superx_sidekick (superx_sidekick) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2023-07-14 16:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !narrative, hannah lewis (superx_sidekick), ~2023 july |
Testing Limits
Who: Hannah Lewis (Narrative)
What: Testing Limits
When: Mid-Day, July 14
Where: High Above Madison
Warnings: None
Status: Complete
By mid-day, Hannah couldn't wait any longer. She'd collected a sackful of rocks, slung over her shoulder like Santa Claus. She flew straight up until she was well above the old limit of the dome around Madison. The dome had always been transparent, so she had no way to spot it and while she was tough, she wasn't willing to risk crashing into an invisible barrier at supersonic speed.
She pulled a stone from the bag and flung it upwards, racing after it until it slowed and stopped. She caught it before it fell more than a few feet. And then she threw it again. And again. Each time she followed it higher, until the sky darkened from a bright blue to deep blue to indigo and then black. She could feel the absence of an atmosphere around her by the tension on her skin as the void tugged at her.
The earth--assuming it was still earth--was a vast sphere beneath her, the sky a swirling mass of blue and white like paints spilled and mixed by an enormous hand. It midday, so the entire daylight side of the planet was visible. At this height the miles of atmosphere revealed as shockingly thin layer of air when she looked at the curve of the planet. It was beautiful and looking shockingly fragile.
She grabbed another stone from the sack and threw it horizontally. It flashed away before arcing downward, eventually bursting into a brief flame as it burned up on reentry. She tried again, and watched a stone fly off into space, perhaps never to return. Neither of them collided with an unseen barrier. Either the barrier around Madison was gone, or it was very, very large now.
She threw several more stones, following each one until it fell, becoming a brief falling star as it burned up. It was as difficult to get the throw just right, to put a stone into orbit, as she'd thought it would be. Well, that was why she had a sack full of stone. It took several hours, but she circumnavigated the globe this way. She ran out of stones before she got back to Madison, but by that time she was confident that the dome--if it still existed--wasn't an issue.
She accelerated steadily until she noticed her clothing beginning to smolder from friction with even the wisps of atmosphere at this height. She slowed slightly and continued until she crossed the terminator and the sun rose before her. Very soon she was approaching Madison again--the only inhabited area on the entire planet, as far as she had seen--and slowed as she dropped back down into the atmosphere.
A sonic boom echoed over the forest below when she dropped below the speed of sound. She slowed steadily until she reached Madison and then landed near her apartment. She was grinning hugely and unreasonably happy. She hadn't fully realized how cramped the dome had felt before now. She hoped this change would last. She had room now to really stretch her "legs" and she looked forward to doing it again. Soon.