He executed a gentle salute to Liam with the mouthpiece of his pipe, and thought ..nice fella. Spared a polite gesture to a stranger. Not too common these days. Otto heard rumbling several miles west of the city. His eyes moved back and forth beneath his hood, surveying the horizon for a turn in the weather.

...you have an exceptional day --

The fizzle from the feedback was very short-lived when the audio feed from the city's PA system cut out.

If Otto still had hair on the back of his neck, it would be standing upright. Media devices were known to be affected by electrical currents caused by adverse weather. Otto muttered to himself,"Isn't the Queens address system hard-wired? Hmm, pretty sure it's a closed circuit. I wonder who they're gonna fry for this hiccup?" He would attempt to humor himself in situations such as this. The alternative solution would be to investigate. "There was time when I would. Just let the engineers handle it, old fart."

Florence was quite upset to reach the top and find Dazz waiting for him. He was sure she would make him fill the cracks he made, but she must have been too busy to notice them. She had a lot to handle, especially today it seemed. "Yes ma'am. I'll help clean up Borrick and this mess. And apologize to that girl as well." Flor walked over to the old bot mechanic and began to clean him up. "You'll be ok. We'll get most of this off you before it dries. You didn't lose anything in the cement did you. It'll be easier to find it before it dries." The mans words weren't making much sense yet as he was still sobbing over the incident. Flor would apologize to the girl later if he had time. Work came first and she would get over the situation. All the others did anyways. Dazz's word was as good as law though, and when he got the chance he would appologize to her.

"Alright let's try again Bor, you've got all of your stuff right?" This time Flor was able to make out the word wrench through the old man's sobs. He knew about the mechanics enchanted wrench, everyone knew about it. It was certainly a reason to cry if any at losing that. Flor reached into the pile of drying cement and managed to pull out the wrench. Borrick's sobs quickly began to subside as he handed it to him. "Take care of this. I know you already do, but keep an eye out for the things around you too." Flor ignored the cement on his hand as he wasn't going to be able to wipe it all of before it dried. He began to shovel the wet cement and dump it into a bucket. It was ruined now that it was hardening outside of a mold. The job steadily got harder as the cement dried and Flor helped hack away at the extra pieces.

Maria had noticed Dazz's fist tensing, and had flinched back slightly when she turned around, looking quite angry about something or other. Fortunately, it looked like she was mad about something else, because her face softened, and she gave a smile before responding that she was indeed in charge. Oh good, I can ask her about working up here! "I was wondering about-" The hard hat dropped onto Maria's head with a soft thmp sound. "Oh. Uh, thanks, but-" Then the woman's pocket alarm went off, and Dazz's previous state of anger returned for a moment before she pointed Maria to a girl who was snapping pictures of the land outside the Wall and left to go deal with an auditor. If that was what she had been angry about, Maria could sympathize; the guy who always came around to audit the candy shop was snotty and acted superior to them more often than not, so if the auditor that was here now was like that, Dazz's reaction was certainly justified. Maria took a glass of water from the adorable robot that offered her one and told it "Thanks!", then walked over to the woman with the camera, dodging a blubbering worker and another man who was digging around in cement that looked like it had spilled all over the place. When she arrived, the woman appeared to be very distracted by the worksite that surrounded her, snapping pictures of anything that looked interesting, including the bawling construction worker. "Uh, pardon me. The lady in charge sent me to you and said that you could help me. I'm looking to work up here so I can pay off my father's debt. Could you show me around and tell me what jobs I could do?"

Right about then, the announcement came on, before shorting out after thunder rolled through the sky. Maria looked around for the source of the thunder. "What was that? It sounded like thunder, but the sky's clear... And I'm sure I saw lightning in those clouds over the mine, but they're not storm clouds." She pointed to the nearby diamond mine behind Reina, which currently had a large cloud doing its best cotton ball impersonation sitting over it.

@Riptide

As Ethan rose back to his feet from the jolt, he rubbed his stomach tenderly. "That's the third bloody time this week..." he grumbled, watching the other works. He spotted Florence retrieving the wrench from the muck and he swore. Things were about to get tricky. Ethan shuffled about and waited until Dazz was a good distance away, talking to some scrawny kid with a calculator. He heard the thunder and the TV's go out, but he paid it no heed. He bent down, pretending to tie his boot, while he reached into his jacket and touched one of the sigils that sat in the pocket. He imagined the sea, far off to he south (or so he believed), rushing against the shore. A tremendous bang echoed from over by the lifts.

The workers all turned towards the sound. The old bearded fellow let the wrench fall to his side, setting it down carefully as he started to approach. Ethan grinned slyly. He touched another sigil, lower, this time imagining punching his boss in the face. He appeared right by the wrench, and he scooped it up, glancing around to make sure nobody saw. He pretended to be cleaning it off for a few seconds just in case somebody still did, but once he was sure, he slipped it into his coat. Then, he rushed towards the lifts like everyone else, as if to appear just as concerned. Hopefully he could avoid getting tazed again.

