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fandomhigh2005-09-24 08:41 pm
sonofaparrotman.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2005-09-24 08:41 pm
Down Into the Bowels of the Earth
Carrying a poker in one hand and a bundle of turpentine-rag-and-stick torches in the other, Scooter sets out from the library. He's left the barricades set up at the doors and an easily-tripped series of booby-traps set above them. Now, he's on mission - a mission to find the largest source of boiling-hot water in the school.
***
It doesn't take him long to figure out that the bowels of the school will be his destination, but once he's figured that out, he's a bit stymied. Clearly, the school must possess a giant water heater of some sort, but he's at a loss as to figuring out which part of the basement it's most likely to be located in. Still, it has to be somewhere so he decides to pick a direction and go with it.
***
He stumbles through the badly-lit corridors that lace the lower levels of the school, startling at omunous noises and squinting to make out anything that might lie in his path.
***
Eventually the single doors that have lined the walls unrelentingly, give way to a set of large, dirty-grey ones marked with all the traditional hazard symbols. His luck has come in, as it continues to prove when the doors open to his first try. Inside, emergency lamps dispel some of the gloom, while still leaving many areas in deep shadow. The most important thing to Scooter, however, isn't the mood lighting. It's the complicated array of pipes and spigots and dials that line the opposite side of the room. He approaches them warily.
***
When he has completed his approach, he discovers that fortune is still on his side and all the piping is labeled, albeit somewhat cryptically. The important thing is that he's able to figure out which valves to turn off to stop water flow to everywhere but the first and second floors of the classroom building and what dial to adjust to up the water temperature to seriously fucking hot. Once he's got that underway, he heads right back the way he came.
It doesn't take him long to figure out that the bowels of the school will be his destination, but once he's figured that out, he's a bit stymied. Clearly, the school must possess a giant water heater of some sort, but he's at a loss as to figuring out which part of the basement it's most likely to be located in. Still, it has to be somewhere so he decides to pick a direction and go with it.
He stumbles through the badly-lit corridors that lace the lower levels of the school, startling at omunous noises and squinting to make out anything that might lie in his path.
Eventually the single doors that have lined the walls unrelentingly, give way to a set of large, dirty-grey ones marked with all the traditional hazard symbols. His luck has come in, as it continues to prove when the doors open to his first try. Inside, emergency lamps dispel some of the gloom, while still leaving many areas in deep shadow. The most important thing to Scooter, however, isn't the mood lighting. It's the complicated array of pipes and spigots and dials that line the opposite side of the room. He approaches them warily.
When he has completed his approach, he discovers that fortune is still on his side and all the piping is labeled, albeit somewhat cryptically. The important thing is that he's able to figure out which valves to turn off to stop water flow to everywhere but the first and second floors of the classroom building and what dial to adjust to up the water temperature to seriously fucking hot. Once he's got that underway, he heads right back the way he came.