After surveying the crowd for a while, I found somebody who looked easy to make friends with. She had pitch-black hair, even darker than mine. It was as dark as the Chasm, but her expression was bright. I headed over to where she and a few others were working on a house foundation. I acknowledged them quietly and then got to work. They didn't recognize me as one of the Explorers, so they didn't find it weird.
I watched first to figure out the right technique. They were using an item I recognized: one of the drawers from the dresser down in the cave. They had been using it as a bucket, filling it up with the dirty water from the fountain and bringing it over. "What are you using that for?" I asked.
They explained that the water was sticky, and when applied as a coating to the red ground, it became easy to form bricks and stick them together. I stuck my hand into the opaque water, pulled a big chunk from the ground, and started to work it with my hands. The texture was off-putting. It was almost like rock, but it wasn't quite hard enough; it was a weird in-between of dirt and rocks. The white bone-like material of the pillars was applied decoratively and to strengthen the foundation. Its texture didn't bother me as much.
As I listened to the conversation around me, I couldn't figure out how to insert myself naturally. The black-haired girl whom I had selected as a target seemed perfectly normal, which is why I selected her. But her normalcy let her talk so smoothly that it felt like a high-level performance I couldn't join. She talked about small-scale topics like how she had dealt with her emotions since we all arrived, and what she had asked the 8-Ball that day, all while skirting the topic of the great tragedy which happened very recently.
Although I was struggling internally, it would be awkward to walk away at this point, so I went through with it. I asked her name and learned that it was Caroline. Caroline had a sweet and lilting voice. When I looked at her, it was impossible to imagine her ever thinking anything evil or even intrusive.
If I can't think of good social questions, I'll at least ask useful ones. The perspective of non-Explorers on certain topics will be useful, and I'll have the pleasure of bringing back useful information.
After probing further to confirm that she didn't recognize me, I asked Caroline for her general thoughts on the Explorers. She sighed. "I'm not sure I understand the situation fully, but I know that this is a hard time for all of us."
I replied, "If times now are hard, what do you think would make them better in the future?"
Caroline frowned. "I don't know, maybe more fun things to do. But we can worry about that later; work comes first."
Hmm, I can't keep asking questions about recent events, or it'll sound like I'm interrogating her. On the other hand, there's no way to turn the conversation to her personal life; we don't have personal lives yet. Our ingrained personality traits aren't enough to tell each other about ourselves. In that case, the easiest way to become friends is by sharing an experience. Isn't that what we're doing now? Should I keep laying these bricks? Is that enough to make friends? No, I still need an 'in'; a reason for the two of us to keep talking.
I racked my brain, but I couldn't think of anything to say that would lead to us being friends. Making friends is hard even when it happens naturally; I wasn't up to this task.
I made an excuse to leave. I had something else on my mind: the other Explorers had the same task I did. Would they have the same idea as me—to befriend a non-Explorer—or would they keep making friends with each other, which had already begun?
I looked over at Flox. He was talking to somebody who wasn't an Explorer, and I began to eavesdrop. The person was quickly becoming suspicious of him. She had recognized him as an Explorer from the get-go. That hadn't happened to me only because I had gotten lucky, and perhaps because I didn't stand out as much as this buff guy. Flox eventually gave up and returned to the other Explorers. It was frustrating to watch, because I couldn't blame the civilians for being suspicious. I sighed, realizing there was already an 'us' and a 'them'.
Suddenly, a commotion from the center of the plateau. Azarias gripped the eight ball and held it high. "Don't worry, everyone. I'm not trying to steal it for myself; I just got a very important answer. The 8-Ball has instructed us to send the bodies down the river. That's a traditional send-off custom on Earth, so please don't think of it as disrespect. It's the only way we'll have space for more houses, and I know all of us are tired of the smell by now."
People near him had mixed expressions, but after looking at the screen, they didn't say he was lying about the 8-Ball's answer. Others in the crowd were shocked that the 8-Ball had said such a thing, and began to protest. However, they were quickly overruled. Trust in the 8-Ball was still high, even under the spider's threat. The 8-Ball's apparent confirmation that the situation with the spider was salvageable helped, too.
This time, I felt it would be wrong not to pitch in. We all carried the bodies up the hill and into the cave. It was a silent, somber procession; we didn't take the waterslide, but instead used the stairs next to it. While the bodies were piled in the cave, Azarias called out to the spider and asked it to bring the bodies to the river source and let them float down. The spider moaned and complained for a few minutes, but eventually performed the task. We watched numbly as the bodies disappeared out of the TV room and underground. We rushed back up to the top and watched the bodies go out the other side and into the canyon, head further down the river, and then finally disappear under the outer canyon wall near the Chasm.
