(Rose)
We carry the land onto our clothes, and onto our skin.
Funnily, we would end up looking exactly the same even if we were naked, after a few days around here. But it's far too cold to undress.
So we carry the earth along. It's not as hard as we'd thought for our skin.
We reach the outskirts of the colourful forest. Each tree would look like a rusty sculpture if it was not playing with the wind and its swaying leaves like any other tree. Just the colours are wrong, nothing else it would seem.
We see critters escape as we approach, but we couldn't identify them.
Our flying tree on leash follows us silently.
Bleue keeps burying seeds of flying trees here and there along our way.
We travel peacefully through the woods as we follow an old road that went around the mountains.
Everything human-made is by definition old now. Some things more than others. This one road, who knows when it was built? There's a good layer of earth covering it.
On morning, our footsteps over dry frozen fog make a different noise. This paler haze on the surface of the ground then vanishes as the sun rises, and the colours get sharper.
We catch glimpses of animals in these woods, but they remain elusive.
The thing is, unless they are moving, we cannot see them at all.
And vice-versa, but they probably can smell us better. Even if the earth absorbs sweat and smells a lot.
I'm getting used to it really...
If I heard how long I could go without a bath, a younger me would have been horrified. I can almost picture my hair standing in shock on my head. Well, that's life.
~
We dine around a campfire of the colourful wood.
The flames are more brown, dark, than yellow. It's very weird;
We recall the winter times when snakes followed us to such fires and clung to us like pets, looking for warmth.
She's clinging to me for warmth too now. It's rather nicer with Bleue though.
R - You're not a snake.
B - Hissssssss...
Another night goes by with our chuckles.
~
Small hills, puddles, endless roads.
Empty fields. Little visible ruins here and there. Bridges, buildings of an industrial complex, shrouded in a cloud of aggressive spores, yellow, like London.
It doesn't taste quite the same I think, but still hurts when we breathe it.
We spot a chimeric mixture of animals wandering in that toxic environment.
It seems lost and in pain.
As it spots us, it begins rolling more than galloping with its various limbs, in our general direction.
Before my rifle was ready to shoot, we saw it stop suddenly.
Just as it exited the main toxic cloud, the same second, its skin became darker. A necrotic rush took some of its limbs and most of its skin, before it had time to recede back into its world.
In a matter of seconds, the flesh of the beast turns to mud, shocking us in an unexpected way.
The monster is burnt by normal air and light. It cannot live outside this place...
We both realised and understood it, as we were gazing at each other.
This gross monster is an intelligent prisoner. It learnt.
It stretches an arm as far as it can.
It looks more like pleading for help now.
Bleue, with a cloth to cover her face, goes closer to reach the open hand. She drops between the alien fingers a few nuts and seeds.
B - Good luck, you.
The monster pulls its burning hand and thin long arm back, to inspect the gift.
Its face looks like a molten wax sculpture. It gives a last look at us and goes back into the depths of its domain. We leave too.
Bleue and I remained silent for the time, but we'll discuss what we just found and happen over time.
We know that reality also includes things like that now.
This abrupt decay of the flesh was shocking.
We follow another road, eerie with golden dust.
Toward our next queer encounter.
~
We found a rusty railroad. Too bad I don't have any more seeds of the rust flowers I first think.
But along the way in this ochre valley, we find more blossoms.
New metallic flowers. New species or lifeforms, working with what they have.
It looks like thinly sculpted shards of rust, crystals, most of the time.
But from time to time, it takes more complex forms that repeat themselves at different scales. It becomes organic looking, like small leaves and herbs.
Then petals, and then full flowers.
Along the wrecks of a train already half swallowed by the land, we dig up a few cans of edible slime.
To our surprise, a few human bones as well. It's very rare oddly enough. Most of the human bones of the world population disappeared along with their flesh. They melted into gelatine I believe.
So maybe these ones are older.
The next dawn, we spot a few goats chewing on the earth coloured herbs, growing along some of the frozen puddles.
We have enough food for now so we don't hunt them.
The next day, we thee the illusions of having a second and third sun in the sky, for maybe an hour or so.
Still feels odd to the eyes.
The earth becomes warmer in hues along these hills. Dead cities in the distance look like abandoned woods, in the same melted landscape.
We can see them a little more clearly and contrasted however.
The covering of the earth is getting lower in these area, behind the woods and hills we've passed.
We reach the outskirts of a city which seems alright.
By alright, I mean that there is no toxic cloud around it, nor gut feeling of avoiding it taking us at the throat.
Most cities, something in our brain and bowels triggers an instinctive reaction, when we reach their outskirts, telling us not to go further. We smell the monster or predator to us which lies there, in a way.
But this city seems like a usual and empty dead city, abandoned even before the fall.
We reach old buildings. I mean buildings, not in so bad shape so maybe not that old.
Windows are still there and intact for some places. The colours of the sticky earth are invading the building like everything else in this land, or dust and moss in other lands. But they are thinner in here.
The colours of our clothes have begun to reappear as we travel.
And so do we. And so does our smell. It's been a new record since our last real wash...
There is no running water in the first buildings we go through, as we're now looking for that with higher level of priority.
But after a while, we found an indoor pool.
It's a half dry swampy pond now, with lines of dry algaes along the edges of this slowly drying basin.
It doesn't smell as bad as we do for some reason, is clear of any monster, and we do carry some soap. So that will do; and today is a day of rejuvenation.
I wash our clothes while Bleue, almost naked in this cold, is gathering things to burn. We'll make a good bonfire to dry our clothes, ourselves, and warm us up.
The earth shaded skin of Bleue makes her look whimsical to me. I probably look similar, though I end up clean first, as night falls and the fire starts.
My earth fairy returns and uses loats of soap as well. I prefer when we smell of rancid lavender than dirty ferrets I must say.
Our tree drinks as well. A cheer to the quiet one.
Tomorrow will be another new day, on these cold but also very warm earths.
~