Ascent: (Book 1) The Ladder (5 page)

Chapter Seven

            Many of the lights in the Bunks go off during lights out. A few are kept on in case anyone needs to walk to the latrines because climbing down the bunk ladders could be tricky without some lighting.

            A shadowed individual steps softly along the row of cut-outs. A wood or tile paneled floor would make walking quietly a challenging task but the dirt floor is easily walked upon without making any sound. Still the figure moves slowly, in case an errant rock gets kicked or the bottom of a bunk ladder trips them walking through the dimly lit space.

            The figure stops at Joe’s bunk. Joe stirs a little in the middle of sleep. A hand reaches down and covers his mouth. Joe’s eyes pop open to see Lauren standing just outside his bunk cut-out. She places a finger over her mouth, signaling for him to be quiet.

            “Lauren, what are you doing?” Joe whispers.

            She crouches down to look him in the eyes. “I’m climbing the Ladder.”

            “Are you crazy?”

            “You said it yourself. A day in the Ban is better than a day slinging mud.”

            “That would be fine if the Ban was all we had to worry about. You saw what happens when you climb the Ladder.”

            “That’s what this is for.” Lauren holds up a face mask.

            “I’m not talking about the Sick,” Joe tells her.

            “I bet I get to the top. I’ll let you know how it goes.” Lauren rises and starts toward the exit.

            “Lauren,” Joe whispers after her. A few grumblings from other kids force him to keep quiet.

            The lighting in the Junction is a little dimmer but still well lit enough to see plenty of the cavern’s detail. Only the entrances to the other tunnels and the Doctor’s office are dark. Lauren quietly makes her way to the entrance of the Bunk. Once the Junction is clearly visible, she hugs the wall and slows her pace. The Guard stands by the Ladder.

            Does this guy ever sleep?

            The Guard has a flashlight that he sweeps back and forth along the tunnel entrances. It’s a powerful beam that lights up whatever it touches in a sharp, light blue color.

            Lauren drops face first to the floor, the beam just missing her. She watches the Guard move the light back and forth. As it passes back over her, an idea forms. She feels around on the dirt floor and along the wall till she touches something hard and jagged.

Lauren smiles to herself as she closes her fingers around a rock. She reactively looks at it to make sure it’s only a rock and not a more interesting stone. Satisfied that it is a normal rock, she waits until the Guard’s light passes over her again. The moment it does, Lauren jolts to her feet and throws the rock to the Gear tunnel. The Guard immediately swings the light in the direction of the sound the rock makes as it strikes a wall.

            Lauren watches him walk to the Gear tunnel. Once he’s past the Doctor’s office, she walks as fast as she can, doing her best to stay low, to the Ladder. Her eyes go back and forth from the Ladder to the Guard along the way.

            She leaps up to the third rung and immediately climbs as fast as she can into the vertical tunnel. The Guard’s light hits the Ladder as soon as her foot disappears from the Junction and into the tunnel. Lauren looks down to see the light bobbing as the Guard walks back to the Ladder. She looks around at the dense string of lights in the mouth of the tunnel.

Better get out of here.

            Lauren’s hands and feet move up the Ladder, quickly, past the bright lights of the tunnel opening.

            The girl treats most things like a competition. She’s a risk taker. In the every day monotony of the Mines, it’s the only way to stay in some semblance of good humor.

            Rung after rung, she climbs as though in a race with herself. Almost laughing at her genius, she has to stop just to cover her own mouth. Shaking off the feeling and continuing up, it’s impossible for her to stop smiling.

I’m gonna do it.

She takes no time to observe the thinning out of the lights. Even the question of how high she is never enters her mind. It’s rung after rung. Hand over hand and nothing else.

            She finally slows when the swirling fog and the green light are close enough to see clearly. She only stops to take a breath and to finally asses her surroundings. Undeterred, she brings the mask over her nose and mouth and keeps her determination. Back to hand over hand, she returns to her original pace.

            Lauren bursts into the swirling fog. She laughs under her mask. “No way anyone can hear me from this high.” She looks down and can just make out the bright lights at the bottom, through the surrounding fog. She looks up to see only the fog.

No time to stay here
.

            Making her way out of the swirl, she looks up and sees far more darkness than light. It’s impossible to tell how much farther she has to go but she continues up anyway.

            Lauren looks down and notices that the green fog stays in the one spot. It doesn’t move up or down. It only swirls right there.

