“If it’s a contract, then how is it signed?” Azarias asked.
I frowned deeply. “As we’ve gotten closer to the truth, things have begun to fall into place. It’ll probably become obvious what to do when we return to the tram.”
Fince—who wasn’t there for the earlier conversation—was confused: “What are you talking about? A contract with what terms?”
I made up an excuse on the spot so that Azarias and I could leave. I pointed to the edge of the canyon. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Azarias muttered to himself as we walked. I tried to comfort him, but he wasn’t hearing it. He wouldn’t meet my eyes, and I understood why. I was still acting rather indifferent about the contents of this contract. “Who knows when it will actually set in?” I thought.
At the edge of the canyon, I gestured to the spiderweb bridge. Azarias said, “Shouldn’t we bring other people with us just in case something unexpected happens?” I said, “The bigger danger is somebody understanding what we’re doing prematurely.”
I steeled my nerves as I took my first step onto the bridge, but it wasn’t as stressful as the first time. When we finally reached the hangar, I knew exactly where I wanted to look first. I walked up a set of stairs that was tucked in the corner and located the long plank that extended over the Chasm. When we had gone here the first time, the one who discovered the plank hadn’t walked out onto it because its structural integrity was questionable. This time, I was so focused on figuring this out that I felt no issue with taking the risk. My heart thumped when I saw what was attached to the very end of the plank. There were two long boxes.
I felt a shudder run through my body as I knew I’d been right all along. The part of me that wanted to be right felt good, but another part of me felt a sense of dread. I was going to head back and tell Azarias, but he was already behind me, staring at the boxes. His expression was dismal. I reached out to one of the boxes and lifted the lid. There was nothing inside, and the same went for the other box. I said, “Maybe there’s still a chance we don’t need to put anything in them at all. They’re set up right here pretty conveniently; it looks like they’re ready…”
Azarias frowned. “Sounds like wishful thinking. What happens if we drop the boxes as they are and nothing happens, leaving us with no more boxes?”
“Think of it this way: We’re clearly intended to have the ability to make multiple trips, so there have to be more boxes around here somewhere. Perhaps they respawn as soon as they’re dropped off the edge. I just think it’s worth a try, since ‘the boxes will fall’ is the only thing that the clue confirmed with certainty. Weren’t you the one who said you couldn’t accept the first attempt being with live people? This is the best other option I can think of to try.”
I walked towards the main part of the hangar with my arms extended; I was mentally metal detecting. There was a signal indeed, a deep tug, and it was getting stronger. I walked towards the decontamination chambers, but it wasn’t the right spot, and the signal got weaker. Then I stood in front of the tram, and it felt like my head was going to explode. I gestured forcefully for Azarias to come over here.
He tentatively stood in front of me. I reached out with my fingernail and drew a line across his forehead. When he yelped in pain, I had to force myself to do it gently. Azarias shuddered. “Is that all?”
I pulled my hand back. “The next motion would be what Fince did with the blood and tears earlier. This doesn’t feel entirely correct, like there’s something missing, but I think I know what it is. I got the steps right, but Fince must have to do all of this. I’m only vaguely recreating it, but this must be his role. What we need to do now is perform an experiment.”
Azarias’s expression was grim. “Assuming the experiment fails and we’re left with the other option, I still can’t accept it. How could we throw people to their deaths at all, even if we know it’s the only way to get across?”
“The big picture is, there is no way to deter the spider other than to get across the Chasm. To get across the Chasm, people may have to die. There’s already been endless slaughter; I’m confused as to why you’re surprised by a little more. I’m sure the expeditions themselves won’t be safe, either. Did you think of that?”
Azarias said, “Okay, fine. We’ll go get Fince and do a proper trial with the empty boxes.”
As we walked back across the bridge, I asked Azarias, “At the moment, how many of the eleven doors have been opened?”
“Four. The fifth one, which we tried while you were gone, presented certain difficulties with entering. You’ll see later.”
I nodded. “So far, nobody has won in any of the doors, and the repeated failures haven’t led to death sentences. By this logic, we should try all the doors before considering going through with anything.”
We made it across and grabbed Fince. He was confused about what he was being taken to do, and we didn’t offer him much of an explanation.
