The Sky Beneath Us (on hold)

ONE

Day 1. 14:26.

___________

Avery Greenwood was in the office when it happened.

There he was, sitting at his desk, typing away at his computer, not having a care in the world. And now he was on the ceiling, desk broken beside him, head sore from where he was hit by his swivel chair. Dazed, he looked around him. It was strange. Everyone else was also sitting or lying on the ceiling, confused and in pain. The stranger thing was, they weren't upside down. The room was.

The sound of car horns and screams grew and then faded as shapes large and small flew past the window. Avery crawled over, navigating through the mess of office furniture and cursing people. Reaching the cold glass, he gazed upwards.

"What the-?".

Above him, was the ground, six stories below. Six stories above. The streets were empty, not a car or pedestrian in sight. Except...

One person, a woman no older than fifty, hung one-handed from the edge of a bus shelter. Her screams were piercing as she lost her grip and fell. Avery's tearful eyes followed her descent, down, down, down.

Into the sky.

Her form became a speck, her voice an echo, before she dissapeared into the blue void.

"What the hell is happening Avery?" came a softer - but frightened - voice.

Becca Johnstone was on all-fours beside him. Her usually neat brown hair was now dishevelled and a thin stream of blood ran down her face from beneath it. Like Avery's, her eyes were beginning to tear up.

"I-I don't know Becca...I really don't know".

Behind them in the office, Mark Gleeson grunted as he lifted a fallen desk and flipped it off a prone body.

"Avery! Gimme a hand over here she's not breathing!" he called desperately.

Avery rushed over and crouched low over the body. It was Nancy, one of the new interns. She had no pulse, her head was at an awkward angle.

"Her neck is broken...she's...she's dead" Avery muttered, looking away from Nancy's corpse.

"Jesus", Mark swore. He put his hands to his head and ran them over his face. Rising to his feet, Avery glanced around at the other people in the office.

There was Tom, the other intern. He was pale, looking as if he would faint any second. Melissa was helping Danny up, who appeared to have a sprained ankle. Sadie was throwing up over the head of a doorway in the corner.

"What just happened?" Mark demanded, rounding on Avery viciously as if he had the answer.

"Look out the window", he replied, "but hold your stomach".

Giving him a frustrated glare, Mark shoved past Becca and stormed to the glass barrier that separated them from infinity. There was silence as he gazed out. Tom shuffled over to Nancy's body and placed his jacket over her, hiding her from view. He looked towards Mark, like everyone else, waiting. Ten seconds passed in silence, broken only by the sound of breathing and Sadie's dry wretches.

Mark turned around slowly, a look of horror and disbelief over his bearded face.

"The sky...the sky is beneath us", he whispered before collapsing onto the ground, head in hands.

"What? What does that mean?" called Melissa. She set Danny down and motioning to the window, shouted hysterically, "What does he mean Avery?"

Avery sighed and wiped his brow. There was too much going on. The world had flipped. Nancy was dead - she had only given him a coffee earlier, a plump smile on her face. His head throbbed. There was a lump rising there now, just under the fringe of his dark hair. He hesitated, not knowing what to say. He battled with himself whether to tell them, or let them see for themselves. He felt as if he was condemning them to hell either way.

Becca placed a re-assuring hand on his shoulder, something that meant more than it felt. Avery cleared his throat and picked up his voice.

"Something has happened, something really bad. I don't know what exactly, but I'm hoping this is all just a bad dream" - his eyes flicked to Nancy - "a very, very bad dream. What happened in here happened outside, it's the same story. Everything's...flipped".

He paused for a moment, letting it sink in, not just for his colleagues but for his own sanity also.

"We can't go outside...that's a fact. But we can't stay here. We need a plan".

Avery locked eyes with Becca.

"We need to find safety".