Landfall

It’s been a rather bumpy ride so far, but I think I’m hanging in there. I am taking solace in the fact that this will not be the bumpiest ride today. If anything, this would be akin to one of those rocking rides in the arcades, or so I’m told by the people who have been through the turbulence, such as it is referred to, of passing through a vile vortex. We will be landing soon. Chloe was sitting next to me and she looked just as apprehensive about this as I did. As these feelings of anticipation stewed inside both of us, I could feel our Osprey slowing down. We were almost there.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen,” our pilot called out, “this will be your last chance. If anyone thinks they are no longer up for the trip you have until this plane takes off again to reconsider.”

“Thanks for the concern, Relay, but we’ll manage,” someone further inside called back.

“Is that you Bozo? Hah! When did you come back out? I figured you were gone!”

“It’s been about 3 months and you know I don’t die easy.”

Chloe turned to me as the pilot and the passenger continued to exchange banter. “Relay and Bozo?”

I could see what she was doing. She was grasping at things to keep her mind off of what was coming. I would have loved to indulge her, but…

“They’re nicknames…”

“I know, but where do they come from?”

“Well… I don’t know…”

“We could make a guess…” she went on.

“The pilot is Relay because he used to be the only one that ran this route in the beginning, and the name has stuck since. He’s Bozo because he has done a whole bunch of back-and-forth trips between the surface and the hollow earth and now, we just believe he’s testing his luck.”

We both turned to our left to the man sitting next to us, the one who just spoke up. Unlike us, he seemed much more relaxed. His legs were crossed and he was rolling a coin over his knuckles. He looked young as well, and yet he gave off an air of experience that was making me envious.

“Well, I imagine I’ll be inheriting the name pretty soon.” He went on.

“What was that, Charts?” The man named Bozo called out.

“Hmm, oh just talking about how dumb we both are, refusing to come to terms with the fact that we’ve made the drop one or couple times too many.”

“Damn straight! You should quit while you’re still young.”

“I’ll quit when you turn old.”

“Well, I’ll be seeing you around for a while then, eh?”

“Yes sir,” and then Bozo and our neighbour, named Charts apparently, both started chuckling.

Once they were done Charts looked at us and offered his hand to me. “I’m Phillip Ishida, it's a pleasure to meet you.”

I took his hand and shook it. “Pleasure to meet you too, I’m…”

“Vansh Pali and Chloe Janes, yes, I know who you guys are.”

“Oh? How come?” I asked.

“Because I am joining you on your cartography mission. I’ll be your tracker. Not that you’ll need one on the mission, but better have one along, right?”

“I see.”

“Uhm, if you don’t mind me asking,” Chloe spoke up. “Where does ‘Charts’ come from?”

“Oh, because I’m also a cartographer and if you took a peek in my office, the only thing you’ll see are charts.”

“So, you’re the one who’s actually going to chart everything we find?” I asked.

“So, you are then admitting that your objective for this expedition has nothing to do with charting new territory?”

“Well, I could have done it. I would have been terrible at it, but I could have done it.”

“Hmm, I think we will get along just fine.”

We finished our conversation right as the Osprey landed. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Outpost 32.” The pilot said as they turned down the engines and opened the bay door. “I wish you good luck and fortune on your assignments here.”

The passengers started shuffling out. The man named Bozo immediately struck up a conversation with some of the maintenance crew who were coming to service the Osprey. The rest of us continued onward into the facility and out of the cold. Now we had to wait. All of a sudden, I had a thought about this situation feeling similar to another rather mundane process. In fact, it felt so similar I let out a sigh of relief.

“What’s wrong?” Chloe asked me.

“I just realized… this is like a layover between a domestic and international flight,” I told her almost chuckling.

“What?”

“Think about it… we’ve just got off a short haul and now we are currently waiting as our baggage gets transferred onto the flight for the long haul.”

“Yeah, it is anti-climactic, isn’t it?” Ishida chimed in. “Heck, the time to get from Little Rockford to Outpost 32 is longer than the trip from Outpost 32 to Station 1. So, one can argue the long haul is already over.”

“Well, sure… but what kind of flight requires you to wear a full-body suit for the trip?” she asked, her anxiety starting to increase.

“Well… think of it like switching into some more comfortable clothes so you can sleep on the flight.”

“I can’t sleep on a flight,”

The sudden blunt response kind of caught me off-guard. “Wait… what?”

“I can’t sleep on a flight. Well, I can’t sleep sitting up, it is a skill I have yet to acquire.”

“Ah…” I had no idea how to respond to that and I could hear Ishida chuckling somewhere beside us.

