John Freitas
2015
Mark left the ground and soared up from the street between the buildings. He was at the wrong angle and feared he might continue into the sky even after all his preparation only to fall to his death once the wave had passed. He gritted his teeth and leaned into the building. His calculations were perfect and he was going to hit twenty just as planned. He had to. Beyond the floors of the building flying by him, he saw cars twisting up into the air. It hardly looked real. “Real life has terrible special effects.” His own laughter hurt his ears inside his helmet. He saw benches, stone, manhole covers, and other debris he couldn’t identify twisting up from the ground and out through the top of the city. He saw other bodies writhing through the air without suits – without being prepared. If the cars were flying away, what chance did people have in this perversion of gravity? Mark’s back hurt as he leaned harder and saw the building racing toward his face. He was tempted to pull back, but that wasn’t the plan and the plan was perfect. Mark heard his own screams as he slammed into the window for twenty. It was the fourth window from the left exactly as planned. The glass shattered with the sound of a cannon. It thundered through his helmet. The deadly shards twisted in the air and then floated back out into the air spinning up into the sky. Mark continued forward into the labs. He bounded forward with the boots feeling impossibly light as he took one delicate step after another across the tile. He swept his gloved hands in front of him pushing aside floating glassware and equipment. A number of items were strapped down, but they had done an uneven job of securing the room before the scientists had bailed for home and bunkers in the wake of the announcement. They were going to lose a lot when gravity returned to its normal directional pull. They were going to lose “It” too by the time Mark was through. He rounded a corner and pushed through a swinging door that bobbed on it
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