page 2
badg3rground⚓︎
Toril could not believe her eyes. She had been expecting a return to normal, as normal as Halloween could be. Everyday, her large tv-like screen on the wall displayed a 2D Pacman-like view of their logistics. Packages showed as dots of different colors on their routes across the city. Without Pacman to eat them though, it was a boring repetitive flow for which all she needed to do was pay attention in case a route was blocked. Blocks were always unexpected and the oddest of circumstances triggered them. They needed solutions just as weird to fix them.
Instead of that daily repetitive view, her office's blinds shut as a hollographic animation started playing in the middle of the room, above a large, round, built-in worktable. A badger's head appeared. It moved slightly from side to side like one of those retro bubble head dolls.
Toril approached the table. The badger was Xileh's favorite animal, perhaps now she would figure out why.
She placed her hands on the table and the badger growled in the middle of a ring of fire, causing Toril to take a step back. As the fire and badger dissipated by turning to ashes, a phrase appeared floating in midair:
war is a game of the powerful,
and out of greed it destroys,
peace is the work of the heart,
it frees what you must not control.
The ashes fell on a highly detailed topographic map of Rigmor, reflecting the terrible conditions of the city after the war. Against the sounds of war playing in the background, a child's cry could be heard. As it grew louder and singled out in the recording, the already somber atmosphere turned eerie. A metaphor to the remnants of war which spread far beyond the physical destruction, becoming the emotional scars carried across the generations. That child's cry made Toril's hair stand on end.
The city's hologram became like grains of sand separated by whirlwinds, as the animation dynamically rebuilt in a few seconds what had taken Rigmor decades. It brought the city back to the present Toril knew.
During the Atonement, how the government referred to the rebuilding process, shipping routes were added for the Last Mile from the warehouse directly to people's homes. For a city often closed off to the outside, the warehouse was the last bridge, a central station receiving what citizens or their government wanted for them.
Glowing routes started appearing, like train tracks carrying carts of packages. Toril saw each route get traced, feeling in familiar ground but, the map unearthed a secret, as if it was an archeological discovery revealing a hidden chamber. It wasn't a long lost artifact, however, but something present in their reality. The warehouse had an extra route, intermingled with the others. A golden yellow marked it, along with the name, badg3rground.
An astonished Toril wondered, "What do we carry along that route?"
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As this open journey continues, you will discover related illustrations and resources at the bottom of each page.
badger illustration | public domain cc0