Chapter 6: Falling down a pit is hard on the ribs

"Perry the Platypus, look!"

Perry was examining a broken twig for evidence that it had recently been stepped on and snapped when he heard Doofenshmirtz. His partner was pointing excitedly toward a clearing in the trees. There was a hole in the ground with a metal pole beside it acting as the anchor for a rope that led down into the earth.

The two agents hurriedly splashed across the muddy ground. The rope disappeared into the darkness; neither could see its end.

"Wow," Doof whistled. "Now that is a hole. You know, the trail seemed to lead right to it. Do you think The Regurgitator is down there?"
Perry did not reply. He thought the answer was fairly obvious. He tightened his fedora onto his head and took a precautionary glance around the rainy island. Then he grasped the rope.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! We aren't actually going down there, are we? I've never been good at climbing and I am very claustrophobic!"

Perry crossed his arms and glared at Doofenshmirtz.

"What?"

The Platypus gestured with his hand.

Doof frowned. "Oh, I get it, you think that I'm a bigger chicken than Agent C, don't you? Well, I am not! Come on! Let's go!" He grabbed the rope from Perry's hand…and then looked down into the darkness below. "Uh, actually, Perry the Platypus…" He held the rope back out to Perry. "You go first."

Perry just rolled his eyes.


"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Terrified beyond all rational thought, Phineas and Baljeet screamed until their lungs were fit to burst. Down they fell, the wind rushing past as they plummeted hundreds of feet into the earth.

Ferb, however, was barely even phased by their peril. Thinking of a quick way to save them, he felt in his pocket for the Aerial Area Rug. Unfortunately, it seemed to have fallen out as he was tumbling through the air. Still remaining calm, Ferb scanned around with his headlamp, searching for something to save them. All around the boys were various items that had been in his infinite storage container. His beam illuminated a pickaxe just above him. The lights went off in Ferb's head and he quickly gasped the wooden handle.

"Phineas!" he called. The other two boys stopped screaming and looked upwards to meet his gaze. "Grab my ankle!"

Phineas did so, then stretched out his hand to Baljeet. "Baljeet! Take my hand!"

The teens held onto each other with white-knuckled grips. Ferb looked down. The bottom of the pit was suddenly visible just at the furthest reach of his headlamp, and coming up fast.

"Hang on!" Ferb swung the pick at the stone wall with all the force he could muster.

Ferb's plan really should not have worked. The face of the hard stone walls should have deflected the strike of the pick. But, somehow, be it by luck, some greater force or simply because it was being wielded by Ferb Fletcher, the sharpened tip of the pick was driven right into a horizontal crack in the solid igneous rock.

The teens were violently jarred as they were brought to a nearly instant stop, and their momentum caused Ferb to lose his hold on the pick. Once more, they were falling.

"Ahhhh- oof!" Baljeet groaned as he landed on a pile of dirt. They had only fallen about eight feet. Still a painful landing, but survivable. A second later, a dozen or so pieces of exploring gear crashed down around them.

Phineas groaned as he slowly picked himself up. He placed a hand on his throbbing head where it had struck a rock. "Quick thinking, Ferb. Are you guys alright?"

"I will likely be sore for several days," Baljeet replied, massaging a sore spot on his hip. "But I am otherwise uninjured."

Ferb, meanwhile, found that he could not move his right arm. "I do believe that sharp stop has dislocated my shoulder," he said calmly.

Phineas and Baljeet grimaced.

"Resetting it would be a job best suited for Buford-" Baljeet began, but quickly stopped as he realized what he was saying.

Fearing what he might find, Phineas slowly looked around. He expected to see the partially crushed bodies of his two friends who had fallen first, but Ferb and Baljeet were the only ones there.

"Hey…where…where are Buford and Isabella? They fell before we did, they should be here…shouldn't they?"

"You are right," Baljeet agreed. "Where could they be?"

