The Old Man and the Black Bridge

The old man traveled through the canal admiring the surrounding area, what once had been a decadent yet sprawling city was now dormant, a slowly banishing legacy of times where humanity prospered beyond the ghastly domes and spires they called home.

The old man knew the surrounding area well up to the main bridge everyone called the black bridge, no one dared cross from that point on with no specific reason as to why this was like this, the old man was not superstitious but did care more for his life than younger peers, many of which never made it back many years ago.

His raft was somewhat impressive considering the type of material used was rare to find, the old man played it off and ignored the requests to know more of the source, in reality the old man knew quite well what was beyond the black bridge.

While young this man had traveled to the black bridge and beyond, discovered a large settlement that thrived by trading with the neighbors to the north and south of their location, some of these neighbors knew quite well of a place where they could get some quality metal.

This metal would indeed prove to be a valuable trading commodity, the old man at that time had helped dismantle some of the old ships in order to recycle the materials, for this effort he was rewarded considerably with land, a house and enough trading currency to live a few years in basic comfort without the need to work.

But the young man decided to leave this behind and move north, to where the old Corporations ruled for many years and where their left over monuments littered the horizon, many works also being undertaken to bring them down for new uses, destroying a history they did not wish to remember.

During one of the operations the group in which he worked made a discovery that chilled them to the bone, a human trapped in a metal cocoon, alive, waking this human up had been a terrible mistake as it took wrathful vengeance upon them, they ran, not too far but they ran.

The young man was the last one alive, the ghost of the old world warned him about coming for him if he ever returned to this land and to warn the rest to leave or suffer the same fate, the young man warned anyone who would hear him and kept running back home.

To this date the old man watches the black bridge, he was saw the silhouette of a figure he immediately recognized as the ghost of the old world, for a day they looked at each other without making a move, the ghost faded and so did the spirit of the young man.