[ IP ] The Long Road

It's almost sad to watch yourself as you walk down the road only a few hundred feet ahead of you. Despite the beauty of the grass, the road, the cities, and the hills beyond, you ca n't help but feel the hopelessness of it all. Following yourself across the landscape. Stuck in a loop... always repeating, always repeating. 
 
 It's all I can remember now, waking up to see myself leave the camp I set up the previous night, then get ready and leave just as the version of me behind wakes up. We talk sometimes, in those evenings where we overlap, but none of us have learned anything interesting, and why would we, were all just destined to repeat what the previous version asked a few minutes ago. Just that we all have someone behind us, and another in front. All we ever do is follow, and in turn be followed. Follow and be followed. 
 
 I hop off the bridge and slide down some broken concrete to the roadway below, how strange it is, to be lonely yet surrounded by yourself. There's never anyone else, hell, maybe there never was anyone else. Just me and me and me and me... 
 
 Every day it crosses my mind what would happen if I strayed off the path, if I stopped and let me catch up to me, or run until I reach me in front. I suppose we all feel it, because every time I think it I stop, just like the version in front of me did, stop and look at myself. My staff clicks on the broken asphalt and I turn, looking into my eyes on the bridge, blue like my cloak, hair whipping in the air, always following, always following. There's nothing to say, after all I never told myself anything from here when I was on the bridge, so I just turn and continue the path. 
 
 In the end something always stops me, stops me from straying from the path, maybe it's fear that something will go wrong if I do, or that I wo n't know what to do if I ca n't follow someone or something. All I know is that if I keep following I'll stay safe, always stay safe, always find the food she just ate, always step in the footsteps she took. Always follow, always live. 
 
 There must be a destination, we must be going somewhere. Somewhere the loop will end. I know it will. We'll get where were going, where we've always been going. We'll reach it, I know we will. I hope we will...