We were left to ourselves for most of the time, and soon afterwards the orientation for the drop happened. We were given a rundown of the Vortex Transit Vehicle, how the trip would be and what to do during the drop. Well, all we had to do was sit in our seats, hold back our restraints and pray. Those were the literal words used to sum up the entire procedure. I felt like they could have left out the ‘pray’ part for people doing this the first time. Soon after the orientation we were given medication for motion sickness and were taken to our drop suits. The drop suits looked and functioned like regular flight suits used by the military. You know, the ones that variably pressurize themselves to make sure blood keeps flowing to the brain?

Soon afterwards we were escorted into a truck that would take us to the VTV. Chloe was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable and anxious. I racked my brain trying to think of anything to help her calm down, but came up empty. I looked at the people who would be joining us on the drop. I saw Ishida, a couple of people who came with us from Little Rockford and a couple of others I didn’t recognize. Though we seemed to be conspicuously missing someone.

“Where is Bozo?” I asked Ishida as we strapped ourselves in.

“Oh… as it turned out, he was not due for a drop today.” He replied. “His assignment does not start until next month. He’s here early and of his own volition because he just wanted to be here, and they allowed him to come because they figured it would be a good boost to morale at the outpost.”

“Oh, that’s nice of him.”

We then reached the VTV, it looked like a rocket, except it was pointed downward and its engines were there to slow it down after passing through the vile vortex. It was held up in its bay with the help of a bunch of clamps. Below I could see the vile vortex glowing. We were strapped in side-by-side around in a circle. This gave me another thought.

“Hey, this is like those free fall fairground rides,” I said to Chloe. Maybe talking about it this way would calm her down.

“I never liked those rides, the thrill was too much,” she replied, still feeling anxious.

“I… I’m starting to wonder if you actually wanted to come on this trip.” I said as the restraints fastened down onto us.

“No! I do, I just… conveniently forgot… that we had to do the drop… to get to the hollow earth until today.”

Ishida let out a huge laugh after hearing that. “Ah, don’t worry Ms. Janes. They say the cryptozoologist is one of the lucky few who can take delight in the exploration and research of one of humanity’s frontiers…”

As he said that an announcement sounded off in the VTV, “Drop sequence in 2 minutes…”

“… We have the astronauts who reach out beyond our home and into the great expanse of space and the many worlds it hides…”

We heard some metallic groaning as another announcement sounded off, “Drop sequence in 1 minute…”

“…Then there are the oceanographers who dive to the depths of the deep blue sea in search of the secrets it holds…”

“Drop sequence in 15… 14… 13… 12…”

“… And finally, us, the cryptozoologists drilling into the hollow earth and chasing the monsters that call it home!”

“… 2… 1.”

No sooner had Ishida and the announcement both finished before we heard a bunch of loud clicks as the clamps that held the VTV to its bay released and we felt ourselves in free fall. Even with the restraints on, my body floated ever so slightly off my chair. As I pushed myself back into my chair, another announcement sounded off. “Breaching vortex, brace in… 3… 2… 1.”

I tensed up, closed my eyes and grabbed onto my restraints. But nothing could have prepared me for what came next. I don’t know how to describe it besides just plain uncomfortable and painful. At first, it felt like my legs were trying to press themselves into my body, and soon after it was my head. Then it felt like my torso was going to explode as my legs and head continued to push in and threaten to take its place. Then my torso started to feel crushed as my head and legs threatened to rip themselves away. I thought I would die right then, simultaneously crushed and ripped apart by the inverting gravitational field.

But then the forces started to loosen, and everything felt like it was returning to where it should be. I dared to let out my breath and opened my eyes for a peek. Was it over? I could still feel myself in free fall. Then I heard a whine as I slowly got pressed back into my seat, the VTV’s engines were starting to fire and slow our descent. I breathed a sigh of relief and I could hear a multitude of people following suit. Chloe was breathing huge and heavy breaths.

“Hey Chloe, breathe… slow and steady,” I called out to her.

“… Yeah… yeah, I’m good,” she said as she steadied her breath.

“You good?” I heard another voice to my left, no doubt Ishida’s. I turned to look at him, fully expecting him to be smiling and ready to make some sort of funny quip about this being our first time. But no, he seemed just as strained and out of breath as me and Chloe.

“Yeah, this never gets easier…” he said as if he knew what I was thinking, “so we are grateful for every time we pull through.” He let out a huge sigh, closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out again. “But it never gets old either,” he said as his smile returned to him. “Good work pulling through the drop,” he said to both of us. “And from me to both of you,” he went on as we felt a shudder and the full weight of our bodies back in our control as the VTV landed, “Welcome to the hollow earth.”