Chapter 1 : I'm going to die!
Digging a hole deep in the dirt with an old trusty spoon… Air started to blow
through one spot.
A breeze gushes through, whistling quietly at first, but quickly turns
into a loud high-pitched screaming echo!
I cover my ears as air bursts through the ground, scattering debris like
a grenade! Pieces of shrapnel scrape up my skin as they whip past me
and the sonic boom nearly explodes my eardrums!
Adrenaline flows through my veins and my heart skips a beat as I feel
the Earth open up…
pulling me into a wind tunnel.
Finally I manage to open my eyes again, and my pupils flair up as I
realize that I’m falling! Soaring through the sky with the wind slashing at
my face, and tears flying behind me…
It’s hard to breath…
I’m falling way too fast!
There aren’t any clouds, everything’s a bright blue sky with no sign of
an end to it … I don’t understand what could have possibly happened!
How am I skydiving on an archaeological dig?!
Inside of my backpack I have a flashlight, clothes, batteries, some food,
and some other assorted items… But who would have thought that I
would have needed a parachute to go digging!
Honestly I never anticipated being airborne today. I prefer to be
prepared because I know that anything is possible… But this is pretty
extreme! Maybe I’ll pack a parachute on my next adventure if I make it
through this one, but from the looks of things… I’m probably going to
die!
Gripping my hands tightly on a few rocks that I managed to still be
holding, I reach down in an attempt to jam them into my pockets!
Making myself fall faster from being more aerodynamic, I figure I might
as well pick up some more speed, so that my impact doesn’t hurt as
much!
Stretching my body, trying my hardest to put these rocks in my pocket,
while thinking if I’m lucky, I’ll pinch myself and wake up from a bad
dream.
Ouch!
I love zippered pockets!
I’m not dreaming though… I managed to pinch myself with my fingers
And my zipper, and I’m still falling!
Now rocks uncomfortably poke into my sides, and I laugh to myself…
Thinking how ridiculous it is to be collecting rocks as I plummet to my
death.
Do I have a sick sense of humor? Maybe, still… No clouds, no more
dirt… That’s all been blown away. All that remains is just a great big
blue ocean of air.
Breathing has been a challenge, but it’s become somewhat more
comfortable; soothing, relaxing…
Wait, what’s going on… I’ve been sweating, but this feels good now.
I hadn’t quite noticed the weather earlier. Whether it had been hot or
cold was over my head, but now the chill’s become more apparent as
the sweat starts to freeze to my face...
Feels to me like I’ve been falling forever, but finally for the first time in
hours, something other than the sky is within eyesight…
How odd of a view... Everything is growing darker now, and it looks like
I’m going to the moon!? Looking up at a night sky reminded me a lot of
what’s coming up…
Clouds are coming into range and what’s starting to look like a full
moon draws nearer. Almost as if I’m being launched into space, while
crossing over from summer to winter.
Dropping at a drastic rate, watching this celestial orb grow in size
dramatically, I wonder what and how this is happening as several
thoughts scatter my scientific side of my brain, but I can’t wrap my head
around what’s going on.
Soon I’ll be soaring through those quickly approaching storm clouds,
and who’s to say what’s on the other side…
Perhaps within seconds my fall will cease, since the only thing that
makes sense to me would be to slam into a surface sooner or later.
“Somehow I’m going to survive this!” I yell to myself before smashing
into the first set of clouds.
Crashing hard into clouds that were so dark, they resembled smoke. I
pulverized one after another into puffs as I sped through the soft
pillows, swiftly pondering my potential fate on each pass.
I’m surrounded by darkness, and all I can do is hope for the best as I
freefall through the clouds…
All of my senses are completely unfamiliar with what they’re going
through…
My eyes are watering and freezing. All I see is black. My ears are
ringing, the sound is deafening! My hands are numb. All I can feel is the
stinging of the air and the softness of the clouds. My mouth is filled
with such a weird texture. I’m a non-smoker, but I couldn’t imagine
cigarettes tasting quite like these clouds!
My nose also fills with the clouds, and the smell is so unique; it’s like a
thunderstorm and a blizzard travelling through my nasal passage
simultaneously.
My sixth sense is all over the place… With a fall like this, surely I’m going to die…But my intuition is usually pretty dead on!
Like I said to myself before my descent into the clouds…
Somehow… some way, I’m going to survive!
Laughing at the old saying my mother used to always yell at me while I’d
be daydreaming, I yell to myself… “Come on All, get your head out of
the clouds!” … I must be going crazy! Perfect Timing! What a
coincidence to break through to the other side of the clouds at the
same moment that I yelled to myself!
Slowly regaining my senses, it’s like emerging from the darkness into
the light… I was blind but now I see, and it’s scary!
Terrifying really, at this point I almost preferred the pitch black!
Closing my eyes doesn’t help though… If this is how my life ends, I want
to meet the grim reaper with open eyes!
