“Wormwood, this is the new worker I told you about in the memo. Do you have any questions?” Miggly asked, obviously not at all comfortable in such a warm and humid room while dressed in his rather formal brown men’s suit, white cotton shirt, and matching brown silk tie. He stared off past his subordinate’s shoulder, not even pretending to make eye contact.
Eve wondered where he had gotten such expensive clothing as no one had cotton or silk anymore. She pondered if he had taken them illegally from one of the bunkers deep down under…like one of the bunkers Dirk would be searching for. Stanley Wormwood looked at Eve with his one good eye and winked. She thought he looked concerned but it was hard to tell with all those designs on his face, and his only having the one functional eye. She wondered what accident had cause the loss of his eye. Then she became concerned for her own safety. Stanley answered his boss’s question in a yell because the noise in the room was startling.
“No, Sir…no questions, Sir; the memo was sufficient,” was all Wormwood said to Miggly, who nodded, turned, and reentered the lift after he had once again punched in his code. Eve heard him yell Level 10, and the lift took off with Miggly inside. She stood watching until the lift door closed, then turned to face her new boss.
“Well I don’t know about you, but I’m sure glad he’s gone. I can’t say as I like that fat slob. So you’re Eve Overhearder? I’ve been expecting your arrival for several days now. Though I got to say, you’re taller than I expected. Still, I think you’ll do fine for us, being skinny and all. You’ll fit just fine. Follow me, young lady,” he said, walking off.
The room was filled with belching and terribly noisy, enormous steam engines. Eve was amazed at their size, noise, and complexity. Each was the size of a small house, made of rusty metal covered in green scum, oil, and steam, and each had a large, wobbly rubber belt that moved in various directions, producing alternating blasting and hissing sounds. Every so often one would belch out steam from a pipe on the top, in a huge puff of steamy smoke. But the event did not occur with any regularity so she’d have to learn not to jump each time it happened. The steam engines looked somewhat like the picture in Dirk’s book, only much more complex, and much bigger. Eve wondered if she could ever learn to fix something so complex.
“I guess you’ve never seen one of the engines,” Stanley Wormwood started. “Well, this one here we call ol’ Elsie. She’s the oldest, maybe four-hundred years old, so she’s rusty and needs repairing all the time. She’s kinda temperamental. That one over there is Maryjane, named after her cousin on the back wall, also Maryjane, but we call her Older Maryjane.
“Is this all of them, Sir?” Eve asked, looking wide-eyed at the huge engines. She’d thought there would be many more considering the power needs of her city .“Yes, the three steam engines supply the entire of power for the city…the lights, what’s left of them, the water pumps, recycle center, air makers, and even some of the stuff over in the plant greenhouses,” Stanley Wormwood explained, yelling at the top of his lungs because of the nonstop noise from the engines.
“They sound wrong, Mr. Wormwood. I mean they sound angry or something,” Eve yelled back. “Yes, well, that would be the sound of metal grinding against metal. And you are right; they be in vast need of repair so are angry, as you put it. But we be out of replacements, of course,” Wormwood explained apologetically. He went on.
“Now that little one over there be Ben. He’s the baby of the lot, but the newest and best repaired. He supplies the powers for The Committee buildings. We can’t have our precious committee going about doing whatever they do by candle light, now can we?” Stanley finished, again with a question. He walked with a decided limp over to the back wall, pointing with a knobby and gnarled huge index finger. Eve was about to ask if they all spoke in questions when she noticed he was pointing to a hole in the wall. She looked to where he was pointing and it dawned on her…this was the pipe Blakeley and Miggly had referred to when she’d overheard them talking two night ago. She was the thin, new worker. She was supposed to crawl through the pipe!
Eve glanced at her reflection in the shiny surface of Ben, the baby steam engine. She thought her uniform looked smart, but that it didn’t add much to her rather common looks. She never had the false notion that she was pretty. But today, well, she thought she was at least presentable…like a real worker. She frowned and brushed several strand of her curly auburn hair from her face.
