Nuclear Legeica
CinnamonTime passes slowly for one that is neither living nor dead. She finds some small comfort in numbers though it was the equations of a brilliant madman that led her to this half-life.
She picks out the blob of twisted metal and melted plastic that used to be the chair where she sat to do her research. It is a sort of start and ending point when she makes her daily round through the square of space that has come to mark the boundaries of her world.
She was carefully adding drops of a volatile compound into a beaker when Dr. Ekatsim entered the room with his chest puffed out and a fierce grin on his face. "Break out the champagne, my scientific superlatives. We are having a celebration!"
It was truly finished. The anti-gravity chamber that had landed Ekatsim a full twenty-seven grants and three photo shoots for magazine covers was ready for the test run at last. For the first time in history, the theory of what truly went on inside a black hole would be put to rest with a definitive answer.
There were naysayers, of course. Local news channels aired wild-haired hippies insisting the world would surely end and environmentalists went crazy with trying to sue the lab and everyone in it but in the end there was not one report that could prove Ekatsim had not taken every precaution.
The components of the machine needed time to warm up. Ekatsim provided not only champagne, but pizza, pop, and a basket of sugary goodies that would keep them all awake for half the night. Ana selected her favorite Sweet & Sour Saucers and Orange Blast Cola from the batch, laughing and joining in a song about two scientists debating pi over pie. Life couldn't have been better in that moment.
The explosion was so sudden and violent that they didn't even have time to feel afraid.
She woke in a world of hazy heat and pain. She huddled where she'd been thrown, terrified to move with the sound of heavy lab equipment crashing down around her. The best thing to do was to stay where she was. The rescue team would arrive in minutes. They had backups for their backups in such situations.
She tried not to dwell on the fate of her colleagues as the screaming gradually faded to silence. She focused on what it would feel like to be rescued. It might be kind of nice, to be taken care of for once. She was so accustomed to the single life that she hadn't given a thought to her last boyfriend in many months. Maybe she would even meet some handsome doctor who would take her to live in his mountain villa as he did everything he could to aid her recovery.
Such pleasant thoughts were ridiculous. The more rational part of her brain whined that the only outcome of this would be death. She told that little punk to stuff a cork in it.
Time passed with agonizing slowness. She could not be sure, but it seemed like a long time to wait for a rescue. She was not really afraid until that dreadful heat began to cool.
Surely they would not just be left to die? She could still smell the fresh air pouring in from the chunk of roof that had been pulverized. It wasn't as if she was buried alive. How could people be so heartless, to just leave her to die? Anger gradually gave way to fear. What if there were no more people. What if they really had destroyed the world?
Terror can only hold one in its grip for so long. She grew bored with huddling in a ball as she realized that death was not eager to claim her. She explored her burnt skin with very gentle fingers. She could feel the damage but could no longer feel any pain. Tears were streaming steadily from her eyes but everything around her was a uniform black.
She learned to crawl the perimeter of the former lab, to recognize every ruined piece of equipment for what it once was and what it had been reduced to. Some tiny part of her longed to leave the comfort of familiarity and seek out any kind of companionship, even if all she found was the cries of dumb animals in some surviving patch of trees. She just could not bring herself to move outside her square. She could think of no logical reason why, but she was deeply afraid of the unknown lurking just beyond her little safe zone.
She still is.
She has discovered that her body requires no food or drink. She does not need sleep but sometimes welcomes it just for the wonder of color that is still present in dreams.
It is on rare occasion she hears a sound that has her convinced she is not the only living creature left on the site of the explosion. Once she would have teased her colleagues that a particularly intelligent lab rat had worked its way out of the cage and was at that moment plotting their downfall. Now the joke hits too close to reality. She wants to call out, to see if maybe the other creature could be some sort of friend, yet she cannot work up the courage. Who is to say what affect the poison had on any other survivor unfortunate enough to be touched by its affects before their body could be consumed by flame or crushed by falling debris?
She takes a shuddering breath and once again sets off to feel her way around the perimeter of her lonely prison.
Lima-Loki
