X-X-X
"You have got to be kidding me..." looking at the vehicle in front of me, I had little idea on how this could be classed as transport, let alone a boat! "...This is the ship you were talking about last night?! It's more of a 'Land Raft' if you ask me..."
In front of me was nothing more than planks of wood fitted together, with a pole and some cloth tied to it acting as a sail, with what looked like an outboard motor attached on its back. It looked hardly stable, sure it was big enough to get us all onboard but it wouldn't be a comfortable ride! Hell, if I sneezed I would likely break the thing! Agunimon obviously was thinking the same thing, as he walked around the raft, the look on his face telling me he was not thrilled about the idea of riding this...thing either.
"Hey! Firstly it's a 'Land Boat'..." debateable I added in my head "...secondly it will work, trust me!" pointing over to the horizon, I followed his gaze, seeing the snow topped mountains off in the distance. "It would take us a full day, maybe more to walk the distance from here to the mountains, with this baby! I bet we can make it in 2 hours!"
"Two hours, on that!? ...I wish I hadn't had breakfast now" I sighed, and sat down on the barrel beside the hanger. I appreciated he worked on it most of the night, well into the wee hours of the morning – but still, if this was what we had for transport, even if it did move it was an accident waiting to happen!
"Trust us! Nothing can go wrong! Just going to fire the engine up!" Regas, undeterred by the groups general apathy towards his 'land raft' got back to tinkering with the motor with Guilmon, as I turned to Lorna
"What do we have to lose?" I shrugged, not really seeing any better plan, I certainly didn't want to walk the distance to the mountain that was for damn sure!
"Other than our body parts?" I smiled; she obviously had my sense of humour, however she sighed in resignation "He is right though, it will take us the better part of a day to get there on foot, and he hasn't steered us wrong yet – he really does know alot about mechanics. If he says it's going to work, it will work...probably"
"It's the probably part that has me concerned...ah well, I supp-ACK! WHAT THE!"Jumping half out of my skin, I turned quickly to the sound of the motor revving, and loudly too! Regas giving thumbs up and shouting something incomprehensible over the sound of the engine itself.
Making several hand gestures at him, he finally got the message and turned the engine off. As the sound began to die down, and I could hear myself think again, I shook my head out, and rubbed my ringing ears, shouting back over "Some warning would have been nice!" realising he did say he was going to fire up the engine...but still! That was loud...really loud. Even Agunimon had his hands up to his ears, and they were protected by armour!
"Sorry...Heh, it's all ready though now! Hop aboard!" jumping down, he picked up a couple of boxes he had packed, and stowed them away in compartment at the back of his raft. Mainly food and basic supplies, as well as some items to repair this raft in case it broke down.
"Last chance" Lorna chuckled, and shook her head
"Like you said, what's to lose?" with that she and Renamon both got onboard, making themselves comfortable.
As she walked past, I looked back to the town which I had called home overnight – the school building had now burnt to the ground and left nothing but burned timber and ash, still smouldering slightly around the edges, with a few minor landmarks such as staircases and walls standing, for the most part though the building was gutted, a complete write off.
I felt a bit bad in a way, we had left this town in worse ware than we had found it, and to be fair that was already in a pretty bad shape – I hoped one day we could come back, perhaps see people returning to the homes they had abandoned, even find the family whose photo that belonged to.
I smiled, feeling a hand on my shoulder as Agunimon stood beside me "It's strange, but in a way I am going to miss this place"
"I will too, however we can always remember this as the place our journey began – and I am sure once you see even more of the Digital World, you shall be equally as amazed by it all" nodding in agreement, he was right. There was still so much more to explore out there, beyond this town, beyond the flat plains we were in, beyond even the mountains in the far distance – this world had already amazed me with its beauty, I couldn't wait to experience more of it!
