Part of Chapter ONE

[Toxis]

One

A moment in time can last a forever. That’s how Matt Tiernan felt about each of the bad happenings in his life. He wondered how so many bad things could happen to one person, and then again... was it all his fault? He grabbed the cooler which contained a case of bud and two packs of ice. It was heavy, but he was so drunk he didn’t even care. He had already drank a good eighteen and planned on at least another eighteen more.
He was a man at the end of his rope. Nothing more could happen to him that could make things worse, and he hated life and everyone he ever met. He hated with a violent passion that overwhelmed him, yet at the same time the sadness inside left him with barely the strength to continue on. In defeat, he collapsed one hundred feet away from his crashed car, the cooler opened and the case of beer spilled all over the ground. It took Matt nearly thirty minutes to collect all the bottles and ice, placing it all back in the cooler. He slammed the lid and sat down on the cooler before realizing he didn’t have a beer in his hand. Angrily, he stood up, snatched a beer from the cooler, and slammed it shut again.
Breathing heavily from his drunken excursions, he wondered where it all started. The bad experience in the marine corp, the cheating wife, the torture he received in junior high school. His heart felt as if some spirit of the underworld was gripping it with a spectral claw, crushing it slowly, never releasing its grasp. There was more, there was so much more. And it all came smashing into his brain over and over, all at the same time. It was more than he could take. He began to cry again.
Yes, he thought angrily, I’m feeling sorry for myself again! But I am drunk and I don’t care!
Time drug on. Night falls. Blackouts come and go. And all the while, Matt talks to himself, and curses everything, including himself. And he gets so drunk, he wanders off into the woods to take a piss. He comes to a cliff, and stops seconds before diving off the edge. He gives a small laugh before chucking the half full beer bottle into the chasm. He counts the seconds as the bottle flies through the silent night- one... two... three...Crash!
Why did I do that, he cursed at himself. That was completely stupid. And in the split second forgets he ever threw the bottle. He was beyond drunk, and with his emotions flying wildly high, it causes him to be lost not only in the haze of alcohol, but lost in depression. He turns to find his way back to his cooler, he wants another beer. In mid turn his foot slips on a pair of rocks. He slips down the side of the cliff, grasping at a crack in the earth just long enough for one thought to enter his mind. “Here I go.”
And then he lost his grip, falling into the darkness, the silent night air whistling past his ears... waiting for the instant impact to come. He was thankful. Soon all his misery would be over and darkness would completely overcome him. Was there a heaven or hell? Would he be lost in purgatory?
He had only fallen for a second, slamming into the cliff at the point where it started to slant instead of going straight down. But the impact Matt was waiting for didn’t come. Instead he tumbled down the ninety degree incline, creating a massive dust cloud. Rolling for what seemed an eternity, his body slammed into the ground repeatedly as he tumbled. And then, so sudden he didn’t even realize what was happening, he was thrown from the cliff- launched into the air by a natural, curved slide composed of loose rocks over a hard rock surface.

