The Gate Keeper

“Solve the mystery of the gate!” I said to the tenth passer-by today. God, this job is tedious. Repeating the same sentence, over and over, to anyone who comes so much as near me. Yeah, and you think you’ve got a bad job? I wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for the war. The war between my species and the Flying Darkness. Only a few know of their real name, but I’m not one of those. Anyway, the war started with their arrival. The Flying Darkness descended from the sky and enveloped the planet in shade. The Flying Darkness then proceeded to attack unguarded cities, towns and villages. We had no other option but to fight back after witnessing the death it caused. The Flying Darkness would fly directly at its target and dig into its flesh with its talon-like claws. Even if it digging into your flesh doesn’t kill you then the infection caused by the claws will. They seem to cause either instant death, loss of bodily function piece by piece or disablement, then brain death. We held off the Flying Darkness at almost every town our soldiers encountered it at, losing little to no troops or civilians. Sometimes we’d arrive at a populated area only to witness that we’ve been beaten there by the Flying Darkness. We managed to keep the death ratio low, even if the Flying Darkness beat us to our destination, simply by telling everyone across the planet on how to tackle the Flying Darkness. They couldn’t cross through barbed wire, fences or grates. We didn’t know why, and we still don’t know why. The only reason we found out was because the soldiers barricaded a door with barbed wire and fenced off the windows of a house. The Flying Darkness couldn’t get in, and when it tried it was stopped in its tracks. There were grates in the area too that the Flying Darkness didn’t cross through. Thus we developed the theory it they couldn’t cross through those objects. Yet it could pass through spikes using methods I still don’t how. Eventually, the Flying Darkness began to weaken. We developed barriers around every suburban and urban area made from grates, the most common anti-Darkness device, and it pretty much stopped the spreading of death across the planet. We began to rejoice, no longer fearing a threat from the Flying Darkness. Then the King stepped in. He suggested we could reason with the Flying Darkness and use its ability to technologically advance our planet. He went to the Flying Darkness’ location and attempted to reason. The Flying Darkness refused. The King was killed. This caused uproar throughout the planet. The Council decided the best cause of action was to eradicate the threat. Everyone agreed, and a factory was created to develop weapons to destroy the Flying Darkness.

Another war was about to begin. But this one would hopefully be the war to end all wars.

We begun by giving the Flying Darkness less freedom than it had at the time. The barricades were made thicker, the amount of room within the confinement area smaller. This angered the Flying Darkness, and it furiously thrashed around within its prison. This gave us time to develop weapons in the factory. We tested them on test dummies first, then on samples of skin taken from the Flying Darkness. Some worked well, others did little to nothing. The ones that worked well were sent to the Flying Darkness’ prison to be used on it. This didn’t go well with the Flying Darkness, who fought back angrier than before. This lead to us becoming cocky towards it, which lead to taunting which lead to a slip-up that released portions of the Flying Darkness upon the world.

We managed to recapture all the escaped portions but not before they devastated the factory. It’s no longer in use, and half of it is overgrown with thorns. We now call that area the ‘Thorn Jungle’ and the children love to play there. The waste from the factory was poured down into the area we now call the ‘Lava Caves’ and has corrupted the underground. There are balls of fire that will jump out of the lava at you and fire rods attached to the walls that spin around.

Of course this would be my workspace. The Lava Caves is were I work.

You see, my job is to wait besides the gate that leads deeper into the planet and say my witty phrase, “Solve the mystery of the gate!” The only way to get past me is to find both the switches hidden in the Abandoned Factory and the Lava Caves. You then need to activate them to open the gate behind me. You then have access to go deeper into the planet, somewhere I’ve never been, or intend to go. It’s said that small portions of the Flying Darkness still exist down there, and that they are used as guard dogs. I can’t believe that parts of the Flying Darkness still exist. I hope that they die out. But on the topic of access to the deeper parts to the planet, there seem to be a lot more people heading that way ever since a certain person went in and never returned. I hoped he was okay. After he went in a whole load more people migrated deeper into the planet. They all look the same, wearing a white robe and having wings, and they all never return. I gathered there was something going on down there, but I never did question it. Ever since that Raocow person came and never returned, business has been rising. All the other cats seem to love it whenever they meet a Cat Planet visitor, but I don’t really mind. All it does for me is increase my pay, and it’s a well-paying job.

So for me, business as usual at Cat Planet.

