Forward

Original artwork by Kyle Newbridge

Lockeschmidt,

Thank you again for the food and drink–I desperately needed both. I can’t stay because the Forest people will get too far ahead, but I’ll remember to look under the dust for manna. With any luck, there will be another forest further downstream that I can harvest water from. Until then, I will ration what I have.

If you want to eventually move, you know where I’m heading, and I’ll leave a few messages in the dust or on the trees for you to follow. I know that cheerfulness is a powerful tool here, but I fear you may have taken this demeanor too much to heart and forgotten that you are, truly, trapped. If you still wish to escape, perhaps I will see you again.

In the meantime, hopefully I can find more of the human-sized predators to hunt. I’ll call them ghosts from now on. I know your term is more accurate, but it is far too personal for me to maintain. They’re specially equipped to fight here, with the lack of sunlight, the absence of song or friend, and the general monochromed hopelessness around here. Still, I’ll try to do what you said: keep the knife hidden and distract them with promises. As long as I’m quick, I should be able to avoid incident.

I’ll write when I find them.

Good luck,

Tomas Cohen