"Well, let's get to it partner – we got worlds to save!" both nodding in agreement we made our way back and boarded the 'Land Raft', looking back to Regas I gave him a thumbs up "Ok, ready as I will ever be!" I put my hands on the wooden pole, and prepared myself, Lorna doing the same also, our partners beside us, likely ready to catch us in case this thing crash landed out the starting blocks.
"Let's...Kick it!" he fired up the engine once more, and with a monstrous sound filling the air around us once more, the thing actually started to float, just slightly off the ground, but it was working! Perhaps he wasn't as crazy as I thought.
"OK! The SS Speeder is ready to go!" with that, we began moving forward, slowly at first, but rapidly picking up speed! "WOOOHOOO!" Regas' cry of excitement could be heard over the power of the engine. Myself and Lorna exchanging worried looks, as we got ahead on our way! Nope, definitely crazy!
X-X-X
Despite earlier misgivings, the ride itself was actually rather smooth and trouble free once we got going. We had a few bumps, and tumbles, and the sound was horrific, however no one fell of the SS Death-trap, as I had dubbed it, despite Regas choice of names. She rocked, and shook but she didn't stop and before long the mountains which before had been so far in the distance began to come into focus, looming larger, and higher on the horizon.
I hadn't really expected them to be so big; then again the mountains back home which I had gone around didn't really loom over you like this! Lorna explained to me en-route that these were the Boreal mountains, one of the biggest ranges of mountains in all the Digital World, and effectively acted to cut off the side we were on now, with the other side of this continent. This particular area used to be heavily mined, however after Devimon and his goons moved in that business dried up, and the mine, formally known for the prosperity and wealth they brought soon became known as dungeons of doom and despair – digimon would enter and never come out, or worse, come out in service of the Dark Lords.
Lorna reassured us however that we would not be going anywhere near the mines – we were to use a pass they had used to get to this town only a week or so ago – which only opened for short periods in the summer, but offered a safe route through. It was really the only option we had, any other safe route was days away, and that would be if we used this raft – and time was not a luxury we could afford. We wanted to get to our destination, and fast.
Not long after we approached the mountains, the flat ground us began to grow higher, firstly into mounds, and finally forming the mountains themselves, we had entered into the pass. Looking around me, the sheer cliffs, and hill sides were covered in trees, and various rock formations. It really was a sight, reminding me of the areas I had camped in myself. The wind howled as we came up to the pass, and soon the warm edge of it began to grow colder, and louder – the canyon on either side of us extending high on either side.
The rock however looked...clean, polished, the pass must have been mined out of the mountain itself – and if so it must have taken years! The height of the surroundings walls and the length of the passage was a testament to the skill of the builders!
On high I could see the formation of snow, as the path we were on began to elevate, the air getting colder as we slowed down – the once blistering speed coming down to a more manageable trawl through the pass.
"This is, amazing" I looked around, my voice echoing off the walls,
"No one knows how it came to exist. Some say it was the earlier miners decades ago, others that is was created by the celestial digimon themselves – all we know is this will take us out pretty close to Central Terminal, a couple days journey" Lorna pointed out up ahead "There is a small camp ahead, which was used by the miners at one point – it marks the halfway point through this pass"
Sure enough Lorna was right, within another minute or two the passage widened, and a few huts came into view, passing through what must have been a checkpoint at one time, now frozen open we entered.
Looking around, the huts here all looked as if they had seen better days – many of them had snow covering them, and nearly all of them had some form of damage, just like the town. Broken windows, and shattered wood, snow pilled inside. The most prominent problem however, was the pass ahead of us, or, more precisely, the lack thereof. Regas slammed down hard on the break, and we came to a complete stop seconds later, the deafening sound of the engine cut, replaced with the sound of cold winds whirling through the canyons.
