Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-One

The taxi had been commuting for about three hours through many neighbourhoods that Aris had never been to before. He was tracking his trajectory via the GPS app on his access pod and was growing evermore curious as the taxi approached the city limits. Beyond the city was nothing but forest.

The taxi eventually slowed down and came to a complete stop on the edge of the city. Aris got out and was now looking at a wall of trees and a dense overgrowth of shrubbery. Despite double checking the coordinates to make sure he was reading them correctly, he still thought, This can’t be right?

Although he was having serious reservations about the adventure he was about to embark on, he proceeded anyway, giving his secret messenger the benefit of the doubt.

The moon barely provided enough light for him to see as he forced his way through some bushes and into the forest. From his duffle bag, he pulled out a large LED flashlight that was much stronger than the light on his access pod. With his light bouncing around in all directions, Aris pushed his way through the dense forest. The sounds of small branches and twigs snapping beneath his feet combined with his heavy breathing. It was the first time in Aris’ life where he was exposed to such a rural landscape. Having spent his whole life in a hyper-advanced society, he had never been in a forest before.

It was the middle of the night and he was trudging through the forest on a wild-goose chase. It was certainly not the way he envisioned his night turning out.

Struggling to maintain his footing on the wet forest bed, Aris ploughed through the unforgiving terrain, handling each obstacle that came up. Spider webs and low hanging branches dangled in his face, but were shoved aside, only to be replaced by some undetermined insect that he frantically swatted away. Of all the potential hazards nature doled out, the one thing to cause him to lose his footing was a slick metal surface. Without warning, Aris’ feet slipped out from under him and he went down hard. His flashlight fumbled out of his hand and turned off. He moaned in agony and grimaced in pain. Now laying on the forest floor in utter darkness, he nervously felt around for his flashlight. Upon finding it, he turned it back on and returned to his feet.

What the heck did I step on? he thought. Shining his light at the ground, he was surprised to see a reflective metal surface glowing brightly. A stop sign? he said to himself. What’s a stop sign doing in the middle of the forest?

When he looked around again, he acquired a different perspective. Although he couldn’t see much, he could sense an unusual pattern in the growth of the forest. He shone his light around him and spotted an old fire hydrant, a sewer cap, and a streetlight – all of which were covered in living organisms and hardly recognizable.

Continuing on his way, he followed the GPS on his access pod. After a few more minutes, the forest became easier to navigate. As he pressed on, he discovered a pathway – the second indication he was on the right track. The path eventually led him to the forest’s edge, where he stood on a precipice overlooking the remnants of an old neighbourhood.

The moon cast a golden glow on the old buildings, highlighting the tops of the grand structures that poked through the tree canopy. The remains of a once prosperous civilization now lay in waste. As with most abandoned parts of the city, it was losing a battle against Mother Nature.

An eerie feeling consumed him, almost as if he was in a lucid dream. Aris looked at his GPS. It was no longer functioning, which made him increasingly nervous.

Descending down the slope, Aris emerged from the forest and entered the abandoned district. Now strolling through the dark street that separated the vacant buildings, he felt he was making progress. Surely whoever beckoned him would reveal themselves to him. Shining his flashlight left and right, Aris took notice of the crumbling buildings. They told a tale of what had happened not too long before, giving him a different kind of history lesson than the ones he received in school. By his rough estimates, the neighbourhood was over 200-years old and hardly resembled the city he had grown up in.