Sounds In The Wall

JP with mdman, Lasersexpanther. Lorem, LucianNepreen and Cindy

Vor spoke up at the question, his memories of the place and his, Sung, and Iris’s escape coming to him.

“Left leads out of the facility, it was the way we were guided to leave. The rest went right, though Lamaire went straight on.”

He was less sure now of his being here, especially after seeing the cryptically darkened room he had sat in only a few days ago. The opulent chair looked like a gilded cage now, alone in the darkness and it thoroughly disturbed Vor’s imagination.

“I am not sure where the other ways lead to.”

"I say let us go straight ahead then," Given what Elizabeth had figured between the maps, and descriptions in the various reports of the team members that had been in the tunnels, it was the direction that made sense.

“Cronk follow,” Cronk added, allowing the others to choose. “Cronk the rear.”

Being told to go straight Sasha nodded, moving forward shining the torch on her rifle down each of the intersecting paths to make sure they weren't occupied where someone could come from behind them before pushing forward in a quarter crouch staying low and aiming the whole time. Listening for any sounds of life besides her group's breathing.

Moving straight ahead, the team sees a few more rooms which are empty but then gets to another intersection this time path to the right seems to be blocked by rocks a few feet down which can be seen by shining a light down there. There's no way to tell how long the rocks have been there.

The only way to go is straight, as soon as Sasha takes two steps forward Lorem hears a click. It's very faint, a few feet ahead on the right.

Lorem looked like a little lamp at the feet of her comrades. Her head lamp was set to the flood light setting with the aperture fully open. It bathed the immediate surroundings of their group with a soft ambient illumination. She figured this would work best right now, since others had more directionally oriented torches to pierce through the dark beyond them.

Lorem’s sensitive gnome hearing instantly picked up on the clicking sound. She froze in place and loudly announced, for all to hear. “Stop!” Her attention, like an owl with its orientational sense of hearing, went up ahead and to the right. She reached up and focused her light beam to where her best guess for the source of the sound was. The light around them dimmed as the beam narrowed and pinpointed where she was looking.

“Something right around here just went CLICK.” She warned.

Cronk was becoming quite accustomed to being the rear end of the group. In fact, one could say it seemed natural for Cronk.

Occasionally, Cronk would peer behind him to see if there were any danger from the behind. It was just one of these occasions when everyone in front of him stopped. He suddenly heard Loren say stop and quickly turned, but too late, plowing into the person in front of him.

Vor hadn't quite thought of how moveable he was until met with the distracted wall that was Cronk. He at first thought he was going to fly, but luckily had the agility to move before pushing the whole line down. It didn't help having just heard Lorem say to stop, leaving Vor nervously frozen in a complicated stance as he held his breath.

Lorem didn’t move a muscle and was concentrating hard on her senses that would aid her perception of their current predicament. Fortunately, once everyone stopped moving completely, it reduced the competing noises significantly. She hoped any further sounds might inform her of what they were dealing with. At least for peace of mind, because not knowing was causing anxiety to stir in her overactive imagination.

Cronk straightened out and whispered, “Cronk sorry!”

There's a noise coming from the right, it sounds like a rock shifting in the wall. Lorem can hear some kind of gears moving in the wall on the right next to the team. Like a switch was triggered when that section of the ground was stepped on.

Lorem begins speaking out loud the play by play of what she is hearing to the group. Her masterful understanding of mechanics projecting in her imagination what the machine’s form may look like; which also dictates its function to a large degree because form typically follows function. She interjects, “A floor plate most likely triggered something that is currently turning gears in the wall.” She sounded worried, as if she suspected this was a trap that was potentially hazardous.

"If we can stop the mechanism here, near us, from moving would that stop the trigger?" Elizabeth asked the Gnome engineer.

Cronk stuck a finger to his chin and scratched it. “Cronk help?”

Lorem lowered herself to the ground and placed her ear upon the cold surface. She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the sounds she was hearing, now slightly amplified by the vibrations in the stone. “Nobody move …. Nobody talk.” She commanded as politely as possible. It was necessary they weren’t making any unnecessary sounds that could confuse what she was listening too.

After a moment, she looked up to Elizabeth. “You said your magic could stop whatever mechanism was in the wall?” She then placed her light beam on a spot near Elizabeth. “This is where I would try to intervene.”

"Yes, as long as I can touch the wall in the correct spot." Elizabeth put her hand where Lorem had shined the light and concentrated. After a few seconds, Lorem could here the gears going, and what sounded like a stone shifting back into place. Elizabeth didn't know what to listen for, but Lorem would know the sound of something disengaging when she heard it.

One thing Cronk was good at was standing still. He could make himself look like a massive rock on cue. Silently, he stood until being told he could move. Not one muscle moved. Not one word spoken.