Paula and Marty's Story

Walled either side, with golden rocks that would burn soft skin, Marty ventured down a winding channel as he lay back in a smooth and slightly bumped valley. When he looked left and right he could see lead cased lights of stark crystal. A grey, hazy and matte sky merged with the top of the tall, imposing walls on both sides. As he slid, he meandered from one wall to the other and occasionally spun a full rotation somehow failing to crash into a solid- jagged cliff-face. For one minute he pondered an inevitable abyss. Downwards he rode, numbly and unknowing.

The slide flattened out, as it approached an opening between medieval-style walls which encircled an expansive clearing. Marty almost flew over a narrow ledge, lying on his front and facing where he had abruptly ventured, before Paula grabbed him by both wrists.

‘I’M SKIDDING!’ the young woman cried, with Marty half dangled over the edge as she struggled to keep her footing, ‘GRAB ONTO SOMETHING!’ She was forced to let go and Marty had a split second to grab a slightly proud brick in the walkway with his scraped and bruised left hand. Jets of an oily and gooey substance burned the soles of his shoes before he scrambled and gained a footing on the ledge and fell onto Paula in an embrace.

‘I’m so glad to see you!’ said a relieved Marty as he gained his breath. ‘How did you find me?’

‘It’s a long story’, she replied. ‘Welcome back.’

The two of them stood hand in hand whilst they peered into the vast pit which Marty had narrowly escaped. Paula explained that she had seen someone fall in before they were burned alive and their bodies became part of the thick, black gooey bog. Strangely there was no stench, but jets of grey steam created a haze around the large circumference of the ledges.

The ledge was roughly two meters wide. As Marty was led by Paula, through level and uneven sections of the yellowy brown walkway, she explained how she found the horrifying pit. From the ‘desert’ like area where she had awoken, she had eventually found a bumpy area in the surface which she followed. Meticulously she followed the slight undulations between the flat areas. This area then led to an entrance to the pit.

‘But how did you know about me?’ Marty replied, ‘How did you know that I would fall into the pit?’

‘I found the entrance to the pit, which is a large arched door which we need to find now’, Paula replied in a commanding voice as they walked on, ‘There were strange arrows on the floor. But I can’t see them now? I’m sure these guided me to the door that you slid out of’, she added.

Along the curved ledge, past many doors and occasionally gazing around the diameter, of what must have been at least one mile, they found their way to a grand arched doorway of yellow dusty sandstone and a grey marble keystone. The top of the doorway must have been ten metres from the floor, and the opening seemed to be similar in width to the height. The pair of them walked through the opening, back to the desert. On their way out of the pit, Paula had described another path that the mysterious arrows had directed her away from. They had no choice but to follow this. This path was the only route away from the area they gave the name ‘Earthbound’.