Hidden in the Walls

Chapter 2

Everything around me is moving, pumping out energy into the complex. People behind me are starting to move forward so I hop to the side so that I can take my bearings. I look around me and I can see the writhing mass of bodies which are working down here.  Across a large cog I have spotted one of the girls I played with until I was thirteen when we were told our assigned our jobs. She is an electrician which means that we barely cross paths. It is a rare occurrence that she is down here with the machines. In front of me is a man who doesn’t look like he has much longer to live, he is at least in his forties. He is carrying a large crate full of heavy scrap metal. I observe how his face winces in pain at every step he takes. I rush forward swiftly to help him; he won’t be able to walk along the unstable bridges with that load.  As I reach out my arms to help him support the crate he shrugs me off and sends me a vulgar glare.

Backing away I get on my way. I suppose he took offence to me implying that he couldn’t handle it himself. But I can linger on this no longer because I have to concentrate on where my feet are landing. There seems to be more people than usual using the back tunnels which is making it even more confusing  to get to 564. If you think that navigating your way through the passages above ground is difficult then you would not survive a minute in the engines where the shafts are tendrils in a complex root system. Every tunnel branches off into five smaller channels and where dead ends come without warning.

To add to this it isn’t easy to maintain your concentration when all around you there are load spurts of steam projected from various pipes and the heart shuddering creaks of the old machinery. Everything down here is straining to keep up with the amount of work it has but it has lasted like this for several generations and there is no reason for it not to last at least eight generations more by which time I will be long gone. I can feel that my feet are already blistering but there is nothing I can do for it, these shoes are the closest to my size that they have.

Finally, unit 564 is in sight and I can see why I have been assigned here. The large pistons tower twelve meters into the air and usually pump at a steady pace. However now they have come to near standstill. Loud screeches as the rust disabled the movement reverberated throughout the vicinity.

I walk quickly, conscious that if this is left much longer then the circuits will burn out. I approach the control panel, locate the correct piston and with some force needed pull down the lever which controls their movement. All of a sudden, silence feel around me and there is but a faint thrumming in the background of others working.

Satisfied, I walk casually back towards where the mechanical giants stand. Climbing carefully, I haul myself midway up the machinery to where the problem lies. I can see that rust as infected the entire area and that it will take me quite a while to get it in working condition. Sighing, I perch myself precariously, holding on with one hand while I pour and rub oil into the stiff joints of the giants. Eventually I am satisfied and I start to make my way down. But after only a meter, my hands slippery with oil, my grip begins to slowly loosen and my heart beats rapidly. Hyperventilating, I claw savagely as the metal in desperate attempts to regain my hold. But it is too late. I watch as I regress and I am grasping on with my legs scrambling to find a hold and my slippery fingertips clinging to a small ledge.

I am falling, slowly falling, I can’t breathe. I don’t know how to stop. Time appears to slow down and can feel my stomach rise up into my throat as I drop. Throughout all of this I am completely silent, until I hit the ground.

Luckily I half land on my feet however the force of the fall throws me off my feet without mercy. A cry of pain escapes from my lips as I gasp terror and agony. I lay there, paralyzed, trying to pinpoint where the pain is coming from. There is a searing and intense pain coming from my right hand. Thinking back to moments before I remember how I broke my fall with my hand. From this I can guess that it is broken. I have broken fingers numerous times before so this is not as worrying as the burning pain which is rising from my leg and is hot and tingling.

Using my left arm I push myself up from the ground. Tenderly, I pull back the leg of the trousers to see what the damage was. Seeing my leg I feel the bile rising in my throat and I have to turn away to compose myself. Gathering my courage I examine the leg which is no longer recognizable as my own. It is not broken which I suppose I should be grateful for but there is a deep jagged cut which runs down the length of calf. It is bleeding profusely and has covered my leg in a layer of sticky red. Looking back to where I had fallen from I can see the pointed gear which has caused me this injury.

A small pool of blood is gathering underneath me. Still in a panic, with my good hand I rip the long sleeve off my uniform. I will pay for disfiguring my work clothes later but right now all I am worried about is stopping the blood. Wrapping it carefully around I am satisfied that it will halt the bleeding long enough for me to get to the medical Centre.  Now my only problem was how I am going to get there. Walking is out of the questions as even trying to get to my feet puts me in too much agony. The only option I have left is to wait for someone to come by or for someone to be sent to fetch me after I am located using my tracker.

But fear fills me as I realize that no one will be looking for me. No one will realize that I am missing until tomorrow at line up. This means that I will be spending the night with the machines, unless I can catch someone’s attention.

“Help... Help… HELP!” I scream in desperation. Hours pass and no one comes near where I lay in agony, the blood pulsing in my ears. I can hear the general noise of the engines alongside the clangs of the hammers of workers. But my screams fall on deaf ears.

In an instant I am surrounded in complete darkness. It feels as if the impenetrable black is suffocating me, slowly but surely, sucking the life out of me. I am deaf and blind in this world of unimaginable obscurity.

I begin to shiver after a few minutes. They have turned off the heat. Whimpering, I curl into a ball, protected only by the thin material of my uniform. I begin to ebb in and out of consciousness and the impact of the truth finally hits me. I am completely alone. No one is going to save me.