With every step I take on the mild and rocky surface, my legs feel like they will collapse from the weight at any moment. Not long ago I started to climb and ascend one of the mountains of the range and already fatigue began to be felt in my whole body, that I had not trained enough for such a climb, but for lack of choice, I had to do this. All the weight that is mostly on me, the plasma rifle that is on my side and a knife that is in one of the pockets, do not help me much on this moderate climb until the light started to disappear and I managed to find a flat and smooth surface on the way, wide enough for me to lie on it together with the equipment on the side.
As soon as I managed to reach and take off the equipment, I collapsed from exhaustion and sat down on the hard surface, breathing heavily. I decided to take advantage of the rest to look at the horizon as the sky began to darken. I could see how the desert spread along the entire horizon. And also how far I had come since I abandoned the car I could see from afar how much I had climbed. The car looks like a small and indistinct dot, which has not been very long, but there is some progress. I moved forward to the equipment and took out the water tank and one of the large fruits I found and began to devour them while watching the sky. I asked Rosalina to project the hologram of the route and a visualization of the map, I could only see half a mountain, the calculated route, and how much was left to climb.
"Rosalina, could you stay with my current speed, the equipment I'm carrying and the course spinners, how long will it take me to get to the other side, at least according to the map?"
"Positive. It will take you 2 days and 13 hours to pass through the nearest ravine between the nearest mountain junction"
"Not an easy distance"
"According to your physiological processes, I recommend you take breaks whenever possible"
"I think based on how I feel right now, I'll be taking a lot of breaks"
At that time the sky had already darkened and the whole place became extremely dark. I started getting ready to sleep on the surface and closed my eyes. I don't know how long it was until I felt a very strong tremor that forced me to wake up and get up when darkness was still ruling the sky. I quickly got up to try to decipher what exactly had happened but not even a sign of a fall or movement of stones was heard.
"There was an earthquake just now"
"Negative. I did not detect any seismic movement during your sleep. According to your memories, you did experience one"
"Extremely strange, I think I'm imagining things"
"Negative, no physiological activity indicates that you are hallucinating or in some kind of sensory overload"
"It makes it even weirder now"
"I don't have an answer or an explanation for the doubt" Rosalina replied and I went back to try to sleep, but I started to feel again, but with an even stronger intensity until I stood up from panic. I moved away from where I was sleeping but again nothing was seen or heard to indicate that any earthquake had been felt. I decided it was probably time for me to continue climbing the mountain. I took all the equipment and got organized and started with Rosalina's instructions to continue climbing the mountain. I took a distance until the light of dawn appeared, from my side, low trees and needles began to appear scattered throughout my field of vision. I didn't give credit to them, but I guess Rosalina scanned them and added them to the list of 'I have to document everything' or something, but that didn't stop me from moving forward. By the time the sun began to move high into the sky, I already felt that I could not advance any further, even though I was walking slowly and the climb felt relatively easy, but I don't know yet how far I climbed, especially the low trees scattered around me that served as anchors. I decided to stop for another break before trying to draw any conclusion. Suddenly Rosalina began to scan something strange:
"Colin, I've detected a geological anomaly in the direction of your trajectory"
"Can you elaborate on that? I'm afraid it might affect my walking pace"
"Positive. The geological time differences do not line up between the layers of the mountains. In this particular layer:" She marked with a laser the area she was talking about - you could see a big difference between the red layer and the black layer that was above it:
"The red lower layer indicates that this layer was formed only a few tens of millions of seconds ago, something that is known and known. But the black layer above it, my scanners indicate that my time is significantly different"
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"Isn't that how a geological layer is supposed to behave?" I, as part of my training, studied basic geology to estimate the composition and time they formed on other planets, so I have some knowledge on this subject and I guess that's why Rosalina started talking about it:
"Positive, but this deviation is more extreme than ever recorded"
"How much of an anomaly is this?"
She was silent for a few moments as if she was trying to organize a clear or logical answer before:
"According to scanning - this layer is between 5.9 billion years old"
"I'm not sure that's true" I answered her. As far as I can remember it is between 4.64 billion years or so, but it is older not only than the Earth, these than all the planets and the Sun itself: "Did you check it again? Did you rehearse?"
