The Revelation of the Vine: Graft

Chapter 14: The Door No Man Can Shut

  The platform moved down into the black and dark-grey expanse of swirling clouds and energy. A milky darkness that flashed brightly, as spider-webbed chains of lightning spread across the thunderhead. We descended through the expanse, watching in wonder at the inner workings of a storm cloud. Surges and gusts of wind whipped around us carrying moisture and water particles through the system, but we felt nothing, and the platform never wavered in its steady descent. Lightning flashed, and thunder cracked into long, rolling rumbles. Roaring winds bellowed, groaned, and howled, but we were nothing more than observers in this terrifying display. The clouds began to lighten into a mixture of grays and dirty whites. A bright lining became visible below us, as we approached the edge of the clouds. Twirling mists curled around us, and the lightning became vertical, sending strikes down around us like heavenly spears. Daylight wrapped itself around us, but was quickly blurred by the heavy downpour, as we escaped into open air. We peered across the endless expanse of rainclouds that stretched out across the layer, sending down torrents of life-giving water. The heavy downpour began to thin into a steady shower, as it was dispersed by air streams below the clouds. Long fields of farms and forests began to pop into view through the fog of rain below us. Large cylindrical support structures rose from the ground and into the clouds overhead. Long, wide tubes and pipes were sticking out of them to collect the rainwater, and send it to be dispersed throughout the city. The fields became clearer as we closed in on the floor. Towering arched structures sent artificial light down upon rows and rows of vegetables, fruits, and trees. Greens, reds, oranges, yellows, blues, purples, browns --a fantasia of flora covered the ground. Large cylindrical vehicles went down through the rows, sucking up ripe foods with long, hydraulic hoses that reached out on each side. The rain pelted and splashed against their frame. "As you can see," Mara's voice once again emerged from nowhere, as all the other sounds suddenly went mute. "This layer was vital to the support and survival of the city's upper residents. It was also home to the city's farmers and maintenance personnel, as well as their families. Estimated population was approximately 2 billion." The voice continued, as we approached a large, round door at the base of one of the support structures. A series of letters and numbers were written on the door. "Through these doors in the support structures are the maintenance tubes that lead up and down through the city's framework and were the only means of reaching the surface level, Lower Tropos. It is called by many other names throughout the numerous gangs, mobs, rebellions and uprising factions that fight for control of the districts, but is most commonly referred to as the Surf. It is home to the city's poorest and most disreputable denizens. "Criminals and convicts -- though they are few and far between in the great city -- are banished from the Stratos levels, and forced to live below the heavens on the planet's scarred and tainted surface with the rest of the city's undesirables. Estimated population is 15 billion." The door rolled open with an electronic whir, revealing a dimly-lit, metal shaft that was big enough for the platform to enter. Small, square lights rose along the walls inside, placed on each side of the door, and on opposite angles of the wall behind us. The walls were made of brown and gray scraps of metal, riveted together in different shapes. The door whirred to a close behind us, and the platform dived down the shaft with a jolt. The square lights stretched, as the platform reached maximum velocity, and turned into thin, vertical strips of light. Every so often a loud zap became audible, and the shaft would vibrate, knocking dust off the walls and filling the air with grit. "I hope this thing ends soon," Tenbu said, stretching his arms and legs. The light began to grow dim, as dust started to cover the incoming strips of light. The walls turned grimy and mildewed. "I second that," Falkir said, still holding a hand over his stomach. The rest of the group groaned in agreement. The platform slowed, as if answering their complaints, and then the thin strips of light began to separate once again. "Those lights are making me dizzy," Atreios complained, holding a hand to his forehead. The platform stopped in front of another round door, this one crusted with rust from disuse and neglect. The dingy door squealed open, letting in a sweeping vortex of dust and grit. Faint traces of daylight filtered through the silt-laden air, as the wind began to settle and the platform pushed forward. The air was heavy and dark; a thick layer of black clouds lined with a cold purple tint hovered at the top of the layer, and stretched beyond the horizon in every direction. Occasionally, thick beams of strange, black lightning -- outlined with deep purple -- would streak down and crash into the earth, vaporizing dirt, rocks, and debris on the ground, leaving behind scorched voids. Mounds of burned earth, and craters rimmed with cracked glass, covered the ground. Fissures and crevices opened up into dark, unfathomable depths within the planet s crust. The towering remains of once majestic and tall buildings littered the ground, groaning and cracking in the winds that whipped around, sending piles of debris tumbling. Countless support structures climbed from the surface, with the same rusty doors, each bearing a different combination of letters and numbers. Thick coils of blackened metal wound along the support shafts that were once used to carry electricity up to the city above, but now barraged by the dark lightning. Large bolts of lightning struck them frequently, releasing sparks of purple and black into the air. A small cluster of domed buildings was hidden amidst the ruins of a fallen building along the side of a ruptured cliff. Four tall poles with large metal orbs on top split the lightning into arcing bands of energy that stretched away from the facility in the center. Large satellite dishes and antennae poked up from the dirt, pointing into the sky. "This is awful," Teion said, staring at the polar opposite of his homeland s lush and celestial forests. "This was the folly of our ignorance," Mara said, Thinking we could just leave the planet behind and recreate our own surface, our own world, up above it, without ever having to face the consequences of what we had done. But we were wrong. We ignored the signs; the warnings of our ancestors came and went. "Some force that we could neither identify nor analyze was invading our world from a place we could not discover. We were baffled. Denial swept over us. A side effect of geo-engineering, some theorized. Built up toxins in the crust from millennia of waste, others surmised. None of our guesses were correct; we had left behind the possibility of any kind of spiritual explanation ages ago. "Those theological ideas belonged to the people below; people too ignorant to let go of their ancient traditions, and ascend into the true enlightenment of man. But, in the end, the ancient traditions turned out to be closer to the truth than anything we had tried to convince ourselves of. "The seams of Dahn's Bridge were cracking, and the Shadow Realm was pushing back, overflowing with the negative residue of our actions and lives. Within 1 year's time, all we had worked these past centuries to accomplish would fall. The Breach was opening."