Ravine's Story

The sound of machinery filled Juan’s ears as he walked through the large wooden door. All around conveyer belts carried pieces and parts to their respective places, furnaces filled with coal burned and hissed and machines, towering above the men and women, clanked and rattled noisily.

“Hey, Juan” came the voice from a catwalk above. “You have to come with me to the Engine Rooms. Got to fix something”.

Juan knew that voice. It was his co-worker, David Burrows. David worked to maintain the massive engines that powered the factory. Juan worked as a mechanic, repairing broken machinery.  Nodding to David, Juan walked over to the elevator at the far end of the room.

“Wonder what’s wrong with them this time” Juan joked to himself as he rode the elevator up to the catwalk. The elevator stopped at the catwalk and Juan walked out to David.

“Good, let’s go” David said and quickly ran off down the catwalk.

That was weird. Usually, David would always be joking and screwing around. Now he was serious today, almost like he was worrying about something.

Juan followed David down the catwalk and into another elevator. The elevator carried them down. They went past the manufacturing bay and into an underground chamber. The engines, being so massive, were down here in another room.

The doors opened to a metal hallway, which was surprisingly clean. The two walked out and into the hall.

Then, David looked over at Juan. “Hey, you notice the military’s been coming in a lot?”

Juan knew that was true. The military usually came in for machine parts and harmless other stuff. Now, huge military conveys poured into the street. Guards and soldiers stood guard outside the Ravine Cavern, holding guns and batons. No one went around the cavern or the military trucks lining the path.

“Yeah, what of it?”
“They’re doing something down the tunnel systems. Last night I heard loud noises and bright lights down there. Why else would they be ordering so many machines?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t bother”.

“Juan, something’s down there. And it’s dangerous. If anything happens, it’s end game for us”.

Juan sighed. David, though a friend, was a conspiracy theorist. Everything he saw was probably something the government was using as a government cover-up.

Then, they came to a large metal door. Entering a code on a keypad, David opened the door.  A bright light and a cloud of steam wafted out.

The engines sat inside, chugging loudly. Gears and pistons hung on the walls, connected by thick wires and cords. Steam poured into a roof-mounted funnel which carried steam out to the smokestacks.

“So what’s wrong?” Juan said. Everything, on the most, seemed normal. David pointed to a series of gauges lining a machine part.

You see, the engines are so great that they need to be filled with tanks of water, which creates steam. Steam creates pressure. Pressure must be released to keep the machine running properly. If not, the machine will fail or explode.

“The readings say pressure is 4.6 times higher than it should” David said. “I just released pressure this morning”.

Juan looked at the machine. Normally, if pressure grew, the machine would be leaking steam and hissing. But, it seemed normal as it always had been.

“I think the gauge is busted” Juan said. “I could fix it if you want”.

David looked again at the gauge.  Then, he noticed something. The needle was flipping back and forth between pressure readings.
“What the hell…?” No sooner as he said that, the machine growled to a halt. A loud boom, like the sound of something heavy hitting the ground, followed shortly.

Upstairs, Juan and David heard the sound of people talking in confusion. Then, the intercom buzzed on and a man spoke through it.

“Attention workers, the military has shut off the engines in order for them to use it to power their machines. They apologize for such an inconvenience”.

David stared back at Juan. “See? They’re doing something down there. And I’m guessing that it’s big”.

“Come on man,” Juan said. “It’s just some military tests they’re doing around here. Nothing harmful. They have under control”.

“Under control? Under control?!” David screamed. “They’re messing with some pretty bad stuff down there. I just know it!”

“David, I promise you that nothing is going to happen. They’ll finish up whatever they’re doing and leave us alone. They have it under control”.

But now, saying it out loud again, make Juan feel nervous. But he didn’t tell David that.

Beneath them, there was a sound of a great machine starting up. But Juan pretended he didn’t hear.

……………………………………………………………………

That night, Juan sat in his bed. He couldn’t sleep. Something felt off. The type of off you could never explain.

Juan got up and went out to the porch. His cabin looked over the cavern entrance from where it was on the hill. He could see the military trucks driving up and down past the canal. Guards stood on the centuries old lighthouse, keeping watch.

