《Wrong Way Up》Chapter 2 Hide it like black gold
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Nobody escapes age and gravity Harlan Ellison
Connor ponders my question, my question of how we can hide this material from people who may want it. It bleeds insecurity after seeing the news outlet and all the law enforcement I’m starting to get worried. I’m just a chef this turned from a get rich scheme to a gamble on the high-risk high reward table. Now am I a gambling man I’m not sure at this point in time.
After thinking for a while, he asks “can we bury it?” It sounded very stupid at first, I was stunned, could we or would everything float away and then I realized the house is not floating away. Suddenly I asked him lightly “something here is stopping this house from having a massive radius of antigravity do you know how?”. He said, “maybe there is something in the soil or something”. Then I think back to my school science project I analysed the soil all around this area. Lead the soil has lots of lead, a lead mine about a 20 min drive from here made all this soil range from 10-50 mg of lead in the soil.
It’s a long shot a massive long shot so long in fact that I doubt it will work but we must figure this out quickly. “Connor maybe lead suppressed its effects if it acts anything like radiation it makes sense”. “Get your van and a small sample we are testing this and we need to hurry because the neighbours certainly got a good look of a massive boulder the size of a hobbits door. Who knows when we will have people knocking or cough bashing are door?
I look outside to see a slight fog, wait not fog, dust lots of dust in the air not enough to block vision but mildly obscure it, the strikes they must have smashed soil into the air and with the antigravity property’s and wind created a dust cloud. Perfect this is too perfect we have a short window maybe 2 hours at best I suspect an hour, enough for 3 trips to the lead mine, 1 to test 1 back and then 1 to hall all this stuff there. I can still hear muffled voices the panic and uncertainty is almost tangible.
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I turn back to see Connor grab a piece the size of 2 knuckles only for him to float in the air as he tries to walk, its funny he was just walking away then poof walking in the air haha, this stuff is still potent suppressed or not. I toss him a backpack “stick about a handful in the bag and tie them back with a rope that way the zone doesn’t affect us and we can move the stuff. He quickly gets in the van after I giggle at his attempts to throw the backpack away to touch solid ground. Driving as fast as we can we reach the old mine, overgrown with dirt, moss, and a lot of bushes. This mine is long since depleted but should still have far more lead than my home. It used to mine lead, zinc, and copper; I knew it had the lead because some miners got sick back in the day all over the news some screw up with the mineral checker guy not realizing it had the lead which is dangerous to inhale. I toss my brother a cloth until we can either find a better insulator or better masks this will do “although I don’t think there are toxic amounts of lead. Maybe if we popped a hole in the wall or dug a ton though so don’t rustle the dirt too much”. Safety first tying my mask.
Then I tell him to walk in there with the backpack reel it into his hands and see if he starts to float its many times enough to cause him to float. As he reels it in I realize this needs to work if it doesn’t we are screwed. I hear a crack in the woods, paranoid my neck swivels round painfully to realize nothing is there. Damned nerves. I turn back to see my brother pale but not floating, he must still be seasick from his space adventure earlier, not rushing to do it again.
“Good job leave that bag in there we got some moving to do” he lightly pales at the thought, moving large amounts of potentially dangerous most likely hotly hunted material he must be realizing how stupid we are. We get in the van I put some music on to cheer us both up, some random song comes on it’s a stupid song we both giggle, at least I can rely on my brother to help my crazy ideas. He stays silent but at least it doesn’t look like a ghost leech is sucking his soul out. As we drive back into the slowly swaying dust cloud I realize it has shrunk considerably, a light red haze remains. “Put your foot down are window is running low”. We speed home when we step out the van we have to quickly close the door to replace are masks its like breathing water at there with how dusty it is, visibility is a lie we can see clearly but breathing is harder. We quickly hall the rocks into what we can without the van floating away then tying the rest into backpacks and rope to drive it away. “Grab a shovel Connor I think we could use one” I also leave a small sample in the house for experimentation I want to learn to fly and without gravity it should be possible. Speeding away we make it to the lead mine depositing are booty I grab some bushes cover the entrance while Connor digs a soil mound in front of the entrance, we try not to disturb soil next to the mine and soil further away so we don’t choke on lead.
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After a good 6 hours of back-breaking labour, the soil is heavy and bushes brambly it takes far longer than I thought to dig and move soil. I make a mental note to buy gardening supplies soon.
By the time we finish the sun as set into sombre darkness, bound by threads of light from the moon and lights from the nearby farms. The dust as settled, and the day of finished. We drive home quietly. The world is going to change a lot after this. After arriving home I say goodby to my brother, for now, he drove me about all day without complaint I will have to thank him somehow. I have a shower, red running off my body, mixing with the water like cordial. I clean up my wounds as shallow as they may be and dress them properly with antiseptic. The wound on my chest is concerning it looks pretty deep but I can't go to the hospital after the grand heist of a natural resource.
As I settle down finally feeling clean I get some food, I didn’t notice how hungry and thirsty I was not eating or drinking all day I question how I didn’t drop. I go on the internet to look around what happened, it’s a mess of failed censorship and scared people. I manage to get some tidbits of information. First Britain, got most of the “fall” as its being called. A few small areas in all other continents got a shower of rock a drizzle comparative to the shell bombardment we got. A few people picked rocks up and floated into the sky to drop to there death, dumbasses. Researchers are reaching out to get this new resource to study it but governments across the globe are blocking and monopolising it. That was quick, although I'm sure it's not perfect they are not omnipotent, a combination of protests and I'm sure it will get into circulation before long. Il make sure to reach out to some of these researchers they are offering a small fortune for a sample so il maybe trade a small amount while it's still hot and make some money. I currently have on me a fist-sized piece, a baby's fist-sized piece and a palm-sized piece. You may wonder what new measurement unit I'm using and its called I don’t even know, cool eh. It's good I kept some back at home. But right now I need sleep, work won't be open any time soon, its cordoned off by military. Before I sleep I reach out to my family to see if they are all right it's like 9 pm now so only a handful bothers replying, they seem okay, 1 or 2 shaken up I wish them well. I can't change anything at the moment, let me but a rain check on helping out after my small money idea plays out.
I drift off to sleep wondering how the world will change, will there be mutant superheroes by the time I wake up or the world flipping upside down. Tomorrow will be a very big day lots to do.
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