Youth is Wasted on the Young p.18
"Wouldn't you know it would be a flipping maze!" Amy said with disgust. She banged her head down on her arms were she lay in one of the horizontal tubes.
They'd already climbed a couple of hundred feet. Her legs were burning and it felt like she had a knife in the small of her back.
Stanley sat crosswise across the back of her legs, his warm weight felt good on her abused muscles. He was breathing hard, as worn out as she was.
The solar tubes weren't just a straight climb to the outside as she'd assumed. They branched all over the hive, small holes led off of the big tubes at irregular intervals, which occasionally gave them handy foot holds -- but also gave them the worry that their large tube would suddenly end in a tiny fist-sized hole that they'd never get out of.
They'd climbed about 70 feet before the first tube dead-ended. Fortunately, it branched off in a lateral tube, then back up again, then sideways. She felt like she was a slider in one of those "rearrange the tiles" games. Going back and forth, side to side, but generally up. At least it was bright, and not too hot, it was actually kind of cool, with a whispering wind always blowing across them. But the detours had added hundreds of feet to their climb.
Fortunately, while Schwillic couldn't handle the vertical climb, he was able to scuttle along the horizontal tubes with ease, giving Amy and Stanley a break as he scouted ahead for them.
Schwillic trundled back down the pipe and tapped her on top of the head. She looked up, weary.
"I found another vertical shaft. It's a long one, but I think I can see sky at the top."
"Lead on." She waved majestically and dragged herself to to her knees.
One thing was for sure, she thought, these tights were going directly in the trash when they got out of this.
"Oh great," she muttered as she looked at the intersection Schwillic led them to.
A large vertical shaft intersected their large pipe. And while the shaft did go up, it also went straight down, there was no floor under it, no footing.
"How are we going to get up into that?" Amy groused.
"What is it?" Stanley said behind her.
She looked back past her knees. "Give me a little room. This is going to take some contortions."
He gave her an arch look but stopped while she crawled forward the last few feet.
She looked down the light tube. The well proceeded so far down it disappeared into a white haze.
"OK," she said to herself. "Falling would be a bad idea."
She studied the situation. Her bruised knees were screaming at her in protest at the hard rippled glasslike surface, so switching back to feet and back would be good for them at least. As long as her legs didn't fail on her. She shoved that thought aside.
With no floor she couldn't just stand up into the vertical tube.
With much grunting she managed to twist herself around in the confining pipe and get her feet in front of her. She braced her feet on the opposite lip of the well. She scootched forward until her bum was on this side of the well, then lifted her arms up into the shaft above her head and braced them on each side.
Schwillic had climbed over and around her during her contortions, she'd felt his feet on her sides and back like pokey little paws, he was now behind her. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked.
"No," Amy said. "But we've got to try something."
With a grunt and a heave she used her braced arms to pull herself up into the tube. Then, with her back against the wall and her feet still propped on the well rim, she eased herself upright, lifted one foot, then the other, to brace against the wall. With a bit of wiggling she got into a good "braced climbing" position and pushed herself up a foot or two.
"OK," she breathed out, stable. "That wasn't so bad.
"Stanley," she peered down past her legs. "Boost Schwillic up to me. Then it's your turn."
Stanley simply stuck his head up the pipe, braced a foot on each side of the well, then handed the tripod up to her before jumping up and bracing himself between the walls.
Amy grumped. "Show off."
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It seemed like they climbed forever. Brace against the wall, lift one foot, lift the other, slide up, repeat. Again and again, inch by inch, they climbed. The rippled wall dug into Amy's back. Schwillic shifted in her lap. The light got brighter.
Coming out of a haze of effort, Amy looked up. "Stanley!" she yelled. "We're almost there!"
She looked down past her hips at the 12 year old boy braced below her. She swallowed convulsively as her eyes slid past him to the endless drop below. She jerked her face back up, pushed a little harder with her feet, wedging herself firmly.
She looked up again, blue sky, yellow sunlight, she could even see clouds. The opening was only 20 feet or so above her. And it wasn't covered. There was no window to hack through, just clear open air.
Excited, desperate for freedom, hopeful, she shoved her way up. Step, step, slide, step, step, slide. They were almost out!
Her next step she almost missed. She fumbled, and gave a little shriek. Schwillic clamped all three legs around her. Stanley yelled.
"What happened?" he asked, once she'd stabilized.
Amy wiped sweat off her forehead. She tapped the wall gingerly with a foot, testing. "It's wider here," she said in consternation.
"Can you go up?" he asked.
Amy edged upward, careful to brace her legs before moving. She managed to go up another couple of feet, but the top of the shaft widened out almost into a cone. Not enough to see, not enough to provide a rim to hold onto, but too wide to brace herself up any farther.
"How are you doing?" she called down to him. Stanley was considerably shorter than her. She looked down, gently easing Schwillic's hug against her stomach. Stanley was a few feet farther down from her.
