I wish I could. Walking is such a chore, but then flying up is where it's at, not flying down like a brick. It feels that I am falling forever, that I am like Alice and I am tumbling down and down, just wondering where it will all end, curiouser and curiouser.
That all stops when I plunge hard into some icy black water, its surface hits me with a crack and I feel my legs crumple up, but still no sharp pains, no signs of anything broken. I fell so far I must have picked up a lot of speed, and now as I plunge into this icy lake, or whatever it is, it has pushed me far under.
Finally my descent has stopped, but my lungs are bursting, I need to breathe but I cannot, not yet. I swim, dragging my arms and my legs flailing trying to raise myself above the waterline. I open my eyes and the water stings, my whole skin tingles with it. There is something in the water affecting me, making me shiver and my body screams out to breathe in, to let in the water and in a moment the struggle will be gone and the darkness eternal.
Hold on... One more... Moment... Passing... Out...
I breathe in heavily as the surface brakes, my eyes flying around wildly as I gulp at the air. It is stale, smells rank of something bitter, like a kind of acid within, but at least it's not plain water going into my lungs.
Now I just feel how cold it is, not frozen, but still my body temperature is dropping. These rags I have on my back are barely fit for the journey I had planned, let alone this. As I look around I am surprised by two things: First, that I am not hurt, I fell so far, and I can see the wreckage of the metal stairs adorning the sides of the walls, broken and twisted, like paper in a hurricane. It kind of twists and turns as it has broken and fallen down, clinging desperately to the walls here and there, like some kind of decoration.
The second thing to surprise me is how well lit it is down here. What worries me most is how am I going to get out of there.
A snapping sound interrupts my thoughts, and I hear what sounds like bone hitting metal. There is no splash into the water beside me, only a thudding splat. As I allow my vision to narrow in on it, I can see it is one of the creatures that was chasing me, its body wasted and withered, as if it doesn't need to eat, or just hasn't. Its skin has a yellow tint, like it is jaundiced, and any hair on its head looks wiry, as if it is some kind of fake dummy, wired up to act a certain way. When I first caught sight of it I panicked, thinking it was going to come after me, but now I can see it is impaled on a spike of metal sticking up, right through its abdomen, up through its neck. It surely must be dead.
Another cracking sound, banging around the walls that echoes and then another thud. This time closer to me, and the metal stairs move a little, the rending of metal and terrible screeching. Will it all come down on me?
The second one doesn't spike, but it hits so much against the hard metal it breaks, then collapses dead into the water. I grimace, it is disgusting. It floats near me, twitching and trying to move, face down in the water. I wonder, will nothing end it?
The cold, and these things, those stairs hanging above me, I know I must move now. The walls seem sheer, and I think if I climb the stairs they might all fall and crush me. I cannot win. I turn and look, trying to see in the dim light. I cannot tell where the illumination comes from, all I can feel is this terrible shivering in the bitter water.
I try to swim, but my arms and legs feel numb from the cold. I was so busy looking around and feeling in awe that I had lived, so unlikely, that all the while I was dying from hypothermia. Stupid.
I swim as best I can toward the edge of the walls, it seems like a very high corridor leading straight up. There are shadows of doorways here and there, where the stairs once led into. I can't get up there, but there is another, around ten feet above me. There must be another below the water, but the entire section is likely submerged, so up it has to be.
The wreckage of the stairs goes just close enough that I might be able to leap across, provided it holds. I have no alternative, I just have to try.
I look up, and I am certain I can see more of those things, hidden in wavering shadows, looking down upon me. I wonder why it is they want to kill? Perhaps they blame me, or us humans for their state. I climb, grab a hold onto an outcrop of metal, and pull hard. It feels like the hardest thing I have ever done, my body feels electrified with pain, from cold and tiredness. the sleep I had was short, and restless, not enough.
The metal feels numb against the skin of my hand, reminding me how bad my situation is. I pull again, gain a hold of something else, firmer, now lifting my foot up and pressing as best as my weary body will allow. I can feel the stairs shaking as I move, and hear the heavy breathing of those things above, what a perilous state I am in!
Now, close to the opening, shrouded in darkness, I have no idea what I will find beyond, but below is death, and clearly above is a more savage death, so I might as well...
Once again I take a leap of faith, and as I leap a face peers out from the darkness, one that I know, someone I know I cannot trust. He smiles at me as I miss the ledge, falling...
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