Downwell

Oswin took a deep breath. He couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t feel the stale recycled yellow air in his lungs. The thundering steel air vents above that pushed the hazy air through the city floor reverberated through the dark cavernous alleyways. Was it day or night on the surface? Oswin peered way up into the dark ceiling and could just make out the huge steel beams that held up the city block above him. The dull dark arms branched from massive steel pylons as big as an entire city block and disappeared into the darkness above. It didn’t really matter if it was day or night down here, as all the light cycle timers had long been broken. This eternal yellowed day was all that most of the residents had ever known. Oswin gazed out from the dark alley he was crouched in and looked at the tall boxy buildings across the street.

The boxy buildings stood close to one another, their small porthole windows facing the street in anticipation, almost as if they were peering down waiting for something to look at. A spiderweb of rusty pipes with an individual opening at the base of each window encased the buildings like a cage. Oswin followed the pipes down to where they funneled in the dark alleyway across the empty street. He squinted into the darkness and found what he was looking for, a large cylindrical steel pipe as wide as the alley that jutted up from the ground. The opening was just below eye level in his crouching position, and he could hear from his hiding place the warm hollow air currents being pulled down through it. He crouched patiently in the dark trash filled alleyway and slowly poked his head out, looking left and right quickly.

The streets were empty, their yellowed streetlamps repeating endlessly into the yellow haze. Month old newspapers lifelessly laid in the street and small rodents scurried in the darkness. No patrol here tonight, he thought smugly. He bolted across the the black asphalt, a small pouch lunging at his waist as he moved.

Just as he had made it to the other side, a circular beam of light flooded down into the street. Oswin scurried quickly into the small gap between the cylindrical pipe and the square building. He peered out from around the edge and looked up. One of the portholes had opened about 4 stories up and he could hear a woman silently cursing to herself as she rummaged around. The woman appeared at the window and tossed a dark bundle down into the opening of the pipe below her window. The bag made a loud metallic thud as it hit the first curve down, and what sounded like a bag of marbles being ripped open rattled through the whole network of pipes. Suddenly, there was silence and the dark objects whizzed past Oswin at an alarming rate down through the giant steel pipe he was crouched against. The window quickly closed and the street was once again silent and illuminated only by the hazy street lights.

Oswin sighed quietly. Most of the things people dropped down to lower levels was just trash or broken objects. There was rarely anything of value, as everything trickled down through the entire structure from the top. By the time anything made it down past level “XX”, it was usually just garbage.
Oswin stood up and reached for his ArmWheel from inside his trenchcoat. The device was roughly the size of his forearm but the end unfolded into a spoked metallic ring about the size of a bicycle wheel. The metal bar that connected the wheel to the leather forearm harness glinted in the yellow light. Oswin ran his eyes over the device, checking each small metallic gear and wheel to make sure everything was in place. His eyes locked on the initials pressed into the top leather straps. “E.S.” The black letters seemed darker than the shadows he was hiding in. Oswin blinked and swallowed hard. Those two letters still hit him hard every time.

He pushed his thought aside and wound the magnetic rope around the large wheel and then through the various smaller gears and pushed the battery into place. The device hummed to life. He grasped the handle and felt the trigger with his right hand. He quickly tightened the leather straps around his wrist and forearm, the buckles pressed tight against his forearm. He gave them one last tug and gently squeezed the trigger. The device sprung to life and wheel began to spin. He peered over the edge of the pipe and gazed down into the dark abyss before quickly leaping over the edge.

Oswin enjoyed these few moments of free fall before the ArmWheel connected to the other side of the steel wall. Slowly easing into the trigger, he began to slow his decent. He stuck his feet out to catch himself against the wall and pulled harder on the trigger. The ArmWheel hummed louder as he began to feel his weight pull on the device. He wasn’t afraid to look down, in fact he rather enjoyed watching the ground come up to meet him. The faded orange lights of the city below faded into view through the dark haze.

“Home,” Oswin said to himself, “finally.”