RENES DESCARTES : COGITO ERGO SUM. OR IN PROPER TALK : I THINK, THEREFORE I AM.
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I don't hate philosophers. I just don't hate them enough. They are shit. That's my philosophy. Take this C**T. He's really famous for some reason. This is a man who did nothing but sit on his ass all day thinking up shit. It's how they made their living. By saying stuff morons thought was clever. Take that pearl. After thinking for a considerable period of time he came up with what he wrongly believed to be a statement that couldn't be disputed or doubted. Did he? How do I know that? He might never have existed. If he did exist there's no way of being 100% sure he said that. It could be someone else who said it on his behalf. He might have plagiarized it. Then there are some who argue that reality is a a computer simulation. He might think he thought therefore he was, but he could be some lines of code. 
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Existentialism, as everybody knows, is "a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will." That's complete bollocks as well. It's a deterministic universe. That's been proved. As has the fact that individuals don't have free will. They are programmed by their genetics and environmental factors to react in very specific ways. We are all meat computers. Under a given set of circumstances we will react in a predictable way. In short, philosophy is bullshit. It doesn't answer anything. It spends most of it's time defining things to the point where they can never have a definition. Proving that we know nothing about anything. Everything is uncertain. Everything can be doubted. Descartes wasted his time, if he ever existed.
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They'd walked for hours now. Passing building after building. Each one only viewed in small parts. In order to have a better look they'd have to unload the lighting rigs. Set them up to. Giving in to the temptation to so so would set them back. While outside this time bubble a few minutes, or possibly only seconds, had passed, they'd be experiencing a lot longer. Once they got everything unloaded they'd want to spend as long as possible exploring the area. Currently that wasn't on the itinerary. The scanners weren't of much use at revealing what lay within these impressive structures. They'd encountered a few doors along the way to. Calling out to them to enter. 

Jake expected this to wear on everyone. Scarlet in particular. They were quite sanguine about it though. Having experienced such things before. Unlike Indiana Jones, real archaeologists didn't rush in and grab things. It was all meticulously mapped. Labeled, photographed in situ and only removed after long consideration. The patience required was incredible. He supposed, that if you looked at it from the perspective of people who lived hundreds of years, there would always be plenty of time to come back.

Being a worrier by nature, as far as his own convenience was concerned, Jake had to ask another stupid question. How did they know they were going in the right direction? Did Daisy have some instinctive path finding ability? The answer was simple. Wasn't it always? They were meant to be here. There was no point hiding anything from them. The route to their destination would be a straight line from where they'd entered. Otherwise those who'd left this place to be discovered, would have given directions. They were already several kilometers in. Keeping a steady pace. Intent on reaching their destination in as short a time as possible. There was another thing bothering him.

"What happens when the batteries on our lamps are exhausted?"
Scarlet approached him out of the gloom.
"We'll be screwed." She advised him.
"Lost in the dark you mean? Shouldn't we conserve them? Only have a couple on and save the others."
"The power cells last 20,000 hours on full beam. We've got spares as well since the same ones are in every piece of equipment. We'll starve to death long before the lights go out."
"Shit. That's a point. Have we got enough food? I'm hungry already."
She shoved him, sending Jake stumbling forward.
"Do you think this is the first time I've done anything like this? Your lack of confidence in my faultless planning skills is insulting. We've got energy bars galore. If we use half of them before we arrive we'll go back and bring more next time. It's not a frigging picnic."
"I'm sorry. I'm trying to distract myself from the monotony."
This time she strode in front of him to confront him.
"Monotony? We're laying our eyes on sights that have never been seen before. Each one is unique."
"Are you sure about that? They look pretty similar to me."
He was saved from her full wrath by a squawk from the nerd crate. Norbert had regained consciousness and found the intercom.
"Hello. Is there anybody out there?" The genius bleated.

Any good will towards Norbert for preventing his verbal evisceration, slowly evaporated. As their journey continued. They didn't stop for anything. Eating their energy bars and drinking their recycled urine on the move. It was okay. Not up to the culinary standards he'd grown used to in The Never, but tolerable. What wasn't however was the periodic, random interjections from the boxed scientist. Who, Jake found out, had ample entertainment in his roomy accommodation. That lucky bastard could switch between external views and a nice video, at his leisure. The crate had more facilities than Jake's cabin aboard the Harlot. They'd been going for well over eight hours now. having traveled at least 20 klicks. Whoever had built this place hadn't skimped. It was beyond massive. It must have housed tens of millions of inhabitants at some point. Way bigger than Bristol. Larger than the London dome on the earth he'd arrived from. It was decided they'd take a pause, to discuss what they'd do next.

"Are we there yet?" Norbert inquired from his tiny prison.
Jake snatched at his sword.
"I swear to God if he asks that again, I'm going to shoot him somewhere really painful." His captain gave him that stare. Ah he had his hand on his sword. The female genius went to deal with her fellow nerd. "Poppy?" Jake gestured at her as she passed him. "Has that stunner got a pain setting?" He demanded.
She snatched it from her waist and held it behind her back.
"No." She lied.
"Give it here you deceiver." he held out his hand. meanwhile the others were laughing at him.
"No. I'm not going to. I haven't tried it out on him yet. I want to be the first." She stamped off defiantly.
Jake shook his head. Scarlet smirked at him.
"That woman's got a really dark side." He called after her. "Alright, but you have to promise you'll let me watch." She gave him a dismissive wave. "She's just an introverted version of you. With a lot less self confidence."
"She'll learn." Scarlet predicted. "Norbert's a smarter version of you. With a lot more personality."
He chuckled at the deft insult.
"Am I always like this?"
She smiled warmly.
"No. Most of the time you're a lot worse."

