He slowly stands up, and begins to feel the area in front of him. He feels a lot of dirt, and begins to climb, wanting to get out again. But the walls keep crumbling and he falls back again. Then, when he falls for the second time, he hears a dull thud.
He immediately becomes rigid, waiting a few very silent seconds, to see if the sound repeats. When it doesn't he breathes out and starts to examine the ground where he landed. There is indeed something there, a wooden something. Nillian feels around the edges, and discovers that there is a hollow underneath the wood, and a wooden beam attached to it.
It takes some more feeling and prodding until he suddenly realises what he is standing on: a table. The wooden board has two legs on this side, and probably two on the other. But that means the ... room he is in is filled with dirt, covering everything.
After considering the situation for a moment Nillian’s curiosity kicks in. If he is lying in a room, then there probably is also a door somewhere, leading out. Unless of course the entrance used to be above him, but he doesn't think so. So he starts feeling around, tapping the dirt and sometimes digging at the sides. When he hears a hollow sound he begins digging in earnest, and soon he has uncovered a large part of the door.
Nillian feels around the edges, finding that the door turns inward. He then searches for a handle, hoping to pull the door free. He turns the handle, but the door doesn't budge. He starts moving dirt with his feet, and soon the door creaks open. But it stops almost immediately, and Nillian has to move quite a lot more dirt before he is able to push himself through.
On the other side of the door Nillian is standing in complete darkness. He feels around, but there is nothing in his vicinity. He gets the feeling that it is a very large room, which is reinforced by the way sounds tend to disappear in the dark. Nillian pads his pockets and retrieves a packet of matches. He lights one, filling his vision with light.
He blinks a few times, getting used to the light, then quickly looks around before the match burns down. There is a large table a metre away from him, with several strange parts lying on it. Around the table there are some chairs, coated with a thick layer of dust. On the other side of him there is a big empty space, with the outline of some big contraption beyond the circle of light. And the most important thing: just in front of him there hangs a small oil lamp, nailed to a wooden beam.
Then his match reaches his fingers, and lets it fall to the ground with a little shout. But he now knows what to do, so he carefully reaches out for the oil lamp and removes it from the hook it is hanging from. He shakes it, hearing that there is still some oil left in there. He feels the wick, which is completely dry, and turns the knob so that it is submerged in the oil. After a few seconds he checks the wick again. This time it is wet from the oil, so Nillian carefully lights another match and lights the wick, covering it with a glass bulb. The wick lights, wavers a bit and then catches on fire entirely.
With the lamp in hand Nillian starts to examine the room around him. He walks over to the table he first saw, and looks at the items lying on top. There are a lot of drawings of complex steam engines, together with some half-finished constructions. There are also some loose parts lying around, a selection of discarded springs, cogs and sprockets. Everything is covered under a thick layer of dust.
A little bit further Nillian finds another door, behind which he finds a ladder going up. As he turns around to enter the workplace again he notices something. On the other side of the door a piece of paper is hanging, nailed to the door. He reaches out to take it, and pulls it free.
Exactly on that moment an alarm, installed by the original builders, misfires and begins to wail. The workplace is immediately filled with an ear-splitting whine, and Nillian gets a fright. With the paper in his hands he rushes back into the workplace, looking for the source of the sound. It is very loud, and he has a lot of trouble pinpointing the source.
When he finally finds the alarm it is hidden in one of the corners behind a large box. The whine is really giving him a headache, and he pushes the box aside with a bit more force than was necessary. The alarm is a large bell, covered with a bronze covering. Underneath he finds a pipe, leading to a small steam engine.
Nillian frantically begins tearing at the engine, but it won't budge. The screws are rusted shut and he cannot get a hold on the external parts. He then turns his attention to the pipe, which gives way more easily. When the pipe is disconnected from the alarm the steam rushes out into the air and the alarm falls silent.
Nillian gives a sigh of relief, looking around him. The room looks unchanged, and with the silence returned the feeling of emptiness returns. He suddenly notices that on the floor around him a lot of rubber and lead tubes are lying. Frowning he looks around, trying to find where they come from. Then he sees the box he pushed away. He sighs and begins to put the tubes back into the box, putting the piece of paper down. When he is finished he pick it up again, and reads the first line.
Dear sir or madame,
Congratulations on finding my secret laboratory! I have a feeling that it ...
Frowning Nillian quickly skips to the end. There he finds that the letter is carefully signed Dr. Frank Biene. With growing excitement he reads the letter from the beginning.
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