| |
––––––––
Linnette was safe in the depths of sleep, free from pain and fear, but I left my backpack, the water bottle, and one of the lanterns with her in case she woke up. I picked up the other lantern in my right hand, and moved cautiously down the stairs.
When I reached Level 51, the downway flattened out and turned sharply, before turning into steps again and heading down to Level 52. I paused on the flat section to listen to the muffled shouts from Forge. They were still distant enough that I guessed he was at least two levels down from me.
I started moving again, my attention still on Forge’s voice, so I didn’t see the object on the ground until I stepped on it. The thing rolled under my right foot, tipping me backwards. Arms flailing desperately, I dropped my lantern as I tried to grab the handrails, missed both of them, and fell heavily.
I landed on my back, shocked, and sickeningly aware of an agonizing pain in my right ankle. Waste it! I’d fallen and hurt my leg, just as Linnette had done. If I’d broken my ankle, then I was in deep trouble. Even worse than that, if I’d broken my ankle then Linnette and Forge were in deep trouble too.
My ankle was throbbing so badly that I didn’t dare to try to get up. I lay perfectly still, hoping the pain would soon ease, and gazed longingly at the glow of my lantern. It had hit the ground hard, bounced a couple of times, and landed well out of my reach, but it was still bravely shining as a beacon in the darkness.
My lantern had survived my fall without suffering any serious damage. I just had to hope my ankle had been as lucky. I could hear Forge calling my name at intervals, but I didn’t try to reply. There was no point in worrying him with the news that I’d had an accident until I knew whether I’d injured myself or not.
One minute went by, two minutes, and I could convince myself that the pain in my ankle had eased. After another minute, I was sure of it. Once the pain was down to a dull ache, I warily tried to get up. Yes, my right ankle could take my weight without any new stabs of pain. It wasn’t broken, just bruised and sore.
I stood there, gripping the handrail tightly for a moment longer, while my shaken nerves relaxed. I’d been lucky, incredibly lucky to survive my fall without serious damage to myself or my lantern. I had to make sure that I didn’t have any more accidents, because I couldn’t depend on being that lucky again.
I wanted to go over to retrieve my lantern, but I’d stepped on something once and fallen, and mustn’t do it again. I knelt down, and groped around for the mysterious object. When I had it in my hands, I realized it wasn’t mysterious at all. Linnette had come running through the shopping area, seen the downway too late to stop, and fallen halfway down the flight of stairs. She’d lost her grip on her lantern, and it had fallen all the way to the bottom.
I made the hopelessly optimistic gesture of winding Linnette’s lantern, and was stunned when it flared into life. It made sense that emergency lanterns were designed to be tough enough to survive minor falls, but I felt this one was truly heroic to have crashed the length of the downway and still function.
Forge was still calling my name at intervals. The shouts were getting more frequent, and I could hear an anxious note in his voice. He was obviously worried after hearing absolutely nothing from me for several minutes.
“I’m getting closer! Keep shouting,” I yelled.
I collected and wound both the lanterns, and headed on down to Level 52, moving with paranoid care. This time I had the sense to stand still while I listened to Forge’s voice and tried to gauge his position. He was definitely a lot closer now, probably on Level 53.
I moved on, with Forge’s voice getting gradually louder. When I reached Level 53, he sounded very close, though still a little below me. As I turned the corner, and began moving down the next flight of stairs, I heard him give a cry of excitement.
“Amber, I can see your light!”
I stopped, looked upwards, and saw an inspection hatch in the wall to my left. There was a glint of light from behind it, which had to be the lights attached to Forge’s silly headband.
“I can see your lights too,” I called back.
I’d found Forge, but I had a new problem now. That inspection hatch was much too high up for me to reach it. If I searched the shops in the Level 53 shopping area, would I be able to find a ladder? Even if I did, how could I position a ladder safely on the treacherous, frozen steps of the downway?
One handrail of the downway ran close to the wall with the inspection hatch. If I stood on it, would that be enough to give me the extra height that I needed?
The only way to find out was to try standing on the handrail. I stood next to it, positioned ready to jump up, but hesitated. I was used to illegally riding the handrail, balancing precariously on it as it dived down the levels of the Hive, but I’d always done it under glaringly bright lights. Now there was just the light of my lantern, the handrail looked as if it was plunging down into a bottomless, black pit.
“I can’t see anything through the grille on this inspection hatch except light and shadows,” said Forge. “Are you below me now?”