She noted Stanley Wormwood also wore red overalls, but that his were a little different. While his were made of wool, Eve’s uniform was made of some shiny material, and while hers were bright red and clean, his were decidedly faded, grimy, and worn. She knew that once she started her pipe crawl her beautiful and pristine red overalls would become grimy. Stanley noticed her staring at her reflection.
“It’s nylon, Miss Overhearder,” Stanley yelled. “We made your uniform so you could slide through the pipe easier. Oh I know…nylon don’t exist anymore, and blah, blah, blah. But you’ll find we got us all sorts of nonexistent stuff down here in Steam. See we gotta keep things working, so The Committee got us a secret place with all sorts of stuff they don’t tell the regular citizens about,” Stanley explained. “And when they get stingy, we sort of regulate the power for them, if you know what I mean.”
Eve nodded. She thought of the supply bunker Miggly and Blakeley had talked about, and she wondered if that was the kind of lower level supply assessor work Dirk would be doing. Then she noted Stanley was standing near the hole, as patiently as he could with an expectant look on his artistic face. Eve looked at the pipe, and then at Stanley.
“You want me to crawl through there, don’t you, Sir?” she said, finally asking the obvious question. “You’re a smart girl. Yes, and now, please. Mr. Miggly is in a frightful hurry to find out what’s at the other end of this ol’ pipe, and I’d like to get him off my back,” Wormwood said. He tried to look like a superintendent, but Eve could tell he was concerned for her safety.
“Go on now, and do be careful,” he said thirty minutes later, after he’d given her the necessary equipment and instructions. Then Eve was off on her first job duty, sliding through a pipe to who knew where. “Don’t be afraid, and be careful,” she heard her boss say, as she was about three feet into the pipe. But she was not afraid of some stupid old pipe; Eve knew it was much less dangerous than climbing on rusty rails at twelve stories up.
Eve glanced at her reflection again, this time from the shiny and clean inside of the pipe. She giggled at her long auburn braid flying behind her, sticking to the walls of the pipe…static electricity…Dirk had called it. Behind, her long legs and stocking feet edged the way along the pipe. She had removed her rubber boots to facilitate her getting into the pipe, but had them tied to her belt. Eve was happy; she knew she was going to find something wonderful, and already loved her new job.
She could hear the voice of Stanley Wormwood encouraging her along…until she took a right turn in the pipe and the sounds of the steam room and Stanley Wormwood were muffled by yards of metal pipes and the earth around her. It was blissfully quiet. Eve began to hum a summer season song. As soon as Eve took the next turn it also got darker, so she reached up and turned the light on in her helmet. Stanley had shown her how to do that before she’d entered the pipe. She also had a neat communication device attached to her belt. If she pushed the yellow button she could hear him speaking to her. And if she pushed the green button she could talk to Stanley Wormwood, who she now knew was standing in front of the entrance to the pipe…he and four other fellow steam engine workers.
They were too big to enter the pipe, but said they hoped Eve could find some device to open the latch separating them from the room she was now crawling toward. They told her that as they wished her luck when she’d climbed inside. Stanley also told Eve he had discovered the latched door two weeks prior, while cleaning underneath ol’ Elsie. He said no one ever did that because it was so dangerous what with her unstable condition and huge size and w
eight. But Stanley figured something was loose underneath and that was why ol’ Elsie was making such an awful racket.
He’d found and tightened several loose screws, but then he saw the door latch. It would not open, but Rose, another worker had also discovered the pipe opening behind a bookcase over in the other room. So they guessed, or rather hoped, one thing would lead to another, and that their skinny, little newest worker could shimmy down through the pipe and find some way to unlatch the door for them.
“Who knows, maybe there be some steam engine replacements on the other side?” Stanley had explained all this to Eve as he attached her toolkit and communication device to her utility belt. So now Eve knew Stanley Wormwood had told Miggly, who told the Assignment Committee, one of whom was the individual that had spied Dirk and Eve up on the tall derelict building staring at the black holes in the now-breaking-down dome wall. When neither she nor Dirk reported it, the decision had been made to assign each to a new position, assuming they could be trusted to remain quiet about what they found.