Hard to tell how much longer I have now until I smash into something
solid. What I’d believed to be the moon has grown over a hundred
times in size, and the craters of what isn’t the moon begin to take on
the shapes of mountains.
Getting dizzy now, wondering if the sky is falling as fast as I am. My
heart starts to feel like it’s going to beat through my chest, and I think I
might have pissed myself!
Vomit spews out of my mouth and all over my face, and chunks of
regurgitated food instantly freeze to my cheeks… I feel like I’m going to
pass out, but I fight to remain conscious.
While I watch the mountains grow in size, to the point where all I can see are snow-capped mountains for miles. Frost begins rapidly forming
off particles of perspiration, and it feels like a temperature change of
minus fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit!
Forever falling still…I faint.
All dreams of ice cream… All flavors imaginable, falling all
around. Chocolate, vanilla, blueberry, strawberry, pineapples…
Panic stirs as an ice cream headache comes about, and all the
ice cream starts melting, covering All in warm ice cream milk…
Then All wakes up…
Icicles break off of my eyelashes as I struggle to see and my hands are
blue and frostbitten.
All I can hear is the wind ruffling against my apparel.
All I can taste and smell is puke.
Even through the repulsive odor, my sixth sense practically screams at
me, “I’m going to make it through all this in one piece! I’m going to
survive!”
I’m still falling, and I know I’m not dreaming because I just woke up…
How fast am I falling?
There’s so much ice…
Judging by the speed of the snow flying past me, I’m probably pretty
close to terminal velocity!
“This isn’t good.” I think to myself.
Where did all this snow come from?
The view is beautiful, and the fall seems fantastic, but this is all very
horrifying! I’ve never fallen so fast in my life!
At the same time, this is the most amazing feeling I’ve ever felt…I’m
actually still freefalling!
Similar to acupuncture, this fall is both painful and relaxing, I forget
everything for a moment as I fall and wonder…I see flashing lights,
could this be the end?
Recollections of my past race through my subconscious, as I race
towards flashing lights reflecting off the top of what looks like a giant
ice volcano.
Freezing, feeling the effects from the fall… I can’t fathom the fact that,
that is an ice volcano…
Oh. No!
“All… I think I’m going to die!” I think to myself.
As the chill digs deeper into my bones, I feel death breathing down my
neck, and I go stiff… Frozen to the touch!
Ice starts to cover more of my body as my velocity increases.
The wetness in the air, strikes the harsh weather like a perfect match…
Encasing me in ice!Sorrow melts away at my emotions, as I wish I could cry… But I’m
paralyzed, completely engulfed in my imagined transparent tomb.
Drowning has always been one of my worst fears, and crystal shards
formed from thick layers of solidified water molecules make me feel like
I’m suffocating!
The torture is unbearable… But I’m still alive!
Smile as I may try, while I also want to cry… I remain frozen.
Where in the world has anything like this ever been? Unimaginable
beauty!
Gigantic volcanoes, enormous beyond comprehension, surround the
massive one directly below me. All around for miles, as far as the eye
can see, Ice Volcanoes stretch out past the horizon.
Some of the Ice Volcanoes could be seen erupting, in big blue
explosions of frozen water!
Watching the scenery of the winter wonderland was wonderful. But my
range of view was restricted due to being completely encapsulated by
ice.
As I was falling towards the Ice Volcano, I knew for certain that an
impact was inevitable…
Flames start to lick steamy tails off me… melting away the ice slowly.
Picturing myself as a meteor or a shooting star entering the
atmosphere, smoke covers me, and just before it completely blinds
me… I see a white flash, as the fire reflects off the edge of the Ice
Volcano!
Colliding with the edge, smashing the ice that was encasing me;
shattering it into millions of particles like diamond dust, I can finally
breath again!
Gasping for air, wheezing and coughing, swallowing as much oxygen as
I possibly can!
Still falling, swirling, while looking in all directions, bumping here and
there.
Bouncing…sliding and spinning…On ice.
Well… it seems like I’m falling up now.
Great…
Cold chills run up my spine, and butterflies make me sick as I realize that
I’m not falling up…
I’m sliding down, upside down! Sliding on ice seemingly faster than ever
before! My heart is bouncing, my head is spinning, and I go to catch my
breath as I slide along.
I’m soaked! Freezing…
yet I feel like I’m on fire from the friction and all the excitement!
Almost freefalling still…But not quite… sliding at such an extreme
angle that the ice guides me on its slippery path into chaos.
As I travel the treacherous track of ice, I let out a sigh of relief, as it
feels comforting to be able to touch something tangible again. Terrific
and terrifying in its own way, the intensity increases...Envisioning myself winning the gold medal… I feel like an Olympic luge
racer trying to get the best time through the tubes. Although I think a
professional would tell me that the way I’m sliding at the moment, isn’t
the safest way to navigate. As I remember that most luge racers feet
would be facing forward… Yet I still slide along inverted.
