Paphos

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Helena was not brave.  She wasn’t even outgoing.  She was a girl who protected herself, which was a perfectly natural thing in her opinion.  Staying alive was as basic as the need to eat or sleep.  She felt that her career choice as a scientist, especially in the field of analysis, was one of the safest she could choose.  Which, thinking back on her life, had ironically placed her in far more danger than if she had been an arctic miner.

When she abandoned Orlean, Athen, and Carolina it was for a very logical reason.  For starters, little Carolina shouldn’t even be on this planet and she was her father’s responsibility.  Helena wouldn’t feel bad about that, it wasn’t like she abandoned her own kid.  Orlean was trying to save Athen, but shouldn’t Dublin be the one carrying Athen?  Athen was his co-engineer and Dublin was the strongest of them anyway.  It made perfect sense that everything was wrong about that situation well before she ran, and any logical person would have done the same thing in her position.

In fact, bravery was for fools.  She was a scientist, not a fool.  She had friends, but… what was more important than survival?  Helena consoled herself, reassured herself, all while waiting in the spot where the elevator crashed.  That was the plan.  Wait there until help came back.  She sat with her knees to her chest, holding them, rocking forward and back subconsciously.  How was she ever going to get out of here?  And what would she tell the others when they returned?

“You’re a real piece of work, Helena,” she scolded herself.  It was some time before she stood, long after the computer voice and the lights, after the sounds of wreckage subsided, and especially after she couldn’t hear the monster thrashing anymore.  After seeing it she couldn’t remember exactly what she did next, except that she had gotten herself as far away as she could.

She wiped her hand on her pant leg, smearing blood.  She had cut her left hand trying to scramble up the elevator shaft because of that thing.  She didn’t get very far, realized she would die this way too, and on her way down slipped and sliced her hand on a jagged piece of metal.  She tried to keep the skin of her palm folded shut by tying a hair tie around it, but the hair tie kept coming loose.  That’s when she realized she was trapped, and that if the beast came this way it would kill her, and there was nothing she could do about it.  But it never came. 

As it turned out she sat uneventfully, hoping, wishing, waiting for someone to come and find her.  She listened, though only a few sputtering flames and the constant ambience this place had were her companions.  And no matter how she fiddled with her hand, she couldn’t get the hair tie to hold her wound shut.  Stupid thing was a gift from her cousin.  This hallway still seemed dark, even with the lights on.  Who colored things black?  There was black along the top of the walls, and brown decorative squares along the middle.  Why not soft beige or pastel colors?  As Helena waited she grew impatient, wondering what took them so long to come back for her.  Awhile after that she realized that no one was coming back for her.  If they were, they would have by now. 

Still, she waited another five minutes, just in case.

“Why am I still sitting here?” she asked, scolding herself.  She couldn’t ignore it anymore, she was on her own, which was not easy for her to admit.  Finally, she mustered the will to stand.  She started to brush her hair back, spending a minute straightening it first.  Then she smoothed out her pants and pockets, checking the fastenings on the belt.  It hurt to move her hand.  She needed to have Dmitry stitch it or put some kind of gel skin on it.  When she realized she couldn’t stall any longer, that they were still not coming, she cautiously walked down the hallway and turned the corner to the steps. 

Things were different now than they were the last time she saw them.  Smoke had created a haze, it was so dense she couldn’t see the far side of the room anymore.  It thickened as it pooled along the ceiling, until tired ventilation systems slowly channeled the air away.  She covered her mouth and nose for what it was worth, fighting the burnt stench.  Much of the platforms had broken and fallen to the floor, she wouldn’t make it across to the other side even if she wanted to.  One of the platforms dangled down at the base of her feet near the ledge, propping it much like a ladder she realized.  Helena huffed.  She didn’t want to climb down this thing, not at all.  For a moment she considered going back and curling up again until someone came for her… but she knew they weren’t coming.  She had to find them, or even better, she had to find a way back to the quadrohuts.  She could do this.  First she sat on her butt, carefully letting her feet dangle over the ledge.  She couldn’t really see a perfect angle, so she rolled to her stomach and slowly scooted herself towards the ledge, all the while probing with her feet for something to stand on.  When she couldn’t find something right away, she almost gave up and went back to her last idea; waiting for help.  “Damn it Helena, come on, you can do this,” she said, forcing herself to try again.