Wandering the Wasteland: A tale of two sisters

[jeneah]

The following is the diary of Dr. Wickerbottom, of the famous anthropology twins, the Drs. Wickerbottom. It was found near a nest of tentacles in a swamp among the scattered remains of a skeleton presumed to be one of the twins'.

 

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Day 0: 

 

At last! 

 

Tomorrow is the day. My sister and I have been preparing for years for our journey, and it is finally upon us. We have been able to convince the Portal Authority to send us to the depths of the jungle in search of the 4,000+ day-old community that once thrived there. No one has heard from them in some time. Have they chosen to seal themselves away from the rest of the world? Or has some terrible calamity befallen them? No one knows, but we intend to find out.

 

Conditions should be good on the ground. It will be early summer, and the last we heard from the inhabitants the land was verdant and food was plentiful. We are counting on this as we can only get through the portal with the clothes on our backs and a few sheets of paper. Our extensive survival training will surely come in handy!

 

 

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Day 1: 

 

What have we gotten ourselves into?

 

We popped out of the portal into what looked like the ruins of a once-extensive settlement. I barely had time to register concentric squares of half-ruined walls, however, before we were set upon by a clutter of spiders whose yellow- and black-striped bodies broadcast their venomous nature. We were separated in the chaos that ensued as I ran one way and my sister ran another.

 

As I fled I saw that the spiders were not just centered around the portal. Instead, they were *everywhere*. I ran past countless spider mounds, many fully three bumps in size. I even glimpsed giant roaming queen spiders in the distance. I stayed as far away from those as I could, and luckily none of them took any notice of me.

 

I finally got to safety, and I was able to stop, catch my breath, and take stock of my surroundings. It was a bleak picture. Everywhere I looked there was desolation. Although the land was teaming with spider life, I saw nothing growing out of the ground. There had once been trees, but now there were only charred tree trunks pointing mournfully at the sky. Instead of new life, all I could find was rot, and occasionally a pile of fermented seeds.

 

I tried to quiet my growing feelings of panic as I saw the sun getting lower in the sky. Without a fire at night I would surely fall prey to some loathsome creature. Fortunately I soon discovered a fire ring. I am huddled there now, feeding rot to the fire and listening to the terrifying clatter of spiders wandering around in the darkness. I have quieted my belly with a handful of seeds. If we don't find food tomorrow we will be in real trouble.

 

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Day 2: 

 

I am growing accustomed to the spiders. If I stay out of their way they leave me alone, although sometimes I still need to run to get away from them. Many of the spiders appear to be homeless and lay sleeping in the remains of the forest. I can safely run past the black spiders, but the yellow and black striped spiders are more aggressive.

 

Today I found more seeds, this time fresh. Can the land be returning to life? I even found a few pine cones which I promptly planted in the ground in a somewhat superstitious spirit of optimism. If we don't promote growth, who will?

 

I headed back toward the portal, avoiding the bulk of the spider mounds and staying out of sight of the spider queens. I found several fields of stone; it looked like a meteor shower had pummeled the ground. Piles of rot are the only remains of what must have been unlucky creatures in the way of the meteors. I was able to collect some flint, at least. If ever I find grass or twigs I can begin to put together the simple tools I need to survive. Luckily, evidence of human life is common, and I found many stone fire rings. At least I know I can last through the nights.

 

I was reunited with my sister who had a similarly harrowing night. Like me she has been unable to find any significant food sources. I shared what little seeds I have but I am very worried that we can't live on seeds for long. I am constantly aware that winter will inevitably arrive. If we don't secure a steady food source by then we may not survive the season.

 

Piles of manure lay everywhere as great swarms of beefalo gather in biomes never intended for them. Their conflict with the spider kind is evident in the scattered silk and glands. We gathered what we could, avoiding the rutting males who chased us across the charcoal forest.

 

What has happened to the ecosystem here?

 

We soon converged on the portal and made a grisly discovery we had missed yesterday in our panic. A great collection of human skeletons lay nearby, picked clean of their possessions. There must have been a thriving settlement here at one point, as evidenced by the extensive wall structures. Now they lie in ruins. What happened here? Did the spiders drive the people out, or did they come in only after some terrible tragedy?

 

A lonely carrot lay among the otherwise empty fields that were once so fertile. Starving, we debated whether to eat the seeds we have on hand or plant them in the soil. Grown vegetables will better support us, but will we survive long enough to harvest them? Hopeful for the future, we planted them. 

 

Among the spiders and the ruins we found a few tools. I took a pickaxe and we retreated to a safe distance from the spiders at a fire ring to strategize for tomorrow. My sister was even hungrier than I was, so I gave her the carrot. Now we stay close to the fire listening to the sounds of the night. We are both on edge, jumping at every little sound.

 

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Day 3:

 

It has become very clear that something terrible happened here; we continued to find piles of skeletons near ruined walls, and caches of human treasures abandoned for some unknown reason: stacks of lighters, partially used up tools, and piles and piles of rot. Spider hats dropped from dying spider queens give testimony to fierce battles now forgotten.

 

We bicker over whether to take these items or leave them to their corpses. Ultimately survival's demands win out over sentiment.

 

Once again we split up to cover more ground as we sought more intact signs of civilization. Soon my sister sent news of a settlement hidden in a giant swamp. I headed over there to see what we could learn of them.

 

It was an eery sight! It appeared as though all inhabitants of this once-thriving community simply vanished in a moment. There was food still in the cooking vessels and crops in the fields. At the same time the community had an overgrown appearance with trees, saplings, and tufts of grass at full growth.

 

It was an unlikely location for a community, surrounded as it was by the ocean on one side and a tentacle-infested swamp on the other. My sister's theory was that the location had been chosen to avoid the Noob people, while I am inclined to think it was to avoid Griefer kind. In any case it suggests that its creators were a rugged people unafraid of the inherent dangers of the swamp.

 

For this night at least we rest in relative safety with full bellies. We won't sleep--my sister and I never sleep--but tomorrow will still come. I intend to explore the swamp more fully in search of our missing hosts. Perhaps then we can solve the riddle of this lost civilization?

 

[Here the diary ends. What befell the Wickerbottom twins is unknown, although the location of the one skeleton suggests that one of the sisters fell victim to aggressive tentacles. The remains of the other Wickerbottom twin have never been found.]