Shadows of Eden

by RoccoRoccs

Chapter 5: Leap of Faith

The sun came long before I was ready to stir from my place under the heavy blanket. I don't know what time it was when I found my way back to the penthouse office, but I do know it was far too late to get enough sleep. My stomach was growling in protest to the lack of nutrition needed to keep up with the physical pace I was making for myself. I was actually so hungry that I was starting to feel ill. When was the last time I had water? When was the last time I ate? I don't remember eating anything before I went to Spark, I don't even remember eating anything the night before.

I pushed my head out from under my cover and into the glow of a still rising sun. The light had yet to rise high enough to be seen from the windows, but it was still illuminating the world around the building enough to wake me. I looked to my Cuff, still no reply to the messages I sent. I guess Jet's experiment had not worked, maybe I installed it wrong, maybe something happened. Then again, maybe they got some sleep. They sounded exhausted in the messages that had gotten through, surely they took a break to sleep at some point.

At least somepony was. I spent most of the night stumbling around this building and checking if my ghostly buddy had come back. Call me crazy, but once you get over the shock of seeing a ghost like that, you are left with nothing but curiosity and unanswered questions. I wanted to see them again, I was still trying to figure out if it was really a ghost or some sort of magic that Jet had cooked up to help me from the past. I mean, she managed to get me a device to try and communicate with them from nearly 4000 years ago till now, maybe that was her doing too.

My brain worked through the problem slowly, feeling like it was filled with sludge, with each thought taking longer and longer to work through. I need to get up and find food or at the very least find some water. My legs groaned in protest at the movement and my hooves felt like four massive bruises after yesterday's workout. I wanted nothing more than to keep sleeping, but I knew I had to get moving soon or it would be too hot for me to go exploring. It wasn't particularly hot yesterday, but as weak as I was feeling it wouldn't take much to zap what little strength I had left.

I did my best to fold the tapestry up and roll it to where I could carry it, but it was becoming clear that it would be far too large to take with me without something to hold it. I gave the office one last look over, but its spartan appearance was leaving little to the imagination for hiding places or bags. I was just about to say 'to hell with it' when I saw a small set of handles on one of the walls. A closet! Bingo!

I opened the doors only to have them fall completely off the hinges and crumble to the floor. I guess even wood has it's limits, this room was dry as a bone for years, the wood must have dry rotted in that time to near dust. Inside I was greeted with a beautiful sight! A leather, moldy backpack and a metal water bottle. That was unbelievable luck considering my luck yesterday, this was a complete win in my favor. I shouldered my new found bag and checked the water bottle. The lid was cracked, but if I kept it upright I could use it all the same. I had a blanket and a water bottle now, things were looking up.

Feeling invigorated by my find, I began the long process of trotting down the tower to the 5th floor. From where I was I thought I could see a tree that had fallen across the freeway and onto the side of building. If it had broken at the trunk I might be able to cross on it and take the freeway out of here and into the plains outside of town. From the office I could just barely see them over the treeline, if I could get there before night fall, I could browse the grasses for hay or straw. Not my first pick, but it was something at least.

Fifth floor reached, I did my best to pry my way through the door without making too much noise. I didn't want to take any chances with those rat things being that close. After an hour, I finally managed to get the door to budge just enough to squeeze in through a small gap and close it behind me. This was quite a stark contrast to the higher levels. The air felt heavy and damp, the smell of mold, decay and rot filled my nose as I made my way down the hall to crossover and double back to where I thought the tree was. Every step was revolting, with damp carpet that had long since turned into a mushy goo caking my hooves with a squish sound. I was slipping all over the place, having to use the walls to steady myself all the way along.

"So help me if this is not the right floor..." I said between gags.

After finally getting to the other hallway that I needed to get to the end of the building, I was nearly vomiting. The closer I got to the windowed wall the worse the smell became. It was acrid, stinging my nose and throat with every breath as though the air was vaporized acid. I found that holding my breath only made it worse, making the effects more intense and sending my vision near blacking out. The last few steps felt like a vertical climb, I was pawing at the window for air when my ears heard a hissing sound growing louder from the room beside me.

