A Land of Hope

Every year I visit this place, and every year it feels like I'm stepping into a graveyard. The Hearst family mountain cabin is now so rotten and derelict that I'm sure the whole thing would've collapsed, had the summer rains not been unusually light this year. Dandelion, pyrethrum, and pumpkin still grow here, even without human intervention. The plants are all full of poison, and the land is still too heavily polluted with "Stardust" for humans to return. But this is still a place of hope—and of Sara's final wish. Sara once said that if one day, the Stardust naturally starts to dissipate, it will happen here first. The town of Highbank still stands on the other side of the river, but it's an abandoned ruin now, too. Deviants are the only creatures living there now. I kind of miss that place, even if it was seriously screwed up. I miss Sara, Simon, and Dave too. They're still just as screwed up as I used to be.