Chapter 11 - Bloody Fate

Today was the day. Today Clementine and Adelaide would join Dr. Thornevale on his excursion to the Ether stone quarry. Clementine had to pay extra attention to her actions today to ensure her survival. Her nervousness was quite obvious to Adelaide and Dr. Thornevale but they politely avoided bringing up the conversation as they rode in the carriage. Clementine's mind was racing trying to remember every detail describing her death. She would use every single clue available to avoid her bloody fate. 

Clementine slowly remembered how the book described her downfall. The original Clementine's temper and anger towards the female lead had been bubbling up until it had reached a boiling point. The original Clementine could not beat Adelaide in grades, inventions, and popularity so she had tried to use unscrupulous and underhanded methods to take her down. This of course had failed and only succeeded at ruining her reputation a fact that the original Clementine detested. The dislike between the two was so intense that Dr. Thornevale, ever the optimist, had tried to defuse it by bringing the girls on this trip together. He hoped that their exploration of the quarry would allow the two girls to bond and understand how similar they were, this unfortunately massively backfired. 

The original Clementine was extremely petty and obstinate fighting and disagreeing with every point that the female lead made. This culminated in the two arguing about which path to take once they reached a fork in the path. The sensor they were using informed them that a highly powerful Ether stone was likely down this old dilapidated, structurally unsound path. Adelaide had argued against entering that path which made the original Clementine upset. The original Clementine decided to go against the professor's warning and down the unsafe path, hoping to find an Ether stone that would beat whatever Ether stone the female lead picked. Unfortunately everyone in the quarry, a terrorist organization attacked the quarry at that very moment, and the destruction and shaking led to the old path collapsing in on itself killing Clementine. 

With this knowledge in hand Clementine, she made an easy decision. 

Don't go down the old path. 

How unfortunate that life doesn't always go as planned. 

Everything was going completely normal. The professor introduced the girls to the quarry owner, a middle-aged man with sharp and mischievous features, the quarry owner gave them a small portable device that he explained could sense and track the energy of Ether stones. 

"I'm sure I don't have to remind you but our deal only allows you to take up to five kilos of Ether stones excluding high-grade. However I have to warn you, you might not find what you are searching for. The quarry is starting to come up dry, it's been harder and harder to find and extract Ether stones nowadays." The quarry owner lazily explained. 

"I have faith that we'll find something in there. Don't worry about us." Dr. Thornevale replied. With that, the quarry owner dismissed them and let them head down into the quarry. 

The quarry lay hidden amidst the rough and rugged embrace of the surrounding hills. The trio entered the quarry through one of its many entrances. They walked in relative silence as the earlier parts of the quarry had already been stripped bare. The sensor didn't show any signs of Ether stone in a two-mile radius. But even so, the trio continued walking deeper and deeper into the quarry. 

After about two hours of walking the sensor finally sensed Ether stones. There was a large vein close with weak energy signals nearby and one large strong energy single a far bit away from the vein. Clementine realized this was likely the diverging path that had killed the little cannon fodder. Dr. Thornevale and Adelaide were excited by the presence of the strong energy signal but Clementine had to keep her mouth shut knowing that it was a death trap. Eventually, they arrived at the fork in the road. 

"Professor I know you're excited about the strong energy signal but I don't think that path is safe, we don't know when it might collapse. Besides your deal with the quarry owner stipulates that you can't obtain any high-grade Ether Stones. Let's just go down the other path." Clementine proposed immediately. 

Dr. Thornevale hemmed and hawed for a bit before finally relenting. "You're right. I let my greed get ahead of me, how foolish. There's no reason to risk our lives for an Ether stone we can't acquire." 

Clementine gave herself a mental high-five and congratulations as they walked away from that death trap but she was still on high alert. Even though she avoided dying the terrorist attack that caused the cave-in had still yet to occur and could cause major damage to their pathway, the universe could still find a way to try and off her. 

Clementine was on high alert the entire time they walked and as they found and collected their Ether stones. It was only until they had started walking back that her general sense of anxiety and panic subsided. 

That's weird that the terrorist attack hasn't happened but I won't complain. Maybe the story won't follow its original flow now that I've changed it! Clementine thought to herself. 

She was so relaxed that she failed to realize something very important about the novel. In the novel, the original Clementine's petty arguments and squabbles had delayed the group by an hour. Since she didn't follow the original script and fought Adelaide at every turn, they managed to collect Ether stones without delay. This realization only came to Clementine's mind when they returned to the original fork in the road and stopped to rest for a bit. 

As if on cue the quarry shook violently, rocks and stones breaking off the wall as the trio heard multiple sounds of explosives. The ceiling above them started to give way and crumble around them, dust and debris were being thrown around in every direction. Adelaide fell to the ground during the chaos she yelled out loudly in pain. 

"Girls run we mustn't stay here any longer!" Dr. Thornevale commanded as he helped Adelaide get up on her feet again. 

The trio had made quite a bit of headway running down the original path in an attempt to escape when Adelaide suddenly turned back around without explanation. This shocked both Clementine and the professor, but after hesitating for a second Dr. Thornevale ran back after Adelaide. Clementine on the other hand stayed put, hesitant about whether she should follow them or not, she rationalized that the story wouldn't do anything to harm Adelaide she was the main character after all. But on the other hand, there was no telling if the universe would let her survive this moment. She eventually relented and ran down to join Dr. Thornevale after hearing him call down to her to assist him. 

What Clementine found surprised her, Adelaide and the professor were attempting to save a poor worker who was trapped under a large rubble pile. Clementine hadn't even stopped to consider that there might be other people that would be affected by the quarry collapse, simply because the novel didn't make mention of them and so to her, they didn't exist. This notion wasn't something that Clementine was ready or wanted to unpack at the moment so she put it in the back of her mind. 

"Clementine my dear we could use your help." Adelaide managed to say as she struggled to lift part of the large rubble. 

Clementine wordlessly bent down to assist in lifting the rubble. The rubble was incredibly heavy and Clementine was overwhelmed even with the assistance of Adelaide and Dr. Thornevale. It took some time and large amounts of effort but eventually, they lifted the rubble high enough that the poor worker could crawl out from underneath it. After putting the rubble back down Adelaide and Clementine reached down to help the worker back to his feet and they lent him their shoulders. That's when disaster stuck, a final explosion shook the quarry once more, and everyone was nearly knocked to the floor by how strong the aftershock hit them. 

Clementine heard it before she saw it. A large chunk of the ceiling was falling towards the group and without intervention, it would crush Adelaide and likely kill her. Clementine's body moved before she could process what she was doing, she threw the worker off her shoulder and shoved Adelaide as hard as she could. 

With a thud, they were separated from one another and Clementine began to blackout after something hard struck her forehead.