Recording (a youtuber fanfiction)

Chapter twenty-five

We all stared at him like he was crazy. Jumping? From this height?

"While I appreciate great ideas, Max, that's just stupid." Wengie said. "How would we possibly get down there without breaking at least thirteen bones at once?"

"Hang on, lady. He may be on to something." Red said. I honestly would have laughed at how he called her 'lady' if we weren't in deathly trouble right now. Red pointed to the wires below us, where we could jump from a crack just big enough for us to slide through. "Look." He said. "If we could break off one side of at least one of those wires, I think it would be long enough to slide down without hurting ourselves. You know, like those poles you'll sometimes see at playgrounds, where you grip on with your arms and legs and just slide down. That mixed with Tarzan, or something, because we'll have to take a jumping start."

"Um, one problem." Mike pointed out. "Who's going first?"

Of course, everyone turned to me once again.

Red and Think hold me by my arms as they lower me closer towards the wires. The lower I go, the slimmer the crack gets. Eventually, I'm just holding on to their hands, as it's too tight for them to get any lower after me. I know that they're going to let go, and then I'm going to have to grab onto one of these massive wires. I brace myself...

And then I'm freely falling towards the tangle of wires.

When we came up with this idea, I don't think we thought about how slippery these wires were. Despite them being in practically a spider web, my fingers, as well as my body, are just slipping through the tangle. I begin to get desperate as I sink into the mess of wires, feeling like it's a trap, like I'm a bug caught in a spider's web. My hands begin to scratch up from brushing against gigantic, uncovered, sharp metal wires. I close my eyes and prepare for death, by either suffocation or the impact with the ground.

But then, my hand brushes against an old, dry, crusty bit of plastic, or whatever the stuff they cover wires with is. I frantically move closer to that wire, wrapping my legs around it and clutching the fringing plastic until my knuckles turned white.

I unwound one of my legs from around the wire and kicked at the loose end of the wire, where the plastic was gone and only about a gazillion wires were intertwined with each other. With each kick, another ten or so wires snapped. One final kick, and the final few wires snapped, sending me careening towards the ground, swinging on this monsterously thick wire like Tarzan on a vine. I knew I was screaming, but the wind whipping past my ears was so loud, I couldn't even take note of anything that was happening around me.

The wire swung forwards and backwards a few times before coming to a halt. I still clung on to it for dear life, even though all I had to do was slide down a few inches to make it safely to the bottom.

Finally, I allowed myself to look down, and unwound my legs from the wire, sliding down and sitting on the floor, my legs feeling like jelly, not strong enough to even stand.

"Sierra!!!" It was distant, but clear. Think.

"Sierra!!!" Another voice. Brizzy.

"Please, Sierra!!! Answer us!!!! Tell us you're okay!!!!" Cupquake.

"I...." I'm still in so much shock that the room's still spinning. "I'm fine." I call up. "Dizzy and not feeling up to doing anything, but fine." I look up. "Whoever wants to, come on down. I'll move."

About thirty seconds, maybe, passed before Red came careening down on another wire, a light blue one, splintering at the end.

He looked terrified, scratches all over his hands and upper arms, his usually slick-back hair all over the place, his eyes wide,  dried, crumbly blood all over the back of his neck where his needle was yanked out, and his t-shirt and pants lined with rips. He looked like he had come straight out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

With each person that came down after that was about in 30-45 second intervals, with them coming in the order of Lauren, Cupquake, Kopi, Remus, Laika, (they went together via a tiny cloth swing thing that the Youtubers constructed), Brizzy, Mike's wife, Alex, Wengie, Max, Think, and Mike.

By now, we only had about fifteen seconds to escape, so we ran as fast as we possibly could towards the tunnel, racing through the murky waters without flashlights, until we heard the dreaded words:

"3...2...1...0."

Then, fire at least as fast as a jackrabbit chased us until we were caught in the flames.

I could have sworn I heard Lauren yell something at us before we were yanked into a pool of water.