My world spun. I felt dizzy and damp. Everything was dark. I felt cold. I wasn't out of air but my body felt sluggish. I was lying on my back atop something hard. Stone? The air felt stale. My thoughts moved like molasses inside my head. What happened? I buried a man's head, went to the courthouse and then...

I was thrown into a hole in the ground. A deep crevice. I might've broken several bones but I didn't feel pain. Just hunger, thirst, and this dizziness.

I needed some light. I summoned my phone and turned it on. The LED screen flashed to life and the first thing I saw was the hour. It marked 23:57. Then I unlocked it and turned on the flashlight. I see something that almost stopped my heart.

I was inside a cave. The irregular rock formations of the roof went up and down at the flavor of the rock, and I knew it was a natural cave. There was no light beside my phone. I turned around to lie on my side and touched the rock. If I was in a cave and the air was stale, there was barely any to no oxygen to breathe.

Frightened, I screamed but no sound came out. I was too weak. I felt as if I was paralyzed.

I Decomposed oxygen from the rock. A lot, the fastest I could. Then it hit me. It felt like I took ten ibuprofen pills. A dozen good gulps of air and my mind was thinking straight, the sluggishness was gone, and my body was working as it should again. And it meant I needed food and water. Immediately.

The wracking pain was terrifying. My throat was parched, I felt my skin dry and shriveled. I hoped it was just my impression. I took my canteen and drank short sips. I couldn't go all out even though I desperately desired that live liquid.

My mouth tasted like I drank sewage. Maybe I did. I washed my mouth but swallowed instead of spitting. Let my body handle the filth.

I spent a lot of time in there, slowly draining my canteen. Life came back to my body but my stomach craved food. I summoned the cooler bag and checked inside. I had food for two days if I rationed what I had. It would be hard. I took a pack of salted chips. After the first bite, the synthetic taste of onion and garlic was too much. I devoured the bag and then another. Only when I saw the silver bottom of the inner lining of the last package I came to my senses.

I had to ration my food.

Stupid.

I felt my stomach churn and stood very quiet. The only thing worse than eating half my food in one go would be to lose it. I had nowhere to run. I just closed my eyes and hoped it was all a dream. My imagination playing tricks on me. But it wasn't.

Sated, I fell asleep.

I woke up hearing a door slam. Did it happen in my dream or was there a real door in this place? At least I felt good. The air was stale again and I had to get moving. I had no idea where to run to but I could always explore. I wondered if I would ever see the sun again.

No. Begone dark thoughts. I was freaking alive, fed, hydrated. There was nobody to save me but myself. Time to fight for my life.

I summoned the lantern and turned it on in the dimmest brightness. Now I could see the whole tunnel. It was not straight and very irregular. Only where I Decomposed oxygen to breathe it was smooth. I could see flickering reflections on one side and I knew the tunnel was damp. Was it water?

Before I explored around, I checked myself with my makeup mirror. I was a mess. Covered in dry blood and grime. I had a big blood clot around my crotch. It stained the rock where I was sitting. And it smelled like something I knew very well.

Aunt Flo sent her regards.

It gave me a perspective of how long I was down here. At least one week, maybe two or more but not more than a month and something. Damn. Damn.

I stored whatever clothes could be stored in the way they were. It left only the linen dress. Damn, damn.

Angry, I Decomposed the dress, the blood, the grime, everything. Punch out the oxygen because it is good to breathe and all that is left are hydrocarbon compounds. I could smell LPG like a leaky gas stove, gasoline. Smart girl. Damn!

I couldn't even stand up. There wasn't enough room. I shouted, "Begone, carbon."

Graphite dust fell around me. I was naked but I kept pushing all and any carbon away from me. I rolled around and saw that all my objects were lying around. Bad. Bad. I left the food bag out for some hours. I swept them back into the timeless storage.

Focus.

Focus.

I was unhurt, naked, in the dark except for the lantern. That was also bad. I had to ration my energy. Once I was out of light sources, a Grue would eat me. My sense of humor was back. Not now! I was unhurt but I could tell my hair felt longer. Wilder. Probably a side effect of spending too much time here, unconscious. There was no airflow, no wind in this cavern. The air was stale and there was no oxygen.

How did I survive without oxygen?

Was it my regeneration healing the effects of anaerobic metabolism? My body eating itself and regenerating, like being both the eagle and Prometheus at the same time. That was the best explanation.

Fortunately, I had the perfect solution to the lighting problem. I had a hand crank flashlight. For as long as I could wind it, I'd have light. And the battery was full. I wrapped the flashlight in a white handkerchief and tied it around with a scrunchie. I wanted a dimmer and diffuse light.

Next, the whereabouts of the ones aboveground. While I had no x-ray vision, I could still sense Penny and Dime. Far, far away. Just a distant ping. Like when you know which way is north in London and then you point southwest to your hometown.

It was good to be able to sense them. It meant both were alive and also that I had a heading. I knew which way to go. The downside was that I was pretty sure I couldn't get there in a single day. Being lost in a cave and all that jazz.

I needed clothes. My boots were caked in blood so I took the sneakers. Cargo pants, long-sleeved shirt, a jacket for some extra protection. So far, so good. There were no caves in Devil Ridge so I didn't take my helmet with me. This section of the cave I was in was not tall enough for me to stand up and one of the biggest dangers in a cave is bumping your head. You'd think people had some extra senses regarding head positioning, but it turns out that the environment where we developed had little to no danger to the head. Except for some wild animal bashing it.

I needed a helmet. After pondering for some time, I decided to make one. From the metals I had, one stood out as a good candidate. Titanium. Almost as strong as the steel they made and forty percent lighter. And I could shape it with Decompose because it was a pure element. While it wouldn't be much good in a fight, I just wanted something to stop my scalp from scraping the low rock roof.

I spent quite some time shaping half a disk of titanium into a helmet. It scored minus four for style but a solid ten for cost and a nine for useful. I put the hood of my jacket over my head and the helmet over it. I looked like a medieval hobo but that was fine.

Now, which way to get out? Left or right? To the left I had water. I crawled there and found a briny pool. The water smelled of rotten eggs and full of sulfur compounds. It was also murky. From the way I see it, I might've climbed out of this pool and crawled to where I recovered my senses. That meant I could find my way back if I went into this pool.

Something told me it was a bad idea.

I could swear I saw something moving in that water. Given my track history with things moving in murky waters, I really didn't want to dive in there. I could go around but the presence of water here meant I could be below the water table. Digging around could be disastrous.

All that was left was to go to the other side then. I turned around and crawled ahead. The ground was irregular and faulty. It felt like this tunnel here wasn't traveled, ever. Jagged shards of rocks sprouted from everywhere. The area around the water was smoother, probably from the water, which told me that the water level could rise.

I could see stuffed salt deposits that sprouted from the rock from too much hydration. Colored veins. I was inside a mine. I could see red clay with galena ore. Lead. Given what I faced and where I used the almost hundred kilograms of lead I obtained, I could use more lead.

To go further, I'd have to use Decompose to smooth the ground or I'd ruin my clothes and bleed myself dry. What is the problem with some looting? I Decomposed my path and part of the walls and roof. A lot of lead, aluminum from the clay, sulfur, and iron from the pyrite and some copper. The silicon was used as paving for my passage.

After going ahead for a bit I heard a creature creeping from behind. Something wet slapping on something hard.