There is no sun, but it's always light. You measure days by your watch. It hasn't been on time in years, but it still ticks out twenty-four hours reliably. You don't know what you'll do when the battery runs out, but you decide not to worry about it. It's too far in the future.
You see something up ahead. Hours pass but it doesn't come closer. You keep walking. Maybe someday you'll see what it is. But for now, if it wants to stay away, it's a good thing for you.
You get out the book again. This time, you open it to the first page. It is a table of contents. There are no page numbers. The first chapter is What Created This? You are curious, so you turn the page. But the chapter title on the next page is Billboards: What Are They? You don't dare flip through the book to find the first chapter- you remember the book's dire warning from the day before. The book wanted you to see this chapter, so you read it. You don't ask questions because you might get answers.
Billboards have words on them, the book says. If you are ever close enough to read the words, you are intruding, and it will take offense and seek revenge.
You look up because a slight shadow passed over the pages. You stop walking, for the first time in eighteen days. The thing in the distance is suddenly in front of you. It is a billboard. You reach out and touch the base. It is too far up, you cannot read the words. You are safe. You keep walking.
