Re: Out of their Element
Posted: Thu May 11, 2023 3:27 pm
Chapter 40
Evie
Stepping up to the mouth of the stadium-sized cavern gives me a wave of dizziness. Entering such a dark, vast space by myself is creating so much anxiety that I almost turn back around. But going back to Aiden after being so insistent with him doesn’t feel like an option right now. I try to summon my courage, and all it takes is looking back to the floor, to the sliver of red plastic that had caught my attention in the first place, and my determination floods back.
It’s twenty feet away from me, and the reason it wasn’t destroyed becomes apparent right away. Due to the heat of the fire and whatever explosion happened in here, there’s a crack in the concrete floor, and the flash drive fell right in before something else fell on top of it. Whatever was covering it up must have protected it long enough for the fire to get put out. There’s no way I would have even seen it if I hadn't gotten so low to the ground to be able to peer into the crack.
After I take a couple of hesitant steps, I flinch at the sound of Aiden’s voice echoing into the room. “Watch out, there’s a whole lot of shattered glass there. Just to your left, can you see that?”
I look in that direction and sure enough, one of the rocks strewn about is clearly glinting in the low light. “Roger that,” I call back, “It is pretty dark in here... Can you see me?”
I turn to look at the wall, trailing my gaze up the length of the crack we’d been looking through. About fifty feet up is a patch of my giant friend’s face, the color of his eye appearing almost black in the darkness.
“Sort of, I can see movement…” he responds, shifting to try and get a better view, “Oh wait, duh. Hold on, let me give you some light.”
A moment later, the space I’m in gets fully illuminated, and when I look back to the door I came through I have to squint. Aiden’s just turned on his phone’s flashlight and leaned the device up against the entrance.
“Is that better?”
“Much better, thank you!” I say emphatically, looking around.
This not only makes it easier to see, but I’m more able to ignore the vastness of the rest of the room as it recedes into almost pitch blackness. I’m just focused on my immediate surroundings now. Though I do nervously see the hundreds of pieces of aforementioned glass to my left, and I also realize even smaller pieces are littering the floor around me, some shards small enough for me to step on. I really, really need to make myself some shoes.
Shivering from the sharp chill in the air, I carefully pad my way through, my legs already getting covered in ash just from walking around in here. I make it to the fissure, ducking under the overhang of debris that covers it. There it is down below me, and now I’m much more confident that it is indeed a flash drive. The plastic surface just has a couple of small scratches on it, it otherwise looks miraculously undamaged. And it's the kind that has a cap to protect the USB plug too.
My heart rate picks up with excitement. With any luck, this thing still works. With even more luck there's useful information on it.
“Evie?” Aiden asks apprehensively, “You just disappeared, everything okay?”
I sigh, a bit exasperated by the rather large distraction outside. But I don’t blame him for worrying, I should probably be talking him through what I’m doing. I pop my head back out into the open.
“It’s under here!” I call, “There’s a crack in the concrete and it’s inside. This might take a minute, but everything’s fine.”
I peer into the crevice in the ground, trying to gauge the space. The concrete itself is about five or six inches thick so it’s quite a bit taller than I am, but the dirt underneath the slab has been pushed up in places, making it more accessible. The fissure’s walls are uneven enough to create plenty of climbing holds, so I slip into the narrow opening and slowly make my way into the earth without much issue. By now my arms and clothes are getting pretty dirty too. Yep, I’ll definitely be taking a bath after this.
The flash drive is a rounded rectangle shape that’s four feet long to me, so it’s going to be rather unwieldy to drag across the ground. But first I have to get it out of the crevice. It’s already leaned up against the side of the concrete, so I crouch down and hook my arms under one end before pushing upwards. The other end reaches the opening. I hear Aiden outside comment, “Whoa, I see it!” and his excitement gives me a boost of adrenaline as I heave.
And then my heart sinks as there’s a dull, jolting thump. I was able to squeeze in here. But the flash drive won’t fit through the hole, it's getting blocked by the debris overhead.
Cursing, I take another minute to keep trying, maneuvering it in different angles, until I let the thing collapse and am left breathing hard from the effort. The hole is just barely too small. I’m so close.
