After having some breakfast I prepare my things for yet another dive into the zone. I can still afford to take at least another day off, after that I need to really get back to finding some work. My savings are gonna catch up to me at this rate. I do freelance web development ever since I left my previous company, they were a bunch of slave drivers.

I’ve been trying the whole freelance gig for a while now, and while I can get by on it, it certainly is tough. I even have been considering going to look for another job in the same industry recently. Jobs in the web development space are pretty easy to snag after all.

I hold out my hand to activate the portal and after one final spot check, step through. Now that I’m back in the zone, I plan to spend the next four hours tops, exploring all the area between the North and South Edge, to see if I can find anything else ‘of interest’. I make sure that once again I have everything I need, before setting off. At this point I note the distinct lack of one overgrown hairball cat and can’t but help wonder where it scampered off too.

I proceed to head north for about eight hundred meters and then after placing some sticky notes on the ground, a whole bunch of them, I proceed directly west. I plan to circle around from west to east, right around the platform and repeat this process every seven hundred meters or so while traveling north. This way after a couple of hours I should have ‘mapped’ the entire platform. Who knows maybe I also run into that damn cat.

After nearly two hours of executing my plan, I finally come across another red pillar. This one however is about seven meters high. I momentarily consider my options.

If I were to fetch a folding ladder, it would probably only get up between three and a half, to four meters, not enough to reach the top. Another option would be to find one of those double extending eight meter ladders, that would work, but there’s probably no way for me to wiggle it through my flat, bedroom and the portal, it’s just too big. I could maybe fetch stuff to stack up and build a staircase towards the top, but I suspect that will take a lot of trips and a really long time to accomplish.

Then a lightbulb goes off in my head! I unclip my hairgun and charge a shot for several seconds, releasing it at the pillar. A decent sized patch of hair spouts off it’s side. I repeat this process, one patch after another, all the way to the top of the pillar. Now I have a rope ladder of sorts. I clip the hair gun back on my belt and start climbing.

It takes all my strength to climb it, which is too say not that much, having lived the life of a couch potato for the most part. About five meters up I realise that I am really high up and if I fall from here I’m probably going to break bones. Not good. Before I go any higher I decide to add some insurance.

I wrap some fur around my right hand, while still gripping it, for added support and then let go with my left hand. I use my now free had to charge my hair gun for fifteen seconds and fire it at the ground below me. A much large patch of hair pops up. There we go, now if I slip, that should break my fall. I clip the hairgun back into my belt and grab on to wall of hair once more with my left hand. At this point I try to untangle my right hand. Just as I finish untangling it, my right foot slips and the added weight amidst my mostly left hand only grip causes me to lose all traction and plummet to the ground.

I fall into my safety net on the ground, but fortunately the floor hair does it’s job splendidly, much better than I expected it too. The multi layered hair that shows up in a large patch like this apparently works very well to make it both soft and springy.

I get up and challenge the pillar to a rematch. This time, I make it all the way to the top and discover my prize. It’s a palm or hand sized tree, or at least something that resembles a tree without any leaves. It has many branches branching of many other branches, progressively smaller and smaller, just like a tree would.

I pick up the object and take note of its weight, it’s heavy, like some kind of metal. Added to this it’s gold color and I really begin to suspect that it might actually be made out of gold. I decide to take the shortcut back down, it’s kind of fun after all.

Once I land, I hear whirring noises. Shit I forgot about the pillar. I quickly scramble away from it as it starts spinning, twisting and folding in on itself, causing hair to get shredded and both shoot outwards as well as be thrown all over the place as it gets ripped to pieces during the pillars descent into the ground.

Once that comotion is over, I examine the statuette, I can’t detect anything unusual about it. It doesn’t seem to do anything, it just seems to be a regular ‘gold?’ statuette. So without much else to do, I simply put it away in my backpack and carry on looking for more red pillars.

Another hour and a half later and I have reached once again, the North Edge. That’s it. There was only that one extra red pillar. So I decide to call it a day and head back home before my time runs out, not like there is anything more for me to do here, that doesn’t involve suicide.

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After arriving back home, with about an hour and a half to spare on ‘the clock’, I head down stairs to eat the rest of my yummy egg, bacon and onion scrambled omelette mix thingy that I made for breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to find out then, that I had made too much of it and would be having it once again for lunch.

