The Doctor’s failure was only the first of many, though it was undoubtedly the most catastrophic, pre-empting the shape of our future collapse. It was several months before this catastrophe manifested—the second crack in the foundation of our burgeoning society, through which an oozing horror crept, silent as the Hollow Sands and no less deadly—yet the fracturing of our colony can be traced, with no uncertainty, to Rotcod’s self-imposed exile.

It began with another disappearance. Nivlac, son of Calvin, vanished from his parent’s home in the small hours, never to be seen again.

The few months of peace in the aftermath of the Doctor’s disappearance lulled us into a false sense of security and so Nivlac’s unexplained absence the following morning was met with only passing concern—it was not uncommon for our offspring to go missing for a day or two at a time and all assumed he had gone exploring. I have touched upon the various physiological differences between my generation and that of our children, but I should also note here that there was an inherent difference in perception between us which had less to do with the Doctor’s experiments and the ANSEX process and more to do with “normal” generational divides—you see, to us of the ANSEX generation, the Empty Bowl was a refuge; a place of sanctuary, while to our children, it was their home. Subsequently, our children’s generation came to know a great many of its secrets, for they had no notion of any place other than the Empty Bowl—save those scrambled non-memories we went to such pains to unpick, extracting them from their minds like splinters from a thumb—and so they roamed it as though they belonged there. The only place that went unexplored in those early days was the subterrain—the lair of Rotcod.

It was on the third day of Nivlac’s absence that we realised something was wrong—by then, of course, it was too late.

Search parties were sent out to scour every inch of the Empty Bowl—for two days and nights, we sought him, but no sign of Nivlac could be found.

A day later, two more children went missing. The day after that, four vanished, and so on until almost half of the new generation were gone. A pattern established itself—all those that disappeared were the children of the Doctor’s followers; those colonists that refused to learn kaepskcaB.

“?esoppus uoy od ,enog yeht evah erehW” said my child, for they had grown fearful despite my reassurances that they were not in any immediate danger.

I did not know what to tell them, for I had no notion of the evil at work beneath the Empty Bowl—the threat represented by Rotcod was unlike any we had encountered before, conforming to no known vector; even the silent flechettes, killing machines and psychic traps of THAT WAR had not produced such dangers.

“,meht dnif llahs ew, dlihc ym ,raef ton oD” I said, though I was not convinced.

My child was no fool—they knew I lied and would not brook such platitudes.

“?did ecno Deezle sa yaw ruo dnif tonnac ew tub ,erew noitareneg ruoy dna uoy sa ,sdnaS wolloH eht otni nward gnieb era ew fi tahW ?su nopu skcirt gniyalp dna demroflam era sdnim ruo fi—dewalf si noitareneg ruo fi tahW ?lliw rieht tsniaga nekat gnieb era yeht fi tahw—ma I sa diarfa sa era uoy ,tnerap ym ,eil uoY” they said.

“,lwoB ytpmE eht ot sudoxe eht dna RAW TAHT fo htamretfa eht ni did ew sa ,liaverp llahs ew rof ,dlihc ym ,raef ton oD .ygetarts wen a esived llahs ew dna worromot enevnoc llahs ynoloc ehT .niur ot ylno dael riapsed dna ssensselepoh rof ,epoh pu evig ton tsum ew—tsisrep tsum ew wonk I tub ,raef I .noitareneg ruoy rof raef od I ,thgir era uoy tub ,dlihc ym ,dewalf su fo lla era eW” I replied.

My child closed their eyes and sighed deeply, summoning the mental acuity required for what came next.

“What if I go missing?” they said, slowly sounding out each word.

It was the first time one of the new generation had spoken in Forwardspeak—as they would come to call it—and I was both shocked and heartened that it was my own child that had taken this first tentative step across the generational divide, accomplishing the mental gymnastics required to reverse their speech. In truth, I had thought it would be Elzeed that managed it first—for they were often the first of their generation to achieve great things, just as their parent had been the first to cross the Hollow Sands unscathed.

I smiled and drew my child close in a loving embrace, stroking their hair as they buried their face in my chest.

“.ti wolla ton lliw I” I said. “,ton lliw uoY”

The next day, the colony gathered en masse for the first time since we submitted ourselves to the Doctor for our conversion to ANSEX. We had no leaders, but it was to Deezle, Elzeed, myself and my child that the colonists turned, for we were considered the first among equals—the pioneers of the Empty Bowl without whom our people would have been left to rot on the outskirts of the Hollow Sands, corroded to nothing by the toxic afterbirth of THAT WAR. The Doctor’s absence was felt all the more keenly for this fact, for without them, the Empty Bowl would have been as the salvation of a tomb, rather than the cradle of our rebirth and they had earned their right to stand shoulder to shoulder with us.

My child did not reveal their newfound powers of speech to the colony that day, but assisted Elzeed in translating for the new generation as we debated our next course of action—a wise decision, I felt, for this development might easily be misinterpreted by our fellow colonists.

Two theories had formulated regarding the disappearance of the children. The first, as my own child had suggested, was that they had been drawn into the Hollow Sands—a hypothesis which held much sway over the new generation in particular, for it made logical sense to them that their compatriots should retrace the steps taken by their parents. The second, favoured by those that had lost their children, was that they had fled beyond the Empty Bowl, into the unexplored territory of the Splinter Forest, far to the north.

In this, our colony was divided. Though the debate continued for many hours, and though it was conducted with the utmost civility, we were unable to reach a consensus. In the end, it was decided that we would send out two parties, consisting of a mix of old and new generation colonists, to explore these two possibilities. The first party would be led by Deezle, and they were to explore the route to the Splinter Forest, Deezle being undoubtedly the best wayfarer, well-suited to scouting new terrain. The second would be led by Elzeed, who would follow Deezle’s rosy strand east, across the Hollow Sands, to the point of our origin. The rest of us—myself and my child included—would remain at the Empty Bowl, there to await news from either party, and on the off-chance our missing offspring might return of their own accord.