Azarias and I stood in front of Fince. He performed the fingernail slice and the creation of the blood and tears mixture and applied it to his eyelids. Then, Azarias walked up the stairs in the corner and out onto the plank. He picked up a box with much effort and threw it into the void. It tumbled until we could no longer see it, but there was no sound of it hitting anything. He performed the same action for the other box.
We immediately rushed to the tram and looked around for any buttons or levers that would help us activate it. We checked every inch of its surface area, but there was nothing. The rest of the hangar didn’t have much to offer either. There was a button that opened one of the walls like a garage door, but nothing that affected the tram’s mechanism directly. We even climbed up to interact with the pulley wheels, but the cable was so strong our hands couldn’t even bend it.
When nothing happened after fifteen minutes, my eyes darkened. I thought of the most prominent concern: the boxes might be gone forever and not regenerate. I walked out onto the plank and saw no new boxes on the end, although I hadn’t really expected there to be. I felt my chest sink. Had we wasted our only chance in the name of morality? I walked back into the hangar with my eyes skyward, feeling somewhat resigned. It was then that I saw them: on the ceiling of the hangar were hundreds of boxes, all longer than they were wide, about the size of a human. I showed them to Azarias while concealing them from Fince, and we shared a feeling of doom.
Our group of three returned across the spider’s bridge back to Alavieska. It was right then, almost all the way across the bridge, that I began to think I was hallucinating. For the third time, something had appeared that was not there before. A net of webbing had been cast over the city, forming a giant dome. I had an immediate thought: “This isn’t like the appearance of the hourglass and the door. The spider must be taking action.” My suspicions were confirmed as I looked at the hill of boulders. I saw the outline of eight enormous legs. Even from here, I could see the glint of those beady black eyes. The main group was gathered on the plateau, staring at the spider.
We managed to return without anyone noticing we had been gone. The three of us headed over to the group and asked for information on what was going on. We were told that the spider had emerged from its cave around 30 minutes ago and had begun spinning a net of webs over the city, without informing anybody why it was doing so. Everyone was waiting for answers, and now, the spider had come to deliver.
The arachnid’s shouting echoed across the plateau and bounced off the walls. “Even with the appearance of that hourglass, It’s been taking all of you quite some time to get going, and I’m starting to think you’re stalling. To prevent this from continuing, I’m creating a trap. By climbing to the top of this web and attaching another piece of string, I’ll be able to pick up your entire city and take it with me wherever I want to go. Of course, everything and everyone inside the web would be destroyed if I did that. Now I’m giving you a deadline, separate from the one marked by falling sand. Let’s call it a mini-deadline as a part of a larger project; Isn’t that supposed to be effective for learning? You have 24 hours to begin the first expedition, or the city will be crushed into pieces.” The spider ran back into its cave before anybody could reply. The plateau erupted into shouts and arguing. “That’s not fair. From our estimates of the timer, it seems like it has at least a year before it runs out. We’re expected to get moving so quickly?”
I looked over at the rest of the Explorers. They weren’t freaking out like everyone else. They were talking in hushed tones and were definitely nervous, but they were keeping their cool and discussing what their logical next best move was.
Azarias, who had seen me looking, tapped me on the back. “You want to know what that is? It’s the expedition mindset. You’ll hear more about it later. I’ve been trying to cultivate the first spark of it all this time, and the kindling’s beginning to get going.”
At the same time, his expression was dismal. We both knew this deadline would force us to rush through the rest of the doors and make a decision before we were ready. Citizens started running up to Azarias and starting to ask him all sorts of questions, forming a crowd that separated the two of us. The attitude towards the Explorers was immediately different. They were starting to show us respect, with the tone of not wanting to have to do anything dangerous themselves. I walked away from the crowd, climbed up the hill of borders, and started playing on the playground by myself.
I looked between the plateau and the hourglass high in the sky. I looked at the Institute building and thought about the door to Tuonela, with its unexplored handles. And then I thought of the first day we arrived. I thought of the claustrophobia, the clashing bodies and the breaking bones. I thought of darkness and chaos; I thought of death. True death—the kind Germinate can’t heal—would not be confined to that event; I could feel that in my chest. The only question was, how many more would fall?
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