Precipice
[CLICK]
[FOOTSTEPS ON GRAVEL ACCOMPANIED BY SWIRLING WINDS]
MARTIN
So… are we going to talk about it, or…?
ARCHIVIST
When we get back to London. I don’t – I think we all need some time to think.
MARTIN
…
Sure.
[FOOTSTEPS CONTINUE FOR A LONG WHILE WITH THE OCCASIONAL SIGH]
I-I mean it’s a pretty long walk. We could talk about something else.
BASIRA
Like why you wandered off with Annabelle Cane?
ARCHIVIST
Basira…
BASIRA
It’s important.
ARCHIVIST
He can tell us when he’s ready.
MARTIN
Uh, it’s fine. It’s not exactly a big surprise or anything.
Back in London, after we… uh…
ARCHIVIST
Had a blazing row?
MARTIN
I, uh… Yeah, that.
BASIRA
What?
ARCHIVIST
About what we should do with Jonah. With the Panopticon.
BASIRA
How, about whether you should, uh…?
ARCHIVIST
Yes.
MARTIN
Well, anyway, after that, I was coming out to look for you. But the tunnels are just all over the place, and you must have used a different way up or something, and well… she was there.
ARCHIVIST
Waiting?
MARTIN
I guess? It was so quiet. And it looked like London did before. So then I figured that she must have had the camera, which meant Salesa was probably dead, and so… well…
BASIRA
So…?
MARTIN
So I figured she had come to kill you, John.
ARCHIVIST
Me?
W-What about you?
MARTIN
What about me? I didn’t really think I was important enough to kill.
[SURPRISED EXHALES]
BASIRA
Wow, Martin, that’s –
MARTIN
Shocker, I have self-esteem issues, not the point. Anyway, she said she knew what you were planning to do, what would happen to you in there and… and then she said she knew another way, one where you’d be okay, but she couldn’t tell me, she had to show me.
BASIRA
And you took her at her word?
MARTIN
Obviously not, but… if she was telling the truth, it seemed worth the gamble.
ARCHIVIST
Why didn’t you come get me?
MARTIN
Because she said if I did, she’d leave without me. And then… well… we’d have had to stick with crappy Plan A, and you’d… you’d end up gone.
…
Okay, look, I-I admit it wasn’t great judgement, okay? But I didn’t see another choice. I figured you were safe enough with the girls, and, well…
ARCHIVIST
You were angry.
MARTIN
Yeah.
BASIRA
Right.
MARTIN
And… if I could give you another way out, it had to be worth the danger.
Even if it was kinda –
BASIRA
Reckless?
MARTIN
– a long shot.
BASIRA
Hmm.
MARTIN
[Nervous chuckles] Plus I knew you’d follow me, and save me if things got bad.
[ARCHIVIST SIGHS]
Look, I’m, I’m sorry I worried you.
ARCHIVIST
It’s okay.
MARTIN
But, it does look like I was right.
BASIRA
If she was actually on the level.
MARTIN
Well… yeah.
BASIRA
And if she was, she went about it in a really weird –
ARCHIVIST
Manipulative way.
BASIRA
Yeah. Big surprise. But she did kinda hold up her end.
ARCHIVIST
Huh.
MARTIN
I could’ve done without all the webbing, though. Still sticky. Urgh.
ARCHIVIST
Well, it’s over now. And you’re safe, that’s all that matters.
MARTIN
Not quite…
BASIRA
Mmhmm. We do have another option to consider.
ARCHIVIST
When we get back. I want to hear what the others have to say about it.
MARTIN
Then we should get going.
…
Er, speaking of? Um… Where, exactly, do we go now?
ARCHIVIST
Forward.
MARTIN
Uh, th-that’s a cliff, John.
ARCHIVIST
[Sighs] Over there.
BASIRA
Oh great.
MARTIN
W– S-Ser-Seriously? What happened to the big lake or whatever Basira was talking about? I was looking forward to the lake! I-I’m fine rowing. I’m good at rowing!
ARCHIVIST
I’m sorry. Some routes are one-way.
MARTIN
[Mildly distressed] So, so what, this is our new path then? Some rickety ladder on a cliff edge that’s so high you can’t even see the bottom? Really?