He shook his head at her, "I can't go any higher." He looked devastated.
Amy looked up. The surface was only a few feet away. She reached up. She strained, bracing one arm against the wall behind her for leverage. She stretched her fingers as far as they'd go.
It was no use. The rim, and freedom, was only a few feet above them, she could see sky, but couldn't reach it. It was maddening.
She contemplated the nacreous ripples on the wall, wondering if she could get enough traction on them to crawl out. But the surface of the bright tube was too smooth, the ripples might give them some traction pushing up, but here was nothing to catch onto to pull themselves up.
"Give me a boost," Schwillic said. She looked down at the little pink alien in her lap. She could feel his skin vibrate against her stomach as he spoke. "I might be tall enough." He unwrapped his tentacle-like legs from around her waist and stood up. She braced herself firmly against the small of her back and used both hands to lift his body high.
He strained one long tentacle upward, Amy could see his leg distending, stretching each vertebrae. He patted the wall less than two feet from the top.
"Here, put me down for a second," he said. Amy set him back down in her lap.
"What are you doing up there?" Stanley called out.
"Schwillic may be able to reach the edge if we can just get him high enough," Amy yelled down.
"Hold your palm flat," Schwillic said, tapping one of her hands. "I'll stand on it. Hold me up as high as you can."
"I can't do that!" Amy protested. "You'll fall!"
"I can brace one leg against the side of the tube for balance," he assured her. "Come on. We've come this far."
Amy swallowed and tried not to think about the endless drop below them. Or how vulnerable the little alien was. He'd cuddled his warm little body in her lap all the way up here. He was like a living teddy bear (not that she'd ever tell him that) the thought of him falling to his death was horrifying.
"Stanley," she yelled down. "Work your way around crosswise to me," she instructed. "I'm going to hold Schwillic up, if he falls, I want you to be able to catch him."
"All right, give me a minute." There was some childlike grunting and shuffling below her. She looked down to see him crabwalking sideways over the bottomless pit. She closed her eyes.
"All right, I'm ready." She opened her eyes to see the boy looking up at her, freckled face serious, red hair sticking out in every direction. He'd worked his way 90 degrees to her position. "Let her rip," he said, giving her a falsely encouraging smile.
Amy looked up, she could see grass waving at the edge of the hole, a light breeze blew the scent of green growing things down to them. A puffy, weightless cloud drifted by, mocking her.
"All right, Schwillic, I'm going to hold onto your leg until the last minute, okay?"
"Fine with me, I don't relish falling any more than you do." The tripod extended a leg and Amy took hold of it, he sat on her hand and wrapped another tentacle around her wrist, he extended the other leg to bump against the wall as she lifted him up.
She lifted him as high as she dared, close to the wall, but not too close. She felt his leg around her wrist slip loose and gritted her teeth. Carefully, balancing, he stretched upward, reaching.
He stood up in her grasp, balancing on the leg she held, one coiled against the wall he leaned on, his other leg tip stretched up, just another few inches and he'd have it.
"Let go of my foot," he said.
Amy gulped but carefully loosened her grip and flattened her palm. He stood up on tiptoe, his leg tip velvety soft on her palm. He reached up with his top leg and stretched his full length.
He touched one of the blades of grass flopping down over the lip of the well.
"Yes!" Amy yelled. Her heart pounded with excitement.
He patted the grass blade, but tripod legs weren't dexterous enough. It was like trying to grab something with one finger. Yet, if he could hook it over the edge... He stretched with all his might. Amy could feel him trembling on the palm of her hand. She was sure she heard a joint pop.
Suddenly, giving her a heart attack, he hopped. His leg slammed against the wall, making a desperate reach for the edge. It was too high. Three inches. Three bloody inches.
He fell and Amy grabbed him, snagging him to her chest, her heart about to burst. "Schwillic!" she yelled. She squashed his squishy little body to her. She looked down at him, he'd turned slightly blue. He was trembling.
"Don't do that!" she yelled at him.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't reach," he said in despair. He huddled in her arms. She hugged him.
"Well, we're not trying that again," Amy said with finality.
"What's going on?" Stanley yelled up.
Amy looked down. "It didn't work. We can't reach. If we had a rope or something..." She shook her head.
She looked up one last time at that mocking sky, so near, yet so far. At least she didn't see any Wirrn. She looked back down at Stanley. Then past him. One thing was sure, they couldn't climb back down again.
"All we can do now is activate your tracer and hope somebody hears," she said, looking back at him.
"Do you think those creatures are far enough away?" he called up, doubtfully.
"Do you have any better idea?" Amy called down, more hopeful than sarcastic. She stared down at him past her hip.
He sighed. "No."
She watched him twist around, lean forward, braced between feet and the small of his back above an endless pit. It was a tricky maneuver, fortunately he was a flexible boy. He pinched the back of his calf.
"It's on."
Amy settled her weight. Schwillic curled himself into a disconsolate ball in her lap.
All they could do now was wait.
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