They’d make their way across the landscape, scaling one island after another under the foreign red of the sky, but the green of the grass offered them some familiarity, and that was enough.

They knew not what their journey entailed, but at least they knew where they were going, or rather, they knew their destination. As such, they kept going.

There was no tangible goal, or anything for that matter, heck, even the horizon was just a visage of broken mountains.

So, it’s not hard to imagine why they had stopped after a few minutes of struggling, unable to comprehend the meaning of their journey.

The direction they had chosen, was it the right one, the advice they had been given, would it even work. Those thoughts would permeate, but before they could waste any more time, Brody and Kim would start the journey once again.

They seemed to know where they were going, even though the entire place looked the same. The other two would follow in their lead, still, nothing was said.

It’s not like they wanted a conversation either, only May was unaware of the gravity of the situation. She was asleep when the proposition was made on her life, but Bob remembered, and he didn’t like where all the dots lead.

“Hey… do you guys know where we’re going?” The small girl would catch up and walk beside the two.

They would make some distance between themselves and her. May would look back at Bob, but even he looked away.

“You could say so…” The woman did respond, though her voice was muffled by her gnashing teeth.

“Oh… did you know about this place too?” May would move closer once again.

“Could you stop…!” The woman was not pleased by her infringement.

“I… I’m sorry…” May moved away from them.

“Yes… we knew, and what…?” The woman started to walk even faster alongside the brute.

This forced the other smaller two to put in more energy than they needed to.

“What is this place?” The girl chose to ignore the disrespect, though her voice did drop a few too many decibels.

“The result of one of ‘her’ many experiments… or as—us… humans know it—The Collective Unconscious of all living and sentient beings, The Imagination, Limbo, Sheol, The Realm of the Ego… or as ‘they’ called it… The Abstract… Ever wondered why your dreams make no sense…? This place… Why did the people of the past believe in life after death and the realm of the spirit…? This place...” Kim knew a fair bit.

“Uhhh… how do you know all that…?” May was not shy with her words.

“That… is none of your business…” The woman shot May a look from the side of her eyes.

The girl broke eye contact, confused, her heartbeat quickening.

“Haha… Actually… I guess it doesn’t matter anymore… research started on this ‘place’ a long time ago, but first it was theorized… or philosophized, whichever way you want to say it… Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, while they did disagree on a fair bit of ideas, their main ideas about their being the ‘unconscious’ is correct, in fact, they were both correct. This place affects everyone giving them what Jung would have called ‘Ancestral Memories’ but what we call the ‘Transpersonal Hereditary Bias.’ The other important aspect of this place that Jung managed to figure out is its effect on culture at large with each having similar themes and imagery all because of those ‘Ancestral Memories.’—” Kim would be cut off.

“T-that isn’t what she a-asked… h-how do—” Bob would interject, briefly.

“You think I don’t that…?” Kim looked back at him, and he seemed to shudder.

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“Continue…” May wanted to take back her question, truly, but Kim wasn’t in the best mood.

“As I was saying… past those memories we come to ideas such as life instincts or Eros, death instincts or Thanatos, cathexis and anti-cathexis… How to explain it…? The ideas I do believe were presented with a simple connection but in truth they are all integral. Cathexis is the investment of your psychic or libidinal energy into self-preservation and gratification, otherwise known as Eros, and Anti- cathexis is the investment of your energy into self-harm and self-destructive tendencies and desires or Thanatos. Our ancestors’ investments created ‘Transpersonal Hereditary Bias.’ Those then shaped the old world unknowingly and they came to ruin, but the energy that was invested into those ideas persisted in this place, and when the anomaly appeared it allowed that energy to pass over, but as specified, there are two types. As such, to harvest the beneficial energy, Olympus was built as a paradise to foster said energy. I know this because that was—…our purpose for being there, though you two didn’t know that. As for my rant, that’s because I don’t want you to ask me anything more…” The woman rolled her eyes.

