GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (57 page)

‘It is a ladder! A bloody ladder! Oh my God
,
it’s a way out!’
she cried

Francesca wept with utter relief.
She had been
given
yet another chance
!
It was the first sign she
’d
had of modern civilisation in hours, maybe days
...
.

The iron ladder appeared secure and firmly attached to the wall by long metal bolts from the bottom rungs
that were
driven into the stone,
although the ladder
st
u
ck out a little from the wall.
The metal rungs rose upwards
,
losing themselves
in a
hole cut
through
the ceiling.
The hole
was about four or five metre
s
wide and would take her out and above the catacombs!

Francesca strain
ed
her neck backwards and shin
ed
her headlamp upwards
,
staring as far as the beam would go
...
.
I
t fell flat
before she could see the exit.
R
esigned
,
the technician began to climb.
She could only guess where it would lead to, but as far as she was concerned, up was good.
Francesca
resembled a worn
miner as her head peeked through the large black aperture above the catacomb ceiling.
There was nothing else for it.
Francesca immediately ascended the chimney
-
like structure, up and into the black hole
,
leaving the subterranean catacombs below...
.

Why is this place here?
she wondered.
I don’t care
...
thank
G
od I found it
.

CHAPTER VIII

DEATH IN DARK PLACES

Hand over hand,
Francesca began her long climb.
It was going to be hard
one
and
G
od only knew
where she would end up
!
One rung at a time
,
she was
morbidly careful
to keep
at least
three limbs in contact with the ladder
at all times
. Her headlight would not last much longer,
and Francesca was
conscious that precious time was passing as its luminosity was deplet
ed
on the cool façade.
A waning
,
dull yellow orange glow washed over the inside of the smooth circular stone shaft.
Francesca
maintained her long climb without rest.
S
he was just about all in
, but somehow her body kept going
.
So desperate she had become
to live that
the thought of eventual escape from the catacombs
had given her fantastic strength
.
Yet in time h
er body weaken
ed
and
her climb
slow
ed
down to a crawl. Francesca knew that she must be already quite high up the chimney
-
like structure
—
gauging her predicament
,
she began to panic
a little
.
W
hat happens when the light goes out
?
she wondered.

Certain that she’d left the killer far behind, Francesca sang
to herself to sustain her spirits.
It was an old song
from
the
1990s
,
by
an Englishman,
and
it was
called
“Angel”.
As she
thought of the singer, her thoughts were abruptly broken
by the
image of another Englishman
—
a rude
Englishman...
Jonathan!
Her mood instantly changed
when she saw
his arrogant look and smug smile
.
A
nd that was enough!
Keep going
,
girl
,
keep going!
she cheered herself on. Her anger gave her
the boost she needed
to keep on climbing.

A
nother twenty minutes into the climb
, Francesca was
resting more regularly and not daring
to
look down
. After all,
what
would she look down
for?
There was nothing to see
down there except
the black hole below
....
An uncanny feeling c
a
me
over
her during a resting period
;
she felt
a bit like
she was
swimming in a great ocean
,
above the
Mindanao Trench.
So deep it was
...
that thought was freaking her out, a spooky sensation of an unknown depth.
More than that
,
a dread
of
unnamed dangers lurking inside the subterranean dungeons
stirred up
fearful emotions.

Looking up again,
Francesca was surprised to see
the top!
Si!
T
he
ceiling
!
And n
ot too far away
, either
.
Francesca was excited
to
see her goal
before her
!
It was
already
much closer
,
al
though the girl’s thighs and calf muscles were aching severely
. She ignored the
scream
ing pain of her muscles
in
her forearms
and legs
. There was no going back
—s
he had to go
up.
...

‘Oh!’ she shouted
in panic, as her foot
beg
a
n to slip
.
H
er hands gripped firmly onto
the
two rungs of the ladder as both feet quickly
disengaged from the rungs.
It all happened so fast
that
Francesca
had no time to think. She
was at once fully stretched out, dangling
by her arms
and desperately scrambling to regain
her feet.
A few long seconds passed
and
, her heart
rac
ing,
she somehow managed to pull herself up, hugging the ladder
close
to her chest
as she
regain
ed
her balance
.

‘Whooooophfff
...
shit.
That was close!’ She blew a hard long sigh of relief
...
telling herself that the ceiling would still be there if she climbed slowly
.
It mocked her, only four metres away.

After regaining her breath,
Francesca
slowly scaled to
the top and
...
and
...
well
...
.
N
othing
.

The systems administrator looked around in complete
dismay.
S
he was gob smacked and totally taken aback, mesmerized at her ill fortune
.
She began to hyperventilate as her breathing becoming more and more rapid and out of control
.
Her heart paced madly with dreaded excitement
.
S
he could not believe it
—
after all this, the ladder went nowhere
?
There was no exit? She
had only
found another dead end!

‘Where the fuck is the way out? What the hell am I going to do now?
This can’t be
happening.
Gods help me!’
she yelled
at the ceiling,
kn
owing
that this climb had been her only
hope.
‘
T
he last thing I want to do is go back down to that hell hole!’ It was a horrible thought
.
L
ooking around in worry
she clung with
one hand
to the rung
and gazed around wildly, searching for escape
.
It was becoming harder to see
—
the light was nearly out!
Things could not get any worse
...
and Francesca
’s
spirit seemed broken and utterly demoralized.
She had run out of ideas! There seemed to be no other way
to go
except down
...
.

Twisting her body around
,
Francesca
searched
frantically above and to each side of her
.
Although t
he torch beam
was
ebbing by the minute, she
refused to
give up, gritting her mind
vainly
as she
searched for escape
.
She l
ook
ed
up again in disbelief
;
had she come all this way for nothing?
S
he s
train
ed
her neck backwards
to look for
some secret exit, anything,
anything at all
...
.