A journey to the Factory - Part 1

A new story from a dream...

“Remind me again why we are out here?”

John was always content with things but knew that we had to do this eventually, so his question was rhetorical and he was just being an ass, as usual. The Factory has been there a very long time, Since before any of us could remember. Stories handed down over the generations warned of going near The Factory. Most of our colonies were on the far side of the planet away from only real building left on the surface as far as anyone knew.

We had been walking for almost two years to get here. It was an interesting journey to say the least. Along the way we had taken several detours into some of the old ruins we came across. The closer we got to The Factory the more wild the land became and the scattered ruins more derelict.

Sometimes, once or twice a year, a traveler would come through our village. Sometimes they would have stories that the untouchable desert around The Factory was shrinking. That the jungle was growing closer to The Factory. My grandfather says people have been saying this for a very long time and do not believe it. He says as those before him have said, The Factory will last forever, far longer than the human race.

That was until some travelers came through saying they were looking for people to attack The Factory. They had paper images, things called photographs, of The Factory.

The stories passed down said The Factory once sent out flying machines and they would kill anyone on the surface. It is said the Factory once used land machines to hunt humans. No one has been attacked in a very long since, Since before my grandfathers grandfather. We’ve been building our homes on the surface and farming the surface for generations.

Many of us think The Factory is dead, or asleep. Attacking it could wake it up, and then it would kill everyone on the surface again.

According to the stories passed down, The Factory one day started attacking all humans on the surface. No one even knew what The Factory was, It was just another warehouse building in a city. Starting with those close to it and spreading out, The Factory sent out flying machines and mechanical men to kill humans. For a while our ancestors were not sure where the killing machines were coming from. Many cities fell to the machines before our ancestors figured out the buildings in the city where the machines were coming from. Many bombs and explosives were dropped, The entire city was leveled to rubble, only The Factory remained.

There was some sort of energy shielding around The Factory, Something no country or military had ever experienced before or since. In a last ditch effort to stop The Factory our ancestors used large atomic bombs. The atomic bombs destroyed a large area around The Factory. Crater after crater was formed and leveled and reformed so many bombs were dropped. The building remained. Over the centuries weather has mostly leveled the area around The Factory, turning it into the forbidden green desert.

“So what about the shield? The shield will prevent any attack, and we don’t even have weapons like they once had.” said one

“Maybe the shield doesn’t really exist?” said another

“Of course it does, how else would the factory have made it this long?” replied the first

“The factory is a myth! I say the factory itself doesn’t exist.” said a third in the group.

“Boulder dash, We all know our great-grandfathers fought the mechanical’s the last wave that came through, We even have photo images in the archives of the factory and the mechanicals, We can match them with the one the traveler brought..”

“No one has been in the archives since our great-grandfathers time, The images could be gone, destroyed, or never even existed.”

“Perhaps then it is time we finally open the archives.”

Should we open the archives?