Day 562

Nobody quite remembers when the ground began to turn black and sink.
All we know now is that the skyships are home to us.
Most up here have never touched ground before - never even touched the black seas.

We eat mostly birds up here and whatever animals were brought aboard in the early days.
Somewhat natural but mostly engineered, they keep us alive and we keep them alive in return.
Rather I should say "alive" as they never leave the embryonic vats below deck.

Aside from them a few other things have changed in society.
Thanks to the black seas and the corrupted water cycle we're forced to filter the water.
27 is average, anything less and you're pushing it - anything more and you're wasting power.

The skyships are usually wind powered, the clouds are pitch black and block out most sunlight.
Strangely enough the winds are constantly 70 - 90mph solid, plenty to keep us up and safe.
Nobody who's gone down to the seas has ever come back sane.

The few that make it back alive rant and rave about impossible creatures.
Human faces as large as battalion ships, rising and sinking in the inky depths.
They look just like the dead we toss overboard.

Of course that can't be, I mean we may not know what the water has become but this is ridiculous.
There are mermaids too apparently, abominable chimeras of the fallen skyships and corpses.
They hover just above the water, you only see their gossamer webbed wings at first.

I'll admit I've seen strange watery shimmers when on lookout duty but mermaids - unlikely.
It's bad enough we have to worry about other skyships coming for our supplies,let alone the sea too!
The fools who make it back up to us never last long - a week tops.

We always send them back down, back to where they were sentenced to death by wretched nature.
This year there's been a surge in seafaring volunteers, more than we've had since the early days.
None of them have come back but now the black seas shimmer like freshly polished copper.