​Notes to the Dead Arc: Chapter 1: Landing

Landing

Toc was cradled in my arms and shivering whenever we landed. He was closing his eyes the whole time throughout the trip and in fact would not open his eyes until I swore on my mother’s life we were on land. When he opened his eyes he closed them again, and then opened out his arms. He then started walking to the edge.

“Woah, woah, what’re ya doin’?”

“Feeling the breeze.”

He was always very emotional, and at the same time so logical. Before leaving to the ocean he was previously a processor at the Machines, and whenever he came home he would incessantly talk about every minute detail. He wasn’t good at explaining.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, no.”

He then sat down and was looking very hard into the ocean. He then turned around in a full circle and examined every detail of his surroundings. He walked up to a stick that was brought onto the rock by the ocean and picked it up. He walked around the whole rock and brought to the middle all the sticks he could find. Meanwhile, I was grabbing the food processor out of the boat that was going to be there only source of food. Toc made it. I watched as he started to build shelter for the night.

Sun Down

The sun was only showing its upper half and me and Toc were eating our food, and talking. I can’t recall the conversation exactly but I do remember one thing in particular that I’m still not sure I know the meaning of:

“Why does fear have such a negative connotation? If I lived life without it I don’t think I would be very happy.”

Toc was very afraid. Not of anything particular, but of everything and nothing. He looked at the world in skepticism and seemed to only trust me. It seemed to me that fear was the only mental barrier he could not break, so it was his only challenge in life and he loved to overcome them.

“I’ll fancy I’ll try to sleep.”

He always said fancy. I personally didn’t mind it, but I know a lot of people who would. It was starting to get very dark, and all that was heard was the wind and waves crashing against the rock. We were in the middle of it whenever we closed our eyes and went to sleep, ending the first of for the rest of our lives on this rock.