Earl Yorke

…and we arrived in the city of providence. They couldn’t see us yet; the mutants who grouped in the quarry, chopping wood. This wood was for no fire… not to keep each other warm… it was all that they could remember of what they were taught of a life that had abandoned them decades ago.

…and we arrived, all of us. Myself, Cedric, Dina, Taran, D’Anna, and a group of others… outcasts from a world that had destroyed itself long ago. The mutants had survived the devastations of World War III, and so had we… yet we had a reason to be there, and they did not.

I walked into the city, leading our group with my son in my arms and my wife at my side. We walked through the open gates and marveled at the magnificance of it; walls and turrets surrounding a beautiful urban development of the most confusing grasp of technology and taste. It blended Medieval architecture with modern (even post-modern) technology. The turrets harnessed cannons that could only have shot laser beams… or something like that… I couldn’t understand it, and neither could any of my fellow travelers. It was, in a way that I cannot even describe… evil.

I lead them all into the northern-most part of the city as we all marveled at the beauty of the tall, tall buildings that surrounded us. Everyone else seemed very happy to have found such a place, un-blemished by the war that our government had started, but for Taran and I, this place did not seem safe. We had not yet seen the mutants, but we somehow knew that they were there. [It was a dream… I can’t explain it]

“Let’s rest here for a moment,” I spoke, realizing in this dream world that I was leading these people. They all agreed with me, and found their places on the sidewalks of this… empty city.

I passed my son on to my wife, giving both of them a kiss of false hope that we might have found our place, and made my way toward one of the turrets that stood, part of the great wall, near us. Everyone’s eyes watched me as I walked, not fearing what would ultimately happen, but comforted instead by the fact that I was trying to make sure that we were, indeed, safe.

I made my way toward the turret, and upon reaching it I climbed its winding staircase, still weary of the feeling that was welling in my gut. I looked to my followers, and my eye was caught by my step-son… he shared my fear. I continued upwards.

At the top of the turret I gazed out at the horizon… fuck, everything was battered and destroyed by the war, and yet this place was untouched. What seemed like a million atomic bombs had dropped on our country [atleast that is how I recalled it in this dream], and this place was left untouched!

I turned toward the heart of the city… and there I saw them. There were atleast two dozen of them… people, or so they seemed, chopping wood within a quarry of granite in the center of this metropolis. I panicked, beginning to run back down the steps… and then I heard it–

A scream from one of those people reached my ears. I looked toward them, and I saw him… the one who had seen me, pointing in my direction as if he percieved me as the same kind of demon I saw him as.

…and then they all came running.

And I ran, down the winding staircase, toward the people that I was trying to save from the aftermath of an evil called war. Instead, we came to find another evil there… one not dictated by politics, or so it seemed.

As I reached the bottom and touched the streets of this seemingly once-thriving city, everyone was gone. I was all alone… no, not alone…

The mutant people fell upon me, and all that I saw was the vampiric teeth of their leader, the one who had first spotted me. I was forced to the ground, and everything went black. I was dead.

There is more to this dream, and I will post it tomorrow. For those of you who are interested, please tell me what you think of this so far…

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