I gently punched through the glass that was already cracked, making an opening big enough for my foot, and hoped the building wouldn’t react to the force. Stepping into the open window, I flinched, half expecting my foot hold to buckle and cause everything to come crashing down. This time it didn’t even yield a squeak. With renewed effort, I stuck both feet into the window and gripped the rough exterior with both hands.
The next window was just above my reach, but there was no glass. Part of the window was missing, and a bigger hole formed on the left side that would allow me to squeeze through. I jumped the few extra inches and held fast, always waiting for that familiar cracking sound. I lifted myself up, reached through the hole, and looked about. Trying to ignore the view downward, I turned to look at the other side of the gap. The floor couldn’t be more than a few feet away.
I pushed all the way through the hole and balanced myself in the opening, staring at the floor that appeared so far off. There were no lucky steel rods to grab me if I missed. Another whoosh of wind rose upwards, bringing the view back to attention. Forty some stories was a long drop.
I jumped, but didn’t put enough force into it this time and fell short. I saw the floor coming and reached out my hands, looking for the edge. I caught the floor and pulled myself up quickly, climbing onto solid ground for what felt like the first time, and laid down. My breath came in hard gasps as I heaved a sigh of relief. I was finally across the opening.
“You dumb son-of-a…” I said, shaking my head as I tried to clear my havoc-filled mind. I was wading through too much to just come up close to something I probably couldn’t even begin to understand. I stared at the other side of the opening and couldn’t believe I’d just made that crossing.
The red light shone up ahead, pulsating. Dizziness washed over me as I pushed myself to my feet. I wiped the loose plaster from the sweatshirt as that red light throbbed inside my head. I turned to face what I’d come searching for, and suddenly yearned for the answers to my questions. What was this timer? Why was it aligned to my birthday? Was it tied in with my turning? It had to be.
I crossed into the next area and noticed that the room was alive with activity. Ripples of electricity caused the hairs on my head to stand on end. Wires and cables encircled the room, covering every square foot. Some sparked while others shook, and there was a clear humming that reverberated through the air.
Stepping carefully through, I followed what appeared to be the thickest cable expecting it to lead me somewhere. It corkscrewed throughout the room, an area that seemed completely unbroken. No cracks or breaches were in the walls. The windows still showed the dangerous decent through intact glass.
The red glow lit my path so I kept eyes glued to the ground as I moved about. This way I could step between the open windows in the floor. I jolted my head against a metal container as I crashed headlong into the object that the main cable was attached to. I hung onto whatever it was, and tried not to fall over.
The object I clung to hummed with a high-pitched whine. It was about the size of a car, and had gadgets and dials blinking with tones of green and blue. I ran my hand along the metal. It was cool to the touch, which didn’t make any sense. There were many other smaller cables that expanded outwards from the mechanism. Several of those cables ran from the device, straight through the walls, and connected to the glass panels outside, the ones that displayed the ticking numbers. That was it. It was basically a giant black box with wires, yet it was still a complete mystery.
I took a couple of steps deeper into the unexplored section of this tower, hoping I could find something else that might make a bit more sense.
A blistering pain erupted in my chest and forced me to one knee. It was like someone had reached through my rib cage and strangled the valves of my heart. I stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding a plummet through one of the open windows, and gasped for breath. Incredibly the pain was suddenly gone as quick as it had come. I stood there horrified and confused, leaning back against the black box as a chill ran down my skin. The surface of the device felt unnaturally cold.
Sparks of light exploded behind my eyes, but waned after a few deep, long breaths. Slowly sliding down the black boxes’ surface, I rested against it and tried to slow down my scattered vision. I put my hands on my knees and tucked my head in.
Something triggered my attention from the corner on the other side of the room. It glowed with a soft, blue hue, but it didn’t exactly seem real enough at that moment. Squinting, I only managed to watch the blue color fade. Only when it shone again did I realize it was real.
I kept the blue tint in my peripheral vision as I took a few, cautious steps forward, watching the ground. The exposed windows reminded me that one simple misstep and it was a fairly quick end to all of this. One more step and my right leg suddenly shook with mind numbing agony.
“Damn barrier,” I said.
I had apparently tried crossing over into the part of this forsaken city where I wasn’t meant to be. Even this far up the hurt still came. My leg continued to quiver, tightening and contorting, quickly followed by a thought-altering migraine. The pain immediately halted as I retreated backwards over the barrier.
I stepped a few feet beyond the barrier again and an acute pain once more struck my legs before circling through my body. Taking another few steps was pure hell as the world spun with an unnerving, blood-boiling, muscle-contorting hate. The pain traveled further and laced into my arms, constricting and pulling them to my sides.
I stayed focused on the blinking blue light that was only a few strides away. Every step was more difficult than the last. The sparks began again and I had to backtrack, unable to see.
“Damn, damn, damn.” I repeated. The sparks slowly faded from my vision. I slumped to the floor and found myself looking down through a window, watching the street below somewhat alive with activity. Tiny dots of light traveled along the street. I wondered if some people were still looking for the man they thought was long dead, or praying to find the man still alive so they could kill him. Of course from this far up it may just have been a trick on the eyes. This weird, red glare made everything look so different.
I twisted around again and witnessed the blue light pulsate for the next few minutes, wondering what exactly it could be. I knew this must be what I came for; this was my prize. For whatever reason I knew in my bones that the timer was what led me here, but not what I was looking for. This tiny object, forty some stories up in the air, having to cross a broken bridge to reach, through derelict buildings after traveling through crowds filled with murderers to reach. But for of that, this was the end.
Gathering my strength, I found a firm foothold on the black box. I exploded forward, rushing beyond the barrier. The pain was instant and intense. I squinted against the headache that arose. Tears streamed down and flew away from my cheeks. I couldn’t run anymore, but instead launched into the air with arms outstretched, keeping the piercing blue shade firmly in sight.
Liquid dripped down my face. Blood was leaking not only from my nose but my eyes as well. A surreal pain radiated off my skin, heat so hot that waves of fire were burning off layers of flesh. The sparks propelled behind my eyes, and my vision was failing. I was almost there though, just a few feet away.
I fell short by only a few inches, my fingertips so close but so far. A tremor pulsed in my hand, forcing it closer to my body. I pushed my left hand forward, blindly reaching for the object through haze-filled eyes. A shudder started in my legs, shutting down my ability to move, and filtered upwards. My abdomen pin-pricked before going completely numb. Death crept up my torso, but I remained resolute, reaching for that blinking blue. I didn’t feel my chest stop lifting, or my heart stop pumping. Just before darkness overcame me, I managed a weak grasp around the glowing blue light. Then I fell.