Delve

Chapter one - Delve

I awoke to the sound of creaking metal, grinding itself to an abrupt halt. Another day had come and gone, faster than I had realized. I sat up in the cold that was my room, only accompanied by darkness and the groans of metals. Looking down to the dial embedded into the wall beside my bed, I could see that it was day time. Or so I imagined it was. Having never seen the sun, if such a thing even existed, it was hard to know how long we had been down here. Years. At least a decade, surely. If the old ways of counting those things still applied.

     To my left, my brother, Desmond slowly sat up, checking the dial as I had done.

     He stretched out his back, arms raised high, "Good morning, Lucy."

     I lazily waved to him, then stood and stepped to a small room to wash. The water was as clean as the filters could get it. But there was still a brown tint to it, thanks to the soil surrounding us. I looked up to the mirror, using its reflection to pull my hair back into a bun. When I turned off the flow of the water, our home shook again. This time more violently. Grabbing onto the railing beside me, I kept my balance. I looked over the railing and to the levels below, peering into the darkness that was this spire.

     Typically, the others that lived on the floors below would turn on the lights. I had woken up earlier than usual. Suddenly, Desmond grabbed onto my arm, pulling me away. As he did, a metal wall panel above where I stood fell, crashing into and through the floors beneath us. A hole was in the wall where it once was placed, pipes and grates visible and vulnerable to the same fate.

     I stared for a moment, "That's the fourth panel in two days. Do we have any idea what's causing this?"

     Desmond shook his head, "We're not sure yet. I'm going to check with the others. You should join us."

     I nodded, grabbing a black jacket from a nearby rack. My brother pulled open a hatch within the floor and climbed down. I soon did the same, being careful to step below that broken bars. Hopping down from the ladder, I spotted the other three waiting for us. As usual, Jason, who met Desmond half way, wore slicked back hair, and a plain grey shirt that was in need of a replacement. Most of our clothes were. He looked more pale than the days before, and dark lines were beneath his eyes. The others didn't seem to notice, or perhaps they said nothing. All of us were tired. Of different things surely, but tired nonetheless.

     Beside Jason stood his sister, Anna, and mutual friend, Ron.

     Desmond stepped forwards, "It seems everyone is alright. So let's just get to the point. These tremors are tearing the spire apart. As far as we know, no one is coming to help us. I'm not even sure the outside world—"

     Ron shook his head, "Stop with the 'outside world,' speech. We don't even know it exist. Unless you've been and just haven't told us."

     I crossed my arms over my chest, "That's not the point. The point is that we're down here, somewhere in existence. For all we know, we're the only people either left, or in a spire. A spire that, mind you, is falling apart."

     At this, Ron went quiet for a moment. If only that moment had lasted. But as he opened his mouth to retort, Anna stared into the distance, brows furrowed, hushing all of us.

     Jason looked in the same direction, "What's wrong?"

     Anna stepped closer to the railing at the edge of the floor, searching below, "I see a light in the hole the last panel created. Did any of you go down already?"

     We all shook our heads.

     I looked over the ledge, "Then let's check it out. We couldn't get to that area because the doors were jammed last time. If there's something that can help us down there, we need to get it. Besides, this is our home. If it's something wrong, we purge it."