The Firmament Saga: Book I: The Rains of Sorrow

Chapter 22: Apotheosis

Chapter 22: Apotheosis (Lou)

Around 30 days after entering the tunnel

The metal spider (he had decided to call the creatures he had fought earlier "spiders" for ease of clarification) crunched like gravel under Lou's boot. It fizzed, sputtered and died, its chittering and whining coming to an abrupt halt. Sighing, he pulled his left boot from the creature's carcass. It was the third such creature he had encountered and killed patrolling the tunnel during his hour-long foray into it. His left leg had regained significant strength, and he had decided to use it as a weapon while he supported his weight with his right leg and cane.

Each time, he had eliminated the spider before it could spit acid onto him. They were physically weak and did not possess great intelligence and vision, making it easy for even a wounded person like Lou to attack them. They didn't notice his presence until it was too late.

The tunnel itself was shaped like a vertical oval, with sloping grey walls that made the chamber feel more claustrophobic. It was around six feet tall, its sloping roof just above Lou's head. It twisted and turned, heading vaguely upwards in what seemed to be a clockwise spiral. It made him feel like he was being pushed through a funnel, each step squeezing him tighter. Nonetheless, it was the only way forward.

Eventually, he arrived at a long, flat stretch of tunnel. It was significantly wider than the preceding portions of the passage, and it stretched onwards into the distance. He sighed and rested on his good knee. His wounded leg had mostly stopped hurting, and the damage seemed to be only skin-deep. He could step on his wounded leg without crumpling to the ground, but the pain was constantly present.

He tentatively lifted up his cane and placed half of his weight on his left leg. The pain didn't increase at all, and he had no trouble balancing. Lifting up the hefty hunk of metal, he had an idea: he could use it as a club or spear to make killing the spiders - or any similar beasts - easier. Grinning, he stepped forward.

Several minutes later, immediately after the tunnel had made a sharp left turn, he could hear the telltale scratching sound of a spider walking coming from the hallway to his right. He shuffled to the wall and placed his back up against it. Sure enough, the spider came into view, its eyes fixed ahead. It skittered along, oblivious to its impending demise.

Lou hefted his spear, and thrust it down upon the spider with all its might. The sharp edge of the metal crushed through its carapace and into its interior. It sparked and died almost instantly, flopping to the ground like a sack of clams. Ignoring it, he stepped past the fallen spider. The hallway turned hard to the left, then hard to the right a few feet farther down. It kept twisting and turning for several minutes.

As he walked down the twisting hallway, he heard a series of faint sounds slowly grow louder. They weren't moving any closer to him, but he silenced his walking and moved on tiptoes. As he kept walking, the sounds grew closer - chittering, scratching, clunking. He turned a corner to the right and halted, stumbling back. He gasped, eyes wide with astonishment.

The corridor opened onto a balcony overlooking a vast cylindrical chamber made of grey metal. The chamber was massive, so big it dwarfed any Lou had ever seen. The bottom of the cavernous room, nearly a thousand feet below, was covered with deep water that would nonetheless be like hard stone if he were to fall into it. The chamber extended equally high above him, into a vaulted ceiling that was divided into several panels. The entire center of the cylinder, which was probably a few hundred feet across, had a series of pipes and tubes of various sizes stretching all around the chamber. Some of the pipes stretched into the water at the bottom of the chamber, and others went into the walls or ceiling. The balcony he was on, which looked identical to the latticed walkway that stretched adjacent to the entire tunnel network he had traversed in the past several months, stretched in a circle around the perimeter of the cylinder. Three other doorways, all across from where he was, led to areas he couldn't see.