CHAPTER 2: AFTER THE BLAST
BOOOOOOM! Light swallowed everything. The hall became white, and then appeared to become white for a few seconds. The second strike was a wave so loud it over-drew all the screams.
Crack, crack! The ceiling split open. Sparks rained down. Whether on the right, left, or in the center, people threw off their glasses and fled in every direction. The atmosphere became hot and dry and full of electricity and dust.
Crashing down behind a table, the doctor covered his head. Thud! A metal beam blew several meters off. Smoke was floating through the room like fog.
Then followed a heavy ringing silence.
He brought himself slowly up, coughing. His eyes were stinging with the light. The front giant screen broke, but the timer still was showing 00:00:00.
People were sweeping about like flies, coughing, calling out names, hauling others into the exit. The physician sought Kyle Shelton to no avail with the haze.
Beep, beep, beep. His bracelet vibrated hard. He raised it, hands shaking. It was the feed of his basement lab flickering on the screen. The pod was as pink as a livid spot, and the lightning was running through it like fibers.
"Not good," he whispered. "Not good at all."
He broke through the crowd and began to run. "Move! Out of the way!" he shouted.
A guard grabbed his arm. "Sir, we need to stay"
The doctor shoved him aside. "I have to go!"
He crashed through the front doors. The sky at night was twisting with purple clouds. Something weird moved through the air, and the flesh on his arms was prickly.
Car already were taking off the ground, screaming engines and running people away. He saw his black hover car among the damaged cars whose chassis had not been damaged.
He sprinted. Thud, thud, thud. His breathing was sharp; the ground shook at his feet.
He sprung into the driver-seat. Beep. His fingerprint was scanned by the system. There was a roar of engine, and the engine began to hover just a few feet over the road.
"Come on, come on!" he muttered.
The car shot forward, tearing through the air. Below him, the city flickered, streetlights dying one by one.
His bracelet screen showed chaos. The pink fluid in the pod was boiling, bubbles bursting with light. Sparks jumped from machine to machine in the lab.
Then the walls began to shake. Crackle-crackle!
The doctor gripped the wheel tighter. "Hold together… please…"
He checked the map on the dashboard. Distance to home: 7 kilometers.
He pressed harder on the accelerator. The car's engines howled.
---
Back at the event hall, the explosion had cracked open the ground floor. Purple mist leaked upward, swirling into the sky. The crowd outside screamed as the air shimmered like heat on metal.
The storm followed the doctor's path. He could see it behind him in the mirror, dark clouds chasing the city lights.
He switched his bracelet feed to live CCTV from the lab.
The screen showed the basement in chaos. Machines burst, monitors sparked. The pink fluid spilled over the floor, mixing with broken glass and chemical smoke.
And then,
Crack! A flash of purple lightning struck through the center of the room. The pod floated upward, weightless, spinning slowly.
His eyes widened. "No…"
The energy grew brighter, almost blinding. The cameras started to distort, the feed warping. Then a small dark spot appeared in the air, spinning.
A black circle. Expanding fast.
He recognized it immediately—a micro-singularity. A hole in space itself.
The lab lights bent inward. The pod drifted closer to the hole. Everything, tables, chairs, equipment, lifted off the ground, spinning into the air.
"Stop… please stop…"
The doctor's voice broke. His hand trembled against the steering wheel. He pushed the car faster, the sky roaring around him.
---
The city blurred into a tunnel of purple light. Lightning crackled across the horizon. Power lines fell. Billboards exploded into sparks.
The doctor's house came into view, its lower windows flashing with pink and violet light from below.
His bracelet buzzed again. The feed showed the pod halfway through the vortex now, pink liquid stretching like ribbons. The walls were cracking apart.
He screamed into the comlink, "Shutdown! Emergency code"
Bzzzt. No response, just static.
"Come on!"
Instead, he hit the dashboard with his hand. Thud!
Then the feed displayed the vortex rising, devouring the whole lab; the screen was blanked out.
The doctor's eyes widened. "No!"
He looked up. His home was punctured by the same light as it tore through the floor and the roof. Even the air itself twisted.
He turned sharply to escape the debris falling out of the sky. The hover car tilted. Screech! One of the stabilizers broke.
The vehicle spun. One by one the Streetlights below turned off as he dropped further. He tugged at the controls trying to maintain his balance.
The black hole over his house was vibrating, the lightning around its corners was purple and pink. It developed, fed on itself, tore air and sound asunder.
His voice cracked. "Seventeen years… gone."
Then, Bang!
The vehicle crashed against a street light. Metal was screeching, glass was breaking. The world tilted sideways. Crash!
The car ran sliding up the road and the sparks flew. It came against the barrier and halted. Smoke poured from the hood.
The head of the doctor hit the console. Thud. His vision blurred. All grew dark, all went dead.
He could see the purple sky reflected in the windshield, half-open eyes. The lightning flew through the clouds, courses of light.
He tried to lift his hand. He couldn't. His bracelet twittered feebly. The words were glowing and then the screen went dead: PROJECT 22050107 YZ -Status: Lost.
His breath slowed. The wind outside howled. Somewhere in the distance…
Another pulse of the black hole sprang out of the sky above the city, greater and darker. And there within, a moment, Something had stirred. a form, as of a man in the light.
Then everything went quiet.
Crackle… hiss… silence.