"You that accountant from the . . . color-wheel firm?" Seemed a bit young to be doing such important work, but maybe that would work in her favor. Dazz gestured with her head back toward the building block. "C'mon, then. Get this over with, right?"

Moth stood abruptly, pushing his hair back with one hand and clutching his calculator in a death grip with the other.

"Um yes sir...ma'am...miss foreman...forema'am! Uh...you!"

Moth smiled hugely and playfully punched her on the arm. Following the absolute, stony silence, his smile froze and he could feel his entire body burning red with embarrassment. His heartbeat rumbled in his head and he wanted to crawl in a hole and disappear. Or was that thunder?

"I...I have the reports in order, and I've been tasked to--AHEM--to um, go over a few budgetary concerns that have come to light over the past few months, and, uh...miss...ma'am?"

He could tell the forewoman's attention was wandering and he was subconsciously thankful for it. Moth followed her gaze, out over the Wall, to an almost invisible hollow in the distant pastures. O...kay. Maybe she really liked grass.

Flor reached into the pile of drying cement and managed to pull out the wrench. Borrick's sobs quickly began to subside as he handed it to him. "Take care of this. I know you already do, but keep an eye out for the things around you too."
- Florence

A tremendous bang echoed from over by the lifts. The workers all turned towards the sound. The old bearded fellow let the wrench fall to his side, setting it down carefully as he started to approach. Ethan grinned slyly. He touched another sigil, lower, this time imagining punching his boss in the face. He appeared right by the wrench, and he scooped it up, glancing around to make sure nobody saw. He pretended to be cleaning it off for a few seconds just in case somebody still did, but once he was sure, he slipped it into his coat. Then, he rushed towards the lifts like everyone else, as if to appear just as concerned. Hopefully he could avoid getting tazed again.
- Ethan

Only with Flor's encouragement did Borrick finally blow his nose into a sooty handkerchief and stifle his sobs. He breathed a bit more easily, though still with a shudder, and nodded, taking his beloved wrench into a ham-sized hand.

A thunderous BANG by the visitor lifts drew his attention completely away from the bits of drying concrete in his beard. He placed the wrench with care back into its slot in his toolbox and wandered closer to see who'd damaged what this time -- only to find that everyone below was just as confused about that noise as he was.

Borrick had barely turned his attention away from the lifts when he knew -- he knew -- that someone had taken his wrench.

The shard of soul within that wrench belonged to Borrick himself, after all.

And so, as soon as the treasure hunter paused at the edge of the block, Borrick snatched Ethan's arm in a death-iron grip. He glowered at Ethan with a look of pure, murderous rage, amplified by the tear stains and red circles around his dangerous eyes.

Personally he thought that it was crazy to be building a wall up this high. The Grit hadn't attacked in forever. Sure there were sightings, but at this point he began to wonder if they were myths or fantasy. Maybe there were some horror story made to get fearful children into line.
- Vincent

"Isn't the Queens address system hard-wired? Hmm, pretty sure it's a closed circuit. I wonder who they're gonna fry for this hiccup?" He would attempt to humor himself in situations such as this. The alternative solution would be to investigate. "There was time when I would. Just let the engineers handle it, old fart."
- Otto

"What was that? It sounded like thunder, but the sky's clear... And I'm sure I saw lightning in those clouds over the mine, but they're not storm clouds." She pointed to the nearby diamond mine behind Reina, which currently had a large cloud doing its best cotton ball impersonation sitting over it.
- Maria

"I...I have the reports in order, and I've been tasked to--AHEM--to um, go over a few budgetary concerns that have come to light over the past few months, and, uh...miss...ma'am?" He could tell the forewoman's attention was wandering and he was subconsciously thankful for it. Moth followed her gaze, out over the Wall, to an almost invisible hollow in the distant pastures.
- Moth

Something near the lifts made a broken noise, and Dazz started looking over to see who'd busted the cables again -- but instead, her eyes caught sight of the clouds over the diamond mine. A hollow circle of blue sky was expanding slowly, pushing those clouds out of the way.

Dazz had completely forgotten Moth was even talking, at this point. She whipped out her binoculars again, tapped the settings as close as they'd go, but there was nothing to see that was of particular cause for alarm.


That noise, straight out of the diamond mine, rumbled like a break in the sound barrier. Dazz gripped the edge of the wall and struggled to hold those binoculars steady.

Something sparked in the middle of that blue space in the clouds. A moment passed. In silence, Dazz saw the explosion of white electricity, like a little sun going supernova. The bright sky over the plains flickered.

She held her breath, and counted the seconds after a flash of lightning.

