It’s good to get
back to the daily writing. I had taken a little time off over the Fourth of
July Holiday to get my head on straight and make an attempt to be
reinvigorated. I hope I was missed terribly.
So to dig right in
I thought I’d scrape up a story idea that was rattling around my brain last
night as I tried to ignore the coming stresses of the work week. So enjoy it
and I’m glad to be back. This might be a little continuation of Collapse I
think.
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Sandy tapped her
pencil restlessly on her notebook as her boss continued to drone on about the
importance of workplace dress requirements and the importance of keeping a
clean desktop. It wasn’t new information to Sandy. She’d been working in
various offices since she was a teenager. She actually started working back
when typewriters were more common on people’s desks than a PC.
Her co-worker Mary
tried to stifle a yawn and she looked over at Sandy. She smiled a little out of
mutual appreciation of the nonsense they were both stuck listening to. Sandy
returned to her notebook and started making a grocery list for after work while
her boss started repeating herself about the importance of data accuracy.
She didn’t notice
how dark the sky was getting outside the windows. Tendrils of thick clouds were
writhing their way through the cityscape; the windows rattled. Sandy casually
looked up when she realized her boss, Ms. Conner, had stopped speaking.
“What the hell is
that”, asked the Mailroom employee Stevie.
The building stated
to rumble, as if a great, starving dragon was rising from its depths. A crack
appeared in the conference room wall and raced across the floor. The room
started to shimmy and shake and Sandy grabbed the edge of the conference room
table, her pencil rolled off and onto the floor. She looked over to Mary just
as the floor dropped out from underneath. Mary looked back at her then
plummeted from Sandy’s sight.
Screams filled the
conference room as glass shattered and bricks fell from the walls. Sandy was
still gripping the edge of the conference room table with all her might, still
blinking and wondering where Mary had disappeared. Sandy felt something crawl
over her legs and she looked back. Ms. Conner was scurrying toward the
conference room door along the floor. Sandy decided to follow her and let go of
the conference table. The building was slowly righting itself and the shaking
was slowing to a mild rumble.
Sandy was at Ms.
Conner’s heels as they crawled through the doorway and into the rest of the
office space. Ms. Conner looked back at Sandy and was about to say something
when a steel girder swung down from the missing ceiling above and obliterated
Ms. Conner. Sandy finally screamed and started panicking her way forward as the building started the shake with a renewed fervor. The floors around her seemed to be crumbling
as a new sound was emerging. It sounded like a chainsaw.
Sandy coughed in
the haze and saw the glowing sanity of the EXIT sign hear the fire stairs. She
made up her mind that she’d make it and without any further hesitation made a
break for the door and jammed it open. She started running down the stairs
faster than at any time in her life, faster even that the time she did the
staircase marathon for charity. She was dropping down the stairs by threes. It
had the appearance of flight as she whisked her body downward.
The building
groaned as the steel frame twisted and shook. Sandy re-doubled her efforts and
made it to the lobby. She made it to the threshold before the sidewalk outside
just and the building decided to start its final crumble. It went dark.
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