"That's not right!" Regas jumped down from the raft and walked forward, looking at the sheer wall of solid snow and ice formed in front of us, rising high into the clouds above "It wasn't like this before, this was open! What happened?!" we all looked around, looking to the cliffs surrounding this outpost, all of us making the realisation, myself being the one however to voice that shared though
"It must have been an avalanche, all that snow on top must have fallen earlier than expected, and sealed up the pass" sighing, I sat down on the side of the raft "Guess that scuppers that plan? Guess we have to head back, and try another route?" I asked, sure that we weren't going to be able to dig our way through here – I doubt even Agunimon's fire would have that much of an impact on this much debris. Lorna however, shook her head in disagreement
"There is no other way, no real alternative. All the other routes would take days, maybe even weeks for us to reach Central Terminal – We don't have that kind of time. There must be an alternate...wait..." she looked around, and her gaze indicated she had seen something, as she leapt off from the raft and pointed to the side "Here, look!" walking on around to her, she was pointing at some kind of sign – the writing was old but still legible. Immediately I knew what was going on inside her head, and I didn't like it one bit
"Wait, you can't be serious?! You said the mines were controlled by Devimon!?" remembering what she had just told me on the trip here, this plan was already sounding bad "If we go through there, we might end up heading straight into a trap!" Lorna however, seemed unphased
"True, but we have an advantage!" she pointed towards our three partners "We have our partners with us, and anything that tries to attack us will be in for a hard time – plus, these mines are huge, they extend the whole length and breadth of the mountain, they can't be everywhere at once, and if we are careful they will never know we were here" She did have a valid point – if the mines really were as large as she told me, it would be impossible to patrol the whole place effectively, it would take unimaginable amount of manpower.
"Like Lorna said too, if we go round it could take us even longer, and there is no guarantee that those routes would be open, or more dangers would await us – We may as well take our chances here, as good as any" Regas was already putting on his back a small backpack, one of those which had been stowed away.
"Worse comes to worse, we are here, and we won't let anything happen to you, any of you" Agunimon was helping Regas with one of the packs, carrying it himself – Renamon and Guilmon following suit. I sighed in defeat
"Fine, but if we all fall off the mountain, or end up locked in cages, no complaining" chuckling I joined the others, picking up one of the bags before throwing it over my shoulder – guessing this was one of the miscellaneous parts bags, giving the awkward angles things seemed to be poking out from.
Soon, having claimed all the supplies we would need from the raft, we bid it farewell, making our way up the path to the side of us, and beginning the long climb up the mountain. The stone steps covered in a thin layer of Snow, crunching underfoot.
X-X-X
What had started as clear skies, quickly turned into a snow flurry then escalated into a full scale blizzard. We had been walking for little over an hour following the signs up the barely visible path under our feet, as the snow got thicker and thicker the higher up we climbed.
Before in the distance we could see the base camp far below us, now lost to the cloud and fog surrounding us, the gales whipping around us fiercely, adding a razor sharp edge to the already cold weather, nipping at our exposed skin.
"We have to turn back! This blizzard is going to kill us!" I heard Regas shouting from the back. He wasn't too far wrong, if we didn't find some kind of cover soon we were going to end up as permanent features of this bleak landscape. Agunimon was standing close by to me, the natural heat of his body allowing me a manner of small reprieve, but still the lack of proper clothing, with nothing more than jacket and shirt – did not do wonders for me. I shivered even with my arms around my body in an attempt to try and keep whatever body head I had left, rubbing up and down myself.
"Just a little further, it can't be far now!" I shouted back over the howling gales, hearing a grunt in reply. Visibility was beginning to get down to nil, and if we weren't' careful the next steps we would take would be down a crevice into who knows where. Our partners were doing the best they could given the situation, even if the cold didn't seem to affect them, they were well aware of how it was effecting us. Renamon had put her arms around Lorna, using her fur as insulation, where as Guilmon was sticking close to Regas, trying to share body heat – if not for them we would most certainly already have succumbed to the frightening conditions of the mountain.
