7.20 - The pit and the process | Stuck Station

7.20 - The pit and the process

Nov 22 2011 Published by under Chapter Seven

Still glaring at the ceiling, Daniel accidentally walked into a safety railing and let out a grunt of pain.

He followed that grunt with a shocked intake of breath.

Protected by the thin, blue guard rail that Daniel had banged his thigh against, a vast pit had formed in front of him. If he squinted he could see the edges of the pit still expanding, the clouds hard at work reforming part of the Medical Center.

That wasn't there before, Daniel thought. Or maybe it was, and the clouds are just peeling back the ground to let me see the second floor.  

Oddly enough, what the Tour Guide had called “the second floor” was actually below the first floor. Daniel chalked that up to his still-forming, completely unsettling “The Tour Guide is insane or at least malfunctioning” theory.

When the clouds stopped building, Daniel saw that the pit was full of fog and dark, motionless cylinders. Daniel couldn’t see the bottom, but he could tell it was a long way down.

The guard rail had saved him from a nasty -- maybe even fatal -- fall.

Daniel leaned over the railing and gazed at the darkness below.

He was just about to get a better view one of those cylinders, when a bright contact window opened in his eyescreens, revealing a pretty face contorted with rage.

In the window, a beautiful woman he had never seen before began cursing him loudly and passionately.   

She had a shock of shining red hair, emerald eyes and a robe just like his, with the word "Visitor" on its left breast.

As she switched from pure cursing to a mix of cursing and insults, Daniel realized he knew her.

Her haughty tone and oh-so-perfect British accent gave her away.

“Hello, Rachel,” Daniel said.

Then, at the sudden understanding of the “conversion process” the Tour Guide had mentioned, Daniel laughed so hard he almost lost his grip on the railing and plummeted into the pit.

Which only made Rachel-7 curse him more.

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