Chapter 8Explanation

"As far as I could tell, the whole world was as vibrant and lush as the area around the Thames River."

From every hill I climbed, I saw the same incredible buildings - tons of different materials and styles, always changing it up - and thick clusters of evergreens, trees bursting with blossoms, and tree ferns everywhere.

Here and there, water shimmered like silver, and beyond that, the land rolled into blue hills that faded into the sky. One thing that really caught my eye was these circular wells, and there were a bunch of them, seemed super deep. One was right next to the path I took on my first walk.

Like the others, it had a bronze rim, intricately decorated, and a little dome to keep the rain out. Peering down into the dark shafts, I couldn’t see any water or get a reflection with a lighter. But I heard this sound in all of them: a thud - thud - thud, like a giant engine was running.

"And when I lit my matches, I noticed a steady current of air coming up the shafts. I even tossed a scrap of paper into one, and instead of floating down slowly, it was instantly sucked out of sight. "Eventually, I realized these wells were connected to tall towers standing on the hillsides.

Above them, I often saw the same kind of shimmering in the air you see on a scorching beach. Putting it all together, I got a strong feeling there was a huge underground ventilation system, but I couldn't really imagine what it was for.

At first, I thought it had something to do with their sanitation - it seemed obvious, but I was totally wrong. "To be honest, I didn’t learn much about drains, bells, or how they moved things around - you know, the usual conveniences."

A lot of those futuristic Utopias I’d read about go into tons of detail about buildings, social structures, and all that. But while it’s easy to get all those details when you’re just imagining a whole world, it’s impossible for a real traveler to find that kind of information in a place like this.

Think about it: what would a guy fresh off the boat from Central Africa tell his tribe about London? What would he know about train companies, social movements, telephone and telegraph wires, or a delivery service and postal orders? But we’d definitely try to explain all that to him, right?

And even if he did know some things, how much could he actually make his friend understand or believe? Then, think about how close a Black guy from our time is to a white guy, and how much further I was from these people from the Golden Age!

"I could sense a lot going on behind the scenes that made things comfortable, but besides a general feeling of everything being automated, I don’t think I can really explain how different it was. "For example, I didn't see any crematories or anything that looked like tombs when it came to burial.

But I thought maybe there were cemeteries (or crematories) somewhere beyond where I’m exploring. That was a question I asked myself, and at first, I couldn’t figure it out. It totally confused me, and I ended up saying something even more confusing: that there were no old or sick people around.

"I gotta admit, my initial theories about a totally automatic civilization and a society going downhill fast didn’t stick around for long. But I couldn't think of anything else. Let me explain what was bugging me."

The huge palaces I checked out were just living spaces - massive dining rooms and bedrooms. I couldn’t find any machines, no tools of any kind. Yet, these people wore nice clothes that must need replacing sometimes, and their sandals, though simple, were pretty complex metalwork.

Somehow, those things had to be made. And the little people showed zero signs of being creative. There were no stores, no workshops, no signs of anything being imported. They spent all their time chilling, swimming in the river, messing around with each other, eating fruit, and sleeping.

I couldn’t figure out how everything kept running. "Then, there was the Time Machine: something, I don't even know what, took it into the hollow base of the White Sphinx. Why? I couldn't even guess. Those dry wells, too, those flickering lights. I felt like I was missing something."

I felt - how do I put it? Imagine finding an inscription with some sentences in plain English, but mixed in with words, even letters, that you’ve never seen before?

"Well, on the third day of my visit, that’s exactly what the world of Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One felt like to me! "That day, I also made a friend - sort of.

I was watching some of the little people swimming in a shallow area when one of them suddenly got a cramp and started drifting downstream. The current was pretty fast, but not too strong for even an average swimmer.

It’s gonna give you an idea of how lacking these creatures were when I tell you that none of them even tried to rescue the little thing that was crying and drowning right in front of their eyes.

When I realized that, I quickly took off my clothes and, wading in at a point further down, I grabbed the poor kid and pulled her to safety. Rubbing her limbs a bit soon brought her around, and I was relieved to see she was okay before I left her.

"I’d gotten so used to thinking low of her kind that I didn’t expect any thanks. But I was wrong. "This happened in the morning.

