Ch. 10 The truth of "Harmony"

My legs just wouldn't slow down. The only thing on my mind was reaching her. So I kept going as fast as I could. This made the whole bath I took earlier pointless. But the thing I realized then made everything worth it.

She said she will wait. I hope she is still there.

I was going full speed, we parted ways on a hill, and I was already imagining our reunion.

That's when I got to the place I left her, but she wasn't there.

Huh, of course she left, even her kindness has some limits when paired up with an idiot like me.

I turned away before even reaching the top of the hill. I didn't want to be disappointed again, so I thought that if I don't go all the way to the end, I will feel better.

So, back to being all alone? I already knew this was not going to change.

That is when I heard a voice call my name.

I turned back, and there she was.

I started running towards her.

As I was getting closer, I could clearly see it.

She is crying. Good job on making another girl cry, dumbass.

When I reached her. I hugged her. At that moment, nothing else was important. Not the heat outside, not how tired I was. Nothing mattered.

I looked at her, and I wanted to say how sorry I am, but before I could open my mouth, she was quicker at sealing it.

After staying like that for a moment, we put some distance between our faces again, and I started laughing.

"Hahaha, I don't know where all of this is coming from, but you should know I am not ready to, nor am I the kind to just throw my heart around. Let's stop rushing this and take it one step at a time. What do you say?"

She nodded.

Mori: "As long as you won't be running again, I am fine with waiting. So don't keep me like this too long."

A rare selfish demand, I was so happy to hear it.

...

Mori: "Imagine having a rubber band that you pinch in two parts. This is how The Hub works. There are two edges and two sets of walls that twist and turn, going through every city that had more than 100,000 inhabitants at the time of the explosion."

The slim area between the two pairs of walls was foreign even to Mori, apparently, she looked for information about it, but everything was high above her level of clearance.

We were walking on top of the wall high above the sea. Mori was able to take us through the transportation system, but only for short distances between certain points so as to not be noticed. It seems the distance between Japan and South Korea was a bit too long for us to cross it in one go.

Ever since I heard about her past and explained to her how real life doesn't work like that, things became a bit weird between us.

"You are mad, right?"

Mori: "Why would you think I am?"

She is mad.

"Look, I understand you didn't know how to act. I said we would be taking it one step at a time, and I intend to keep my promise. You don't have to feel ashamed about that."

She just turned back and looked at me. That was for sure not the smile that I am used to, so I decided to let this subject on the back burner.

...

I stopped counting how many days had passed since our exile, but I knew it had been a long time when Mori forced me to go into The Hub and get a shaving razor.

We had been going in and out of the populated areas, sleeping was mostly done outside, but we would go into the cities to get whatever we needed. You could think of us like some abandoned kids in a poor area who would steal everything that seemed even remotely useful.

By the time we got to India, I mostly understood what the truth of this place was.

"So let me get this straight: that weird thing that I saw at my trial is actually an alien?"

Mori: "Yes, the last of its species, not that it cares about that. It only cares about its research."

Apparently we were all part of a project. A race of four-dimensional beings toying with us, or to be more exact, only one being that was revered as a god.

It took me a while to understand that 4D concept, but it seemed like it existed in the present, past, and future for up to 5 minutes in each direction.

Imagine how you would stick your finger through a paper. The small human drawn on that paper could only see the exact spot your finger touches the paper. It was the same for us, we could only see it when it was right in this present moment, but it also had to be in the present if it wanted to interact with us. So, to us, it seemed more like it was a teleporting alien.

Even if something would harm it by chance, only an instant of its existence would feel it, and an infinity could replace it.

But harm rarely came its way. After all, switching instances right before is a much safer method.

The explosion was also part of the experiment. Something called "spontaneous human combustion" was the basis of it. One day before the disaster, a decent percentage of people became living bombs, and everyone who was killed would be transported to the future.

While a single creature didn't have the power to "walk" 20,000 years, technology gave them the means. Imagine how a human can never hope to reach the sky unless they have a plane. Using this "plane," it dropped us off at different times.

The logic was to see how humanity would develop given the ideal means. That is why the people who could rebuild the world were dropped first.

When it comes to those parasites, though, it seems Mori couldn't find out too much, but they seem to be a side project that the alien is working on. "One that would give him somebody to boast to."

One thing is clear: the humans who fell prey to those parasites would all head for the mysterious area within the walls.

Mori: "You know, that girl, Haru, she was also the reason you died. There was a bomb in her, not in you."

"Is this something to say in a moment like this?"

We were lying next to each other in the tall grass, looking at probably the most beautiful sky I have seen in a while.

Mori: "No, I guess not..."

I already knew that, I had been aware of it for some time.

I was too mesmerized by her face when she went flying to realize there was no body attached up there.

But I didn't want to think about it. Haru was a thing of the past. And that is how she should remain out of respect for both Mori and myself.

I didn't feel any dread, sadness, or pity for her sake.

All I felt was disgust, not at Haru, but at the way she had to go and at how everyone I knew was killed just like that.