Working on the construction field is tough. Working on the construction field as a female, 5 feet 2, and with a Masters in Civil Engineering? Good luck with that.
I’d know. And I quite understand.
The fresh graduate with the fancy degree is a threat to their job security. And to have to answer to a woman, of all things, in the burliest, manliest construction world? Unthinkable. But I had to start somewhere. So when I had to bring them coffee, I brought them coffee. When they asked me to write their reports, I did so with flourish. When they had an urgent meeting and had to be someplace else, I worked double, triple-shifts to cover for them.
I figured to rise up in this world, you can never afford to be picky.
Unclog a septic tank? Count me in.
Enter a boiler room? My pleasure.
Counter-check the sewage with its as-built plan? Just my kind of Tuesday.
I did any and all possible jobs that my work required of me. The higher-ups delegated them, and whatever ended up in my table, I accomplished to the best of my ability. All of them. Just to prove myself equal. That whatever they can do, I can, too. But there’s just one thing I’ll never do:
Enter a crawlspace again.
I had moved up in the construction field and was head-hunted by a project commissioning team. Now, to put it simply, whether the project be a power plant, a hospital, or a building – it generally involves three stages: Construction, commissioning, and energizing.
The commissioning team is responsible for counter-checking everything – from the structural integrity of the foundations to the sensory sensitivity of the fire detection alarms. When the commissioning team gives it’s a-ok, that’s the only time when the infrastructure could be energized and actively connected to its utility sources (electricity, gas, water, etc).
That specific project was a high-rise residential building. 8o floors, condominium style. My team was contracted to finish commissioning, and the schedule was pretty tight. For the building administrators, it meant saving time and money, but for us, this meant round-the-clock shifting.
I was called in that day at precisely 1 PM.
A breaker’s been tripping and my technicians couldn’t figure out why. The building’s automated electromechanical system traced the fault to the building’s basement. Could have been a grounded wire or something.
“Send Faiz,” I said, wiping the sweat off my brow. That day had been particularly hot, almost reaching over a hundred degree Fahrenheit.
“His wife’s going on labor right now, Ma’am,” replied the intern employee. I cannot, for the life of me, recall that boy’s name.
“Oh, right,” I remember saying, as I was distracted in recalling who was supposed to be in shift today. “What of Ben? And Kurt?”
“The electricians are way up in the 54th floor Ma’am.”
My temples throbbed at the thought of delaying the project any further. We’re already being pressured as it is.
“Fine,” I sighed. “I’ll check the basement myself. Who else is here? Who’s available?”
“Well, there’s you Ma’am," the intern said. "And Asutosh,” he added as an after-thought.
I groaned inwardly as I turned and made my way to the underground basement.
The Nepalese HVAC specialist sat waiting for me in the desolate basement.
Of all people, I thought as I approached the claustrophobic man. He waved good-naturedly in my direction as he saw me nearing.
“Come join me?” I offered jokingly.
He laughed as he said “Only if you want to drag my passed out body in and out of that hole, Ma’am.”
He nodded towards the crude opening in the wall.
“How deep?”
“I tried peeking in, shoved my torchlight and all – beam couldn’t reach anything. Might be a long crawl, Ma’am, I’m sorry.”
I sighed yet again as I steeled myself for what I was about to do.
“Don’t worry. It’s nothing I haven’t done before.”
The crawlspace was scarcely a foot in height.
The square-ish opening was just enough to squeeze my tiny frame into. The hot breath of the earthen ground greeted my face as I eased myself into the crawlspace. I could barely lift my stomach a few inches off the ground without having my back scraping the underneath of the floor above. The place smelled funky, like that foul scent old refrigerators produce when left out of power too long.
The rough ground scraped against my elbows and hands as I pressed onwards. I held the torchlight with my teeth and found myself staring into an endless expanse of a narrow field of earth, courtesy of the flooring hanging over my head. I could make out huge pillars every now and then in the dense darkness and pretty much nothing else.
I was so engrossed in trying to figure out where that faulty ground may be that I jumped and made a noise like a dog being run over when I felt the hand enclose around my right ankle.
“GODDAMIT ASUTOSH!” I screamed as I tenderly massaged the top of my head. The collision with the flooring overhead sent throbbing tremors of pain, I had to grit my teeth as the man crawled to a halt beside me.
“The next time you do that - ”
“I’m very sorry, Ma’am,” he said quickly. He swallowed as he stared around at the darkness before us.
