Interversal

6

The body drifted toward her, and she toward it. She clumsily put her fingers to the man's neck to feel for a pulse. His skin was cold and there was no heartbeat. The realization made her gasp, and with a foot she kicked the body away. It drifted from her in a lazy spin, rotating on a chaotic axis in total weightlessness, slightly stiff from the onset of rigor mortis. After a few seconds it disappeared into the darkness, blending in with dark shapes in the distance. Soon after she heard a soft thud as it collided with something, though it wasn't apparent what.

The force of the kick sent her in the opposite direction, floating awkwardly like the dead man. Drifting slowly in the in a state of shocked confusion, she collided with something hard. Glass, specifically the skylight in the control center's atrium.

When she'd arrived at CERN earlier that day the windows had been filled with sunlight. Now they were pitch black. She tried for the window sill, grasping for anything to grab onto. But there was nothing, and after bouncing off the glass she was again floating in open space.

Fear and confusion were taking over now, driven partially by the corpse, partially the lack of gravity. She screamed anger and confusion, fear and frustration pouring out in a guttural plea.

She felt a rush of wind against her face and the stark familiarity of falling. Her stomach rushed into her throat and her arms stretched out into the air, groping as her body hurtled toward the ground.

The sound of laptops, pads of paper, camera equipment, desks, glass bottles and metal chairs hitting the ground filled the once quiet space. Then there was the sound of the bodies, heavy thumps and thwacks accompanied by the splattering of blood. For a second or two the noise was deafening, crescendoing until the sounds were indecipherable from one another.

Alex spun as she fell, her right leg and arm were the first things to make contact with the ground.

Once again, she blacked out, for a few seconds, before coming to. She had been at least twenty feet off the ground.

She must have passed out mid-fall, and the wind was knocked out of her, breathing was a struggle. The ache in her head was far worse now, and her left eye was covered in blood, some warm, some cold.

And there was a new pain in her right arm and leg, which were tangled in the heap of bodies beneath her, the cold remains of so many colleagues and strangers. They had saved her.

As she laid there stunned, a body rolled on top of her. Was someone alive? She yelled again as it settled on top of her, pinning her awkwardly to bodies below. The weight was crushing, removing any chance of her lungs completing their important work until it was lifted. When no one responded, and the body didn't move again, it became clear how alone she really was. 

The cold sensation of the person's skin on her own was nowhere near as bad as the tacky, smothering quality of partially congealed blood. And the fear that she felt now was compounded to a whole new level.

She didn't want to die here, and told herself she wouldn't.

Her only ambition at that moment was to get the body off her and find solid ground. The pain was so excruciating she couldn't focus, but knew she had to regain control of herself if she wanted to get free. Summoning every ounce of strength in her good arm and leg, she found the center of the offending body's torso and hips. 

It was still dark so she couldn't be sure, but it felt like the person was fairly overweight, a lifeless body was no easy thing to move anyway. He or she was definitely big, and the way they'd fallen, the body was positioned slightly behind her. In order to get any leverage she'd have to pull it further on top of her, roll it completely over, then onto a slight downward slope made of other bodies toward the floor.

With a grunt she pulled the shirt collar, hooking her good knee between the corpse's legs. It didn't move, she didn't have a good enough grip, she'd have to use her arms and legs.

Alex took a deep breath, grabbed the clothes of a body beneath her, and pulled both arms together. At the same time she pulled her knees closed. The pain was terrible. But the combined strength in her arms and legs was enough to pull the oversized body on top of her. She knew she couldn't afford to stop pulling, but just as the body came to rest, the pain became overwhelming. Alex's injured limbs refused to work any harder, and she found herself trapped beneath the cold remains of the dead scientist, technician or reporter.

Then, mercifully, the weight shifted again and she felt her lungs expand. With a choking breath, she took in a chest full of acrid air.