We spread out and explored the hangar. I was immediately drawn to a large pair of red double doors. Inside were two metal boxes, and each had a door with a curved handle. When I looked at them, I felt uneasy. They gave off a painful feeling, even though they were clean and smooth. I opened one and stepped inside.
There was a needle on a small table, with a bucket of needles beside it on the floor. There were black tubes and complicated machines in the ceiling. I wondered who built them; spiders don't have hands. I left the room feeling creeped out.
Azarias walked into the hangar, having finally finished tightrope walking. He said, "Now there's a safe route for us to get back, even if the spider isn't here."
I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at the bridge of thread. "I don't know if I would call that safe."
I showed the metal chambers to the others. One of them had found a permanent marker while looking around the hangar and used it to sign his name. he said, "If we're going to die, might as well."
I noticed a tiny plaque next to the chambers. It read, "Decontamination."
"Hey, I found something." I heard a call from across the hangar. Someone had found a staircase leading up. Instead of a full second floor, it led to a long strip of wood that stuck out over the Chasm. "It doesn't look very sturdy. You shouldn't walk onto that."
Azarias was examining the tram. He got underneath it and pulled open a compartment, but it was empty. Then he climbed on top and unscrewed the hatch. It came open without issue. However, he came out only a second later. "There aren't any controls in here. How are we going to get it moving?"
Someone interjected, "You're already talking about getting it moving? It goes right into a void. How do we know there's anything on the other side?"
"Well, if the cable is holding up, there has to be another support somewhere."
There was silence after that. Azarias glanced at the wooden plank. He smirked, "Jumping off would be an adventure of its own."
He walked out of the hangar and asked the spider, "What are we supposed to do now? The tram doesn't want to move on its own. It is the right path towards the unseen, isn't it?"
The spider sighed. "Even though all of you are just tools to me, it still feels embarrassing for me to tell you this. Nevertheless, I will suffer through it and tell you: According to what I was told, I cannot leave this side because I have no friends. Only one who has friends can cross the Chasm and go to the Mountain. You must first possess something in order to give something up; progress is for those who can give up a bond for a greater purpose."
"Give up a friendship? None of us are that good of friends yet. We just got here."
"Then you'd better make friends before you leave on your expedition. I only took you over here to show you this place; you aren't ready to go. There's more to the specifics of the offering, but you all don't even have team cohesion yet. Do you think you can just run off into the unknown? Good luck with that! Oh wow, I'm bored! Wow, it is so painful. I need to leave immediately."
The spider leaped into the air and frantically moved from pillar to pillar. On the other side of the canyon, everyone on the plateau cleared out of the way as it scrambled up the hill and back into the cave.
Azarias chuckled. "Tandem tightrope walking is pretty intense for a first official team-building exercise."
Someone objected: "I'd rather just stay here. That bridge looks terrifyingly weak. Why not figure out how to get the tram car working? We could do all our training here and then leave, which would avoid the risky trips back and forth."
"I'm excited too, and I'm glad you're so eager, but we need to make the situation clear to the others. More importantly, we need to establish ourselves."
"Establish ourselves?"
"Our little organization needs a name. We need to think of rules and roles. Does anyone have ideas for a name?"
Someone mumbled, "Even if we have no idea of the contents of our future expeditions, we at least know we'll be exploring. The name should have 'explore' in it somewhere."
Teresa added, "Our name should depend on our goals, so I'd like to confirm something first. Everyone here, you all want to leave this place, right?"
Everyone nodded. Someone said, "Maybe it would be fine if we could live here safely, but this place just feels wrong, and now with the added threat of the spider, getting out is clearly the right thing to do."
With a hopeful tone, another person added, "What if we find a beautiful and habitable place on the other side of this Chasm? We would be safe from the spider. We could bring the others."
Someone else angrily added, "Forget the others; they're ungrateful brats. If we find a utopia out there, let's keep it all to ourselves. Even if everyone here is voluntarily going along with this exploring bullshit, it wasn't what we thought we were getting into, and it's definitely not charity work. The least we deserve is to keep the rewards that we reap."
Azarias raised his hands placatingly. "You must remember; the others are under the influence of the 8-Ball. You aren't better than the others by default. That's doesn't make it any less frustrating, but it's worth keeping in mind. In the big picture, all of us are the victims of this world. If we escape, we escape together. I don't say that just because of morality; I say it because of practicality. If you think they're hostile now, how do you think they'd react if they got a whiff of the idea we're abandoning them for a better place?"
"But then aren't we working for free? They can just sit back and wait for us to do it all."
