The Diary of Zartoon

ENTRY 34

ENTRY 34

13.04.63.22.35

That night, Pandorica and I started walking to her city. It was really quiet. There were no sounds of the ships that used to patrol the area. There were no sounds of children coming from just outside the wall, and there were no sounds of normal life anywhere to be found.

We got to the city's gate, and there was no one there. We didn't pause to think, we just ran into the city, and there was no one anywhere. There were no signs of a battle, no bodies, nothing whatsoever. As we walked, I looked into each of the buildings. There were clothes, cooking tools and food still left on the tables, and the fireplaces were stocked with fuel for a night's warmth, and I even saw a few pets sitting by their bowls looking for someone to feed them.

"What in the hell happened here?" I asked Pandorica who had disappeared from my side. I had a feeling where she went so I followed her and I was right... she went to the palace. Like the other buildings, it looked as if everyone just disappeared without any warning.

"Where is everybody," Pandorica asked. She was starting to cry and no matter what I did, she would not, maybe could not, calm down. "My family, they are all gone!" I had never seen her so emotional, so I sat her down, put my arms around her, trying to comfort her as best I could, and then I came up with an idea. I'd climb one of the towers of the palace and see what was in the area. I couldn't get her to sit still, so I let her follow me.

The tower was high, with so many steps that my legs were burning when I finally reached the top. We both looked around all the way out to the horizon. It took a little while, but Pandorica finally saw very faint tracks leading from the back gate of the city out into a desert just west of the city. We rushed back down the tower. My legs were still burning from the climb, and let me tell you, my legs were nearly falling off when we got to the bottom.

Once we got out of the gate, we saw thousands of footprints. Men's, women's and children's, they were all leading away from town. There were even tracks of sleds and travelers. Going by the depth of the tracks, they were traveling quite fast and it looked like each one was carrying a number of passengers... more than the travelers were designed to carry.

"They all left the city," Pandroica said. "They all just up and left!"

I tried to figure out what would cause an entire city to leave in such a hurry, but not one idea I had made any sense but, then again, none of this made any sense.

I noticed that Pandorica was showing a lot of fatigue so I took her into her house and put her to bed. Me, I didn't sleep right away. I wanted to check out the area more to maybe see something, anything that might give me an answer. I will sleep later if I get the chance, but now, I am going to walk around the wall. I will report more when/if I find something.