The fall from thirty meters height was fatal already, and the magnetism would have killed every other person from this range.
But for some reason Liz Beckett was still alive ... Even more, she was fully conscious. All her bones were shattered, the molecules of all her cells changed their polarity according to the rotating magnets. That caused an untold pain and still she did not faint. Giant magnetic powers forced on her body, causing a violent vibration. Her bones, whether they were broken or not, felt like they would burst at any moment! She wanted to scream, to call for help, but she had no control over her body. The feeling of thousands of red-hot needles, that drilled deeper and deeper into her flesh, paralyzed her. She seized the blurry outline of the catwalk far above her, the lamps, that were dangling from the high ceiling, and the magnets, that pushed through her field of vision again and again.
Time passed too slowly when you suffered from such pain. Every time she thought the pain could not get any worse, it got worse! Eventually, the agony was so unbearable, that she started longing for her death, just so the pain stopped.
Finally, she lost her sense of time. The world was nothing but pain. A sea of knives and salt. Her body was only a single painful mass. Maybe she was already dead - maybe this was hell.
Then, somewhere in this unspeakable agony, behind all the pain, she found herself. Behind all the suffering she found a clarity that she had never felt before. Even though she couldn't see clearly, she felt everything around her; the surface of the magnet, on which she lay, the texture of her clothes on her skin, the weight of her hair, every single blood cell that wandered through her veins. The pain was still there, she was still unable to move, but this clarity, this all-encompassing awareness, was a source of power. A power that exceeded every physical strength by far. She had never felt such an energy, such a force. She didn't know what to do with this power. Finally, she filled her lungs with air, she was aware every single molecule - then the energy discharged with a blood-curdling scream!
Then something happened. The sound, the vibration of her scream seemed to fill her whole body, the air, the magnets, all elementary particles vibrated in harmony with the sound of her voice, it was a strange, powerful feeling. A pressure wave flowed through the scream, the entire environment, the shockwave could be noticed even at several hundred meters away. All lamps in the power plant exploded, sparks sprayed ... then there was silence.
There was total darkness. Even now she didn't faint, though she first thought so, because she saw absolutely nothing, and the pain was gone too. But when she moved her hands and feet, she realized that she was still awake ... then she sat up carefully. She couldn't see anything. She paused for a moment in this position, and listened: the loud hum of the rotating magnets had also disappeared. The magnets seemed to have stopped rotating. Astonished Liz raised a hand and clicked her fingers a few times next to her ear. She clearly heard the snap. Surprised, she sat up further and slid over the edge of the magnet. She had no idea that beyond it, it was three meters deep. Suddenly she fell! She got a tremendous shock, but was relieved that she bounced on the floor after a second. She hit on her palms and knees and hurt badly, but compared to the pain she had just endured, it was harmless.
In the dark, she scrambled on her feet and groped her way forward slowly, until she came to a wall. She felt her way along the wall until she reached a door. Luckily, the door wasn't locked. Nevertheless, it was heavy and Liz struggled to squeeze through it. Outside she saw faint light coming through the narrow window. When she had finally squeezed through the door, she blinked and realized that this was the moonlight. Motes danced in the silver light. Then she noticed that otherwise it was completely dark in the city. And the emergency lighting, that should lead to the exit of the power plant, was extinguished too. But for some reason she was not able to wonder about it.
She stumbled on through the wide corridors. It was scary because it was pitch dark in the passages without windows. She couldn't think clearly, her mind was only capable for the most basic thoughts. She felt the metallic taste of blood in her mouth and heard her footsteps echoing through the deserted corridors, while she was looking for an exit. Slowly, she began to feel pain again. From her torn hands and knees, and a pretty bad gash in her face The throbbing in her head seemed to get worse with every step.
Next to a window, she suddenly discovered a door leading outside. That door also opened as difficult as the one to the magnet room. What Liz didn't know, was, that all the doors actually opened automatically, but in this section were electronically sealed. By the power failure the lock was now open, but the automatic did no longer work, so the doors had to be opened with musclular strength.