Eve pieced all this together from what Stanley had told her, and from that overheard conversation out in the decay zone. She was to open the room beneath ol’ Elsie, and Dirk would search for other tunnels leading to new storage bunkers. Now she at least understood that part of Miggly’s conversation with Blakeley. But she had not decided if she should inform Stanley that the boss intended to keep any findings for him and his committee friends.
Eve continued crawling through the metal pipe, rethinking her findings out in the decay zone. After another minute, she reached to her belt and pushed the green button to com Stanley. “It’s getting darker here, Sir. I can continue, but can you tell me how long this light thing on my helmet will last?” she asked, trying to hide the tremor in her voice. She did not want to appear afraid on her first day of work. Eve released the green button and pushed the yellow one. But nothing happened.
“Maybe the turn is blocking the sound thing,” she mumbled to herself. But when she touched the sides of the pipe she could hear Stanley talking to her, though his voice was scratchy, and some weird other sounds, like running water, came through the device. “Keep going…got to…better on the other side…” was all that came through. She answered, yes, sir, hoping he’d heard her. Then she continued her slow crawl through the pipe, hoping it led to someplace…and not just to a sewer. She could smell something awful up ahead, and then her light began to dim. Stanley Wormwood had warned her that the communication device took a lot of battery power and to save it for her light, so she shut the device off and continued her crawl in silence and darkness. And back in the steam engine room, Stanley Wormwood and his fellow workers waited.
Chapter Five
Replacements…well, sort of
Eve reached out both her hands, pulling herself along the shiny inside of the pipe, but it was hard for her to gain much leverage. She could have turned left at the last turn. But that way was darker and the piped appeared to get even smaller. So she went right, and after a short time, she could see light straight ahead. But that way, there was also that awful smell and a whirring buzz, like a smoother version of a steam engine. And ahead, she could feel the air cooling, and the humidity had dropped sharply.
The pipe did not end in a clear opening. It was covered over by a metal grate latched down with screws. Wormwood had given Eve a small tool kit in case she needed it…plus a very rapid lesson in how to use each tiny tool inside her kit. It was also attached to her belt. She later learned all Steam workers carried such a kit in case they came across something in need of a quick minor repair.
“Very useful,” she whispered to herself, as she removed her screw driver. Eve thought it was safer to whisper. “What if those things Blakeley spoke of are here?” she thought, as she unscrewed each bolt as quietly as she could. “No, this is not even close to the Boardroom Building. It’s got to be a storage place…that’s all,” she whispered, trying to convince herself that it was safe. She finished the last screw, but was unable to grab onto the metal grate before it fell to the floor, making a loud clanging noise. It landed near what she thought was a table or long bench. It was hard to tell from her angle. But strangely, it did not make too loud a sound; it appeared to bounce slightly.
“Maybe the floor is made of rubber like my boots. Now that would be fortunate,” she mumbled. Then she clamped her hand over her mouth and waited to see if anyone, or thing, had heard her speak. She waited in silence inside the pipe. Finally, after several minutes, Eve gulped, drew in her breath, and said in a loud voice, “Is anyone there?” Fortunately no one or thing answered her. But she waited for another full minute just to be sure, and then she slid from the pipe head first, falling to the floor in a heap. She was right; the floor was rubber and was soft, but not that soft. She stood up, rubbing her head, and glanced around in all directions, hoping one of those scary things had not heard her yelp when she’d fallen onto the floor and bumped her head.
“Maybe the things are only in the Boardroom Building,” she whispered. Eve then noticed the lights for the first time. It was very bright inside this huge room, the air was dry, cool, and the smell was terrible…like spoiled food. “Oh no…what if this is a food storage bunker and it’s all gone bad. What a waste,” she spoke aloud this time, now sure the room was empty of people and other scary things. Eve reached down to her belt and pushed the button, speaking directly into her communication device.
