* ???????????* ???????* ???????* ???????* ????????* ?????????* ????*
My alarm goes off at 11 AM. I roll over. I hear myself saying that I'll get up later and to save some toast for me. "Get up Anne!" I blink slowly opening my eyes. "Mom?" "ANNE!" That doesn't sound an awful lot like mom. A figure blurs over me and then becomes less foggy. I scream. "Jonathon! What are you doing in my house...where the heck am I?" Then it all clicks into place. My partner blinks but doesn't say anything. "Sorry...never mind." I whisper pulling out my cellphone. He hands me my toothbrush first and then I just meekly tell him, "I just want to call my mom a good morning." Jonathon looks doubtful. "I doubt they have cell service on the Lithosphere." After I am done I smile at Jonathon. "Wow three bars when we are actually inside the Earth." Jonathon shakes his head. "You won't be able to reach them later. Better text all your friends a good bye for now." I do just that even though I hate doing what he tells me to do.
We are hiking along and my legs are so tired I think I am about to fall over. "Can we stop?" I plead. The Forgotten island did a good job in picking a merciless unsympathetic partner for me. He doesn't even look at me. Finally to prove I am not going any farther until we take a break I flop down onto a rock and fold my arms. I think Jonathon can tell that there are no longer foot steps walking behind his. He turns around and glares at me. "Five minutes." I just shrug and rest my aching bones. We have walked a long way and still have not found a way down this crust. "We were just lucky yesterday. It could take months to find a way down this one." I take a sip of water out of a canteen. "Isn't this supposed to be the easiest crust to get through? You know...because of the broken parts?" Jonathon frowns. "You seen any holes we can get into?" He sits down and grabs his own canteen. (I wonder if the word water bottles is in these peoples vocabulary?) Taking a sip he looks at me waiting for an answer. "Well no but what about that little fancy green disk you had?" "Gotta charge...can't use it after we used so much energy to dig ourselves out of there." Jonathon reasons. I am forced to agree. ?We walk about a million more miles before we start to hear rocks. We can tell something is moving and yet it never hits any ground. "Hole!" Jonathon and I say together. We dash ahead forgetting our cramps and sore legs. There in front of us are rocks knocking against each other a little and falling off into a small hole as big as a cowboys wide brimmed hat. Jonathon covered his disappointment well. His face showed no signs of disbelief but the way he kept tugging at his ear lobe totally betrayed it. I was about to ask why the rocks were falling when they stopped moving. I began to speak in question marks instead. Jonathon sighed as if he were trying to ask why he had to explain everything to me. "Seismic waves, I told you we would come across some of them." I nod as if yeah I knew that all along. ?As Jonathon is lowering his feet into the cowboy hole I stop him.
"Wait!" He looks up. "What happens when we get to the Asthenosphere....do we drown?" I can tell he has no idea what I'm babbling about. His face is totally blank. "It's a sold liquid....like a solid under pressure." I recite trying to get my companion to think about it.
"Okay?"
"Um....it has like a river in it...it flows just like a liquid. Does that help?"
Jonathon nods. "Okay...so we need like diving suits or something?" Thumbs up, your finally getting it. Our stuff materializes and we root for something like a diving suit in our packs. Jonathon dug out some hose-computer thing. I almost guffawed right in his face. "What is that?" I could barely manage to get the words out. Jonathon doesn't look up as he cuts off the hose from the computer. "Like a vacuum....I kind of forgot. We were supposed to take back anything interesting for the scientists. It sends the object through waves into their lab." I shrug. "Okay." Just to please the scientists I grab a handful of rocks and dump it down the machine's hole.
In about an hour we have make shift diving suits made. Wrapped in plastic layers I feel like Earth's layers. On our heads we were champions of the fishbowls. (I really have no idea why Jonathon brought his fish along. I forced him to dump them out though.) And so we still have H2O (water) the hoses Jonathon cut from the computer are going to supply us from up here in the Lithosphere. "Anne what is this anyway? It isn't a hole...it gets narrower on the way down..." Jonathon calls to me. His head is already out of view. I think about it as I wait for my turn. "Probably a plume. I read about those." Is my response.
I probably wait a good twenty minutes before I hear a faint like really faint voice call up, "Okay!" I scramble down trying not to crack my fishbowl. I'm not sure the hoses will go this far....but okay Jonathon you better know what your trying to make me do. In a little while my wrapped-in-plastic-sneakers strike water. Jonathon grabs my legs and basically tosses me into the water. I'm to intent on this layer to yell at him. The ground beneath me is squishy and soft. I press my hand against the wall and it feels weak. "What else do you know while we are stuck here?" Jonathon observes. "This is more dense then the last layer." I reply doing my best to stay helpful.
All this rushing water makes me want to 'go'. I tell this to Jonathon and he rolls his eyes and points far away. I wade over and try to figure out how to undo my suit. I guess we didn't think about that. Jonathon is eating on a dry shelf...the only 'dry' shelf there really is. I guess I won't ask him. I tear into the plastic and when I am finished I glare at the plastic as if it will simply melt back together. Finally I am forced to accept that was a huge mistake. I'm going to die. I reason calmly. How lovely, all because I needed to go to the bathroom! I hold the plastic together but the liquid is still seeping in, little by little. When I reach Jonathon again I announce that we have a problem. He stops munching on Soy Crackers (no idea what that is either) and stares at my situation. "Tape?" I shake my head. "Staples!" He snaps his fingers and holds out a stapler from my pack as if it were a trophy. I snatch it from him and staple it thoroughly. Water is still coming in like a drop at a time though. "Let's get out of here." I mumble. Jonathon just casts his eyes downward. "Actually we might have to use the Escapee Version 2.0. I couldn't find a hole or anything out of here." "The Escapade what?" I ask. "Escapee 2.0. It will let you go through one layer...as an escape route. There is no way out of this one. But we can only use it once." I nod. "So why didn't you give it to me when my legs almost gave out?!" Jonathon is already booting up the square box with all the lights on it. "Because," He says easily. "We need it now." I sit there furious and annoyed until he tells me to put my hand on the box.
