The Veins Of The City

In the beginning, people started building dwellings left and right, a haphazard affair without much planning.

Then, after countless years, things slowly became more organized, and a kind of structure started appearing.

Houses, buildings, shops, etc., clustered together, at first connected through unpaved paths, then slowly changed into paved roads.

After a certain number of inhabitants had been reached, something happened…

The semi-organized structure had reached a critical point, and the first flickerings of awareness began.

It couldn’t do anything yet, as there was no way to become fully connected and integrated.

However, once wires and cables were installed, things began to change; now at last, The City could develop Its awareness.

The majority of Its inhabitants had absolutely no idea of this invisible presence amongst them, except for a small group of acolytes, who called themselves the Chosen Ones.

Their duties consisted of speeding up the City’s awareness process by laying more cables and wires.

But like in any religious organization, divisions started appearing; some insisted on following strictly the old ways of cable laying by using bamboo ladders, others embraced modern ways and opted for new-fangled contraptions for adding wires, and another group made a complete U-turn by proclaiming that the Right Way was laying cables underground!

Accusations of blasphemy flew around among its members, but at least they all agreed on the outcome of The Day Of Judgement; The City would become fully aware, depart Earth, and take Its faithful followers with it on Its way to new worlds…

Unbeknownst to Its followers, The City itself remained above their petty differences; all it cared for was reaching total awareness.

Even so, at times, The City did show Its frustration and suddenly accidents happened, usually in the form of collapsing parts of an elevated expressway, cracks appearing in the walls of condominiums, and assorted disasters.

But The City knew it was only a matter of time before Its goal would be reached, leaving all the riff-raff behind, and finally set off for space…