“Mr. Wormwood, Sir, I’ve arrived on the other side. Can you hear me, Sir?” Eve pressed the incoming button and Stanley’s scratchy and barely audible voice replied that, yes, he could hear her, but she was not coming in clear, and did she see a way to open a door or latch so they could all get inside the room.
“I’ll look around for it, Sir. What does it look like?” she asked, and Stanley told her it was a grate, a button to open a latch, or better yet, an actual door. Eve spent the next fifteen minutes examining the entire huge room, all around the walls, ceiling, and floor, but she saw nothing unusual or even hopeful. She was about to give up when she noticed a whiff of better-smelling air coming from behind a shelf of boxes. She had not even opened any of the boxes yet; first wanting to let the others on her work team inside.
Because she definitely did not want to have to crawl back through the pipe to tell them she had failed on her first day of work…or that all the food was rotten. Plus, she knew only a very thin person could even get through the pipe, and that any boxes of still-good food could not get through such a small space. She had to find a door for her work team. Stanley spoke on her device to ask how she was coming along. She could tell he’d been worried at her long silence, probably thinking she’d gotten hurt by some mechanical inside the room.
●
“How are you coming along, Miss Overhearder? Have you made any progress? How’s the light situation on your helmet? You best be coming back soon or the battery will be out and you’ll be crawling through that pipe in the dark,” Stanley said, glancing around at the other workers. He saw that Hugh Endley, the Chief Steambelt Repairman, was standing off in a corner eating a goat cheese sandwich and drinking mint tea from a hide-skin water canteen. Hugh had joined them right after he’d heard the new worker had started her crawl through the pipe. They all hoped she’d find a bunker full of new engine belts and steam engine parts, because the machines they had were about to rip apart.
Stanley noticed Rose Smelter had arrived; she was another belt repair worker, and was biting her nails, and silently praying to her gods. She was one of the believers who stood in the square each night to pray to the void gods outside the dome. She and the others would stand in a circle, holding hands and singing a cheerful song. Stanley thought that, these days, there were more and more believers now that things had become so scarce. When he passed by after work, he could hear them asking questions like, “Do you believe we come back after we are recycled?” or, “Do you think someone is watching over us?”
“What’s taking her so long? You thi
nk she got herself hurt. Maybe the pipe is the only way inside, Stanley,” Rose finally spoke to Stanley Wormwood, running a calloused hand through her short black hair. She then continued, biting her last nail down to the quick, “Maybe she’ll have to crawl back out through the pipe.”
“No, that would be useless. Why have a room sealed off with no access except a pipe. No, that latched door is the entry…I know it is. It just will not open from this side,” Stanley replied, looking a bit worried. He hoped the latched door was the way in, and if it indeed was, they would have to move ol’ Elsie off the door to get to the supplies inside. And moving megaton Elsie would be no small matter.
“Well, if she found anything she would have told us by now,” Rose replied. And Hugh and the others nodded in agreement. Just then, Eve spoke to Stanley using the com device, “I found the door. It was behind a shelf of boxes. They were heavy so it took me a while to move them away. And you don’t need to worry about light; it’s bright light in here. They got electrics in this room. I am staring at a door, but it won’t open. There’s no door knob,” she spoke as loud as she could into the device; she told Stanley she was holding her nose because the smell had not gotten any better. Plus, she said when she moved the shelf it fell over and hit her in the face, right under her left eye.
Stanley Wormwood could barely understand her. It took several minutes before they had all agreed on what she had said. “She said there is a door and some boxes.” “No, she said there’s a box but no knob,” Hugh spoke, scratching his head. “Why would she care if a box had a knob on it?” Rose asked, huffing at Hugh in exasperation. “I am always amazed at how awful you men are at communication. She said she found a door behind some boxes but the door has no knob, you cabbage-brains!” Rose exclaimed. “Well then, I’ll tell her to give it a shove. Maybe it’s just the shoving kind of door,” Stanley answered. He grabbed Hugh’s water canteen and took a long drink of tea, then pushed his com button to answer Eve.
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