Calibration 74: Chapter Twenty-Four

Photo by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash

Calibration 74 is a serial novel experiment, posted raw and unedited as it is written. It is recommended you start at the beginning.

Chapter Twenty-Four

17,454

17,455

17,456

With each step forward, I move another space on the board. Closer to the future. Closer to the goal.

Closer to the end of the maze I’ve entered.

17,464

17,465

17,466

I walk the streets. I see the people. Do they see me? To-and-fro they walk in time, and my footsteps fall into rhythm with theirs. We make music together, the slap of our souls on the pavement.

I see the people. Hiding behind masks. Their true faces remain hidden. A smile here. A nod there. Ambivalence in between.

I walk the streets. They walk the streets. Their religion is The Book of Job. Not the prophet, but the profit. The hows and whys are lost in their constant drive forward. Where they’re going, they, like I, do not know. But do they care? Do I care?

How will we even know when we’ve arrived?

The carrot drives us forward, dangling forever unattainable from a frayed string at the end of a stick. We will never reach…