Arthur looked around in confusion. There was no way he was imagining this, right? Has anyone else noticed? What would cause every fish in the establishment to suddenly stop dead in the water? After standing in awe for a moment, he decided to see if he could find someone for help.
He never got the chance.
The entire building shook, knocking Arthur clean off of his feet. He looked around in panic as the water tanks around him began falling, crashing against the ground and sending the fish flopping about. Arthur knew it likely wasn’t safe anywhere, but he also knew he couldn’t sit around and wait to get crushed by a falling ton of both solid and sharp glass. His head shot towards the bathroom he had just exited and scrambled wild-eyed back to his salvation. Glass began pouring down from above, nicking his shoulder and his thigh as he made a dash for his life. He crashed into the wall and turned the corner into the men’s room, quickly taking stock of the situation. The ceiling was cracking, but nothing was falling yet.
Thinking fast, Arthur ran to the accessible stall and gripped the end of the wall divider. “Er… sorry about this”, he mumbled, as he began kicking the base with all his meager strength. The rumbling got worse, the ceiling cracking further, and Arthur let out a cry as he felt dust fall down his back. He begged frantically that this would work to anyone willing to listen to his prayers, redoubling his efforts to bend the wall. The bottom had already cracked from the tremors, and the bolts were heavily rusted besides. Finally, it came free under his desperate thrashing. Only one side was destroyed, but that was all he needed. It toppled over the accessible stall, hitting Arthur on the way and forcing him to crash down under its weight. The toppled plastic and metal hit the other side of the stall, forming a cover over Arthur and the toilet.
The plastic of the wall itself was rock hard and unyielding. But, unknown to Arthur, was also supported by a honeycomb mesh of steel. This meant that when the ceiling finally came crashing down upon them, the wall bent, but did not break under the pressure. The debris was plentiful, but fell at such an angle that it slid down and to the side, forming a pile that quickly built up and dispersed the immediate pressure. Allowing for a slow buildup of weight rather than the next floor falling on him right away. That, combined with the existing rubble dispersing the rest of the weight of the ceiling, kept Arthur at least moderately safe as the floor above him buried him completely. Everything went dark, and Arthur’s cries were drowned out by the rubble as the opening to his small cave of salvation was swiftly cut off.
Everything was dark.
All Arthur heard was water flowing, rubble still falling somewhere, and the occasional scream of either fear or pain. He tried to move, but was packed in tight under the bent stall wall. He felt concrete in front of him, and dust all around, but couldn’t parse anything out other than that and the smell of stinking sewage. His hands shaking more than the tremor had, he reached towards his pockets for his phone. He could barely reach it, and his violently trembling hands weren’t helping. The dust had long since invaded his lungs, and he let out a hoarse cough as he finally pulled his phone free. His breathing was quivering as much as his hands were, fear betraying his fingers an action they had done a thousand and one times, opening his phone for light.
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He finally managed to press the right button, but nothing happened. He pressed again and again, to no avail. “N-No I… I know I charged my phone before I left…” He whimpered in a rising panic. He kept trying to open his phone over and over, but it continued to avail nothing. His phone was done.
Arthur tried to throw it to the side, but the space he was in betrayed him, and he just ended up banging his hand with his phone against the wall that had saved him. He let out curses and profanities as fear gripped him anew, his coughing and hyperventilating filled with terror shakes. After a long while of wondering what to do, something impossible filled his vision.
Congratulations!
Your universe has just been conquered by The System.
Rejoice, as your new life begins now!
“What the helling fuck?!”
Mira knew coming to work today was a bad idea.
Especially after she let her friends drag her out to the bar last night for a girls’ night out and ended up drinking more than she should’ve due to their unrelenting peer pressure. She had known she had to work the next day, but the drinks tasted good and the atmosphere was just as, if not even more, intoxicating. She had let herself fall into the rhythm her friends had set, and she had no one to blame but herself for the current predicament she was in. That was, of course, ignoring the one bad moment of the night with that one boy. He was obvious from the start. She and her friends had seen him watching them and their backsides anytime one of them turned around. They’d turned it into a game after a while, with whomever he ogled over the most gaining a point. It had gotten so high for all of them they’d lost count.
And then he’d converted his drooling into actual words. She hadn’t thought he had it in him, but to her even greater chagrin, he proved her wrong. Not only that, but proved her wrong so completely that he overcame his previous creepiness by miles with words alone. She hadn’t thought it possible.
Then something even stranger happened, like it was straight out of an old western movie. A string bean of a person came up and so obviously spilled his drink on the annoying guy on purpose that even her pet cats would’ve known it. He tried to play it off, but his voice wasn’t anywhere near the Hollywood level of cool enough that he would’ve needed. He was bland looking and utterly unremarkable, aside from his eyes. They were sea green and bright, but above poorly concealed eye bags that suggested he didn’t get much sleep. Or maybe because of something else.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by her new coworker. “Miss Seigan, it’s good to see you! This would be your… second day?” Carol said to her as she entered the employee break room.
“Ah… no, sorry Mrs. Bennett. It’s my third day.” She blinked as she came back to the present moment, taking her hands down from where they held her head up on the table. “Oooh of course, apologies,” Carol said. “Things have been so busy lately that I completely forgot! You’ll be in the freshwater section today, okay?”
Mira fought through the hangover headache. “Right… sure thing. Was there anything else you needed from me before I get started?” Carol looked contemplative for a moment before answering.
“Well, there is one thing… there should be someone in the freshwater section today who is a bit famous with the people around here.” She tapped her chin. “He comes around here quite often, but as you’re just startin out, you wouldn’t have met him yet.” Mira tilted her head. “Famous? Why’s that?” Carol chuckled. “Well, aside from bein a bit of a baby, he likes to talk to the fish. A lot of our staff have seen him doin it,” she said. She looked to have a face of fond exasperation.
“What’s his name?”
“His name’s Arthur, Arthur Lindow,” Carol said. “And it’s pretty clear something happened to him today. I know you can be a bit of a hard woman, Miss Seigan, but he has a kind heart and a tender soul. Be gentle with him, okay?” Her voice was sincere, but unrelenting. She was clearly protective of whomever this man was. Who was he to demand such affection from Mrs. Bennett?
“No problem, Mrs. Bennett. I’ll put my things away… and…” Mira trailed off as a rumble began, growing more and more violent by the moment. Carol looked around, confused.
“What in God’s name is that??”