The Rise [1]

| XIII. HELL'S CIRCLES

xiii. hell's circles

                         When Tanner, Jacob and Seth opened the trapdoor, the group didn't know what to expect behind it — but it wasn't a surprise to meet the phiz of complete darkness.

"Alright, hold on a second", Tanner said as the group stared down into the darkness. "Let me think out loud. There was a chain hanging from the pool table. We can wrap that around a crossbar and use it to cantilever each one of us down. If we double the chain up, it should give us about 200 pounds of tensile strength-"

"Yeah", Seth muttered as he already started to move down while Tanner was still taking, "You keep working on that, MacGyver." Within a second, he jumped and landed on the ground, that was surprisingly not very deep.

"Or you could do that," Tanner said.

"Come on in, guys! Water's fine!" Seth called out from below. He stood pressed against the wall as his eyes wandered to the middle of ground, where a huge, what Tanner had called 'people juicer' was cracking dangerously. "I guess", Seth added under his breath. He wrinkled his nose at the smell, suppressing the urge to cough — it was a mixture of blood and raw flesh.

Kate took a worried look down, and Amber next to her, couldn't hide the fear in her eyes. Now, no doubt this place would brand her forever, but if she suddenly slipped and fell down it, she would also lose body parts — or die.

The next person to go down was Tanner, aka Sex Machine. He grabbed his bag and landed on the ground next to Seth with a grunt, quickly leaning against the wall, afraid to step forward into the juicer.

"Careful, careful", Seth warned.

"This isn't good", Tanner said out of breath and shoved his shotgun into his bag.

"Give me the bag!" Seth demanded, who had now moved a little further and was standing across from Tanner, the juicer right in the middle of them.

Tanner nodded and was about to toss the bag as he accidentally slipped and the bag fell into the mechanically working juicer.

"Shit!", Seth exclaimed angrily.

"Oopsy daisy."

"'Oopsy daisy'?" Seth threw Tanner a dumbfounded look and quickly shook his head. "No, you don't get to say, 'Oopsy daisy'. You just friggin' killed us!"

"I'm sorry! I slipped", Tanner defended himself, also shouting to drown the juicer's sound. "It not like this place isn't covered in blood or something."

"Hey guys!" Kate eventually called out, so the two would stop fighting.

Tanner turned around to her, his arms wide. "Kate, I got you girl." Slowly, Kate gave him her hand and he helped her land on the ground. After that, he gave her a suggestive look, and spoke, "See, chivalry isn't dead."

Kate reaction consisted of a slight eye roll. "Come on, Dad, Amber, you got it!", she called out as she turned around to the top again.

Jacob exchanged a look with Amber which meant for her to go first, and the girl swallowed hard before nodding.

"C'mon Amber", Kate said and Tanner stepped closer. "Bambi", he smirked, "I'll catch you."