He looked back at the landscape he had just fallen from. The moonlight was illuminating the landscape and the only thing he could think of was how beautiful it all looked and how no one in the world could ever get a view of what he was looking at from his perspective. Then gravity resumed his pull on him, and he fell once again. Only this time, land wasn’t beneath him any longer.
The cold of the raging river was felt at the exact same time the slap of the water, so to Matt it was as if being hit by a huge sheet of ice. He wasn’t sure if he had blacked out since it was already as dark as it could possibly under the water at night, but he vividly remembered the pain as his body struck boulder after boulder as he was drug down the river. He managed to claw his way through the water, breaking the surface and grabbing one huge breath before being sucked down once again. Almost immediately his back was smashed against a boulder and he could feel it tear through his shirt, scraping his skin far beneath the surface.
Matt expected to reach the surface again. He expected to come up at least a couple times and grab a hold of some of the boulders only half submerged, but he didn’t. For what seemed a long time, he was pressed against a boulder with the water holding him against it. It wasn’t for at least thirty seconds until he managed to shuffle his shoulders and catch another current, launching himself down the river once again, only this time he didn’t go up… he went down.
Falling once again into darkness, Matt Tiernan slipped between thirty feet of a very tiny crack, to which he was gaining scores of scrapes and bruises. He could imagine how his face must have looked, but at the moment his only thoughts were on trying to maintain his held breath. With one final push through the crevice, he was thrown into open air, water falling all around him and he breathed in with all he could. The fall was so long, he was able to take two breaths before landing in a small pool, to which he slammed into the rock beneath. He didn’t stay in the pool long. The slippery, smooth rock was at a slant, and he was on his way once again.
The tunnel was not large, and the rocky walls were not gentle to Matt’s skin, ripping away the flesh ever-so-slowly with every deep scratch. He tumbled, and thrashed, and was thrown in every way that was possible that didn’t kill the young man. The tunnel wasn’t like before the great fall into the pool. There was some air to breathe here and there, but between the endless bashing and not knowing when to take a breath, it was impossible to breathe. He slammed into a rock and he reached out. His fingers grasped a solid handhold and his motion stopped. The water rushed past his face and he turned his head and took in great breaths of air.
The water pounded him, threatening to drag him into the darkness further. He struggled to open his eyes and that is when he saw it- light. He couldn’t imagine moonlight peaking through the deep earth this far down. Matt didn’t have a choice. Every second that he held on was another ounce of strength sucked from his body. He carefully found footholds and straightened his legs for support. He didn’t want to lose his one grip and fall farther down into the darkness so he slowly raised his other arm against the rushing water and found something to grab onto.
Inch by inch, he fought to climb onto the small ledge. The light came far down the cavern and was pale, much like moonlight as he surmised a moment prior, but it throbbed with each droning hum. It sounded mechanical. He wondered if there was some dam nearby and he had accidentally wandered into some split in the earth, magically leading to a manmade structure underground. He laughed inside and wondered if he just set a record for going insane, the thought was so ridiculous.
Success, he breathed with his last lunge to safety. But how safe, he asked himself, and what was that light?
He breathed heavily, coughing and puking out half a river onto the cold, damp stone. The roar of the river echoed maddeningly in the tight cave. He steadied his breath, feeling the cold, wetness on his cheek. Already he started to shiver, soaked to the bone and freezing in the underdark. Finally calmed down, he struggled to his hands and knees. Every movement was like fire, even through the shivers. As he stayed unmoving for a moment, he noticed blood on the rock dripping from all over his body and wondered how badly he was cut. He couldn’t think about that now, though, he had to keep moving.
Still heavily drunk, he crawled down the tight corridor. His eyes couldn’t focus before him. It was as if his eyes wanted to veer off to the side but returned straight ahead over and over repeatedly. The stone under his knees felt harder than any stone he had felt before, though he knew it was only the pain of his wounds. He traveled some fifty feet, slowly making his way to the dull light. It pulsed slowly and endlessly. Matt couldn’t figure out what the noise was.
Finally he made his way to a small chamber, but what he saw nearly made him pass out on the spot. He felt dizzy and wobbled on all fours. He wondered many things. Was he that drunk, or that wounded, or was he dead? If the cold hadn’t affected him so, Matt probably would be in twice as much pain, but no cold could numb the shock and awe of the spaceship before him.
Nearly forty feet high and two hundred feet long, was a long metallic wall right into the rock face with hundreds of dark windows. The throbbing light was placed several feet before the wall in the center of the room, a machine of some sort with a globe on top which emanated the light, seemed to be failing as it throbbed and waned. The most peculiar thing that Matt could concentrate on at the time, was the stairway of rocks reaching thirty feet from the floor. Manmade, no. Humanoidmade, most likely. And the door was closed.
“Hello!” he cried out, his voice echoing madly in the large tunnel with the raging waters behind him faint now in the distance. “Hello!”
There was no answer, only silence. At least it was dry here, he thought as he rolled over and closed his eyes. Breathing heavily, he didn’t realize how tired and how much pain he was actually in. Just happy to be alive he smiled and thought about how he just found the find of the century, and being on all the greatest talk shows and the most popular newspapers and how much money he’d be making. Giving a little chuckle, and thinking thoughts of glory and desperation at the same time, the darkness took him. Regardless of the cold, and confused by too many drinks, he passed out with a smile on his face.

[Rigwarl]

Here I thought this was a post about a quest announcement! Instead we get a glimpse of Brad's sad past!


-Rig

[Toxis]

That's right. And when I get this spaceship figured out, you're all in trouble! ~

But seriously, was it that bad?

-Brad

[Vixn]

Not bad but barely realistic. Try to get drunk once and jump off from the mountain down to the river to check if you feel it right way. I bet you'll be sober as a baby next moment you fall into the river.

Another point is why they just don't blast him down with plasma gun?

OK, (trying to be serious) I'm waiting for the next part.


Kida.