High Way.

These nigh-immortal scars...

On the body of the land...

They join us across the magnificent expanse on this earth...

People, like my mother and father, considered the earth to be a sentient being... Capable of feeling pain, pleasure and disappointment.

If it did, I'm sure it would be disappointed in us...

We pollute it, and harp on about how we intend to save it, but it's too late now... No matter how many plastic bags we DON'T use, the world is doomed.

Do you know why they called them highways?

Because they are disconnected from the earth... Joined, but not a part of it, like the other roads, and pathways...

Long after this world dies, the highways will still exist. Mankind will take to the road.

Hell, we spend so much time on the roads anyway, being on there permanently wouldn't be such a bad thing... Only problems would be food and water.

The roads weren't made to grow food, or to hold water... And the earth will be too barren for anything to exist off of it for long.

Anything that would grow would be a dark, corrupted and disgusting abomination...

Why?

The world isn't going to end with war, or nuclear disaster...

It's going to stop. Dead. The core will slowly cool, bringing about a new ice age over a process of hundreds of years...

Anything that could be grown will be tainted by the mother earth's corpse... And the waters will run red and black...

How?

Ours is a world in balance... Barely. Between science and the extraordinary. Before the plane was invented, we used to dream of being birds... that fuelled them to fly. Now? We just see them, and it's mundane. Normal. The same with the deepest oceans being home to monsters and beasts of ungodly burden. The same with space, the light and dark void where the god's danced out of sight and in mind.

All gone is the magic of this world.

As soon as we hit Mars and discover there is nothing there but rocks and water - We'll all die a little more inside. We'll go further...

Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune. Pluto. X.

We'll get there eventually... And with each advancement... Our own mystery-less world will die a little more... None will stay upon it's boring surface... Heading out to pastures new... Boldly going where none have gone before...

But if you never come back, you've never really been anywhere... Terry Pratchett said that... I don't remember which book, I read them as a kid... With my Pops.

He always told me to never take anything at face value - There will always be secrets...

He died. And he revealed all of his in a catholic confession. I never forgave him for that...

But I'm gonna stick around...

I'll make new secrets. New fables about this world for those who DO stick around. New rumours, stories, folk tales... But then someone will screw it up with religion, heh...

...

I'll keep walking the scars of the land... And the disjointed veins and arteries of the delta hubbed heart...

Why?

Because they're there.