“What’s up?” the giant outside asks as I scramble back out of the crevice.
“It won’t fit,” I respond in frustration. I spend some time trying to push against the piece of rubble that’s laying overtop the crack. It’s a chunk of charred wood and melted plastic that’s probably no larger than a baseball to the average person, but to me it’s as big as a pickup truck. I shove against it as hard as I can but it doesn’t even budge.
“Umm, let me think,” Aiden says as he watches me, “Maybe if I find a stick, I can push on it from the outside?”
That’s not a bad idea. I look back towards the entrance, squinting against the flashlight. But the crack that I slipped through to get here was fairly narrow, I wonder if a wooden stick that's thin enough to fit would still be strong enough to help. Not to mention the fact that this spot is off to the side and there are some obstacles in the way, it’d be a tricky maneuver.
“There isn’t anything right here that I can use, though,” he laments, “and I don’t want to leave you by yourself to find something... How about you come back and we try again on a different day? Now that we know about it we can come better equipped.”
The idea of walking away from this thing when it’s right in front of me is painful. Aiden’s probably right, but I still don’t want to give up just yet…
“Hold on,” I say, “Maybe I'm the one who needs a tool.”
I start looking around at the rubble a little more critically. Most of what I see are unrecognizable bits of brittle metal, burnt wood and reformed plastic. I carefully step over more glass as I spot something long and thin - I brush some of the ash off and realize it’s a half-melted pen. A plan starts forming in my head and I drag this back to the offending obstacle.
Using a small rock as a fulcrum, I jam the end of the pen under the boulder-like chunk and push down on the other side of the lever as hard as I can. I put my entire weight on it, straining every muscle in my body, and still… nothing.
I collapse against the pen for a few seconds as I try to catch my breath, hissing out frustrated curses. I glare at the boulder, imagining how easy it would be for Aiden’s hand to push it out of the way, or even just pick it up, with no issue. I hate. Being. Small.
All the more reason to get to that flash drive.
With renewed vigor I get up and continue looking around. Think. What else can I do here? I start scanning all the memories I have of being in the woodworking shop back in high school. Wondering if any of the problems I had to solve back then might apply to right now. Could I wear away at the obstacle instead and widen the hole? Maybe if I had some kind of miniature sander - you know, that classic dollhouse accessory. Could I chip away at it with a rudimentary hammer and chisel? Maybe if I had five months to spare.
I come across something flat and metallic in the debris, and as I wipe off the dust I realize it’s a ruler. It’s damaged but I can still see some of the numbers on it. Whoa… I’d been told that I was three inches tall but had never seen the measurement for myself. Seeing it so plainly in front of me is pretty sobering.
But then I’m struck with a thought. I look back towards the pen that was useless to me. What do I know about levers? If I’m struggling to pull a nail out with the claw of a hammer… Get a bigger hammer. A longer lever.
I step onto the other side of the ruler and begin to push. It’s very thin and made even more so by the heat, but it’s just as dense, and it's metal, so it’s still quite heavy to me. It’s also literally four times my height in length, so I have to push one end, then run over to the other end to slowly inch the structure across the floor.
“Please don’t hurt yourself,” Aiden’s voice calls to me softly. I can tell he’s trying to be patient and let me do this, but I’m not sure how much longer I can justify it.
It takes me another few minutes to drag the ruler the couple of inches over to where I need it, and then I shove one end underneath a small gap in the obstacle I’m wanting to move. After thinking things through for a minute, I grab my fulcrum rock and bring it to the far side of the ruler, away from the looming boulder. Using every bit of strength I have, I lift up the end of the metal plank, just high enough for me to shove the rock underneath with my foot. Even though I’ve managed to avoid all the broken glass, my legs are getting pretty scratched up now. But at least I’m making progress.
I get down onto the ground so that I can start pushing the rock along the bottom of the ruler, moving the fulcrum closer and closer to the obstacle to get maximum torque. It’s exhausting, and despite the cold in the air I'm now covered in a thin sheen of sweat, but I push through, knees and feet scraping against the concrete as my arms shake. By the time I make it as far as I can go, the high side of the lever is level with my chin. I run back to it and reach my hands up, and I push down as hard as I can.
