A Mischief in the Woodwork - By Harper Alexander Page 0,64
did not know how I could stop it, at such a crazed pace, without knocking into any of the dominoes still standing and starting it up again right where it left off, but catching up with the ripple was a necessary first goal. I tore around the house and took off down the road, where the mist was reduced to lacy breaths eddying in the crevices at roadside. The wind of my passing snuffed them entirely, and suddenly I was a second wave headed for the city. I could see it in the distance, shrouded in its cloud of dust-mist, a target set to be...affected.
The dominoes toppled down the road in a neat, swift line, a flurry of little clicks spilling toward untold culmination. It could not be prudent pounding down the road so, but I was running on adrenaline – uncanny adrenaline – and did not feel, at that moment, that there was anything in the world other than myself and those dominoes. The only other thing threatening to come into play was the city, and I was determined to ascertain that didn't happen.
I put on a burst of speed, and managed to overtake the ripple. But I didn't stop there. I had to get ahead – truly ahead. Another dozen paces spanned out before I allowed myself to check over my shoulder, to evaluate the ripple now pursuing me. It was at least a noticeable distance behind, now, so I slowed, and dropped carefully next to the line of upright dominoes. My hands were shaking from the adrenaline pumped into them from my run, and I muttered a few breathless, incoherent pleas for them to get their act together. I reached carefully for the top edge of a domino with a single finger, aiming to flick it back in the direction of Manor Dorn, to meet with the ones spilling this way and halt the raging fire, so to speak. But my fingers were too unruly, and I bumped one domino as intended, and another toward the city again, starting two opposite-bearing ripples. I jumped up and started again, overtaking the new current and re-trying. I repeated the same fumbling attempt, unable to master my nerves among the closely-spaced tokens. Again, I dashed the few steps to pass up the spill, and again – dropping closer and closer to ripples I invoked to try to thwart them, turning to frequency in desperation as the city neared.
And then I was out of breath, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't jump up as I set the next one off. I watched it titter off afresh, its target hopelessly in range.
I dragged myself up anyway, went after it, even though there was little I could hope to do at that point. But maybe there was something – something to be manipulated in the city so one level could not jump to another. I had seen how carefully-arranged the dominoes were, and how they would have to be, in order for the levels to connect in the first place. It was art indeed to make dominoes climb stairs. If I could just sever the connection, mar the perfection that was necessary for such a stunt...
The dominoes spilled through the fallen city gates, and snaked off into the rubble. I burst in shortly after, stopping to get my bearings. There was no telltale motion to follow; the ripple had already disappeared around some corner, and it took a moment to spot the fallen line among the debris. But then I was off after the spotted tracks, striving for ground as I caught the scent.
It was folly, then, to be sure – immersed in the city with so little hope to thwart the outcome I had pursued, right in the thick of things for whatever that would be. It occurred to me that I had come right into the heart of the impending climax. But I couldn't think of that, or I might find it in me to panic. I had no choice, thanks to my pursuit, but to focus solely on thwarting the progress of that fuse, until 'too late' was beyond a shadow of a doubt. That was, until the city had erupted around me.
I could no longer hear the clicks of the dominoes over my breathing, so I was not prepared when they stopped – must have stopped.
Suddenly, the world rocked. I careened to the side, hurled off my feet. The rubble pitched around me, shuddering.