“Did you find anything interesting while you were down there?” Lewis asked Pierre.
“No. It just ends.”
“Ours too,” Lewis said with a shrug. “Although we didn’t investigate the bottom as closely as you did.”
“Actually, I did find this,” Pierre said, handing Lewis the shoe he had taken off earlier.
Gonzalez called from the third pit. “Guys, come look.” The solemn tone in her voice told Lewis what he would find before he even looked: Stonewood. The man who had brought them all together now lay in an awkward heap at the bottom of the third pit.
“Must have fallen in like I did,” Pierre said. “Only he didn’t have a rescue crew in tow.”
Lewis looked closely. “Odd, he doesn’t have a flashlight.” Lewis’s thoughts jumped back to the earlier suspicions of foul play in the cave-in.
“I bet he’s lying on it,” Craig offered. “Do you think we can get down to him?”
Lewis shook his head. “I don’t think so. This pit looks deeper than Pierre’s. We can try the rope to be sure, but I don’t think it’s long enough.”
Pierre gave it a test and found that Lewis was correct: the rope was a good twenty feet short. As Pierre coiled the rope, he said, “After we get back to camp, we could come back with the longer rope.”
Lewis had forgotten about their current predicament. They were still stuck at the bottom of the giant ball. There was also the question of what caused the explosion that sent them all sliding into the pits in the first place. “I had forgotten about Miller and Samantha,” Lewis said as he placed both hands on top of his head and let out a sigh. “We need to get back and make sure they are okay after that blast.”
Nobody argued. No one offered a solution as to how to get back out of this strange chamber either. They knew they couldn’t just climb up; it was far too slippery. They could wait for Miller or Samantha to find them with another rope, but that wouldn’t work if the others were in need of help themselves.
“So Quinn, do you happen to have a folding motorcycle in one of your pockets?” Gonzalez asked, adding, “Maybe you could ride it up there like those circus guys in the round cages.”
Lewis chuckled. “Those guys are insane.” Then he had an idea! He reached into his unopened cargo pocket and pulled out his smashed roll of duct tape. “Tape-Man, on the other hand, is a true hero!” he exclaimed, lifting the roll over his head and doing an awkward dance.
“What was that?” Craig asked, indicating Lewis’s dance moves.
“That was supposed to be Tape-Man’s signature superhero move.” He shrugged before offering, “I’ll work on it.”
Gonzalez couldn’t help but laugh. “I think maybe you should just stop doing it,” she said. “Can Mr. Tape-Man get us out of here or is he solely for entertainment purposes?”
Lewis feigned a hurt expression before he sat down and went to work, explaining the highlights of his plan as he wrapped some tape around each foot, sticky side out. He then did the same around his left hand, before looking from his untaped right hand back to his taped left hand, then to Gonzalez with a somewhat defeated look. “Tape-Man needs his faithful sidekick to tape his other hand,” he said quietly.
“First, if anybody is the sidekick around here, it’s you,” Gonzalez said while slowly shaking her head, “and second, you’re insane.”
Lewis’s plan may have been insane but it was also simple. With the rope tied to his waist, he would use his sticky feet and hands to crawl up the wall like a tree frog. The others would have tape on their feet only, and would follow as far as they could, holding the rope in case Lewis fell, hopefully saving him from sliding into one of the pits.
With a little experimenting, Lewis was convinced he might need more tape to make it on the steeper section so he asked Gonzalez and Craig to wrap his midsection and legs as well. Once everyone was ready, they set off, gradually working their way up the freshly polished path they had created on the way down. The strange sound of the tape coming unstuck echoed loudly in the big round chamber as they walked, making for a very weird scene.
They stopped once they were about half way up. Lewis eyeballed the distance ahead before saying to the others, “This should be close enough for you to wait. Hopefully the slope isn’t too steep for you to hold me if I fall.” He added a fresh layer of tape to his feet before passing the last of the roll to Gonzalez, marching onward again while everyone looked on. The others reapplied fresh tape of their own and tried to plant themselves as best they could, offering quiet encouragement as Lewis got to where he had to start using his hands.
Soon, Lewis had to incorporate his knees and shins as well. This crawling technique got him to within twenty feet of his destination. From here the wall was nearly vertical. Having never climbed the inside of a giant glass ball before, Lewis had to learn as he went, adapting his technique with each near fall. As the climb steepened, Lewis discovered the best method was to press his torso against the wall, using the tape there to hold him in place while he moved his arms and legs higher. The key was to roll the taped body part away from the wall rather than trying to pull it directly away.
The stickiness of the tape was wearing out with each move. By the time Lewis was two feet below the ledge, the tape was worn to the point that he could no longer remove even a single hand without sliding back down. The others watched fearfully from below as Lewis fought to stay on the wall, his arms and legs trembling from the strain. Craig braced himself, preparing to anchor the rope if Lewis slipped.
Realizing that a fall was inevitable, Lewis pushed away from the wall with his right arm and leg. The others gasped from below as their hero began to plummet towards them, watching him fight to get on his back like a confused turtle. As he rolled away from the wall, Lewis pulled almost all the tape away, resulting in a dramatic increase in speed. His quickness proved sufficient, allowing the runaway man to spin around and get the fresh tape on his back adhered to the wall, halting his plummet within ten feet of where it started. Gonzalez had to laugh at the sight of Lewis as he performed a strange backstroke, using the still sticky tape behind him to finish climbing up the wall to the ledge.
Getting over the ledge and into the short crack proved to be easier than Lewis had anticipated. Once he was high enough, he placed his elbows on the ledge like a cowboy backed up to the bar, then used his forehead as leverage against the top of the crack to keep from falling as he swung his leg up. All that remained was an awkward roll to get his whole body in.
It was then laborious, but straightforward to pull the others up, one at a time. Lewis was careful to keep his body secured between the floor and ceiling to prevent a repeat of the super-slide performance.
Possibly the toughest challenge was removing all the matted tape once everyone was up.
Pierre took a last look into the spherical room before saying, “You just let me know if Tape-Man ever needs a sidekick.” He then crawled over to Lewis, shaking his hand as he added, “That was some mighty fine climbing… especially for a big, ape-sized American.”
Lewis laughed as he shook the mountaineer’s incredibly strong hand. “Thanks, Pierre.” He paused, adding with a smile, “I think it’s time for Tape-Man to retire.”