There’s a shifting this time. It’s just the slightest bit of movement but it’s budging. I jump up, put my entire weight on the end of the lever, but I’m just not heavy enough. God, I’m so close.
“Evie…” the giant whispers, and from a quick glance to him I can tell he’s looking down the alleyway nervously.
“Wait,” I gasp, “Sorry, let me just try one last thing!”
If I’m not heavy enough, maybe I just need more weight. I find another rock and push it up the length of the ruler, then another one, then another, creating a pile at the top of the lever. It's a messy process, the rocks threatening to topple off on more than one occasion, but I can tell it's making a difference. Finally as I carry one more rock up, I feel the tension starting to practically vibrate beneath my feet. And that's the moment that I try leaping up into the air and landing down as hard as I can.
It works. The boulder-like obstacle doesn't roll away, but it slides to the side just a tad, the ruler slipping out from underneath it and causing me to crash to the ground. I can hear a sharp, concerned inhale from Aiden but I ignore him, immediately back on my feet as I rush over to the crevice.
I climb back down to the flash drive, needing to pause and take a few breaths after all that exertion. It's time to push this thing up.
I'm so close. I'm so goddamn close. The hole is bigger, it looks like it'll be a perfect fit, I push the end of the flash drive through… and then it gets stuck. The gap still isn't quite wide enough. Once the rounded corners pass through, I feel resistance once again.
But it's just by a hair. And I've come this far. I don't care that my body's about to give out, I have to do this. With a surge of adrenaline and a cry of exertion, I shove with everything that's in me. The obstacle above me shudders and shifts… and then it shifts a lot more than I was expecting. Apparently when I'd pushed the boulder with the lever I had moved it into a precarious balance. And now it finally rolls a quarter turn to the side.
What I didn't know about was the pile of ash and dirt that was trapped on top of the piece of rubble. Which now all comes tumbling down into the crevice in one solid wave. Burying me alive.
Evie
Stepping up to the mouth of the stadium-sized cavern gives me a wave of dizziness. Entering such a dark, vast space by myself is creating so much anxiety that I almost turn back around. But going back to Aiden after being so insistent with him doesn’t feel like an option right now. I try to summon my courage, and all it takes is looking back to the floor, to the sliver of red plastic that had caught my attention in the first place, and my determination floods back.
It’s twenty feet away from me, and the reason it wasn’t destroyed becomes apparent right away. Due to the heat of the fire and whatever explosion happened in here, there’s a crack in the concrete floor, and the flash drive fell right in before something else fell on top of it. Whatever was covering it up must have protected it long enough for the fire to get put out. There’s no way I would have even seen it if I hadn't gotten so low to the ground to be able to peer into the crack.
After I take a couple of hesitant steps, I flinch at the sound of Aiden’s voice echoing into the room. “Watch out, there’s a whole lot of shattered glass there. Just to your left, can you see that?”
I look in that direction and sure enough, one of the rocks strewn about is clearly glinting in the low light. “Roger that,” I call back, “It is pretty dark in here... Can you see me?”
I turn to look at the wall, trailing my gaze up the length of the crack we’d been looking through. About fifty feet up is a patch of my giant friend’s face, the color of his eye appearing almost black in the darkness.
“Sort of, I can see movement…” he responds, shifting to try and get a better view, “Oh wait, duh. Hold on, let me give you some light.”
A moment later, the space I’m in gets fully illuminated, and when I look back to the door I came through I have to squint. Aiden’s just turned on his phone’s flashlight and leaned the device up against the entrance.
“Is that better?”
“Much better, thank you!” I say emphatically, looking around.
This not only makes it easier to see, but I’m more able to ignore the vastness of the rest of the room as it recedes into almost pitch blackness. I’m just focused on my immediate surroundings now. Though I do nervously see the hundreds of pieces of aforementioned glass to my left, and I also realize even smaller pieces are littering the floor around me, some shards small enough for me to step on. I really, really need to make myself some shoes.