"No."
"Fine I'll leave you."
"Fine I'm coming."
I am so mad at him I can barely look at him let alone speak! When I open my eyes we are not surrounded entirely by water. "Lower Mantle." I whisper. Jonathon allows me take my hand away and massage it. We are still in water but it is slowly flowing...almost as if by a violin's harmony. ?Jonathon finds another dry shelf and as do I. I check my watch and realize it has been two days. No wonder I have been so tired. I fall asleep almost immediately.
When Jonathon shakes me awake I tell him to go away and leave my life alone. "Anne?" Is his bewildered reply. "Go away." I turn over to prove I am not getting up. He sighs and walks off somewhere. After a few minutes I take a peek through my fingers to see what he is doing. Good he is eating breakfast. I turn back over and sleep some more. I mean really traveling into the Earth isn't really an easy job...
"Okay Anne, I let you sleep the whole day. Let's move!" Jonathon prods me in the side. "Wow you must be bored." I yawn and stretch. "Besides it felt like you only gave me like three seconds to sleep." Jonathon pushes some fish bones onto my lap on a napkin. "Eat." He says. "What is this?" My nose wrinkles. "Fish." Jonathon's tone suggests a duh. I shrug and stare at my measly portion. "What a way to treat your guest," I say under my breath and eat the bones which crack between my teeth. We brush our teeth and spit into the stream and keep moving. Only five minutes later Jonathon leaves to go to the restroom. I sit and wait kicking up the liquid around me making splashes. I'm so delighted in it I don't notice when Jonathon comes back and
I kick him in the face. "Sorry." I look down. His face is red. With anger or from a bruise I can't tell which one but I keep moving splashing just in case he wants to yell at me.
By the end of the day we still have not reached the Outer Core. "Waste of time." I gesture. There is the same shelf I slept on. I run up and grab my wool blanket. "You left it when you said you had it." I accused Jonathon who is staring at his compass. "I don't think that is going to work down here...all the gravity difference." I inform my partner. "I know that now." He hisses back and tosses the compass into the river. I settle back down on my make shift bed and tell him goodnight and also I won't need any dinner tonight. I really just want to fall asleep again. I quick nap...like five minutes. Then we can find a way out of here.
I wake up before Jonathon and check my watch. Thursday and 8 AM. I whisk off his blanket and hold it high until he has to get up and take it from me. "Nice tactic." He compliments me for the first time. I keep on checking my watch. "It's been two weeks!" I exclaim. "Somewhere we didn't keep track of time...." Jonathon is pulling out his blue orb again. "Well probably when we were being chased by that monster on the Oceanic Crust. Two days probably passed there." I get a little thrill. "We are like...nocturnal!" Jonathon just rolls his eyes. "It basically is dark wherever we go but sure why not."
We eat some food and drink some water before starting out again. And once again we travel the mazes of twists and turns. Jonathon slips and splashes down face first. I giggle and pull him up. I look around for the blue orb which has slipped out of his pocket. I grab it when I see it floating in the liquid and accidentally press a red button. "No! That button is unpredictable!" Jonathon screams and tries to grab it from me. Too late I realize when the floor shakes beneath us and it dries up where we are standing. The orb vibrates and drops to the floor. A long winding staircase opens and the liquid is kept at bay from going down. "Well then." I smile. "That was easy." Jonathon is looking at the staircase in pure sweat. He grabs the orb from me and stiffs it safely back into his pocket. We climb down the stairs while ripping our plastic suits off. It's so warm down here the plastic melts immediately when we discard them. Jonathon brings out his green disk and presses the glowing green button on it. I can't help but think Judy Jetson as a boy....A forced field of wind is enveloped around us and I squeal. This is so cool! I can tell we are being kept from burning to death. Heat wins on this one. this is the outer core. Everything I see is made of iron and I feel like we are spinning. The magnetic field. Jonathon is in awe as well as me. It doesn't take long to travel through here. We run through it in no time sweat.
I fall and slip and Jonathon slips as well .We fall down a slide and reach the inner core in 5 minutes. It is extremely hot down here but our force field is protecting us. The pressure is still winning as in the last layer and I pound on the iron so we can get out. A hole opens up in front of us and a gleaming device awaits in front of us. Jonathon stares at it and as do I. We join hands and press the green button which I assume means 'start'. "Don't you think we should think about this first?" Jonathon calls to me. I don't listen. The machine whirs to life and a floating message appears over our heads. A little robotic voice squeaks out, "WELCOME. YOU GET ONE CHANCE FOR EITHER OF THESE CHOICES. ONCE YOU CHOSE IT THE OTHER IS GONE FOREVER." I nod okay. Jonathon is still gaping. "Alien device." Is all he can whisper out. "IMMORALITY," The machine begins. "OR BACK TO THE SURFACE." Jonathon doesn't even hesitate. "Immor-" he starts hastily. I cut in. "Surface please. Forgotten island." Jonathon shoots me a look. "Anne we would be heros!" "Yeah," I snort. "Who rot down here. Didn;t you hear the alien device? It said take this one or this one but you can't have both!" He looks at the floor. A flash of light and then we are standing in front of Missing Cave. Did I do okay Grandfather?
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