Riding the Lightning

Danny shut his eyes tightly and clenched his fists. This was it. The defining moment in his life was about to change forever.

He stepped inside the cylinder and was immediately awash in light and sound. A faint buzzing quickly cycled to a piercing wail in his ears. He clamped his hands over the sides of his head, but it didn't help. The noise was inside his head, almost a living thing chewing through his synapses like a worm. He screamed, eyes shut tightly against the pain pounding for release from his skull. But his screams were lost amid the screeching now pin-balling through his mind. He crumpled to his knees on the verge of unconsciousness when the noise stopped as suddenly as it had started.

Danny held his position, panting, trying to regain his senses. He needed a visual reference point to dispel his dizziness and the nausea now building in his gut. He lowered his arms, slowly, hearing his elbows pop, and opened his eyes. The cylinder was gone, replaced by a thickly wooded glen. Mist hung in the air dampening the scent of burned wood.

Danny leaned forward onto his hands, and vomited.

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"Tier B lock down."

The guard looked down the catwalk and watched his partner rotate a lever clockwise. A high-pitched scraping, and thirty cell doors slid shut simultaneously, announcing completion of the movement with a metallic clang. The guard turned on his heel and walked the length of the catwalk quickly, his steps echoing off the concrete and steel. It was late, and Lord knew he was not on the best of terms with his wife as it was. No sense in poking that hornet's nest unless he had to.

"Mr. Webb?"

The guard stopped at the voice coming from cell 776. "Yeah?"

"Just wondering if you were able to get those supplies for me sir."

"Not yet Danny. I'm doing my best."

"Thank you sir," Danny said softly. "I guess I'll just wait here."

Webb snickered at the joke and continued on his way.

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