Down Come Seven (ReWrite 2018)

O U T

"I know that you had a lot of free time on your hands..."Smiley Face spoke up, breaking the silence. "...But this is just ridiculous."

Insane.

Is the word I would use... to describe the ice tunnel carved deep into the earth....for no apparent reason...

"Come back and criticize me after you survive in an ice cave for sixty years. " Fussy Jerk snapped peevishly from the front of our little excursion to the centre of the earth.

Which had involved ten minutes of walking already.

The longer we travelled, the narrower and darker the tunnel became, until the three of us had to walk single file, completely blind.

Fussy Jerk, being the big baby that he is, had insisted on having at least one body between me and him while we walked. Which put me at the tail end of the parade, the perfect place to be picked off in the dark...

And it was very dark. Extra dark even. So much so, I had to press my hand against the smooth side of the tunnel, using it to guide me forward into what was probably going to be a crazy-person-torture-dungeon.

"Even with sixty years, I'm not sure how you could have accomplished all this." Smiley Face felt the need to continue the conversation.

For some strange and possibly sadistic reason.

"I blame the inability to sleep."

Yep. He is going to kill us soooo sllllooowwly...

"...I hate walking." I complained, because if I couldn't be comfortable then no one else gets to live in ignorance of that fact.

"How fortunate for you then..." Fussy Jerk drawled sarcastically. "...That our destination isn't much further."

...Yay?

The air was becoming progressively warmer as we walked...and soon enough a red-ish glow appeared at the end of the tunnel.

Naturally, all torture basements glow red.

"Ah...You guys go on ahead..." I started to take a step back."...I think I forgot something back up in the ice-cave..."

Without looking Smiley Face reached back, long fingers latching onto my wrist in an unbreakable grip.

"We've come this far already." He slowly turned his head, a red glint reflecting off his mask. "Going back now would be a waste of time."

Come Meat shield.

It is your Destiny.

"....okay."

One by one, we stumbled out of the tunnel into a huge room. Some of us voluntarily. Some of us dragged. Most of us not expecting what we found.

A huge, industrial room. Some sort of underground factory...but with no clear purpose or function.

There were two large holes in the centre of the room, each circumference glowing with heat from below.

"Ta-da." Fussy Jerk declared with an unenthusiastic hand wave.

"...You didn't build this too did you...?" I asked, because at this point, I considered him the Construction Wizard.

Fussy Jerk scoffed derisively.

"Hardly."

"...Then you found it?" Smiley Face asked, letting go of my wrist just as Fussy Jerk turned to us.

"Well it didn't find itself." The neurotic man crossed his arms.

Smiley Face and I stared, because odds of finding something like this just from digging in a random direction...