CHAPTER SEVEN
So as I pondered the sensation of falling, I saw nothing below rush towards me, to at least give me a rough idea how long I had left in my eventful life. The Jackhammer had ran me into this situation, it left me wondering if it was programmed to do so. Maybe I was falling to my untimely death like dozens of other helpless humans that managed to outrun the Jackhammers wrath.
Splodge.
It wasn’t quite a splash, and it wasn’t quite a crunch, as I lay there staring at the dark arena above me. My initial thoughts of my left index finger being broken were wrong, as I ran all of them through the smooth, slushy compound. I was relieved that I managed to float back to the top of my own accord, and further pleased that I wasn’t sinking slowly.
The sensation relieved the stress on my weakened body, the rifle strap was digging into my right collarbone, but all in all I had survived another interesting situation.
As I lay there staring at where the ceiling should be, the room opened up around me as my eyes grew more accustomed to this level of dark. It was much larger than the loading bay that I was in originally, for a moment it was almost as if I couldn’t see either side of the room. Then after a moment I could see one side of the room as I turned in the thick liquid to my left, a thin line followed the surface of the water what I could only guess at being twenty feet away, so, half dragging myself and half swimming I moved towards the only hard surface that I could see, it wasn’t long before I hit something in the water.
It wasn’t a surface, it was long, almost like a log floating in this thick sludge. I grabbed at it, hoping to gain some purchase for a moments rest as my wading was really sapping the life out of me.
I ran my fingers along the surface of the object, trying to get an idea of what it was I was clinging on to besides my sanity. As I waded a few feet further the log buckled in the middle, I was surprised at how easily it gave way to the pressure that I was applying to it. What was even more surprising to me, was the boot that hit me on the left cheek.
A boot!
“Fuck!” I groaned as I pushed the detached limb away from me, reeling in disgust at the thought of someone’s leg floating around aimlessly. It also didn’t fill me with any great hope as to where I was.
Then the smell hit me, my nostrils flaring at the sensation and I almost threw up, the copper like scent was almost as thick in the air as the watery sludge I was wading through. To my relief, the edge of the pool was only two or three feet away and I could make out the edge of the water, a ledge was raised about six inches from the dark rippling surface.
As I pulled myself onto the raised concrete ledge I rolled over and lay there for a few moments. The temptation to lay there and sleep was almost too much to…
I was asleep.
Sitting up with a start, it may have been minutes, or it may have been hours, it’s hard to tell how long I was lying there in the darkness. With my eyes closed for so long my eyesight had become attuned to the light around me. I could see most of the room in its entirety, the far wall was just out of my sight as it faded into shadow. I turned and almost let my feet dangle into the watery slime that I was still drenched in. Some of my clothing was now drying, which made me think I had been out for a few hours at least. Also in my periphery, I could make out the silhouette of someone standing to my right.
Someone else was here!!!
I sat there, trying to remain as quiet and as still as possible. The figure was static in the darkness, I didn’t move my head at all, using the more acute peripheral vision to try and make out the person standing about fifteen feet away from me. It was entirely possible for them to be upon me before I could do anything if they acted now, but they didn’t, they were probably trying to figure out if they had seen something move or not.
Toying with the idea of slipping back into the pool, I decided not to, it would put me at an immediate disadvantage if the intruder saw my actions. Instead, I opted to reach for my pistol, thankfully, it was still in my holster, the strap was already undone from my encounter with the Jackhammer.
“Hello?” a gentle, almost frightened female voice said in the darkness, thankfully it came from the silhouette to me left and not from something else lurking in the darkness. The accent was American, I couldn’t tell if they were Canadian or not, the difference nowadays was harder to distinguish with all the influx of foreigners from tainted American soil over the last decade. The difference between the two at this moment had a crucial bearing on how the next few minutes would pan out.
In the distance however, there was a faint moaning, which grew in decibel to that of a panicked screaming. The figure to my right began moving away from me, it gave me a brief chance to look upward, in the direction of the noise.
It seemed like there was someone going through the same experience that I had just gone through, the chase through the darkened corridors that led them into this room. And it wasn’t long before the screaming was echoing loudly through this large auditorium-like place, the dark image of someone falling through the sky was almost humorous in a sick kind of way, as they splashed into the dark pool I used the opportunity to get into a crouching position.
Quickly glancing around to see if the female figure was there, I saw that she had backed against the wall and continued moving away from me, she was almost out of my sight as I backed against the wall too. The distance from me to the pool edge could only have been around five feet in length.
Three people were now in the room, at least two of them were fit enough to walk, the other was wading towards the pool edge and coming in my direction. I needed to get out of this position and get somewhere more hidden, from both people. At least I knew there was a 50/50 chance that I could have an ally in all of this, of course, there was also the chance that I could have a sworn enemy, or two...