Outside there was a nightmarish scene. Again, it was pitch dark, but the stars and the moon provided some light, the black silhouettes of the houses stood out hard against the dark blue sky.
Her head ached, she was bleeding, she was cold, she had no idea what had just happened, she was completely stressed out. Like in trance she shuffled further, in the direction of her home. She had apparently come out in some kind of backyard, at least she recognized in the pale moonlight the schemes of dumpsters. But she didn't care. She just wanted to go home, take an aspirin and then fall into her bed and sleep through until Monday. Her breath rose in a cloud of steam before her face.
She trotted a while, too dazed to think anything, when suddenly she heard a noise and jerked in fright. Then she froze. The noise, a metallic scraping, approached ... she turned around slowly, her heart was pounding. Then she saw in the moonlight, that it was the lid of a garbage can, which was rolling right towards her. She wondered, finally garbage lids did not roll around like that. But then she sighed and shrugged. After all that happened, she did not care. She turned away and was about to leave, when the garbage lid suddenly rolled right between her legs and made her stumble. She fell hard to the ground. She lay flat on her stomach and slowly began to have feelings again. She was annoyed and angry that, after all, she had to stumble over a stupid garbage lid. She straightened up and tried to kick off this stupid thing, but it seemed to be glued on her leg. She kicked a few times in the air, but the lid remained where it was. She stood up and looked down at herself in the dark. The lid was still hanging on her leg. Again she tried to get rid of it, but to no avail. She groaned annoyed. She just wanted to go home! She turned this thing on the outside of her calf, so she could at least walk properly.
She wanted to leave when she suddenly heard a deep rumble. They had little opportunity to turn around! Suddenly she was run over by a huge dumpster on wheels. Of course she got a shock, especially because these things were not moving on their own normally. The thing pushed further and further against her, she backed off against a wall, but this thing was following her and began to squash her! She had no idea how she managed it to squirm out there, but somehow she skillfully ducked and ran away - when she stumbled over the garbage lid again, which still clung at her leg. Slowly, she became angry. What the hell was going on here?
She ripped the lid off her leg and was going to throw it away, but it was magically glued to her hand. Puzzled, and somehow amazed she looked at this strange phenomenon how this metal object was hanging on her hand. But she had no time to admire it, because the dumpster had changed its direction towards her again and was accelerating. When she heard the low growl again, she didn't even take the time to turn around - she just ran off! Despite the cold, she began sweating from the effort. The garbage lid on her hand disturbed her, and fortunately, she managed somehow to throw it away.
While she ran, she felt a strange resistance, as if she was running against a flow of water, in other places she seemed be torn forward. She didn't know what it was all about. She just wanted to go home. The air burned in her lungs, she was exhausted and in pain. And behind her she heard a weird rumbling, creaking and clanking of metal objects.
As she ran around a corner, she risked a glance backwards. She realized with horror, how all the street lights on her way bowed down in her direction! She looked up and saw in the moonlight how the street lights seemed to follow her. They bent down, with squealing pipes and creaked as if they would break at any moment.
In the dark, she could hardly orient herself in the city, everything seemed to look the same. But then, finally, she discovered the high-rise, where she lived on the top floor in a penthouse.
She arrived on the rear side of the building, and because she was so exhausted and scared, she didn't bother to walk around the building to get to the front entrance, but she took the back entrance.
Meanwhile, the metallic clang and roar grew louder behind her as if it would approach. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the glimmer of many metal objects in the pale moonlight that followed her rattling and squeaking on the floor! And they became faster, the closer they got!
Luckily the back door, a heavy metal door for suppliers and the cleaning staff, was unlocked. She opened the door, and slammed the door behind her, but Liz got glued with her hands on the inside of the metal door. Well, at least she was now inside. Here it was warmer. She didn't care at the moment, that she was glued at the door. She was completely out of breath, exhausted, so she slumped against the cold metal. She pretty much didn't care, that the clanking grew louder outside, after all she was safe now.
