Aetherworld

The Black Room - Chapter 2

Minutes felt like hours, but I had finally managed to calm my breathing enough to hear my surroundings. In that time nothing happened. I played a million ways the monster would come for me. A million ways I'd die. Nothing. I was safe, but that did nothing to ease my anxiety and by the time I had worked up the courage move again hours had passed me by.

It was midnight and in the wake of the all the adrenaline and life and death trials today I found myself exhausted. I loathed the idea of sleeping down here, but I had no good argument to purposefully give myself sleep deprivation. So, instead, I set about getting my lamp back in working order again. The loud whine of the crank terrified me, but I needed to seriously crank it if I was ever planning on charging it this century. To make things worse, it was a struggle to crank it without aggravating my burned hands. The troubling task at hand helped me set my anxiety aside. I ended up wrapping up the lamp with the towel I had draped over the entrance. It helped the noise a little. There was nothing I could do about the pain. I just had to grunt it out. So, with my jaw set and the odd tear I cranked it back to life.

Shakily I set down the lamp in the middle of the room and held my breath as I turned it on. The Towel was back in its place, but I couldn't help fretting that it wasn't enough. Maybe the beast was out there, just waiting for the light to help it find me... But after a moment I was still alone. I strained to hear anything out in the pitch black. Eventually I accepted that I was safe and set my attention to my pack instead. Hypothermia was a serious threat down here, but I couldn't risk the sound of setting up my tent. More-over if I had to make a run for it there was no way to take it down fast enough. No. No tents.

Cold radiated out of the floor. There were no drafts here, but it was the cold stone underneath me that was the real problem. It would sap the heat out of me if I didn't have enough insulation. My sleeping bag was rated to negative four, but I didn't give that rating any weight. They were always grossly over-exaggerated. I rolled my mat out, then the sleeping bag on top of it, taking care to keep it from getting to dusty.

Next, I pulled out my notebook. In it I had a tally of all my supplies; I'd made it to account for my nasty habit of forgetting everything I'd packed. I had enough freeze-dried food for five days assuming I had three meals a day. I also had snacks, but my real concern was that I had counted on having access to a reliable source of water. Much of my food was freeze dried and if I ate it without rehydrating it it would certainly cause dehydration. I needed water. Tomorrow it would be my priority.

I smiled faintly; thankful I had a happy fascination with over preparedness. I had an excessively huge jar full of water purification tablets. Amazon was a life saver for those wishing to waste their money on things they'd normally never use.

I decided to limit myself to one meal a day. That would give me fifteen days to find a way out. Perhaps that could be stretched another two weeks even, but by then I can't say how my strength would hold up. I had heard people could last up too four weeks without food, but I doubted I could. It wasn't like I was any sort of soldier. I was relatively over-weight and I'd never had to endure rationing in my life. At least tonight I didn't feel hungry. Not after all I'd been through, so, instead I tucked in for the night. Throughout the night I kept waking but strain as I might I couldn't figure out why. I felt haggard the next 'day'. I barely had a half full water bottle, so I opted to skip breakfast saving my meal for the day for when I brought back enough water.

I didn't let myself hesitate. I slid myself and my gear through the exit without giving myself the time to imagine all the things that could be waiting for me. After checking that the coast was clear I continued to the hall that would take me back to the creek. I needed to proceed as far as I could without relying on the lamp. It was just to dangerous being that it was the only source of light I'd found down here. It would attract the beast. It was one thing to know that, but entirely different thing to turn the light off. I felt my heart leap into my throat the moment I plunged myself into darkness. The sound of blood rushing through my ears was all that accompanied me down the pitch hallways. It was torture.