Cloud Cent Chronicles: Part 1 Chapter 2

 

The Village

Written by Cloud Cent

Edited by Night of the Sergeants 

 

The village was unlike any I’d ever seen. The fact that it’s called a village in the first place was the first tip off. I mean, there are no villages. Not for at least 50 years. And yet, here I am. The second tip off, before I even got to the entrance, was the grass. Grass! Near the city! I have lived in this city for over 30 years, travelling all over it for my work, and this is the first time I’ve seen grass this close to the city.

    The grass was a vibrant green, forming a square around the village. The only break in the luscious field was a single path leading up to the village entrance. Decorating the lawn were small figurines of men with blue overalls and red pointy hats. According to the national archives, these are gnomes. Lawn gnomes specifically. Makes sense. 

    You may be wondering why I feel the need to explain the grass in such detail. It’s because, even with that in depth description, you still are probably imagining it wrong. It is nothing like what is shown on TV. On TV, the grass is perfect, every square inch of it cut to exactly the same height. Each part is exactly the same color green. It is perfect. The real stuff is not like that at all. It’s imperfect and uneven and strange and beautiful.

    I walked up to the village gate. It was a true gate. I need not describe it, but I need to reach a word count, so I will anyway. Normally, gates are formed using hard light constructs. When a function is activated, a scan, or even by simply walking up to it, the construct is automatically deactivated. These standardized gates are the successor to automatic physical doors. If you want to read more about them, my friend and colleague wrote a history of these a few months back. 

    Anyway, I walked up and opened the gate. Inside, I was greeted by a few two story buildings, people hard at work farming, and just an overall calm demeanor. This is a far cry from the city, just 10 minutes away. First of all, the farming. I was under the impression that farming was a dead profession. After all, we can just process our food. Why bother working that much harder on it? Second, the buildings. They’re tiny. They look like something you’d find in the outskirts. Buildings meant to be temporary, only used when staying somewhere  for a month or two. Abandoned after use. Yet here, they’re the only type of shelter. And not just for living, these buildings are used for everything. There are a few restaurants (Come to Luigi’s authentic Italian cuisine) and some stores (Real Italian leather sold here!). I found all of this strange, of course. Italy doesn’t even exist anymore.

    And the smell! I don’t quite know how to describe it. In the city, there are no ‘natural smells’. This is something a lot of people don’t actually know. All of the smells are transmitted through the air purifiers that keep the city livable. In other words, they’re all manufactured. It is similar to how movies work, where the smells and tastes are transmitted through each viewer's individual neural chip, just on a larger scale. But in the village, there is no need for the air purifiers. The farming inside creates all the natural air they need. I suppose that is an upside to the farming, but if you ask me, it seems like an awful lot of extra work just to keep a cycle instead of using the purifiers. Anyway, the smell. The only way I can truly describe it is...right. The smell is right. After leaving the village and returning to the city, it just didn’t smell right anymore. It was off. I can’t tell you what about it was off, but the nose knows.

    The strangest part about all of this, however, was the people. I know I know, it isn’t right to call people strange, but it is objectively true! I talked to quite a few of the residents, and one thing that they all had in common was that none of them were born here. None of them were raised here. As far as I could tell, each and every one of them had up and moved here. They’d all abandoned their city lives for...this. 

Now, dear reader, I’ve been pretty generous in describing this village. I’ve made it seem decently lovely. But the fact of the matter is, it is still a village. It has none of the common conveniences that make our lives easy. As I mentioned, all of the food is dependent on farming, so the variety of food is very limited. In addition, there isn’t even a single mod doc, so you can’t even change the taste of food through your tongue, unless you happen to already have that mod.

In fact, I don’t think a single person in the village even had a mod. In my interview, I didn’t ask about it, so I won’t speculate as to whether this is a rule of the village or a personal choice on behalf of the citizens, but it is fascinating to me how they can live without any mods. Or at least not any that I could see. Maybe there are mods in the village and they just try not to show them off, because I can’t imagine living without any. 

