Leaving Limbo [Concluded]

[LazyMcCrow]

DAY SEVEN

VOTED TO KILL:

Visorslash: BSmith, Neri, Scottishranger

Neri: Visorslash



With a grim look of determination, Visorslash pumped his arms and picked his knees up, as he sprinted along a rusty walkway and under a large concrete archway. Slowing briefly to look behind him, his eyes flashed with anger as he saw BSmith, Neri and scottishranger gain the walkway - still apparently hot on his tail.

Visorslash briefly considered attempting to break the ancient walkway and send them hurtling down to their doom, but quickly assessed that there was not enough time before they cleared the gangway and he was probably not strong enough anyway.

He ran on.

The echo of Visorslash's footsteps rang around the dark hall, accompanied by the ever-increasing deep boom of machinery. As the small boy cornered the space opened up into a cavernous hall - a thin walkway, one handrail limply hanging on to the rusting grill of its base - stretched from the concrete ledge, out into the blackness.

Visorslash paused and looked about him for any possible alternatives. The ledge ended to either side of him at sheer concrete walls, above him, the grinding teeth of vast cogs turning, methodically punctuated the gloom. Beyond the ledge, below the walkway: A dark abyss.

Offered no alternative, Visorslash pressed on. He felt the walkway rattle with each of his light footfalls and he trusted to his balance - staring out into the darkness before him as he ran on - determined not to look down.

A platform loomed up before him, and as Visorslash cleared the walkway onto it, he heard his pursuers enter the cavern behind him and pause as he had... as he was doing now.

The platform was a huge concrete block, rising from the depths. About ten metres square, the platform was bare but for a small control panel and lever, mounted at the far side of it. Next to the panel reared the tooth of a huge cog, the top and bottom of which were hidden in the dark.

Visorslash made a tentative leap, but he could not reach the lip of the cogs tooth. There was no way off the platform except forward on to the cog, or back the way he had come and the pounding feet of his accusers ruled out that possibilty in an instant. With no other options, Visorslash pulled the lever on the control panel and his heart leapt as a huge rumbling rose from the depths, marked by the shrieking of metal and gears as they slowly crawled to life. The cog tooth before him inexorably began to move - thankfully upward - albeit with the slowness of the truly gargantuan. The small boy hopped from foot to foot as the tooth cleared the edge of the platform and the next began to rise into view. As it did so, he realised the other three boys had reached the platform. BSmith ran toward him as he jumped and scrambled atop the gleaming dark metal of the cogs tooth. The three boys shouted at him as he rose quickly up - the cog was accelerating rapidly and he adjusted himself quickly to maintain his footing. Then the angry faces of the boys below, sank out of sight as the cog turned. It seemed they were not desperate enough to chase him further and Visorslash allowed himself a steady breath before turning ahead in readiness for what might appear before him next.

The pitch surface he was wedged into reached the apex of the cog and Visorslash pressed his foot against the flank of the tooth in front of him, staring wide-eyed for any sign of a way onward.

He only saw the huge tooth of the descending cog a second before it pressed itself into the one he was riding. No time to cry out, no time to leap back - no where to go: Visorslash was turned into a thin bloody jam as the massive gear ground down apon him.

Back on the platform the three remaining boys could only guess at Visorslash's fate. They huddled together after their chase and - once they had got their breath back, decided what they should do. First they stopped the cog turning. If Visorslash was the Free Spirit, they reasoned that they could sleep comfortably here - safe in the knowledge that there was no way the cog could be traversed without their hearing it - and that would depend on their being another terminal at the other side to set it in reverse motion.

The boys did not discuss the possibility that Visorslash was not guilty, but the small boy called scottishranger appeared openly fearful and his eyes flicked between the large bulk of BSmith and the smaller frame of Neri - expecting either one of them to leap to their feet and attack him that instant.

Neither did and soon the three boys lay down to sleep.

IT IS NOW NIGHT SEVEN - NIGHT WILL END IN APPROX. 24 HOURS

ALIVE
Neri
BSmith
Scottishranger

DEAD
Arjos (Killed Night Zero)
landlubber (Lynched Day One)
Classical Hero (Killed Night One)
Ishmael (Killed Night One)
Chaotix (Lynched Day Two)
Jarema (Killed Night Two)
Montmorency (Lynched Day Three)
Atheotes (Killed Night Three)
DaveShack (Killed Night Four)
Zack (Lynched after Tied Vote Day Five)
Seon (Killed Night Five)
Subotan (Lynched after Tied Vote Day Six)
Askthepizzaguy (Killed Night Six)
Visorslash (Lynched Day Seven)