Plateau

Three days ago, Shari woke before dawn and looked out over the landscape. As the light bled into the sky, fires extinguished one by one atop plateaus as far as the eye could see. She looked to the north and felt dread settle in her gut. The fire on the nearest neighboring tower continued to flicker desperately, alone, inconsistently illuminating bare ground. There was no one there to cast a shadow anymore.

She took a head count of her companions. Three still asleep, one had risen and extinguished their fire. All there.

The day passed and Shari was absorbed in her thoughts. When she felt the fire roar to life behind her in the evening, she counted again.

There was one person less than in the morning.

When had they gone? Why had no one said anything? Had anyone noticed? The questions crackled like electricity inside her skull. A minute later, Shari determined it was best not to think about it.

---

Two days ago, Shari woke before dawn. She didn't wait for the light, or for her plateau-mates to stir. Even if she stayed to explain her plan or say farewell, they would likely be silent. Their stony, unchanging visages would give as much reply awake as they would asleep, as they would dead.

Shari looked over the edge of the plateau. There was no way to gauge the distance. She simply had to believe there was ground down there, somewhere. One last time, she tested the crude tools she had fashioned from the same rock she now intended to follow to its base. They didn't break. That would have to do.

Without a word or even a glance, she swung herself over the edge.

---

She had been clinging to the rock face for the better part of two days, inching downward with caution. It wasn't really courage or determination in the traditional sense; there was nothing else that could occupy Shari's mind. There was no past, no future, no hope, no fear. She lived a lifetime in each moment, in each movement of one limb to a place of progress. Her stamina was constant because she had no alternative. She had no time to be human, if human was truly what Shari was. Maybe she was just a dream.

Once in a while, Shari looked around. Sometimes it helped. Sometimes it didn't. There was nothing to see but sky, dust, space, and other columns of stone standing like a forest. There was nothing to see, until there was one thing to see, and Shari wished she had not seen:

While looking into the space over her left shoulder, Shari saw a shadow fall. It was rapid, soundless, and somehow dense. Shari forgot not to think; the distance between the figure and herself implied they hadn't merely stepped off the ledge. They leapt.

---

Eventually, she slipped.

Shari couldn't know the height from which she fell. She couldn't know the speed of her descent. In fact, it felt as if she were suspended in the air. Nothing seemed to move. The sky, the space, the rock all looked the same as it had in the first hour of her journey. Shari found it difficult to feel afraid when her senses were unconvinced of her peril. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to die this way after all.

She closed her eyes and pictured the ground she would inevitably hit. It probably began with the same dusty rock, holding up the towering mounds of dusty rock. Maybe there was a road. Maybe water, somewhere. It would be difficult to tell beneath the layers of clothing, tissue and bone of Shari's predecessors. That seemed the most likely scenario, now: piles of bodies with stony, mask-like faces frozen in the expression they wore in the last inch of space before their impact. Shari could imagine it so clearly. Perhaps someday the sea of corpses would be thick enough to cushion a fall...

---

The impact never came. When Shari became tired of waiting, she opened her eyes. It was before dawn. She was flat on her back atop a bare, rocky plateau. A fire, smiling like an old friend, illuminated several sleeping forms. Turning her head, Shari saw twinkling pinpoints of light marking the countless identical mounds as far as the eye could see.

Shari couldn't quite remember what she was doing before this moment. Thinking it through, she must have been asleep and dreaming. She had a feeling it was one of those "falling" dreams. Maybe it would come back if she closed her eyes again.

Yes, that was enough thinking for today. Back to sleep.