Day Zero, Part 5

Jan came back from the shop to find her Laptop on the table, billowing smoke. The fumes choked her, so she went to the window and opened it. She dropped the bag of groceries in a chair and unplugged the machine, swishing her hand in the air and covering her mouth with the other. The building’s fire alarm went off and she headed out, towards the fire escape.

Other people were funneling into the hall too and everyone smelled smoke. Behind her in the hall she heard shouts and saw flame coming from a room farther down the hall. She joined the line and began the trek down the stairs, “Nine floors to go.” She thought.

As they went down, the smoke got thicker and shouts from above got louder, it became panicked screaming as she passed the 5th floor. Some people were fully dressed and others were in varying states of undress. The fully naked, still wet man would have normally made her blush, but Jan just followed him trying to not look down at his ass. She almost laughed at the sight.

At the lower floors, the added traffic in the stairway slowed their pace to a step every few seconds. Above them, the screaming and panic was full fledged. At least a few people were losing it up there. She looked up and through the fog could just barely see flames above her.

A second later someone falling sailed downward, hitting the hand rail she was holding on to. The woman’s hard heel shoe smashed into Jan’s hand and separated two of her fingers from the palm. The pain was immense and Jan dropped for a few seconds, watching the body tumble till it hit the bottom. She pulled herself up when she started feeling feet step on her to get over.

She looked at her hurt left hand and tried not to scream, but started crying. She continued the march down the last few floors. She figured she was in shock, because she couldn’t feel her injury at all as she passed the body of the falling woman, sprawled on the floor in front of the building exit. Everyone had to step over the twisted body at the bottom to get outside.

As she entered the afternoon sunlight, she looked up at the same Sydney skyline she had seen a half hour before, but it was different now. Looking up towards King Street and up Pitt Street, the buildings were alight. She looked around at ground level and noticed all of the traffic was stopped. The traffic lights were out and accidents filled all of the intersections. Sirens blared, but no one could move.

People were panicking and driving on sidewalks and through the parks, in the process striking pedestrians. Jan looked up at her own building and saw someone jump from a smoking window on the top floor. She closed her eyes, but heard the splat. She kept moving away from the building and headed toward Hyde Park.

After 20 minutes of flailing in the throng of people, she made it to Archibald Fountain, where she cleaned the blood off her smashed hand and did her best to compress the stubs of her missing fingers to try to stop the bleeding. She felt tired as she sat down, leaning against the fountain wall. She was bleeding badly. The last thing she saw was the MLC Centre collapsing in a cloud of dust.