Well, there she had, however, rejoiced too soon ... Suddenly the door was forcibly hit by an object from the outside, so that there was a huge dent. Startled, Liz pulled her head back. This was without a doubt the garbage lid!
And suddenly more items clashed against the door so that it almost broke off its hinges. Liz ducked away to escape the big bumps, but since she was glued to the door, she couldn't get far away. She was almost knocked out.
From the outside you could see, that the garbage lid, some hubcaps, trash cans, dumpsters, some smaller metal objects and a car were seemingly glued to the door and pushed against it, as if they wanted to reach Liz.
Liz tried to push away, but she couldn't get loose from the door. When she tried to push off, the door followed her and also the items that were outside the door! The door was the only shield that protected her from being crushed between all those metal objects and the wall.
And after a while, when the door creaked and was about to break, Liz felt this amazing clarity again. This unique feeling to perceive everything crystal clear. She felt the weight of the objects, the consistency of the door and decided to stop this. Then she suddenly felt a lightness that bordered on weightlessness. Shortly after she opened her eyes again, she heard a loud crash outside... From the outside you could see, how suddenly all items backed off from the door, flew away in a high arc and crash somewhere in the neighborhood, destroying windows and other objects on impact. Liz then broke up easily from the door, and groped into the foyer of the building. Again, it was dark.
"Hello?" asked an anxious voice.
"Who's there?" Liz asked a little scared. It was the first voice she heard after her little "mishap". Somehow it seemed unreal in this darkness.
"Miss Beckett?" The voice said again.
"Yes, it's me. Mr. Klein?" Liz asked, who believed to recognize the voice.
"You come back very late." The voice said paternally, "It must be three o'clock by now... "
"What happened?" Liz asked, though she wasn't intrested to know actually. She just wanted to crawl up in her apartment and in her bed.
"There is a power blackout probably," said Mr. Klein, the security guard, doubtfully, as if he was not quite sure himself. After all, there had been not a single power outage for decades. It was almost impossible that the magnetic power plants turned out.
"Unfortunately you have to take the stairs, Miss, if you want to your appartment," he added sympathetically, and pointed the pocketlamp at the door to the stairwell, "I'm very sorry. But the elevators do not work, just as the lights and the phones..."
"No problem," said Liz sporadically and began to make her way in the dark towards the stairwell.
The guard whished her a good night and Liz went up. She struggled up the stairs, where she got "glued" on the railing or on the steps pretty often. The staircase seemed to squeak and deform only because of her presence. It was a long and hard way to the penthouse, but she had no real sense of time more anyway, it all seemed to her like one crazy dream. Through the glass facade, the pale moonlight fell into the stairwell, while she struggled. Finally she made it.
When she arrived on the top floor, her robot-butler opened the door.
"Miss Beckett, I'm so glad you're back! I wanted to call the police, but the phones don't work," said the robot, a machine with a large round head, and moving on one single wheel. Liz shuffled clumsily past him, without replying.
"Where have you b-b-b-b-been? I was wo-wo-wo-worried that - da-da-damaged da-da-da-da-data matrix!", the robot suddenly sluttered. Liz stopped and turned to face him. Suddenly, the robot-butler's head started spinning around its own axis, sparks flashed, then he collapsed on the floor as if he had fainted. Liz was no longer able to wonder about it. She shuffled on, directly towards her room. She didn't realize how all metal objects followed her movement, a metal vase fell from a shelf, picture frames lifted from the walls and stood in the air, pointing at her. Finally, she arrived in her room. Liz fell into her bed and remained there motionless, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep without undressing or covering with her blanket.
Okay, in case you wonder: Power Black out: yes, but extern Machines, like cars, clocks, pocket lights or robots still work... but since it's like 4 o'clock in the morning, Liz just didn't see any Cars in the sky.
I also realized a little mistake in ch. 3... but since it's the future, it's not an mistake at all. IN THE FUTURE BANKS ARE OPENED 24/7! XD
