Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Julia stumbled forward in disbelief. Looking at the Hole she saw the 4 catwalks that led to the elevator, twisted and broken from the elevators collapse into the hole. It unnerved her immensely to see all the Heliogel. It slithered out of the hole and intertwined with the catwalks, some strands were as thing as a spiderweb, others as thick as her torso. The lip of frozen ground she was standing on was only a few feet wide before the ring of Installation 1A jutted upwards.

Windows were rather sparse on this side, but what ones she could fine were too dark to see inside. The only doors were the large bay doors at the entrance of each catwalk, so she began to trek through the light snow towards the nearest one. She looked upwards towards the dark, deep blue sky. Against the Antarctic sky she could see the black hexagons that made up the dome covering the Hole and Installation 1A. Near the center, they broke and exposed the installation to the 6-month night sky.

Julia could not see any of the corrupted Heliogel up on the dome, but she couldn't imagine how anything else could have damaged it so. She shuddered at what she thought could drip down on her. The tear in the dome explained the light snow coming down. She sadly thought about how if her head wasn't inside this suit, the cold would quickly kill her. She finally made her way to the large bay door at one of the catwalks. It was hard to orient herself, but she believed it was the same one she had used to enter the hole with the investors and tourists. Julia stepped inside 1A.

It was very dim, so she switched on the lights on her head. Strands of Heliogel crept up the stairs and wandered throughout the halls. Julia had no idea what to do, her whole plan was that here would be people up here that could help her. What was even the point? Technically, she was completely dead. Her body and brain had been either obliterated or absorbed into those... things down in the Hole. What's the point of looking for help when you are already dead? No recorded incident of somebody living in a machine past their death has ever been recorded. She had no way of knowing if she could permanently stay in this suit. Or if she wanted to. With grim resolve, she began to explore Installation 1A.


- By Ashton