Waste Deep

Waste Deep Chapter 14: 'Meat Cavern'

Dibbuk was having the most wonderful day. It was a Saturday. The Zef was shining, and she was sitting on the edge of her favorite dock. A stack of her favorite comics nearly as tall as she sat beside her. Her hand was aching a bit but hey, that's what happened when you've been holding open your favorite stories all day. 

She'd just finished with Tales of Earth #12 and was reaching for #13 when her implant went off. It was a phone call from Harvel. Odd, he almost never called her on their days off, usually out of principle. They didn't get a lot of alone time both living and working together and both found it best to respect each others space when they could. 

Dibbuk waved the display over and accepted the call. "What's up? Gotta be something wrong if you're calling." She asked expectantly. If he was calling her it probably had nothing to do with money, he knew they were both equally broke. Could be something from work if he was feeling dutiful.

"The flo-... Why can I taste th-... Plaster and pi-... I'm gonna be si-... Orange and gre-... A million eyes all at on-... Who farte-..." Harvels voice said, seeping out of the implant, broken and at times distorted.

"Harvel? What's going on? You eat something bad? You need me to come home or something? Speak up." Dibbuk asked confusion slowly evolving into fear. Something sounded very wrong about him. 

"Dibbuk? I can hea-... Why can I h-... My brain, the pressu-... Make it sto-... Make a hole myse-..." Harvel continued, sounding more labored with each stop and start. 

"Harvel? You're going to be okay, I'm gonna find yo-" Dibbuk began, but before she could finish the call cut off. Dibbuk stared flabbergasted as the little glasses icon she'd assigned to him blinked a couple of times before disappearing entirely. She began picking up her comics as panic started to set in. He'd almost sounded like...

She was about to start on her unread pile but noticed something out of the corner of her eye. The next book on the pile wasn't in fact Tales of Earth #13. The cover had changed somehow. It was Waste and Wonders #1, a comic she hadn't read in years. She was pretty sure she'd lost it a long time ago. 

As she moved to pick it up her claw stopped, hovering over the volume. The cover was different. It was a human and a Tar-Khal standing defiantly in front of a wall of green mist. There hadn't been any of her people in the comics before, at least not that she could remember. She carefully peeled back the cover.

It was blank inside. Just a black page, still seemingly slick with ink. Then, everything went blank. The sunshine that had previously warmed her like a blanket was gone, replaced by a damp darkness that coated her face. The sounds and smells of the harbor replaced by rushing water and the acrid fumes of the sewer. 

'I'm hanging?... I think?' Dibbuk thought, groggily glancing up at her arm. Her claws were lodged deep into something. Her implants clock was blinking, one half of the image distorted. 'That explains the aching claw. What is this stuff?' She thought, wiggling her claws in the soft, rubbery substance. 

Reaching over her shoulder she turned on her emergency light with her free hand. It didn't look like dirt. Dirt wasn't orange on Liberum as far as she knew. She didn't know how long she had been hanging but whatever she was dug into was strong, stronger than it had any right to be as far as Dibbuk was concerned. She'd only caught it by the one claw.  

She turned the light around and checked her position. She was in some sort of shaft, probably created by the cave in. The soft orange stuff seemed to run through the brownish red clay around her, giving it a slightly marbled look. She couldn't seem to get comfortable with the sight. It reminded her a bit too much of meat.