429. Wilderness, 1

(Rose)

As night fell, I was still walking in that snowfield. I couldn’t push further as the temperature fell.

I couldn’t push further as the temperature fell.

I dug myself a small igloo and buried myself underneath for the night. I could have wished for a morning suddenly all quiet, the blizzard passing by and ending during the night.

I would have loved that, but I knew it wouldn’t happen. I was still in the domain of that climatic anomaly. The blizzard here would never stop.

Still, I managed to sleep.

For the first time, I dreamt of Bleue.

She simply had this radiant smile over her face as she looked at me.

It was like a nice memory.

And as I woke up, I was still hearing the freezing wind outside.

I wasn’t frozen, though the outer part of my cocoon of blankets probably was. I’ll need to get out of this bad weather before next sundown. For now I waited for the sunrise patiently, without moving. Waiting for the radiating warmth, listening to the songs of the weather.

When there was enough light, I built up my courage and left.

~

My footsteps from the previous day had vanished, but I knew where to go.

I ate a little piece of the now frozen meat I had kept.

I wish we had been able to communicate a little more before we arrived.

It pains me, but I still ate it, and walked further.

Slowly the weather became quieter and quieter around me. The wind was soon behind me. An hour later, I could see the ground below the snow. Another hour later, there was no more snow nor wind anymore.

I left behind me the land of the Tamźródlo.

The sky was clear now. The landscape as well ahead of me.

Empty fields. Woods. Roads even I could guess in the distance.

No city I could see around.

Wild lands. Far more and wider than I could even imagine. I was only entering it. The ocean of land from Eurasia.

I stepped in feeling warm and smiling greatly.

~

I went across the small hills and various fields of grass, trying to reach a road I couldn’t really see yet.

From the distance, it was obviously there. The way the trees went alongside, the way it slithered along the landscape.

But like a mirage, you couldn’t really find it by trying to get closer. So oddly enough, I went too far a few times, and resolved myself to follow the road from afar since I couldn’t find it beneath my feet.

The first few days, everything was ghastly silent and void of animal life. Not a mammal, not a bird, not even insects in the trees I could find. Everything looked frozen and unreal, albeit without ice.

Then I ended up spotting a rabbit. Then a weasel I think. So few, but quite real. They vanished as soon as I blinked, but at least there was a little more life the further I went.

And over time, over the days, it became more and more obvious.

All over Europe, I’ve seen ruins and a nature that had changed. Not quite or never fully a nature that had covered the past with a mantle from an even older past, of the time before humans. It never felt quite like that, as if I had travelled back in the past by a few hundred thousands of years.

Now it could feel like it. As If it was literally a new world where humans never settled before.

It wasn’t the case of course. But the way the nature came back in force over this land, along with the vast wild and simple landscape, it could make you feel like no one ever lived here before.

The lack of oddities and new species lately also contributed to that feeling.

And so I went, as if exploring an unknown and new continent for a while. The forgotten land of north-western Asia.

That feeling was a little spoiled when I reached the typical ruins of a modern city along the banks of a river. Though its colours were dirty and blended easily in the landscape, these ruins were like hundreds I visited before, more or less.

Actually no. Because the local wildlife lived along as if it was an extension of the nearby forests. That was new to me, and closer to that impression of nature taking over the land entirely.

I saw boars going along a street and into a building they likely live in.

Insects used abandoned vehicles and machines to build their hives or nests.

An animal looking like a mix of a frog and a lizard was running with ease on the glass walls of another building.

Some plants of a new kind created bridges of roots and branches, as if there was no trunk needed for them, between spots from the river and other smaller channels.

Some animals used these natural bridges to go between the two, thus never putting foot or paws on the land.

And as I entered a building catching my attention, I saw the shadows on the walls moving away from me.

R - I know you. Long time no see.

I think I know what they are. They probably are colonies of bacteria acting fast and together as one.

I sent them a piece of the now rotting meat I had left with me. They devoured it.

The darkness surged on it and receded once nothing was left. Ashes to ashes, and bacteria to bacteria, I guess.

I still pushed a little further my exploration of this building. Because it looked a little fortified, and I expected to find weapons left somewhere inside.

Although I’m simply hungry first.

So instead of eating the weapons, I would like to use one to hunt. Because I’m not fast enough to hunt with a sword, yet.

I found new shoes at least. Well, new for me. That was a good start.

And I saw my own face in a mirror. I guess I now look like the mother I’ve never known. I’ve seen women my age looking much younger than I now do. Women older than me even. The graceful lines of my teenage years are long gone.

I had a shy smile at myself. It was amusing. A part of me didn’t quite recognised this aging woman. Another was kindly emotional about it. Crow’s feet and dimples are clearly defined now.

I looked rather at ease and peaceful overall. Calm. I liked that look. I’ve seen worse.

I was where I should be and it felt right enough.

I left the dark corridor and returned to the wilderness of the street. Here and all around me was sunlight through the leaves and hollow walls.

Sunlight, and me smiling.

~