Juan also saw that they had dug a large hole in the ground. Cranes were lowering large machines into the pit. Something was definitely up.

“Maybe David’s right” Juan thought. “What if they are doing something down there that’s bad”.

“Hello, Mr. Ramirez”.

Juan looked back. A man holding a small wooden crate was looking back at him. Juan jumped in surprise.

“Holy…! Where did you come from?”

“I was already here. Already waiting. You just never noticed me until now”.

“What?”

The man ignored him. “Your friend has every right to be suspicious. The government is doing something in those tunnels. Something that could destroy everything we know and love”.

“What do you mean we?”

The man smiled and handed Juan the crate. “Take this and hold onto it. When the time comes, you’ll need it”.

Juan looked down. The crate was marked by a silver plaque. The plaque read in cursive writing the owner.

“Juan Ramirez: Corporal of Fighters Comuni”.

Juan looked up. The man was gone. A pair of footsteps remained on the wood.

“Well, that was weird”.

Juan went back inside. Behind him was the sound of guards screaming and yelling at something. A series of lights flashed on and off. But it didn’t matter. Juan never heard it.

……………………………………………………………………

It was cold when Juan woke up. Which was not uncommon, considering it was winter.

But something was wrong. Juan remembered that the heat was on and all the windows were closed. A smell of pines tingled his nose.

Juan shivered as he woke up. His left side of his face was wet and cold. It was like he was sleeping in water.

He looked around. Rather than his nice warm bed, he was on a forest path. Trees stretched limitlessly into the sky. A cool mist, rising from the series of rushing rivers that swelled over the banks, covered the horizon.

“Hello? Hello?” Juan shouted as he walked down the path. He walked father until he reached a long wooden bridge over a rushing canal.

Water lapped at the sides, making the bridge shutter. The bridge was soaked in a black liquid. Juan picked up the liquid in his hand.

The liquid smelled like burnt matches and glue. It was watery, running through his fingers. The black fluid landed in the water. As soon as it did, it became a large mass. The mass bubbled and popped.

“What in the world is going on here?” Juan said. Then, he heard footsteps. The footsteps of people running. The footsteps were accompanied by the sound of an alarm going off and bright colored lights shooting off into the sky.

The ground beneath Juan began to quiver. Cracks and fissures split the ground open and a series of lights shone out. The path swelled and crumbled, like something was trying to push it open.

Loud crashes and the sound of huge iron pieces breaking blended in. The ground broke open and what seemed to be a series of pistons rose from the fissures. They cracked against the rocks and leaked black smoke.

Then, the ground fell away and Juan flew down into the chasm. Next thing he knew, he was laying on a street back in the town.

The last thing Juan saw was a bright light blind his eyes. The sounds, however, got louder and louder.

……………………………………………………………………

When Juan woke up, he noticed the ground beneath him was cracked apart.

“Oh God” he groaned as he lifted himself up. “What the hell was all that?”

He looked around. He saw machines jutting out of the street. Signs and streetlights hung from twisted electric wires. Metal and iron scattered in different directions.
“What...What happened?” Juan said as he walked down the street. He noticed that the streets were empty. People were probably evacuated.

The sky above them was covered by a dense cloud of mist. There was the sound of birds in the distance, but Juan couldn’t see them.

There was something odd bubbling out of the manhole covers. It was the same black liquid. Rather than freeze up, it simply popped and dripped onto the streets.

Juan looked down the street. A huge hole had opened in the street. It was filled with burning machinery and the black liquid.

“Jesus…” Juan’s voice trailed off as he looked into the pit. Something was shuttering and rattled underneath the mass of machines.

Then, a ray of light crept out from the pile. The shuttering got worse. Small pieces of wreckage swirled into the pile, as if something was pulling them in.
Juan knew two things. He had to run and get help now. He turned around and dashed up the embankment.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash and what seemed to be a large ball of light rocketed into the sky.  

Next thing Juan saw was a large white hole in the midst of the wreckage. It just stood there, shimmering and slowly closing and opening.

“What the hell?” Juan reached over and touched the hole cautiously.

