Chapter 23: Digging a (Sideways) Hole

                                    

                                          
Day 1338: Digging a tunnel from the factory to Goiky Canal. 6 hours have passed since first departure and likely another 2 or 3 to go. The grinder wheel has been worn down too much since last use. Leaving this as a reminder to replace the wheel when I get back. Will update once arrived at the destination.
                          
Golf Ball sat in the cabin of the tunnelling machine she built several years ago, writing in her scientist's log she had been keeping ever since leaving college. In front of her was a board filled with doodads and knick-knacks of the sciencing sort—blinking and turning and flashing and buzzing. Behind her, TB was mindlessly looking out the windows (he had asked for them to be added) into the dark, freshly dug passage they had been carving out since early that morning. And even behind that was the regular cabin of the Tube, where Coiny and Needle were. How or what they were doing she had no clue. There were no cameras in the pod and nothing had alerted her that anything had gone wrong... yet. Although she did hear a loud sound that resembled a gong earlier in the day. It was probably nothing.
                          
The drive (dig?) itself was going well, nothing unusual there. Except for the worn-down grinder wheel, but she estimated that the wheel could last for the remainder of the journey. They were, however, going substantially slower than she hoped for and it was starting to get on her nerves a bit.
                          
She looked behind her at Tennis Ball, still as gloomy as he was that morning when she had that confrontation with him. Seeing him like that made her feel disappointed and a bit responsible. Disappointed because she didn't know what to do about it, but responsible? She never felt responsible for anything that wasn't successful. And sad sports equipment was not success. Together, they formed an emotion GB had never felt before. She was sure there was a word for what she was feeling, yet no matter how hard she thought, it did not come to her.
                          
As she was flipping through the mental images of the dictionary she had taken, a sudden jolt rocked the tunneler and the whole machine stopped. The engine compartment started to belch out a dark smoke that quickly began to fill the small chamber.
                          
"I should've seen this coming," she grumbled, turning on the ventilation fans.
                          
The smoke coming into the cabin was blown away, but there was still the issue of the broken engine that needed to be fixed. Golf Ball jumped out the open windows of the cabin and out onto the floor of the tunnel. Then, she walked over to the engine, lifted the hood, and instantly noticed the problem.
                          
"What's wrong with the engine?" TB asked.
                          
She sighed. "It's the stupid grinding wheel. It couldn't turn because the blades were too dull and put too much stress on the pistons. One of the joints snapped, causing a leak and stopping the engine entirely."
                          
"What can you do about it?"
                          
"I have a few spare pistons in the compartment underneath your seat," she answered, pointing at him, "but unless we miraculously find a new grinding wheel, there's no way we'll be able to continue forward."
                          
TB stood up to access the panel underneath him and tossed a piston at GB, who caught it in her foot. She went back over to the engine and began to fix it.
                          
"Don't you need tools or something?" he called.
                          
"Never leave home without them," she replied, showing off a screwdriver she kept on her at all times.
                          
An hour of breathing in toxic fumes later, which she predicted would shave 10 years off her lifespan, the broken piston had been replaced. With newfound energy, the engine roared to life.
                          
She got back into the cabin. "Okay, back home we go. Let me just make an announcement to the passengers in the back."
                          
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," GB said in her best attempt of the airline voiceover into a microphone, "due to some, er, technical difficulties, our journey today will, unfortunately, have to be cut short as we have been forced to return to the airport. Please do not panic when the cabin starts to reverse. Thank you for riding The Tube and we hope we will see you again soon."
                          
She turned off the microphone and smiled at Tennis Ball. "I've always wanted to do that."
                          
"What, a bad impression of the pilot to the daughter of Mr. Needy and her recently discoloured friend?"
                          
"Shut up."
                          
<=======>
                          
After what was the longest time she had ever spent in the reverse gear, they finally made it back to the factory. She heard the familiar hiss of the pod doors opening, followed by the sound of two pairs of feet hitting the concrete surface. Then, the pod moved out of the way to allow her and TB out.
                          
"My mint does it feel good to be out of that tiny space!" Coiny exclaimed while doing some stretches.
                          
She was about to comment about the obvious dent in his face but something else caught her attention. There were other people in the factory. Two, to be exact. One a pen, the other a pencil. Intruders.
                          
"What are you two doing here!?" she yelled.
                          
The pen flinched when she yelled, but the pencil did not move at all. "Hello, Ms. Ball. I am Pencil and this is Pen and- actually, you know what? I'm done with formalities. Do you know what we had to go through to get here? Do you know what's happening out there!?"
                          
"No I do not and I don't care. Now leave here before I make you leave!"
                          
Pencil said nothing. She pulled out a phone, tapped on a few things, and passed it to Golf Ball. It was the local news network.
                          
"Massive waves of what appear to be bugs have swarmed into the city. Reports say these bugs are highly dangerous and are killing every object that gets too close. The mayor has issued a mass order lockdown. If you are not inside a safe location right now, please get to one as fast as possible. Locations include bank vaults, basements, bunkers, and AHHHHH!"
                          
The report was cut out as a group of black things came into the studio.
                          
"Now do you know what's happening?" Pencil asked bluntly.
                          
Golf Ball stood there trying to process it all. "H-how is that possible?"
                          
Pencil shook her head. "How would I know? I was told you'd have the answers."
                          
"Who told you that?"
                          
She pointed to Pen, who was still standing in a corner. Golf Ball looked at him closer, realizing she had seen him somewhere.
                          
"Golf Ball, right? We were in the same math class in college. Anyways, hope you didn't mind me hacking into your lock panel to get in. Because, you know, the whole killing thing happening right now?" Pen nervously introduced.
                          
She considered scolding him. But between dying of bugs and hacking into the home of someone she barely knew, the choice would've been pretty obvious.
                          
Pencil continued, "I need to get Match and Bubble here if that's okay with you. Yes? Great! Please don't die while I'm gone, that would surely kill the mood."
                          
She ran away before GB even had the time to say a single word. Which gave her time to take a look at what everyone else was doing. Tennis Ball had gone back into his room and Needle and Coiny were playing what appeared to be 95x95 tic-tac-toe.
                          
She took a seat in her favourite thinking spot next to the incinerator and began to think. About things. A lot of things. Big things, little things, and the things in-between. She thought about things she had stored away for years; things she never thought about because she never had the time to. And after so many years, she had time. Time to explore all the ideas she never could. The only thing she didn't think about was how to solve the world ending. Because as she thought about everything she had accumulated, one thing stood out to her. A project that she had tried when she first started experimenting with building things but gave up because she was less than a year old at the time.
                          
Golf Ball was going to build a recovery centre.