Goal of the day: 1026 words. Written: 1035.
The stone mumbled something again from the boot, so I elbowed him backwards to shut up.
I approached the gate. At a small round table between several empty tables sat two men in colorful clothing, sipping something from small white porcelain cups. Beside them, behind the wall, stood a large black crystalline automaton, similar to the Jacob I had met in the Arena dungeons. Only this one stood, not hovered, and did nothing.
The men paid no attention to me. So I didn't pay much attention to them either.
After passing them, I saw where I was. In front of me opened a ravine with small houses, cages and some animals in cages.
This garden, together with the ravine, was simply enormous. Further on, you could see lawns, trees... And only at its other end, the slope rose again, and on it stood an endless wall of houses, as I had seen earlier in the City.
"No, I'm not on my way here."
However, I decided not to go to the garden, because there was no point in going there.
"I'd better... Under the thunderstorms, where should I go?"
I stood for a moment and watched the people walking around the garden and the various animals that occasionally appeared in the cages. In some cage they were just feeding large yellow striped animals that looked like cats. Only with large fangs.
"I don't know, I need to go somewhere. Because that City Guard will definitely find me standing. If she really appeared."
I turned to look at Gabrielle's lab. It didn't seem like anything was going on. In fact, you couldn't see anything coming or going at all. Total emptiness.
“…It could be a sign of something wrong.”
I turned around a few more times and started walking along the path along the edge of the ravine. I don't know where I was going, but I was going. Slowly, looking around.
Because of all the anger, I grabbed the hood of the sweater from under my backpack and pulled it on. So that no one knows me so easily, if they are already, or are still looking for me.
When I reached the next exit from the zoo ravine through a very similar gate, I turned through it. The gate was almost the same, and above it there were also some sculptures.
"Probably some animals."
I passed the gate and went out into… The space between the houses. It was hard to describe - I was standing on a narrow sidewalk that ran along the wall and was covered in one place by a wide roof, but beyond the sidewalk, behind a walled fence, there was a street lowered about a meter below, with symmetrical violet stripes running through it, slightly glowing or reflecting from the sun. There was also a fence, a sidewalk, and an endless wall of high-rise buildings across the street.
I was not alone on the sidewalk. And most of the people stood under the canopy, staring into the void or holding glowing crystals.
"Are they waiting for something?"
I stood thinking what to do and where to go. And also wondering what they are waiting for. Some young man at the other end of the shed was intensively discussing something with his girlfriend or friend, and it seemed that their relationship was not the best. Other people obviously didn't like it very much.
The rock in my backpack muttered something, so I shook the backpack again and it fell silent.
"It's… Where do I go?"
- Hey, mom, look! - said a little boy right next to me to his, obviously, mother, who was holding his hand. He was dressed in a red puffy cloak and held in his hand a figure of some kind of animal made of stone.
I looked where the kid was pointing. From that side of the sidewalk, three or perhaps more crystalline automatons, similar to the one seen at the entrance to the Garden, were approaching here. Only these in the distance glowed with an orange light.
"It's a guard!" - the boy jumped up enthusiastically, showing his mother, - Bum bum!
“The guard? City? The one that Gabrielle mentioned??”
I felt the hairs on my neck stand up suddenly, even though it wasn't cold at all. Or maybe I tensed up all over, but only felt it in my neck.
I looked around - the guards were still far away and they were moving towards us very slowly, but they didn't stop. And they will soon be here where I am.
It seems that I had several options - to return to the Zoo, where perhaps all the exits are already blocked, to run in the other direction from the approaching automatons, and to get there I don't know what... Or... Well, except to jump over the fence, jump down, run across the road and, after climbing to the top, run somewhere.
"But I would definitely pay attention that way. Not just the guards, but all the people. No one else does it here…”
I clenched my fists as I thought and walked over to the fence and put my hands on it. I lowered my eyes.
“…Shit, so my bandage on my arm is showing. How did I not think of it?"
I let go of the handrail and tried to stretch the sleeve of the jumper, but it did not get any longer. Then I glanced at the people around me and decided it was better to do nothing at all and hide my hand in my pocket or keep it clenched so that they could see as little as possible.
"You can never be too careful. After all, I still don't know what city I'm in or why... Why am I here at all?"
I closed my eyes and shook my head slightly, putting the last question out of my mind. No time for questions at all - time for action. Looking away, the guards were slowly getting closer and had already come about one-seventh of the way.
The crystal lines on the street did not stop shining, and people did not stop standing, chatting and visibly waiting for something. Even the couple on the other side of the stop, to the obvious joy of several old women, stopped talking and now just stood there in silence and not looking at each other.
A group of several birds flew in, landed right at the feet of the people, and, somewhat frightened by the boy, flew up.
“…Damn it, what should I do?”
I looked at the city guards. They were still coming. Well, there wasn't much else they could have gone to - this was the only way to us.
There was a commotion in the crowd and an indistinct buzz somewhere in the distance. I turned around. There, several metal boxes with glass bows and a large purple crystal attached to the front were coming towards us on crystal-lined tracks. People stirred and came to the edge of the platform.
"What is this?"
* * *
"Gile, you will climb with me," I suddenly heard a male young voice in my ear, not observing the images flying by.
"Ah! It is for me!?"
I flinched and tried to turn around, but the man put his hand on my shoulder and whispered more quietly:
"Don't worry, I'm with you," he repeated. He said the letters "u" very strangely and with emphasis, as if he was trying to emphasize each of them, and these were his favorite or very valuable vowels.
- Who are you? - I asked without turning, but trying to see at least a corner of him with my eyes (of course you couldn't). I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I tensed up, expecting an unexpected punch or stab in the back. And, wringing my hands, I rushed to make a plan of what to do now.
A few people who were rubbing their sides against me turned to us for a moment, but after a moment they were either staring directly into the void or at the crystals in their hands.
"Who is he??"
- Don't raise your voice. I... - the man made a mysterious pause, - ... Well, I'll tell you about myself when I get out, Gil.
The stone mumbled something in the backpack and for the first time I felt that I was not hearing it from there for nothing. His help would have helped now.
"Gile?" - without understanding anything, I widened my eyes and turned my head to the other side. The people behind the glass partition were too focused on their crystals to pay attention.