In the afternoon, I met my little woman, as I believe she was, as I was heading back from exploring, and she greeted me with excited cries and presented me with a huge garland of flowers - obviously made just for me. It totally blew my mind. Maybe I’d been feeling lonely.

At any rate, I did my best to show how much I appreciated the gift. We were soon sitting together in a little stone gazebo, just smiling and chatting. The woman’s friendliness affected me exactly like it would have a child’s. We passed each other flowers, and she kissed my hands.

I did the same to hers. Then I tried to talk, and found out her name was Weena, which, even though I don’t know what it meant, somehow seemed fitting. That was the start of a strange friendship that lasted a week, and ended - as I’ll tell you!

"She was totally like a kid. She wanted to be with me all the time. She tried to follow me everywhere, and it kind of broke my heart to leave her on my next trip, leaving her exhausted and calling after me, sounding pretty upset. But I had to deal with the world’s problems."

I told myself, I didn't come to the future for some silly little crush. Still, her sadness when I left her was really intense, her protests at leaving were sometimes frantic, and honestly, her devotion was more trouble than comfort. But somehow, she was a real comfort.

I thought it was just simple kid affection that made her cling to me. I didn’t really know what I was doing to her when I left her, and I didn’t understand what she meant to me until it was too late.

Because just by seeming fond of me, and showing in her own small, helpless way that she cared, that little doll of a girl quickly made coming back to the neighborhood of the White Sphinx feel like coming home; and I’d look for her tiny figure of white and gold as soon as I came over the hill.

"It was from her, too, that I learned fear hadn't completely disappeared. She was pretty fearless during the day, and she had a crazy amount of faith in me. Once, in a silly moment, I even made threatening faces at her, and she just laughed."

But she totally dreaded the dark, feared shadows, was scared of dark things. Darkness was the one thing that terrified her. It was a really intense feeling, and it got me thinking and observing. I realized these little people huddled in big houses after dark, sleeping in groups.

Going into them without a light would freak them out. I never found one outside, or one sleeping alone inside, after dark. But I was still such a clueless idiot that I missed the point of that fear, and even though Weena was upset, I insisted on sleeping away from those sleeping crowds.

"It really bothered her, but in the end, her weird affection for me won out, and for five nights of knowing her, including the last night of all, she slept with her head resting on my arm. But my story is drifting away as I talk about her."

It must have been the night before she was rescued that I woke up around dawn. I’d been restless, having a seriously bad dream about drowning, and sea anemones feeling all over my face with their soft tentacles. I woke up with a jolt, feeling like some greyish animal had just darted out of the room.

I tried to go back to sleep, but I felt restless and uneasy. It was that weird, dim, early-morning hour when things are just creeping out of the darkness, when everything is colorless and sharp, but still feels unreal.

"I got up and went down into the big hall, then out onto the stone slabs in front of the palace. I figured I'd make the best of it and watch the sunrise. "The moon was setting, and the fading moonlight and the first hint of dawn were mixed in a spooky half-light.

The bushes were pitch black, the ground a dark grey, and the sky was colorless and depressing. And up the hill, I thought I could see ghosts. Three different times, as I looked across the slope, I saw white figures.

Twice, I thought I saw a single, white, ape-like creature running pretty fast up the hill, and once, near the ruins, I saw a group of them carrying some dark body. They were moving quickly. I didn’t see what happened to them. It seemed like they just vanished into the bushes.

The dawn was still hazy, you know. I was feeling that cold, uncertain, early-morning feeling you might have known. I questioned what I was seeing.

As the eastern sky got brighter, and the light of day came back, bringing its vivid colours across the world again, I scanned the view closely. But I didn’t see a trace of my white figures. They were just figments of the dim light. "They must have been ghosts," I said.

"I wonder where they came from?" A weird thought from Grant Allen popped into my head, and it amused me. If every generation dies and leaves ghosts, he argued, the world will eventually get totally overcrowded with them.

According to that idea, they’ll have multiplied endlessly, like, eight hundred thousand years from now, and it wouldn’t be so shocking to see four at once. But the joke didn’t really land, and I was thinking about these figures all morning, until Weena’s rescue pushed them out of my mind.

