Good to c ya T. Is Splat gonna die? Only one way to find out... ...
...
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... ...look down.
Chapter 30
Splat
…And breathed in sharply! I jerked my eyes open and found myself staring at the edge of a plant of some sort, breathing in cool, sweet evening air. Air! It was so beautiful, so fresh. But where was I? I felt like I was lying down so I lifted my head. Immediately I was in a stone room full of gas. I caught my breath but my gills kicked in automatically and took in a gulp of poisoned air. I felt myself swoon and my lungs close up and next thing I knew I was back out in the cool night air! Holding my breath again and making sure I wasn’t breathing with my gills this time I raised my head once more.
I found myself staring at a small metal hoop. My mini-teleporter! It was lying on the floor of the cave. It must have… I tried to think but my head was becoming cloudy so I stuffed it back through the teleporter to the bottom of the pit where I’d dropped it. It felt like so long ago now that it had slipped into that pit.
I tried to think now and remembered my bag ripping and the brew, flumps and springles raining down on me. Apparently the teleporter had fallen out to! Taking a deep breath I lifted my head and quickly stuffed to closest thing back into my bag before holding the rips together and fixing it.
Then I started to make my way out of the mines. It was very slow work. I had to stick my head into the teleporter every 20 seconds or so. And every time I re-entered the mines I had to make sure my gills weren’t working - it takes a lot more concentration and even energy than simply keeping your mouth shut!
And of course the mines where still an enormous maze, made even harder by the fact that I had to keep taking my eyes off the path ahead, putting me in danger of panicky greeters and helping me to get more and more lost. It was almost 2 hours after the mines had flooded with gas that the intercom spoke again. I was still only on the 5th floor when the voice announced: “Warning, due to highly paranoid security measures on the behalf of Director Kanzorr, the mines will now start to deteriorate. It is highly advisable for all personnel to get out of the mines and away from the entrance. The greeters will be notified…”
There was a stunned silence, then… “BBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZP-P-P-P-P-P-P-PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST-K. Greeters will now begin evacuating the mines. Thank you for your time.”
A large chuck of rock landed right next to me. I stuck my head into the teleporter, took a deep breath, removed my head, and ran like the wind.
Just 3 floors to go, turn left, forward, left, forward. I stopped for breath twice in that time and was almost crushed at least 5 times. Run forward, left, left, back track, right this time, no, that’s the way I cam from! Turn around and forward, right, forward. YES! Found the ladder taking me into the ceiling! 2 floors left.
It took me much, much longer to get round that floor, and constantly having to stop for breath in the teleporter and having to dodge round falling rock didn’t help. But then I found the way up to the last floor. Stop for breath again and run once more.
I kept loosing my way up on the top floor. So many passages, so many dead ends. And a lot of passages where now filled in with fallen rocks, I was starting to wonder if I would ever get out, if it was even possible!
But finally that hole in the ceiling came into sight! Yes! I dove up it and saw the light at the end of the short tunnel. I legged it down there like there was no tomorrow. I only noticed the enormous chunk of rock coming loose from the ceiling just before I ran under it. No time to stop, no time to dodge. My legs carried me under it just as it fell. It hit me HARD in the back, knocking me face down on to the ground.
Crunch!
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