There was time to kick off her high-heeled shoes. No time to think. There was time to put her golden blonde hair in a ponytail. No time to waver. There was time to push past the flocks of frightened people who issued from the metro and stared at her like she was crazy. No time to be afraid.
That is, not until she was in the metro. She raced toward the source of the smoke, inhaling prayers and exhaling the phrase, "Stupid Bella, Stupid Bella..." She really could get killed. A piece of debris, landing on her, would smash her as surely as it would any normal-looking woman.
Her eyes adjusted and watered as they searched for the source of smoke. She coughed. Then--she could almost swear it--she heard...voices? She forced another cough down and listened again.
Voices. Someone was trapped, all right. Somewhere. Sounded like they were--"Oh shit!"--they were on the other side of the tracks, weren't they?
No time to hesitate. She took a deep breath and prayed, prayed, prayed, jumped lightly in her yellow summer dress into the trench, prayed, prayed, ran, prayed, prayed, climbed up the other side. Coughed.
Listened again. Yes. Voices rose and fell, as if in conversation, coming from...aha. Only a few meters away, there was a door, which had been partly blown open in the blast. She ran to it, swallowing down her brain's protest of "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
There were corridors behind the door, as if in a hospital. The smoke was here as well, but the voices were...
The voices of the LOST. She nearly walked into the three forms that squatted over the pieces of what had once been a man, talking pleasantly--dinnertime conversation. She stopped and stared, transfixed by their hideous faces as they, looking up at her, were transfixed by her unearthly beauty. She began, tremblingly, to move despite her horror. They had no such freedom. They were, at least, male LOST. Taking out her cell phone, Bella dialed the first superhero's number she could find. Shitshitshitshit. No dial tone. Of course, Bella. Now what? Oh god, they were hideous. Now what? If she even turned away for a moment, they might snap out of it and...
Suddenly a bright flash. Another explosion. Bella screamed, and she was knocked off her feet by light. She sat up, shaking her head, and while she was still shaking with fear, she felt something else as well...something quite strange. She could feel the light still, all over her, though she could not see it. Her body felt warm as she stood up to leave, and she could not shake the feeling that something was different.
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