Shivering from the sharp chill in the air, I carefully pad my way through, my legs already getting covered in ash just from walking around in here. I make it to the fissure, ducking under the overhang of debris that covers it. There it is down below me, and now I’m much more confident that it is indeed a flash drive. The plastic surface just has a couple of small scratches on it, it otherwise looks miraculously undamaged. And it's the kind that has a cap to protect the USB plug too.
My heart rate picks up with excitement. With any luck, this thing still works. With even more luck there's useful information on it.
“Evie?” Aiden asks apprehensively, “You just disappeared, everything okay?”
I sigh, a bit exasperated by the rather large distraction outside. But I don’t blame him for worrying, I should probably be talking him through what I’m doing. I pop my head back out into the open.
“It’s under here!” I call, “There’s a crack in the concrete and it’s inside. This might take a minute, but everything’s fine.”
I peer into the crevice in the ground, trying to gauge the space. The concrete itself is about five or six inches thick so it’s quite a bit taller than I am, but the dirt underneath the slab has been pushed up in places, making it more accessible. The fissure’s walls are uneven enough to create plenty of climbing holds, so I slip into the narrow opening and slowly make my way into the earth without much issue. By now my arms and clothes are getting pretty dirty too. Yep, I’ll definitely be taking a bath after this.
The flash drive is a rounded rectangle shape that’s four feet long to me, so it’s going to be rather unwieldy to drag across the ground. But first I have to get it out of the crevice. It’s already leaned up against the side of the concrete, so I crouch down and hook my arms under one end before pushing upwards. The other end reaches the opening. I hear Aiden outside comment, “Whoa, I see it!” and his excitement gives me a boost of adrenaline as I heave.
And then my heart sinks as there’s a dull, jolting thump. I was able to squeeze in here. But the flash drive won’t fit through the hole, it's getting blocked by the debris overhead.
Cursing, I take another minute to keep trying, maneuvering it in different angles, until I let the thing collapse and am left breathing hard from the effort. The hole is just barely too small. I’m so close.
“What’s up?” the giant outside asks as I scramble back out of the crevice.
“It won’t fit,” I respond in frustration. I spend some time trying to push against the piece of rubble that’s laying overtop the crack. It’s a chunk of charred wood and melted plastic that’s probably no larger than a baseball to the average person, but to me it’s as big as a pickup truck. I shove against it as hard as I can but it doesn’t even budge.
“Umm, let me think,” Aiden says as he watches me, “Maybe if I find a stick, I can push on it from the outside?”
That’s not a bad idea. I look back towards the entrance, squinting against the flashlight. But the crack that I slipped through to get here was fairly narrow, I wonder if a wooden stick that's thin enough to fit would still be strong enough to help. Not to mention the fact that this spot is off to the side and there are some obstacles in the way, it’d be a tricky maneuver.
“There isn’t anything right here that I can use, though,” he laments, “and I don’t want to leave you by yourself to find something... How about you come back and we try again on a different day? Now that we know about it we can come better equipped.”
The idea of walking away from this thing when it’s right in front of me is painful. Aiden’s probably right, but I still don’t want to give up just yet…
“Hold on,” I say, “Maybe I'm the one who needs a tool.”
I start looking around at the rubble a little more critically. Most of what I see are unrecognizable bits of brittle metal, burnt wood and reformed plastic. I carefully step over more glass as I spot something long and thin - I brush some of the ash off and realize it’s a half-melted pen. A plan starts forming in my head and I drag this back to the offending obstacle.
Using a small rock as a fulcrum, I jam the end of the pen under the boulder-like chunk and push down on the other side of the lever as hard as I can. I put my entire weight on it, straining every muscle in my body, and still… nothing.
I collapse against the pen for a few seconds as I try to catch my breath, hissing out frustrated curses. I glare at the boulder, imagining how easy it would be for Aiden’s hand to push it out of the way, or even just pick it up, with no issue. I hate. Being. Small.
All the more reason to get to that flash drive.