“Yes.” I wound up the lanterns and put them down on the stairs on either side of me.
“How far below me?”
I didn’t answer. I was busy telling myself that I could do this. I’d often ridden the handrail for as long as ten or fifteen levels before being sternly ordered off by the hasties. This time, I’d only need to balance on it for a minute, two at most, while I unclipped that inspection hatch.
“How far below me?” repeated Forge.
“Far enough below you that I’ll have to stand on the handrail of the downway to reach the hatch.”
“Watch out when you undo the clips. You don’t want the hatch cover falling on your head or knocking you off the handrail.”
I couldn’t help picturing that happening, and me tumbling helplessly down into what looked ominously close to my personal nightmare of an unguarded lift shaft. “Keep quiet,” I said sharply. “I’m climbing up now and need to concentrate.”
I forced my eyes away from the black depths of the downway, gripped the handrail, and launched myself upwards. There was a stab of complaint from my bruised right ankle as I landed, and I teetered wildly from side to side, as unsteady as a thirteen-year-old trying their first ride on the handrail.
I leaned one hand against the wall to steady myself, and reached up with the other. I could easily turn the clips on the bottom edge of the hatch cover, but the top ones were out of my reach. I stretched up as far as I could, so I was brushing the clips with the tips of my fingers, but that got me no closer to being able to turn them.
I groaned and tried the desperation tactic of standing on tiptoe. My right ankle throbbed in protest, but I ignored it. I’d just managed to undo one of the remaining clips, when my right ankle gave way under the strain, and I came horribly close to falling off the handrail.
I leaned against the coolness of the wall, taking most of my weight on my left foot to let my right ankle recover. Standing on tiptoe obviously stressed my bruised ankle to the limit. If I tried it again, I risked falling, but I couldn’t give up when I was so close to releasing Forge.
I decided to compromise by only standing on tiptoe very briefly. I braced myself, went for the last clip, and failed to shift it. I took a minute break before trying and failing again.
The last clip seemed to be stuck firmly in place. I’d have to risk standing on tiptoe longer if I was going to stand any chance of undoing it. I made my third attempt, wincing from the pain in my ankle as I clawed desperately at the clip. I felt like cheering when I felt it move under my fingers, but then the hatch cover came flying off.
I instinctively dodged sideways out of the way, and the cover went bouncing down into the darkness without hitting me, but my abused right ankle inevitably gave way again. I yelped in pain, swayed wildly backwards, recovered once, and then swayed again.
“Amber!”
Forge’s voice shouted from above me as I slipped off the handrail. I managed to grab it with my right hand, breaking my fall, and stopping myself from going toppling down to Level 54.
Forge slid out of the hole feet first, lowered himself down with his hands, and dropped neatly onto the steps of the downway. “Amber, are you hurt?”
“I’ve bruised my right ankle.” I tried putting my weight on my right foot. “I think I’m all right so long as I walk carefully.”
“Thanks for getting me out of there, Amber. I’m really grateful.”
I held out one of the lanterns towards Forge, saw the relieved and delighted expression on his face, and felt a flush of pleasure. “That’s all right.”
Forge took the lantern and turned to hurry back down the stairs.
“You’re going the wrong way,” I called after him.
“I just want to put the hatch cover back in place,” said Forge.
I found it hard to argue with Forge, but he’d have to climb on the handrail to put the hatch cover back, and it seemed a totally unnecessary risk. “That doesn’t matter now.”
Forge stooped to pick up the cover. “It does matter. Rescue teams will be using the upways and downways to travel round the Hive. We can’t leave the hatch cover lying on the steps where someone could trip over it and get hurt.”
I remembered the way I’d put my foot on Linnette’s lantern and fallen. “That’s true, but we could move it to ...”
I let my words trail off because Forge had already jumped up on the handrail. I watched nervously as he put the hatch cover back in place, anticipating a disastrous fall, but Forge was tall enough to reach the clips easily. Within seconds, he was jumping down again. He took off his headband, turned off its lights, and put it in his pocket, then picked up his lantern and came back to join me.
“We should find Linnette now.”
“Yes.” I led the way up the stairs. “I’ve been away a very long time, but she’s probably still asleep.”
“Linnette’s asleep? How can she sleep in this dreadful darkness? Especially with a broken leg!”
“I was told to give her two painkilling tablets,” I said. “They sent her to sleep.”
I could hear Linnette before we reached her. She was making soft snuffling noises in her sleep, but it didn’t sound like she was having bad dreams. Forge handed me his lantern and knelt beside her.
