After the Winter (The Silent Earth, Book 1) by Healy Mark R

Author:Healy, Mark R. [Healy, Mark R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-10-28T07:00:00+00:00

23

The closer I got to this thing, the more perplexed I became.

The first thing that struck me about it was its enormous magnitude. Although not as tall as a Grid spire, it nevertheless soared as high as any city building I’d ever seen and was far wider. I initially perceived it as two buildings rising up side by side in formation, however as I bridged the distance I saw that this was not the case. It was in fact a single, vaguely horseshoe-shaped structure, the southern section of the complex smaller and thinner, flaring out at its base and forming a sweeping curve that blended into the larger section on the northern end. This bulkier formation shared many of the characteristics, dominated by long, powerful lines that swept upward, angling inward toward the peak.

But it was the sheer scope of it that was most impressive. It must have been several hundred metres across at its base, and many times that higher. And yet it was stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

Notably, it appeared to be unfinished. Far above in the upper reaches I could see a cluster of monstrous cranes blooming from its summit like thick, rigid hairs growing from its scalp. These were situated on both the southern and northern sections of the tower and looked primed and ready, waiting for the arrival of workers who never came.

I kept a good distance at first, wary of Marauder activity, but it was obvious this was not something that belonged to them, or which interested them. They did not have the resources to build something like this, and it certainly wasn’t a base. In fact, there was no sign of life within at all. There was not even a scattering of construction vehicles or building materials at its base. It was as if this behemoth had simply sprouted from the wasteland of its own accord and now sat, unfinished and untended, its only purpose to create an enigma for slack-jawed passers-by.

A chain-link fence marked a perimeter about a click out, and that was as far as I went. Even at this distance I could hear the lonely sound of a loose pylon banging against the ramparts like a forlorn monk tolling on his bell. It was indeed, as far as I could tell, an abandoned construction site. But a construction of what? And abandoned by whom?

I had no recollection of this tower from my travels, nor did I recall hearing about it before the Winter. Granted, I hadn’t been this way for a long time. This was too far north, too close to home for me to have visited in my time in the wasteland. But surely if this project had been initiated before the Winter it would have been publicised and discussed. It would have been all over the Grid, the place where everyone knew everything about everything. I should have known about it while it was still just a concept, let alone a tangible thing of steel and iron and jaw-dropping immensity.

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