I linked them somehow to the white animal I’d startled during my first frantic search for the Time Machine. But Weena was a much better distraction. Still, they were about to take a much stronger hold on my mind. I think I mentioned how much hotter than our own was the weather in this Golden Age.

I can’t explain it. Maybe the sun was hotter, or Earth was closer to the sun. People, especially those not familiar with ideas like the younger Darwin’s, tend to forget that the planets will eventually fall back into the parent body.

As those disasters happen, the sun will blaze with renewed energy; and it’s possible that some inner planet had suffered that fate. Whatever the reason, the fact is that the sun was way hotter than we know it.

Well, one really hot morning - I think it was my fourth - while I was looking for some shade from the heat and glare near the huge ruin close to the great house where I slept and ate, something really strange happened.

Climbing around these piles of stone, I found a narrow gallery, whose end and side windows were blocked by fallen rocks. Compared to the brightness outside, it seemed totally dark at first. I went in groping, because the switch from light to darkness made spots of color swirl in front of my eyes.

Suddenly, I stopped, completely mesmerized. A pair of eyes, glowing from the reflected daylight outside, was watching me from the darkness. The old, instinctive fear of wild animals hit me. I clenched my fists and stared straight into those bright eyes. I was scared to turn around.

Then, I remembered how safe humanity seemed to be living. And then I recalled that weird terror of the dark. Overcoming my fear a little, I stepped forward and spoke. I’ll admit my voice was rough and shaky. I reached out and touched something soft.

Instantly, the eyes darted to the side, and something white zipped past me. I turned quickly, my heart pounding, and saw a bizarre, little ape-like figure, its head tilted in a strange way, running across the sunny space behind me.

It bumped into a block of granite, stumbled, and in a flash was hidden in a dark shadow under another pile of ruined stone.

"My impression of it is, like, totally not clear; but I know it was a dull white, and had these weird, big greyish-red eyes. Also, it had blonde hair on its head and down its back. But, you know, it went by so fast I couldn't really see it."

I can’t even say if it was running on all fours, or just with its front arms really low. After a second to catch my breath, I followed it into the second pile of ruins.

I couldn't find it at first; but after a while in the super dark, I came across one of those round, well-like openings I'm telling you about, kind of blocked by a fallen pillar. A thought just hit me: could this thing have vanished down the shaft?

I lit a match, and looking down, I saw this tiny, white, moving thing, with huge, bright eyes that stared right at me as it backed away. It gave me the creeps. It was so much like a human spider!

It was climbing down the wall, and now I saw for the first time a bunch of metal foot and hand rests forming like a ladder down the shaft. Then the light burned my fingers and fell out of my hand, going out as it dropped, and when I lit another the little monster had disappeared.

"I don’t know how long I just sat staring down that well. It took a while to convince myself that what I’d seen was even human. But, slowly, the truth started to sink in: that humans hadn’t stayed just one species, but had split into two different animals."

"That my graceful people from the Upper World weren’t the only descendants of our generation, but that this pale, gross, nighttime thing, which flashed past me, was also an heir to all the ages. "I thought about the flickering pillars and my idea about underground ventilation.

I started to suspect their real purpose. And I wondered, what was this Lemur doing in my plan for a perfectly balanced system? How was it connected to the chill, relaxed vibe of the beautiful Overworlders? And what was hidden down there, at the bottom of that shaft?

I sat on the edge of the well telling myself that, at least, there was nothing to fear, and that I had to go down there to solve my problems. But I was totally freaked out to go! As I hesitated, two of the beautiful upperworld people ran in, playing around in the daylight in the shadow.

The guy chased the girl, throwing flowers at her as he ran. "They seemed upset to find me, my arm against the overturned pillar, staring down the well."

Apparently, it was considered rude to mention these openings; so when I pointed to this one and tried to ask a question about it in their language, they were even more obviously upset and turned away. But they were interested in my matches, and I lit some to amuse them.

I tried them again about the well, and again I failed. So, eventually, I left them, meaning to go back to Weena, and see what I could get from her. But my mind was already spinning; my guesses and impressions were shifting to a new understanding.

I now had a clue about the purpose of these wells, the ventilating towers, the mystery of the ghosts; to say nothing of a hint about the meaning of the bronze gates and the fate of the Time Machine! And very vaguely, there came a suggestion towards solving the economic problem that had puzzled me.

