Snippet #1372189

When a state of emergency is declared in an area, nothing works.

If you want to be precise about it, you would say that no electronic equipment will work. And if you want to be honest about it, that meant everything. A government-issued command - /.ROOT - shuts down everything it can reach in the area it chooses to. No elevator will work, most inter-sector doors shut. You're trapped in your own house - sometimes with even the toaster offline- until they decide it's time to evacuate you due to potential danger, or the threat had been exterminated.

This close to the emergency site, residents are locked into their homes. Not much of a problem because it was dark night, and most people probably won't even notice that their doors can't be opened or their TVs are playing previously downloaded material. It wasn't even streaming anymore. Allen knew this. He had religiously read every 'countermeasure for Magins' article he could get his hands on. One of the officials had once mentioned that this was one of it : to keep citizens away from the danger and the danger away from them.

Instead, Allen was climbing. Slowly, but steadily, he made his way up his apartment block. He was on the 16th floor, and the 1st tier track was around the elevation of the 25th. Allen had no idea how he planned to reach the track, except that he had to. Window grills melt down one after another, dripping downwards towards him. When they extended a foot - which was the maximum they could go before becoming too thin for climbing - metal tendrils snaked towards each other to form ladders and footholds.

A sweat broke on Allen's forehead. He sucked at physical activities. Last place in all school races, the first out in dodgeball. His fingers were like stiff claws. I never knew the outdoor was so cold, he thought. Without thermal insulation, it's like the whole world is freezing over. He gritted his teeth and climbed. One foothold at a time. With grace. Left, right, left, right. Look down and he'll be screaming like a little girl.

Down on the second tier, things were happening. Allen couldn't look, because even without looking down his feet felt like rubber. It was too cold to sweat, or his hands would have lost their grip a long time ago. All he could hear was more screaming - some pedestrian, some maybe the Magins - and explosions. The machine's footsteps were like little earthquakes of their own. If Allen had bothered bringing a Richter Scale with him, they would measure a 4. He concentrated instead with climbing. Then another scream -- much louder, and much nearer.

"Look! Mom! Someone's out there!"

Allen risked a look. A kid was staring at him in the apartment block opposite, wide-eyed. Then a woman pushed him aside and looked out at Allen. She took one look at the way he was hanging onto his neighbour's window and the derailed train downstairs, and immediately ran into the house.

"Honey---" She shouted. "---Authorities! There's one of those--"

Allen didn't bother straining harder to hear more. He grabbed at the make-shift ladder below him, melting in. He yanked a piece free, sculpting it until one end of was sharpened. Allen squeezed it until it turn red hot.

He threw it at the kid's window, hitting the corner instead of the middle as aimed, but it did it's job. The makeshift weapon, still infused with Allen's power, embedded itself into the glass. The window shattered, the pieces closes to the projectile spluttering into boiling liquid glass.

The child started screaming. Droplets of the liquid had sprayed onto his arm, and they burned the way it would if he had stuck his arm down an incinerator chute. Allen took the opportunity to climb on ahead. At least that should keep his parents preoccupied. Allen shut out the child's cries. Better a scarred child than Allen caught. Selfish, but true. Would you rather an unrelated piece of meat disfigured for life than yourself in prison? Allen thought it was logical, rational even.

His train of thought was interrupted by the whirr of a machine starting up. Allen looked up to where the sound came from, and he noticed for the first time that the weather panels had flipped. Fog came, and mist had settled over the train site.

When there's an emergency, nothing will work.
Not even vision.