One . . . Two . . .


"SOUND THE ALARM!" Dazz's voice was drowned out by the sizzle of lightning overhead. Electricity shot across the sky in a bright, spidering line.

Throughout the illuminated city, bells and beeps and howling alarms blared. The city folk stepped out on their porches and stared up at the sky, hands shading their eyes. Nobody had ever seen anything like this: a bright line of pulsing electric, crossing the whole sky from the west to the east, turning the blue sky white with its brightness.

Dazz abandoned her binoculars and ran for the building block, threw herself up the ladders, as if there was anything she could do.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN! INSIDE THE WALL! OFF THE BLOCK! NOW!" At the top of her lungs, her orders were barely heard over the alarms and electric.


It was a noise like an enormous egg being cracked.

Only, it was the sky that split along the line of lightning.

The southern half of the sky suddenly went dark, as if the light had been switched off to reveal the moon and the stars. The south side of the city was plunged into darkness.

North of the electric line, the sun still shone and the sky was blue.

Here, at the western point of the wall, night and day battled together in an ominous, electric twilight.

Dazz could only stand in shocked silence while a cold wind blew across the wall.


A bolt of lightning struck the queen's tower. Masses of crackling, spidery bolts erupted from the tip of the tower and rained down upon the city like a bright, endless hailstorm.

The screams of the city folk echoed on the walls that closed them in.

There was no damage to the city, though -- nothing burned, nothing broke, nothing splintered. To those high up on the walltop, it wasn't quite clear what the purpose of all this was, if it wasn't to destroy Periphery.

Something moved in the light-and-darkness out over the plains to the west. Dazz turned her head, and she saw a skittering mass of Grit emerging from the woods in the distance, crossing the plains fearlessly, like they hadn't done in thirty years.

"GUARDS! WEAPONS --" Dazz started hollering, but her words were cut off as she was struck by lightning. One of those stray bolts from the tower had got her.

When the blinding flash was gone, Dazz had turned to stone where she stood.

All that was left of the foreman was a statue of herself in mid-holler, eyes open wide in fright and determination, a finger pointed out over the wall toward the incoming swarm of Grit in the distance.

In front of the statue's chest, something small floated, glowing pale pink. A little stone hovered close to Dazz, filled with a strange sort of energy.

Borrick, too, had been struck; his stone hand still gripped Ethan's arm, though the statue's expression was cast upward in terror. A pink glowing stone floated at his chest.

Electricity barraged the city, and the screams of the city folk began to go quiet as every single man, woman and child within the walls was turned to stone.

From the top of the wall, maybe you could see the little pinpricks of pink light scattered through the dark southern city.

After awhile, the rain of lightning subsided. The electricity in the sky dispersed and disappeared, leaving only a clean line between day and night where the sky was split in two.

A ball of lightning still crackled at the top of the queen's tower, illuminating the statues below.

Only a handful of those around Otto seemed to be animated. Tourists, laborers, retired folk--they were stone-gray and frozen in place. The ringing in Otto's ears began to subside, though the restoration of his hearing did little good at this point. He instinctively yelled,"GRAB SOMETHING HEAVY THAT YOU CAN SWING AND GET IN THE WALL!"

He tucked his pipe into an outside pocket of his garment and snatched up the nearest tool he could find: a sledge hammer, approximately a meter in length with a light alloy shaft. The angry foreman had a permanent determined look to her. Otto imagined the woman was fiercely serious about her job; she was likely an honest person...a natural leader. He cupped the pink orb in his gloved hand and maneuvered it into his satchel. "You're comin' with me."

Otto knew the elevator was a terrible idea. A small group of folks could squeeze into a trolley; each was equipped with a pulley-style system to move them slowly along the wire when the power wasn't available. With practiced grace (and a massive amount of pain to his back and knees), Otto leaped from the wall summit into the trolley he used minutes earlier. He anxiously waited for the others to gather their wits and make a move. "Maybe one of these youngsters knows somethin' I don't, but we need to un-ass this area," he breathed to himself in angst.

Ethan choked when the old man gripped his arm. When he saw the rage and sadness in the fellow's eyes, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep the wrench, the man looked too...emotional. Suddenly, there was a series of deafening booms and lightning arced across the sky and into the city. Ethan was shocked when it all shot towards them. He thought for sure it would hit him and he would fry, he probably deserved it. But the old man turned to stone. Ethan gaped at the statue, perfect down to the smallest detail. He had to look away, the emotion on the man's face was devastating.

Ethan snatched the pink gem in front of the old man. He would fix this, if he could. Another old man shouted about getting inside the wall. Ethan nodded firmly, and then yanked his hand. Which was stuck. He sighed and reached inside his coat, fingering a sigil. He imagined the look of elation on the old man's face when he fixed everything. He appeared next to the older man on the trolley. He looked at the man, and grinned wickedly. "This should be interesting, eh? I hope these folks are capable as you old timer."