"Positive. All data is repeatable and accurate."
I thought to myself that I am once again encountering a situation where I do not understand what is happening. Even though I have a scientific background, it just adds to the madness, and for a change, I would be happy not to hear something like that so close. Enough of the forest around the treeless metropolis, enough of the desert that appears out of nowhere, and now they also want to tell me that the place I'm going to step on soon is more ancient than anything else I know. I think at this rate I will lose my scientific sanity. I regret that I even wanted to join this research team if I had known all this was going to happen. I decided it was my time to move on and not try to hear from her again shortly. I took my equipment and continued to try to climb the mountain so that now I can't see the peak that started to be covered with clouds.
Within moments that were described as tiring, I crossed the layered boundary that she had only recently spoken to and I simply continued forward and ignored its existence. At least I tried and it turns out that this transition also indicates that the climb is going to be more difficult. With every step I took, I had to maneuver between the broken and unstable stones and rocks. This whole place felt like it was going to collapse at any moment, but in practice, it doesn't happen. As much as I could, I followed what was pointed out to me and walked gently to try not to step on a breaking point and fall. I looked back at a certain point and saw how high I had climbed - I could now see the line of the metropolis and the forest that had taken over behind the great desert. It gave me hope that I would make it to the other side of the mountain soon.
Soon it's not something I think I'll see anytime soon while I'm just trying to navigate through all the stones and rocks. It took until the sunset came and I was able to get past this problem area. The transition between the zones is particularly noticeable - all the rocks and stones I passed earlier have been replaced by low bushes and strange mosses that look like needles sprouting up, but at their end, a perfect circular shape of leaves arranged and looking at the setting sun. Like 2 different snowflakes, it felt to me. And speaking of snow, when I looked up, snow was beginning to cover the higher places, but I hope I won't have to climb that high. I continued to move forward and pass through the low vegetation, in order not to step on them and possibly slip from them by mistake. After a short uphill distance since the transition, I found another flat and even surface and there I decided to stop for the day.
After getting organized and freshened up, I got ready for bed while focusing on just checking how much I had left. I noticed that water and food are starting to run out and from what I'm guessing, it will all run out after I cross the mountain. I just hope I can find something to fill my inventory with. The thought began to overwhelm me and made me fall asleep. A strong tremor again was felt so much that it woke me up to the call of the rising dawn and I jumped away until I almost slipped. I was scared for a moment and took a deep breath, and after I calmed down and the shaking did not return, I moved towards the equipment and decided again to continue climbing. Suddenly dots appeared on the map and I immediately knew there was someone else there. I quickly picked up and followed the track and try to avoid these points. Suddenly one of them advanced in my direction, but they are not represented as hostile. I made my way up slowly until the creature appeared from among the rocks - a particularly bright white creature with six legs, each of their hooves. Six eyes on each side of his long face and a jaw that resembles a goat and a crocodile looks at me for a moment and then looks away from me. I slapped myself before moving on.
The continuation of the sensitive climb compared to yesterday is much easier and more comfortable until I finally managed to see the ravine connecting the 2 mountains. The more I advanced towards it, the more I hear the roaring noise of flowing water. I continued to move forward and I thought - this is a river flowing from the mountains through this ravine, and just in time! I advanced next to the flowing and particularly clear water. Rosalina confirmed to me that the water was safe to drink and I collected as much as I could of the cool and pleasant water after a short time of rest, I decided to move deeper into the ravine, in the direction up the river. The steep slope that I felt at the beginning of the climb was replaced by a more comfortable and easy walk, and near the stream of the river, many mosses grew of different types, but I ignored the beauty and just want to reach the other side. I took giant steps now that it was possible me until I came to the splitting of the river into 2 small rivers, each of which came from a different mountain. I was looking for a way to pass through them, and luckily when I entered them, the water didn't feel deep or difficult to move through. With this trace, I began to cross them. Out of nowhere in the middle of the transition, Rosalina started talking:
"I detected an unfamiliar movement"