Azarias smiled. "I'm sure there will be many beautiful things to look at on the other side; that alone will make it worth it. And in the case you don't like it, when you're obligated to do something you aren't exactly in love with, it's helpful to find ways to make it fun for yourself. I can already see it—we'll soak up lots of knowledge and put our minds together, then we'll get to form theories, analyze, compare, discuss, and argue. We'll be both explorers and researchers, isn't that exciting?"
"When we go back, I want us to have a building. It should be the biggest and tallest one around; we can't let them look down on us!"
Azarias nodded. "Yes, I predict the construction of buildings will be a primary task. I'm not sure if there's any environmental need for shelter; how could rain fall in a giant cave? But even if they aren't necessary for shelter, having houses will be important psychologically. It'll make us less of a hivemind."
I chimed in, "If we're going to be both exploring and researching, why don't we call ourselves the Mountain Research and Exploration Institute?"
Azarias bent over laughing. "That's so uncreative; that's just like you."
Teresa glared at him. "I like it, Enza. All in favor of the name Mountain Research and Exploration Institute, say aye."
"Aye," everyone said.
We carefully searched the hangar, but other than the decontamination chambers, there wasn't much else that was interesting. Azarias waved his hand," Come on, we're getting started."
We all looked at the bridge of thread. Flox was taking a closer look at the securing point for the bridge on our side. "I don't know how safe that is, especially for all of us at once."
Azarias nodded. "Then we can go in pairs. Now, is anyone afraid of heights?"
Someone shakily raised their hand from the middle of the crowd. Azarias looked upon this person with a gentle expression. "Would you remind the group of your name?"
"Sariel."
I hadn't noticed this boy until now. He was unassuming, although his bright blonde hair did stick out. The expression on his face was terminally scared. It looked like he was born scared, had always lived scared, and would die scared. He looked so terrified right now that it almost made me burst out laughing. I wondered how nobody had asked him if he was okay until now. I wondered how he himself hadn't said anything until now. Surely someone this scared would be constantly protesting and crying.
Azarias imitated crying, "Oh, Sariel, I'm so sorry to put you through your fear, but you braved it the first time, didn't you? I believe in you to do it one more time. Just let the person walking behind you know if you need any help. During this crossing, we're all going to be responsible for stabilizing each other."
Sariel shook his head and replied with a calm voice, "No. Looking the way I do does not mean I am asking for special help; I am insulted that you would pity me. The act of raising my hand was simply answering the question you asked, as I do not lie." He walked to the very back of the group. "I will go last."
I laughed internally. I decided I would talk to this Sariel person more later.
Azarias extended his hands for balance and began to walk across the spider's bridge. "All you have to do is find a single point in front of you, one that doesn't move, and focus on it. Don't look away, and definitely don't look at the ground."
As Azarias walked smoothly, I heard someone mumble, "Is he just making it look easy? I think he has practice with this that he's not telling us about..."
I didn't want to go second, nor did I want to go third. I decided I'd stay near the back of the group with Sariel. It seemed statistically safer, since other people would have already tested the bridge's structural integrity to a certain extent. I couldn't tell if this was backwards logic or not.
While the bravest people moved to the front, I was looking at Aleksi. He was on the ground making drawings using his finger as a carving tool. They were incredibly realistic. "Where did you learn to do that?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I'm seeing in two dimensions, so making a two-dimensional representation seems easy."
"What do you mean you're seeing in two dimensions?" I walked in a circle around him. "What I just did requires three dimensions."
"But as soon as you stop moving, it becomes two-dimensional. It becomes an image."
"In an image, can't you still tell when some objects are behind or in front of others?"
"Yes, because two dimensions can create an imaginary third. That's the magic of drawing. Sure, you can call yourself a three-dimensional creature when you walk around, but everything you're perceiving out of those two eyes can be broken down into single images. I can draw them; it feels comfortable to do so."
"I think three dimensions are more interesting than two."
"The flexibility of two dimensions wins out. It takes away the harsh rules of reality. Sometimes when you look at a drawing for long enough, you can convince yourself you're living inside it. It feels amazing."
I thought about the spider. It was looking at two-dimensional images and probably yearning to exist third-dimensionally within them. Maybe if it learned to draw, its yearning wouldn't be as painful.
It was my turn to step out over the canyon. I looked at the red river rushing far below, then I remembered that looking down was a mistake.
The person behind me gently tapped my shoulder. "Come on, get a move on. The rest of us are waiting."
I shuddered and took a step forward, then another step. Sometimes instances of bravery can only happen with the pressure of others.
I wondered if that was a good or bad thing.