The Prison – Dead For Sure
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Samantha moved toward a big utility hatch in the wall. A body lay across it.
“Don’t just stand there shaking, give me a hand.” They cleared broken plastic and lifted the fallen figure. A young woman. Blood ran from a deep cut on her shoulder. Samantha wiped it clean and tried to rouse her. She woke slowly.
“Come on, we’ll have to carry her,” Samantha told Bork. She waved at the hatch. It slid open. “At least that’s working.”
A creak came from behind them, then a crunch. The ceiling had fallen on some trailing people. Hot air mixed with groans and dust. It wasn’t a heavy ceiling but the men were caught up in the metal struts and panels. Torn wires showered sparks over them like some strange blessing.
“Quick, through here,” Samantha ordered. Bork helped her carry the hurt woman through the hatch into a cooler passage. It opened to the wide perimeter ring where small vehicles drove around the prison. A few men had escaped the fallen ceiling and followed them in. The woman moaned, confused. This section had little damage. They moved fast to another door hanging open, with daylight pouring through. They pushed out into the clean open air, all gasping.
Outside was pure chaos. Buggies crashed into broken fence sections. Fires burned in the outbuildings. Behind them, smoke rose from a prison wing near where they’d escaped. The men who followed them ran off. A helicopter passed high overhead but didn’t stop or seem to search for anyone. A security robot stood straight in the middle of it all. Samantha waved at it but it didn’t move.
“We’re on our own I think,” she told Bork.
“What about us?” asked one of the group. Some covered themselves with hands. A few still wore their prison pantaloons, flapping in the hot wind. Samantha felt sorry for these lost men, now outside the walls of the prison they called home. The group went to the robot and poked it.
“Dead for sure,” one said. He pushed it over with a laugh. The others joined in, attacking it with metal poles, bricks, bare hands. Soon the robot was just a heap of bent metal.
“I saw that,” Samantha said, worried by their sudden rage. “But I’ll ignore it. We have to get away from here.”
“Where to?” one asked.
“No Blink. Can’t contact anyone. Let’s follow them.” She pointed at men running toward a small hill beyond the broken fence. She didn’t remember any hill and wondered if she’d hit her head too hard. The men reached the top then ran back screaming and waving. They seemed to drop straight down as if falling. Samantha saw the hill was just a heap of dirt, once the ground beneath them, now moving toward them. The prisoners gasped, turned, and ran the other way. A blast of cold air hit her then was gone. The wall of earth stopped in mid-air before it swallowed them like the others.
Samantha couldn’t move, frozen by the strange sights. Bork still held the hurt woman, who had stopped moaning and now just hung limp. As the group got back to the door they’d come through, smoke blasted out and knocked several down. They coughed and staggered in pain. The others pulled them away and the ragged band stumbled around a corner, away from the burning wing.
“Nurse, help. I don’t even know where I am,” said Bork. “Do something. Help me carry this woman. She’s not a burden. She’s a challenge, yeah.”
“What’s your name?” Samantha asked the woman.
“Marigold,” she said through broken teeth.
“What? Come on, I have an idea.” Samantha helped Bork and the hurt woman across a muddy area full of smashed trash.
“This might be another uplift event,” she said. “The last one was years ago. They said that was the uplift event to end all uplift events.” Samantha worried it was her childish wish to live off-planet, away from it all, that had turned the world upside down. But she hoped it was just the machines going wrong.
“We’re all going to die!” Bork screamed in Marigold’s ear.
“Shut up and keep up.” Samantha stumbled as the ground shook again. A big tilt made them lean to stay on their feet. Junk slid past them.
“See, the sun is in the same place. There is no tilt. It’s gravity.”
“What difference does that make?”
“I don’t know but I have an idea.” Then a clump of dirt hit her face. They looked down and saw the earth full of worms and bugs. Another clod shot up past her nose, straight up. Her long hair rose above her head in a halo. White sparks danced around her. Bork looked at her, scared. The earth flew into the air all around them with all the small creatures. They felt light. Their steps became huge like on a trampoline. Then all the dirt, bugs and trash rained down on them, knocking them flat. Samantha gasped and stared at the sky. The sun blacked out as a huge object flew past and crashed in front. It split open to show the insides of an office building, desks, mini kitchen, a fridge, stores. Floor levels with furniture flying around inside. Then it all collapsed with a deafening noise into a heap of mangled wreckage.
They crawled away from the burning prison and the smashed office, away from the dirt bank hung in the air, toward a clear spot that looked as if nothing had happened. The fence seemed whole but as they got close part of it flew up and bounced toward them. It jumped over their heads and hit two men behind them, smashing them against the prison wall like flies hit with a swatter, with the same bloody mess.
“I have an idea,” said Samantha, wincing.