Part 1 (“The Uncanny Valley Is A Real Place”)
I groaned as I struggled through the dense forest in the pouring rain. The sun had set a few hours ago, and I was now completely lost in the forest. Ever since the incident at the Uncanny Valley, I got into hiking to take my mind off things.
I should’ve listened to those hikers telling me to turn back.
Suddenly, a bright and beautiful star became apparent. It was incredibly close and impossibly bright, I didn’t know much about astronomy, but I assumed it just had to be the North Star.
“Well, at least I have some sense of direction now..” I muttered to myself.
I began to follow the direction of the star, but I started noticing it was exhibiting odd behaviors. The star was moving around way too much, and it wasn’t twinkling. I grew suspicious, but stopped when I realized how crazy it was to be suspicious of a star. I ventured on, still following the star.
I began to hear ragged breathing. The breathing sent me into an extremely familiar yet horrific panic response.
Why am I getting the uncanny valley response..? Oh please don’t tell me..”
Suddenly, the star went completely dark.
“What the hell..” I muttered to myself in a mix of fear and confusion.
Lightning struck the ground in front of me, illuminating the woman from the TSA line, holding a flashlight and calmly sitting atop a tree. she looked different, though. Her eyes were red and crazed, her outfit was tattered and ragged, she looked beast-like. But although she looked different, the panicked uncanny valley response I received from her face felt no different than the one I was familiar with.
I cursed and booked it through the forest, not caring about all the branches I was running through.
Lightning struck once more, illuminating the woman calmly laying down directly in front of me, as if to mock me.
I swiftly turned around and ran. I heard the woman let out a horrific and uncanny roar, and started to run behind me not long after. Adrenaline was surging through my veins, nothing could stop me from running, except for the woman of course. Suddenly, I was tackled down to the ground. I screamed in pain as the woman began to gnaw at my shoulder and scrape her incredibly sharp tongue across the wound.
I tried to fight back, but my legs and arms were completely pinned down.
A roar echoed throughout the forest, and in an instant, the woman seemed scared, as if she’d been caught, and stopped torturing me.
“THIS IS OUR TERRITORY AFTER NIGHTFALL. I WILL LET YOU OFF WITH A WARNING, BUT NEVER COME BACK.” The woman stated in an incredibly uncanny and inhuman voice.
The woman hopped off of me and i layed there in shock and fear as I heard her run off into the forest and let out a roar.
What the hell are the uncannies doing in this forest? And why are they beast-like now?
I scurried to my feet and looked around, trying to find some sort of clue of how to get out of this forest.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
I heard a familiar but panic inducing voice call out. I jumped and started to scan everywhere surrounding me, and eventually I locked eyes with the familiar face of the individual who had saved me from the Uncanny valley. He looked inhuman and beastlike, but nowhere near as much as the woman.
“Sapien? What are you doing here?” I asked, confusedly.
“Wow, I never thought we would cross paths again!” he responded in an inhuman tone.
The panic response had not set in, but deep down I knew I could trust this Uncanny.
“Anyways, shortly after you left a huge protest broke out. The uncannies were getting tired of living in that boring old place for millions of years.. We settled on venturing into the world, and naming our territories. This right here is the Uncanny Forest, which is the most populated territory by the Uncannies at the moment. The uncanny valley is mostly empty now, but a few handful of them stayed there.” Sapien explained.
Panic completely enveloped me, from both his voice and what he had explained.
“So, they could be anywhere?” I asked him.
“Yes, but you don’t have to worry. They can’t hurt you, remember, I granted you complete safety.” Sapien stated.
“But, I was literally just attacked by the woman!” I stated frustratedly.
“Yeah, who do you think stopped her?” He asked before pointing at himself.
“But that still means that any of them could break the rules and torture me if they wanted?” I asked.
“Well, unfortunately, yes, but very few would choose to do that considering the severe punishment they face.” Sapien stated before sighing.
“What’s the punishment?” I asked, eager to know the answer.
“Well, our leaders will send them to their own personal hell. Most of the time that personal hell is them being tortured by humans for what feels like millions of years to them, but is really only a few seconds for everyone else. Only a few uncannies have received such punishment, but when they do, they are never the same.” Sapien explained.
“You never mentioned anything about leaders.. Who leads the Uncannies?” I asked curiously.
“Well, we have a government-like system in place, although it’s very flawed.. We have had the same executive chief for 50,000 years now. I guess I just forgot to tell you about it last time, my bad.”
“Oh, well alright then.. Do you know how to get out of here?” I asked.
“The forest? Uhh, here.”
he touched my shoulder and suddenly my world began to morph and swim into red demonic colors, and just as suddenly I was right next to my car. I looked around, but Sapien wasn’t there.
Huh, didn’t know they could do that. Pretty cool.
I got in my car and drove home. I was now stressed about the possibility of running into another uncanny, but I felt some comfort from the fact that not most of them would choose to harm me.