Rough Writing

Cherian woke with aching muscles and hunger. As she pulled herself upright her arms and neck spasmed from having lain on the dusty carpet for most of the day. It was very cool and her fingers felt frozen. The cold had woken her it seemed as she still felt very tired. Standing while massaging her legs and arms she took her first look out over the main level. The large tall imposing facade of dark granite backed the long wall where carved into the center was the elevators single entrance. Facing outwards from there were a flowing steps and ramps that worked their way down to the security checkpoints and the soaring paneled glass entrance. Skylights punctured the layered paneled ceiling bringing in bright moonlight.

Through the imposing main entrance’s curved glass Cherian saw ruin. The pale freezing light stretched out across a landscape of shattered buildings embraced in death by large rippling dunes of sand. The flickering hope in Cherian’s heart went out and she sat slowly at the top of a weaving path of steps. The wind was blowing and howling outside and with it she felt her resolved and controlled demeanor crack and shatter. She knew she was going to die. Nothing had prepared her for this. Within her despair welled up and overwhelmed her into tears. Part of her watched as tears rolled down her cheeks and waited for the pain to pass.

An eternity passed but finally her tears and shuddering began to slow and her despair ebbed and calm returned. With a deep breath Cherian renewed herself and began rebuilding her resolve. It was still night but moving would help her get herself warm again so she picked herself up and began walking along the dusty granite wall and over the slated tiles back towards the offices in hopes she would find something to sustain her. She knew she would need to find water soon.

The grand corridor gave way to a long curved path around the central granite core with large open work spaces full of empty chairs and desks. A thin film of heavy dust covered everything and her small foot prints left dark marks in the what used to be silver gray carpet flooring. No-one had been through here in a very long time. She wondered how long a Vaidman field would have lasted and not only how far had she leapt but what had happened to the world in the interim. As she walked along the curved path she noted that at each desk were monitors and technology that seemed familiar. Simple translucent display panels anchored before touch input and display surfaces embedded into the desk. Whatever had happened it hadn’t been too long after she had started her leap.

At regular intervals corridors back in towards the center of the building opened up along the wall. Each one lead to offices and other open work rooms and conference rooms farther back into the interior. She kept to the external ring simply because there was little light that far back into the corridor. After steadily searching for some time she came across signs of another set of footprints in the dust. They were not fresh and had their fair share of dust on top of them but they were footprints. The footprints were larger than hers and with a deep tread versus her light slippers. She noted that they circled the open area and the desks as well as ran towards the interior.

Eventually she circled all the way around the building and reached the main corridor again. Worried but confident she could find something the next day she returned back to one of the open work areas and crawled under a desk to return to sleep.