"Do you have any idea what you're even talking about?!" Dibbuk complained, tossing a slab of stone over her shoulder.

"Yes. I do. If you keep the pressure up in the tanks you can ready them quicker than having to re-pressurize them every time." Selby argued back, tossing a much smaller slab over his own.

"You'd be right, for about a week. Then one of the seals would split and leave you without any flesh on your spine. I know, ask Harvel when you see him next." She argued back, heaving another bicycle sized stone over her shoulder.

"What are you two on about?" Wicksomme chimed in, breathing heavily as he hefted a shovelful of stones aside.

"Nothing! If we got better quality seals for the tanks it wouldn't be a factor. Problem solved." Selby said, wiping away a deluge of sweat from his forehead.

"Good luck with that Klagbender." Lier added from further up the pile of debris. Dibbuk shifted out of the way as a shower of small stones slid down the remains of the caved in tunnel. This was one of the oldest pipes she'd ever seen. Void of metal, the entirety of the chamber they were in was constructed of what looked like paving stones.

They'd been attempting to clear the debris for over an hour at this point and so far all they could fit through the hole was Liers hand. Things weren't looking good for their little expedition. The sensor was only a half mile away from where they were and yet, with no charted way around they might have to turn back.

"Klagbender, come try to get through this would you? I'm not as lithe as I used to be." Lier said, gesturing towards the hole he'd been working on. Selby climbed to the top and attempted to fit his head and shoulders through the gap. He'd gotten about halfway in before pulling himself out with such force another shower of stones rained down upon Dibbuks arms.

"Nope. Not gonna work. Need more room." Selby stated, quickly dusting himself off and making his way back down the pile.

"Not doing that. Not doing that." Dibbuk heard, the thoughts sounding panicked. Selby quickly began sifting through bricks and stone shards, throwing up little clouds of dust around his feet. Dibbuk eyed Selby from across the tunnel.

'What's eating him? He's been getting more and more bitchy for the last two hours. It honestly seemed like he could have fit.' She thought, taking a second to glance up at Lier.

He didn't seem very pleased with Selby at the moment either. The thousand yard stare Lier was giving him was slightly squinty-er than the one he normally wore. His gaze relaxed a bit as he met Dibbuks own and it seemed an understanding was forming between them. Neither of them were going to put up with Selbys shit for much longer.

Dibbuk inspected the rubble again. Most of the large rocks were near the bottom. One in particular caught her eye near the edge of the pile. It was probably the largest of all the stones currently blocking their way. It looked like it had broken through the wall where it had fallen.

Dibbuk walked back up the pipe and nudged Mary's shoulder. At the moment she was with Don lowering a long black cord into a crack that ran from the bottom of the pile outwards.

"Do you think I should move that rock?" Dibbuk asked, pulling Marys focus away from the fissure.

Mary glanced up at the heap and scoffed, "Be more specific hun."

"I meant, do you think I could move that rock and not bring this place crashing down around our ears?" Dibbuk elaborated, scooping a stray brick out of the drying sludge and lobbing it at the monolith. Mary took another look at the boulder then gave her a "so so" hand gesture.

"Honestly I couldn't tell you. Every pebble we move has a chance of causing a cave in at this point. Good news is there's no open cavities below us for another few hundred feet, so it's unlikely we'll fall in. I would say it isn't advisable, but it isn't exactly advisable for us to be down here in the first place." Mary commented, showing Dibbuk a map of the area around them.

"Hmm. So, yes?" Dibbuk asked, still unsure of what Mary was getting at. Most of the screen was yellow save for a couple of weak blue lines near the bottom.

"You can try. If you open up a bigger passage then we can move on. If you block up the tunnel then we get to trek back home. I'm not exactly against either. Just be careful. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes you know." Mary clarified. Dibbuk took another look at the pile of rubble.

'Stupid games, stupid prizes, huh?' She thought as she walked back towards the heap.

"Captain, Wicksomme, get down please. I want to try something. You may need to run." Dibbuk said, waving them down off the rubble. Lier and Wicksomme made their way down, sliding and tripping over the jagged stones.

Dibbuk approached the boulder, shifting her head this way and that to get a better look at it. She'd never really tried to move anything this large before. She'd picked up the back of an AV about the same size at one point, though, she doubted the weight would be at all comparable. It was worth a try.

She slid her arm down and around the outside, grabbing a tentative handhold on the side nearest the wall. Now for the other hand. She pushed inwards against the stones pressing up against the other side. She worked though the pain as stones scraped and tore at the backside of her claws. The deeper she buried her hand the greater the pressure from the debris pile.

Finally once she'd buried her arm up to the elbow she found a divot in the stone large enough to get a hand hold. There wasn't a way of pushing the stone without bringing the rest of the rubble down on top of her. She'd have to pull to get anywhere with it. This wasn't going to be pretty.

This was one of the few times Dibbuk was not only thankful to have a tail, but actually wished it were longer. She braced herself against the wall with the appendage and began shifting her shoulders back and forth. Her first attempts got her nowhere, her tail flailing wildly and slapping against the stone. For all her strength she could only feel the stone move slightly with each subsequent attempt.

"You uh, sure you got this?" Selby whispered, having moved up next to her head while Dibbuk was catching her breath.

"Yeah, maybe. Give me a minute." She muttered, frustration creeping in. She tried another few times to no avail. Embarrassment building with each attempt.

"I'm not so sure about this." Selby commented, arms folded. Dibbuk groaned, she was getting tired of Selbys dwindling work ethic.