"I don't know." Phineas circled the pit, searching for something he might have missed. "Hey, guys?" He looked from one side of the pit to the other. "Does it seem like the pit is smaller? Width-wise, I mean?"

His companions thought for a moment, each judging the distance across for themselves. "I agree," Baljeet said as Ferb nodded. "In fact, I would say it is only half of the diameter it was when we fell."

Phineas pointed to the side Ferb had wedged the pickaxe into. "We were standing pretty close to that wall when we fell." He pointed to the opposite wall. "So that wall must divide the pit up the middle. I'll bet Isabella and Buford are on the other side of it!" Then he added, "And maybe they're still alive…"

The three boys were silent.

Finally, Phineas spoke again. "C'mon, we have to see if there's a way we can reach them! Ferb, do you still have the rug?"

Ferb shook his head.

"Nuts. We'll have to climb out then."

"We probably should attempt to reset Ferb's shoulder," Baljeet said. "He will not be much help in reaching them with one useless arm."

"Good point, Baljeet." He looked at Ferb's arm thoughtfully. "Okay, how do we do this?"

"A forceful jolt ought to do it," Ferb spoke.

"Right…" Phineas thought for a moment. "Um…okay. Ferb, why don't you stand with your shoulder against that wall there…"

Ferb did so.

"And now Baljeet and I will run into you and, hopefully, the collision will pop your shoulder back into its socket."

"Um, Phineas…" Baljeet began, but Phineas was not listening.

"C'mon, Baljeet, we don't have any time to waste! Isabella could be hurt or-"

"But, Phineas-"

"Fine, I'll just do it myself. Ready, Ferb?"

The Brit nodded.

"Okay, on the count of three. One…"

"Phineas, you cannot just-"

"Two…"

"But, Phineas-!"

"Three!"

There was not much room to build up speed in the small space, but Phineas's long legs allowed him to cross the room in three quick strides. Leading with his own shoulder, he crashed into Ferb's. There was an audible pop-

And Ferb shrieked.


A little earlier…

Isabella could not believe that Buford had not stopped screaming yet. She had yelped when the platform had given way, but once the initial shock had ended, she gathered her wits about her. Sure, she was still terrified, but screaming would not solve anything.

"AHHHHHH! AHH! AH! AHHHHHHHHH!"

She could deal with this. She was close enough that she reach Buford, and she slapped him hard across the cheek.

"AHHHH! AHHH! AHH- OW! What was that for?"

"Because you aren't helping! You're just giving me a headache!"

"Can ya blame me? We're gonna die!"

"Not if we can figure out a way to stop falling!"

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?! We don't even have some rope or nothin'!"

"I don't know! Let me think!"

Isabella looked down. Strangely, the pit below them was dimly lit by some unknown light source. A hundred feet down, she could see water, and from what she could tell it looked fairly deep.

"Hey!" Buford yelled. "There's water below us! We're gonna be okay!"

"Buford, hitting water from a fall of greater than thirty feet is just as bad as falling onto concrete!" Isabella yelled quickly.

"…so…we're screwed, ain't we?"

"Not if we can figure out a way to slow down! Or at least use something to take the impact for us!"

"How about this?"

Isabella looked at Buford. He had in his hand a pressure suit, one that Ferb had brought in case they somehow ended up in space.

"Where did you get that?!

"It was just fallin' with us. I think Ferb musta ejected his storage container 'r somethin.'"

"Well, it might work! C'mon, get on top of it!"

With the pressure suit flat, face down, there was just enough room for both of them to hold onto the back with their stomachs flat against it. Isabella grabbed the sleeve and used the external controls on the wrist to pressurize it. The suit filled with air, making it like holding onto a rubber raft. They clung to it with all their might.

"Hang on!" Isabella cried.