ARCHIVIST
I’ll admit it’s not a subtle metaphor.
[BASIRA CHUCKLES]
MARTIN
[Sullen] Yeah I get it. I don’t need another lesson on nightmare geography. It was obvious as soon as I said it out loud.
ARCHIVIST
If there was another way…
MARTIN
Yeah, but there never is. Urgh, fine. Come on.
[CLICK]
[CLICK]
[FOOTSTEPS ON METAL AS THEY DESCEND THE LADDER, THE WIND SWIRLING LOUDLY AROUND THEM]
MARTIN
[To himself] Okay… Easy does it.
One at a time. One at a time.
BASIRA
Careful of your next one, Martin! It’s loose.
MARTIN
Hmm.
Right! Thank you!
Brilliant.
[CAREFUL FOOTSTEP, THEN METAL CREAKS AND GIVES WAY WITH A CLATTER AND SHOWER OF PEBBLES]
[MARTIN EXCLAIMS IN SHOCK AS HE REGAINS HIS FOOTING]
ARCHIVIST
Martin! Martin, are you alright?
MARTIN
[Mildly panicked] Mmmhmm!
BASIRA
[Gentle] I did warn you.
MARTIN
Mmmhmm!
BASIRA
Are you good to keep going?
MARTIN
Yeah, just… just… Yeah.
[METALLIC SOUNDS AS DESCENT CONTINUES]
ARCHIVIST
Martin, would it help to know that if you do fall, you’ll be okay?
MARTIN
[Suspicious] Define “okay”.
ARCHIVIST
I, uh – You wouldn’t die.
MARTIN
Yeah, but it would still hurt, wouldn’t it?
ARCHIVIST
Uh, yes.
But not as much as th–
MARTIN
And, crucially, it would still feel like I’m falling an incredible distance. Wouldn’t it?
ARCHIVIST
I mean, you would still be falling an incredible distance.
You just wouldn’t die when you hit the bottom.
MARTIN
Yeah, and there it is.
BASIRA
Oh, I have missed your pep-talks.
ARCHIVIST
I’m afraid it’s the best I can manage.
MARTIN
Yeah, well, thanks for trying.
BASIRA
Can we just keep going?
ARCHIVIST
Right.
[LADDER DESCENDING CONTINUES FOR A WHILE, THEN…]
Ah.
BASIRA
What?
ARCHIVIST
Right.
BASIRA
“Right”, what?
MARTIN
Guys, what’s going on down there?
ARCHIVIST
The, uh… The ladder ends.
MARTIN
What do you mean it ends?
BASIRA
I’m guessing you’re not talking about the ground.
ARCHIVIST
No. No ground. And… no more ladder.
MARTIN
So what do we do?
BASIRA
What do you think? We jump. And we fall.
[MARTINS CHUCKLES IN DISBELIEF]
MARTIN
What?! No! No, no. I’m not, I’m not doing that. This is, this is obviously like a wrong turn or something.
BASIRA
It’s a ladder, Martin.
MARTIN
Yeah, I know, Basira, but somehow we’ve still managed it!
BASIRA
You said it won’t kill us, right?
ARCHIVIST
Right. We’ll just need to try and –
MARTIN
[Babbling to self] Jesus… Seriously? Hah! If, if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you join them? No! No, I wouldn’t! cos it’s stupid!
BASIRA
[Sharp enough to snap Martin out of it] Martin! Enough!
ARCHIVIST
We just want to make sure we separate out so we don’t hit each other on the way down, or – Oh! Ah.
MARTIN
Oh, Christ, what now?
ARCHIVIST
Sorry, I, uh… hah.
MARTIN
Are you serious?!
BASIRA
You couldn’t have made a statement before we got on the ladder?
ARCHIVIST
That’s not how it works!
MARTIN
Oh c–
BASIRA
Fine. I’m out, then. You coming Martin?
[THE LADDER CREAKS PARTICULARLY OMINOUSLY IN THE WIND]
MARTIN
Oh… S-So my choices are jump off a cliff, or cling to it while John does a statement?