I looked through the open door expecting to see a snake or maybe an animal I had scared, but my eyes found a rusted set of pipes that looked like they were ready to bust. That room was just the other side of the hallway where the door I had kicked open was. I must have jostled the pipes and caused them to leak out whatever vile gas was inside of them. Judging by the smell, I think it was natural gas maybe.

Thinking slower than I should be, my hooves fumbled with the latch and began shoving with all my weight against the window seal. I was giving it my all, but my strength was being zapped from a lack of oxygen. I looked back down the hall I had came from and saw the air was waving from the volume of gas that was hanging around me. Just outside the window I could see the tree leaning against the building just below me. I knew what I had to do, but I was too scared to do it. I couldn't just jump through a closed window like that, what if I missed? But the heavier my hooves began to feel, my mind was also growing more and more irrational from fear of dying right here.

I tried to run but the slick, rotten floor was making it nearly impossible. Instead, I resorted to a quick prance to try and bounce from spot to spot as I retreated back down the hallway. Mercifully the gas was not as dense here and I could catch a little of my breath before I jumped to my death. The window was already cracked and hazy, surely it would give way if I hit it just right. Without much more thought, I started to run as quickly as I could through the muck. Each step feeling more unsteady than the last.

My last few steps were more of a skate as I slid towards the window and tensed in instant regret. This was stupid! I'm going to die! But I was committed, it was too late to turn back now. With a hard push off the ground I fell towards my back and reared back with a hoof and smashed the glass with a kick. The feeling of fresh air finding my nostrils was both euphoric and terrifying. I looked down and saw the street below as I flew right over it and began falling toward the tree. But I was going too fast, I was going to over shoot my landing at the speed I was moving at.

I flailed, kicked and screamed trying everything to slow my descent as my body smashed into the branches on the other side of the fallen pine. One of my hooves found purchase on a limb and I grabbed on with a fetlock for dear life, stripping nearly all the bark off of it in the process. Just before I ran out of limb to grab I managed to stop my fall. Now I was dangling fifty feet above the street where I was sure to die a quick death below. Slowly, hoof by hoof, I managed to pull my way onto the trunk of the tree where I collapsed and began to cry.

That was the scariest thing I had ever done in my life and it all happened in less than a minute. I wanted to be proud of my accomplishment, I wanted to feel brave, but I just couldn't stop crying. I lay there sobbing uncontrollably while looking at the broken window with wisps of that damn gas rolling out of it for nearly an hour before my Cuff beeped a new sound out and almost sent me over the edge. Seriously, after 24 hours you would think I had gotten used to it by now. I rolled the dial and selected my messages as I wormed my way across the log.

"Dingy! Oh my goodness we got your message! I can't believe Jet's program worked on the first try!" Egress said in udder elation. She was sounding much more rested, good for her.

"Jet is still working out the bugs in the system, but we think we know where we went wrong. We discovered the issue right after your message hit our system. It wasn't your time stamp that was off, it was ours. I will spare you the details dear, but suffice it to say that small changes on our end of the timeline result in massive changes on your end. Think of it like a long stick you are holding in your hoof. If you move your hoof an inch, the end of the stick moves a foot or more.

I can't believe we messed something up so simple as that! The only issue is that the spell you have loaded in your matrix will not bring you back home. The problem is that we can't do it from here. We have a way for you to do it on your end, but I have to warn you now, it will be rather involved from my best guess. Jet will handle the details, but you will have to install the add on. It will be straight forward, but I fear you will have to go on a hike to get to it.

The Cuff has no way of updating without a physical connection to a drive of some sort. So I have to ask you to do something Dingy, something that might be a bit much of you. I need you to take the time to detail the world around you to me, you can do it in audio form, it will just take a little while for us to retrieve it. But it is the only way we can be sure that we send you to the right place to try again. I need to know just how bad of a state the world is in without pony life present.

But for now it would be best for you to head out of town. I know that sounds counter intuitive, but I have a hunch as to where you will need to go. Dingy, I linked the upload coordinates in this message automatically, once you get there you should find food and clean water. Hang in there girl, we are counting on you."

