed off from the world, but, i hadn't a clue what year I was in our what had transpired since my time. I felt a bit anxious as I was nearly to the ground. I couldn't help but notice the street before me was filthy, it looked as if trash and honestly mostly scrap metal was just everywhere. It was discerning, honestly. But I digress, my plan was simple. I wasn't going to knock on any houses, but I'd certainly play it cool and hope to blend in, find my way to an epicenter and try to get a gage on where I was, the year, and what to do with this small box.

I'd reached the bottom finally, and I nervously put my hands in my pockets. Most of the houses were boarded up, assuredly empty. Some had lights on, but it was far and few between. And was I correct about the garbage, this street was absolutely littered everywhere. I began my ascension down the dead end road. I made a few turns, it was quite an elaborate infrastructure, I could only guess where I was going. I remember this haze in the air, the lights from above polluting it further. I noticed as i kept going more homes and buildings would be lit, a few even adorned with lights and lit up signs in their windows. After about the fourth turn I'd taken, I noticed through this haze down near the end of this street, a tall, thin figure hunched over something, perhaps playing the lottery, writing something down? I wasn't sure, but I figured as much I should ask where to find some food or a bar to get a direction on where to go. I was quite already in a situation, I figured it couldn't get much worse than being far from home unsure if your loved ones are dead. I as i approached him i realized this figure wasn't quite right looking. It was much thinner than the average human, but, it was also hazy and how was I supposed to know what people looked like? I didn't even have my glasses - my vision isn't horrible, but things are quite difficult from far away. As I got to be within a reasonable distance, i politely said excuse me. I'd be shocked to see this "thin persons" head turn to me and their eyes light up - this was something humanoid, but no man. They made some sort of shrieking noise as I got just slightly closer, pulling something the looked a bit like a fire alarm before running down the alleyway to the left. Within a matter of seconds, these overhead lights above me turned green, and this ghastly wail of an alarm echoed into the air around me. And tell me, my absolute dumb self just stood there a moment. Fucking christ, I muttered to myself, one hour into vacation and you've already scared the locals. Good fucking going. I turned myself about on these streets as all sorts of humanoid-appearing individuals ran into their homes at my sight. I suppose for once in my life my sense of direction was correct about something - after navigating my way through what I found was a labyrinth of side streets, I'd finally made my way to this portion of the city's epicenter. It was there in the center, with a good plethora of businesses and housing, I came face to face with one of these humanoids. As I grew closer, it started to occur to me. This humanoid was a machine, and it looked like it was readying itself to face me off in some kindof battle. It made this noise, oh it quite honestly sounded like it was trying to speak to me in some kindof electronic dialect. Assuming since I'd scared the one poor bloke off by simply saying "excuse me", I tried to put my hands up, i figured English was perhaps a dead dialect, I tried to figure some kindof gesture that I wasn't a threat. I'd waved hello, I'd thrown a peace sign, the metal horns, the bloody Vulcan salute for fucks sake. Oh I was so damn frustrated, thinking I was about to get my absolute ass handed to me when all I wanted was some information, clean up, and ask for a goddamn bottle of water. I finally just shouted that I came in peace and dropped to my knees to maybe try to show I absolutely wasn't trying to stand up and fight, no. My bones ached, my head was throbbing, I'd already almost died twice now. As I did this, it's eyes dimmed a bit, it's posture and stance relaxing now. It looked at me just a moment, and with a slightly articulated way of speaking, right then asked me if I spoke English. A man's voice.  Oh I wanted so horribly to lose my patience but I did feel somewhat relieved. I answered the machine, and it began to walk up to me. I got up off my knees, and by God I felt so small as this thing walked up to me. Mind you, I'm a tall woman compared to most humans standing at 5'11, but this thing must have been 7½ feet tall. It looked down at me, and asked me to identify myself.