Sea Of Dust

I’ve been walking constantly for the past few days, trying to circle this building to find an entrance, but no luck. All I find is more metal, metal, and more metal—scrap put to rest—and walls that stretch farther than I can see. This is exhausting. I’m tired of walking, 13 thinks, sitting down.

Now that I think about it… did the humans who walked this earth get tired too? Or is it just me? She wonders, then shakes her head. I shouldn’t waste time thinking about a dead species. I need to find this entrance. Maybe it will lead me to the Dyson Sphere of this world.

She gets up and starts walking again.

Then—clang! A huge metallic sound echoes, like rusted metal scraping against metal, gears grinding… a sound? she thinks, excitement rising. The ground begins to split in half.

Fascinating, she murmurs, moving toward what seems to be the left side of a massive door or hangar.

The fall doesn’t look so bad, she says to herself, looking down. I’ll tie a rope once the door opens fully.

An hour passes, and the door finally creaks open. She grabs a metal sheet, pins it to the ground with a rope, and sends it all the way down. Then she begins her descent into what seems to be an empty, dusty open space, light spilling in and metal dust swirling around her.

A building—or maybe I should say an underground building. I’m sure this leads to that massive structure on the surface, yet there doesn’t seem to be a door or anything. Then again, it’s hard to see, she says, grabbing a lantern from her waist. She takes out a match, lights it, and sets it inside. The lantern flickers to life, filling the area around her with a dim, faint glow—not enough to see more than four feet ahead, a light as dim as a cloudy mirror, she sighs.

No matter. It will work, she mutters, stepping forward.

The untouched metal sheets beneath her boots creak with each step. This is… quite fascinating. Why would they need such a huge entrance for a building this massive? Well, saying it out loud… I guess that makes sense, she laughs softly, continuing on.

Then she stumbles over something. Bones? Bones? she mutters, confused. The wind rushes in, stirring dust into her face. Humans were here… or at least these seem to be human bones. Interesting, she says, picking up a skull to examine it.

Looks like this person died from force blunt trauma, she murmurs, noting the huge hole in the skull. Or maybe something fell on this poor humanoid… many questions, but no answers.

She tosses the skull back to the ground and keeps walking. To be continued