Shadows by Peter Cawdron

view of his blood soaked coveralls. He simply shook his head as
he wiped his nose.
    “ Let him
go, ” Hammond said to the guard.
    The security guard standing
between Charlie and Barney had a nightstick out, ready to use it if
Charlie tried anything. Charlie just stood there nursing a split
lip as the IT personnel took Barney back inside the turnstile to
get medical attention. Susan and Charlie were left alone on the
landing. A couple of porters had come to a halt about ten steps
down on the stairs, waiting to cross the landing.
    “ What is
wrong with you? ” Susan demanded, storming past
Charlie.
    “ Me? ” Charlie replied. “ You —”
    “ Don't you
dare, ” she repeated, cutting him off. “ You have no idea. What the hell were you doing down here
anyway? ”
    “ I ...
ah. ”
    “ Were you
following me? ” she asked.
    “ I just
wanted to see you. ”
    “ You were
stalking me, ” she said as the realization sunk
in.
    “ Sue,
I —”
    “ No, ” she replied, waving her hand in
front of him, gesturing for him to stop. “ I am not your
prize, your conquest for a night. I am not some trophy you can
fight over and boast about with the boys in the abandoned storage
area on twelve. Have you got that? ”
    Charlie pursed his lips,
softly nodding his head.
    “ Can we talk
about this? ” he asked.
    “ Just ...
Just leave me alone, OK? ” she replied, and
she turned and stormed up the stairs, leaving him standing there
with blood dripping from his lip.
    Susan felt an overwhelming
sense of revulsion at what had happened. She had to get away from
Charlie and clear her head. She dropped her pack off in the porting
station on the next floor and told the attendant she was feeling
sick and calling it a day. It wasn't a lie. She wasn't physically
sick, but she felt as though she were with the chaos of so many
conflicting thoughts running through her mind. She needed some time
to straighten her thinking. She needed to talk to her mother. Lisa
would hear about what happened and no doubt piece together why
she'd left. Susan would face her another day. For now, she wanted
her Mom.
    Susan walked out of the
porter's office, hoping she wouldn't run into Charlie on the
stairs. That would be awkward. She wanted to tell him what had
happened with the hairband, but the conflict she felt was more than
just her revulsion to the fight. She felt sick to know someone she
loved could act so brutally. What she'd witnessed seemed to be more
of an animal attack than a fight, and that shook her. She needed
some time, some space. Tears streamed from her eyes. Everyone she
passed stared at her, making her feel worse. She wrapped her arms
around her waist, feeling self-conscious as she headed up the
stairs.
    Susan hurried, knowing she
had to traverse over twenty floors to get to the garment factories
on twelve. Her mother oversaw a group of cutters and two teams
working on the looms. Her mother would know what to do.
    Susan was passing the
hydroponics farm on nineteen when the quake hit. She'd felt tremors
before, but never anything like this. The initial pulse came out of
nowhere, surprising her, passing through her and rattling her
teeth. She could feel the low sonic wave pass through her chest
cavity. It was as though someone had thumped her on the sternum.
Her feet left the stairs as the entire silo shook. She had her hand
on the rail, and clenched her fingers to stop herself from falling.
Several other porters on the stairs ahead of her slipped and
tumbled, rolling down the steps in front of her.
    At first, she thought there
had been an explosion, but the deafening crash that cut through the
air was too sharp. It didn't resonate. Cracks appeared in the
concrete wall beside her, running down the shaft. The stairs shook.
The lights went out, plunging the Great Fall into darkness,
terrifying her. It took a few seconds for the emergency lights to
kick in.
    Something plunged past,
diving headlong into the deep. It was only when the