The Rubbish Realm

Chapter 7

Chapter 7
This was the wildest day of Brad Johnson’s whole entire life. As a journalist for the New York Times, he typically enjoyed it when big events happened, this time it was a bit too big even for him. The Earth itself was falling apart.
How does one even begin to write about a tragedy bigger than any that’s ever happened before? How does one even begin to try and comfort the thousands of families who lost at least somebody they loved? And how does one even start to explain how they found another world in the hole that that tragedy caused?
Being a journalist is hard, he thought to himself. You always have to get it just right.
His boss, Mr. Smith, interrupted his train of thought. “Mr. Johnson, hurry up. We need that article by nightfall and we all know how slow you type.” His hair was slightly mussed and his tie was off, like he hadn’t slept at all last night. Brad had never seen him look so disheveled before.
“It’s not that slow!” He was slightly insulted - he typed a perfectly average 23 words per minute. It was admittedly a bit slow compared to the other journalists, but compared to everyone else, it was not terrible.
“It is, believe me.” Mr. Smith pulled out his phone to check a statistic. “It says here that the beginner typing speed for adults is 45 words per minute and you type half that.” He grinned slightly, a hint of a smirk finding its way into his smile.
“Oof.” Brad realized that Mr. Smith had probably told him that many times before and he had just forgotten. Selective memory, no doubt.
“Oof is right. Now get back to work.” He wasn’t as bossy as usual. Brad figured that was probably due to the same reason that he looked somewhat disheveled - he probably hadn’t slept the previous night. Perhaps he too was worried about the earth crumbling beneath them.
Nevertheless, Brad did get back to work… or at least he tried to. Writer’s block happens to journalists too.
- -
Fred stood at the edge of the greatest cliff Earth had ever known. He wasn’t the only one there, for certain - it was also the widest cliff Earth had ever known. If he were three feet more east, he’d fall farther than any human had fallen… and survived, of course.
It was far enough down that Fred couldn’t even get a good look at it, all he could see was specks - some water here, a continent here, a mountain range here, and some sort of glowing ball, not unlike the sun, rising on the horizon.
“Copycats.” he muttered to himself, smiling wryly. It was an interesting scientific dilemma, how a star came to be in there and wasn’t destroying everything, but the scientists had far greater things to worry about, like why the Earth’s crust was coming apart.
Fred was slightly annoyed that the chasm kept ruining his mood and wouldn’t get out of his mind, but, being a reasonable fellow, he figured that it only made sense to think about it, considering he was on the edge of it and one misstep would send him tumbling in.
“Not even an H-bomb could have taken out the crust… but if you take out the crust, would the rest follow?” He started to pace thoughtfully before stepping on a loose pebble. He quickly regained his balance, but the shock brought him back to his senses, and he sat down upon a nearby ledge. Could someone in that inner world, Middle-Earth, if you will, have taken out the Earth’s crust? Could they have larger explosives than H-bombs? And even if they did, why would they use them? And how would you get them up here?
“Frederick Wilson, your helicopter is leaving in three minutes. Hurry up and get on over here.” The loudspeaker boomed so loudly, it seemed to be yelling right in Fred’s ears. He whipped around towards the source of the sound, nearly losing his balance again, before realizing where he was and getting up carefully.
“Always take the path,” he reminded himself. “Don’t take unnecessary risks.” The scientists had worked right away to make an observational path, which is how Fred had gotten to the edge in the first place. Nobody had fallen in yet, at least not from the observational party, and Fred didn’t want to be the first.
“Frederick, we will leave without you. You have 90 seconds.” Fred tripped, scraping his hand on the rocks, but got back up and started to sprint, dangerous considering his perilous proximity to certain doom. As if matters couldn’t get any worse, the earth shook in a small earthquake and raindrops started to fall.
“Wait for me!” he yelled, hoping that they’d notice him or at least stop due to the inclement weather. The weather prediction services had been down, disrupted by the water flow into the chasm which was throwing off even their best models. Already the Great Lakes had been drained, although the waterfall had been admittedly one of the finest sights of his entire life.
Abby sighed. Fred was always late, but he was not so late this time that she could honestly leave him behind. “Get in the back,” she commanded, punctuated with a side eye, through the now gusty winds. Boy, that storm had started quickly.
Fred threw open the door, grateful for the shelter, and jumped in, tripping on the step but not suffering any damage. “Oops.” He was the clumsiest person he knew, and that was saying something.
“Buckle up - we’re going in.” Abby had never been so excited in her life. She felt that this was a great example of God working everything for our good in that this chasm was letting her be the first explorer to delve into the depths of the inner world, or, as the public called it, Middle-Earth. Perhaps Tolkein had been onto something.
Fred grinned. He had been waiting all his life for an opportunity like this, and he was rather surprised that that hope had actually panned out. But, not wanting to bother irritable Abby, he stayed silent.
They descended through the roaring wind, the windshield wipers working at amazing speed, as Abby subtly adjusted for the terrible flying conditions. It was great weather a few minutes ago… thought Fred to himself. He was not a fan of such whimsical weather, which is why he lived in Bermuda, when he was home, which, admittedly, was not often.
But as they descended deeper and deeper into the hole, the weather started to fade and the color of the sky started to dull into a deep gray, like it was dusk. Clearly, the weather above didn’t affect the weather below… but why did the rain stop? Shouldn’t it have fallen through the hole as well? Nevertheless, he was glad for the better weather, even if it made the region far gloomier than it needed to be.
When Abby turned on the headlights to adjust for the dimmer lighting soon after, the piercingly bright beams revealed rocks. Dull gray rocks as far as the eye could see, even from their superb vantage point from high up in the craft. “Our crust must have fallen onto here, making it a barren region,” Fred noted. “It probably took out more of their planet than it did ours, since theirs seems considerably smaller than ours.”
“I know.” Abby glared at him for a moment before turning back to the controls. “I’m not dumb.”
Fred fell silent, not wishing to anger Abby when she was the closer one to his eject button.
As they surveyed the rubble placidly, their headlights came across something that wasn’t rock. “Is that… a person?” Fred asked hesitantly.
Abby lowered the helicopter to get a better look, the figure cloaked in darkness appearing to note their out-of-place vehicle. “That is.” Her eyes widened in shock. “How did he get down here?”
Fred also was stunned, but not because of the man: he was stunned that Abby had said something that wasn’t sarcastic - and not once, but twice! “Should we pick him up?”
Abby nodded. “Ye- wait…” She paused to check a flashing red light on the dashboard. “No, we don’t have enough fuel. We’ll have to pick him up tomorrow, and yes, we’ll have to land in the storm. It’s not going to magically clear up or anything.” The pensive look on her face did not match the sarcasm in her tone - clearly she had regained her composure, her mask of sarcasm regained.
“Oh, well.” Fred was disappointed as their copter landed back at the research base, but he knew the man would be fine. It wasn’t worth the risk of getting stuck down there to pick him up. They’d just take twice as much fuel and figure out how he survived the fall - or if he’d been down there all along…