The Tradgedy of the Flogwidgen Press

7 days ago the trouble started. It seems the Cog Weasels were upset the the Gear gophers were getting Medical Insurance. No one really noticed the decrease in productivity as the Cog weasels snuck off two at a time To prepare the disaster that lay ahead
The Factory makes machine parts. We custom design machines for every walk of life and build them to order here with our teams of expert technicians. They stand at the ready to duplicate our designs as the need arises. Last week the Demand for Flogwidgen Presses increased dramatically. This particular peice uses large quantities of Hydrolics (which our alligators build) and gears built by our expert team of gophers.
The problem began with a gopher named Latman. During the original production of the Flogwidgen press he was caught in the machine during its test run, losing his left fore paw. A tragic accident and one the factory would pay for i was sure. Now with the Demand for the gopher's gears sky rocketing I could almost certainly expect their union rep to come around.
Old Jack was an angry gopher of average height gone all gray. Jack was a tough old gopher willing to fight tooth and nail for his team's benefit. On that particular day he stormed in to my office to demand health care for his people. I of course resisted this idea as the resulting cost would cause a major rise in the sale price of the Flogwidgen presses. He motioned to my window and to my dismay the gophers were already picketing. I had to build the presses and the test runs using cogs were failures. I had no choice but to give in.
With their health plans in place the gophers went to work pumping out gears at record speeds. the lost time wouldn't matter at all. All seemed well once again in the factory, but like i said none of us noticed the cog productivity drop. The weasels were only working on a small order of hovercraft ordered last week. It wasn't until it was far to late did i notice the changes happening around me
The Gophers have begun burrowing through the sides of the dome, why? because the Cog Weasels clogged the drainage ducts. the waste removal system is poisoning the air and the Gear Gophers don't believe that my management team can correct the problem in time to save everyones lives. I can't say I completely disagree with them
The problems stem from the Imagination factory. As you recall the Gophers and the weasels were in conflict over the Gopher's recent increase in benefits and wages due to contracts involving the Flogwidgen Press demand. The Gophers were promoted out of nessecity and the weasels did not much appreciate that.
We all thought it was just sabotage of the Flogwidgen line when the explosion rocked the factory. The idea to disrupt the contract and take the Gopher's new benefits away from them, but it seems the weasel leaders had far deeper plans. It seems the explosive used was a directionally based explosive aimed at the factories main waste line immediately below the Flogwidgen line. the blast sealed up the waste removal tunnels causing a backup of waste material. The back up has begun to condense into a strange goop and emit a noxious gas into our air disgusting really.
Our factory is inside of a sealed dome. We exist to create and manufacture imagined objects for the greater good of the mindscape. Now my people are dieing of vapor intoxication and we have no escape. I the master Ferret must find some way to clear the waste tunnels and save my workers or the Gophers are going to crack the dome for their own survival. We don't know whats beyond the dome. We don't know if the space outside is livable, but anything is better than this death i suppose. I must try to clear the waste removal tunnels and save the factory
I paced my office looking at the reports of the death toll wracking my brain over what to do next. There had to be a way to correct this problem. It had already been three days. the younger and weaker of us were beginning to die and all I could think was "what would Snickers, my ferret predecessor, do" thats when it hit me. Snickers had once told me that during his time he had installed fail safes for every feature of the plant. It was all recorded on a map he kept in his files. Why had I forgotten about it. There hadn't been any problems in decades. I always thought he was over cautious, but his paranoia just might save us.
I dug out his old things from storage and found the map. It was an old folded piece of yellowing paper, but scribbled everywhere were the secret additions he had made. There it was. I waste control added to dump the line out the shipping exit.
I ran at full speed on all fours down to the Waste control room to redirect the waste escape down the main exits from the factory. If flooding the external shipping route meant survival than I'll take a slow down in shipments. It doesn't matter if no one receives their stuff on time. I'd have to time it right since the trucks are controlled from outside and they trigger the doors so no one inside the dome can escape.
The more I considered it through this tragedy we really were prisoners here. I like everyone else was born and raised in the dome. What made us all think is was okay. About then I hit the door to the control room. Inside i found the hidden switch and waited for the next truck to leave. Thirty minutes. If i hit the switch just before the truck opened the doors the waste would be hitting street level just as they opened, but without disrupting the truck, We should be safe then or safe enough to repair the damage to the pipes
The next twenty five minutes were the longest of my life. Only Five minutes to go and I could hit the switch. Five minutes before safety and The most disturbing noise I had ever heard sounded above me. A loud crack followed by a wet sucking noise and then something like tearing flesh. It was horrifying, but i had to ignore it and investigate later.
Five minute passed. I hit the switch and the plan worked. The air visibly cleared. I went up top to see what the noise had been. Near the top of the dome standing on the factory roof I saw a small crowd of people standing around an odd light.
On the roof I found a hole in the dome. A red dripping hole in the dome. Gophers climbing out to see what was beyond. I was equally terrified and curious about what lie outside. I just had to step outside and see. The crowd had all gone through. I reached one paw into the moist hole and pulled myself up onto a strange landscape. The ground was pale and fleshy. behind us was some sort of long limp grass. In front was a pair of valleys on either side of a small mountain. The whole thing seemed to slope down on the edges both east and west and behind. It almost looked like some sort of face.
I wandered the tan plains up toward the mountain I saw to the south. The Gophers went their own way exploring what there was to see. I carried with me my contact phone so my assistants could call me should anything come up inside the dome.
This foreign landscape boggled my mind. The mountain was less than steep and the hike an easy one. There were no trees. no plants to speak of beyond the long grasses near the hole. As I climbed higher i noticed in the valleys to each side of the mountain were odd liquid orbs. liquid but completely still, though a breeze came from the south.
About and hour later. I reached the top. the far side dropped almost completely strait down. Farther south I could see a wide chasm seemed to emit air and quiver slightly. I had seen something alot like this in Snickers notes. Something right at the tip of my brain, but i couldn't quite remember what it was. Just as it started to boil to the surface my phone rang.
"what? what do you mean. thats horrible. evacuate immediately. I'll come back as soon as i can." My assistant informed me that the factory had shut down completely. Everything had started to turn gray and the walls were melting. Everyone was to be brought outside. I guess we'll need to find a way to live out here.
Thats when it hit me. It was a face. a face just like the one depicted in a diagram Snicker's drew. He had labeled it He-oo-mon. I had always assumed it was a fictions creation of his. What sort of animal has no fur anyway. But none the less I stood atop the nose(?) of the colossus. Its size amazed.
The whole in its head.... my god we had torn a whole into its head. its brain. Alarmed I turned toward the chasm. Its air flow, which i assumed to be breath, was stuttering to a halt. It stopped. the great plain to the south seemed do sink as this behemoth died. The gopher's had killed it. The weasels had instigated the death of what appeared to be our living home.
To think we lived in somethings brain. What could it mean.......