"Snow, Regas is right, we need to find a way out of this weather, if it gets much worse we might never find a shelter..." I nodded in acknowledgement to Agunimon, feeling his arm on my back, guiding me forward as well as helping me keep the pace, my feet taking one slow step after another, as the shin deep snow piled up around us. The signs before indicated some entrance the mine was nearby, we just had to find it. Besides we couldn't turn back now – even if we did there was no guarantee we would find shelter down in the broken huts, our only choice was moving forward.
"So...cold..." I muttered, bringing my hands to my face and breathing into them, having lost feeling to my fingers a while back, I was doing everything I could to stave off hypothermia, feeling a slight tingle in them, trying to move them as much as I could, however almost seemingly stuck in place. This situation was going from bad, to worse, to absolutely downright deadly in no short order.
Continuing our trudge through the ever thickening snow, finally it seemed like we had found some salvation, "Look, something ahead of us!" Lorna' voice came over the storm, and as we slowly made our way forward, she was right, ahead of us was something, something huge! As it came into view more fully we were greeted by relief – a cliff face, which seemingly disappeared endless into the skies, with what must have been a freight lift! N doubt once used to transport coal, ores and workers, which must have meant an entrance was nearby! All of us having the same idea we ran on over to it as quickly as we could in this weather, and attempted to call it. Myself being the one to press the stiff button on the control panel, hearing it snap into place, however no response from either the panel, or the lift itself.
"I think...its jammed" Regas stuttered through his clattering teeth, as we waited moments after for some kind of response, pressing the button against several times in some kind of vain attempt to make the things operate.
"More like...frozen, over" I replied, trying my best to open the door, greeted only by the groan of metal. Agunimon joined me too in my attempt however even with his help it was frozen shut, refused to budge. We were all getting desperate now; this elevator had to lead to the top...and a way out of this storm. If we could get power back to it...
"Guys, over here, look" Lorna waved us on over to the side of the shaft, taking a moment to spot what she was looking at, I then saw what she had in mind,
"A, run ladder?" It must have been used for maintenance, looking at it, it too had a covering of ice, and rust – this thing couldn't be stable. Giving it a quick, soft kick I heard it reverberate through the ladder and shaft it was connected to, some of the fresh snow covering falling from the runs – it didn't fall over at least.
"What, do you think?" turning to me, her face looking stark white, and snow covering her cheeks – her whole body looked tense, shivering just like my own. I knew this was risky, but at this point we had few options available.
"We have no choice, we have to climb – we need to get out of this storm, at the very least this must lead somewhere!" both Lorna and Regas nodded in agreement.
Another problem however presented itself, we couldn't just climb this ladder bare handed, our extremities were cold enough as it was, they would end up worse if we just touched the bare metal. Knowing how cold it was though Regas seemed to be well ahead of us, having reached shakily into his bag, and pulled out several rags, passing them out to us
"Wrap these...around, your hands" we quickly and as securely as we could wrapped the rags around out hands, Agunimon putting his hands around mine, offering me enough warmth for me to get some manner of feeling back in my fingers, enough for me to tie off a knot, ensuring my hand was covered enough for it to be protected, and for me to climb.
"I'll go, first" Regas put his hands on the ladder, seemingly testing the waters, well ice in this case – and moments later began his ascent. Guilmon was right behind him. Watching them slowly make the way up into the abyss, the only sign they were still on it was the gentle shaking of the metal.
Lorna was next, with Renamon shortly behind her, and once again after only a few steps up the ladder they had gone too, leaving only me and Agunimon at the base.
As I was about to begin the climb myself, putting my hands on the first run the thoughts of how bad this plan were began to come into mind, as well as the possible consequences. Pausing for a moment, letting them run through my head,
"What's the matter?" looking over my shoulder, Agunimon just behind me
"Oh, you know – how bad this plan was, and how all it would take is on e brisk wind, or, for this ladder to break and we would all end up falling to our icy graves" the thought of that sent a chill down my already frozen spine
"Don't worry about it! It won't happen" he shouted over, however hardly reassuring giving the circumstances, a vicious storm, a rusty ladder, and my own frozen hands – it was a recipe for disaster waiting to happen. His optimism was certainly appreciated though.