BASIRA
And then jump off it. Yeah.
MARTIN
[Distressed] For fuck’s sake…
Fine.
BASIRA
Okay.
MARTIN
Mmhmm.
BASIRA
On three.
One…
[METALLIC CREAK AS MARTIN LEAPS WITH A GRIMACE AND A SHOUT THAT IS SOON SWALLOWED BY THE WIND]
[Sighs] Or just go then, I guess.
[BASIRA JUMPS WITH A NOISE OF DETERMINATION AND IS SIMILARLY GONE]
[THE ARCHIVIST EXHALES AS STATEMENT STATIC BRIEFLY RISES]
[SOUNDS OF LADDER CLIMBING, LOTS OF HEAVY BREATHING AND OMINOUSLY CREAKING METAL, LOOSE ROCK DUST AND HEAVY WINDS]
ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)
Down
And down
And down again
Rung after rung after rung to run down a long forever way to nowhere
A simple path, a line that was defined before we first stepped off the edge
We beg to find another way but all around despair is only empty, hollow air
Don’t look down.
Don’t see how far it is to fall.
And still we do not know what lurks so far below and waits upon the ground
The only sound the howling gale that tries to break us and the tinny click and clack of rusted rungs begun so far above
Or below.
Which way we move is but a distant glimpse of what might once be hope
But now is only only vertigo
As metal creaks and screams the beams of this iron thin and dying skeleton we hold to spite the sky
We don’t want to die
But what else is there to do but climb
Don’t look down
Don’t look up
The rung above is smooth and white and cool as aged bone
Slick and brittle as the future
Dead and silent as the past
The rung below is eaten through with rust
And creaks and snaps to amber dust when we try to place a foot upon it
[A RUNG BREAKS, SENDING METAL AND STONES FALLING]
Fall away, rotten thing
And leave us to grip with stiff and frozen fingers as we try to linger here and
Not look down
Not follow in your path
Not surrender to the air
[SCREECHING STARTS, FAINT THEN DRAWING NEARER]
There is another noise
A screeching cry from out the sky and lost as fast within its wide embrace
It is a body, no, a pair, a dozen panicked flailing shapes their mouths agape
With all the terror that we keep within our heart and try to swallow
As the void that claims these souls will swallow them
[SCREECHES TURN TO DISCORDANT SHRIEKS AND THEN TO SCREAMS]
It’s raining
Cadavers that do not know they’re dead
Or do they
For from their ragged throats they seem to have no doubt as to their fate
They shout and plead and bargain for gravity to wait and give another chance to hold the ladder close
Then they are gone
Abandoned by all but the indifferent pull
Of the waiting ground below
But they fall slow enough that maybe we may see within their faces
Us
In feature or in name there’s no reflection but the dreadful pained inflection of their fall
We see our end
And when they pass so fast it seems perhaps they were not there at all
We pause and sweat and shake and swear
It will not be us
And we don’t look down
The wind returns to shake the rails to which we bind our path and bids us to continue but
Something has changed
We reach up with a shaking hand
No
We reach down with a nervous foot
No
And all within an instant comes the gut-felt blow that we no longer know which way we were directed
A moment comes to mind from tinted memory of finding that the sole escape for us was down
Beyond the crumbled precipice to descend upon this shaking metal thing
And find a solid earth below it where we might be free
And yet there is another other coloured but no less in focused clarity or recall
Of a muddy foetid swamp that clings in cloying clumping damp
And tried to pull us to itself and claim our last breaths within its awful depths
So in the dread of our extremity we grasp the slick and filthy rungs
To pull us up and out
But now the air is all we see and there may be no cliff or swamp to flee
Or imagine as salvation from this ladder that is all we know exists
All else is empty
And so we wait
Our breath held close within our chest
As we wait for a sign of what’s to come
Where we might go
We look up at last
And see its twisting stretch that pulls away in all infinity to nothing
And we retch to think of all that way to climb to find nothing but a waving orphaned tip
Surmounting all our fears
We look down at last
And the space below us is not endless
But far worse the ground is there so bleak and bare and hard and waiting hungry for our fall
How many miles we cannot count for as we try to think about such measurements
It seems to move away
Any yet such distance does not dim its need to feed upon our shattered broken form
And so we cling
Desperate
Unmoving
Holding out with all our might against the smouldering fire of that awful dark desire to surrender
To the open arms of empty air
As the bodies start to fall around us once again
[STATIC RISES AND THEN FADES]
ARCHIVIST
Right. Well. I guess that’s it, then.
