Factory

As Factory opened her eyes she found herself in a place of endless white in all directions. A blank canvas. It was quiet and lonely and she felt like she was the only person there. An overwhelming emptiness filled her as she looked around in desperation. Factory tried to call out to anyone, but her mouth wouldn't make any noise. Over and over she attempted to yell, but she was completely mute. About to sit down and accept defeat, Factory then noticed someone.

She turned to see a hooded figure standing nearby, staring at her. Factory guessed it must be another Hoodz member come to get her, but something to focus upon revealed her vision to be somewhat blurred. She reached for her gun, but it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Factory frantically dug through her pockets but she couldn't find it.

As if aware of her predicament, the figure started walking calmly towards her, its footsteps loud and clear; the only sound there was. Knowing she was defenseless, Factory turned to run as fast as she could, peering over her shoulder as she made her escape attempt. Each time she looked, the figure was closer and closer, but never changed from a walking pace. Factory was desperately trying to get away. Her body ached and screamed from being pushed to the limit and just as the figure reached her she suddenly fell downward.

Factory held herself above an infinite blackness below with one hand on the white ledge. She feared her pursuer would come to finish her but strangely the figure never came. Factory tried again to call out for anyone but she still couldn't make any noise.

Factory's arm was going numb. She didn't have much time left before she would fall to her doom out of exhaustion. The muscles in her arm were yelling in struggle but there was nothing she could do. Right as Factory's hand had given up and let the ledge slip from her grasp, someone grabbed a hold of her. As she lifted her tired head, Factory saw that Max and Misty had held her from falling, smiling happily at their friend.

"Please be careful," Misty said.

"Yeah, clumsy," Max added.

Factory smiled at her friends. She felt safe now that they had her, despite the bottomless darkness below. Factory opened her mouth to speak again, but instead of her voice a loud beep rang out. She wasn't sure what had just happened but before she could guess, Max and Misty pulled her up and over the ledge in one powerful pull.

When she landed on the ledge above, Factory was painfully returned to reality, suddenly jerking upward and hitting her head against the top of the vent. She cringed and held her aching head as she silently cursed herself. She only just narrowly missed the spot she had injured from the fall at the stairs. Once the pain subsided, she reached forward and pushed the vent cover off with ease.

Light snow was falling onto the rooftop. Factory liked seeing the snow move gently down as if unfazed by gravity and wanting to drop at their own pace. The low glow from the street lamps below and a few spot lights that shone down from above illuminated the winter weather with a touch of eeriness. It was just as dark as it was when she had arrived. The bottom of the city was always as dark.

After pulling herself out of her cold metal shelter, Factory attempted to open the roof access door but failed. The door had locked her on the roof; something she was unaware might happen. Grabbing a hold of her revolver, she thought she could shoot the lock open, but then decided that she might attract some unwanted attention with the noise.

Remembering the fire escapes, Factory quickly checked to see if they would lead her to freedom. Unfortunately, each of the fire escapes to that particular building were damaged beyond use. Feeling beaten and out of ideas, Factory sat against the roof access door while she slowly turned white from the snow. The white powder was calming and pretty. Even though she was upset and trapped, she was enjoying a relaxing sight. Curious to see how high up she was, even though she knew she wasn't going to attempt to fall down, Factory walked over to the edge of the roof. She looked down at the white alley between the old buildings, the falling snow obscuring her sight.

Then she thought she may have come up with a solution. The rooftops didn't seem very far away from each other and Factory thought she might be able to jump across. She measured the distance by sight and objects she could make out in the alley. Despite her heavy clothing and lack of athletics, she felt as if she had it in her to cover the gap. Standing at her starting point, Factory did her best to stretch out her legs and mentally prepare. She didn't like taking risks, but this was her only option as far as she was concerned.

With her pants rolled up a little and her mind focused, she sprinted across the roof and towards the edge. She pushed herself to sprint as fast as possible, knowing that if she didn't she may fall to her doom. As she reached the edge and jumped, her lack of attention to detail made her slip on melting snow. Her jump was thrown out of balance and she fell forward into the alley. Fearing death reaching towards her, she instead plummeted towards a fire escape on the next building and landed hard on the handrail with her stomach. Her inertia rolled her over the side and onto the metal catwalk to safely look up at where she had fallen from.

Factory had never felt such pain before. Her abdomen felt as if it were on fire, causing cold tears to run down the sides of her head. She laid there motionless for a moment, trying to convince herself to get up, but she couldn't do more than make unhappy faces as she held herself. There was an overwhelming mixture of failure and luck inside her as she attempted to recover, but at least she was off of the roof and could perhaps get down. Factory grabbed a hold of the guardrail that saved her and attempted to pull herself up. Her injury fought against the attempt, but Factory gritted her teeth and sat up through the intense pain.

"Ouch," Factory whispered with a whimper, her sudden jerks from crying making her pain worse.

Factory made herself proud by standing up and slowly making her way down the stairs. Each step was a struggle through intense pain and over slippery metal, but she kept pushing onward. When she reached the bottom, she realized she didn't possess the strength to move the lever that would lower the ladder into the alley, either due to it being frozen or rusty. Being careful to avoid her stomach, she instead used her body weight on the lever and it released the ladder slowly. When it was fully extended, the ladder seemed much longer than it really was and Factory wasn't sure if she had the strength to climb down.

After a long stare and many encouraging deep breaths, Factory pushed herself forward. Her progress on the ladder was difficult and slow. The wet, slippery bars challenged her weak grip. Halfway down, her crippling pain got the best of her and she fell into the alley silently. Laying still, Factory realized she had fallen face up onto a large pile of snow and did not sustain any additional injuries. Factory let out a short sigh of relief. She had such dumb luck sometimes.