The message ended on a high note as I hopped down onto the roadway and watched as a location was highlighted on the screen. It was about two miles away but it looked like I could get there from this highway. But I wasn't sure if the highway ran above the location or if it was on ground level. Seeing as I remember that area from my own time, I was almost positive it was in the middle of nowhere, between towns in fact. How would I find food there!? There was nothing but waste and trash in that area back in my time.

Thinking mindlessly, I opened the two-way and tapped the microphone icon. Might as well detail my journey as I went, if nothing else I could get home sooner if I got my work done.

"Egress? Jet? Dingy here. I nearly died getting out of the Spark building, the gas lines went on the 5th floor and I had to jump for it. I'm just lucky there was a tree there for me to climb to the highway. I'm in route to the location you sent to the Cuff thing, but I don't see how that is going to help me this far in the future. The world is... the world It's the same but not the same at the same time if that makes since.

Everything is gone or going to be gone soon. I don't think ponies have been here for a long time, all the buildings are falling in, the subways are filled with water and these... creatures. No eyes, no ears... just teeth. I slept in the penthouse of the Spark building last night, I had to use a tapestry as a blanket, I took it with me for tonight seeing as I don't see me getting out of this anytime soon.

Nature has taken everything back to the land that was taken from it... Trees are growing everywhere and I can hear birds in every direction, it's beautiful to see. Besides the birds and the rat things, the only other life I have seen... I don't know if you could even call it 'life'. I saw... there is no other way to say this... I think I saw a ghost or something. I even felt it, it was cold and made everything go silent around me.

It didn't try to hurt me but... I think it wanted to help me. It was like it knew who I was and why I was there. Semi transparent, blue and the exact shape of a pony. It was glowing with what I thought was energy if I had to guess. The whole day before I was seeing flashes of light in windows, I think it was following me through town. Watching me like I was something new. I'm not afraid of it, but I don't know what it was either. Tell Jet that I followed it right to where she told me to go, it was like it was leading me.

The old dump is... no longer a dump. It's a forest, old growth too. The outskirts of town are a plain from the looks of it and the center of town is a jungle. I don't know if your plan is going to work, but I'm still going to try and get there before it gets too hot. Tell Jet to put something tasty where ever I am heading, she seems to know how to make that sort of thing happen. Dingy, out."

I tapped the send button and was surprised to see that I had covered nearly a mile and was nearing the edge of town already. Any worries about having to jump off the highway were dashed as well, seeing as I was ground level already. Oh the things you never think about while riding in a bus. Had I known I was going to get sent to the future in an experiment, I would have paid closer attention to my surroundings. If nothing else, hide some food somewhere close by.

Just outside of town I noticed that things were going eerily quiet without trees around to echo sounds and small birds chirping the day away. As far as I could see there was nothing but field and waving grasses being swept by the wind. I looked down at the ground, where the highway had been swallowed by nature and faded away under my hooves. To my left in the distance were the mountains and to my right were the plains that stretched on and on like a never ending sea of gold. After everything that had happened, getting to see a place like this was sobering, humbling and surreal. It was everything I had ever dreamed of in one picture, a perfect portrait of what the world could do when left to its own will.

For a brief moment I fantasized about not going home, just staying right here in this moment and letting time pass me by while I took it all in. I had been so caught up in my own hysteria that I had not truly taken in the world around me and seen what changes had been made. The shock of seeing my hometown in such a state compared to how I knew it nearly disassociated me with who I was, who I wanted to be. My brain had slipped into its primal state of fight or flight and I played right into it. But with my hoof gliding over the golden grains that were growing all around me, I couldn't for the life of me wonder why I was so upset.

I continued my journey for some time, looking for the source of the red dot on my Cuff's screen, munching on wild grains and filling my eager stomach. Soon I came to a little stream that seemed to be coming right out of the ground like a well, bubbling crystal clear water right in front of me. I did all but bury my head in it as I sucked down mouthful after mouthful of cold water. The grain was nearly tasteless, but I could make out notes of honey and sugar with every bite. I couldn't tell if it was my brain playing tricks on me or not, but I was loving it all the same.

I lifted my head from the water and tried to clear it from my ears, but everything felt muffled and static laden no matter how I tired. Shaking my head back and forth to try and dislodge it, I could swear that I didn't have water in them at all. I felt my back grow colder with each passing moment as though somepony had been pouring ice water down my back. I turned and was face to face with the blue flame looking pony body I had seen back in the tower. My graceful fall into the little creek was met with little more than a blank stare and it sitting down in front of me.

