The Pioneers

Chapter 10

"Did you try putting them together while you were there?"

         Amaryllis shook her head at Ethan. "No. Whenever I'd finish one, they'd look it over, and then take it away."

         Ethan ran a sleeve of his pajamas over his hairline. He was cleaned off now, but soaking wet . . . soaking wet, at the table in their new living room while leaning over the most important papers he'd encountered in his life.

         "They used the same techniques, though," Amaryllis said. She pointed to different instructions written out in the margins, and then went on to explain what she'd done to achieve what it was describing. He'd never heard of half the words that she was talking about, much less the tools she'd used. But he listened, and then tried to make sense of what he could.

           "What about wiring?" Ethan said. "Any encounters with that?"

           She started up again, talking about the different gauges that they used.

            With all the merit badges he'd gotten over the years, there wasn't one that involved electricity.

            So, he didn't get a word of what she said that time, either.

            ". . . Which one is more powerful?" He said.

            "The smaller one," Amaryllis said. "We used stronger metal for that one, too."

             "And, they're both wired to do . . . what?"

              Amaryllis took a paper from him. "I don't know. Probably to hook up to a bigger device."

             Ethan wiped more water off his head. He should've brought the towel with him from the bathroom. "The electrical stuff is enough to connect them," he said. "And, you're bound to start making more tomorrow."

              ". . . Should I take these back?"

              "It doesn't sound like they're interested in keeping them," Ethan said, pushing the second paper to her. "Keep them for now. When you make more tomorrow, try to bring back at least one from the project. The more we have, the more pieces we'll have to the puzzle."

              Amaryllis folded them, beaming in her accomplishments. "What about escaping? Any more on that?"

              Ethan shrugged. "I'm going to see if I can bring back some things of my own tomorrow," he said, sitting back and folding his arms. "How are you with heights?"

              "Fine, I think."

              "How would you feel about mining our way out of here?"

              She glared at him. "No offense, but I'm not sure either of us are strong enough to do that."

              "With practice, we could," Ethan said. "I've been bad about fitness . . . but I can teach you how to do pull-ups and push-ups and mountain climbers and everything else, then we can practice together. That combined with the digging would get us into shape pretty quick."

                "Or, we'd just get really, really sore."

                Ethan pursed his lips, ignoring the pain in his arms. "Maybe we will. Either way, I'm not letting our puny sizes keep us from getting out of here . . ." he said. "We can do it. It might take forever, but at least we'd be making our next move against these people. Getting ahead is everything at this point."