Regression City, Part 2
The wave that traveled across the city had repercussions aside from the age regression it caused. Linda was about to find herself in a very dangerous position indeed. As the wave passed over teenagers turned toddlers were losing control of vehicles, causing accidents and numerous deaths, adults turned children panicked and would be the cause of even more, a state of chaos was enveloping the city at an alarming rate and Linda as well as the people in that boardroom were about to be right in the middle of it all.
It all started as the Channel 96 Traffic News chopper flew overhead of the Lake Drive office complex in Stapleton California. The Pilot, a rookie named Hernando Garcia guided the chopper back toward the Channel 96 building’s rooftop landing platform, and the reporter who was broadcasting the day’s rather typical traffic problems, the twenty seven year old Carla Black, had sighted a blue wave heading over the city. “Hernando!” she cried, “Turn us around! Get that on film!” the Pilot pulled the chopper around with skill beyond what his twenty two years would normally display, “What the hell is that Mrs. Black?” he asked as he pointed the nose mounted camera at the wave. Carla was stunned by what she was seeing as the pulse headed toward them, “I don’t know, but I hope you are filming it!” she called over the loud thup-thup-thupping of the rotors. It would be too late that Hernando would realize the pulse was about to hit them, it was enormous, at least 20,000 feet high, “It’s going to hit us!” he cried as he gripped the helicopter’s control stick, “Brace for impact!”
As the wave struck them the chopper bucked from the shock, Hernando couldn’t figure out what was going on, the instruments sparked and some shorted out, he was losing control of the craft. The wave passed and he was still struggling to bring their flight under control when he noticed something odd, like a rush going through his body. Carla felt strange she could see herself in the reflection from the glass cockpit but something was odd she was different, it would take a moment for her to realize she looked like a teenager, she glanced over to Hernando and gasped, her pilot, once a muscular twenty two year old was a child struggling with the control stick, as if his strength was sapped. The now twelve year old reporter screamed as she saw that they were falling from the sky, a building was rushing up to meet the plummeting craft as Hernando desperately tried to pull up.
Linda walked over to the small child that used to be her secretary, “Rebecca?” she asked, “Is that you?” the child sniffled and nodded stepping out of her way oversized heels her skirt lay crumpled at her feet and her stockings trailed with the massive amount of excess material as her blouse hung like a dress on her frame. “What’s going on Miss Wilson?” the now child asked, her speech lisping so that every “s” made a “th” sound. Linda knelt down to wipe a tear from Rebecca’s cheek, “I don’t know.” She replied with honesty even as she looked at the confused faces of the other board members. Linda stood and shook her head with confusion over what had just occurred, she glanced out the window to see a Helicopter heading straight toward her.
She moved without thought, although she knew Rebecca wasn’t really a child her maternal instincts had taken over, she dived across the room, her twenty four year old body reacting without hesitation to shield the child even as the chopper crashed through the office window spraying shards of broken glass around the room. Linda gasped as she saw the Carl become caught between the rotor blades of the Helicopter, shielding Rebecca’s eyes so she couldn’t see the bisected torso and the look of shock that would forever be imprinted on Carl’s face. There could be heard the screaming of some of the board members who were pinned below the aircraft and it was all that Rebecca could do to stop herself from screaming as well, even though she found a soft comfort in Linda’s warm embrace.
A child, Linda would guess between the ages of eleven and thirteen stumbled out of the chopper, she was dazed, obviously confused her adult clothes looking nearly comical on her small form, Ms. Wilson recognized the clothes and the chopped and guessed that this girl was a reporter. Smoke began to fill the boardroom as flames could be seen coming from the underside of the chopper. “Oh shit!” Linda cried as she grabbed both Rebecca and the girl coming out of the burning wreckage and ran for the door, she almost made it fully out of the room before a loud sound, the force of a shockwave, and shrapnel slammed into her fleeing form. Linda Wilson’s world went black.
Tears streaked down Amanda’s face, she was a toddler, barely out of diapers if at all, she couldn’t understand what had happened, one minute she was an independent teenager, the next she was reduced to a crying child. The classroom was in chaos, but thanks to Professor Carver’s fast thinking nobody had been trampled yet, though several of his now young charges had had minor “accidents”. “Ok everyone, calm down, nothing will get accomplished if we panic.” His voice rang out over the crying and sniffling in the classroom. “Easy for him to say,” Amanda thought to herself as her strong willed personality finally broke through the shock, “He hasn’t been sent back to diapers.”
“Ok, the first thing we need to do is stay calm,” he continued, “And we need to send someone out to find out what is going on.” Albert Carver continued sounding as if he was saying it more to put himself at ease than the rest of the class. Amanda glanced around the room, several of the students were having problems even walking, and two of them looked to be not even a year old. “Now, I need to find out if we were mentally effected.” He stated, “Miss Wilson, do you know who I am?” he asked in that sugary sweet voice adults use when talking to children, Amanda sighed, “Yes Professor Carver,” she lisped, noting that due to her new body’s lack of teeth that her words were coming out garbled. He sighed relieved, “Do you know how old you are Amanda?” he asked a hint of hope in his tone, “Yes,” she replied, “I’m seventeen years old.” Albert nodded, “Ok Amanda, since you appear to be one of the older students I am going to leave you in charge, I want you all to stay here while I go look around the school and see if I can figure out what is going on, ok?” Amanda nodded, “Ok.” She squeaked as the professor walked toward the classroom door and out into the hall of the school that now resembled a daycare more than a high school.
