Chapter 129

“Claw marks?” Adam repeated. Rain looked up at him and nodded, watching his face morph from surprise to shocked disgust to doubt. “How do you know that?” he asked.
“Run your fingers over the marks,” Rain said. “You can feel where the fingernails dug into the concrete.
Adam leaned down and raked his hand over the portion of the wall Rain was referring to, but his hand didn’t linger there long before he pulled it back, clearly put off by the idea that someone was lying on the floor clawing at the walls.
A lot of someones.
“So you think they dropped people down here, and then… what?” Adam asked her, shining the light around the space again.
Rain stood and followed the beam of light with her eyes, focusing on those round black devices coming out of the ceiling. “I’m guessing it was some sort of gas. Maybe acid,” she said, her eyes still focused on the sprinklers.
“And then what?” Adam asked. “There doesn’t seem to be an exit. How did they get the bodies out of here?”
“Well, if it was some sort of acid that destroys flesh and bones, there’s a possibility they wouldn’t need to remove any bodies,” Rain exclaimed. “We studied some compounds in medical school that would eat away bodies but not damage the concrete, or whatever the hell this stuff is. I’ve never seen concrete in Michaelanburg before, except for in that old basement we were in when we first ran, the one where the tunnel was, you know?”
Adam nodded. He remembered. “It seems so strange that they would use it down here but nowhere else.”
Rain shrugged. “We’ve got other substances that we use to build. Brick and mortar seem to be a favorite. Foundations are usually made from clear rock.” Clear rock was a lot like concrete, but it was a compound substance that would withstand just about any amount of pressure but was also flexible enough to withstand earthquakes. They didn’t have a lot of those in Michaelanburg, but after the shale harvests before the Third World War, they became more common. Over the last couple of hundred years, the earth had settled a bit so that they only happened two or three times a year at most. They had tornadoes as well that might blow the buildings over if it wasn’t for the clear rock.
“Clear rock would be broken down in acid, though. It wouldn’t hold,” Rain explained.
“What type of acid?” Adam asked, still looking up at the ceiling.
“I’m not sure. There are plenty of different kinds that could do this. I just hope--”
“What?” Adam asked, turning to look at her.
“We don’t find out first hand,” she finished, catching his eyes.
“Shit,” Adam murmured. “Me neither. There’s got to be a way out of here. I can’t imagine that the acid ate away absolutely all of the remains of any of the people that had fallen down here. There has to be a way to get the bodies out.”
Rain agreed, but she hadn’t seen any openings anywhere. They both began to feel along the wall, looking for creases again. They circled the space a few times without finding anything.
Sighing, Rain stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. What was she missing?
“Do you think any of these sprinkler heads are actually cameras?” Adam asked.
Rain looked up at them again. “It’s possible. I didn’t look at them too closely. I’m not sure we’d be able to tell without examining them up close.”
“What do you think the chances are that we could climb back up that shaft?” he asked, putting the light back on the tunnel they’d come down.
“Not good,” Rain said. “The tube is slick, and the angle is so steep, I don’t know if we would be able to pull our way up there.” Rain couldn’t imagine them being able to crawl up on their stomachs when they’d shot down on their bottoms. It would be a struggle to bend the right way.
“I wish we had a comm,” Adam said. “We don’t even know if the others have made it to the records room or not.”
“I know,” Rain said. Frustration was beginning to set in. She had been walking in circles for so long without accomplishing anything. “Why did I have to fall down this damn hole to begin with?”
“You were trying to find a way to save all of us, Rain. It was very brave of you.”
She turned around and looked at him, trying not to roll her eyes. “It was pretty stupid of me.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Adam came over to her and took her by her shoulders so she’d look at him. “Rain, everything you’ve done since the moment you decided to take this assignment has been incredibly courageous. You didn’t have to come back here at all. Yet, here you are, putting yourself in harm’s way.”
“I had to come back here just the same way that you did, Adam. The reason we left in the first place was to get help and come back. If we would’ve stayed behind….”
“No one would’ve blamed any of us if we stayed behind, Rain. The rebels that escaped to Spanish-America and Aricornia didn’t come back with the attacking armies. No one said a word. Everything you’ve done, you’ve done to help other people, Rain.”
She felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she began to think of everything the two of them might be giving up. If she died, at least she’d have some questions answered at last. But the idea of Adam dying…. No, Rain couldn’t bear that.
He lifted her chin lightly and looked even more deeply into her eyes. “Rain, I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I can’t imagine what I would do if anything ever happened to you.” He closed the distance between them, his mouth warm and desperate as they pressed into one another.
Rain concentrated on the feel of him, the way he tasted, the comfort she felt whenever his arms were around her. The idea that they might lose one another sent a wave of panic through her that had her stomach twisting and tying in knots.
Adam pulled away first, both of them gasping for air. “We need to focus,” he said. “We can’t give up. Let’s just try crawling back up, okay? You’re the smallest. You should try it.”
Rain nodded, thinking there was no way this would work, but she would try. She handed him the light wand so her hands would be empty.
Going back over to the silver tube they’d slid down, she bent down and stuck her head and shoulders through the rectangular opening. The sides of the tube were slick, and as she attempted to push her way back up the way she’d come down, her hands slipped, and she slid back down. Not giving up, Rain tried again, pressing with her arms against the sides and trying to slide her way up. She spread her legs and bent her knees and tried to crawl with her limbs pressed to both sides. It wouldn’t work. The angle was just too steep and the space was too narrow.
She’d only made it about three feet up and she was already exhausted, and her heart was beating out of her chest. “It’s not gonna work, Adam,” Rain said, sliding back down the tube.
“I just can’t get any traction.” She wondered if there was something they had with them that they could use to create more friction on the sides of the tubes, but she couldn’t think of anything.
Frustration took over, and Rain slid her way back down to the bottom of the tube, flipping over and lying with her back on the same surface she’d slid down to begin with. Above her, all she could see was the silver slide.
“Adam, do you have any other ideas?” she asked, a slight echo ringing in her ears.
The echo was the only thing she heard. It was odd for Adam not to respond to her. He hadn’t said anything to her after her last comment either.
“Adam?”
The hairs on the back of Rain’s neck stood up as she slid her way back out of the tube and onto the ground. “Adam?”
Rain’s bottom hit the cold concrete again. In front of her, the light wand lay on the ground, casting heavy shadows all around her. Even though most of the room was dark, Rain knew one thing for certain.
She was alone.