Ground Zero (IC)

[Aoiroo]

Continued from Never Split The Party

The ride was debilitating as ever, but it seemed to be working. They traveled through the dimensions to the coil that resembled the terminus, and Carrie got a very strange feeling in her gut that something bad was gonna happen. As such, she was braced when the energy lash hit the Brith Machine, she reflexively jumped out of the way, to the otherside as the the world around was hazy and blurry as the drifts between realities pulled her like a rag doll. Then, something of a sharp pain hit her in her chest as she found difficulty breathing before everything went from blurry to black.

Carrie awoke in silence. She wasn't silent in the least though, she mumbled and growned in pain, her stomach was still lurking from the turbalence, and her entire back felt like a giant bruise. She probably fell from somewhere high, well higher. She didn't know how high though. Her head hurt too, the back of her head especially and she felt dizzy and shaky. Everything else though was quiet, so quiet she could hear her blood rushing in her ears which was something that she never ever liked to experience. Why was it so quiet?

She wasn't sure where she was because for a long time, she kept her eyes closed, choose to stay in darkness while she thought. It was so hard in the enternal quiet though, left with her own thoughts she could only linger and continue to wonder about the silence that was only violated by the internal aches and movements of her slender frame but she wasn't quite ready to open her eyes just yet. Afterall, she had yet to determine whether she did in fact want to wake up.

[Aoiroo]

It was stupid to want keep trying to push for sleep. She wanted to sleep so badly though, awakeness already proved quite painful, and there was a definite tiredness that came with the previous unconciousness and ever present nausea that seeped into her bones. It was weird though, unconciousness was not as familiar as it used to be for Carrie, she had gotten better at avoiding it, better at dodging, at being careful at battling through and not succumbing to it no matter how much she hurt because of how often she worked alone it had become a survival trait. The thing was, she was most definitely alone now.

That thought did it, her eyes snapped open and she looked around and listened, for footsteps for breathing. There was no one there, not one person. Where, where were they? They were with her before? Did they leave her? That didn't seem likely, even if Viktor didn't trust her, she was Mona's friend, and Viktor did trust Mona. Plus, he knew she'd hate him if anything happened to Carrie, heck he wouldn't of even let her come at all if Carrie hadn't strongarmed him into letting her do so. And Miss Wells wouldn't leave her either, she trusted her, Carrie knew she did. She had made a call across dimensions for her help, and even just to chat about her travels and the discrensions she faced as a successful female scientist. But she wasn't here, and Viktor wasn't here, no, there was no one here where ever here was, she seemed to be the only one there.

[Aoiroo]

As she pulled herself up into a sitting position ever so slowly, she tried to look and see where the heck she was. It was quite a task really because it didn't resemble any world she had ever seen. It was all, grey, like dull steel. Everything was, from the ground she sat on, to unusual masses scattered around her. She was in some sort of building, but there was almost no light in there say for bits and pieces that had fallen through cracks in the wall. Even the darkness was grey as the shadows reflected off the dim surfaces of the matching grey lumps and furniture around this place, wherever it was.

She took a few seconds to look at herself in the greyness, nope she was still color, though in the greying light was was dulled to the point that her pale skin looked almost ashish her bits of brown speckling and one or two birthmarks still shown as well as redness in areas that had experienced the dimensional whiplash burned brightly even in the dull hues

compared to the rest of the monotone room.

Rising took a while, she was just sore all freaking over, it wasn't even funny. Even as she fought the pain, it made sense why nobody else had been able to make it through. When she blacked out, she felt like she was being pulled in every direction by a hurricane of different forces wrangling for their claim of her. She was sort of surprised she was still in tact, but she chalked that up to both luck and maybe the somewhat unnatural bit of toughness she had naturally as a metahuman. Though it really didn't help in the least with the pain now. But it could be worse, after all, pain meant she was still alive and it would suck if she died before she found Mona.

[Aoiroo]

Danger like everything else seemed to be absent from this place. The air was breathable if stale, nothing and no one was attacking her, and it was still eerily quiet which was more scary then if something was charging her actually. She used the time to sit and let the aches in her body numb, it took a while for her body to settle from the initial shock of pain until it was managable as she slowly pushed herself upward stage by stage.

When she could fully stand and move without leaning or limping, she took a look around but did so quietly, sneakily, it was hard though. She hurt so much so her movements weren't as smooth and in absolute silence it was very hard not to add something to it, though maybe because she wanted to add something, a hallow echo here or there was better then the silence and steps seemed to echo in the silence, her breathing as well and then there was still the unpleasant sound of her own blood rushing in her ears. She tried to ignore it as she scoped the area and ultimately she figured out she was actually in an office building, in the worst possible way.

[Aoiroo]

Every few steps she took, she saw a strange mass that looked rather odd to the ground around the office building. Everything else seemed very office, the bricks in the wall, the tiles on both the ceilings and the floors, the now completely greyed over floresent light buildings. The masses seemed alien in comparison. It was only morbid curiousity that she actually approached it, she took a lighter out from her purse to give light the figure even if her night vision was fairly decent it would help.

Squished against the wall laying down, it was almost indistinct but closer inspection revealed the outline of a suite jacket, and a skirt, one arm reached out while the other at the side, then something that had been hidden, a face, a look of terror as this woman struggled all so very animated even in it's slightly orange glowed monotone. She dropped the lighter and lost all sense of subtly, of sneakiness, she screamed and it rang through the building hollow and dull. She backed away from the woman and then broke out into a run. She didn't know what she was running from, but she continued to run down the hallway into to a grey stairwell right into the lower floor. Along the way she saw countless more lumps scattered, she tried to keep them in periphial vision though.

