Ola-hoy, the name’s Wayen Sao Francisco. Most Flatlanders just call me Way. My girlfriend’s name is Yuma Chong and we both remember vividly the first time we were allowed to go the drop. You actually have to be a legal adult which on our planet is 27 circles. They passed a law before I was born that you have to be of legal age because kiddies seemed to always wander off and blindly walk off the edge, plummeting to their doom. Some even espoused theories the kiddies were called out there by some unknowable force. My Grandpappy Gohen Sao Francisco says when he was just a wee and they allowed him to go, said he heard voices too, telling him to do crazy things. He didn’t abide, but this little girl Cho Santiago, she walked off the edge. The next circle was when they made the law.
I should clarify, that I live on Planet Zetetic and well, it’s not like Earth. Well there is one way it is like Earth, in that you know those old stories about the oceans when people thought the world was flat and if you sailed far enough, you would fall off. Well, that’s pretty much how planet Zetetic is. It’s flat and you can fall off of it, we call ourselves Flatlanders. Except on my home planet, say it with me ZE-TE-TIC, it is our town not an ocean that you sail off of at the edge of the world, it a place called the drop. The Drop as we call it is a black chasm that stretches as far as the eye can see. Many philosophize that there’s something down there or out across there, but nobody has successfully returned after falling into the drop. So no one really knows where it goes or how deep it goes. We really don’t even know how wide it is. Sanchez Ching master Astro-Glide stuntman attempted to fly over it nearly a decade ago but it is believed he perished since he has not returned. Scientists have come up with several theories about the drop
1) It is uncrossable
2) Don’t try to understand the drop. The drop is not scientific. The drop is magical. It does not adhere to the normal rules of science.
It is actually quite the draw for Trekkers as it is one of the seventeen wonders of Planet Zetetic. Our town San Pedro Peking is closest to the drop so naturally we get an usual flow of people coming to spend scripts in our town. Our town is about 5 treks from the drop. A trek is about 5000 feet.
Sorry, if I’m going to fast for you, life in San Pedro Peking can be pretty confusing.
We arrived in early morning, as sometimes the gusts in the evening are uncontrollable, under such conditions the drop is closed. I remember feeling a knot in my stomach, as I looked out over the horizon and saw nothing but darkness. We were still fairly far away, but the drop was a force, larger than the Applayas mountain range, wider than the Pactic Sea, at least that was what the flyer in San Pedro Peking said. I highly doubt anyone had measured the drop.
As the wind started to blow, there was a coldness that chilled my bones even though it was a warm balmy day. I gripped Yuma’s hand fiercely and she had this look like, maybe we’re still too young. As the wind intensified, there seemed to be a voice on it that howled, Nooooooooo. Noooooooooo. Nooooooooo. Myself and Yuma almost certainly started to shiver and it was not entirely from the cold air. The drop was a scary place that was for sure, like stepping over the lava flows of an active volcano or standing in the eye of a hurricane. Nature at its most awesome and spectacular, if you weren’t scared you were insane. As they got closer, the trees became all bent, twisted and gnarly from the high winds constantly bombarding them from the drop. Twisted Manpress and Cygrove trees crowded the path that had been traveled by literal thousands in just the last hour or so.
What Yuma remembered was that besides them, there were no living animals at the drop, not a bird or lizard or peek or shake. She noted there was nary a moof or weow. Everything was dead. Devoid of life. A silence that seemed to reach out and grab you. Then the wind began to howl again Noooooooooo, and she was sure some terrifying evil was at work.
As they passed the trees, there were odd creakings and amorous squeaks, noises one generally would not expect to come from the thicket. In the distance it sounded like a silo door was being closed. Tree sprites the elders said but Yuma thought those might be scare tactics, wild rumors invented to frighten children.
The wind began to blow even harder than before and Yuma swear the screaming howl she heard was somehow inside her head this time. She gripped my hand even tighter but I was scared sonic diarrhea less. Then I’m certain it was more than the wind, it was as if a great force began to lift her off the ground. I tried to hold on but the force was too strong. My grip started to slide, slowly at first but then her fingers slipped and she was whisked away off into the Drop.