Flor was watching Borick put a death grip and stare on Ethan as the sky started to crack. Booms followed rattling the earth and wall around them. The lightning began to act strange, but there was barely enough time to even think as it all happened. Before he knew it Borrick had been turned to stone and Ethan took the pink shard and disappeared to the trolley. Flor heard the old man's cry and began to act again.

He grabbed a pipe and ran for the trolley himself. He caught a glimpse of the Grit coming in mass for the wall. The lightning couldn't be from them, could it? What sort of power did they amass? He hoped that his equipment and sigil would be enough for the coming events.

Vincent ducked as he heard the loudest sound he could possibly imagine. How could it be thundering while so sunny and clear outside? He then looked out towards the city and saw electricity crackling wildy in the sky. Suddenly it struck the Queen's tower and Vincent's jaw dropped. The cigarette he had acquired so easily dropped over the edge of the wall falling into the panicking city below. Vincent backed off the edge of the wall nervously and looked worriedly at Kat and then Randy whom had stepped up to him.

Randy was the first to say anything before Vincent. "Sir, you should get inside now." The urgency in his voice was clear as he echoed what the forewoman Dazz had yelled earlier. He knew not to touch the boy for fear of a violent reaction, and Vincent's father had given explicit instructions to not lay hands unless absolutely necessary.

Vincent nodded knowing it was stupid to argue in this situation. "Okay." He glanced back at Kat. "Kat, lets g-" He ducked as lightning arced over him and struck Randy. "HOLY!!!" His heart banged in his chest as the crashing sound of the thunder rattled his bones. He swore that he would go permanently deaf from everything going on around him. His ears rang loudly and his entire body shook with fear. The whole world was ending around him. He felt the lighting all around him subsiding and slowly stood up straight.

Behind him, he saw Randy and many other people around him turned to stone. Randy's expression was one of shock and surprise. Vincent's ears still rang as he saw a few of the survivors' lips moving, one was shouting and another was responding to him. Vincent blinked a few times as if that would help his ears any and turned his attention towards the city itself. It was night and it was day all at the same time. Electricity crackled off towards the tower, but did not seem to be moving away from it and reaching out at them anymore.

"I'm okay." He breathed out relaxing a little. However, he couldn't hear his own voice due to the loud ringing that was steadily dying down. "I'm okay."

He laid down on his back as he felt his legs giving out on him. He thought about why this happened. This was no Grit attack like the Queen feared. This could only be stupidity caused by fear and paranoia. They pressed the reset button and by accident or not it was all there fault. Serves them right. And yet, in spite of his bitter feelings for the city and everything about it, part of him felt sad that everything he knew was gone.

"Oh, damn." Now he could hear himself speaking normally.

"So, what are you up here for? Seemed like some friends were messaging you earlier."

Kat smiled. “Yeah, I’m meeting my siblings up here-“

Before she could finish however, the Queen’s morning announcement echoed from the city down below. Out of politeness, she waited for it to finish- since she was typically indoors all day working in the mechanic shop, the daily announcements rarely had any relevant to her. Still, in general she felt warm feelings towards their queen. She seemed earnest and hardworking, and rarely did anything that imposed on Kat’s life. Not much more you could ask from a monarch, to be honest.

I hope you have an exceptional day –

Kat echoed the frown Vincent wore.

“That’s weird. I know some of the guys that worked on the city announcement system. It goes maintenance checks pretty regularly.”

And they’re not the types to make mistakes. She thought to herself, not wanting to unduly cause concern. They were twin sisters, they Reys- been colleagues of hers at her vocational school. Although they’d never been close, they occasionally kept in touch to exchange advice and tips about their respective specialisms (intricate robotics and bionics for Kat, electronic systems for the Reys).

Still, even the most well designed system could produce errors on rare occasions. Kat pushed her mild concern out of the way just in time for a sharp crackle of noise to reverberate in the area around her, forks of electricity shattering the sky above them.

“SOUND THE ALARM!”

Kat swore loudly, turning to Vincent who seemed to have the same idea as her.

Turning back, she could see the supervisor clambering up a nearby building. They were too exposed out here.

“EVERYONE GET DOWN! INSIDE THE WALL! OFF THE BLOCK! NOW!"



Without looking, Kat ducked down at the same time as Vincent and watched as lighting struck Randy. But instead of frying him where he stood, he seemed to …stone? What?

Next to her, Vincent was crouching, visibly rattled by this turn of events.

“Vincent, do you think you can run? We should get inside!”

