Fall; or, Dodge in Hell - Neal Stephenson Page 0,255

not much preferable to that of shit. Mab, consulting the mysterious reservoirs of data to which she somehow had access, provided them with instructions on how those by-leavings might be put to use, and so they began to acquire such things as needles of bone and threads of sinew. They went about clad in skins and feathers of various creatures that Adam in his never-ending quest for satiety had brought back up out of the grassland.

The hill embodied a soul, which they could only assume had dwelled in it since the dawn of the First Age. It had chosen to save Adam and Eve from the wolves. It had then gone still and silent. It did not seem to have either the faculty of speech or the desire to communicate with them. Mab tried many times to reach into it with her aura but found nothing there. Or rather found a soul whose organization was so different from theirs as to render communication impossible.

A few months later, without warning or explanation, it stood up again and walked for a little while and then slumped to the ground in a new location, closer to the river valley and the range of hills. Between the lack of food and the change in location, it seemed that the hill might be letting them know that they had worn out their welcome. The tree was denuded of nuts, the hill of berries and greens. Wood to feed the fire had to be dragged from trees along the rim of the river valley. They encountered wolves, and creatures of other kinds that were unmistakably hazards.

Eve stopped her occasional bleeding as abruptly as it had started, and with as little explanation. Her belly grew. Mab advised them that their need for food, shelter, and clothing would soon exceed what could be supplied from here. But they did not bid farewell to that hospitable hill until the leaves of the great nut tree had turned red and begun to detach themselves and fall to the ground. Without discussion, both Adam and Eve knew this to be a signal to which they must respond. So one morning they gathered up the things they had made and lashed them to tree branches with ropes of twisted grass. They set off into the west, dragging their possessions behind them. Mindful now of the hazards, they made quick progress down into the valley and forded the river at midday, then climbed as high as they could into the range of hills on the other side before the shadows of afternoon grew long. Then they picked out a tree suitable for climbing, and kindled a fire near the base of it, and stoked it well with fallen branches before climbing up into its boughs and making themselves as comfortable as they could for the night. Wolves howled and came close enough that the light of the fire could be seen gleaming in their eyes, but when morning came Mab reported that none was nearby.

They climbed down out of the tree and spent the rest of that day ascending the hills, suffering from thirst and hunger, avoiding wild beasts, and finding springs and berry bushes only through the assistance of Mab. On the other side of each hill was another hill, which grew disheartening. But at dusk Mab led them up a gorge between steep walls of rock and they emerged on a shelf, surrounded by forest but bare of trees, from which they could look up to the brow of the highest hill yet. On its top was a white building that in some respects put them in mind of the Palace, though it was incomparably smaller and meaner. As they climbed toward it, following a path that had obviously been made by other souls, they were able to look back the way they had come and see the upper part of El’s pinnacle, rising far in the distance from the center of the Land. Atop it, the Palace of El seemed to be gazing right back at them.

Presently they attained the ridgeline that led up to the white building. Thence they looked down into the red fires and smoky air of a city spread out below.

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During the fifteen years following her daughter’s ascension into the simulated world of the dead, Zula spent much time wondering about what, if anything, she was doing there. But as time went on she grew accustomed to the mystery. Her mind filed it away and only