“What are you even doing here?” I asked, eyeing his pasty face and the beads of sweat on his forehead. “You’re claustrophobic! Go back!”
“No, I can’t leave you alone here, Ma’am,” he said, closing his eyes as he attempted to steady his shallow breathing.
“I can do this on my own, thanks,” I said irritatedly as I pressed on.
I found myself yet again halted as Asutosh placed a hand on my shoulder to stop my progress.
“What?”
Wordlessly, he procured a chain and held it out to me. And not just any chain. It was almost 8 feet long, heavily rusted, and is made up of interlocking links almost an inch in diameter. Yep, that’s one gargantuan chain.
“What the actual fuck, Asutosh? Are you high right now?”
He was in terrible discomfort, I could see it. I took the chain from him, heavy as it was, and nudged him backwards.
“Nevermind. Go back,” I said, making a mental note to reprimand the man the minute I get back.
He shuddered as he scrunched his eyes close a little tighter. “Can I not persuade you to come back, Ma’am?”
“What is this all of a sudden? Am I needed above ground?” I asked, torn between irritation and concern.
“No Ma’am – it’s just that,” Asutosh hesitated. He took another gulp of breath as he continued, “When you entered earlier, something … a shadow followed you in.”
I pressed forwards, flinging the heavy chain out in front of me as I did so. The metal clattered noisily against the uneven ground as its weight carried itself further out.
The noise scares them off, my family believes this, Asutosh had said. Just let its noise ring out every few feet or so. Please, Ma’am.
I must admit I was scared.
Asutosh wasn’t the man who joked around. He was weird, awkward, maybe, but he never joked around. But there was a job to be done, and I am not about to let a shadow get in the way of that. But that was easier said than done.
I chucked out the chain again when I reach it, grunting from the effort it required of me. The tiny space was suffocating, I barely had enough room to breath, much less to throw a giant chain around. I have sweated through my shirt – the crawlspace was impossibly hot. And humid. My jaw was starting to feel numb from biting the torchlight aloft, and yet, no end to the crawlspace was in sight.
It was pretty dumb of me not to bring any blueprint of the as-built plan of the basement, I realized. I mean, how could a crawlspace even be so huge? I chanced a peek backwards and had to contain a gasp as I realized I was too far from the crawlspace opening, I couldn’t see it now.
I took slow, deep breaths to try and calm myself.
It was now just me, sandwiched between the flooring and the earth, and the dense darkness in all directions. I could feel my extremities contracting, pulling me into one tight ball, my instincts warning me that to venture out any further would be foolish.
And yet, if I don’t move, would it be any better?
The heat has become soporific. Even the torchlight’s unusually strong beam in the backdrop of the darkness was dizzying. Am I having a claustrophobic attack?
I am claustrophobic? Huh, who knew?
I crawled on and on. Almost ritualistically, I threw the chain before me, heard the clatter resound in the space and crawled on until I saw the chains again. Chains. Noise. Crawl. Chains. Noise. Crawl.
I routinely stopped to get a sense of where I am, looking up into the floorings, tracing pipes and fittings in my mind.
Chains. Noise. Crawl.
Chains. Noise. Crawl.
My shoulders and legs have become stiff. My neck’s creaking with weird noises. I was so, so thirsty. Could it be possible that it was hotter here than it was outside? The dense darkness made it almost impossible to tell what the time was. I went in around 1 PM, I knew that. But how long have I been here?
Chains. Noise. Crawl.
Chains. Noise. Crawl.
The air had become so thin, I had trouble breathing. It was like I was being exposed atop a boiling kettle. The heat was draining, consuming. I was about to nod off to sleep when the torchlight began flickering.
My body jerked as if it was electrocuted. No.
If the torchlight failed –
In that split-second, my body instinctively pulled itself backwards, backwards, backwards to where I came. It did not matter that I couldn’t see it, all I knew that safety was behind me. The torchlight was flickering more frequently and I craned my neck around every which way possible to see if I was closer to my exit.
I wish I hadn’t.
Wherever the dying beam of my torchlight fell, I saw something.
It was crawling.
I was whimpering and shaking and crying all at the same time. All fatigue and pain forgotten, I went crawling backwards as steadily as I can. Wishing, praying, for that merciful square of light in this perpetual dark.
How could I have been so foolish?
And then I halted to a stop.