Azarias said, "Thankfully, the 8-Ball gave me a reasonable answer on this. It could have escalated into a big problem; when any one of the five senses is being messed with, there's no way to have peace, whether it's a constant bad smell, something in your eye... Oh, by the way, how have you all done on making friends with those outside our group? We don't want to appear too isolated, and there's also the offering condition to consider. The more friends, the better."
We looked around at each other. Most of us had been unsuccessful in that venture. Azarias frowned. "Unfortunately, it's what I expected. Oh wait, oh my god! I forgot to go save that girl."
We looked at him incredulously. "You forgot? We thought you were making a plan."
Azarias looked embarrassed as he sprinted toward the canyon. "Come on, I'm going to need all of you."
A minute later, we all stood at the edge. Azarias started to explain, but he couldn't do so without laughing. "So, there's no way to get a usable rope from the spider. I asked, but it said it needs to wait a while between using its webs. It's also better not to push our luck by bothering it frequently. Thankfully, my rich intuition granted me an elegant solution: make a rope out of humans."
I immediately pictured what he meant. I tried to back away, but he pointed at me. "No, no one's running away. Everyone's in on this. We'll probably need more than just us; find some civilians who are willing, but make sure they go toward the back of the line to keep them out of harm's way; an incident would cause more conflict. As yet another act of proving myself, I'll be first in line."
The others looked at each other and shrugged. Teresa explained what we were doing to nearby civilians, and we gathered more people. At the bottom of the canyon, Taika's face lit up when she saw us. "Finally, you've come for me. I'm so grateful, although it really did take a while."
We awkwardly made a long line on the ground, each person lying on their stomach and grabbing the feet of the person in front of them. Those who didn't know what we were doing looked on with confusion.
Part of the human chain lay down, and part of it stood up. Those further back acted as supports. From the front, Azarias raised his fist and shouted, "Move forward!"
My face was dragged into the ground as we all shifted. Everyone let out mild noises of pain, but our durable bodies could bear it. We shifted again with another grunt of pain. Azarias stretched out his hands as he dangled lower and lower. The process was excruciatingly slow, and it took minute after minute to reach halfway. By the time Azarias was close to ground level, my arms and face were covered in cuts. Taika, who had been smiling, no longer wore that expression. She looked a little horrified and also empathetic. "I don't mean to question you, but is there an easier or less painful way you could have done this? What about tying our robes together to make a rope?"
Azarias shook his head solemnly. "That would require people to be naked, and I cannot allow that. Come on, all of you at the top, start pulling." He grabbed onto Taika's arms. After more agonizing minutes of pain, the human rope was back at the top. Taika was relieved and thanked everybody. Azarias laughed loudly, "Now, don't hate me for this, but I lied before about the spider needing a cooldown period to make a rope of webbing. I just thought this would be a great team experience. You're all better friends now, aren't you?"
He ran away with all the Explorers chasing after him. I shook my head gently. There's clearly something wrong with this guy's head. Does he care for human well-being? The tone with which he talked about all the dead bodies was pretty cut and dry, too. This 'Explorer' thing is gonna get me killed…
A few hours later, Azarias somehow found a material to build the Institute. He brought over a big pile of black rocks from nowhere, and it wasn't clear where he got them from. "You'll have to figure that out yourself," he said. "The bigger problem is: how are we going to shape it all into building blocks? The bricks for the houses can be sculpted by hand with the fountain's water, but this stuff is as solid as it gets. We're trying to make a big leap in architecture without the proper tools; just that pickaxe we found isn't enough. We might be forced to wait and find those tools—or the means to create them—while exploring. But on the other hand, I absolutely want to start on building now. If we don't, our claim to this land might be snatched up."
Flox raised his hand. "Here, can you hand me a piece?"
Azarias looked interested as he complied. "What are you planning?"
"If we're stronger than the humans you remember, we shouldn't need tools just to sculpt rock. Your memories are holding back your imagination."
He punched a boulder, and it came right apart. He slashed down and made a clean slice. Azarias raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I think you might be especially strong; I'm not sure I can do that. That's great, though. We can get started right away."
With the help of spider webs, we began laying a foundation. Things were peaceful for some time, and we worked day after day. Days had slowly crept into months. The spider hadn't left its cave, but the threat remained in our minds. Azarias had been speaking to it regularly to explain the status of our friendships, which had strengthened a lot. It was almost time. I still hadn't made friends with anybody, and had fully given up in this regard. The closest I came was another conversation with Sariel, but he wasn't super eager to get to know me yet. He was likely suspicious that I was just after the offering requirement.
Out of nowhere, the peace was shaken to its very core.