With renewed vigor I get up and continue looking around. Think. What else can I do here? I start scanning all the memories I have of being in the woodworking shop back in high school. Wondering if any of the problems I had to solve back then might apply to right now. Could I wear away at the obstacle instead and widen the hole? Maybe if I had some kind of miniature sander - you know, that classic dollhouse accessory. Could I chip away at it with a rudimentary hammer and chisel? Maybe if I had five months to spare.
I come across something flat and metallic in the debris, and as I wipe off the dust I realize it’s a ruler. It’s damaged but I can still see some of the numbers on it. Whoa… I’d been told that I was three inches tall but had never seen the measurement for myself. Seeing it so plainly in front of me is pretty sobering.
But then I’m struck with a thought. I look back towards the pen that was useless to me. What do I know about levers? If I’m struggling to pull a nail out with the claw of a hammer… Get a bigger hammer. A longer lever.
I step onto the other side of the ruler and begin to push. It’s very thin and made even more so by the heat, but it’s just as dense, and it's metal, so it’s still quite heavy to me. It’s also literally four times my height in length, so I have to push one end, then run over to the other end to slowly inch the structure across the floor.
“Please don’t hurt yourself,” Aiden’s voice calls to me softly. I can tell he’s trying to be patient and let me do this, but I’m not sure how much longer I can justify it.
It takes me another few minutes to drag the ruler the couple of inches over to where I need it, and then I shove one end underneath a small gap in the obstacle I’m wanting to move. After thinking things through for a minute, I grab my fulcrum rock and bring it to the far side of the ruler, away from the looming boulder. Using every bit of strength I have, I lift up the end of the metal plank, just high enough for me to shove the rock underneath with my foot. Even though I’ve managed to avoid all the broken glass, my legs are getting pretty scratched up now. But at least I’m making progress.
I get down onto the ground so that I can start pushing the rock along the bottom of the ruler, moving the fulcrum closer and closer to the obstacle to get maximum torque. It’s exhausting, and despite the cold in the air I'm now covered in a thin sheen of sweat, but I push through, knees and feet scraping against the concrete as my arms shake. By the time I make it as far as I can go, the high side of the lever is level with my chin. I run back to it and reach my hands up, and I push down as hard as I can.
There’s a shifting this time. It’s just the slightest bit of movement but it’s budging. I jump up, put my entire weight on the end of the lever, but I’m just not heavy enough. God, I’m so close.
“Evie…” the giant whispers, and from a quick glance to him I can tell he’s looking down the alleyway nervously.
“Wait,” I gasp, “Sorry, let me just try one last thing!”
If I’m not heavy enough, maybe I just need more weight. I find another rock and push it up the length of the ruler, then another one, then another, creating a pile at the top of the lever. It's a messy process, the rocks threatening to topple off on more than one occasion, but I can tell it's making a difference. Finally as I carry one more rock up, I feel the tension starting to practically vibrate beneath my feet. And that's the moment that I try leaping up into the air and landing down as hard as I can.
It works. The boulder-like obstacle doesn't roll away, but it slides to the side just a tad, the ruler slipping out from underneath it and causing me to crash to the ground. I can hear a sharp, concerned inhale from Aiden but I ignore him, immediately back on my feet as I rush over to the crevice.
I climb back down to the flash drive, needing to pause and take a few breaths after all that exertion. It's time to push this thing up.
I'm so close. I'm so goddamn close. The hole is bigger, it looks like it'll be a perfect fit, I push the end of the flash drive through… and then it gets stuck. The gap still isn't quite wide enough. Once the rounded corners pass through, I feel resistance once again.
But it's just by a hair. And I've come this far. I don't care that my body's about to give out, I have to do this. With a surge of adrenaline and a cry of exertion, I shove with everything that's in me. The obstacle above me shudders and shifts… and then it shifts a lot more than I was expecting. Apparently when I'd pushed the boulder with the lever I had moved it into a precarious balance. And now it finally rolls a quarter turn to the side.
What I didn't know about was the pile of ash and dirt that was trapped on top of the piece of rubble. Which now all comes tumbling down into the crevice in one solid wave. Burying me alive.