Page 118 of Immersed
“I don’t think we’re going to make it,” Levi gritted out as he grabbed onto a table that was bolted to the tilting floor.
Asher grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward. “We’ll make it.”
A massive tool cabinet broke free from its moorings and hurtled toward them. Asher shoved Levi aside just in time, the cabinet missing them by inches before smashing into a lathe below.
The floor kept tilting, transforming their path into a treacherous climb rather than a run. Levi’s fingers scrabbled for purchase on the smooth metal floor, finding a maintenance grate that provided a momentary handhold.
“Almost there,”Asher called back, the veins in his neck and face straining as he pulled Levi with him.“Just a little further—”
Inch by painful inch, he dragged them toward the elevator, which remained strangely level despite the room’s extreme tilt as if it operated on its own internal physics, independent of the chamber’s manipulation.
They reached the elevator just as the floor approached a full ninety-degree angle, the chamber transforming into a vertical shaft with the machinery waiting at the bottom like hungry metal mouths. Asher slammed his palm against the call button, the doors sliding open with agonizing slowness. They pulled themselves inside, collapsing onto the level floor as the doors closed behind them.
The doors sealed, and the elevator began to ascend. Levi sagged against the wall, adrenaline ebbing. “We made it,”he gasped, more to convince himself than as a statement of fact.
Asher’s silence drew his attention, his brow furrowed as he stared at the buttons inside the elevator.
“What?” Levi asked, straightening. “What’s wrong?”
“Look at the indicator.”
Levi followed his gaze and felt his stomach drop. The elevatorwasn’tascending—itwasdescending.
“Where are we going?”
“Good question.”
The elevator continued its descent, passing levels Levi hadn't even known existed. The indicator finally stopped at a designation thatwassimply a triangle.
“What do we do?”Levi asked, tension rebuilding in his muscles as he prepared for whatever might await them.
Asher turned to face him, his expression uncharacteristically serious.“Whatever happens when these doors open, stay close to me. If we get separated...,” he hesitated, something vulnerable flickering across his face, “I’ll find you again. I always do.”
The elevator shuddered to a stop, metal groaning around them as if the very structurewasunder immense strain, and the doors slid open to reveal another circular chamber dominated by enormous presses. The wallswerelinedwith industrial crushing mechanisms, all oriented toward the center of the room where a small platform stood isolated like a sacrificial altar.
Theyhadnowhere to go except forward. The elevator doors closed behind them as soon as they stepped out, sealing their only obvious escape route. The platform in the center seemed to be the only safe space—for the moment.
“Therehasto be a way out,”Levi insisted, scanning the chamber desperately. “Another maintenance passage, a ventilation shaft, something.”
He spotted what might have been an access panel near the ceiling, possibly large enough for a person to crawl through. “There. If we can reach that panel—”
A deafening klaxon cut him off, followed by the sound of massive hydraulics engaging. The floor beneath them lurched, beginning to tilt toward one of the wall-mounted crushing mechanisms.
“This shit again?”Asher groaned, grabbing Levi’s arm as they made their way towards the platform.
The tilt increased rapidly. Levi and Asher struggled to maintain their footing, bracing against the growing incline. The metal grating they stood on began to separate into segments, breaking apart to eliminate any stable ground.
Levi spotted a control lever on one of the still-level platform segments and lunged for it, hoping it might stop the room’s movement. The lever resisted his pull, seemingly locked in position.
“Help me!”he shouted to Asher, who added his strength to Levi’s.
Together, they managed to move the lever a few inches before it snapped off in their hands.
“The walls are closing in,”Levi said, unable to keep the tremor from his voice.
Levi and Asher retreated to what little flat surface remained at the center of the room, backs pressed together as they surveyed the approaching threat from all sides. Therewasno weakness in the advance, no gap to exploit or mechanism to disable.
“The access panel,”Levi gasped, pointing to the ceiling again.“If you boost me up, I might be able to reach it.”
