//------------------------------//
// Part 1: The Store – XIII 
// Story: Trolley Pushers 
// by Acologic 
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‘What’s taking them so long?’ asked Hull in a panicked squeak. The pain in his leg, clearly, was worsening, and Ale hoped it was just his imagination when he saw that the leg seemed to be getting smaller, pulled deeper into the ground by... well, by what? 

Elm and Lime had done little but try to offer Hull assurances that everything would be fine. Lime’s were awkwardly loud and hearty and struggled to ring true. Though everyone seemed out of their depth, Elm, by far, had been most effective in keeping calm and genuinely helping Hull feel more comfortable – as comfortable as he could feel in such a predicament. Ale had said little if anything, mainly because he felt a fraud. He had no kind words to give. He had no skills by which to conjure for Hull either relief or an escape. All he could do was wait there in silence, be present at the scene. And the worst of it was he wanted to disappear for his own sake. He felt so tired. He felt so hollow and selfish, but there it was.

Elm pulled out her Com and called Emergencies again. Most peculiarly, she pocketed it a moment later, her mouth open. ‘They hung up on me!’ she said. 

Lime looked aghast. ‘What the fuck are they thinking?’ he said, his voice rising incredulously.

‘But it’s an emergency!’ said Hull. 

Elm looked at Ale for help. Ale could only shrug, wide-eyed, and said, ‘Maybe... call them again? Maybe you got cut off.’

It was worth a try, but this time not only was Elm unable to speak to an operator but the Com timed out. However unlikely, however wrong, for whatever reason Emergencies did not want to take their call. 

‘What do we do now?’ demanded Hull of the group. 

‘Are you sure we can’t pull you out?’ rumbled Lime.

‘I don’t know,’ said Hull, wincing as he tried to wriggle his leg loose. It wouldn’t budge. 

‘Worth a try,’ said Lime, nodding himself into it. ‘Worth a try. Grab his other leg,’ he said to Ale. 

‘Not like that!’ said Hull as they pulled and he was stretched again. ‘Ah! Not like that!’

‘What other way is there?’ Lime boomed back at him, frustrated. He relented, and Hull’s body slumped back into its undignified position against the ground by the pothole.

‘Just give me a moment!’ said Hull.

Elm crouched down and scanned the pothole, frowning hard. She pointed at Hull’s leg. ‘It’s as if the road’s fused with you here,’ she observed, frowning deeper still. ‘You’ve got this sort of... layer of stuff on your leg.’

‘Well, don’t touch it,’ Ale found he’d said. ‘What if it gets you as well?’

‘What if what gets me?’ Elm asked him, looking him straight in the eye with a refreshed skepticism. 

‘I don’t know,’ said Ale, holding his ground, however awkward it was. ‘But he said he felt something pull him. Isn’t that right?’ he asked Hull.

‘You think I’m lying?’ Hull said to Elm, who shook her head.

‘No, I just think you might’ve misread the –’

‘I know what it was!’ Hull snapped back at her. ‘I know how it felt!’

Elm derailed the argument swiftly by straightening up and saying, ‘If Emergencies aren’t coming, then it’s down to us. We’ll just have to pull you out, one way or another.’

‘He finds it too painful when we pull,’ said Lime. ‘If he’s that stuck, we’ll only make it hurt more.’

‘It’s the layer here,’ said Elm, pointing at the rubble-like crust. ‘If we loosen that, maybe he’ll be easier to pull.’

‘How are you going to do that?’ asked Hull uncertainly.

Elm was beaten this time, but not for long. She fixed Ale with a stare. ‘Do you keep any tools in the trolley hut?’

‘None. Gat wouldn’t let us do any work on the shopper park. He sends ponies in.’

‘I’ll just go into the store and get some off the shelf then.’

Lime shrugged his agreement, seemingly impressed by such sturdy common sense. Ale conceded that it was a good idea under the circumstances. At least one of them was thinking clearly. Hull seemed nervous.

‘What’s she going to do?’ he muttered to Lime and Ale once Elm had left for the store. ‘Dig me out?’

Ale shrugged. ‘I guess so.’

‘This is solid road!’ Hull said. ‘Unless we’ve got a power drill in there –’

‘But it’s just that rocky stuff around your leg,’ said Lime. ‘Once we get that off –’

‘Yeah, and how are you going to do that?’ retorted Hull. ‘Cut it off with my skin? I don’t exactly think it’s going to be gentle!’

‘Do you want to get out?’ asked Lime impatiently.

‘Not at that price!’

‘We’ll see how it goes,’ said Ale to the both of them. ‘It’s not like we’ll be hacking away at you, and if it hurts, you’ll tell us.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t have any other ideas.’

Hull sighed deeply. ‘Some day at work.’

Ale couldn’t help but give an inappropriate snort, and when Lime and Hull looked at him, he said, ‘Well, for your first day, you know. You can’t say it hasn’t been eventful.’

He hadn’t expected Hull to smile, but he did, which Ale took as a good sign. It can’t all have been bad if he was capable of smiling. ‘It’s not what I had in mind when I signed up,’ said Hull, and he smiled again, though nervously. Lime drew their attention to Elm, who was approaching with a bagful of assorted tools. 

‘OK,’ she said, setting them down beside Hull. ‘Here goes nothing.’