They were just in time. The suit crashed into the water's surface, compressing just a bit and acting like an airbag, cushioning the fall. Both of its passengers had the wind knocked out of them just before they lost their grip and fell off into the water. A myriad of exploring equipment fell in around them, lost forever in the depths of the pool.

Isabella quickly paddled to the surface, gasping for air as she breached. As she breathed hard to refill her lungs, she realized that her headlamp had gone out. The water almost seemed to be glowing from beneath, filling the vast cavern with dim artificial light, which was why she had not noticed her lamp's absence. She clicked it off and back on again, and after a few flickers, the beam from her headlamp returned.

"Buford?" she choked out. She looked around, thinking he may have come up somewhere outside of her field of vision. "Buford?" There was no reply, nor could she locate him by sight. "Buford?" Isabella yelled louder. She took a few deep breaths. "Buford!"

She was met with only silence.

Oh, no…no no no! What if he was knocked out? I'll never be able to find him under water!

Suddenly, she heard splashing a few feet away. Just as she trained her light on it, a figure emerged and began gasping desperately for air.

"Buford!" she cried, relieved. His head lamp had gone out, making it hard to see him.

"H-help-p," came his plea. He was struggling to keep his head above the water.

Thinking quickly, she located the floating pressure suit and towed it over to her friend. Buford latched onto the helmet, using it as a flotation device. Isabella took hold of one of the arms, using the opportunity to rest.

"Are…you…okay?" she panted, still out of breath.

He nodded. "Couldn't…figure out…which…which way…was up," he gasped.

As the fear and panic faded away, Isabella suddenly realized that the water was frigidly cold. "We…have to…get out…of…of the…the water…"

Buford clicked his headlamp back on in the same manner as Isabella, and thankfully it worked. As he worked on catching his breath, he glanced around. They seemed to be in a massive cavern, more than five times as big as the room they had been in before they had fallen. Nearly forty feet above them was the cavern's ceiling, and a small hole only a few yards in diameter revealed the pit from which they had fallen. The walls were smoothly worn rock. On one far side, there was an alcove at the water's edge where the bottom of the pool rose up and created an area that remained dry.

"Over there…" He pointed.

"Let's…go…" Isabella replied.

Paddling together, they swam with the pressure suit over to the shore. They were both breathing even harder when they reached dry land, and they sat down side by side.

As he breathed in deeply to catch his breath, Buford noticed for the first time an aching soreness in his chest. "I think…I mighta…bruised…a coupla…ribs…" Buford panted, rubbing his freezing arms.

"Yeah…" Isabella could feel a similar pain. "Me, too."

"On the bright side, the cold wat'r numbed the pain in my hands from the rope burn."

A few minutes passed in silence as they caught their breath. At one point, they heard a far off shriek that sounded like someone in great pain, but neither even acknowledged it.

When at last he had caught his breath, Buford became far more aware of the cold. Seeking relief, he peeled off his rain coat and soaked t-shirt. He wrung as much water out of the shirt as he could and then put it back on. "Dat's a little bit better. Little bit less cold now."

Isabella shivered and sighed. She grasped the hem of her own shirt and managed to squeeze a little bit of water from it.

Buford touched her on the sleeve. "G' ahead. I won't look. I promise."

To prove it, he turned to face away from her, burying his face in the hood of his rain coat.

Isabella though about it. Her body convulsed from the cold again. Her teeth were even chattering. "Alright. But if you peek, you're dead, Van Stomm."

"Hey, I respect my friends," he replied, his voice slightly muffled by the rain coat hood. "I wouldn't do nothin' like that."

Isabella could not keep from cracking a smile. Beneath Buford's tough guy exterior, he really had a heart of gold. Her smile faded as she remembered she was shivering. "Okay…here I go. No peeking."

"I won't."

She quickly pulled off her shirt and wrung it out as best she could. She looked down at her chest, trying to decide just cold she was. Isabella let out a sigh. She turned her back to Buford and quickly removed her bra, too, doing her best to wring it dry. Then she quickly redressed, save for her rain coat.