Well that was the plan anyway. Instead, there is a giant hairball on my kitchen counter busy eating it. Seriously? What kind of a cat, no matter how hungry he his, would try and go anywhere near an open portal like that. I seriously suspect this cat can smell food across dimensions.

I give up.

I sigh in exasperation and search my fridge for something else to eat.

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Excited to see what I can get for the tree statuette, I, using my masterful google maps skills, track down the nearest jeweller shop and go get it appraised. The end result of which, after dodging some uncomfortable questions about where I got it from, is that the statuette is indeed made of solid pure gold and worth at least six thousand dollars!

Of course I immediately sell it to the jeweller for half that and net myself a hefty three thousand dollars. This is nuts, I don’t have to work for the next month! And all it took was running around a fucked up twilight zone like place for a day or two. Then again when I think about it that way it does feel like I earned it after all.

Of course at this point my curiosity about what is beyond the timed platforms is at its peak, even if I really do have no intention of trying to cross it. So I do the only thing I can, head down to the nearest ‘tech’ store and buy the most expensive drone they have. Even though it costs me some of my hard earned cash, I consider it a worthwhile investment if in nothing else than making sure my curiosity doesn’t cause me to lose sleep over this.

The drone in question has an approximate one mile range, which should get me at least some idea of what's beyond the chasm, well hopefully.

With my new found toy, I return home and once again activate the portal and enter the zone.

The drone also has its own app for connecting to and monitoring its front mounted camera. The dedicated controller it comes with also has a nice slide out ‘hook’ for you to mount your phone in, so that you can watch the feed via your phone while using the controller to pilot the drone.

With everything setup and connected, I take the drone for a little test drive, to get the hang of it, while I am still situated near the portal. The first thing I test, is ‘up’. I fly the drone straight up, close to its estimated one mile range limit, to see if I can see anything up there, you never know.

The drone does not however find anything, before the controller starts beeping a warning sound at me, indicating the drone is close to going out of range, or I should say its signal is getting too weak.

So I bring the drone back down. The next test is ‘south’, to see if there is anything out there, past the edge of the world. This too results in nothing.

Finally, the last test I conduct is ‘down’. I fly the drone over the edge and straight down to see if there is anything down there, but once again, can not find anything. On the way back up however, I get a good view of the underside of the platform I am standing on. It looks very similar to the top side, but with one notable exception.

Every hundred meters or so, there is a glowing green sphere stuck to the bottom. I fly the drone closer to inspect one and it appears to be about a third of an actual sphere, basically a dome shape, just stuck to the underside of the platform and glowing with a faint green light. I can’t help but wonder if maybe these spheres power the platform or simply keep it afloat, or maybe both.

Regardless, now that I’m done with the initial batch of tests I wanted to perform, I pack up my drone and head out for the North edge.

A half hour later, I reach the North edge and then head west a bit to find the timed platforms section. I power up my drone and fly it across the chasm and into the unknown territory across the void.

Despite the platform that lines the other side of the chasm being a hundred meters long, there is basically only one ‘exit’ from it, a passageway about thirty meters in diameter spanning outwards, heading north.

Along this passageway that I am now flying my drone across, there are numerous pillars scattered, with a much higher density than before, but none of them appear special in any way. Before I even realise it, my controller starts beeping at me, signalling that the drone is at the limit of its range.

I sigh, about to turn the drone back when on the screen, at the edge of the drones vision, I see something. Not willing to let this chance slip by, I fly the drone closer to try and get a better look, while ignoring the controllers warning. As the object comes closer into view, I decide that it is not a strange pillar, but rather some other kind of structure, even though it is tall in shape like a pillar would be.

Just then the cameras feed cuts out. Shit. I try backing up on the controls to bring the drone back into range, but it’s no use, it’s out of range for that too. I just stand there glaring at the timed platforms for a while, wondering what that structure could have been, my brain running wild with all manner of crazy ideas.

Truth is though, in this place it could be anything and would likely completely exceed my imagination. The intrigue is killing me, clawing away at my brain and stripping away my insanity and reason.

I scream out loud in frustration and then take out my phone, back up a couple of paces and with new found determination, begin filming the timed platforms.