Not because the torchlight finally went out, no. I was plunged in eternal darkness. Sandwiched between the cold flooring and the hot earthen ground. Wishing to be a part of either, because in the space between, the space where I was suspended – I most definitely am not alone.
My right foot came in contact with something. Something liquid and warm. I felt it drip on that naked flesh between my sock and pants. The smell was putrid, like a sewage leaked through the entire space. But I knew I was nowhere near the sewage pipes.
The whimper that escaped my lips turned to a scream.
“LET ME OUTTA HERE! PLEASE! ANYONE!”
I dove forwards, into the darkness, crawling, crawling away from whatever it was. My face felt hot and sticky from all the tears and dust and I crawled on, constantly screaming at the top of my voice.
“LET ME OUTTA HERE! PLEASE! ANYONE!”
I could feel cuts in my fingers and elbows and knees but I pressed on, towards what, I do not know. Away from what, I’d rather not know either.
“LET ME OUTTA HERE! PLEASE! ANYONE!”
I was gasping for breath. I was exhausted. And thirsty. So very thirsty. My head began to spin.
“LET ME OUTTA HERE! PLEASE! ANYONE!”
I froze.
Someone was screaming.
A girl.
And it wasn’t me.
NOOOOOO! NO! NO! ANYONE! PLEASE! OH, NO, PLEASE, ANYONEEE!"
I was trembling. Shaking. Someone, something was playing with me. In the darkness. I jumped again as I heard the ringtone.
My phone! How could I have forgotten it!
I did not even stop to look at the caller ID.
“Ma’am!” came Asutosh’s frantic voice. “Ma’am! Where are you - ?”
“PULL ME OUTTA HERE ASUTOSH! PULL ME OUT!” I was bawling, tears and snot and saliva streaming down my face. “GET SOMEBODY TO GET ME OUT PLEASE!”
“You’ve been gone six hours - ”
“Something’s in here, with me, Asutosh! My torchlight’s out, and I’ve been wondering back and forth and - ” I whimpered towards the speaker, finding myself suddenly whispering. I was so, so scared, I had to talk and talk and talk but what if it hears me - ? And yet I’ve been screaming all this time –
“Ma’am do you still have the chains?”
The momentary silence from my end was all it took. “You have to find it, Ma’am.”
That order spurred me forwards. I wasn’t lost. I had an objective. I just have to accomplish one more objective. I grunted as I pulled myself forwards. This time, a little more sluggishly, with an arm occupied by my phone.
“Keep talking to me, Asutosh, please, I beg you,” I whispered.
“Just get to the chains Ma’am,” he said, panting, as if he was running. “I’m on my way now with a few techs, we’re coming to get you.”
That alone renewed my resolve. I kept pressing on forwards, with the limited lighting the screen of my phone can provide. I crawled and crawled, ignoring the cuts in my wrists and knees and the bumps on my head and back.
After what seemed like hours, I reached the end of the gargantuan chain.
But I wasn’t the first to it.
Her outstretched, pale, grayish hand was clutching the other end. She was lying on the ground, almost a mirror image of me, as she stared into me with blank, white eyes.
I was paralyzed on the spot. Asutosh was still speaking from the phone on my hand but I could not hear it. All there was was the looming darkness. And the face of the girl in front of me.
And then she began to crawl forwards.
I screamed as I have never screamed before. Every particle, every fiber of my being shriveled in sheer horror as the woman put one hand in front of the other, pulling herself forwards, closing the distance between us. She made no noise. She just crawled. I let go of the chain and instinctively covered my head with my arms.
That was all I knew.
It took me a month to recover in the hospital. They said I was in a coma for the first week. That day, I was extracted out of that crawlspace after I’ve been noted missing for 6 hours. The extraction took almost two hours. They had to bore a hole through the 1st floor to get to me – my asphyxiation in that enclosed space was their concern and the fastest way to get me out was from above.
I pleaded not to make a big deal out of it. Stress over deadlines, the heat, and an undiagnosed claustrophobia – surely that was all the explanation everyone needed. Not the fact that, as Asutosh has revealed to me later on, according to police records years before, a girl was found dead in the lot where the building stood now. That the girl was mistakenly buried alive after she was raped by construction workers. That she died of asphyxiation as she fought to get out.
No one else needed to know.
The project commissioning went with no further hitch. But I still recall that building to this day, and hope that the girl, whoever she was, finally found her way out.
Submitted April 01, 2017 at 11:54PM by Artificial_Innocence http://ift.tt/2nIH5LF nosleep
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