Free Ascent: (Book 1) The Ladder by Anthony Thackston Page A

Climb.”
                A few of them yell for him to do the opposite.
                Scraggle yells from inside the tunnel, “You see? They rally to the Dreamer. Fulfill the prophecy.”
                Joe puts a foot on the first rung of the Ladder then up to the second. Mason grabs his ankle and tries to pull him back down but Joe shakes off his grip and climbs higher. He looks up into the tunnel but Scraggle can no longer be seen. At most, all Joe can see is the darkness beyond the clustered lights just inside the tunnel.
                “Destiny awaits us all.” The old man’s disembodied voice echoes out from the tunnel.
    Joe stops just outside of it to look back down at the kids. Some of them are cheering, others trying to convince him to come back down.
                He spots Lauren standing outside the entrance to the Mud Hall. He watches her worried expression turn to one of encouragement as she flicks her thumb in an upward motion.                                   Movement at the bottom of the Ladder catches Joe’s eye. He watches the Guard slowly get up and turn his head upward. His expression is cold and menacing.
                Only slightly fearful of the Guard, Joe stares back down at him, defiantly. Silently, Joe dares the Guard to come after him, knowing that he won’t.
                He switches his gaze to the tunnel above and makes his way up starts. Only the bottoms of his mud waders can be seen as he climbs the Ladder.

 
    Chapter Eleven
     
                The same small, yellow bulbs that light the rest of the Junction as well as the Bunks surround the bottom of the tunnel. They are like rings of light bulbs along the stone and dirt wall that illuminate everything. One cable connects them all. It stretches up along the tunnel wall. The higher Joe tries to look up, the farther apart the lights appear to be.
                 In his determination to get the cure from Scraggle, Joe fights back his own fears of what could happen on the Ladder. If he’s already got a different version of the Sick, getting it again won’t make much of a difference.
                 He climbs as quickly as he can. The sound of Scraggle’s crazed laughter echoes off the rock walls. Joe tries to see how high up Scraggle is but only manages to catch a shadow, barely illuminated by a single bulb above him.
                “How’s he climb so fast?” Joe says aloud.
                “Come Dreamer. I have the cure.” Scraggle’s voice echoes t hroughout the tunnel.
                Joe looks back down. He’s high enough that the lights at the tunnel opening outshine those of the Junction. The bottom of the Ladder and the kids around it are barely discernible as anything more than distant shapes. Joe looks back up and thinks, I’ve come this far, before continuing to climb.
                The distance between each bulb lessens as Joe passes them one by one. For a few moments up, visibility is decent but it doesn’t take long before he finds himself surrounded by darkness.
                “It is a long way to destiny, Dreamer.”
                The words cause Joe to look up in time to see Scraggle’s feet disappear inside a green, swirling fog. The fog has an ominous appearance but that might just be the green light that spreads through it.
                “Slow down!” Joe yells up to Scraggle.
                “Speed up!” Scraggle yells down.
                Joe looks back down. The thought of dropping the chase and heading back to the Mines comes across his mind. At best, he’d be put in the Ban. At worst, whatever the old man injected him with would be more than he could handle. The Sick was bad enough but to be infected with a different version, a stronger version that the Doctor has no Remedy for—he