“Does she have any injuries other than the broken leg?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
Forge slid his arms carefully under Linnette, and lifted her. I led the way upwards, trying to hold the lanterns so that Forge had as much light as possible. As he lowered Linnette onto the stretcher, I gave a sob of relief.
“We just need to get to the park now, and that should be easy.”
“It won’t be easy at all.” Forge took back his lantern. “We’ll need to go most of the way back to our corridor, and then head west and ...”
“No, we don’t,” I interrupted him. “That’s the way to the main park entrance, but we can take the shortcut to one of the side entrances. That’s only about two corridor lengths north of here.”
Forge frowned. “Are you sure you can find the way in this darkness, Amber?”
“I’m certain. Remember that I spend a lot more time in the park than you do. I’ll just call Ruby and Atticus to let them know we’ve found Linnette.”
I took out my communicator and pressed the green button. “Hello, Ruby, Atticus, are you there?”
“Yes,” Ruby and Atticus answered in unison. “Where are you, Amber?” Atticus continued solo. “We were expecting you to reach the park at least fifteen minutes ago. We were about to call you to ask if you’d got lost.”
“I’m not lost. I’m in the shopping area, and I’ve found both Forge and Linnette, but Linnette’s broken her leg. Emergency Services told us to bring Linnette to the park on a stretcher, so we’ll be with you soon.”
“How can you have found Forge?” Ruby sounded puzzled. “Atticus said he was having treatment in a medical facility.”
I hesitated, unsure what to say.
“The medical facility discharged me,” said Forge. “I was on my way home when the power went out. I got lost in the dark, but then I heard Amber shouting. We’d better get moving now.”
“Good luck,” said Ruby.
I put the communicator in my pocket, and collected my backpack and the extra lantern. I found I could hold both lanterns in my left hand, so I grabbed one of the front handles of the stretcher with my right, and started it moving.
Forge took hold of a handle on the other side of the stretcher. “Are you sure this way is north, Amber? I’ve lost my sense of direction.”
I was feeling far more confident now that I was no longer alone with the burden of responsibility for getting Linnette to safety. “I’ve already done a lot of wandering round this shopping area in the dark, and I’m positive that we turn right from the downway to reach the sandwich bar. We should see it ahead of us in a minute.”
“How is your bruised ankle now?” asked Forge.
“My ankle is feeling a lot better, but I can see you’re limping. Is your cut leg hurting you?”
Forge stopped limping. “No, it’s just a scratch. I can see a clothes stall ahead of us but not a sandwich bar.”
“The sandwich bar is just beyond it. Look!” I gestured with my lantern.
“Oh yes.” Forge looked nervously round. “I know the peculiar shadows are only the effect of the lanterns swaying, but I saw some odd flashes of light past the sandwich bar.”
“Those will just be reflections of our own lanterns.” I tugged the stretcher into motion again. “I often buy food at the sandwich bar and go to the park to eat it. Once we reach the sandwich bar, we turn right into a corridor.”
Forge was silent until we reached the sandwich bar. “There isn’t a corridor here.”
“I’d forgotten there was another shop after the sandwich bar.” I carried on past the next shop and pointed triumphantly at the corridor on our right. “Now if we go down this corridor, and turn left at the next crossway, we’ll reach the park.”
As we headed down the corridor, I noticed Forge was limping again. If I asked him about his leg, he’d keep denying he was in pain, and there was no way to avoid him walking to the park. Once we got there, I’d have to make sure both he and Linnette got medical treatment.
Just before we reached the crossway, we found an overturned trolley lying in our path. Its contents, a host of small packages, had scattered across the corridor. I picked up one of the packages, studied it in the light of my lantern, and then tossed it aside.
“Food packs,” I said. “Someone from Accommodation Services must have been taking them to restock kitchen units when the lights went out.”
We cleared enough packages out of the way to tow the stretcher through. “Are you sure we turn left at the crossway?” asked Forge.
“Yes.” We reached the crossway, and I laughed and pointed. “See for yourself.”
“You’re right,” cried Forge. “I can see a light in the distance!”
We headed eagerly down the corridor. As we got closer, I could see it wasn’t just one light ahead of us, but two glowing lanterns, one on either side of the park door.
I didn’t notice the shadowy figure sitting on the floor between the lanterns until he got to his feet, picked up one of the lanterns, and came to meet us. It was Atticus.