            “Weird stuff,” she says aloud. Not long after speaking, she finds her throat suddenly dry. And she needs to swallow more. She tries to clear it to get rid of the itchy feeling but it only serves to make her cough.

Oh no
.

            The cough gets progressively worse as she grips the Ladder tightly. Lauren takes one more step up when the dizziness hits her. Her foot slips, sending her slamming against the Ladder rungs. Her hands take very little time to go from a normal color to white as they hold on for dear life. Fortunately, growing up digging through dirt and rock, gives all the kids a strong grip over time. Not that it isn’t a struggle for her to hang on as the feeling of the whole tunnel spinning around her becomes stronger. But she feels some comfort just knowing that as long as she can keep her grip, she’ll be fine despite the spinning tunnel.

            Finally getting a foothold, Lauren wraps her arms around a rung of the Ladder. Her jailer and savior. Looking up at the sparse lighting and the darkness between, all she has left to do is imagine what the top is like. She closes her eyes in both readiness to climb back down and a feeling of defeat. The freckle -faced tomboy takes a breath between coughs and slowly climbs back down through the fog and to the brighter lights of the tunnel mouth.

            As the string of lights get brighter, Lauren looks down to the bottom of the Ladder only to see two spinning people at the bottom. It looks as though they are staring up at her. They both wear masks. She stops to try and figure her way out of this situation. Nothing comes to mind.

            “Hurry it up,” the Guard orders.

            With that voice, Lauren now knows exactly who the people at the bottom are. And she knows what awaits her as soon as her feet hit the dirt floor. The thought of running for it crosses her mind but the cough gives her no choice. If it’s this hard to stay straight on the Ladder it would be impossible to run in a straight line.

            Lauren moves as fast as she can, down the Ladder, in her dizzy state.

            As she descends out of the mouth of the tunnel, the Boss finally identifies the runner. “Of course it would be you,” he says sternly but with little surprise. His voice is muffled by the mask.

            The Guard grabs Lauren and pulls her down. He keeps her from falling to the ground but it’s clear she can barely stand.

            “I don’t feel well,” she tries to say through her cough.

            “You should have thought of that before you went up,” the Boss scolds. “Take her to the Ban,” he orders the Guard.

            The Guard drags Lauren away from the Ladder and out of the Junction. In her state, it’s impossible to put up a fight, even if the idea to do so would come to her.

            The Ban is a miserable place. As miserable as any place in the Mines can be. If the Mud Hall is the cleanest next to the Doctor’s office, the Ban is the dirtiest. It is the lowest elevation in all of the Mines. In a place where people want to go up to escape, having to go lower makes it seem all but hopeless. It smells terrible and for anyone with a cough, it’s only made worse by the stale, dank air. It is illuminated by one central light hanging from the stone ceiling. Hardly enough to see anything that might be inside any of the cells. And sleep is just about impossible. The Bunks aren’t the most comfortable places to sleep but they might as well be plush, cloth beds compared to the jagged, rocky floor of the Ban cells.

            If that isn’t bad enough, unseen things tend to crawl on those who visit the Ban. It’s not a place anyone typically wants to go. Not even Lauren who has built a reputation of overnight stays.

            The Guard opens a cell door and shoves Lauren into the cell. Unable to stand, she tumbles to the floor. The Guard slams the door shut. A metal locking sound echoes in the small space.

Lauren tries to lunge for the opening but only manages to slip and slam into the hard window of the door. Each cell door is clear from ceiling to floor, making it so anyone looking in can see everything inside the cells. Or, at least, they would if there was more light. But the idea is to create an uncomfortable atmosphere. The darker it is, the harder it is to get comfortable.

            “I need Remedy. I got the Sick.” She tries to appeal to the Guard.

            The Guard slowly backs away from the cell and out of the light. “Sleep it off.”

            Lauren can only watch as the Guard disappears. Her cough echoes off her cell walls. The sound of the Guard’s boots on the stone steps fade as he walks out of the Ban.

             Lauren tries to close her eyes to stop the room from spinning. She lies down on the floor, and curls up as the cough continues.

Chapter Eight

            The lights in the Bunks are back to their normal luminescence. Joe groggily opens his eyes and suddenly remembers the night before.

            “Lauren!” He rolls out of his bunk cut-out. His feet hit the ground and he runs to Lauren’s bunk.

            All of the kids sleep in the same kind of cut-out. There is no separation by gender or age. It’s the same kind of stone bed for all of them.

            Joe climbs a bunk ladder and looks in Lauren’s cut-out. She’s not there.

