I Finally Landed, But This Place Is Not Home

The children of Marifah ran up the towers of God, for there were no trees left in Heaven to watch the sun.

Mm-ee-ll-aa was one of the first to climb God's City and watch the skies go from blue to red, to green, then finally black. Like the other children, when Mm-ee-ll-aa would wake up the first thing she would do is get her feet blessed by Marifah and travel to the city.

Despite subsisting on the same food as all the other children, Mm-ee-ll-aa was quite graceful when traveling, some say dancing, throughout the ruins. In a different era, the children would get jealous at Mm-ee-ll-aa’s ability but in this world, all they could do is praise her, for what could be the nature of better vs. worse when all was under the dominion of Heaven?

Mm-ee-ll-aa jumped from building to building, looking below at the wonder of the city. Many districts had been submerged, others in eternal flame, but the worse was those districts that looked unchanged from the old times. Because those were there the places where Geyre’s Hunters lived. Deadly, dangerous men who ate human flesh and whose gaze could turn you to ash, or so the stories go.

She finally arrived at her favorite spot in the city. There was a sign near the top which was written in the ancient language. A traveler once came to God's City and told Mm-ee-ll-aa that they both shared the same sound. She still remembered how he pronounced the tower's name, "Metlife."

Mm-ee-ll-aa found an empty window while climbing and went in. They were told not to go into the buildings and to stay outside. But Mm-ee-ll-aa loved to learn about the old ones. She fashioned herself as a veritable Beller.

The Beller, an ancient man, who they say traveled to every corner of the world and captured 10,000 Wonders. He lived in a time when men were still able to swim and when trees still grew. Some sages recall that when Abirt cut down the last tree in Heaven, the Beller was the one who slew him, bringing balance to Marifah’s world.

Mm-ee-ll-aa walked through down a vast hallway peeking into the rooms. Many were untouched and still had primeval tablets and other small antiquities.

Suddenly, as her eyes glazed from one spot to another, she found herself looking at a treasure. It was a thin white sheet with a small drawing at the base. It was a tree. She quickly tore the image off and started to leave the building.

BOOM!

Mm-ee-ll-aa instinctually jumped back and hid behind an office desk. Whatever made that blast was close by, perhaps only one story above or below her.

She laid on the dilapidated wooden floor and crawled to the window, sweat on her forehead growing. The blast could have been made by anything: a wonder, a God, a tribesman. In the great province of Heaven, the priests told the young ones to flee when anything unusual happened in the city. But Mm-ee-ll-aa stopped following the cosmic path years ago and vowed to follow the Beller’s wisdom.

Mm-ee-ll-aa looked over the edge of the window and saw that the sound came one floor beneath her. She stepped onto the glass and walked down the side and peeked into that bottom floor from the top of its window.

Inside she saw the cause of the noise. It was a capsule, smoking and shooting sparks like that of a traveling Angel. She slid through the window opening and leaped behind a toppled cabinet.

A hissing sound came from the capsule and a door jutted out from the side. A man walked out, clad in white. What shocked Mm-ee-ll-aa most was not the SCP logo on the side of his shirt, the weapon in his hand, or how exotic his clothes were. It was that his skin was clear and clean. The only person that had soft-looking skin like him was Marifah himself.

Mm-ee-ll-aa’s eyes were peering up from the cabinet and the man turned and glanced. She slipped down, in an attempt to not be seen but it was too late.

What the hell was that? thought Lieutenant Samson. He popped his head outside of his lander. Where am I? This doesn't look like Omicron Null. His eyes darted around the room.

Samson's hand fumbled around in his backpack till he found his pistol. He was on his way to meet an associate across worlds but for some reason, the extraversal jumper he was sent crash-landed in what seemed to be an abandoned building. There was dust, glass, and an overall sense of melancholy everywhere. The desks were overturned and there was a cracked glass panel to the side.

Samson walked out of the jumper and he immediately noticed a shifting figure near an overturned cabinet. He held up his pistol.

Samson rushed forward, it was critical that he understood the totality of his surroundings. When he got near to the cabinet, he sprang forward and aimed his gun…He didn’t expect a child.

He could tell that it was a girl, but barely. She wore dirty rags and had a cloth covering a large portion of her face from her mouth to her neck. What was most intriguing though were a number of carvings engraved on her face. There were four letters — "M" on the forehead, "E" on the left cheek, "L" on the right cheek, and "A" on her nose.

'"I might still be on Earth for all I know.' 'Hey, there. Do you speak English?" The child stared at him, but her eyes were curiosity rather than fear.

Wait, I think I have something. Samson slipped off his backpack and opened the zipper. The simple movement frightened the child so it started to slide back.

“Don’t worry. Shhh” spoke Samson trying to act soft. Something that would shock the boys back home.

Out of his bag, he pulled out a bar of hardtack and snapped it in two. He put one half in his mouth and held out the other in front of the child.

The child took the biscuit and uncovered the cloth that was around her face. To Samson’s surprise, the child’s lips were sewn shut and there was a small gash in her throat. She broke the tack in very small pieces and slowly threw them in. Samson's idea that this was still his Earth quickly faded.

The child leaped over the cabinet and went near the capsule. She stared at it for a while and Samson came over. Her eyes glanced at the capsule and they stopped at a familiar image. A double circle with three prongs pointing inward and three edges jutting out.

“Can you read?" Samson dragged his fingers over the words as he said, "These words say ‘Multi…versal…S…C…P…’” Mm-ee-ll-aa's ears perked up.

Before another word could be spoken, she leaped in front of Samson and in one hand grabbed an arrow that silently pierced the air around them.

For Samson, time seemed to slow down as he realized that they were just attacked. Samson brought out his pistol from its holder and squatted down. Mm-ee-ll-aa leaped onto Samson's back and guided him to the window. From there, she pointed down where Samson could see clearly.

Three hunters ready to catch their prey.

"Finally, some good fun!" laughed the Lieutenant.

The lieutenant surveyed the ground and found an overturned car. They were only two or three stories above the ground so he thought he could make the jump, so he did.

Mm-ee-ll-aa didn't expect that he would jump off the building. His feet were covered and she could tell he wasn't blessed. She grabbed on his back tights and kept clinging as they collided with the ground.

The clean man ran, dodging a great number of arrows, and hid behind an esoteric machine. She always thought it was decoration, but she never realized how great a shield it made.

As the arrows started to batter the machine, the clean man started to speak words, but like before, she understood none of it. She peeked above the shield and saw the three hunters. They wore black cloaks and their faces were covered in a dark red paint. Two held bows and one was barehanded.

Unexpectedly, the hunters stopped firing and the barehanded one started to speak.

"Lo! There are two things in the world, Gods and Men. If you are men, then you will die. If you are Gods, then we will die. Let us live, die, and repeat the pattern forever, for we are sons of Geyr…"

The clean man looked over the barrier and fired his mystical weapon at the hunters.

…Movement faster than light. That is what Mm-ee-ll-aa witnessed as the lead hunter grabbed the metal chunk that the clean man shot.

"Ahh," said the barehanded hunter as he closed his eyes. "Geyre blesses us today. One more lamb for the slaughter."

The clean man said a few words to himself, then ran. With his eyes closed, he raced through the debris with instinct as his only guide.

Mm-ee-ll-aa hung onto the man and looked back as the three hunters chased after. One took to the air, one through the ground, and the leader stood still as if he was waiting for the man to come to him. To be continued