But her voice was drowned out immediately by the thunderstorm around her. She reached out, thinking that perhaps she could drag him with her, but saw his body shaking with fear and held back. Somehow, his fear made her step back, her mind whirring. Think. Think. Sure, it was a life and death situation, but if she treated it like any mechanics question perhaps she could find the optimal solution. Ok, establish the situation first. Looking around, Kat spent a few seconds analysing the lighting which was striking all around the space between them and the building block.

I shouldn’t even think of this as lighting. Lightning would have fried Randy where he stood. Watching a couple of strikes, Kat noted that the lightning acted like electricity usually would- striking taller objects more frequently, especially conductive ones- but it didn’t seem to have the same effect as other electricity. In the first place, if normal lightning had struck Randy both her and Vincent would have been thrown off the wall by the force of its blast.

If it doesn’t have a blast radius, we should be safe hiding lower than the railings. They'll attract the lighting that’s coming from above. Plus by crouching we make ourselves a smaller target.

However, her heart sunk when she realised that some of the lighting seemed to be coming from the city itself. Then, her stomach lurched as screams of confusion and horror from the city below rose up to the wall.

No.

Please, please no no no no

Staying crouched, Kat opened up her silenced chat window. Please let them be ok. Please let them be ok. Theo, Karin, Jakob, mum, dad…

BigSisKarin: theo why are you taking so long!

BigBroTheo: Sorry guys, my place is a tip and it took ages to find some clean clothes…

BigSisKarin: you are hopeless! and gross!

BigBroJakob: We’re going to head up now, since Kat’s waiting. We’ll see you up there.

BigBroTheo: Yeah no worries. I’m heading over to the elevator now- should be 10mins or so.

The last message had been about 5 minutes ago. There would’ve been a bit of a queue for the tourist elevator, so chances were they were still down in the city. It was difficult to type whilst panicking, but the only message she needed to send was short. Flicking open a separate app on her tech specs, Kat started to try and pinpoint the location of her siblings, hoping they had given her the permissions she needed to do so.

Me: are you ok

Me: please be ok

Kat stayed croched next to Vincent, hands covering her ears, until the lightning subsided. All the while she was desperately trying to message her siblings and call her parents whilst repeatedly swearing under her breath and trying to reassure Vincent. Only the swearing venture was met with any success. She heard someone shouting about weapons, followed by a very close, and very loud, crack of lighting. Fortunately, Kat’s no other strikes came anywhere near the two of them.

Once the lighting her subsided, Kat took a deep breath. For whatever reason, her tech-specs didn’t seem to be helping. She’d managed to track the location of her siblings- as she thought, Jakob and Karin were still on the ground in the city, near the elevator. Terrifyingly, their tech-specs were transmitting a signal in the middle of the street, not moving. Theo was quite a way off, but had a similarly still signal, this time in the middle of the main square. Maybe the signal’s have all got messed up. Or they all dropped their tech specs in the confusion.

Regardless, Kat’s priority was to find them. After ascertaining that the lighting had stopped, Kat looked up, in time to see a middle-aged man in a dark brown hooded robe and safety harness next to …a stone statue of the supervisor? The man was grabbing some glowing pink stone which floated in front of the supervisor and manoeuvring it into his satchel, muttering to himself as he did so.

Am I dreaming?

Everything felt unreal, bizarre- sense and logic long abandoned. I need to find the others. Kat noted several people heading for a nearby trolley, which would taken them down to the city. There!

Looking around, Kat realised Vincent was lying on the floor, in a state of shock. Kat needed to find her family, everything in her screaming that she needed to run as fast as she could towards that trolley- but she couldn’t just abandon this boy. Especially since she could see them- the Grit, rushing in vast numbers towards the wall.

“Vincent.” Kat said, trying to keep her voice calm. “The Grit are coming. I think that trolley’s my best bet- I need to find my brothers and sister, make sure they're ok. But I don't think you should stay here. If you want, you can come with me, and I'll do everything I can to help you get out of here safe.”

She reached out her hand.

As Liam helped Emmitt with the rivets, He heard the first when he heard the first noise. Instantly leaving whatever he was doing and looking at the place the sound originated from. Well that can’t be good ca- Liam was cut off by the sound of the lighting strike. Liam had worked the wall multiple times on a rainy day, and was pretty much used to the sound of lighting but this felt…wrong. This all felt very wrong to him. There was no sign that there would be a lightning storm today. That’s when he took real notice of the illumination of the electricity that essentially turned the blue skied morning to something that resembled what heaven looked like in story books. For that one second Liam just stared, ignoring whatever anyone else was saying or doing all he did was…stare. Liam honestly could not comprehend the sheer beauty of what he saw… As he stared at what seemed to be heaven’s sky his bubble of silence was pierced by the what sounded like a really large egg being cracked. Liam was really not going to take notice of it until the sky cracked in two…

His look of admiration for beauty quickly turned to horror as he saw the south side of the city suddenly be submerged into darkness. It was at that moment he got knocked back into the harsh reality he lived as the situation was going from bad to worse. Almost everyone started running in every single direction. Liam’s focus instantly shifted from staring at the sky to getting his equipment and getting the hell off this wall. Liam made a dash for a nearby storeroom where he kept all his things safely tucked away in the corner. Once he got to the storeroom he immediately put his greatcoat along with the holster that had his pepperbox rifle and his sheathed sword. Once he got all his things together Liam ran out as fast as he can.