The hole burst open, revealing a large machine in its place. It didn’t seem to be powered by anything, but it was active.

It looked like one of the engines back in the factory. Pistons and gears roared and clanked actively. Steam bellowed from the cylinders on the inner parts.

Then, the engine disappeared in a flash of white. The white hole appeared again.
Juan jumped back. The machine came back in a second. It kept running, powering some sort of otherworldly device from wherever it came from.

“Holy…” Juan turned and ran back up the bank. He ran through the machine-filled streets, hoping to find anyone.

Juan saw the crossroads into the factory plaza. Maybe someone was out there. Then, Juan hit something. Or what he thought was something.

“OW! What was that?” Juan rubbed his nose, which was dripping blood. There was nothing in front of him.

Juan got up and rubbed the air in front of him. It was like he was rubbing glass. Something was blocking him from the factory.

Juan looked out further. He noticed that the factory was moving up and down slowly. Then, it floated upwards, ground and all.

The factory and the land surrounding it were floating. Floating in the sky by itself. It was like someone or something tore it up and was holding it in the air.

“What the hell is going on around here?!” Juan screamed into the night sky.

Juan turned back and walked to the center of the crossroad. All 4 roads were abounded and filled with burning fuel from machines. The black liquid dripped and slid across the asphalt.

Then, Juan heard the sounds of an engine. A black truck rolled up out of the mist. It stopped in front of Juan.

The driver stepped out. He was holding a shotgun and his partner was holding a crossbow.

“Hey Juan” David said, smiling. “Looks like you missed the fun”.

……………………………………………………………………
The truck had arrived back at Juan’s cabin. It was surprisingly intact. The outpost below, however, was wrecked.

“So what happened around here?” Juan said, drinking from his cup of hot cocoa.

“Well, it’s hard to explain” David said. “I guess something went wrong down at the base and, well, we are trapped in outer time-space realities and are in a pocket between existences”.

“What?”

David’s female partner spoke up. She was about 20 or 23. She had strange silver skin and had a bowl-cut with hair that ended in streaks on the front. The woman was wearing simple black clothing.

“He means that we are not in our current reality, but existing between our reality and another”.

The woman pulled out a paper that was covered in astrological symbols and codes. “See, we all exist in different realities. Some same, some different. What happened at the base must have send us into one reality and back again, getting us stuck in between realities”.

Juan understood. Or at least tried to understand.  David, as he knew, had read up on different reality theories, but this woman knew a bit more than him.

“My name is Andrea Devon” the woman said. “I’m afraid I have been…uh…changed…by our “jump” in reality”.

“Well, besides your skin” Juan said. “What’s wrong with you?”

Andrea smiled. She looked over at an empty glass on the table at end of the kitchen. Her arm stretched, almost like rubber, and grabbed the glass. The arm snapped back and put the glass on the counter.

“Uh, wow” Juan said, trying to figure all this out. “That is pretty cool”.

“That’s nothing that only thing that stretches on her” David joked, winking to Juan. Andrea’s arm came around and smacked him upside the head.

“OW! Fine, I’m sorry”.

Andrea looked at Juan. “You know, lots have changed during that last month”.

“1 month?! I was gone for an hour!”

“No, you disappeared right after the blast. Everyone’s been looking for you” Andrea said, drinking her coffee.

“Thank God the Kings didn’t get you” David said. “They would have ripped you to shreds”.

“Kings?”

“Juan, during this month, the city divided itself into two groups. There’s the Fighter Comuni and the Engine Kings”.
“Who are they?”

“The Fighter Comuni is the group of middle class factory workers, shop owners and all that junk. They believe that if we, the middle class, could work together; overthrow the head cheeses down at what used to be City Hall and get out of here. The Engine Kings are, of course, the rich guys who run the main military base down in the caverns. They have the engine, the only one left standing, which is why they’re called the Engine Kings”.

“Yeah, and those guys have the engine which we need”.

“Wait, why do you need the engine”.

David smiled. It was one of those crazy smiles. “I have been working on a machine. A machine that could create a rip in space and time. A rip that we could ride out to our reality and get out of this pocket dimension”.

