Its all right, he said quietly, I understand.

Do you?

He nodded. You need to know who you are and where you came from and how you got here before you can begin telling anyone else what and where here is.

But I already know where I came from and how I got here. I know my story.

You know the inside of it, the story from your world. You need to know it from the outside world.

I didnt know what to say to that. I wasnt sure I understood what he meant. But at the same time, I somehow knew he was right.

He squinted up at the sun, then lowered his head and stared down at the sand for a while, just gazing blindly at the dry red dust---

And then he began telling me my story.

It became known as the Long Walk, Starry told me. It began so long ago theres no one left who remembers for sure where it began, but most of the Olders believe that it started as a tactical retreat from a battle with the Dau and that it was originally intended as a temporary measure, a means for our people to regroup and reassess their options, but for some reason our people couldnt find a safe place to stop, and they just had to keep going, keep retreating, in the hope that eventually theyd find somewhere suitable to hole up and rest for a while until they were strong enough to take the fight to the Dau again---but it just never happened. They never found the right place – or if they did, the Dau must have forced them out again – and in the end, the retreat just kept on going. It became all there was – a decades-long exodus across the Deathlands in search of a place of sanctuary.

Starry paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then continued.

Again, no one really knows the truth, but the best estimates are that at the beginning of the Long Walk the Dau numbered somewhere between 2 and 3 thousand, and our people were perhaps a thousand strong. There were still bands of Wild Ones roaming the Deathlands then, but their overall population probably didnt add up to more than a few hundred. And as far as anyone knows, in terms of the human race, that was it. Its impossible to know for sure that others didnt exist elsewhere on the planet, but then – as now – theres no evidence to support the possibility. The 4 thousand or so humans alive at the beginning of the Long Walk were more than likely the only ones left.

He stopped briefly again, this time absentmindedly scratching his head.