            “Did she make it out?” he says under his breath, a smile creeping across his face at the thought of one of them making it to the Surface. But it’s too soon to celebrate. Joe climbs down the bunk ladder and stops one of the passing kids.

            “Have you seen Lauren?” he asks the sleepy-eyed girl.

            She shakes her head and looks more annoyed at the question than anything. It’s hard to believe but most of the kids just go about their day, not socializing or even befriending each other. It happens but most of the time they just do their work with their specific group, eat, sleep, repeat. The girl walks past and Joe glances at other bunks to see if Lauren might be in one of them.

            Making his way out of the Bunk Hall and into the Junction, he stops various kids and asks if they’ve seen Lauren. Most say no. Some shrug their shoulders.

            Joe watches so many of the kids and teenagers going about their jobs with Lauren nowhere to be seen. He makes his way to the Doctor’s office, thinking if Lauren did go up, she may have come back down with the Sick.

            “Doctor?” Joe asks standing just outside the office.

            “Hello, Joe.” The Doctor greets him with the best smile she can muster under the conditions of the Mines. Smiles are few and far between. When they do happen, they’re whole heartedly embraced. “Everything ok?”

            “Yeah, I’m fine. Have you seen Lauren?”

            “Not today. Maybe she got an early start in the Mud Hall. Have you looked there?”

            “Not yet. Thanks.” Joe heads back into the Junction. He takes a look at the Ladder and the Guard standing by it. There’s no sign that anything happened.

            He makes his way to the Gear Hall.

            The bright tube lights of the cut-outs in the Gear Hall always make Joe need to squint till his eyes adjust to it. He walks into the space and opens Lauren’s locker. All of her gear is in it. He closes the locker, slowly.

Maybe she really did it. Maybe she got out.

            “Looking for your girlfriend?” Mason steps into the cut-out.

            Joe slowly turns. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

            Mason walks to Joe and shoves him against the lockers. “No? Well maybe she’ll be mine. After she gets out of the Ban.”

            “What are you talking about?” Joe demands.

            “That’s right. She got busted for climbing the Ladder last night. Heard she came back down with the Sick, too. Been sleeping it off in a cell all night. Probably too late for Remedy, now.”

            Joe tries to push past Mason but he just gets shoved back against the lockers.

“If she’s still alive after last night, tell her I’m looking for her.” Mason laughs as he allows Joe to push past him.

            Joe runs back into the Junction and notices a couple of kids coughing. His hand instinctively covers his mouth. He runs to the Doctor’s office and sees Marvin standing inside.

            “Joe. I was looking for you and Lauren. We’re gonna be late.” Marvin speaks with some worry in his voice. He doesn’t want to get in trouble.

            “Joe, are you ok?” the Doctor asks, seeing the worry on his face.

            “The Ban. Lauren is in the Ban. She climbed the Ladder last night and came down with the Sick,” he says between breaths.

            “Are you certain?” The Doctor looks panic-stricken.

            Joe shakes his head, unsure if what Mason told him was a lie or not. It would be just like him to make up such a story.

            “We can’t take the chance that you’re wrong.” The Doctor grabs a vial of Remedy and a syringe. Her expression turns to real worry as she looks at the low levels of Remedy left in the cabinet. She closes the cabinet doors and grabs a bottle of antiseptic from the counter. “You two stay here.”

            She moves quickly out of her office and to the Ladder. “Did you put Lauren in the Ban, last night?” she asks the Guard.

            He smiles, amused at the memory. “I can’t be too sure. They all look the same to me.”

            The Doctor rushes to the Ban. Her movements are very mindful so as to not knock down any of the kids. As she does so, she notices two teenagers cough. She stops them and tells them to go to her office. A couple of other kids have a dullness to their eyes, unlike the normal expressions the kids carry. This one is a symptom of the Sick. She tells them to join the others in her office, as well. It takes longer for the Sick to jump from one person to another. As one kid infects another, the beginning symptoms become less severe and less noticeable. But left untreated, those infected will eventually succumb to the same severity as those in direct contact with the fog.

            At all times of the day, the Ban is lit by the one single light. This keeps those in the cells from noticing the passage of time.

            The Doctor is mindful of the steps as she tries to move quickly down them in the dim light. At the bottom, she sees the Boss standing in front of a cell.

            “Lauren!” the Doctor shouts.

            The Boss silently moves out of the way to reveal Lauren curled up on the floor, still coughing and now shaking.

            “Open the door,” she commands the Boss.

            “You forget your place, Doctor.”

