AlphaGazette #02: That Nightmare Where You’re Trapped In A Maze | SC02-Kannahari
AlphaGazette News of the Worlds - That Nightmare Where You're Trapped In A Maze
Mike the Creator
That Nightmare Where You're Trapped In A Maze
Chased by the bogeymen of my own making, I run and run but never get closer, just further away than from where I began.
I used to have these vivid dreams, where for some vaguely-defined reason, I needed to reach a specific destination on the other side of the city by a certain time in order to meet an imminent work or school deadline. There was never any rush at first, but there were always detours and distractions that slowed me down to the point where I would begin to panic, and then inevitably, be forced to either take a wrong turn or be coerced off the path. This would lead me into the main feature of the dream, an incredibly dense, urban experience of running through an impossible maze of Tardis-like proportions, such as a mall the size of New York. Suddenly, I am darting through crowds, climbing 10-story escalators, and navigating through gargantuan spaces of glass and metal and vibrating color. Just like before, I run into dead-ends and detours, until finally coming across a map that shows I have travelled so far off-course to be in another state or country. I start again, but I always wake before reaching my destination.
These are never particularly scary dreams. Despite the anxiety-inducing pace, and growing fear I won't make it in time, the general tone is more exploratory than anything else. I'm an architect on a grand tour of my imagination, cataloging the sights for future use.
Kannahari is the product of one such fever-dream. A densely-packed warren sitting in the middle of the desert, it was built on an oasis and entirely self-sufficient, but with an unusual society, based on intense mutual cooperation and communication.
StoryCard
Kannahari
Hive of Humanity
A 45 square kilometer island of hospitality, sitting atop a deep wellspring almost half its size, and located deep within the most inhospitable of desert climates in North Africa.
"A smile here, a nice day there, and before you know it you're on your sixth cup of cha'ai while listening to some geezer ramble on about the wonders of hidden-weave carpeting. You'd think it would get boring, you know? Something in their voices though--how they almost sing when they speak. It's very calming, even when they're arguing."
Kannahari is one of those labyrinthine cities that traps me in my dreams with its interwoven spaces that never end, except that in this sunbaked maze there is the nightmarish addition of constant conversation which cannot be avoided, lest one risk never getting out. At least in my dreams, I never have to talk to anyone, but here there is cha'ai.