Linda awoke to find a damp piece of cloth that looked like they were once part of a pair of pants being dabbed around her forehead, a boy around eight with dark hair looking down at her with worry. “Miss Wilson?” he asked, “Are you ok?” she groaned in response as she started to sit up and glance around the large cubical filled room outside what used to be the boardroom. She nodded, although she hurt all over as she looked over the boy, he was wearing only an oversized button down shirt and a pair of white socks that she had to guess went past his knees, the shirt alone went down below the knees at least. “Yeah, I think so.” She said, “Who are you?” she tried to get her bearings. “Oh yeah, you wouldn’t recognize me,” he chuckled, “I used to be a lot older than this, I’m Kevin Larson, from the mailroom.” Linda was surprised at how calmly the boy was taking the situation.
“Where are the girls that were with me?” she asked, “Are they alright?” she felt a sharp pain when she twisted to look “Ouch!” she yelped. “Lay down, the girls are fine, you took most of the explosion, it’s a miracle you are alive at all.” He said trying to calm her, “You have a lot of chunks of wood and glass in you, and you got some pretty nasty minor burns but I think you will be ok, you need to lay back though and let me finish looking you over.” He instructed as he helped her to lay on her stomach, as her back had been the part facing the blast. “I’m in the National Guard,” he said with a hint of humor, “I learned a bit of first aid, but after we find out how we are going to get out of here we need to get you to a hospital.” He nodded as he pulled a piece of glass from her back dabbing the hole with a damp cloth, “I’m no expert but I am pretty sure you’ll be fine.” He reassured her.
Linda nodded as her wound was being tended to still confused and dazed, “How long was I unconscious?” she asked. “You’ve been out of it for about fourty five minutes I’d say.” He told her as another hunk of glass was removed, she winced in pain. “Where is everyone else?” she asked Kevin as he worked, “Well,” he responded, “After the explosion everyone ran, I stayed to make sure you were ok so did the girls Miss Black and Miss Thomas but everyone else took off, we couldn’t move you so we stayed behind,” he told her “The sprinkler systems took care of the fire in the boardroom but the elevators are out and the stairwells are blocked, must have happened sometime after the explosion, I think there are people above us but I can’t get to them.” He finished as a last piece of debris was pulled from her.
Rebecca and Carla entered the room, Rebecca carried two rolls of paper towels working her hardest not to drop them, and carefully carrying the water jug from a water cooler was Carla. “We found water and paper towels Kevin.” Rebecca lisped as she offered the towels to him, “Thanks,” he replied, “Just set the water down there Carla.” He said motioning to a spot right near him. Carla looked over to Linda who glanced up at the child who still clung to her clothes as best she could, “You saved my life.” Carla said as she looked down into Linda’s eyes, “Thank you.” Linda nodded, “Your name is Carla Black isn’t it?” she asked. The dark haired girl nodded, “Yes ma’am.” She giggled at herself for calling this woman ma’am but it felt right, especially since she didn’t know her name. “I think I have heard your broadcast, you are the traffic woman for Channel 96 News aren’t you?” the girl nodded as Kevin and Rebecca began dipping some of the towels in the water and clear away some more of the blood from Linda’s back.
Linda lay still and allowed Kevin and Rebecca to do their best to patch her up with what they had at hand, “Miss Black?” she asked Carla, “Yes?” “Do you know what happened?” she questioned as the girl shook her head, “No idea, we were heading back to the News building when I noticed I looked odd after a blue wave hit us, I looked over toward Hernando my pilot and…” her voice trailed off as she winced at the memory of her pilot, “Uhm,” she stammered, “He was a kid, like around eight or nine, and he lost control of the helicopter and then crashed here, I don’t remember much else until I woke up and you were on top of me, it’s jumbled, I remember you grabbed me and pulled me out of the room before the explosion though.” Rebecca chimed in “Yeah, then everyone in here panicked and we tried to get people to help us drag you out but they were hysterical, a lot of them looked like little kids, the sprinklers turned on and put the fire out, then we heard a large crash,” she said, and with her lisp the effect was nearly comical, “we went and looked and found the stairwell had collapsed.”
For the first time Linda noticed that her clothes, and hair, and in fact everyone’s clothes and hair looked damp. She turned her head to look at the boardroom and all that could be seen was a black smear where the door used to be, a gentle breeze blew in carrying the smell of burned wood and oil as Linda could see a hole through the burned husk of the news chopper. “Ok,” Kevin announced, “That’s the best we can go, we can either wait here for rescue or start looking for another way down, if everyone in the city was effected like we were though,” he said, “Rescue may take a while.”
To be continued…