Glancing at the maroon jumpsuit and the pipe and back, I said, “I am not getting in the sewer!”
“This is the building’s cooling system.”
“Whatever it is,” I said with a nervous laugh, “I’m not getting in. Besides, I don’t know how to swim.”
She turned to me. “The elevators are on the system. If you want to see Nora, this is it.” Since I hadn’t moved, she took the jumpsuit from my hand, tore open the front so that the dozen snaps sounded like a drum roll, and then held open one of the pant legs. “And don’t worry,” she added, “ won’t be swimming. We’ll be falling.”
I didn’t like her joke, but stepped into the first leg. “I’m not going to die, am I?”
“What kind of a question is that?” She eyed me. “No! The SunEcho isn’t far. I’ve charted a course that will get us within one block. We just don’t have much time.” After I stepped into the other pant leg, she pulled the velvety material up and over my suit and began snapping the front closed. Then she dug into her bag and handed me what looked like a yellow diving mask. “Put it over your head,” she said, showing me how it worked.
I gazed at the open pipe and the strange, convex bubble of thick liquid that looked like a clear pillow.
She grasped the metal wheel above, pulled herself up onto the rim, and straddled the opening. “It’s just bulk metallic water.” The phrase meant nothing to me. From a pocket, she produced a small spray bottle, and spritzed the surface, which turned dull like beach glass. Then she began stamping on the stuff with the force one might use to try and kill a steel cockroach.
Because she looked ridiculous, I laughed, but obviously the stuff was tough skinned, like a tomato. After several kicks, her foot finally punched through with a heavy glop. Clamping her teeth around the air-supply mask, she lowered herself in and as she did, the liquid made wet gurgles and burps. Holding onto the rim of the pipe with one mitten-covered hand, she turned, and reached her other toward me. She spoke, but with the air supply in her mouth, the only word I thought I understood sounded like Ora.
“I don’t like this,” I said, backing up.
“Ora!” she said louder. Pushing herself up a foot, she shot her hand toward me, and grasped the front of my jumpsuit.
“No!” I cried, as she began to pull me toward her. Although I tried to twist away, her mitten-covered grip was as strong as iron. I got my hands on either side of the pipe and, as though I were doing a push-up, tried to keep her from dragging me in. The jumpsuit stretched over my neck and shoulders. My arms began to vibrate and I could feel my muscles lose power. The stuff stunk like gasoline and bleach. “Okay!” I said, giving up. Let me put the mask on!” When she let go, I slipped the mask over my face and bit the mouthpiece. For a second, I wasn’t sure if I could breathe with it on. The plastic tasted sour and the goggles made everything distant and hazy. Peering at the thick fluid, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to get in. There had to be another way!
Joelene, as if impatient, grasped the front of my jumpsuit again and dragged me in. Next, I was falling head first in complete darkness. I screamed into my air supply, but the stuff absorbed all sounds. I hated to be going head first, but there wasn’t room to turn. It was like I was a human bullet in some strange slime-filled gun barrel.
A tiny green light shot by and for a split second illuminated the shiny walls and my mitten-covered hands. Two beats later another flew past at a hundred miles per hour. Craning my neck, I saw Joelene ahead in the next green strobe. She was two feet farther down and was covered in a slipstream of elongated bubbles like jade scimitars. Her head was down as if trying to see where we were going. In the next flash, she gazed up, as if checking on me.
How long were we going to fall? And what would happen when we hit bottom? Would we be squashed? Would they find us days later flat and frozen?
We were never going to get to the SunEcho. Nora would wait and wait. Finally, when the news of my death came, she would throw herself to the floor, devastated.
Trying to wave at Joelene, I wanted to signal her to stop this and get us out of here, but in the next several green flashes, she was gazing down. Then she extended her arms above her as though she were going to catch me.
Next, I smashed into her. Only, somehow we didn’t quite touch, and when I flipped over backward, and fell onto my back, I was dizzy and shocked, but not hurt. Maybe the liquid had insulated the impact.
We weren’t in the pipe anymore, but in a large tank, fifteen feet wide, illuminated with a grid of tiny blue lights like a geometric sky. The liquid was thicker, heavier, and colder down here, and it took all my strength just to suck air through the mouthpiece.
Joelene stood and put her masked face before mine. First she nodded, as if to confirm that I was alive, then she pointed left.
I shook my head. She pointed adamantly, but I shook my head harder.
Grasping my arms, she hoisted me up and carried me over her shoulder. I hit her back because I hated her and wanted her to get us out of this. After a few steps, she pushed me into another smaller pipe, and that’s when I panicked because I didn’t want to fall again.
Trashing, I tried to kick her and get her away from me and then I don’t know if my air ran out, or if I just didn’t have the strength to inhale. I got one hand to my face and yanked the air mask off so I could scream, but the thick goo filled my mouth and tasted sour and acidic like an uncoated aspirin. I began to gag and then instinctively inhaled and sucked in more of the cold lava.
I was dying. My chest was beginning to spasm. An adrenaline terror started in my heart and shot toward my hands. Flailing my arms and feet, I felt like I had milliseconds left.
Meanwhile, Joelene put one hand on my right shoulder, the other atop my head, and pushed me down. She was killing me! My body began to cry for air. I was frantic. My throat and lungs burned.
Below, my feet touched a distorted glowing yellow circle. She shoved me again. I squeezed through an opening and all around was blinding light. For a second, I was inside a blob, like a solid balloon. With a rubbery snap, the gunk tore itself from my throat and chest and all around, and dropped me onto a hard surface. I retched, and then sucked in air.
The warm, perfumed air smelled like fresh apples. I inhaled deeply, coughed, but could breathe. Then I sobbed a few times, because for a moment I had been sure I was I going to die.
Above, I heard wind and gently bubbling water and decided it was on a sound system. A couple of feet away, sat a glowing pink commode, and on a shelf was a vase of violet dahlias. This was a woman’s bathroom.
Above was a hole torn in the white ceiling Inside the open end of a three-foot-wide pipe was the shine of the gunk and a few distorted blue lights. A dark shape appeared in the liquid and then a foot encased in clear goo emerged. I rolled away as Joelene was first lowered in an elongated orb of gel. When it snapped away, she fell to the floor.
Pulling off her mask, she laughed as if relieved. “We made it.”
“I hate you!” I told her. “That was terrible! I couldn’t breathe.”
Scanning me up and down, as if afraid, she asked, “Are you all right?”
“No! You almost killed me.”