Daisy, Fetu and Sade stood in a small circle their foreheads resting together. Their arms around each other. Separate from the rest. Scarlet explained they were all being affected by the membering as they called it. Past lives that brought flashes of emotion and snatches of memory from the past. Nothing disturbing, apart from having memories you didn't actually remember. Jake and Scarlet could sympathize with them. It didn't have to be bad to shake you. All it had to be was unexplained. The three parted happily. Daisy's face returning to impassivity very quickly after a long look at the other two. This place had been built by her people. The People. The ones who had traveled from earth directly into The Never. Once they'd relaxed for a few minutes, and taken a toilet break, they all discussed what to do next. Should they set up camp here or head on in the hope they'd reach whatever they were heading towards in the next couple of hours? Eventually they unanimously decided to carry on. Two more hours at most. They set off again.

Now that he'd been thoroughly schooled, Jake paid far more attention to what lay around him. Noticed that Poppy often fell behind. Something he should have been aware of. Would have been if he hadn't allowed his attention to wander inward. As it turned out they found more of the same. A wide road heading between large buildings with the occasional crossroads they dare not explore. Although now he observed that only this path was straight. The city hadn't been laid out in a grid pattern. In fact it didn't have a pattern. Some of those side branches were gently curved. Some were sharply curved and others meandered. Scarlet was the first to intuit anything. This was a copy of something. Daisy didn't appear to know anything about that. Which was odd. She often seemed as internalized as Jake had become. Only she'd take a break and converse with the others. Offer a smile or a few cheerful words. Were they for the others or for herself?

They made camp beneath one of those overhanging pyramids. While they'd encountered nothing dangerous, it would still be wise to limit the directions anything like that could come from. As long as they weren't blocking off a means of escape. They settled on resting near a doorway. Before they slept all of them had a look in through the windows at this level. It was hard to see anything inside. The glass was tinted. While there wasn't as much dust as they thought there should be it still fogged those windows. It looked as though there was nothing much to see anyway. The lowest floors looked to be merely concourses. Anything of interest would be upstairs. If there were stairs. They hadn't seen any yet. A couple of ramps. That was all. Damn, now he was curious himself. The original city had been on earth. How could there be no sign of it in the modern day? It made the pyramids look like a pile of rocks. There was no doubting this had been constructed to last. Had anyone ever lived here? Was it some kind of monument to what had been? So many questions. 

It was an uneventful night. They'd set up perimeter detectors that were left undisturbed. That fucker Norbert was humming. Enjoying himself inside his container. Jake forced himself to accept the only reason the scientist annoyed him was because in a lot of ways they were alike. The same flaws. Simply in different containers. They breakfasted then headed onward. It was another four kilometers before anything changed. There were no more buildings on either side. At least not within range of the lights. Could this be the center of this metropolis? Jake wanted to believe that. It would mean they were almost halfway through. But when you looked at the scale the people who built this worked on, it was entirely possible this was just a suburb on the outer edge,

Then they found something different. A large statue. Not of him thank God. A stylized lion. Over 70 meters long. 20 meters wide and 22 meters tall. Jake and Scarlet looked at one another in recognition. It was the Sphinx. It couldn't be anything else. Actually this was what that mythical beast had been copied from. Not a human head. A lion's. Daisy was staring at it as well. Everyone was , but she was drinking it in with her eyes. A vast array of feelings distorting her normally serene features. The dominant one sorrow. Without a word both of them walked over to her. As they drew near she swayed. Would have fallen if they both hadn't caught her. 

"I will be fine." She assured them before they could ask. "We should move on. We're near the end of this part of the quest." She drew a deep breath. "Now I understand why I buried this. Come. There's not far to go now. Then we'll all know what happened."

They kept a close eye on their friend, everyone did. They'd all witnessed what had happened. The Sphinx had brought back something awful for Daisy. That was without doubt. Paradoxically her pace increased. She strode out ahead of them. Not hesitating in the least. A few minutes later they saw the first of the steps. Then a domed structure. Completely circular. The architecture different to anything else they'd seen so far. That had to be the way in at the top of those stairs. Plain unadorned double doors. At the foot of the steps, off to one side were 3 pedestals. a few centimeters above waist height. Daisy rushed up to the middle one. Panting. Calling to Jake and Scarlet. ushering him to the right and her to the left. There on top of the columns were unmistakable indentations for their hands. Without even being urged to they all placed their palms into those depressions. Felt the surge of power. Something deep beneath them thrummed. A gong sounded. Long and low.

From the top of the domed edifice a bright golden light stabbed straight upwards into the sky. Hitting something, then spreading outwards and downwards. Around them color returned. The whole place lit up. The fantastical city was revealed in all its glory. Darkness gave way to light. The stone beneath their feet became grass. And out there, beyond their destination, the sea sparkled. On the other 3 sides a lush jungle, unlike anything they'd ever witnessed, appeared. Strange exotic plants were everywhere. There far off to the left was a fountain. And directly behind them, way beyond where the entrance had been, a waterfall that had to be two hundred meters high. Daisy looked battered but proud. Turning around she straightened to her full height. Shoulders back.

"Behold Ogbojawarri Shagei. Land of my birth. It means House of The People. Welcome to my home Wanderers." Behind her the doors opened. "Please enter. So you may hear our story. The story of The Wanderer and The Companions. This is where it all began."