As he did he heard the crackling of lightning yet again, only this time it was accompanied by a cry as Liam noticed that the lightning had struck one of the workers close to him turning him to stone and leaving a small purple crystal in front of the person. Liam wanted to help that man, but he knew that if he did he would probably end up being turned to stone himself so he continued running. Whilst running he saw Dazz on top of the building block. Liam instantly changed his course and ran towards her. DAZZ WATCH OUT THE LI- Liam’s words were drowned out as he saw a streak of electricity touch her, turning her to stone.

NO!!! Liam shouted as he started running even faster, reaching what he thought was her stone corpse. As he did he noticed the old man he waved at previously had jumped into a nearby trolley. Liam looked back at him and then at Dazz again. Not only was this thing turning people to stone, but the one person Liam actually thought of as a friend was among them. I will come back for you, if you are even still in there. Was all he said before he jumped into the trolley along with everyone else. Just as he jumped he turned back once more to look at Dazz only to see what looked like grit approaching from the forest behind her.

We got to move now, the grit are charging the wall. He said to the other as he landed in the trolley.

“Vincent.” Kat said, trying to keep her voice calm. “The Grit are coming. I think that trolley’s my best bet- I need to find my brothers and sister, make sure they're ok. But I don't think you should stay here. If you want, you can come with me, and I'll do everything I can to help you get out of here safe.”

Vincent chuckled a bit and grabbed her hand and with her assistance hopped onto his feet. He hopped on his feet a few beats to get his blood flowing. "Alright." The Grit. The fearsome enemy of humanity, and they were all that was left of the city. "You, me, and maybe a half-dozen people up here. Who knows down there." He glanced over towards the trolley. "Trolley works." He hoped.

Something caught his eye that he barely noticed before, but this time it stuck out a bit more. A pink glowing stone floated before the chest of Randy. He tilted his head with a curious expression on his face and snatched the stone out of the air. "Randy," he stated with a slightly joking tone. "I didn't know your soul was pink." He inspected the stone as he made his way towards the trolley as Kat suggested. He wracked his brain trying to remember if there was any mention of some magic like this on Rune Magic that he may have been taught during the classes Father put him through. Whether he wanted to or not, it wasn't like he could forget the information he picked up from the intensive classes.

He paused as he made it up to the trolley, not paying any attention to the others headed for it. If everyone had turned to stone with the exception of everyone right now on the wall. That meant he was free of Father. Free of this prison of a city. Grit or no. He was free. This put an involuntary smile on his face. He began to wonder what it would be like running through the streets of Periphery without any rules or restrictions put on him by Father or the Law. That could be a reality. Could be.

"This wall should hold for a bit," he managed to choke out.

Otto put his foot on the hatch opposite the wall's summit, and heaved his way to the trolley's roof. The gears for the pulley system were rusted. It looked as if they hadn't been maintained (or even noticed) since the trolley was put into service. "Figures.." He pulled the gear assembly upwards on it's hinge and rigged it onto the same thick cable the motor was attached to. The motor smelled of burnt windings and showed visible signs it had lost the fight against lightning. It would take a minute or two to break through the motor and detach it from the cable, hence holding the trolley in place.

"Young man,"he looked towards Liam. "...pull the brake lever. It's right there, by your leg. Give it a hard tug. We don't want this piece of scrap falling to the earth when I get this motor detached!" He leaned down and hollered at two other fellows--Florence and Ethan--hoping for one of them to have the wherewithal to take lead,"If we have stragglers nearby, they should be here with us. And one of you lend me a strong back to get this damned thing off!!

The motor was all but disconnected...it was one strong tug from biting the dust and enabling the trolley's crew to wind itself down 25 meters to the next landing.

Ethan looked up at the old man, who had shouted about helping him. Ethan looked at Florence, the thrill-seeker. Ethan nodded, "You get the others, I'll fix this bloody thing." Ethan crossed the trolley to the man int he hood, and nudged him aside. He planted both his feet, grabbed the old motor, and yanked. The metal gave a hideous wrenching sound, and then tore off. Ethan grinned as the Trolley wobbled, now free of its main anchoring. Ethan looked around, nervous now.

He could hear the Grit now, rumbling towards the wall, all kinds of hideous sounds. He gritted his teeth and bellowed up. "WE GOTTA GO GUYS!" He saw the others running towards the trolley. The two men inside the trolley looked incredibly nervous. He frowned. "Alright, if they don't get here soon, we gotta go. I know we shouldn't leave them, but if we wait, we all die." He looked out over the city. "And maybe there's still somebody alive down there who can fix this."