"Look, just, just say something that'll piss me off okay." She said, glaring at him. She wasn't going to be able to move it without some real motivation. Anger always seemed to help motivate Harvel, might as well give it a try.

"What? I guess. What pisses you off? I have no clue." He asked in a sarcastically helpful tone. Dibbuk had to take a moment to think about it. She hadn't been outwardly angry in a long time. Most of the things that made her mad also pissed Harvel off and with his over active sense of justice they tended to get taken care of pretty quickly. Messily, but quickly none-the-less.

"I don't know, just think of something. Call me a croc or a dino, you know? Stuff like that." She answered, gritting her teeth. If he failed at getting a rise out of her the frustration and embarrassment of the situation alone might be enough.

"What?! I'm not doing that! I don't say things like that." Selby complained, a panicked look spreading across his face.

"What? I told you to do it, now get to it. I'm forgiving you in advance." She grunted, making another attempt at the boulder.

Selby gave her an incredulous look. "No. I'm not doing that. I don't believe in that kind of stuff." He said, crossing his arms defiantly. Dibbuk felt the beginnings of rage building up inside her.

"I told you it was okay, now do it." She groaned, again making no progress.

"No. I'm not like that!" Selby pleaded, attempting and failing at making eye contact. Dibbuk was too focused on the task at hand to look at much else. Why wouldn't he just damn well do it? She'd told him it was fine.

"You call me a croc, and then I'll call you a squisher. We'll be even." She reasoned, letting her snout rest against the stone for a second while she caught her breath. She didn't like using the word "squisher", it was something she'd only ever seen used in online forums. She'd never heard it said out loud. It didn't exactly make her comfortable to say it aloud either.

"No! Also, you have a word for us? How did I never know that?" Selby protested. That was it. Dibbuk was officially fed up with his shit.

'No one ever listens. No one ever damn well listens. All they do is talk. Talk! Talk! Talk! And when it finally comes time to listen they just don't. Harvel doesn't listen, Yiddek doesn't listen, and now fucking Selby! People have called me croc my whole goddamn life behind my back and now the one time I need to hear it to my face they wont!' Dibbuk raged quietly.

She could hear various refusals and complaints coming from Selby, but for the first time she didn't listen. She was tired of listening. Tired of letting everyone tell her what to do. Tired of following Harvel around, dealing with his savior complex. Tired of looking at all the boulders in her life and never trying to move them.

In that moment Dibbuk let go. She let go of the reservations she'd applied to every conversation she'd ever had. She let go of all memories she had of teachers and managers watching her with pity, like she had some sort of disability. She let go of every time Harvel had stepped in on her problems and made them a thousand times worse. She let go of everything. Everything, except the boulder.

With all of her rage centered solely on the slab of rock in front of her she felt the world close in. Pressing her forehead against the cool stone and focusing her mind until even Selbys complaints faded into white noise. It was just her and the rock. Her, the rock, and every last frustration she'd felt since childhood.

She wanted to be herself. She wanted people to stop trying to do everything and plan everything for her. She wanted to be strong willed and angry for once in her life. She wanted to stop letting Harvel be angry for her and just be angry. She wanted, above all else at the moment, to Move! This! Fucking! Boulder!

With a pull, filled with the rage of the last twenty six years of her life, she felt the tons of stone she was embracing shift. Rocks and bricks began to tumble, one by one, onto the top of Dibbuks head. She pressed her forehead into the rock until she felt it would split, and pulled again. More stones shifted, this time falling into the space behind the boulder.

She was so focused that she almost forgot which side of her Selby had been standing on. She'd have to pull it towards the unbroken portion of the wall to avoid turning him into a crimson streak. As she pulled she could feel the bricks under her feet begin to fracture with each step.

The thought that the tunnel might not be structurally sound enough to withstand thousands of pounds of stone falling into it had crossed her mind earlier, unfortunately her anger had nonchalantly shoved it to the side. At the moment though anger was noisily being escorted out of the front door in hand cuffs while anxiety was giving her brain police a statement with a bloody nose. Finally reality set in.

'I might have played a rather stupid game here.' Dibbuk thought as the floor of the tunnel began to sink further under her feet. As she let go of the stone and watched it tip into the abyss that had now opened behind it, she looked back at the rest of the team. She only saw three of them. That's when she felt the tugging under both of her shoulders.

She managed to elbow Wicksomme with just enough force to toss him back towards the rest of the group, hopefully sparing his ribcage. Selby on the other hand was latched on like a tick. Dibbuk could hear the bricks shifting under her feet and despite how well meaning Selby was he had no chance of holding her up if they gave way.

"Get. Off. Of. Me." Dibbuk growled, hoping the severity of her tone might convey the severity of the situation. She might still be able to jump off of the slab she was standing on, but if Selby were still hanging on she might land on top of him. Even if she didn't make it she might have a chance of actually living through the fall.

Selby on the other hand was almost certainly doomed. If the fall or the rocks didn't kill him, her landing on top of him wherever the bottom was certainly would. This was a numbers game in the moment and she needed to subtract one from it. Hopefully Selby would just do the math himself and take the hint.

She felt his arms tighten, and just like that anger had burst back into the building and was kicking over trash cans. 'Fuck it.' Dibbuk thought. Her elbow, with considerably more force this time connected with Selbys chest, breaking his grip and flinging him over the heads of the other team members.

With that last shift of weight the slab broke free and began sliding away beneath her feet. Dibbuk made a final desperate attempt to kick off and grab for the bricks behind her but fell short. As the sensation of falling set in she had time for one more thought before she plunged into the depths below, 'Oh...Stupid games, stupid prizes.'