"Okay, Buford. You can look now."

He dropped the rain coat. Isabella was stroking her long, dark hair, squeegeeing the water from it. She was still shivering. "You still cold?" he asked, still shaking a bit himself.

She nodded. "Umm…" A perplexed look crossed her face.

"What?" Buford raised a confused eyebrow.

Isabella shook his head. "Nothing."

"What? What is it?"

She sighed. "We would restore our body temperatures a lot faster if we…um…" She winced. "…huddled together for warmth."

"That's true."

"Yeah…but I'm sure that you don't want-" Isabella was cut off Buford slid over beside her and put his arm around her midsection, pulling her in close against his side. "Uhh…okay, then."

He flashed her a toothy grin. "I bet yer wishin' I was Phineas, huh, girly?"

His question was met with a slightly embarrassed laugh and eye roll. "Heh…yeah…you got me there. I bet I'm not exactly your first choice, either."

"Nah. Of the four people it could have been, at least yer a girl. Cuddling with one of the other dudes would be weird."

Isabella chuckled.

"Whadya think? Is it weird to be cuddling with me?" Buford asked.

"Hmm…nah…what's a little cuddling between friends?" She put both arms around him and gave him a hug, leaving Buford rather dumbfounded. "You know, Buford? You really are a good friend."

"Heh…thanks, Isabella." He squeezed her back. "You are, too."

They held onto each other for a while until they stopped shivering, each feeling just a little more secure in each other's arms.

Finally, Isabella spoke. "You know, I thought Phineas and Ferb would have rescued us by now."

"I was just thinkin' it seemed like they should have already come fer us."

Buford stood and held out a hand to Isabella, helping her to her feet. Together, they walked to the water's edge, where the roof of the alcove did not block their line of sight of the rest of the cavern. They pointed their headlamps up to the ceiling.

"We came from up there, right?" Buford pointed to the hole in the highest point of the cavern.

"We must have. There isn't anywhere else we could have fallen from." Isabella squinted. "Do you think that hole looks smaller than the pit was at the point we fell from?"

"I was just thinkin' that, too. Ya think maybe…" Buford considered his words for a moment. "Maybe the others fell too?"

"But wouldn't they be here with us?"

"Well, if that hole looks smaller, maybe there was, like, another way down where they could have fallen? Like, when we were on that platform, below us the pit split in two?"

"Hmm…maybe." Isabella turned and pointed her lamp down toward the back of the alcove. Though her headlamp was powerful, it did not reveal where the alcove ended. It was, in fact, not an alcove at all, but a cave. "Maybe this cave will lead us to them. Want to follow it?"

"Better than standin' around here. Let's go."

Buford quickly led the way, but after only a few steps, Isabella stopped and jogged back.

"Hey! Where ya goin,' Isabella?" Buford called back.

"Just a sec!"

Isabella knelt down beside the pressure suit where it still sat on the water's edge. There was a coil of thin wire rope attached to the belt and she removed it, slinging it over her shoulder. There was also a small but very sharp retractable knife in a small storage pouch on the belt which she took as well. Then she returned to Buford.

"Would you like the knife or the rope?" she asked, presenting both to him.

"Where'd you get those?"

"From the pressure suit. I thought they might be good to have."

"Oh." Buford grinned. "Good thinkin,' girly. I'll take the knife."

Isabella smirked at him and placed the knife in his waiting palm. "I had a feeling that's what you'd choose."

"Well, you know," Buford chuckled as they heading into the cave side by side. "Gotta balance out the universe and all. I did just cuddle you, after all."

Whew! Writing is hard work! And for this part all I was doing was copying stuff I wrote weeks ago onto the computer! Oh, well. I don't think anybody was exactly on the edge of their seat waiting for this chapter, so…yeah.

As always, reviews are super appreciated, (and good motivation to continue writing) but please be civil, everybody!