We are flying in the air for quite a while as I hold my breath and I am thinking of how painful it will be to fall down... and then we fall into the water.
I swim up to the top and take a big breath as I am still shaking. I open my eyes trying to see where we are and figure out if there is any danger? While trying to calm myself and still taking big breaths of air into my lungs.
We are in a cave with this pool of water in the middle, which made the cave quite bright and beautiful. Michael sees that I am ok and is swimming towards the edge of the pool. I slowly swim after him, still looking around. In the cave, there are many openings/ hallways? like the one, we fell out of. The cave is very tall and the openings seem to be all around us right up to the top. We must have fallen out one of the corridors right at the top I am guessing. I reached the end of the pool and look for stones to climb up on to get out of the water, then I see Michael reaching out to help me.
"This was a bit scary". He nods and is looking around, trying to guess which corridor to use as our way out. I continue
"At least I got washed from all that yucky snail goo". He looks at me thinking, hesitating if to say anything then
"it is not a pool of water". Then he starts going into one of the tunnels and I follow him.
"Excuse me?" I say
"It is not a pool of water"
"What is it then?"
He thinks about how to break the news to me...
"These tunnels... they are sewage, for a particular kind of creature that created these tunnels... And the pool... it's not water"
"Ueee!" I scream, an out of control impulse thinking of all the horrible things this could have been and Michael adds
"It's good for skin complexion they say"
As we walk through the dark corridor in silence I ask
" is it time for me to go home yet? I really should be going. I have dinner to make for my kids. Do you think we could start making our way or...?"
Michael nods and says
"Don't worry, we will be back in time for you to get those bangers and mash ready for the family this evening. I just need to sort out one little thing and we will be on our way."
"What little thing?" Kill me perhaps? I think with a pounding heart?
"Well, It's part of my job."
"And what is your profession?"
"I work for the government. I am an energy repossession expert. I ensure that we have stable sources of energy back in 3073."
"Oh a government position, you must have a good pension plan?" And then it hits me 3073?!?
"I can't complain" Michael responds. My head is starting to hurt as I am trying to process what he just said. I thought he was about 20 years older than me, but he is in fact younger? Non-existent yet? Oh, my head hurts.
"And what does your profession entail?" I ask to change the subject as I can't process the previous information.
"I repossess energy bio-makers and ensure that they are placed correctly and safely until they are ready to be used."
"Yes" I nod. having no clue what any of this means.
"But what does that mean exactly?"
He stops as we reached the end of the corridor and looks at me.
"Well, it's a bit difficult to explain, let me show you, come. "
And now I regret I asked, but I put a smile on my face in agreement to what he just said. As I look out of the cave I see... The sun is just about to set and the sight is impressive. Volcanos, gigantic dragons, or dinosaurs? I can't tell the difference. Bushes of the jungle and long strips of land that look as if they had been burned recently by fire. In the middle of it all, there is a river and just next to that river, another river this one made of lava. On the right side of it all, I can see the beach and the waves of the ocean.
"We are not too far now, let's go before it gets dark". Says Michael. I follow him up the path leading to a rocky mountain? We walk for some time in silence as I concentrate on my steps as my feet keep on sliding on the rocks.
"We are here," he says "give me a moment please, I will be right back".
He leaves me here in the middle of nowhere as he goes behind some rocks and starts climbing up, which looks quite dangerous. What if he falls and dies and I stay here forever? Stop be so dramatic Bethany, I say to myself. Let's not think on that...
I look round and pick up some of the rocks. It's flint... I think its chert or.. obsidian? I pick up a few and start to play with them while I look round, what else can I find. I look at all the igneous rocks that have just cooled down from magmatic temperatures. Suddenly I hear Michael
"I am ready let's go quick" and he runs down the path while passing me by he grabs my arm and pulls me after him.
"Why are we running?" I ask
" We need to get to a pure water source to be able to travel. I am aiming for the river being the closest." He says
"Ok, but why are we running?" I hear flapping of huge wings with a squeak behind us.
"Because of that!" Michael shouts.
This bird/ dinosaur? Is flying towards us with very angry eyes. It uses its huge beak, digs into the rocks, dislodges them and creates a sort of avalanche. We both are running as fast as we can, but the bird is getting closer. It swings its beak at us when passing by, but it looks like we are too small for him to catch us.
The bird gets even more enraged, turns back and flyes directly next to us hitting the rocks above. The rocks are starting to fall. Michael pulls me somewhere. As the rocks are falling creating noise and dust which makes me cough quite hard.
When it all stops I look at Michael and he doesn't seem to be affected by any of it. We are in a little pocket of the wall of the mountain, completely covered up by rocks. We can just about move and stand.
It is dark and my head is really spinning now, I am exhausted by the constant running and pulling of my arm! I just want to go home! I worry for my kids and Robert. I sit down on one of the bigger rocks and take a deep sigh. There is no way we would be able to dig ourselves out of here, no way.
After a moment I hear Michel asking, "What are we going to do now?"
"Would be great to get out of here and carry on to the river or the ocean, so we can get home?" I say and look at him.
"Great, how are we going to do that?"
"You don't have a plan in these circumstances?"
"Not really"
"Are you so unprepared that a simple avalanche of prehistoric rocks can put you down? How long have you been doing your job?"
He looks at me deflated.
"Well, it's a bit of a long story..."
"It looks like we have some time on our hands," I say while looking around.
"I have been working for the government all my life, but mostly it was a desk job... Only recently I have been promoted to active duty. I am still trying to find my feet in all this. I passed all the tests and I have completed several missions with great success." He said, trying to reassure me.
"Ok, but what do you actually do? You said that you would show me, but I guess we didn't get an opportunity?" I pause for a moment, but he is far away with his thoughts; so I continue
" You are an energy repossession expert? Is this like working for an Energy Company? EDF? Do you check the meeters? or install them?"
He looks at me and tries to understand what am I talking about. then says "no, it's not like that anymore where I am from, we don't have meters."
"Oh, ok, so what do you have?"
"We have the translingual electrofasnigolenital supportive mechanisms, which supports all the necessary functions. I repossess energy bio-makers and ensure that they are placed correctly and safely until they are ready to be used."
"Yes, yes... you did say that... But what does that mean exactly?" He thinks for a moment and then reaches into his pocket and takes out a bit of that white powder and shows it to me.
"This is one of the forms of a translingual electrofasnigolenital supportive mechanism." I come closer to look at it curiously and all I see is a bit of white flour. I raise my eyebrows in confusion.
"Can I touch it?"
"Yes, just don't let it spread into the air" As I touch it all I feel is a flour. A bit disappointed I ask "why not?"
"It activates by adding to it oxygen from the air... It can also activate with oxygen and hydrogen that is in the water and then takes on a different function..."
"The going home function?"
"Yes"
"So all we need is water? and we can go home?"
"Yes, but I don't think we can get to any?"
Long pause of silence as we both start thinking.
"What if we could make some water?" He lifts up his face surprised? and asks me
"make some water?"
"Yes, all we need is the oxygen in the air and the hydrogen from some magma rocks and there are loads of them surrounding us. But we would need some energy to get the atoms together would your.. hm white flour powder do the trick?"
"You mean the translingual electrofasnigolenital supportive mechanism? I think it might not have enough power, but..." he reaches for his long brown boot and opens up a zipper on the side and takes out long, big beautiful, shiny pink glittery egg and says "But this repossessed energy bio-maker will easily do the trick!"