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It took until halfway across the wires over the ravine for the sound of groaning and creaking from the base of the elevator to go from uncomfortable to legitimately concerning. Snake grimaced, hurrying as best he could hand over hand to try to get to the other side. It had felt so stable until they’d felt a sudden dip as a few old bolts and rivets cracked back behind them at the docking bay.
Heron’s heart pounded in her chest as she held tightly to the creaking infrastructure. She usually liked heights. She’d jumped out of a plane not hours ago. But this. This was less than ideal. She tried to think weightless thoughts as she edged across.
“Not our best idea”’ she mumbled aloud, trying to ignore the yawning void below her.
“You can say that again. But it’s the only way across without running into that truck.” Snake hissed through his teeth. He kept his eyes straight ahead, refusing to look down along with her. “We’re almost there…it should hold, just a lil’ longer…”
Heron felt something give in the framework past the way they had come. Her whole body jolted.
“No.”
Snake hissed, and gripped the wire. Instinctively…he knew just what she must have meant.
“Hang on tight! If it snaps, don’t let your grip slip, just hold the hell on and brace for impact!!”
“Keep moving,” she breathed. It was unclear even to her whether she meant him, or herself. She tried, delicately to edge along across. One hand, then another. Careful. Careful…
There was a sudden rending of metal behind them. The groan and screech of a support beam finally caving in under the weight and the clank of falling metal. It all came the split second before the wire snapped at the base. The tight tension of the wire gave out below her hand, and suddenly went slack as gravity asserted itself upon her.
Heron went flying.
The pit dropped out from her stomach as gravity took hold of her. She held on as tight as she could to the piece she was gripping, instinct alone acting as her mind went blank.
Darkness gave way to pinpricks of light and a rushing sensation.
A sharp yank backwards and she suddenly felt sensation again.
A subtle chill, the feeling of her suit’s pressure against her skin, the howl of the wind…and the feeling of the wire digging into her fingers as she started to haul herself up onto it. Snake was already a few feet ahead.
She felt a strange and eerie sense of deja vu.
She could make it. She had to. All she had to do was climb, right? One hand, then another. One hand then another.
She had liked sky diving a lot more than this. She felt cold.
Snake began climbing across the wire once more, with the familiar pops and crackles from the mooring echoing behind them.
Heron’s comm beeped.
“and this is transmitting only to you,“ came Red’s breathless voice,”–Heron. We saw you blip out on the radar, right after shouting. Or…or at least I heard it, and nobody else has acknowledged anything.”
“Red,” she responded breathlessly. “I…”
“You died again, didn’t you? The others don’t know…what happened down there?”
The wire creaked again in her hand.
“I fell,” she said in a low voice. “The wire snapped. I think. I didn’t even realize I had– reset– until you messaged me.”
She fell. She had died falling. The wires were intact. For now.
“I’m worried we’re going to fall again.”
A terrifying thought occurred to her. What if she just kept falling and falling with no way to fix the situation?
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WIP snippet | Snake Eater: Chronocide
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