Everything is upside down, and gathering my thoughts at such a
climatic time is a challenge… If I’m going to survive this, slamming head
first into something probably isn’t the best idea.
So I dig my hand into the ice in an attempt to spin myself around the
right way, but the ice is too slippery! I spin out of control a few too
many times, three sixties to five forties, a ten eighty, and I lose count as
I puke again.
Spinning along on the strangest slide made from sheets of ice, I try
tightening every muscle that I can muster to stop my spin. Somehow I
have to try slowing my momentum, so I harden my belly while
simultaneously pressing my arms and legs into the snowy substance.
Surprisingly enough, I manage to slow myself down a significant
amount.
Straightening myself out, finally I can see what lies ahead, and yet again
I feel sick to my stomach… The slippery slopes start to arc so drastically,
swirling into circles, looping the tracks around like something you would
see on a video game! Steam flails off behind me in streams as I race forward. Looking ahead,
straining my neck and back to do so, struggling to see an end to the
mesmerizing vortex of tubes and tracks…
Hypnotized by the scenarios seconds ahead, I’m whipped off of the ice,
and launched into the air horizontally. Like being sling shotted off of a
swing…
I can’t help but to scream at the top of my lungs!
I was flying and screaming through the air like a banshee. But I’m silent
now… Listening to my screams echo around the cavern… screaming
back at me while I’m soaring through the air.
Looking ahead is only a wall of ice, and beneath me is another steep
drop.
I’m not looking forward to either outcome… Examining closer, I can see
sharp stalagmites blanketing the floor directly below me!
Facing a fatal drop below, and a wall of ice ahead, I’m assuming that I’m
probably not going to make it through this. Figuring that I will either get
impaled by giant icicles, or splatter against a frozen wall…
Both seem like brutal unfair deaths to me at this point.
I start singing in the air to comfort myself…
“Twinkle, twinkle little star.”
I was rapidly approaching the wall,
“How I wonder what you are…”
I knew that I was travelling way too fast!
“ Up above the world so high…”So I started crying, and screamed the last part of the song, “Like a
diamond, in the skyyy…Ahhh!”
Bracing myself for the impact, I crash into the wall, shattering it like
glass! Breaking everything but bones, I smashed right through…
Emerging on the other side victorious!
Landing roughly into an ice tube, with ice showering down on me, I was
travelling downhill on the slippery slopes again! Looping me around and
round, like a rollercoaster… Whipping left, right, up and down…
Funneling further down into the unknown, the tunnel swirled on!
I can’t even think about getting sick anymore…
Instead I just smile and laugh feeling exstatic that I survived again.
Snow starts to leak through some cracks in the tunnel. Some spots the
gusts were so violent that I was sure that they would de-rail me…
The weather’s harsh now, but I hardly have time to think about that!
The ice tube was narrowing as I was nearing the opening at the
bottom. Embers were emerging, creating cracks in the ice! Blistering
heat begins to consume the blizzard which once surrounded me…
Replacing the frost with flame…
A breeze brushed my hair, and it reminded me of a warm summer
breeze, sparking old memories… I pictured myself back home,
sunbathing on a beach, trying to catch some of the Sun’s rays for a tan.
Smoke and steam filled the passage ahead…
The heat was becoming unbearable and it hurt to breath. I was sweating bullets when I looked back to see that my bookbag was on
fire! Frightened from the thought of getting burned, I flung my bag off
my back in a hurry. That was my favorite bookbag too!
My blood’s boiling, and I’m panicking a little because that wasn’t all
that was on fire… All of my clothes are on fire!
Sliding down the ice on fire isn’t leaving me much of a choice… I’m
going to have to start stripping! My shoes were blazing, so I kicked them
off right away. Flames crawled up my pant legs and crept up my shirt, so
I was topless and bottomless faster then I was sliding. All my skin was
exposed to the elements in no time at all… I didn’t want to get burned,
so I did what I had to do.
Even sliding along naked, fire would still nip at my butt from time to
time. For the most part though, I avoided getting burned at all costs!
The ice was melting fast, and the visibility of the fire grew larger as the
tube melted away… Somehow, I’m still surviving. Suffocating from
smoke and steam… Naked and afraid, I see the end of the tunnel… I
see the light!
Magma melts massive chunks out of the ice… Magnificent thoughts
mangle my mind, measuring the distance I must have fallen…
Mastering my focus, I remain calm, as I launch off the edge of the ice
into a waterslide engulfed in flames. Created from the most
mesmerizing fire, I could have ever imagined.
A raging fire blazes an inferno all around me, but I’m protected by the
waters made from the melting ice… Flames intertwined with the
blessed holy water that’s keeping me alive right now make me feel
almost baptized by the fire.
Imagining this place seems impossible, but everything about it has
been plausible… Wondering where I’m off to next on my fall for a million miles, feeling as if I’ll be falling forever…
* I SPLASH! *