The world pulsated and roared around Moth. The sound came to him from a great distance, a dull throb from somewhere out of focus. All he could see was an inky black, like an ocean that never saw sunlight. Sounds coalesced around him, the rhythmic shouts and screams of people scattering around him.

He opened his eyes. Light assaulted him and made him groan. At least, he thought he groaned. It was hard to tell if he was even still alive, or if his soul was experiencing things apart from his body. Ah, okay, yes he was alive. There was pain. A lot of it.

Shapes appeared next, slowly running together into tangible forms and colors. Moth peeled himself off the ground and pushed himself to his elbows and looked around. Behind him, a statue he hadn't noticed before was pointing over the Wall and had its mouth open in mid-shout. The foreman. Forewoman.

"Wh...wh..."

An explosion of light and sound flashed in his mind. Moth remembered. A tremendous light had shot to the sky from somewhere out in the fields. The woman shouted something to her workers, and then there was a sound like thunder and it all went black.

"MWAAP MWOORP MWAP MURRP MAARP!"

He tried to shake the ringing from his ears as he jerkily pulled himself to his feet. There was too much noise, too much sound and roaring and banging and...

"WE GOTTA GO GUYS!"

Okay, THAT he heard. Moth raised his head and looked around, some things still out of focus. The sky to the south was black. There was no twilight inbetween, just an abrupt break from day to night, directly overhead. Head still pounding, the world still swimming around him, Moth turned and walked unsteadily to the light, towards the sounds of shouting.

Maria's head whipped towards the diamond mine, even as her body wobbled from the force of the noise. "What on earth...?" She held her breath unconsciously as she saw the electrical explosion over the mine. In that moment, it seemed, everything was quiet; everyone had, like her, stopped and turned to look at this oddity, this phenomenon that should not be. A silent explosion, a flicker like someone fumbling the light switch, a second, two. Maria was just starting to relax when-


"SOUND THE ALARM!"

Holy shit what was that

Suddenly, utter chaos. Alarms were blaring, tolling, beeping everywhere, people were screaming about God-knew-what, and Dazz was yelling at everyone to get inside the wall. Maria wasted no time in sprinting to the nearest shelter, which was a seemingly-defunct trolley that had been taken up and was in the process of being repaired, where she was shortly joined by a young boy; apparently a construction worker, he couldn't have been more than a year older than her. They sat there for a bit, panting together, before the boy asked "D'you think we're safe in here?"

Maria answered with a shrug and an "I hope so."



Then, naturally, the sky chose that time to split in two.

Maria and the boy rushed to one of the trolley walls, gawking at the split. The world seemed to have gone quiet; there was only the two of them, the trolley, the split sky, and the intruding cold wind.



As a huge bolt of lightning struck the Queen's tower, sound returned in a rush, as did the various bolts of lightning rushing around the city, seemingly striking its inhabitants at random. Maria could hear their screams from her vantage point. All she could think was Oh, God, please let Mom and Dad be safe. Please, God, I'm begging you...

Her prayer was interrupted by the boy she was with roughly shoving her out of the way, and before Maria could register what was happening, the boy had turned to stone, a small pink jewel floating just in front of his chest.

Maria was stunned briefly, before working out what had happened. He must have seen the lightning bolt somehow... But what kind of lightning turns people to stone? And how did it even get in here? Did it curve somehow? Her musings were overridden by one specific, instinctive thought.

This place isn't safe. I need to leave.

She got up quickly and was about to dash out of the trolley when her conscience got the better of her, and she walked back to the boy. His arms were outstretched, and his face bore a look of determination and fright. Maria patted his shoulder and said "Thank you" with all the sincerity she could muster. She carefully took the small crystal floating in front of him and placed it in a pocket of her jacket where she was confident it would be safe.

Wait - the statue of the boy... did it just wink at her?

Maria shook her head; this was no time for distraction. She rushed outside and looked for other survivors. Seeing a trolley with a group of people in it, Maria sprinted towards them as fast as her legs could carry her. She passed a young man who wasn't walking so much as shambling his way there; if he kept up that pace, who knew what could happen to him? Maria reversed course a bit and grabbed his hand, trying to yank him towards the trolley. "C'mon, we have to go right now! God knows what could happen to us if we stay here!"

