Letter

"The city forgotten by time awaits you, there you'll find the answers you seek for" that was written on the letter i received, inside an old envelope that i received some time ago, it wasn't explicitly adressed to me but i've been looking for something since i woke up in this rotten wasteland, there wasn't any clue of the sender or where was this city located but after asking and travelling for half a year i had a grasp of where to go, the Crossroads of Nowhere it was called, a place that in the past formed the three big cities that connected the country... country, that doesn't sound right anymore, anything related to order vanished since the collapse of everything, no one knows what happened, just the fact that a crisis occurred and the old world vanished. I don't remember a lot about me either, just the fact that i can't take off these bandages from my body, people usually think that my skin is burned or something of the like but it doesn't ache, the bandages are like my skin, irremovable and yet they feel light.

"We arrived" the old voice came from the driver, i put the letter on my pocket and thanked him for the rid. "This is a weird place kid, no sane person that came here went back but you don't look like the sane type though. Well, take care, whatever you seek here i hope it's there". The old man was kind of senile but he was the only one that knew the roads and he doesn't talked too much so it wasn't much trouble.

The sight in front of me left me out of breath, immense, hopeless, dirty and lost, those were my thoughts when i saw the iron entrance, with both doors now on the floor, no one guarded this big city anymore and the more i thought about it the less sense it makes that this city is empty as it is.

There was something unsettling about this place but at the same time it was sad that people were happy living here, i felt melancholic, life isn't that fun anymore, there is nothing to do, some things started to work again but it isn't the same as i imagine it to be before the world came to this. Kids playing in parks with their families, even pets, some of them were able to adapt to this new world but most of them became sources of food for the people and the population of dogs started to vanish.

I can only imagine how that "Casino" across the main street here lighted up the nights, how people were dressed as they want without worrying if it's of use to survive or not, i can only think about it and feel sad, i can only think about how i wanted so hard to be alive at that time. Thoughts flooded my head but it wasn't time to being like this, since i entered the city something or someone was tailing me and i'm not capable of defending against a gun, just brute force isn't enough either since i'm not that strong to begin with.

Slow and steady i started to make my way into the Casino, trying to come up with an strategy to intercept this fellow i made in and the sight was one to behold certainly, everything was unkempt, just like if time froze itself on that zone and everything worked, lights, music, anything you can think of as dead was brimming with the most beautiful light i've ever seen, i can't even start to describe my feeling as experiencing the beauty of the old world, it was like an oniric world, something brought my the imagination of a madman and yet i was there beholding the scenery in front of me.

-"Pretty cool, huh?" a soft voice said behind me

-"Yeah... i can't believe it" i answered without thinking too much

Damn, i came here because someone was tailing me and the first thing i do is getting ambushed from behind by the same person i was trying to ambush, what a shame of a hunter i am. I'm freezing, what if this person murders me in cold blood and i can't even reach what i came to find.

-"Calm down man, you're tense as a log" the voice spoke again -"To come to this lost place you have to be crazy or crazy stupid, both of them work for me but you don't seem the like, i mean, what are those bandages even?"

I didn't know what to do so i answered without sweating it, maybe he wants to know who i am.

-"I don't remember my name but you can refer me as the name the people usually adress me "Wanderer", those bandages are like my skin, i don't know how to take them off but they don't bother me too much, they guard me from the cold sometimes even. I came here because i received a letter about the matter."

-"A letter huh? Well, let's go from the get go, turn around"

What does even this means... a child, about twelve years old maybe, dressed with a black hoodie and jeans, clothes from the old world, he doesn't seem to carry any weapon with him, well i don't really know if he is a him, his face is certainly ladylike but at his age is probably common. Compared to the kids i knew travelling here that were dirty and ugly, he looks the part, like someone from another time or even world.

-"Hm, what are you staring at?" he said with a smirk on his face, trying to tease me. "Well, i don't really have a name too but i go by the name i find cool in that moment, right now you can call me...Go!, yes, that's it"

-"Does it mean something?" i asked

-"While searching the city i found this crazy looking place, something called "Japan town" and i found a game there, it was called Go and it looked really cool but it didn't have anyone to play so i bring it here."

Where to start, i don't even know what this "Japan" is. i'm kind of afraid to ask because that probably make me seem stupidier than i look talking to a child in this place but i really want to know.

-"Can i ask you something...Go?"

-"Yeah, fire it" he said worked up

-"What is this Japan you are talking about, it's something that was important?"

-"Oh man, you don't know about it? Well, i didn't know either but i found a book about it and it was a country before everything happened, and they were one of the most important cultures of those times, everything lost, a shame, but you can still find things left behind like i did"

That really sounds awesome, a country, culture... the old world really was something else. I want to ask more but i don't want to annoy him with a lot of questions, for the time being i want to sit down and talk about how i get to the place i'm searching.

-"So if i'm understanding, you think that the answer you seek will let those bandages off you? What are your theories, some kind of magician or something like that lives in this city?" he started laughing and mocking me.

-"I don't think so but if i received these letter it means that i can take them off, do you know where i can find it? This magician or anything that leads me to what i seek" I was getting anxious, something tells me that i'm not so far from it.

-"I'll be straight with you Mr. Mummy, this city isn't inhabitated just because, here in this massive place lies a curse, if you want to call it like that, after the great incident the world shaped some places with weird things, being this city one of them, i call them The Seven"

He started to talk about how this Seven were distinct entities that hold the city hostage with different means, some of them even force people to a state of permanent dreaming, it was something out of a fairy tale really.

-"...and yet i can help you with some intel, maybe the place you're looking for is the Library, it's the only place i can think of that may hold what you seek, maybe an old magician or some dumb anti-mummy potion, but to get there we have to cross the domains of the Seven, i can guide you if you want"

I trembled but it was the right call, i need this child as my guide and maybe things wil start to work the way i want.

-"I accept you as my guide but stop calling me Mummy, i don't even know what that is and it doesn't sound right coming from you."

-"Okay, okay, killjoy, you need a name then, something that suits you"

Go started to think hard about it, i don't really mind about not having a name but it would be cool to be referred as someone and not just a title. Maybe a name is the first step to know who i really am.

"Got it! From now on your name will be... Frodo"