            “My place is to help these kids if they’re hurt. My job is separate from yours. You don’t give me orders.”

            He puffs out his chest. “I am in charge of the Mines. Therefore I give everyone orders.”

            The Doctor backs down slightly. There’s no point in arguing. Only the Boss and the Guard can open the cells in the Ban. It’s better to just let the Boss have his authority so she can help Lauren.

            The Boss opens the cell door and the Doctor rushes in. Lauren’s shaking has become more violent. The Doctor opens the antiseptic and pours it on Lauren’s shoulder. She uses her own sleeve to wipe the liquid away before sticking the syringe in the Remedy vial.

            “This will cure you,” she quietly says to the girl as she injects the Remedy into her arm. It takes very little time to work. Lauren’s shaking stops and so does the cough as she falls asleep.

            The Doctor strokes Lauren’s hair out of her eyes before glaring at the Boss. “She should have been brought directly to me.”

            “She should not have been on the Ladder.”

            The Doctor stands up and looks him directly in the eyes. “In the time it took me to get here, I saw five other kids with signs of infection. Who knows how many have actually been affected because you let it get out.”

            “You’ll simply cure them.”

            “Not with what I have left.”

            “What do you mean?” The Boss’ reaction shifts from strict to concern very quickly.

            “I barely have enough to cure ten of these kids. And at the rate they keep trying to climb that damn Ladder, we’re all going to be infected by the end of the week.”

            The Boss takes a moment to process the information. “Do your best,” is all he manages to say.

            The Doctor throws her hands in the air. For someone who normally keeps a level head, it is, sometimes, useless trying to reason with the Boss. She moves to the stone stairs to leave the Ban. Exiting back into the Junction, she rushes past the Guard who just smiles, knowingly, at her.

            She can’t resist insulting him. “You’re an idiot.”

He continues to smile.

            Inside her office, she finds Joe and Marvin standing away from the five other kids. Their hands cover their mouths. The Doctor cleans off the arms of the infected kids and gives them Remedy. Before the last one is injected, she asks him, “Does anyone else have the Sick?”

            “I haven’t seen anyone. I don’t feel well, Doctor.”

            “Ok. You will soon.” She injects him with Remedy and the boy falls asleep.

            The Doctor looks at Joe and Marvin. “Are you two ok?”

            They lower their hands and nod. She walks back to the Remedy cabinet and opens it. There are only five vials of Remedy left. If this happens again, the Mine is done as is everyone in it. She looks back at the boys and tries to put on a brave smile.

            “I don’t know what else to do,” she tells them before pulling a lever on the wall.

A loud siren blares throughout the Mine. Joe and Marvin look at each other.

            “Let’s go,” the Doctor tells them.

            The three walk out of the office into the Junction. All of the kids drop whatever it is they’re doing or carrying to make their way to the Vocal Hall. Carts, buckets, shovels and even some hard hats lay on the Junction floor. The Guard stands in place as more kids exit the tunnels to make their way to the Vocal Hall.

            The second largest space of the Mines, second only to the Junction, is the Vocal Hall. When important announcements need to be made, everyone is called into the large cavern. Only those in the Doctor’s office or the Ban are exempt from attending any announcements when the alarm sounds. The stone steps of the hall double as seats for the kids to sit on. Below those, at the front, is a stone platform. It is the only place holding a combination of the tube lights and the yellow bulbs. It casts a lighting that is neither warm nor annoying but very neutral.

            The kids pile in and sit as close to one another as they can. It’s not the most comfortable of places but it is far less claustrophobic than the Eatery.

            The Doctor wrings her hands as the last of them pile in. Joe and Marvin sit on the bottom steps waiting to hear whatever the Doctor has to say. The Guard and the Boss finally show up.

            “Everyone, quiet down,” the Boss orders. “I don’t know who pulled the alarm but when I find out—”

            “I did,” the Doctor interrupts.

            The Boss stares at her in disbelief.

            “I apologize for interrupting everyone’s work. But this is too important.”

            Hushed mumbles come from the kids on the steps.

            “Quiet down,” the Guard yells.

            The Doctor looks at the Boss before continuing. “Many of you know that attempts have been made to climb the Ladder. I don’t want to scare any of you but two of those have resulted in fatalities. The rest have come back sick.”

At her announcement, the kids get louder in their own worry.

“Please,” she continues. “Listen. There are five kids in my office just cured of the Sick. They got sick because one of you tried to climb the Ladder and came back down with the infection. Because of…”