As she bolted down the hall she saw another indicator of light into the distance and honed in on it. It was a way out, she needed to out. She had to escape the silence, had to escape the lumps. She found herself bolted down to a greyed over window that was slightly opened just a crack, she didn't care, she turned flat and jumped angling into the crack as fast as she did. It was only when she was out that she saw herself starting to fall several from ten stories high.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie awoke in the silence once more. She was sore once more as well, but she didn't break anything, that was another chalk up to her extra human toughness she supposed. She wanted to sleep again, and it was annoying. So it was quiet, did that make the last bit a dream. It was a rather strange thing to dream, though there were a lot of strange things that could be happening. She hoped it was a dream, but the silence with the exception of her own rushing blood continued to push this sinking feeling that this was in fact real. She needed a few moments to calm herself before she finally opened her eyes.

She saw a blue sky above her, and clouds as well white and fluffy. The sun was shining too, not too brightly but it was covered in clouds slightly but it was there. It was a nice mass of color and it was absolutely beautiful. She almost rushed to see the rest of the world, but only managed to meet the blue sky with white clouds lit a world of grey.

She was on top of a low laying building, three stories or less, or it was, the entire top section had been torn off from it and laid at her side. The debree laid in the grey along the sidewalks with the,

"Ohh dear god,"

They're were people, they weren't lumps, people running, frozen fallen. She nearly fell over when she saw them. But she stopped and tried to get a hold of herself,

"Calm, calm down, calm.."

It was easy to say but the shaking in her voice was unmistakable. She had to force herself up, force herself to look at the grey world, otherwise she might not be able to find a way out.

[Aoiroo]

Three Hours Later

Carrie explored the landscape of the city, or what was left of it. Much of it had been leveled, Pyramid Plaza was the first place she had seen but only one of the buildings remained and it looked half gutted and barely standing at all. Lum... People lined the streets, some were inside open doors huddling in fear, others running with crowds, there were a few cars but most were overturned and completely covered making it impossible to see into them and everything she saw was frozen in place, in grey, like a black and white photo with bad contrast. The sun still shined, the clouds still shifted, but there was no birds in the sky, no honking of traffic, no leaves for the wind to rustle or friendly footsteps of a stranger or a mugger or anybody. Just her own hallow steps on the pavement that echoed in synchronized form like a reminder of how empty the city was dispite itself.

The scape was covered in scars, and bodies and grey. It was like the world went to hell and then was frozen in place at the same time. Then there was the silence, the silence which she hated, that she had grown hoarse from talking herself through because anything was better then the silence because the silence was death. And this world was dead.

[Aoiroo]

Nightfall

The day went by as normal, like it was nothing. Hours passed, the sun sunk, and Carrie was tired. She had been walking aimlessly, but really it wasn't aimless at all. Before she knew it she had walked from City Center, down to the Theatre District, and eventually the Fens. She knew she was doing it, but couldn't link the places she saw with the normal sights of such a walk. Everything had lost it's luster, it's sound, the personality she recognized. They were all shapes, lifeless and meaningless without any life present. It was a world that shouldn't of been, it shouldn't of existed, it wouldn't of existed, not like her home right? But it did, she observed that it did, but she really wish she wasn't. She wished she was unconcious, that this was some fevered dream or hallucinations. Except, it was real, too damn real to ignore. For what was the millionth time, her eyes started to tear, and she didn't care anymore. She didn't care that there were cool winds plastering her sweat uncomfortably, or that her hair and clothes were as raggedy as she felt. She wanted to leave, to escape this place, she wanted to go home. She quickened her pace, blindsiding the people and running up a fire escape. Like always the window was open and she was in the appartment she had lived the last two years, except, it wasn't.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie spent the night in the place that might of at one time been her appartment. At one time maybe, it would of been bright and colorful with fabrics on every surface and a comfortable but worn loveseat in front of a twelve in television and old VCR. It would of had an oven that didn't work, a fridge full of food that required a mircrowave or less for preporation and a hot shower that didn't run out even after forty minutes of soaking. And it would of had a bed, with one or two overstuffed plushes and a stack of comfy pillows with a half finished paperback on the end table next to the standing lamp. This place didn't have any of those things, it had shapes, and grey, like a charchoal drawing by a lazy art student who had mixed in too much chalk to give any shading variants. But she had had no where else to go.

Sleeping wasn't as hard as before, she was just so tired, from everything. The silence was still eerie, but it was muted by simple need and maybe a few passages from a book she had packed for the trip. When she awoke, it was slow and painful as she had to pull herself back into the grey world, but it was in that process that she heard something for the first time, something that didn't belong to her. For the first time since she got there, she heard static from the medal she had gotten from Miss Wells.

[Aoiroo]

Never before had there been such rejoicing by the sound of static. At least not by Carrie. She was tired, and hungry having eaten her way through her protien bars out of nervous habit the previous day and was sore by the two instances of falling, but she literately jumped up at the sound and followed the static to find areas of concetration.

4 Hours Later

It wasn't consistant, sometimes it was low, sometimes it was high, still she kept moving, through the city, empty as it was the static echoing over her steps as she walked. She caught words once or twice, nothing distinguishable, but human enough to make her turn to the direction that seemed to go it's course. She had walked the cities lengh to the sealine, covered in the silver that crossed over the ocean like a frozen cast. She tested it with a step and found that she could in fact walk on the encased liquid and went forwad to find that the further she got the clearer the signal got until she got an actual sentence through the radio,

"'Think those bloody engineers would work faster."

Her heart leap out of her stomach, she held the speaker to her mouth and said in a strained, sore and thirsty voice,

"Hey!"