If you thought it was almost paradise being able to sleep in the emergency shelter compared to the ship. This experience was worlds above it almost like sleeping on the couch at home. Expect you not to have to be in trouble for forgetting to do something. Nope, instead, you are lost on an adventure in the middle of nowhere on a different planet.
It seems the room you were in somewhat detected that you were attempting to sleep. It not only turned off the lights in the middle office room. It dimmed the lighting in the rest of the building as well.
It was well past might night at this point. Thankfully would have quite a few hours before sunrise and quite a long time before needing to get back to your emergency shelter and the ship after that.
You are just glad you found a spot to sleep. It did cross your mind that perhaps you should have taken the emergency shelter with you. It is rather lightweight it would have slowed you down somewhat for doing so.
After a while of looking at the wood grains of the bench, you were on in what little light escaped into the room from the main office area. You drifted into a deep sleep. You were back on earth in the dome with your family.
In that dream, it was a nice delightful day when you took the family out for quite a walk around the busy city. It must have been autumn as you could almost smell the fake scent they release in the dome during that time of year to give people a relaxing session vibe.
Before you dedicated to leaving the planet you had no real sense of being outdoors. While you would not know it now you would never be able to enjoy a day in the dome like the one where you recall as you slept. Now that you got to enjoy fresh outdoor air trees that were not created by man in a lab. Let alone just how far you could see things off in the distance which many days in the dome were not even clear.
After quite some time you ended up getting woke up by the lighting on the building returning to normal. It was like it was saying it was time to go. You not wanting to question what was going on or risking over staying your welcome once you realized this place was doing a lot of things on its own and the lighting was not the only thing. Got up and left the middle office.
On the way out you decided to stop by the bathroom. While there did not seem to be any running water or understanding of how the toilets work. At this point, it seemed to not matter. You could only hope whatever automated system that was running would deal with it as you left the bathroom after a short while not working out how to flush.
Before heading out you stop at the reception desk one last time. You take a seat and enjoy the last food cube you brought for this adventure. The rest of the day you would just have to rough it without food. There was however no shortage of it on the ship to resupply with once you got back.
You then walked up to the hologram door and this time just walked through it as if this was something you did every day. You decided to take one last look at the building which just appeared as a rundown house overtaken by nature. It was then time to head off back home.
It was surprisingly bright to the point you did not need the light on your wristwatch light you did getting here to see the final path forward. It was like the forest itself was bringing in extra light to ensure you had a safe journey out of it.
The walk took quite a few hours. The path would sometimes wind a little. You almost did not quite notice it, however. This time however since you knew you would have lots of time to get back took things at a more leisurely pace.
It was also somewhat shocking just how many tree stumps and logs you ended up noticing this time around. All of them looked quite welcoming to just sit down and enjoy the view of the place for long amounts of time.
You never stayed too long resting in one spot. As your stomach would sometimes growl at the very thought of you spending all day in the woods. It was quite clear all this extra exercise was making you rather hungry. You never got this kind of real workout while on the ship.
Eventfully you see ahead of you the exit onto the beach. It looked like no one had ever been out there let alone walked up to the forest. All footprints of the start of your adventure had been washed away by the tide. It looked so tranquil you almost did not want to leave the forest in the first place and disturb the sand with your footsteps.
As soon as you left the forest and stepped onto the beach. You heard the trees behind you. You turned and it seemed like nothing had changed. The trail back into the forest almost looked to be in slightly better shape than when you came across it the day before. This would just be yet another mystery you would never understand and soon forget about.
You still had quite the walk back to the ship. While it was tempting to head further north to see what else you might find. Any thought of that quickly vanished as your stomach reminded you it wanted more food. It was doubtful you would find any exploring further on. Back south to the ship, you went.
It was yet another incredible day on this planet. You almost forgot the entire reason to set off exploring this part of the universe in the first place. It sure seemed like what you were looking for was not going to be on this planet.
The thought did cross your mind that perhaps you might never leave here. While you loved your work you had nothing else to return to. You doubt if you did find what you were looking for you would even get some kind of hero’s welcome. You would more than likely just get a small promotion assuming they have not already written you off as dead and terminated your employment and all benefits.
You had one wandering thought after another but the kind of life you could have here. Perhaps with enough time you would even find out why there seemed to only be plant-based life here and nothing else.
After far too much walking you noticed you were off in the distance of your ship. Daydreaming about staying here forever started to fade out of your mind the closer you got. For now, at least you still had other places to explore it made no sense to think about leaving any time soon.
Once you made it back to the ship and the emergency shelter. You decided it was time for a quick dip in the ocean before drying off and heading into the ship to get more food cubes. This day ended up being better than you could have hoped for and it helped having found that dark blue ID card.
The ID card itself was yet another thing that kept popping into your mind. Wondering what it was used for. After a few internal debates with yourself you conclude it was doubtful you would find any use for it outside of that office building you had found. You however for some strange reason felt like that was the wrong way to think about it and kept the ID card safely in your backpack. Sometimes double checking it was still there as if it might vanish.
You decided to have quite a lazy rest of the day. You were in no rush to get anywhere. You wanted to give yourself some time to recover from all that walking as well. While it was starting to get rather hot out by mid-late afternoon a decent breeze had almost picked up cooling you right off again.
Content is written by @Enjar of @Enjargames.
