jchrisobrien (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jchrisobrien) wrote2002-08-23 09:33 am
jchrisobrien) wrote2002-08-23 09:33 am
System error
I could hear people clamoring even before I got into the office. The network must be down again, I thought. I swiped my card, then had to slide it in again before I was rewarded with a click and an opened door. People were walking around a little more than usual, clustered around cubes and talking in whispers. The air seemed electric.
Rounding the corner into the data applications area, where my desk is, I saw the full extend of the chaos. My former help desk person was slamming his fist onto his PC, apparently it had crashed for the fifth time in as many minutes, and he couldn't read his e-mail. The light in the office was an odd hue, which I realized was coming from outside. The light was changing to a pale tan color, almost yellow, reminiscent of the time we got all that ash from Canada. A few programmers were watching streaming video on the television from New York and Chicago. Fear paralyzed me: the last time I felt something like this was when the WTC came tumbling down. Are we under attack? I asked. Something's wrong, they said. Something's changing. Don't you feel it?
And I did. A creeping sense that the world was not RIGHT, not behaving in a normal and rational way. The floors seemed to tilt slightly as you walked on them. My cube didn't have right angles, and then all was well again. My computer screen filled with strange images. I looked outside the window. The water of the river were freezing over but there was no snow. And overlaying everything this creepy tension on my skin., hitting every nerve ending, filling me with a fight or flight response. I could hear a crash and screams as a scuffle broke out somewhere on the floor. Some started crying. I ran through my cube, grabbing CDs and movies, taking anything that mattered to me and running for the exit. I had to get home, I had to get out of here, my family was waiting for me.... I went out into the streets, but there were empty. A few cars were parked nearby, but no people. No one I could see, that is. The smell was stronger, nothing I could place, garbage and perfume maybe, a congress so strong as to blot out any comprehension of it. The sky remained a deep even tan. And people appeared at last, falling from windows, the screams trailing behind them as they fell.
Rounding the corner into the data applications area, where my desk is, I saw the full extend of the chaos. My former help desk person was slamming his fist onto his PC, apparently it had crashed for the fifth time in as many minutes, and he couldn't read his e-mail. The light in the office was an odd hue, which I realized was coming from outside. The light was changing to a pale tan color, almost yellow, reminiscent of the time we got all that ash from Canada. A few programmers were watching streaming video on the television from New York and Chicago. Fear paralyzed me: the last time I felt something like this was when the WTC came tumbling down. Are we under attack? I asked. Something's wrong, they said. Something's changing. Don't you feel it?
And I did. A creeping sense that the world was not RIGHT, not behaving in a normal and rational way. The floors seemed to tilt slightly as you walked on them. My cube didn't have right angles, and then all was well again. My computer screen filled with strange images. I looked outside the window. The water of the river were freezing over but there was no snow. And overlaying everything this creepy tension on my skin., hitting every nerve ending, filling me with a fight or flight response. I could hear a crash and screams as a scuffle broke out somewhere on the floor. Some started crying. I ran through my cube, grabbing CDs and movies, taking anything that mattered to me and running for the exit. I had to get home, I had to get out of here, my family was waiting for me.... I went out into the streets, but there were empty. A few cars were parked nearby, but no people. No one I could see, that is. The smell was stronger, nothing I could place, garbage and perfume maybe, a congress so strong as to blot out any comprehension of it. The sky remained a deep even tan. And people appeared at last, falling from windows, the screams trailing behind them as they fell.
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