The three of us couldn't agree on what to do next. Ryan was bordering on hysteria and his judgement was... unsound. Jonathan was using the incident to advance his pet theories about the town. Mine was the only rational course of action.
Ryan kept babbling nonsense.
"This isn't the right way. Somethings not right about this place. And why are we even here?"
That coward was rapidly approaching the limits of my patience. I had to calm him down, so my arm around his shoulders and grasped the nap of his neck.
"We're here to move forward, aren't we? We're progressing towards a goal, and we can't move backwards."
Ryan simmered and stuttered, and Jonathan used the pause to illuminate us about something nobody cared about.
"This must've been a mining town..."
"So I guess that must mean there is a mining shaft. We should find it."
As soon as I uttered those words, Ryan began quaking with terror.
"That's not a place we should go. We should go back."
He was growing madder and madder by the moment. His thinking had been tainted by caution. I'd have to keep a close eye on him.
I'd have to persuade him carefully.
"Remember what happened to Eliza, when she decided to go back? Remember what happened to Pablo or Jacob or Jonathan when they decided to go backwards?"
"Jonathan is still with us."
Jonathan stared into the doorway of an abandoned house, looking into the void.
"Is Jonathan still with us? He went backwards with the rest. We're the only two left because we're the only ones who kept going forward, no matter the cost. We're going to have to find the mine shaft."
Jonathan muttered something about nobody being in the town, but there being no sign of violence. He was perception was clouded with details.
"Focus!", I snapped.
"We're almost there. I see the mine shaft and we have to go down it."
"But I... I don't see a mine shaft..."
Ryan's cowardice at the obvious reality was contemptuous.
"Well I guess that's because you're perceiving the past, while I'm perceiving the future. Jonathan is still perceiving the inside of that house, and I'm noting that he's perceiving a shovel. So you're going to start digging the mine shaft right here, and right now, in our present. Jonathan, bring Ryan the shovel."
Jonathan absently walked into the house, and brought Ryan the shovel.
Ryan was crying.
"Why do we have to go down?"
Fucking coward.
"Because going back is not an option. We can go left, we can go right, we can go forward, or we can go down. We could go up if your bitch ass grew wings, but you've got a shovel in your hand right now, so we're going down."
"But... why?"
"He'll answer those questions when we meet him."
(post is archived)