Chapter 1 revamp

  There used to be colors. Not just the colors of grain—yellow and endless—but actual colors. The green of the forests, the brown of the trees, hell, even the blue of the water and the skies. But now it’s just this. Yellow. The only thing you can see is the yellow of the eternal grain, with the increasingly frequent red and bck from the grain fires caused by fools.

  And in this world filled with yellow a Jonah was born.

  Grain wasnt something Jonah just saw. He felt it under his boots when walking, squishy in a way that never felt right, but he could never truly know what the right feeling was. He smelled it everywhere he went. Dry, stale and lifeless. He even had to eat it. With natures fragile bance broken and entire ecosystems colpsed grain was the only thing humanity had left. Fortunately for Jonah there was a haven of sorts,the only pce he didnt have to deal with it, even for a little while was in his haven, the Bckroot Vault.

  Bckroot Vault was a rare air pocket in a world drowned with yellow.It was meant to be a billionaire’s doomsday bunker and its door was open when the first Yellow Tide hit ,atleast that was what they said.

  The bunker was designed with security and survivability over comfort in mind. Jonah liked that. He hated thinking about how he would lose one of the only things connecting him to the previous world, the stones, if the owner was different and less focused on survival. He liked the feeling of stone under his feet. Unyielding and constant. The original owner seemed into farming or wanted to become self sustaining inside that vault, so there were many rooms dedicated to farming and seeds. Those seeds and rooms saved the current bckroot vault inhabitants from certain death but even those seeds were starting to be not enough. With more bunkers and pces of life colpsing more refugees started to find this pce. And unfortunately the walls that kept the grain and problems away was temporary, just like the peace it offered. Jonah knew this safe haven wouldnt st. But he stayed anyways because there was no alternatives he could find. However just because he couldnt find it yet didnt mean there was no pce he could call a permanent home. And his father Johannes was his main hope of finding that mythical pce. His father often had a very small glint of sorrow in his eyes. When his son asked why or if he was sad he often answered with something in the lines of “Im happy because we two are alive.” Jonah didnt believe the part about him being completely happy but believed the tter.

  Johannes was an explorer with a cheery personality, one that went on long scouting expeditions with hopes of finding something, anything useful that could fix the dire situtation their bunker was in. Johannes also liked to give his son gifts from the old world ranging from stamps and photos to journals and letters. When Jonah was young he also gifted him toys and gifted his wife jewelry and anything he thought would catch her interest or be funny. One time he gifted his son a globe. Its colors were dulled , the brass stand was rusted in various pces, the globe itself was slightly damaged and had chipped at some parts but none of that stopped its ability to spin. Infact for some reason the damage to the globe made it so it span slower but longer. It also made a steady sound.Jonah often fell into deep thought -wondering what could have been- on a table in the corner of the archives while listening to the globe and reading the journals or books his father gave him. But unfortunately the world infested with grains is what he got.

  Johannes’ tests gift to his son was a set of pictures he found in an old library .They were pictures of the city where the bunker was near, taken on a few hills that still existed. Finding this interesting Jonah visited the hills where the photos were taken from.He checked his pocket watch and got out of the vault. He saw the grains the moment he got out. He started walking on the squishy grains, taking his time, looking at the surroundings as always. It was a good past time activity as he had lots of free time since he just finished his looting duty. Jonah liked taking detours so he could go through the city. Even though it couldnt match the feeling of the vault , cement with grain growing on it was way better than dirt. He took a detour this time too. Wandering through the streets, finding unique building and going inside, only to find almost nothing to bring back because it was already looted. Just as he was about to exit the city the stillness and silence of the world was broken. The air shifted, and Jonah felt it on his face, on his clothes, now fluttering with the wind.The soft swaying and rustling of the grains grew into something louder, almost like a hum growing into a screech, piercing into his ears.

  Instinctually, he reached into his left pocket, grabbing the diving goggles for his eyes and a cloth for his mouth. As he pulled them out, his fingers brushed against the cold metal of his pocketwatch.Then suddenly, a zap shot through his hand. He flinched slightly. but there was no time to react. Without hesitation, he bolted toward the nearest building with a basement.

  After running for a while he reached the basement in time.He took the cloth and goggles off his face. The basement itself was dark and there was grain growing on the floor. Jonah settled down on a chair, took a breather and started listening to the sounds outside -mainly the wind- and waited. After a while the wind died down. Jonah waited for a few minutes anyways just in case and left the basement, continuing his walk towards the first hill. After walking for a while he left the city and soon reached the bottom of the first hill. Ascending the hill wasnt that different. It was just slightly more exhausting.

  After even more walking he reached the top of the hill. There was a pce elevated from the rest where he could sit on. It also had a good view of the city. He set down his pocketwatch, took a deep breath and sat down. He reached for his pockets to pull out all the photos. They had gotten mixed up so he seperated them based on where they were taken from. After doing this he started comparing the ndscape, the city with the photos. The picture was taken at night but unfortunately because of visibility issues it would be impossible to compare the pictures with the city at night so he had to settle on dusk. The two were vastly different. In the picture the city was glowing because of all the various sources of light, the streets were crowded and busy but most importantly there was no grain. However the city in its current state was desote. Buildings were ruined and there was so much grain. It was everywhere, even the roofs of the houses…

  He stopped thinking and started focusing on the whole picture for a while.Then he looked at the city infested with grains. Ignoring what the grains did, truth was they were both the same in a way. Both told a story. One through its energy and vibrant motion, the other through its solemn stillness and order. They were the opposites in a way. Even though grain had swallowed everything, there was something serene about the way it did. Jonah exhaled slowly, rexing his tensed muscles, putting the photograph below the pocketwatch. For a moment he let himself just exist on the quiet hill, not mourning the dead, not worrying about the problems, not resenting the grain for what it did. He just was, for a moment.

  After spending quite a while like this he slowly got up, smacked his pants a few times to get the grain dust off, and lifted his pocketwatch and photographs off the ground and put them in his pocket, then Jonah climbed the second and third hills, they were simir to the first but this time there were no winds so it was a worryless walk. After that Jonah got back to the vault. From this day on doing this became an essential part of his daily life. Climbing hills comparing them with the pictures and just being, not worrying.

  It was another day like this. His father was out exploring, and he was assigned to gardening duty. It couldnt really be called gardening because he wasnt doing any gardening, just making sure nobody came inside the garden with grain seeds stuck to their clothes or body so a security of sorts. That position was abolished but was recently added back due to the possibility of refugees and newcomers coming inside the garden without bathing and using isoted clothes.

  After his duty Jonah started his hill climbing routine again. Walk through the city, go to the first hill rex look at the surroundings and repeat for second.

  Jonah, while continuing his routine reached the third hill. He did the same as he always did. Compare the surroundings vigorously for any signs of change, put his photograph below his pocketwatch on the ground and rex. But unfortunately for Jonah just after he put his pocketwatch down this routine would be cut short by a few students in history css attire, running outside the bunker, seemingly trying to get away from it. He grabbed his watchout his photograph in his pocket and flicked the watch open and looked at the time. It was wednesday, 16:49. Jonah’s eyes grew wider. “9 minutes…” He muttered…..