Flor had made it to the trolley and now the old man had sprung into action to get the old thing to work. He started barking orders that Flor took in very carefully. As he ordered Flor and Ethan their two tasks he froze for a moment not sure which one to react to. Flor heard Ethan's order, but didn't really acknowledge it. He just acted. He instantly sprinted out of the trolley looking for people that needed help to the trolley. One couple was already headed towards the trolley and entered as he exited. He searched around frantically but just saw a lot of statues with those crystals. He noticed a few people taking the crystals. Maybe those were necessary to bring the people back. As Flor was running through the statues grabbing all the crystals he could he noticed something moving. It was another couple. Some tech nerd was shambling towards the trolley rather slowly, while some woman tried to help him. Flor pocketed another crystal he just grabbed and ran over to them. "Come on! We've gotta move!" He put an arm around the man's waist and another around the woman's. He fired off his boots, propelling the both of them toward the trolley. They rolled inside of it just as the doors shut behind them. "We're good! That's all we're going to get for now. Do what you need to do." His comment was intended for the old man, but went out to any that would hear it.

Breathe. Just breathe. Worrying about them isn’t going to do anything right now.

Shaking her head softly, Katrina looked around at the trolley they had bundled into. It was a rickety old thing, the rust and wear showing clear signs of poor maintenance. However, the original design had been sound; it would hold up for at least a couple more rides by Kat’s reckoning.

She’d notice Vincent grabbing one of those small pink glowing orbs from Randy as they headed over, but had decided not to ask why or what the orb was. Eerily (to Kat, anyway, who was still trying not to panic about her family down in the city), Vincent seemed to be smiling to himself.

It must be the shock. I’ll let him deal with it in his own time.

Meanwhile, there was the matter of the others on board. One was a tall muscled man, with severe sharp looking facial features and a military coat. The man in a dark brown hooded robe and safety harness who’d grabbed the supervisor’s pink orb from earlier was there too, as well as a younger blonde guy with tousled blonde hair. Noting that the tall muscled man was by the brake, and the (completely shot, Kat could tell even from a distance) motor was in the hands of the blonde gentlemen. So just need to throw the brake and down we go.
What about the other people up on the wall? Are we just going to leave them behind?

Looking about her, Kat noticed a reel of steel cabling lying just outside on the wall near the trolley. If we could tie one end of this to the trolley, and leave one end up on the wall… It would take someone strong or several people, but they could pull it back to them. Her only worry was that it wasn’t clear how long the reel would last. Well, we don’t have to tie it to the cable car until we reach the other platform.

Kat suddenly hopped out the trolley, grabbing one end of the cable and tying it tightly to a nearby water pump. I hope that’s sturdy enough. Ensuring that the reel was in a good position to unwind itself as they descended, Kat jumped back in the trolley holding the other end of the cable. is it long enough? Yeah, I think so. Maybe.Turning around, she quickly threaded the cable through one of the windows of the trolley.

Now I just need something heavy to tie this to-

As she started to think this, she heard a shout and saw a strange amalgamation of people charging towards the entrance of the trolley. Moving out of the way just in time, a man bowled through the doors of the trolley propelled by some kind of rocket boots, taking with him a young woman and nerdy-looking man. The doors swung shut behind them.

"We're good! That's all we're going to get for now. Do what you need to do."

The rocket-boots man seemed to be addressing the middle-aged man and blonde guy. Inspiration suddenly struck Kat as she saw the blonde man was holding the motor he had just wrenched off the trolley.

“Hey… any chance you can pass that motor down here? I’m thinking if there’s anyone still up there, they could use this cable to pull the trolley up to them . The motor'd be a kind of anchor till we reach the next platform.”

Holding the cable was a bad option- if the cable wasn’t long enough the impact as it ran out would probably be enough to dislocate an arm if they were moving fast enough. For the same reason, tying it to the trolley could cause it to destabilise if the cable ran out too soon. If she tied it to the motor, the reel would continue to unwind, and although if the cable ran out too soon the motor would be sent flying out of a window, it was probably safer than the other alternative.

Still, if they set off without tying her end of the cable to the motor, Kat resolved to hold onto it for as long as she dared. Despite how desperate she felt about saving her siblings, she had to at least try to do something for the people still left on the wall.
@onlythepie

Otto slid aside as Ethan yanked the trolley's motor loose. The trolley shifted downwards a bit, but the emergency brake held it steady. "Strong as a forest ox, I see..." He nodded approvingly to the young man who easily doubled his old, tired strength. The trolley was swinging back and forth with the movement of several people--one of which had found the brake--and all of which seemed as startled and terrified as himself. He took a series of heavy breaths to restore oxygen to his blood flow and directed Ethan as calmly as possible,"I need that strong back again, lad. That hand brake should work as a throttle for this vessel. I need you to slowly release the lever and guide this thing down one level. I'll attend the injured folk in the cabin. Assign someone to help you, if you must. Unless someone has a better course of action, I recommend we move fast."

Otto hinged his gloved fingers on the edge of the trolley's roof and swung into the cabin, careful not to step on another passenger. Injuries didn't look likely, but scars are not always visible. "Everyone alright?"