"You... You followed me here!?" I shouted, spitting water out all over... it. What was this thing anyways!? "Right, you don't talk, do you?"

The thing just shook its head and pointed its nose to the ground. Well... I honestly don't know what to do here so I guess I will just leave then. I got up and began my trot towards my destination, what more could I do, it didn't talk and was stalking me. It didn't seem to want to hurt me, so I honestly just kept trotting. After the last quarter of a mile was behind me and I was looking at a fence in the middle of nowhere, I felt my back go cold again and my hearing fade. I turned around and there it was again, looking right at me but not doing anything. Fear aside, this was actually starting to get annoying.

"Look... I don't know what you are and frankly, I don't really care at this point. Are you going to hurt me?" I asked, stepping closer to it. To my surprise, it actually stepped back from me as if it were scared of me. I lowered its head and gave it a shake quickly as if to so 'heck no!' and sat down. "Good. If you are going to follow me then you had better find a way to communicate with me. Because if you are going to scare the crap out of me all the time, this thing we have going will end quickly, got it?" I said, pointing to a hoof. The creature just nodded its head and trotted to my side and stood perfectly still.

I hadn't noticed it before, but behind it was a trail of blackened and dead grass. I looked at its... hooves and saw that everywhere it stepped left a black impression like it was burning the grass, leaving a long dark trail behind us. After having my moment in the sun here in the field, I could not help but feel a little angry that everywhere they went they brought death with their every step.

"HEY! Quit that! Look what you are doing!" I shouted, pointing to the black trail they had made. They looked back for a moment and then at the ground as if they had just done something wrong. "Look, I'm sorry... This place is beautiful and I don't want to ruin it anymore than I have to being here. Just... try and keep the black steps to a minimum, OK?" I said, offering a smile and once again, only getting a nod in return.

All things considered, it was strange enough having a ghost as a traveling companion, but having one that seemed to be worried about getting yelled at was even stranger. Only I could find a ghost that was shy and timid. I was just lucky in that way. We came to the large chain-link fence side by side, or at least what was left of it and let ourselves into the restricted area. In the middle of the gated off area was a hatch that had somehow been spared time's wrath judging by its appearance. With a large engraving from 'Spark IND' on it, it was no wonder it was still here. Knowing them, they probably used some sort of magic to keep it shiny and new all these years.

My hooves reached for the hatch but the locks unlocked themselves and the lid popped open. What luck! Here I thought this was going to be a disaster trying to pry at it with my hooves for hours!

"Access granted. Dingy Beige, Violet. Delta level clearance."

"Violet? What the hell? That's not my name." I said aloud. My ghost buddy was all too quick about finding their way in before me.

As rude as the move was, it turned out to be a good thing for me. With their bright coronal appearance, I didn't even have to turn on my flashlight. I started down the stairs and heard the door hiss shut behind me, clanging and grinding the locks back into their place. I fought down that urge to run back outside as I descended the long staircase to the tiny one-room operating board. There wasn't much to it, but it was definitely something used for 'observing'. My ghost, as I was now referring to it, had found a corner and began pawing at the steel grates.

"What is that girl? Did you find something?" I said jokingly. A quick head turn and what I assumed was a glare was quick to put me back in my place. "Ok Dingy... lets not piss off the ghost..."

I went in for a closer look and saw my cutie mark had been painted on one of the grates the ghost was standing on. I motioned for them to move and I lifted it out of the way and found a large travel case that had been sealed with some sort of magical lock. No doubt that this was Jet's doing, using the most advanced tech on something that was basically a care package sounded like something they would do.

"Nice! Good job! I think I'll call you lucky!" I said, but the ghost backed off shaking their head feverishly. "Don't like that one huh? Well... What do you want to be called then?" I asked. I watched as the thing looked around the room frantically before pointing at a poster of a Spark promo for their rocket program. "Jet? Space? Ship? What then?" I asked as all my answers were shot down. "Fine! Rocket? Fireball! Floaty McFloat Face!" I shouted in frustration.

It ran up to me and started nodding its head over and over again.

