Breed and Burn: Skinless

chapter 3- wings burn (II)

"Like Mars?"

"No, idiot. You are thinking of planets. Planets and world's are different. Worlds have their own territory and a solar system that surrounds the main vessel of life which in your case is Earth. Planets make up the solar system which make up the territory."

"What are territories?"

"You should have paid attention in Verse Lessons. You would have retained the basic information at the very least even if it wasn't accompanied by memories.

Territories are this invisible line that is drawn around worlds. This line in impenetrable. The line, is not a restricted, thin line. It is very thick, with most of it's mass concentrated in the centre. If you look up, you can see this world blending with the next. There are predictions as to what world and Faceless assume it is your world- Earth's world."

"Bullshit."

"You may see for yourself," Braedon said, withdrawing herself.

"Astronauts explored so much of the solar system and the parts they could not reach were recorded and analyses by robots and cameras. They never found a 'line'."

"That is because Earth has a solar system and if the human race had lived on Earth for perhaps another four to seven thousand years, they would have found it."

"So how come The Underneath has such a close line? It can't be more than a few miles from the ground."

"You have no idea how much stupidity left your lips just now but I have known you for a while and can make sense of it," Braedon said with a smile although her eyes were hard and shiny like buttons. Scowling, his heels pushing into the legs of the bench. "Each world has a parallel which is still a world but it is a world that is sick. It is festering with illnesses and is all backwards. No matter how hard one tries, it cannot be helped. We are the unlucky ones. Think of The Underneath as a fetus and Earth as the mother. Fetus breathes, it survives but it does not live. For as long as the heart of the mother beats, the fetus survives. The entirety of the fetus's survival depends on the mother. If Earth withers away, so does The Underneath. How do you think The Underneath and Earth got their names?

"You have not seen much of The Underneath but it is usually in a better condition. Since, Earth is on it's last legs, so has The Underneath. Stupid humans. They do not realise their actions have consequences. They clamped their hands over their ears when Mother Nature screamed. They squeezed their eyes shut when people had to wear gas masks just to leave their homes.

That is why Faceless hate humans, Channing. We are not monsters. No one is a monster without a reason. You are not the good guys. Neither are we. However, we are much closer to being good then you."

"Sorry," he said, staring at his knees.

"And everything is better," said Braedon. "If only someone thought to apologize beforehand and there would be no need for this."

"What do you want me to say? That I will try to fix it? Cos I can't."

"Even after all this, we will go back to just surviving and not living."

"But you said you were human."

"That is a story for another time," Braedon said, her voice wavering for a moment. It was gone as soon as it came and she filled the crack in the walls that surrounded her heart. Painfully, it reminded Axel of Thorne.

"You are just like Thorne," said Axel.

"Who do you think he got it from? He imitated everything I did." She shook her head, staring out of the window. "Of course, you would notice that. You two were close."