The Stalker discovers that the village has utilised Childermass' anti-gravity machines, and that he has woken hundreds, if not thousands of years into the future. When he asks if there are any traction cities in the world, the village people explain that they are thought to be fairy tales nowadays and find the idea ridiculous. When the people ask what he was for, Shrike responds that he is a "Remembering Machine", and is asked to tell his story. Shrike starts by speaking the first lines of "Mortal Engines":