"But what if it does?" I placed my second hand on the runs, preparing to make the climb, taking one final deep breath, chilling my lungs to the core as the cold air circulated in my chest, if anything keeping me alert.
"Then that's why I am behind you, I'll catch you" he had already proven he was more than capable in the 'Saving Jaredin' department, having pulled me down from the clutch of Coredramon, and then with Harpymon as well. With that in the forefront of my mind I began to slow climb upwards, confident that if anything were to happen, I always had Agunimon.
Even through the rags we had tied around our hands it was still freezing cold, every time putting my hands on the next run, I could feel my grip becoming looser, with the lack of strength in my extremities – and ahead of me all I could see was more ladder as snow continued to fall around us, the wind even more fierce this high up. Looking down I could see Agunimon just behind me, however he too seemed to be feeling the impact of the snow, his once vibrant coloured hair covered in a layer of white itself...I could only hope this ladder wasn't too long.
One run after another, step by step – slowly but surely we made our way up. The constant sound of the wind keeping my focused, as the thoughts of all the things that could go wrong slowly left my mind, a sense of hope and confidence we could do this filling me with each step we moved up. Finally after what felt like hours I could see the scenery change up ahead, it looked as if it was a cliff edge, had we approached the top? Spurred on by the thought of finally being off this ladder, and back on solid land I picked up the pace ever so slightly in an attempt to reach it faster, the ladder shaking harder now we were at the top.
I could see a silhouette of the others as I approached the last couple of runs, clasping hard onto one of the final runs...before hearing an almighty 'SNAP' which seemingly echoed off every wall around us. As soon as I had tried to apply my weight to the run the left side of it came away from the rusting frame. Knowing that I was in trouble already, my other hand gripped down instinctively as hard as it could on the run below, but with my already failing grip, and my other hand finding no purchase on the ladder, I could feel myself hanging by a literal knife's edge.
From above I heard frantic shouting, but over the sound of the blood rushing to my head, and the heartbeat in my chest, as well as the weather around me it was all a blur of sound. My grip began to fail; however, before it came lose I felt something tight around my hand, looking upwards to see what was seemingly holding me in place; I was relieved to see it was Agunimon. He had climbed up over the top of me, his body shielding the snow as he gripped down hard, my hand not been given the room to budge.
Using the opportunity now my safe hand was not going to move, I pulled my reaming hand onto the side of the ladder, clasping around it hard as I regained my balance, and my grip. With my panic levels beginning to wain, and my breathing returning to normal I looked back to Agunimon, and smiling gratefully "Thanks, buddy" nodding in return, he indicated his head upwards, knowing that I was in safe hands, I got back to the job at hand and finished off the climb to the top, being careful to skip the run which had broken...seconds later I was pulling myself up onto the cliff, a pair of arms belonging to Renamon and Regas taking hold of either one of mine and pulling me up, and away from the edge
"Too...close" I panted, laying down on the ground for a moment, before turning onto my side and pulling myself to my feet, never been happier to be on solid ground. Looking behind me to saw Agunimon reaching the top also, moving next me and helping me to stand, pulling me up with little effort. "Where to now?" looking around at the others, noticing Lorna seemed to be missing...
"There is a cave, just over here!" spotting her shouting, she was waving from just further up the path. Pulling myself together I jogged up the short distance with the others to find just as she had said, an entrance into the mines.
Various tools littered the front, and the old wooden beams used to support the structure had all seen better days, but, choosing between the bitterly cold weather and the opportunity for some respite it was an easy decision to make – we saw some tracks leading into it, old rail lines descending deeper into the passage. Pulling out my phone, I fumbled for a moment before finding the torch function, Regas and Lorna doing the same as the shaft lit up. Seeing no obvious dangers we began walking down the track, progressing deeper into the mines – the sounds of the winds become less intense, and taking on more of an echo through the hall, filtering down into all the various routes this tunnel could lead.