Seriously, this second species of Man lived underground. Three things in particular made me think their rare appearances above ground were the result of living underground for a long time.

First, they had this pale look, like you see in animals that live mostly in the dark - like those white fish in Kentucky caves, for example. Then, those huge eyes, able to reflect light - you know, like owls and cats.

And finally, that obvious confusion in the sunlight, that quick but clumsy dash for shade, and that weird way they held their heads in the light - it all backed up my idea that their retinas were super sensitive.

So, beneath my feet, the earth must have tons of tunnels, and those tunnels were home to the New Race. Seeing those vents and wells along the hillsides - everywhere except in the river valley - showed how widespread the tunnels were.

What’s so natural, then, than to think they were doing all the work needed to make the people above ground comfortable in this artificial Underworld? The idea made total sense, so I went on to figure out how the human species split up.

I bet you can guess what I thought - but honestly, even I realized pretty soon that my theory wasn't quite right. At first, looking at what's happening in our own time, it seemed crystal clear that the growing gap between the rich Capitalists and the working-class Laborers was the key to everything.

I know it might sound crazy - and totally unbelievable! - but even now, there are things that point in that direction.

There's this trend to use underground space for the less fancy parts of civilization, like the London Underground, or those new electric trains, and subways, and underground workspaces and restaurants - and they're popping up everywhere.

Obviously, I thought, this trend had gotten so intense that Industry had lost its connection to the sky.

What I mean is, it had gone deeper and deeper into bigger and bigger underground factories, spending more and more time down there, until - ! Don’t you think an East-end worker lives in conditions so artificial that they’re practically cut off from the natural world above?

"Again, richer people - because, let’s face it, their education is getting more and more specialized, and the gap between them and the less fortunate is widening - are already closing off huge chunks of the countryside, just for themselves."

Around London, for example, maybe half the prettiest areas are off-limits to everyone else.

And this same widening gap - which is thanks to the long, expensive process of higher education and the increased ways for the wealthy to indulge in fancy habits - means that exchanging between classes, that blending of families that currently slows down society from splitting into separate groups, will happen less and less.

So, eventually, you’re going to have the Haves up top, chasing pleasure, comfort, and beauty, and below ground, the Have-nots, the Workers constantly adapting to their jobs.

Once they’re down there, they’ll probably have to pay a lot for the ventilation of their tunnels; and if they don’t, they’ll starve or suffocate from back rent.

Those who are miserable and rebellious will die out; and in the end, the balance will hold, and the survivors will adapt to underground life, and be as happy in their way as the people in the Overworld are to theirs.

As it seemed to me, the refined beauty and the pale, almost sickly look followed naturally enough. "The amazing achievement of Humanity I’d dreamed of took a different shape in my mind. It wasn't the triumph of moral education and teamwork I'd imagined."

Instead, I saw a real aristocracy, armed with advanced science, and logically extending the industrial system of today. Their triumph wasn't just over nature, but over nature and other people. I have to warn you, this was my theory at the time.

I didn’t have a tour guide like in those utopian stories. My explanation might be totally wrong. But even if it’s true, the balanced civilization that was finally achieved must have long since passed its peak, and was now far gone into decline.

The Overworlders were so secure that they slowly started to degenerate, getting smaller, weaker, and less intelligent. I could already see that happening.

What had happened to the Undergrounders, I didn't yet suspect; but from what I’d seen of the Morlocks - that’s what they were called - I could imagine that the human type had been changed even more drastically than among the ‘Eloi,’ the beautiful race that I already knew.

"Then came some really troubling questions. Why had the Morlocks taken my Time Machine? I was sure it was them. Why, if the Eloi were in charge, couldn't they just give the machine back? And why were they so terrified of the dark?"

I started asking Weena about this Underworld, but I was disappointed again. At first, she didn’t understand my questions, and then she refused to answer them. She shivered like the topic was unbearable. And when I pressed her, maybe a little too hard, she burst into tears.

Those were the only tears, besides my own, I ever saw in that Golden Age. When I saw them, I stopped bothering about the Morlocks, and just wanted to banish any signs of her human side from Weena’s eyes. Soon she was smiling and clapping her hands, while I lit a match.