See explanation here for the dice ficlets.
Biggles, Algy, Ginger: Right Foot - originally posted here
"It's like a vice," Algy panted, after struggling and failing to free his trapped foot from the splintered boards of the wreckage pinning it in place, trapping him in the shipwrecked cargo hold. "You'd better go get the skipper, Ginger."
"I don't want to leave you," Ginger protested. "I can find something to pry it up with, maybe."
The old boards creaked underfoot. "We don't have time. Go!"
After a brief hesitation, Ginger scrambled up the ladder, leaving Algy below in half-dark lit by sunlight from above, his foot solidly trapped between broken timbers ... and bleeding, from the sticky feel of it. He blew out a breath: at least now the only one in peril was --
"Suffering Icarus!" came from above him, and it turned out that Ginger hadn't had far to go. Biggles leaned through the opening to peer below, shining a torch around, and Algy could glimpse Ginger backlit by the sunlight behind him. "What have you done to yourself, laddie?"
"Stuck," Algy said tersely. "No, don't come down!" he barked as Biggles showed every intention of clambering down the ladder Ginger had just gone up. "The whole floor's about to go. It's rotted through."
He couldn't see Biggles's face that well, but he could tell by the brief silence that Biggles was taking it in, his quick brain analyzing the situation in that way he had. Then Biggles said shortly, "Ginger, run to the machine and get the tool kit and any ropes you can find. There's a good lad. Hurry!"
Ginger raced off without a complaint.
"Good job getting him away," Algy said quietly. "Whatever's to happen next, he shouldn't see it." The floor creaked again. He could feel the wreckage shifting every time either of them moved.
"We're not done yet, so don't pack it in before the landing," Biggles said. He drew his pocket knife and vanished from view.
"We? Wait --" But Biggles doing something above. Algy heard something tearing, a vaguely familiar sound, but he only realized what it was when Biggles reappeared and then very slowly climbed down through the opening. There was something tied round his waist that looked like a fat cord shedding bits of itself, but turned out to be half-rotted canvas from the old ship's tattered sails.
"If this collapses, there's every chance I'll drag you down too," Algy protested as Biggles slowly walked himself headfirst down the ladder until he could reach out a hand for Algy. "Also, if my foot's still stuck like this when it goes, it'll pull my leg off."
"With me to support your weight, that floor should be solid to last another fifty years," Biggles retorted. "Here, clasp my arms." The head-down position he was hanging in couldn't be comfortable, and the canvas tied crudely round his waist looked none too secure, but he grinned one of those quick, confident smiles as he gripped Algy's forearms and Algy felt the strain on his trapped leg ease slightly. "Ginger will be back in a minute with tools and better ropes. Now hold on to me, and we'll have you out of here in time for lunch."
