Nancy
McCall tried to catch her breaths as she stared at the red switch. “This is
murder,” she said in a shaking voice.
“This
is redemption. Leaving the world to annihilate itself is murder.”
“Why
don’t you do it then?”
“Wouldn’t
you like to be the vanquisher? You will forever be recorded in history for
resuscitating the world.”
Nancy
began to cry. Ms. Tross looked down at her binder.
“How,”
Nancy coughed, “will it happen?” She let out a few hiccups.
“A
myriad of ways. All under careful consideration and preparation of the
international government. This moment has been a craft in the making for a
decade.”
At
that moment, one room away, a red switch was inverted. Seven thousand miles
away from there, a Chinese man’s chest was ripped open by a tiger. The city of
Stockholm disappeared into a mushroom cloud. Los Angeles suffocated in a fog of
poisonous gas. A bullet was sent through the head of a man in a blue and white
striped shirt, and it fell forward onto a black button on the desk.
Ms.
Tross looked up to the blinking red light just as a military tank rolled over
half of the population of the crowded street outside the window, grounding
every human in its wake into the asphalt. Nancy screamed, and Ms. Tross jumped
out of her chair. She threw the office door open and found a limp corpse
hanging over the reception desk and a puddle of blood spilling off its edges.
Ms.
Tross’s hand shook as she fumbled with her key in the door to the second
office. She grabbed the knob and let out a gasp as she flicked her hand back
away. She pushed the key in and kicked the door open. Flames erupted into the
reception area. Ms. Tross fell back and crawled like a crab backwards toward
the front door. She peered into the office and saw a charcoal corpse,
suspenders withering at its shoulders.
“Nancy,
quick!” she called as she stood and hurried them out of the front door.
The
taps echoed through the hallway as if on hyper speed as the women ran. Ms.
Tross licked her fingers and put out a flame at the end of her pale blond hair.
Part 1: http://emmaraeparker.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-switch.html
Part 2: http://emmaraeparker.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-switch-part-2.html
Part 3: http://emmaraeparker.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-switch-part-3.html
