the wall

2020-12-19

There was a guy on the campus who was live streaming himself trying to fly his drone over the wall.

It was a fancy drone because he was sponsored by Microsoft or something. His viewership was huge and he was raising tons of money.

Even though his drone was very fancy and had a strong motor, it wasn’t strong enough to get to the top of the wall because the wall was so impossibly tall.

In mid-air, he had his drone hook up to a helper module that added an extra assist motor and propeller, and with the added help, the drone just made it to the lip of the top of the wall. It actually landed on the edge of the wall, and couldn’t fly any higher. So he kind of pulsed the engines to sort of scoot it across the top and over the edge on the far side.

In the meantime, I couldn’t see the stream so I had climbed up to the top of the wall to watch the drone go over. It was terrifying. My vision swam and my stomach lurched. It was so tall that I could see the curve of the earth, and I couldn’t really see any details on the ground. But I could see many things in the distance: lakes, forests, jungles, plains. There was a whole world out there.

I started carefully climbing along the edge of the wall. It was too windy, and the top too narrow, to climb all the way on top. The guy made a great show of photographing and videoing all the cool stuff on the other side of the wall. The people loved it. And then he climbed up the wall too.

As far as I know, I was the only person who had made it all the way up to the top. And now he was here too. I climbed up on my own, but he had the assistance of a whole team.

We met at the far side of the wall, where the edge met the natural rock face. He was surprised to see me. He obviously thought he would be the first to make it to the top of the wall. We talked for a bit. He was further surprised to learn I was alone, with no support or extra gear.

He asked how much money I had raised, and I said I wasn’t making any money off this. I was just climbing. He boasted that he stood to make $30k.

I asked if he wanted to descend together, and he said sure! Let’s talk more in the morning, and then he opened a door in the side of the cliff revealing a luxurious private lounge where he would spend the night, and he shut the door, leaving me precariously perched on a ledge on the wall, in the cold and wind.

I wrapped myself up best I could in my blanket, and strapped myself carefully to the wall and tried to get some sleep.