Light from the main level streamed through the stairwell and gave Cole enough motivation to push his exhausted legs up another few flights of stairs. When he reached the top, he nearly collapsed, catching himself with his shovel like a crutch.
The main level was like a ghost town with only a few people walking between the singular buildings. Cole didn't know if this was normal or not, but didn't have time to think about it. He caught his breath and scanned for the new shoveler barracks. He had only been there once, very briefly, and his memory was fuzzy of the path to get back. He wandered through buildings, getting questionable looks from passing citizens, but ignored them and kept his head up, looking for a familiar sight. When he saw the double doors of the new barracks, he found another burst of energy he didn't know he had.
He burst through the double doors, found the nearest cot, and collapsed. He sucked in air as other shovelers crowded above him, looking down at this sweaty, dirty, exhausted person in front of them. A few he recognized, but most he didn't, until a very familiar face made its way to the front of the crowd.
"Cole?"
Cole could barely muster the energy to say "Zach" in response.
"You look like hell. Everybody, give him some room." Zach pushed people out of the way, and pointed to someone Cole couldn't see. "Get me some water." Between blinks, Zach produced a cup and handed it to Cole, who immediately downed it. "You gotta stop coming here like this," Zach said through a laugh.
Cole thought back to when he first woke up here after being gassed in the town hall. At least this time it was because of his own doing. He sat up with Zach's help. The other shovelers had given Zach and Cole some room, but were still watching on from a few feet away.
"What the hell happened?" Zach asked.
Cole shook his head. "Not here," he said weakly.
Zach looked around. "We don't have anywhere else to go."
"Take me to your part." Cole whispered.
"You know I can't do that."
"You have to."
Shovelers who weren't assigned to a part were not allowed in the room, especially shovelers from lower levels. It was strictly against protocol. Zach knew that. Cole knew that. Every shoveler knew that. But it was the only place he could think where they could be alone and he could explain everything. It was also the only way Cole would be able to prove to Zach what he knew; that the machine wasn't doing anything. If he could get Zach to see that nothing happened if he didn't feed it, he could get him onboard with the rest of the plan.
Cole looked on as Zach processed the situation. One of his only true friends, desperate and exhausted and at the end of his means, comes running up asking for the impossible. There had to be a reason. It had to be important. Cole was hoping that's what Zach was considering. For a brief moment, Zach's face contorted in a way that made it look like he was physically in pain from being asked to do this, but in the next moment, a smile broke across his lips, and he simply said, "Okay."
Cole slung his arm around Zach's shoulders and Zach carried him to the cot he called his own. Zach left to refill the water, and when he returned, sat across from Cole. "I think I know what we have to do." He looked around to make sure nobody was listening in. "You will have to camp out in my part and wait for me. When I get there, I'll convince the enforcer to stay out of the room."
"How are you going to do that?" Cole asked.
Zach shook his head. "I'm not sure," he said. "But I'll think of something." He leaned in and lowered his voice. "Now, if I tell you how to get there, can you do it on your own?"
"I just need a little more rest," Cole said. "I'm exhausted."
"Well I've got another feeding scheduled in an hour and a half. I usually head there about 15 minutes beforehand, but since moving to the new barracks, I need at least 30."
Cole nodded along. It meant he would have to leave soon, so more rest was pretty much out of the equation. "I can do it," he said.
"Good. Now I usually meet the enforcer there. The only problem is, he's usually there before me. I just don't know how early he gets there, you know?"
Cole sighed. "I'll leave now."
"No," Zach jumped in. "You have to rest as long as you can. You probably have another 20 or so before you have to head out.
"And I'll be fine, I'll beat the enforcer there?"
Zach nodded. "I'm sure."
If Zach was sure, Cole was fine with it. He still wasn't sure how Zach was going to keep his enforcer out of the room. Cole had lucked out that the enforcer in his level 1 room wanted to wait outside; it was against protocol, but Cole wasn't going to say anything. He wanted to share the information with Zach, and let him know it was possible, but he was afraid of what other questions it would bring up, so he swallowed the information and just nodded along.
As Cole sat and rested, Zach described how to navigate to his part. It wasn't complex, and not much further away from where Cole used to work, when he was at a higher level. Zach made Cole repeat it back to him, and over the next 20 minutes, made sure Cole, without any hesitation, knew how to get to his part. He didn't pry any more about what happened to Cole, and Cole knew it was because Zach trusted him. Cole just hoped that trust carried on into what he was about to show him.
"Got it?" Zach asked, as Cole stood.
"Stop asking, Zach. I got this."
Zach grabbed Cole's shovel off the ground. "Just in case." He pushed the shovel into Cole's hands. "And remember," he said, "I'll be right behind you."
Cole drank the rest of the water in the old cup, gave one last look at Zach, and headed back out to the main level. Cole reached the stairwell quickly, continued pushing the pain in his achy legs, and hobbled down the stairs. There were only a few flights between the main level and the tunnel Zach told him to go down, and then a handful of turns, one more descent, and a shorter hallway until Cole reached the machine part Zach had described so well to him.
Cole paused at the door and sighed. He had conflicting emotion about seeing another part, knowing it served no purpose, and knowing he was about to ruin the illusion for his best friend, but he knew it had to be done. It had to be done to save his life, and everyone else's in this town.
He opened the door and flinched. Standing behind it was an enforcer, who immediately turned around. When he didn't recognize Cole, he reached for the weapon dangling from his belt.
It's always something... 😉