MF1.0 - 26 - Brick Walls

The agent – Taylor – terrified her, and he was just standing still. Every bit of her imaginary Spyder-sense was telling Stef to run. So she did. She turned and ran from the room – down the hall, past the recruits, to the lift. There was a shout behind her, and the sound of running footsteps, but she ignored them. She pushed into the lift as soon as the doors opened, repeatedly pushing the close doors button. Ryan reached the doors just in time for her to see the look of disappointment on his face, but she didn’t care. There was only so much a girl could take. Monsters, sure. Fictional-maybe-not-fictional characters, sure. Guns, sure. Angry men exuding pure terror, no. That was where she drew the line. The lift opened on the ground floor and she ran out the doors and into the bright sunlight. She stumbled on the concrete, but at least she recognised her surroundings. It had been easy enough to guess the building’s location when she had looked from Ryan’s window. It occurred to her that she had no money, but, unwilling to go back, she reconciled herself to walking home. She borrowed a key from Jenkins to get back into her apartment, then collapsed on the couch. Normal, she was back to where things were normal. Safe, where things were safe. There was coffee, there was chocolate, there was expired Chinese take away – the staples of her life.

The staples of her old life. She looked around the apartment, and shook her head. This wasn’t where she wanted to be. Taylor opened the back door and she followed the buzz cut through. Through the door was a substantially larger room, in which were two brick walls. Two thirty-foot tall brick walls. Freestanding of course, not like they had any visible means of support. Logic obviously didn’t apply here, it must be… No. I’m not saying the M word. Going to have to get used to it. I’m not going to live my life saying… ‘…that a bloody wizard did it.’ The three men all turned to look at her. She imagined smoke coming from Taylor’s ears. She shrugged. ‘Sorry. Thinking out loud.’ Taylor walked forward and stood between the two walls. ‘First test. Objective: get to the other side of the wall. There is equipment over there.’ A thick finger was stabbed towards the side of the room. ‘So, you’re like the joke I’m being tested against?’ the buzz cut said as he picked through the gear. She examined a set of suction cups, and dismissed them – they were for climbing glass and smooth metal, not brick and mortar. ‘Secretary?’ was his second guess. ‘They couldn’t get anyone else?’ He snatched the grappling hook from her hand. ‘I used this in basic, I know what I’m doing with it.’ ‘If these tests are based on individual merits, why would they need to test you against someone?’ she asked as she turned away from the gear. All of it was useless to her, there was only one obvious way over the wall. She ran at the wall and launched herself at it when she was ten feet away, and flew into the air as if it were liquid. The red brick and white mortar blurred as she flew past it. When she came to the top, she spun, her legs reaching over her head as she did a tenuous handstand. It felt amazing. Flipping forward, she fell to the ground and landed in a crouch. Applause came out of nowhere and she was proclaimed ruler of the universe. She smirked at the thought, leading the buzz cut to scowl at her. He snatched up his gear and made for the wall – he strapped himself into a harness and used a pulley and the grappling hook to pull himself to the top, then slid down the other side. This earned a nod from Taylor, and again, all eyes fell on her. With no gear in her hands, she approached the wall. She stared up to the top, and the heady images from a moment ago swam through her mind. There was only one way over the wall, and for her, it didn’t involve ropes. She took a deep breath, then walked around the wall.