Neytopia › Part 1: Dawn › Chapter 2

Popsicles

She felt her body sinking and tried to open her eyes. Every inch of her skin hurt, yet all she could think of was the feeling of falling. She asked herself,

What have I done to deserve this? I only meant to help them, to give meaning to their poor lives. And this is how they repay me? Ungrateful pricks! How dare they!?—She was furious now—I’ll show them! I swear I’ll show them!

Suddenly she noticed the route had changed. She no longer felt like falling because a great force had immobilized her and now shook her rhythmically. Perhaps she was at the bottom of the ocean, forgotten, moved only by underwater currents created by titanic creatures. She surrendered in bitter regret, thinking,

Oh, if only I could go back, this life is not fair, it’s not fair…

She prayed, thinking the gods would listen to her. In her insanity, she had forgotten that the gods were the product of her imagination. So she begged,

I have seen the way, I will lead them in the right path; give me one more, I ask. One more chance to fulfill my task.

But only cold dead silence listened to her. She tried to grind her teeth, but she was unable to move or see. Hours later, when the night was almost over, she felt something different. A tingling which became increasingly clearer. It was the prelude to a great change. Now it burnt, but not like in the ship. A living fire raged inside her.

Finally dawn broke and she burst in a flash of fire and light. The whale that had mistakenly eaten her was at the surface to breathe when she exploded. Chunks of the whale’s flesh and bones covered the sea around her.

She could once more see, move and feel. As she sunk into the sea, she quickly realized what had happened and swam for a large chunk of the whale’s carcass. Once aboard, she spotted her former ship. One of the whale’s chunks had struck it. Despite the distance, she could make out the sailors working like tiny ants trying hard to save their sinking colony.

Eventually the sailors realized the ship would not hold. She laughed at the people who had betrayed her, glad that the gods were punishing them. Amid the chaos, a sailor spotted her. He jumped to sea and swam for the floating whale chunk where she was. The other sailors followed, competing to be the first to reach her and claim their stake at the new ship, knowing there wouldn’t be enough room for all.

She watched in horror from the top of the whale’s carcass. When they got to her, she knew they would torture her, especially now that they knew death was only a temporary setback for her. Imagining the things they would do to her, she realized she had to flee. But sea was all there was around her, stretching into the horizon. She decided to stay and fend off those who reached her.

The sailors could hardly swim, exhausted from hunger and their attempts to salvage the ship. Most sank soon after starting to swim. Those with enough determination and strength kept going, pulling each other down into the waters to gain an advantage wherever they could find it. Two men made it to the whale first.

The two men put their hands on the carcass but she stomped on their heads. They were too tired to put up a fight, but they were two, so they kept trying to climb aboard. Eventually they realised they only needed to rest for a while until they had recovered their strength. But she was determined to never surrender, and the weather was on her side. Some seemingly harmless clouds crept up on them, carefully blown by a freezing wind. The men and women at sea felt the wind cutting their faces and chilling their spines. They knew they would freeze to death if they waited.

Everybody rushed to the whale.

The two men at the whale attacked her together. She jumped back to the water before being captured. Soon other sailors climbed on the whale, sixteen men and women in total. But the cold wind blew, and they began to shake. Those who couldn’t reach the whale froze and sank into the depths. She, however, did not feel cold, and simply watched the people atop the whale. All of them held her stare with heart-filled hatred as they slowly froze to death.