Exclusion Zone // Day 112 Post-Departure
"Met an old woman today. She lives in the crater. Plants flowers in the radioactive soil. They die, of course. But she keeps planting.
She saw the Pilgrim. Didn't run. Just held out a packet of seeds.
'For the place where you stop,' she said.
The Pilgrim took them. It has no pockets, so it opened a panel in its chest. Placed the seeds right next to its core. Keeping them warm.
It bowed to her. A machine of war, bowing to a gardener. Then it walked on."
"We've been tracking it for six months. The Pilgrim's internal radio broadcasts constantly. Low frequency. Encrypted. We finally cracked it last week.
It's not broadcasting. It's RECEIVING.
Someone is transmitting to it. Or something. The signal originates 300 kilometers east. Deep in the Exclusion Zone. Where no one goes. Where nothing should survive.
The message repeats every 6 hours: 'KEEP WALKING. WE'RE STILL HERE. COORDINATES ATTACHED.'
The Pilgrim has been walking toward it for 247 years. Getting closer. Mile by mile. Day by day. Never stopping. Never deviating.
Analysis suggests arrival in approximately 14 months at current pace.
What's waiting there? Who's waiting? What happens when it arrives? Should we warn it? Can we? Would it listen?
I don't think we want to know. But I think we're going to find out anyway."
"Static speaks
Ghosts in the wire
We are still here
Waiting for the fire..."
A haunting, glitchy electronic track. Voices buried in static. The Eastern Dead Zone isn't empty. It's full of echoes.
Deep underground, the Pilgrim finds Dr. Chen's laboratory...