A one…
[EXHALING, HE RELEASES HIS GRIP AND FALLS]
[CLICK]
[CLICK]
[THE ARCHIVIST GROANS IN PAIN]
MARTIN
John?
ARCHIVIST
[Pained] Mmhmm. I’m here.
I am here.
BASIRA
Come on, even Martin didn’t make this much fuss.
MARTIN
I resent that.
[COUGHING SOUNDS]
ARCHIVIST
[Wincing] There is a big difference between knowing pain and experiencing it.
MARTIN
Don’t worry, it passes pretty quickly.
ARCHIVIST
I know.
MARTIN
Of course you do.
ARCHIVIST
But it hasn’t passed yet.
MARTIN
Nope.
BASIRA
Alright, let’s get you up.
[ARCHIVIST IS ASSISTED UP WITH SOME PAINED EXCLAMATIONS]
ARCHIVIST
Okay. I’m okay.
BASIRA
Martin says that’s London up ahead.
ARCHIVIST
Yes.
BASIRA
Looks even more messed up than usual.
ARCHIVIST
Yeah. We, uh, we should be okay, but best be careful.
MARTIN
Yeah keep an eye out.
BASIRA
Was that a joke, or…?
ARCHIVIST
Come on. Let’s get home.
[FOOTSTEPS AS THEY START WALKING]
MARTIN
You mean the tunnels?
ARCHIVIST
I suppose. I don’t really know.
[CLICK]
[CLICK]
[FOOTSTEPS AND VOICES ECHO AS THEY PROCEED THROUGH THE TUNNELS]
MARTIN
Hello?
ARCHIVIST
Georgie? Melanie?
MELANIE
[Muffled] In here.
[STEPS AS THEY MOVE INTO THE INDICATED ROOM]
MARTIN
Hey, what happened here? Are you both okay? Where is everybody?
GEORGIE
[Upset] They came for them. Took them away. Like before.
ARCHIVIST
Oh, god.
MARTIN
Who’s ‘they’?
GEORGIE
The… things from the city. You know, the, the ones that serve that big eye.
ARCHIVIST
Because of me?
MELANIE
Probably.
GEORGIE
W– It doesn’t matter. [Sighs] It’s the same as last time. We thought maybe keeping our numbers down might help, but… No, it was always borrowed time.
MELANIE
W-We tried to stop them, but –
GEORGIE
There, there were just too many. We… we couldn’t do anything. Just had to listen as they were dragged off.
MARTIN
I’m so sorry.
BASIRA
Damn.
MELANIE
Ha-Hang on? Basira, is that you?
BASIRA
Heya, Melanie. How, uh, how are you?
MELANIE
I’m fi– I mean… fine compared to – You know. Anyway, come here.
[MELANIE AND BASIRA HUG]
Where’ve you been?
BASIRA
Just wandering. I’ll tell you about it later.
GEORGIE
You got Martin back, then?
ARCHIVIST
We did.
MARTIN
I was actually doing alright until you showed up, and then Annabelle started acting up for company.
BASIRA
At which point we rescued you from certain death.
MARTIN
[Grumbling] Well, hardly certain death.
GEORGIE
Well, it’s good to see you in one piece. I assume the spider-woman is, um…?
ARCHIVIST
Actually, no, it’s a bit more complicated than that.
MELANIE
No, I’ll have a real answer, thanks.
MARTIN
Annabelle wasn’t trying to kill anyone. She just wanted to offer us a choice. Sort of, tell us about another option, I guess.
GEORGIE
That sounds… ominous.
MARTIN
Hmmm.
BASIRA
It is.
ARCHIVIST
Yeah.
You got anything to drink in those supplies of yours? I think I could really do with one.
[RATTLE OF GLASS]
We need to talk. All of us.