30Words (Part II)

Whizz – whizz – whizz, he produced a silk handkerchief from his right pocket and dried his sweats beading down his forehead. He felt that everyone was staring at him as he sped down the vast foyer, but he kept his focus solely on the elevator doors at the end of the hall.

He had never been so excited in his life; he could hardly believe it himself.

The elevator doors spun opened as if on cue when he drew near to the elevator. He halted for a moment, catching his breathe, whizz – whizz – whizz; tentatively, he crossed the threshold and the doors closed behind him. The digital device indicated “G” and started replacing itself with “LG” – “U1” – “U2” and stopped at “SS2”. With a soft “ping”, the elevator doors opened to a familiar dank smell, the smell of mildew. In front of him lied a labyrinth of dimly lit corridors, without hesitation, he sped brashly down the precipitous slope ahead of him.

A few minutes in the never-ending maze of corridors, and he found himself in front of a colossal glass door. Ritualistically, he removed all metallic items from his body and placed it safely in a wicker basket, without much thought, he sped through the door metal detector but was stopped shortly when the alarm went off.

Confused, his eyes dashed around in search of metallic item on his body where they finally rested on the wheelchair he was sitting on.

He was back in Plaza Mayor in Madrid with his girlfriend. He was so much younger then, so much more handsome, and so much happier. They were just taking a stroll in a typical sunny day. She was laughing again at one of his goofy jokes; all he could manage was just a smile. He slowed his pace and let her walked on her own in front of him; he loved to do that. He loved to walk behind her, he loved to see the way she walked, the way her hair swirled in the crisp winter wind, the way she would soon noticed that he was gone and turned around to look for him, her concerned green eyes, and the way she smiled when she finally saw him, just a few feet behind her. She asked him:” ¿Por qué?”, he replied her with a smile:”Nada”. As always, she would tilt her head a little and said:”Te amo, I love you”.

He opened his mouth to speak but the car parked beside her exploded. He saw her chestnut skin being blown away; the last thing he heard was someone yelling:”Terrorista!”

He was reeled back into his wheelchair by the door metal detector’s alarm. He reversed his wheelchair and changed into a pair of wooden clutches.

In the room, he helped himself to the switches and flicked them on. Everything in the room was made of plastic; at the far end of the room lays dozens of cages with human looking creatures inside. The creatures were humans without limbs, squirming around in their cages; a skinless human was held behind bars near the cages, he looked like a snake which had just shed its skin. In a large glass container on the far left of the room were a dozen of pale-looking zombies, milling around the glass container aimlessly; their skin were speckled with warts. He stood in front of these creatures and stared at them in quiet admiration, he looked away only when the phone on his desk started ringing.

Limping quickly towards the phone, he felt his adrenaline rush now, Whizz – whizz – whizz – his breathing became more rapid.

He answered the call and heard a cold voice saying:”You shall proceed with your experiment, Mr. Davidson.”

He hung up, his breathing became more labored. Whizz – he trudged towards the lever on the far right of the room – whizz – whizz – he placed his hand on the lever – whizz – whizz – whizz –he took a deep breathe.

He pulled the lever down.

He was sure that the world is going to change soon.