Part four of the gripping 'Office Of Realism' saga contains scenes of mild danger and moderately alarming explosions. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult when reading this installment.
As we left the flurry of activity behind us, I tried to gather my thoughts. Less than an hour ago, I was sitting numbly in front of three people who, in all fairness to them, looked as though excitement was a foreign country where the people were unfashionably poor and there weren't enough expats. I had tried to impress them - I had wanted to impress them - and all for the sake of an office job with average pay, and the promise of nothing exciting ever happening to me again. Now... well, now I wasn't sure what to think. An office job almost seemed tempting, but I knew that was the lazy, conservative part of my brain talking. This job was like nothing I had ever considered doing before, and probably like nothing I would get the chance to do again. If only I understood what the job was.
The door back to the office was in sight when a thundering explosion shook the tunnel. The rock lurched under my feet, throwing me against the rock wall. Vibrations and dust made it difficult to see. My ears rang, blocking out all sound but the fading thunder, and yet somehow I heard a quieter, more ominous noise. I turned to Jason - he was already reaching over to me - and together we leapt back down the tunnel just as the ceiling cracked apart and fell down around us.
The realisation came to me, as I lay there gasping in lungfuls of dust and coughing them back out, that there was rock covering my legs. I groaned, and tried to move. It hurt, so I stopped.
To my left, Jason was sitting up and coughing just as much as I was. Wafting his hand in front of his face in a vain attempt to find some dust-free air to breath, he edged himself over to me.
"You alright?"
"Been better." I said. "I think my legs are trapped."
"Yeah. Give me a moment."
Jason pulled himself to his knees and shuffled out of my line of sight. Moments later, I felt the weight on my legs lighten. Wincing, I pulled my right, then my left, leg free, and sat up.
"Anything broken?" Jason asked.
"I don't think so." I ran my hands over my calves, checking for damage. "Bruises and cuts seems about all. What happened?"
"I don't know. But I can hear swearing coming from the control room."
I listened.
"Your hearing must be recovering better than mine." I said after a moment. "I can barely hear you, let alone voices in the distance."
"Come on." Jason stood, then held his hand out and pulled me to my feet. "Let's go find out what's going on."
Back in the cave that served as the control room, chaos reigned. The wall at the right of the cave had fallen in, crushing the equipment that had been there but not, as far as I could see, any people. At least, no one was digging through the rock for fallen colleagues.
Smoke was billowing from the machine Elizabeth had been working at, and something else at the far end of the cave seemed to have exploded. A man sat up against the edge of the cave, a cruel metal shard sticking from his arm and blood dripping thickly from his hand.
"Lizbet." Jason called. From somewhere in the crowd, Elizabeth's voice called back.
"Wait."
We waited only moments. Elizabeth slid out of the crowd towards us, assessing us with a quick glance.
"You're both okay?"
"We'll do." Jason replied. "What happened, and what can I do?"
"What can we do?" I interrupted quickly - I had no intention of sitting uselessly on the sidelines.
"It happened when the stabilizers went online." Elizabeth told us. "We don't know much else - our equipment is mostly up in smoke."
"Well, you'd better be able to fix it, or do without." Jason said stonily. "The tunnel collapsed."
"Shit."
"Where do you want us?"
"You ever work on maintenance?"
"Briefly. This stuff's way beyond me, though."
"Doesn't matter. William can't work, but he can talk you through what needs doing. Just let Simon know you're helping out." Elizabeth turned to me. "You feeling fit?"
"What do you need me to do?"
"The wall of the access tunnel collapsed, and the containment area is sealed off. I have someone working to move the rubble, but they could do with some help. There's a spare hazard suit in the case over there - get yourself into it and over to the tunnel."
I nodded, ignoring the squirming, uncertain feeling of being separated from the only person I knew in this crazy place. At least, that's what I told myself the feeling meant. It wasn't anything to do with having to dig people out from under tons of rock while worrying about breathing in toxic fumes. Oh no.
The hazard suit was too big for me, but Elizabeth seemed happy with it as she paused to check the seals. In no time at all I was hurrying across the room to the access tunnel I had seen earlier, the entrance to which was marked by a small, neat pile of stone.
"Come to give me a hand?" A muffled voice called as I stepped into the tunnel. The dust hadn't settled in here yet, but I could make out a shadowy shape some distance away from me, and getting closer. Moments later, the shape became a suited man, carrying an armful of rock. I wondered why the rocks all seemed to be roughly the same size and shape.
