Chapter 48 - Geography

Jude and Tyra woke in the morning, having gone to sleep making no further progress on the meaning of what was in the Kryonomicon. Jude called a meeting as the sun was rising. When the people had gathered, he called for a silence over them.

“Council, I beseech you, we have a quest that we must undertake. A great tower rises somewhere in the world, and in it lies the answer to our questions and the hope for a better life than this hellhole of a planet that we remain in.

“The Messenger told the people who went to investigate that it lay in a place known as the capital. I do not know where this is, and so we must search every home that still stands for a map of the world. We must find where we live, and where this capital lies. We must find the tower.”

The people stood in silence. They did not know exactly what to think about this decree. They did not know why they should find the tower, but the force by which Jude spoke swayed them. And there was something else about him, some sort of otherworldly power putting meaning behind his words. It may have been his mental powers, but perhaps it was not.

The Free Council gathered up guns and food, and they left, leaving only a few people behind to guard the motel against any sort of outside threat. They walked in the direction in which the sun sets, the direction that had been explored the least.

They walked through destroyed and deserted neighborhoods, searching every building that still stood for a map that would give them the information that they needed to find the capital, and further, the tower.

Night was coming, and still nothing had been seen. So they entered into a large building that had somehow survived the destruction of the planet.

The building looked like it had once been used for conducting business of some sort. A large sign on the wall read “Smith Weapon Corp.” Some of the people who had used their guns frequently recognized it as the manufacturer of a number of the human guns that they now held. However, this place was no factory, rather a place to conduct business from.

They wandered down a hallway, searching for a stairwell to which they could explore the building. They were hoping not only to find a map of the world but also a place in which they could stay.

They wandered up to the fourth floor of the building, which still stood as brightly as it would have during the glory days of humanity. They entered into the office, and there on the wall was a map.

The map’s text was written in the human tongue, and everyone knew that it must be that of the Earth. It was blue and green, just as they had known that their own world was. No other planet had been known by humanity that shared those characteristics.

They found a number of cities labeled with a circled star, and the map key referred to these as “capital cities”. However, the people did not know in which capital the tower would be, nor where they were in relation to these cities.

They stared at the map for some time. They knew that the great island-city was close to where they were, but there were a number of islands in the world. Many of them had cities, and none had cities labeled clearly as covering the entire island.

What’s more, Jude knew that the city was destroyed under O’Conner’s commnad. If this map had been made when O’Conner was in command, that city would likely not be mentioned. Kysandra looked at the map and pointer her finger at an island off the leftmost continent.

“I do believe that that is where we hail from, the new city of York,” she said. “I am not sure why that is what I believe, but it feels right.”

They looked closer at the map. The city, labeled as “New York City”, was relatively close to a starred city. No mention of a tower was there in the capital, however the map would likely not show that as the tower was built after the invasion.

Jude pointed again at that city. “Who here believes that this is our homecity?”

No one besides Kysandra raised their hands. He looked around at them, then spoke again.

“Then we must do more research. Surely there are books somewhere in here that could talk about the cities of the world, and about what they are like. We have to find these books and read them so that we can learn more about where we are and where we must go.”

The people agreed. So they spent the night in the building, looking for books that would speak of the world and its cities. They did not find any, and so they settled into their makeshift beds uncomfortably.