“Well…” Her rant wasn’t enough for May.

“What now…? Haaaa…?!” The woman pulled on her hair and gnashed her teeth, she had become the one wanting to take back.

“What do you mean it shaped the old world…?” Was May not afraid?

“A concentration of the same type of energy resonates with the people and perpetuates the cycle of its own creation… war for instance. Ever wondered why the cycle could never be broken…? Smaller conflicts at the beginning of time, notably, Cain killing Abel, spiraled out into more conflicts and then in modern times, after the first two world wars the energy was so potent that it perpetuated itself creating smaller wars before escalating into another war… the last, and third world war… and that ended well for no one…” Kim let go of her hair taking a deep breath.

“T-third world war…?” Something that Bob didn’t remember happening.

The woman spun around, and while Bob did shudder and May looked away wincing in anticipation, her face was more confused than mad.

“Oh… yeah… they— you wouldn’t know that… would you…? Haha… ‘everything is in the public domain’ was it? You couldn’t put two and two together… why would you even need to explore the old world? Why did ‘those’ two call it a wasteland? I mean the radiation is gone for… reasons, but it’s still ravaged, nuclear Armageddon it was, and it was splendid!” Kim smiled from ear to ear, looking off into the distance as if reminiscing. “Hahaha…! Hehe! The world shattered…! And all of it came crumbling down… and then cracks started began to appear in this—!” She caught herself.

“Y-you saw it…?!” Bob wanted more, but did she not already answer the question.

“Ah—no… they only learned about it—Everyman Program… blah blah… societal rejects… blah… experiments… blah blah something something… stopping the Convergence… but they failed… who would have guessed that it was a losing war… no one could make tech strong enough to stop a phenomenon like that… to stop two worlds from colliding… it was delusion…” Kim shrugged.

“N-no… O-Olympus was built as a s-safe haven b-because of global w-warming and t-the like…? W-what do you mean…?” Bob would take hold of his head, a sharp pain, persisting at his mole.

May would do the same.

“They… it’s going to take a while for the effects of the NET to wear off Kim… go easy on them…” Brody finally contributed.

“I know… but I won’t…” Kim smiled. “So why not terraform? Was building an island easier than terraforming, of course not, you never questioned that? Oh wait… you couldn’t… Ever wanted to go back to the mainland yourself? No… and of course not…”

Bob and May would stop, falling to the ground as the pain intensified.

“B-b-b-but why?!” The small man couldn’t rationalize it, even as he contorted.

“Because they manipulated you… they learned how to influence the energy with little to no investment and they propagated it throughout your ‘safe haven’… giving you Artificial Transpersonal Bias and making all of you… sheep to the slaughter… How amazing it was to watch— Freudian slip… Hehe… haha… haha… hahahaha…!” Kim was spiraling herself, her face pinned up in a smile with her gum showing and her eyes widened.

“Kim…!” Brody started to sweat, and heavily so.

“Oops!” The woman seemed to snap out of a daze. “You get it… don’t you… in this place…” She looked at Brody.

“Of course I do… that’s why I’m keeping my mouth shut…” He wiped the sweat from his face. “But soon… soon…” His veins popped as he smiled himself, he’d shake his head though, returning to the timid man he should have been.

As for the two rolling across the ground, they’d feel a pulse to their spines that housed their mandatory implants and then the pain would fade. They’d then be filled with an impossible rage, their muscles tensing on their own.

“Think good thoughts now… or you’ll die… it’s up to you though… haha…” Kim thought back for a moment as she looked away. “Actually please think good thoughts…! You can’t die yet!” She ran to their rescues, pulling them close and rocking them calm.

As for the thoughts they used to combat the negative energy they were producing from the betrayal they felt, May thought of her brother and Bob thought of the joy of his research.

They’d calm down soon enough, clawing at shallow breaths as they tried to retake hold of their situations. They’d also take hold of Kim, though she was a little cold, not dead though.

The journey was looking fun, and it had just begun.