Michael Siemsen - Exigency

She followed up with a winky face emoji. The only emoji Minerva had ever sent him in the past decade was that of sarcastic slow-clapping hands. He’d long since forgotten what it had been for, but he still remembered those hands, and he remembered the sour mug on Minerva’s face when he’d looked at her to inquire. She’d been seriously pissed. While surprised and perplexed by her current friendly nature, he didn’t want to do or say anything that would cause it to stop, if at all possible. And knowing himself (and her), it’d only take a single M.

One of her hands moved to the grip on his chest and she began to swim upward, dragging him behind her to the blinding light above.

JOHN: How are you going to lift my weight? I don’t think I can contribute much.

MINNIE: The skimmer.

Both of their helmets breeched the surface, water sheeting down their visors as fog formed at the edges. Minerva reached back and produced the soggy end of their rope.

He’d tried to get out before, but failed. His arms had been too weak. Much stronger then than now, but he just couldn’t heft himself up.

JOHN: You found the EV.

He watched her face change an instant later when she received the M. She frowned and shook her head.

MINNIE: We apparently have a lot of catching up to do. For now, know that I found EV5 but no Ish, we have comms but no messages, we have an op skimmer, and that we almost died. Several times.

JOHN: I look forward to elaboration. What happens after you lift me out of here?

She began tying gear bags to his waist, followed by the end of the rope around the grip in his chest.

MINNIE: Moving to a safer spot. Mt. Duck Rock. Where Ish was, and might return to if she isn’t already a lump of Hynka feces. I’m not sure which one I’d prefer.

John resisted the urge to scold her for such talk. For the time being. He watched as she tested the strength of her knot. The suit tightened around his shoulders and torso, pinching into his right side, and slapping the area with searing pain. His eyes instantly teared up.

Minerva must have seen him wince and flinch.

MINNIE: I’m so sorry!

MINNIE: You OK?

JOHN: Yeah, just surprised by some sensitivity here.

He pointed to his ribcage.

MINNIE: Yeah, that’s where the worst wound is.

She glanced up toward the light, considering, then faced him once more, stricken.

MINNIE: I don’t know how else I can get you out of here. It’s seriously going to hurt.

JOHN: It’s fine, really. Let’s do it.

He forced a confident smile.

MINNIE: I don’t know. What if you go into shock?

JOHN: Ready when you are.

He saw the rise and fall of a big sigh and she gave him a concerned mother look before turning and grabbing the rope. She climbed it with impressive ease. Their exercise regimen must have worked out nicely. How long had it been since that failed attempt to get out? He glanced at the clock and date in the upper right corner of his fone.

What the hell? Two weeks?

Minerva’s feet disappeared over the top of the sinkhole, her helmeted face reappearing in its place. She flashed an inquiring thumbs up.

MINNIE: Everything still securely attached to you? That’s nearly all of our gear.

He looked down, saw the bags floating gently at his sides. The suit pressed at his neck. More agony.

JOHN: I think we’re good.

She disappeared again and a moment later he watched his side of the rope slacken and drop, gathering around him. The bottom of a skimmer appeared overhead, about 20m above the top of the sinkhole. The other end of the rope was fastened to an anchor loop and slowly rising, straightening into a perfect bar. He stiffened his body just before the first yank.

He rose a full meter in a second, the wound at his side feeling as though someone ripped a massive piece of duct tape from it. Dangling gear weighed him down and knocked about his legs. Something very bad had happened to his left calf. Still in the water, his boots stirred a circle.

Another upward jolt as Minerva found the proper throttling for a full cargo load, and then everything smoothed out, the vined walls of the sinkhole falling around him.

MINNIE: You OK? I can’t see you.

JOHN: Fine, let’s finish this.

MINNIE: Meaning set you down? I can set you down, have you lay on the platform, or I can carry you like this to the new spot. It’s a 2-minute ride.

JOHN: Just go please.

He was sure he came off terse and snappish, but the pain was unbelievable. She’d make him pay later, but for now he could think of little else but escaping this pulling, stretching, tearing. At any second his flesh would rip free and drop with the gear to the ground, his skinless body somehow remaining bound to the rope.

MINNIE: I’m so sorry! Going now. Just keep taking deep breaths.

A whole new Minerva.

John’s body dangled from the chest loop and oscillated as they flew above the forest. To redirect his screaming mind, John tried to imagine how this would look to an observer on the ground. He’d probably appear dead. How high up was he? He didn’t want to know. Some other distraction. A song? He couldn’t summon a single tune.

His eyes remained shut tight for most of the way, intermittent peeks revealing only a purple mountain, growing larger with each glimpse.

It felt much longer than 2 minutes, but he was measuring by pain time , an abstract measurement existing outside normal space-time. No, his clock confirmed more than 5 minutes had passed. Probably a 2-minute ride without a spec-defying load.

When his feet finally touched something, his legs followed, folding beneath him, his body spreading out on a crunchy, semi-soft surface until all of his weight rested on his enflamed side. It was as though he’d been lowered into a brim-filled bathtub of agony, and time ceased to exist at all.

Minnie liked this new cave. Its wide-open nature brought obvious security concerns, and the distance from a water supply was rather inconvenient, but the abundance of life-sustaining air, lack of determined parasites, the ability to come and go without negotiating an obstacle course, and not-to-be-discounted killer view made up for it all. They’d moved into the Hynka Country equivalent of a penthouse apartment, and if Ish had been correct about Mount Duck Rock’s sacred nature, Minnie and John wouldn’t have to worry too much about security. Surely this had been Ish’s thinking when she selected this site. Her EV had landed precisely where she intended.

Minnie sat leaning against the smooth stone wall at the cave’s entrance, watching the sun set on another Epsy day. Far to the north, the towering front of a major storm loomed beyond the mountain valley. According to historical weather patterns, the cell would gain significant strength when it reached the mountains. The new cave was in no danger, but floods were likely in the basins below. Their old sinkhole would surely overflow.

“Hey,” John’s voice from the darkness. He’d been unconscious for several hours. She’d given him a couple rounds of pain meds.

Minnie smiled and walked inside, grabbing a heater and flipping it on. Orange light slowly brightened the cave. “Welcome to our new abode.” She reached the bend and sat down beside him, curling her feet under her legs. She rested a hand on his survival bag. “How’s your pain? Best to wait another hour before another dose, but if you’re in agony—”