: : :  <<<-------<   Black   <-----------------((o))----------------->  Arrows   >------->>>  : : :

The sky hung huge overhead. Full of white slashes cutting through it, separating its colours

...like all the planes had been on the warpath.

 

And the big Hive mind was taking over  -   all of its parts. 

Leading them to Annihilation through assimilation… and whether there was redemption waiting there beyond that point  - I could not tell. 

But the feeling was foreboding. 

 

Like an Invisible tidal wave it chased us throughout the Landscape: 

The me and the You that sought escape were relentless…in our frantic running.

Through fields of open sky we could see the birds align themselves above us in strange new ways

vein-like formations, leading towards Indeterminate -  yet certain  d o o m.  

 

And in the hills below… strings of animals coiling - tentacle-like

and streaming towards a magnetic pull beyond the horizon. 

 

 

       It   had   them

 

Through cities peopled at high cost, we ran 

and in our fleeing, from the corners of our eyes we saw    -   the multitudes of Others… integrated and aligned, 

marching in neatly streamlined mechanical rows… like insect soldiers tuned to the call of their Great Queen.

 

In a sudden moment the Thing had me…. Central nervous system held hostage by an iron grip, in an involuntary process of alignment. 

Spine arching backward in a helplessness  -  that nonetheless 

the Self in me stubbornly… refused to accept.

 

Still fighting. Always fighting 

         

                      -   a fight internal for all that freedom was ever worth to a living Self. 

 

It seems the most important endeavour of our kind 

Is to break free from mind-shackles;   cruelly worn and ruthlessly binding us together.

 

But the struggle against seemingly unbreakable bonds will surely make them hurt more… with no guarantee it’s not a mere exercise in futility.

 

The other Voice Within promises  

                  Our only relief feels something like freedom 

                    And the only freedom from this Fight, is in Surrender

 

 

 

At least it’s a good thing,  there is no Forever.  

 

But for now       -       the Fight        -       is still on.