"Elizabeth sent me over."
"Don't recognise you."
"I'm here with Jason." I explained. "He called me a 'potential'?" I hoped the man would understand what that meant. Thankfully, he nodded in understanding.
"In that case, I'll give you the tour."
His hand on my elbow guided me down the tunnel, where the light was much dimmer and the dust thicker.
"This is the rock face." He explained, unnecessarily. If I didn't know any better, I would have said he was enjoying himself. "We'll be moving the rock from here to here." He waved his hand back the way we had come, down one side of the tunnel. "Start piling at the far end - that way, as you get more tired, you have a shorter distance to carry the stuff. This," He picked up a chisel and handed it to me, "Is what we'll be using to cut the rock away. Don't worry about clearing the whole tunnel, all we want is a way through."
"A chisel?" I asked, peering at it carefully.
"Give it a go."
I think he expected the look I gave him, because I was sure he couldn't see it through the mask I wore. Chuckling, he took the chisel from me and moved to the rock face.
"Like this." He explained. Slowly, he drew the blade of the chisel along the rock, leaving a mark despite the fact that he wasn't pressing hard. Once he had drawn out a rectangle, he left the blade in one of the scratches, drew my attention to the end of the handle, and pressed the button that was well-hidden in the wood. There was a crack, and the rectangle of rock tipped slowly from the rock face.
It reminded me of a dinner mat - it was about that size - except nearly an inch thick. The man caught it deftly, tucked it under one arm, and began drawing another rectangle.
"Don't make them bigger than you can handle." He advised me as the second chunk of rock fell into his hands. "And don't try to carry too many. If you put your back out, you'll be no help to anyone. Here, give it a go while I take these away."
I accepted the chisel and faced the rock wall. A chisel that could cut through rock, eh? It certainly wasn't the strangest thing I had seen today. Intrigued, I held the tool out to the wall.
The moment the blade touched the rock, I felt it starting to cut. It was difficult not to cut too deeply - it moved like a hot knife through butter. Carefully, I drew a rectangle, pressed the button, and caught the shape as it fell.
"See." My companion stepped up beside me, arms crossed. "It's not hard, is it. You keep using that one - I've picked up another from the store."
"How does it work?" I asked as we both stepped up to cut through the rock.
"No idea." He replied happily. "You said you came here with Jason? Ask him - he knows all sorts of useless facts. All I know is that the blade was created during an event, and it cuts through anything except itself. We've only had them for a decade or so - damn useful, though. Could have done with them back when I was starting out. Got myself trapped in a cave after an earthquake..."
The man loved talking, and so I let him. I didn't even know what his name was, but then, I hadn't introduced myself either, and he didn't seem to mind. He worked much faster than I did to begin with, making two trips to dump the stone for every trip I made, but whenever I was in earshot he would regale me of stories of his first events, of what had gone horribly wrong and what had gone unexpectedly right. He would pause whenever we separated, 'so that his stories didn't go to waste' he told me with a chuckle. Soon it didn't matter - I was matching him line for line, rectangle for rectangle, and we walked side by side down the tunnel and back. In fact, the man was so companionable that I hardly noticed time passing, and it was only when a muffled shout reached my ears that I realised we had moved nearly a meter through the rock face.
"Did you hear that?" I asked suddenly, pausing.
"Hello?" My companion cried, leaning forwards and pressing a rubber-covered ear to the rock. Of course, I realised. There are people in the containment area - they must be calling out to us.
"Won't be long now." He called cheerfully. "Stand back from the face, though. Don't want to catch you as we cut through."
I thought we had worked hard to get this far - now we worked harder. I felt like I should be worried, for myself if not for the people we were trying to free, but the chatter from my companion didn't let worry in. He didn't even seem to acknowledge the fact there was an emergency. The main room behind us was buzzing with activity, serious faces and frantic gesturing, but down the access tunnel a good mood prevailed.
"Okay, girl, stand back now."
It was the first direction he had given me since showing me how to use the chisel, and I took immediate notice. The muffled voices were louder now, and I didn't think we had much further to go. My companion stepped into the narrow passage we had carved, and began cutting carefully around the edge of the final piece of stone.
"Go and tell Lizbet we're almost through, will you?"
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