Pillar

Walking over to the pillar I examined it's metal texture until a door caught my eye, it's just like the one that brought me here. I looked quickly around and seeing no one went cautiously forward reaching out to the wheel and grabbed hold of the cool metal, giving it a twist thankfully this one came easily and swung inward soundlessly. I stepped into the doorway and looked up greeted with the sight of many gears and belts at work. 'Truly this is a work of genius' I thought to myself my mouth open slightly in awe. To my left and right there was a narrow spiral staircase leading up (to my left) and down (to my right), deciding to follow the airships direction I turned and began climbing up slowly as to avoid making too much noise, after all I couldn't be sure if the inhabitants of this world were friendly or not. I kept my back pressed against the metal side of the pillar arms stretched out also to ensure I didn't run into anything. I worked my way up the stairs slowly keeping my breathing quiet to listen for voices, the stairs seemed to stretch upward for an eternity I passed a window and glanced out seeing nothing but white clouds reminiscent to fog my breath began to get shaky maybe because I'm afraid or because I'm excited to encounter something, either way I fought to control my erratic breathing as I continued to work my way up the stairs looking in all direction to ensure I didn't run into danger wether that be because of cameras people or steam suddenly leaping out of no where. I passed three more windows still white and cloudy outside until I approached the fifth window the sky outside is a brilliant shade of blue like if you looked at the world through a camera filter that brought out all of the color hidden from the eye and above that I could see what appeared to be the underside of the city, many gears and fans were hard at work keeping the city up in the air and now an then steam would release from one spot or another and join the clouds that I had unintentionally passed through, 'so they are keeping the city from being seen, but is that their goal ? Or is this just how it works?' I thought to myself and I continued up the stairs and found that they ended at another door identical to the one many feet below me, I hesitated weighing the risk of being discovered if someone came through the door, hesitating I rested against the wall for a couple of minutes catching my breath then I started forward only for terror to grip me as the door started to open I dashed and hid behind the door just as it swung open, I held my breath and froze "-the sensor just said that the door had been opened, I don't know by who" said one voice and shortly before a man appeared walking briskly he was tall and redheaded dressed in neat Victorian era clothing but unlike back then he had a contraption (if I'm being honest) strapped to his arm and as I leaned ever so slightly forward to get a better look at him I discovered that there were bits and pieces of machinery hanging out of his pockets of his coat and underneath coveralls. The man turned and I soundlessly darted back behind the door before he saw me. I couldn't see who he was exactly talking to but I could hear them, it was a deep Scottish voice it said "aye think the sensor's are going haywire, only one way to find out though, and that's to go down there and see for ourselves" the voice stopping and the red headed man scrutinized the unseen speaker with barely concealed excitement, clearly he enjoyed his work "Capital idea Tavish, Capital, well let's be off then" and with that the redhead turned and headed down the stairs followed closely by a scrawny man dressed in black and grey,