“I’ve found the map!” the Archeologist exclaimed.
“The map to where?” the Girl warily asked.
“No time to explain!” the Archeologist grabbed her hand, pulling her along while he expositioned along the way. “This leads to a forgotten forbidden temple full of valuable goods! We’ve got to get going before the competition picks off what little treasure still remains!”
“If the temple’s been forbidden and forgotten for so long, then a few more hours shouldn’t matter. Chances are the place’s already been picked clean.”
“Not now there isn’t. I’ve weeded potential looters out thanks to spreading tons of fake maps about, leading them into booby traps. That should winnow their number down.”
“Wait, how do you know that’s the real map, and not a fake copy?”
“You’ll just have to take my word for it. Don’t you trust me? You wouldn’t have followed me all this distance if you didn’t trust me. Now, step right up to the entrance and pay no attention to all the poisoned darts, spears, arrows, axes, guillotines, saws, lasers, boulders and skeletons within!”
That was a lot of poisonous items to ignore. Even though she should’ve insisted on the Archeologist to go ahead if he was so confident in his abilities, she still made her first hesitant step inside the temple. Almost immediately upon entering, there was an unfortunate clicking sound.
And then she woke up.
Still shaking, she begrudgingly got out of bed. Ever since she’d willingly ingested that piece of Rarebit, she’d been unable to go without it. Her days had become so mind-numbing dull that her only source of excitement came from her nightmares, which for some reason, seemed to have a recurring continuing consequentative story that she seemed unable to remember when awake. It worked better than an alarm clock.
She never expected that she would ever gain residence back in the Lopsided Hotel. Fortunately, the Twitchy Manager didn’t seem to recognize her now that she no longer smelled.
Once in the Washroom, she fastened her arm and legs to the shackles, then let the torrent of water wash over her until the wave was done, and resumed drying herself. Making her way back to her room, she heard the curious noises taking place behind the numerous doors. There were occupants in the other rooms, but she never saw who any of her neighbors were. She had no desire to know about them, and from the sounds of things, it was better that she remain ignorant about them.
She hadn’t noticed at first when she’d entered the City, but there was a lingering smell that took some getting used to. Still, compared to the nasal ordeal she’d undergone when pregnant, this was refreshingly pleasant.
There were two other locations she could’ve slept in, but Ye Ol’ In-and-Out and the Grand Inn Temple were too restrictive in their sleeping arrangements, and she needed to get out of bed and washed in a hurry. The Lopsided Hotel was also conveniently close to several forms of mass transit, any of which could be used depending on her preferences.
She left the shaky foundations of the Lopsided Hotel and got on the raised platform for the high-speed train that was reputed for always reaching the stations on time. The key to its success was that it never stopped at any of the stations, which frustrated both passengers and bystanders wanting to get on and off. Complaints were fended off under the implication that riders could either reach their destination in a hurry, or have longer stops. Since they were unwilling to compromise, this was what they were left with.
Before getting on, she implemented a method that would make the system work as intended. She hefted a fleshy rock and flung it at a bull’s eye target in the distance. This would cause a chain reaction that ultimately resulted in releasing a herd of animals putting themselves in harm’s reach in front of the track, forcing the machinery to come to a halt. The train was so fast that it took two more round trips before the first animal got out of the gate.
When the first animal got torn to bits, the train started to slow down long enough for her to run parallel to the cars and jump into the open side doors, trying not to bump into the other passengers bouncing around due to the recoil. She paid her fare, and quickly reached her destination when the car braked in front of the terrified freed herd animals, and got off with all the other riders who’d been trapped.
Normally, the passengers were supposed to hit the target on their own to signal where they wanted to get off, but the speed of the train often had them missing their mark, and there was a limited supply of ammunition onboard, so many of them often got stuck.
One old lady was extremely grateful, having been trapped on the train for three whole days, subsisting on leftover food found underneath the upholstered seats, and just wanted to get home. “Oh thank goodness! I thought I would never get off there!” The old lady looked around, and remarked, “This isn’t my stop. I’m one block over.” Then she got back on the train, which once the animals were cleared away, roared off in a rush, making up for lost time.
No comments:
Post a Comment