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Going up that shaft is hell

It’s a good thing I’ve been taking th to keep scra upward Dark looms above and below et it out The yellow-green gliht draw attention I don’t want I’h to hurt myself severely if I fall I don’t think about that

My hands are raw, and it feels like the soles of iven way as well I don’t kno far I’ve cliinning, I could hear his soft words of reassurance Now it’s ht of it feels like my tomb

To my vast relief, the shaft hasn’t narrowed I think it must have been drilled because it seems to be a uniform width all the way up I just don’t knohere it ends

I keep cli It seems like an eternity The last time I was alone in the dark like this, I yielded to blind panic Doc had to talk h it, but that can’t happen now March and Vel, the two people I care abouton me They can’t come up this way If I don’t reach the top, we die in darkness

Scrapes dot ainst the rock, and though they sprayed liquid skin on the punctures atMy wound will be bleeding soon Mary grant the s to me

This is easier if I closemyself upward I can pretend it’s not dark, that I’s are tired, tre in my muscles

I can do this I must do this

Desperation drives me on I stop and rest twice in as ine what it’s like to try to catch your breath, bent double, with only the strength of your thighs keeping you fro to a hideous death At this point, it’set hi

My muscles strain with exertion, and , but I don’t have anything to soothe therained in my skin

At last I feel a cooler breeze onclose I redoublemy way upward My hands scrabble at the stone above e

With the last burst of y I push upward and out onto a stone lip The shaft has joined a cavern, I think, which I confir a torch-tube, the only one I have For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to carry extra weight when I went up

Finally, a break There’s an outcropping of stalagmites nearby, which tells me this is a natural cave I tie the rope around one of the until I’ht Then I drop it down the shaft and hope it’s long enough

I don’t think they’ll hear me if I shout, and even so, I’ else to my position I have no idea what lives here I could drop et their attention if the rope doesn’t do it, but I don’t want to wait in the dark

Relief crashes through ot it In the sickly, citrine light, I watch the rope go taut That

I sit there, weak and treh I’d like to help hith to pull him up, so I just stay out of his way I marvel that he’s able to do this after twenty-four hours of abuse and privation He’s so da it amazes me

"Thank Mary," he breathes when he sees est hour of er to me, somehow March comes to me on his hands and knees, shaky with relief And, despite his filth andpuzzle pieces Listening to his heart there in the greasy light thrown by the torch-tube is the closest to heaven I’ll ever be

Vel comes up faster He’s in better shape than me, and he hasn’t been beaten like March I’m almost ready to move by the time he unties the rope

"Good work, Sirantha Let oes to work I don’t kno long it is--I’m content where I am--until he says, "This way These caverns parallel the surface"

"Did you find an exit?"

"More or less" Vel starts walking, just as eager to be gone from here as we are "I found a fissure I can widen with a laser"

Then alk I’m so exhausted now that I can hardly think I just follow Vel and March, one foot in front of the other I’ve lost track of how deep into our twenty-four hours we are Mary, I hope nothing has happened to Dina and Hit They have to be waiting for us

After an interminable hike, we come to the end of the natural caverns Beyond lies the mountain wall, but Vel sient on it, then whips out a cutting laser

The area fills with s it hard to breathe I cover s through the infa else We can’t eat with so h the cloth rateful for s deeper and deeper into the fissure to work

Just when I think I can’t stand it anymore, Vel beckons us "We must crawl out I am afraid to risk a wider cut, lest I destabilize the mountain and cause an avalanche"

Yeah, we certainly don’t want to wind up buried in rock and snow That’s not how my story ends

"Thanks, Vel" I’d kiss hireat, all the way"

March agrees "I’d have said it was iuess that o first It’s a tiny crevice that sparks o deeper In here, I can hardly breathe The rock scrapes ine how it is for March and Vel They h on their sides or bellies Thinking about theets colder, I realize I’m almost there, so I crawl faster