Bad Day at the Office

This poem is for the Ragtag Daily Prompt word : Sway

Here’s what I came up with …

Administrator Penny rose to her feet; her equilibrium shot to pieces. She could only sway and stagger as she looked around her destroyed office.

Moments ago, a massive explosion had torn through the building. Penny didn’t know the cause but as she turned a circle amid the destroyed furnishings and burning rubble, she knew she wasn’t out of danger yet.

“Argh!” Penny straightened her back and looked down at herself. He pink skirt suit was torn and bloodstained. The glass wall had detonated showering her in razor sharp shards. Both her arms, legs and stomach seemed to be bleeding. None of the wounds appeared life-threatening and so she focused her blurred vision to the room. “Come on, Pen. You have to get out of here.”

A wall of smoke passed her as she tried to shake off the ringing in her ears. She coughed as she moved forward into what used to be the corridor between glass offices. Not one wall remained intact.

“Drew!” Penny saw his legs poking from beneath the smouldering remains of his desk. She ran like a drunk through rubble and dropped beside him. “Drew!” she levered his desk from him and burst into tears. He was without a doubt dead. Nobody could survive such neck injuries.

Rising, Penny staggered out toward the lifts.

“He-lp me.”

“Angela!” Penny stopped, held her head and listened, she couldn’t stop the sway in her balance and felt nauseous.

“He-lp!”

Penny raced into her bosses walled office and gasped. The outer wall here was gone. A gaping hole in the floor where the desk was, showed the whole side of the building had collapsed. “Angela!”

“Wh-at happen-ed!” gasped the office manager from beneath her bookcase of law books.

“Something went bang,” Penny said succinct through lack of information.

Another section of the floor collapsed; debris thundered down to the ground eight storeys below.

Penny moved fast digging her boss out of the books.

“Why?” Angela said groaning in pain.

“We’ll —” Penny cried out as she hurled the bookcase aside and watched it vanish through the hole. “—Find that out later,” she said hauling Angela to her feet.

The two office ladies looked like they were in a warzone as they left the remains of the office.

Angela dropped to her knees, vomiting before she fell still.

“Come on!” Penny stood her up again and bracing her arm around her shoulders. She muscled her toward the lifts avoiding fire turning another office to an inferno. Penny realised the lifts were a bad idea. Going right she pushed through the stairs door. Smoke billowed out leaving her worried.

“Fi-re!”

“I’m afraid so, Angie.” Penny glanced at the sprinkler system in the ceiling. The explosion must have severed it as no water had come out despite the fires all over the building. “We have no choice.”

“O-kay!” Angela allowed herself to be led through the door.

Penny blinked and rubbed her eyes; her daze causing vertigo on seeing the stairwell. “Slow and steady,” she advised as the two began to stumble down the first flight.

They’d just made it passed the third-floor doors when another explosion rocked the building. The doors tore open emitting a heated shockwave of debris. It hit Angela and both tumbled down the next flight of stairs.

Penny hit the wall at the bottom and felt Angela slam into her. She was aware of a wall of heat rising from below but she couldn’t move. A scream left her lips as she fought to get out from beneath Angela but she was powerless.

Water — a cascade of water doused her and then a mask-wearing firefighter was looking down upon her.

“Two survivors – get them out now!” he yelled.

The End

Thanks for reading my friends. As always there are more stories to be enjoyed (I hope) in the Short Stories and Short Stories 2 tabs. There’s also poetry here in Poetry Corner

Have a great day!