“How?”

“Look, I have…friends who gave me an algorithm that when used properly could open the rip just enough that it wouldn’t open another hole in reality”.

Juan sighed and shook his head. He looked outside. The mist had grown less dense and you could see the city below.

Then, he saw something. A series of lights coming up the road. A sound of pounding pistons and crashing metal feet followed. David and Andrea looked at each other then at Juan.

“Uhhh, who are they?”

“Shit. I thought those dumbasses were off our trail.” David grabbed his shotgun and ran out. Juan and Andrea followed suit.

Outside was a series of armored soldiers. Behind them was a huge tripod-like machine. It was covered in spikes and had a Gatling Gun on its front. Airships sailed quietly overhead.

The line stopped just before the hill. A man stepped out of the crowd. He was heavily armored and was carrying a grenade launcher. The man walked up to David.

“David, I believe you are on Engine Kings property” the man said. “We suggest you get off”.

“Look, we aren’t moving. You and your idiot friends and all your tin toys can piss off”.

The man sighed. “Very well, David. It seems that peaceful resolution has been ignored. Now, we will try out a new technique”.

Suddenly, the crowd of soldiers burst forward. The tripod opened fire, blasting everything in a shower of shells. David and Andrea, being the only ones armed, fought off the first wave, but were drowned back by the second wave.

Juan was inside, looking for a weapon or something. Then, he saw the crate on the table. It was open, a key in the lock.

Juan walked over to it. He pulled out two large golden metal gloves. Glass circles were in the palms. Beneath them was a flask that dripped the same black goo that Juan had seen many times before.

“Guess this the fuel or something” He opened the flask and filled up the gloves with the liquid. He slid the gloves on, noticing that they were surprisingly light.

A huge bolt of black lighting shot from Juan’s left glove, leaving a trail of smoke. Juan stared at in shock.

“Well, this is a surprise” He said that with much dullness in his voice. This was normal compared to what he had seen.

Juan walked out and jumped off the porch. He saw a lone soldier firing his gun wildly at the cabin. Juan tapped him on the shoulder.

As soon as the soldier turned around, Juan socked him in the face. The soldier went flying back and slammed into the rocks.

“Alright. We got some power in these” Juan ran up to the rocks and jumped into the crowd of soldiers.

As soon as Juan’s fists hit the ground, a shockwave rippled the ground, sending soldiers into the air.

“Alright Juan!” shouted David. “Go kick some ass!”

The 3 fought back against the soldiers, but the tripod walker and the airships dropping soldiers made it harder.

Then, there was a loud bang and an airship fell to the ground in a ball of fire. Another airship, along with a clan of soldiers in black and brown armor stood on the mountain peaks.

“The Fighters will lay waste to the Kings!” screamed a soldier and the group ran down the mountain, firing madly into the other soldiers.

Juan, David, Andrea and the Fighters Comuni pushed back against the Engine Kings, but the amount of machinery gained the King’s advantage.
David ran over to Juan, holding a piece of paper. “Go to the factory. Now!”

“Why? I’ll stay here and fight with you guys!”

“No! You get to the factory and stay there. It’s safe and there’s supplies in there”.

“But…”

“NOW!”

Juan sighed and ran off down the mountainside. Behind him he heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Then, there was loud bang and bits of charred wood sailed down from the misty sky.

Juan felt like crying. But he didn’t want too. He had to get out of here one way or another.  

……………………………………………………………………
2 months later…

……………………………………………………………………

Juan heard the sounds of radio static from his bedroom. Hell, it was all he heard now.

The factory was still full of machines, but the engines were destroyed, so they were useless now. The halls and elevators were destroyed or filled with wreckage.

Juan had been working with the Fighters Comuni now. They had given food and supplies. In turn he gave them weapons and maps and all that other stuff.

For the first time in days, a voice cackled through the radio. “Hey, you know that kid came through the lighthouse? Think he’s with David and Andrea now. They’re sending him to the factory for machine pieces”.

Juan sighed and nodded. “Alright, I’ll be ready”. Then, the radio cackled back into static.
Juan smiled. He could tell this kid would be important. Very important indeed.