So far, it seems like this village is a downgrade from life outside its walls in almost every way, so the question still remains; why does this village exist and why move here? Let's move onto the interviews I held to see if we can discover an answer.

 

My first interview was with… John.

 

Myself: Hello and good afternoon, my name is Cloud, thank you so much for speaking with me,

 

John: Of course. I love this village and would love to talk about it.

 

Myself: Okay then, I’ve only got a few questions, so I won’t take up too much of your time. Let’s start with how you came to live here.

 

John: Well Mr. Cloud… the city isn’t kind. Especially not to people who don’t conform to its standards. It’s constantly changing, and it forces you to change with it, and honestly, I was sick of changing. I just wanted to be me. 

 

Myself: Interesting. Next, I wanted to a-

 

John: And quite frankly, I don’t trust the government.

 

Myself: Well, I don’t think anyone likes the government. We more so just tolerate them. They protect our way of life.

 

John: No, they protect a way of life. Yours. Not ours. Do you really think the Sergeants care about us?

 

Myself: What do you mean?

 

John: Just last week they came to our gates with weapons. They didn’t fire, but they were ready to. And it wasn’t just some rouge group of them. There was a higher up with them. A girl with green hair. We don’t support their regime, so they try to get rid of us. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will, mark my words.

 

Myself: Sorry, I think that’s all I have time for today. Thank you for your time John.

 

    So for John, it was a matter of the ever changing world. This village offers a place of stability for people just trying to survive. I think I can understand that. The city evolved from places like this a long time ago, so it is almost like going back to an older version of the world and just hitting pause. Although, if you ask me, I find it all a bit ignorant. The world does change, like John said, but there is no stopping it, even if you close your eyes and plug your ears. No matter how much you try to resist the current of time, you’re along for the ride.

    

    I interviewed one other person before leaving. A man by the name of… Clyde.

 

Myself: Hello, my name is Cloud. Thank you for speaking with me Clyde.

 

Clyde: Sure.

 

Myself: Anyway, I wanted to ask you about your life in the village versus your old life outside of it.

 

Clyde: Why? Are you one of them? A Sergeant?

 

Myself: Just a journalist. Listen, if by the end of this interview you don’t want me to publish this, then I won’t. You have nothing to worry about.

 

Clyde: ...Fine.

 

Myself: Anyway, your life inside and outside of the village.

 

Clyde: My father was a woodworker. A damn good one. The best. Then he was driven out of business. It was the Sergeants who did it. I didn’t have any proof, but I know it was them. And even if I did have proof, I doubt that that would do anything. My father left shortly after. Then it was just me.

 

Myself: So you came here looking for purpose? Stability?

 

Clyde: No. The village needed a woodworker. One not associated with...anyone. So, I came. Wound up staying. Nowhere else to go. I’m not anti technology or anything like that. In fact, most of the people here aren’t. But they are anti oppression. And here, they’re free. Well, as free as they’re gonna get. For me though? It’s just four walls and a roof. Same as anywhere else. Because unlike them, I know that this place isn’t safe from...them. No place will ever be. Not as long as...they’re still around.

 

Myself: This place is just as any other. Interesting way of looking at things. Thank you for your time Clyde.

 

    It truly is an interesting take on this place. Seeing it as the same as any other just...slightly different. I don’t know if I would be able to hold that rationale, but it is a good one to have if you were to live here, or else I think you would start craving the outside world.

    Either way, the village is truly a fascinating scene in the middle of our modern world. It rejects our modern way of living for simplicity. Each person inside has their own reasoning for being there, and honestly, who am I to judge. I, along with many of you, I assume, live in tiny apartments just because they are in the middle of the city, the technological hub. Instead, they live peacefully surrounded by lovely smells and sights. On paper, they both seem crazy, yet one is fully accepted. I suppose however, that the only people who truly know what it is like to live there, are the ones who do.

    So, did this article make you think of changing up your lifestyle? If so, let my boss know so he can send me off on more weird adventures. Until next time, I’ve been Cloud Cent with the daily inquisitor.