Beyond the Wall Story

Story:
[Section 1]
	Early morning and we prepare for rebirth. What really lies beyond we don’t know, but we do know how to find out. Not everyone’s on board, however, they I must convince. I crawl out of the mushroom hut, notes in hand as I greet my Bugis citizens, with their claws, tendrils, and ears ready to catch what I have to say.
	I say, “We must climb! We’ve been stuck in this garden for generations, never daring to think what could be out there beyond our grasp!” They cheer, giving me the confirmation to carry on, “And like our ancestors who carried the torch here, next to the Wall, we shall journey up the Wall, hand in hand. Our snails will carry us, our ants will scout for us, and our beetles shall defend us from anyone who tries to impede our progress to a new life; beyond the Wall!”
	They shout uproariously and wave their appendages to the wave of my words and feeling. Some seem critical though, and as I feared, they comment:
	“What if we die?” “What real reason do have to climb?” “Why should we listen to you?” But before I can answer, others in the crowd dissent:
	“That’s the price we’ll have to pay.” “Didn’t you hear him? We have to find a new life like our ancestors did, who knows when the next rainstorm will happen!” “Because he’s our leader, duh!” The people had my back and I had theirs. So we prepared to climb with some going and some staying. I watch as Bugis’ say goodbye to their families. Young beetles leave their moms, men leave their wives, and people say goodbye. I myself must say goodbye to the place I once knew as home before it became flooded in a lake filling with huge drops of rain. The day’s trek is ahead of us.
	We find a dry patch of dirt in front of the Wall. It’s rock-face looks menacing, with deep, dark cracks and giant, white cliffs. It feels corse and dry with wet spots here and there. Everyone looks towards the caravan of snails with ladybug medics on top and ants trailing behind. The snails have ropes attached to them with boulders and planks attached and cemented on with hard pollen and plaster found in the dirt or on the Wall. First the beetles get onto the first row of snails, then the ants on the second row, and finally the normal non-combatant snails (of smaller size), ants, and other bug races. We are ready.

[Section 2]
	The ropes hold stead-fast, the platforms are secure, and the people are prepared. I load onto a platform with my citizens and we climb. It’s finally here, the day we’ve all been waiting weeks, months, years, decades in advance for. We’re properly excited about the whole thing, with some singing and clapping as we rise, though not dancing as to not knock anyone off. We raise over the first cliff and into a problem: not everyone can fit inside the hole. People start to argue and get a bit ticked off, but keep the overall spirit alive. We decide to just keep moving upwards until a bigger cave appears. But just as we’re halfway up the first cliff, mosquitos appear and swarm around us! We know these buggers all too well.
	So we fight the pointy-nosed attackers off, with medics hiding behind the snails, beetles poking at them with their horns, and ants crawling on to them as a distraction. I’m too focused on the leading the army and don’t see one fly towards me from behind. I narrowly duck under him, but he strikes a snail! The poor guy can’t take the blow and falls with several bugs trailing behind him. I yell for my lost comrades and start to violently attack the swarm around us. I bark orders and get our mini-catapults ready. We fire rocks at the horde and manage to escape them. They fly off with some injured and some falling the same as the bugs from before. That battle’s over now, and we must carry on despite the losses. We must climb.

[Section 3]
	It appears to be night-time. After climbing that second and third (yes, another small cavern!) cliff-face, we reach a big cave complex. Here we find something amazing, other bugs! They live in a meadow, full of thin, tall grass, little shops, and beautiful lights.
	I ask one of the residents what this place is, they respond simply with, “The Meadow in the Cracks.” I thank them and ask where we could stay. They quickly reply, “Anywhere is fine. We get a lot of strangers ‘round here and they ask a lot of the same questions, should probably put up a sign or something…”
	I reply with, “Thank you kind bug-or . . . what are you?”
	“I’m a bug all the same, just look different. Here we light up on our own (again, I should put up that sign).”
	“Huh, how odd. Could I let our citizens drink the water ponds? The snails and soldiers have been working all day.“
	“No problem, go ahead.”
	“Well thank you for the kindness, we’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
	“Don’t mention it, I will with the sign.”
	“Alright then, bye.”
	“Bye.”
	The rain outside fell as predicted, but we weren’t scared (at least after a little while). Instead we felt peaceful. The water was a welcome, relaxing noise. After telling my people the good news I went to sleep on some soft, yet hard, grass. I dreamt of the amazing things that could be beyond this Wall. Maybe more towns like this where people glow in the darkness, where water isn’t a sign of incoming danger but is instead a symbol of coziness and kindness towards strangers, letting them drink up if need be. Where there is curiosity anew with strange sights and bugs. Where death and misery isn’t a constant threat. Where I don’t have to lose a family in some “force of nature”, where the opportunity to save them doesn’t slip out of your hands. I hope and dream throughout the night, but those hopes were cut short by the darkened sun.

[Section 4]
	The battle begins and wakes me up. I see one of my worst nightmares. Half of my citizens and soldiers dead. I quickly rush over to one of my top soldiers still alive and ask him what the hell is going on.
	He replies, “An army of spiders and millipedes just came through the entrance and wiped us out, oh God.”
	Oh God indeed. I rush to the front of the battle and start giving out orders. I order the citizens backwards. I order the soldiers forwards. The grass is burning shorter and shorter. “I need a medic over here!” “We’ve a few injured citizens!” Which do I choose? Which do I choose? Soldier? Bystander? Soldier? Bystander? The grass burns shorter. Which one? Shorter. Which one? Shorter. Choose, choose! Shorter. Choose already! Shorter still…
	“Get them to the citizens!” I shout. Too little time to think, to act. I hate battle. I hate the pain of choice.
	But there’s no time to think on that now. I have order! I have to fight! I have to lead! No time, no time. Shorter, shorter. I see how the spiders are distracting us while the millipedes light fires near the defenseless and injured. I see how that could be trying to trick us into retreating into the cave and getting cornered, so I order only half of my men to go back and help them. That should do it.
	It seemed like a losing battle before but now we’re gaining ground! They’re being fought back, those horrific spiders and those long millipedes. They destroyed the dream. But that’s no matter, we’ve won. We’ve been freed to get out and escape to the top. The top of the Wall…

[Section 5 + 6]
	We did it…we made it to the top. Finally, after all the loss, all the suffering and hard choices, we’ve made it. I can see the sun, no longer obscured by the Wall for the later half of the day, I can see it in it’s entirety. I can see these giant bushes and weird stone structures off in the distance. I can see the distance! It’s all so wonderful, so beautiful and majestic, it’s so warm; finally. No more rainy days and cold nights, it’s warm and bright and cheerful and joyous and good and nice and happy and . . .
	And it’s starting to rain. We’ve seen others fall, but not like this. Not like this…please no. And so, we all fall. Everything for nought, for nothing. It’s all been downhill now since the rain started, getting washed away, seeing the town in the cracks scorched and bruised, and our own flooded…again. Not again. Why?

	Early morning and we hide away; we prepare for rebirth.