"Floaty McFloat Face?" I was met with confusion and a hoof to the face. "What then!? Rocket?" More nodding from the ghost.

"So you're a Rocket then? You want me to call you Rocket!?" I asked in bewilderment. They put their hooves up as if to say 'I have no idea what you are talking about' and trotted to the other end of the room.

Curious... I had my suspicions it was Jet's ghost or something, but I wasn't sure. I'm still not, but if this thing wants to be called Rocket, then Rocket it is. I went to fiddle with the lock and found that there was no key hole, no latch, no nothing. How the hell was I supposed to open the damn thing if there was no key hole. I leaned up against it with my side and huffed.

"How do you open a lock with no key hole?" I said to Rocket who was now trying their best to open a locker, but failing. Ghost world problems I guess. I felt something pop under me and the lid to the case slid free.

"Access granted!" The lock beeped out. Oh... My Cuff was the key... Not sure how I didn't think of that sooner. It made perfect sense. How else would you keep prying hooves from opening a mystery crate like that, better to key it to this thing's signal. I pushed the lid out of the way and found a bottle of pills labeled 'Dietary Supplements', a box of hydrate food that you added water to to make it edible and canteen with some contraption on the mouth of it. Maybe to filter water?

"Hey Rocket! I got snacks! Do you eat snacks?" I asked jokingly. But they just kept trying to open the locker up.

My new possessions stowed away, I decided to lay out my blanket and try my luck with one of these... food pill things while watching my pet ghost do their best to try and grab things they could not grab. I popped one of the pills in my mouth and swallowed it down with a gulp from my canteen. What the hell was in there that was so interesting anyways? Now I was getting curious too.

I trotted over and reached through them to undo the latch and open the door. Even though they could not physically touch anything, they still had an effect on object in the form of light jostling. Truth be told, I was getting annoyed with all the clicking they were making and I wanted to stop it. I opened the locker and saw that it still had some contents in it. An old denim jacket with a phone in its pocket and a pair of headphones. Well, I have a jacket now and a phone that I can call nopony with, my day is made.

"Is this what you wanted?" I asked as I put on the jacket and took in the stare they were giving me. It wasn't a bad look, but I had no clue as to what to make of it. I trotted back to the blanket with Rocket in tow and laid down. I pulled the phone from my new pocket and began fiddling with it. There was no way this old turd had any battery life left, but I was amazed to see it light up when I pressed the power button. Rocket began hovering over me in what seemed to be excitement but sat back down in defeat when they saw the screen was smashed up.

The rainbow color of the bleeding LCD screen seemed to make my friend feel bad for some reason... More ghost problems I guess. I could make out part of some pony on the home-screen but it wasn't enough to put a face to the miss-colored body. The only thing I could seem to interact with was the music folder, so I gave it a tap. If nothing else, maybe I could get an idea of what the owner used to listen to. I couldn't see what I was selecting, but I ended up selecting some type of violin music that played out in a high pitched tone and filled the room around me.

It was as if the player was using their stringed instrument to sing and the rest of the band was just the background music. It was very pretty and calming, even more so for Rocket as they had rested their head on the blanket and listened along with me. With each passing second I felt my stomach become fuller as the pill expanded and as I was sipping on my canteen of fresh water. This was the most at peace I had been since I got here. The lack of pony interaction had taken its toll when I first got here, but now things were starting to level out and I was actually beginning to find peace.

My Cuff beeped just as I was about to fall asleep, making me jerk in fear from the foreign sound. The sudden movement sent Rocket rocketing across the room to hide behind a trash can. Funny how a ghost can be afraid of anything, you would think having the power of not being touchable would give you courage, but you would be wrong. I opened the screen and tapped the new message and let it play.

"Dingy... Jet here. I got your message but there seems to be some sort of latency issue, I can see the timestamp from when you sent the message, but we are receiving them hours later. I went over the empirical data that your Cuff attached, it must be a paradise there. I'm seeing a 20% increase in oxygen content in the ambient air, relatively mild climate and it detected airborne particles of pollen strains from endangered plants here in our time!

