Circuit Run

It was the wrong time and place.

SNAP. CRASH. BOOM.

That fiery roar. The gas lights in a stunning blaze. A plume of smoke and fire. This menacing glare of hot corrosion. The layers bubbling into a toxic liquid. The air choked me as it tore apart my lungs.

"PUT IT OUT NOW!"

Hissing sounds. Blasts of cold foam tapering the flames. Might still be too late.

The engine was hot. I could feel my suit melting into my skin. I felt like leather. My eyes stopped working. All I could hear was that fiery roar.

***

How does something vanish?

How does it just disappear like that?

So unaccustomed to existing. Unbeing.

Something came out from that dark pit. It looked around and then fell back down. But this time the pit was gone. Nothing fell and the floor rose back.

I felt myself standing over an edge. My feet sticking out. I couldn't see the ground below. I couldn't look down either. I gazed off into the horizon and took another step forward.

Everything was continuous. As though unending. Motion sped up and rewound and bled out. Some strange loop.

***

I remember the helmets that sent me to another world. I could drive and spin and fly so fast and high. I knew my machine. I was guided by its hums. Turn here, turn there. Locked in on my target at 2000 miles per hour.

Then I woke up. The helmet came off and I was back. I crashed out. Money ran dry to have more time. This was my favourite game. I would play each night after work.

Work was numb. I worked on salvage. Crashed ships, derelicts and out of commission space stations. Scrap pay for metal, cells, fuels, chips, and parts.