The Steam Scavengers

4 - Underground

Stunned, Eleanor sat in the airship for several minutes, feeling tears in her eyes. She had found the bottom of the bottomless Pit, but she had damaged Charlie's ship's parachute and balloon, and she doubted that she could fly home, even if she found fuel. And she had no idea where to start looking for Minnie, or whether Minnie was even still alive.

After worrying awhile, she checked that none of her bones were broken. Then she unstrapped herself from the pilot's seat and looked out each window to make sure that the lightning hadn't set the flyer on fire. She could smell smoke from the bonfire nearby, along with rotting trash, but her airship seemed to be fine.

Next she lit the lamp and rummaged through the pile of things that Charlie had left on the copilot's seat, looking for a weapon in case there were wild beasts or enemies outside. She found only a lot of food, several bottles of wine, and a box of candles.

She opened the doctor's bag that Zeek had sent with her, and found assorted wrenches, a bottle of rum, a set of scalpels, and a strange shiny cube with buttons on it. Possibly a weapon? She put it back in the bag, having no wish to test it in case it attacked her accidentally.

She ate several of the chocolates for fortitude, added the chocolates and a few cans of soup to Zeek's bag, and climbed out of the airship onto a heap of squishy trash, carrying the bag and the lamp.

She shouted, “Minnie? Are you here?”

There were no echoes, and nobody answered. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and a mechanical humming noise in the distance, beyond the scaffolding tower.

She looked up along the tower and saw a faint light far overhead, which must be the opening to the city above.

Around the tower's base, several wrecked airships were jumbled like children's toys, glinting back the firelight from their cracked windows. All had limp or charred balloons, and none looked like the illustration from the newspaper.

Eleanor's shoes squelched through the slimy trash as she walked to the nearest small airship. The door had been chewed or hacked off; deep gashes scarred the walls. Inside, there was only the empty furnace. The seats and any cargo were gone.

She left that airship and climbed downhill to the next, a larger cabin closer to the bonfire. She stepped inside, but it was also empty.

She heard a scuffing noise outside, and saw several bulky mounds moving past the bonfire.

She realized that her bright lamp made her into an obvious target for whatever was outside, but she was afraid to leave it and run out into the darkness blindly. She turned off the lamp and crouched beside the airship's doorway, ready to attack whatever came through it with Zeek's bag of heavy tools.

The scuffing came closer, and then passed the large airship and headed uphill. Nothing came through the doorway, so she stood up and peeked out a window.

The dark shapes surrounded her flyer. A light flared in her cabin, and a woman's voice called out, “No water here, but there's wine.”

A girl's voice asked, “What's that thing?”

A man said, “It's a pumpkin. We'll have pie tomorrow. Is there any cinnamon?” A human arm emerged from the nearest bulky shape, and took the pumpkin.