I know that sounds like good news to you... but knowing what I know from seeing the data, I'm afraid the situation you spoke of to Egress is more dire than we expected. Two of the spore types it identified are nearing extinction and one of them... we haven't seen in over ten years now, meaning it has made a full comeback. If that be the case then I fear what you are seeing is the result of something that will happen soon.

There is another issue we are dealing with. Dr. Egress has been removed from the lab, Dingy. We don't know why or for how long, but she was escorted out earlier today under gag protocol, meaning she can not speak to anypony. I guess it is just you and me, girl. The team is still intact, but only if we follow orders not to pursue this venture any further. Don't be scared, we are not going to stop until you are home. But we have to work after hours so that we can fly under the radar.

I was able to convince them that I would use you as a case study to get further data. The very idea of actually having to go through with it makes my guts tear up, but it's what I have to do to get you back here. Dingy, it is important that you know that we are on your side, none of us agree with the orders they are giving us. They made me head of the department, such comes with it's own liberties, but even still I am sending this to you on my own personal device that I established a link to you directly.

From here on out your Cuff will send the lab automatic updates about your surroundings, I will send back locations for you to explore so they are none the wiser, but this is going to take some time to work through. You need to stay out of the city as well, I can't chance your messages being bounced off the Spark array and sent to the lab directors. If that were to happen... well it's best not to think about it. Dingy, they never had any plans to bring you back... They didn't even care if you made it.

Just know that I care. I want you back here. Not for the science or some data... I owe you as much to bring you back home. I got you into this and I will get you out. I have Clicky and Jade working on the spell as we speak, Vapor is working on the cast compression and I'm doing my best to increase the bandwidth remotely on your device to accept the file size. Magical Spell compression was Dr. Egress' thing, not mine, so I'm working with a handicap.

But until then... Send me a message, anything. You can cuss me if you want, I deserve it. Just please don't stop talking to me, it's the only way I can get you back home. I made some adjustments to the algorithm, the messages should come through much sooner, device to device. Dingy, send me anything, just let me know you are safe because I know you are not ok.

Jet out..."

The message ended with a beep, but instead of going transparent, the message deleted itself this time. I just stared at my Cuff blankly, trying to process all the information that had just been dropped on me. My mouth hung open and I started shaking, feeling my body on the verge of throwing up from stress and fear. I was never going home, I was stuck here with a ghost and nopony to talk to! I had mused about staying, but my hopes for coming home, setting things right, were all dissolving before my eyes. Small teardrops fell onto the screen below me that quickly began to turn to ice as a ghostly blue hoof came into my view.

Rocket, my ghost, was trying to comfort me? As if things were not bad enough, now I had to figure out how it was capable of hearing me and feeling my pain enough to want to comfort me. At least Jet sounded sincere in her words, letting me know that she wanted to get me back home. But what did it matter if I was going to die here? I rested my head on my hooves and sobbed quietly to myself. I felt its cold hoof run over my mane, giving me a chill that ran down my spine. As cold as it was, it was contact and right now it was what I really needed.

After some time, I hit the record button and began speaking. I needed to do something, anything to take my mind off this. So I chose hope and tried to forget all the regret I had.

"Jet... I do not blame you for this. It was a set up from the beginning. You couldn't have known, nopony could have known. I want to come home, I just want my old life back! The place I'm at is safe, but that's not what scares me. That ghost thing... It followed me out of town. It seems friendly, it is even trying to comfort me right now. It insists that I call it Rocket, even though it can't talk back to me. It's kind of funny how it seems as lonely and scared as I am, it wont leave my side.

I'm not afraid of it... What scares me is dying all alone. I don't want to die, but doing it alone is just so much more scary! It's like it could happen at anytime and I'm running against the clock. At least this place is beautiful. The city is just... but outside of the city is everything I dreamed it could be. The air is crystal clear and fresh, the water is clean and even the grains taste sweeter. I guess if a mare had to die somewhere, this is the place to do it in.

The bunker you sent me to, it's cold and a little creepy, but with my pet ghost it's not so bad. They glow in the dark! Just... tell me what I have to do to come home and I'll do it. I know you can do it, I believe in you... I just wish I believed in myself enough to not be so damn scared.

Dingy, out"

I tapped send and curled up for the night.

Comments

[Sylica telca]

Of course they never planned on bringing her back if she lived