Chapter V, as in Lateral to Vertical

I open my eyes again, and again I see darkness.  I mean, I can’t see darkness, but rather an absence of light, and it’s moreso because my eyes are adjusting than because I really can’t see anything.  But the more I look, the more I realize it is quite dark where I am.

As my eyes start to collect, my ears pick it up, the sound, from far away.  Some sort of mechanical sound, perhaps, but it is quite removed, and distinctly coming from …

Above.  I look up, and the light is bright, almost blinding.  Now I’m squinting again and covering my eyes, looking down, and now I see less than before.  I take some time to let my eyes adjust again.

I do see there is a wall of some sort.  I mean, I didn’t see it until after I reached out and felt it (brave, yes, I know, because who knows what’s REALLY out there, and if we make this a touching and feeling game, I KNOW of several ways I could lose out), but it came into focus, as I walked along it with my hands to my left, walking.  I’m now sensing the curvature of the wall, because as I move left I move backwards, gradually, and after moving for some time I have the sense I’m now moving in places I’ve already been.  Without looking up, but knowing what’s up there with the sound and the light, and feeling along this wall, it seems as though I’m in a silo.  How I got in here, not sure, and how I am to get out, not really sure.

I look back down into the complete darkness as I fumble toward my pocket, pull out the pack of the good stuff, select, locate my flame, ready aim fire.  I can now see, from the light of that flame and now a bit from the cigarette, that I was right about where I am, in a circular sort of silo, maybe ten feet in diameter.

I’m not worried about the smoke being trapped in here, although maybe I should be, because it should travel up and out of here.  So I’ll still have some oxygen, when I need it.  And for now I can see my surroundings, just a bit, a bit of enough to notice a bit of a route: a crude ladder, made of what looks like a damp wood.

I take one last pull and stomp it down, then approach and grab the ladder, testing it a bit by pulling backwards.  It seems to be sturdy, somewhat, at least sturdy enough to hold my weight for at least a few seconds.  It’s a ladder that seems to go up, toward the sound, that low whirring, and the blinding light.  I already followed the ladder up with my eyes a bit farther than I should have gone, because I caught a glimpse of the light source, and it’s blinding.  It almost knocks me out.  I have to look back down to readjust, for a few seconds.  But I’ve already decided I’m going to give this a try.  Probably because I don’t see any other way of passing my time, other than sitting in the dark, not knowing how much time is passing, without much on me!

I put my right hand on the right side of the ladder, and within my grip my hand slips down a bit.  It’s a bit moldy, but the rungs, at least the few lower rungs that I tested with my hand, seem to be sturdy, so I at least trust that part of this exercise.  I put my left hand on the other side and that too slips down, but not far enough to discourage me from slinging my foot up to that first rung.

Now I don’t even put all my weight on this rung, and I shouldn’t have to because I plan to jump right past it and up.  It snaps in two.  My grip on the sides is strong, but in not being prepared for this slip my whole body jerks a bit and it comes back down, my leg awkwardly jamming down into the ground (again, not prepared for that one either) and I lose traction, sliding and smacking the ground with my forearm and elbow.  This doesn’t feel good, and it snaps my head back into the moment.

I sit there for a second, holding my elbow and staying still.  I guess I’m contemplating my next move?  I can tell you that I am a bit perturbed!  But then I realize that I have a thing or two to worry about otherwise, as it comes down.

And down, and down.  Drip to drip to drip, on my forehead, each one getting stronger, first dripping in the same spot and then all over my body.  I slide on the ground on my side, gripping my elbow, heading for the wall — no respite — heading along the wall to my right.  The water keeps coming down, onto my hair, hitting my first layer — it’s soaking through, really through! — I move, now more actively, and I try to look up at the source — all I see is bright light, and drops coming down, neverending, through the silo from above and into my cavern, and the water starts to collect on the ground, puddle by puddle, millimeter by millimeter.

I shake my elbow off and grab the rung, this time surehandedly, and I don’t even test my weight as I shoot myself on the up and up!  The ladder creaks a bit, but at this point, with the water still coming down, I have other things to focus on, as I go up another rung and then another and …

The water stops.  And so do I.  I look up and quickly back down — the brightness — but the water is not coming.  I look forward at the wall behind the ladder, and then down.  There is an inch or two of water on the ground, no more.

Now that I’m already up here, I might as well keep going up.  I mean, where else am I supposed to go?  So I look mostly straight ahead as I go from rung to rung to rung.  The wooden ladder is splintery and wet, and sometimes the small splinters pierce the palms of my hands, especially when my hands slips down a bit on the slippery grip, although I’m most concerned with my footing on the rungs below.

But now I’m up and up, fairly smoothly, when several unidentified objects float in front of my face and down!  Bugs?  Butterflies?  Bats?  No, it’s more than that, and they start to collect on my arms and the top of my head, I can feel …

Feathers!  I look to the side and a bit down, and feathers are absolutely RAINING down past me and on top of me, and a quick look below proves to me these feathers are much greater in number than the drops of water just a few minutes before!  So much so they are already weighting down my shoulders on the wetness that has accumulated from said water!  I grab and grab and keep going up and up as fast as I can go, because when I glance back down I see a pile of feathers below, below, and I go up and up, because certainly I don’t want to drown in feathers!  The feathers are coming from the brightness, and the whirring noise from above is LOUDER, and I blow out of my mouth and nose to get these feathers out of my face, and now one went in my eye!  I shake my head back and forth still going up to somewhere getting louder and brighter and more feathers coming down and down and legs up on rungs hands grip sides and rungs and up and grab and FEATHERS and hand slips! and foot slips! and hanging from the edge of ladder with feathers and look up and brightness more feathers in eyes and gasping let go–

–and down–

–and muted smack of a feathery landing, several feet of feathers, sink down into, and lifting head up as feathers keep coming down and shielding eyes and seeing nothing but light and the raining down, and the louder buzzing, and muting, and fading …