Coles ears rang.
His head vibrated.
His vision was blurry.
He was on the ground, against the far wall, covered in the slimy, thick fuel. The enforcer was crumped next to him. There was a siren going off somewhere.
He squinted, trying to make sense of the blurred shapes. There was an orange glow in front of him, and gray blobs all around. He slowly shook his head, but it hurt too much. He stopped and stared straight. He blinked and moved his eyes around.
The ringing in his ears got worse. The siren got louder.
He focused on moving his fingers first. He could wiggle them. He tried moving his feet next, and then his legs. He wasn't dead, and he wasn't paralyzed. But he wasn't sure what the hell had happened. He turned his head carefully to catch a glimpse of the enforcer. His lifeless eyes were rolled into the back of his head. It was hard to tell with all the fuel everywhere, but it didn't seem like he was breathing either.
Cole looked away and sighed.
After a few moments, he collected himself and rocked out of his sitting position into all fours. He paused to check himself for injuries and tried to wipe the gritty, sticky fuel off himself. He had been around fuel a lot, but he never thought he'd be covered in it. It was worse than he thought.
After making sure he wasn't wounded anywhere, and smearing fuel all over the place, he crawled forward, inch by inch, making sure to avoid the shrapnel scattered and stuck in the ground. His vision was clearing up, and he could now clearly see a hole in the machine part in front of him, with a fire still raging on the inside. He dug through fuel sludge looking for any sign of the repairman, but found none.
Cole dropped his head to the ground. That was no way to go, fixing a simple accident. He cursed under his breath, and even though he knew he couldn't have realistically stopped it from happening, it was on his part, and it was his responsibility. He sat up on his knees and peered into the machine. It was raging on, like nothing had happened. He had never been this close to the exposed internal workings before. The flames danced on top of the fuel, which was swirling and melting away underneath. It was mesmerizing and fascinating and intimidating all at the same time. The machine contained so much power, and he couldn't help but wonder what it did, what the output was. What were they shoveling for? If it was this powerful in just one part, it had to be working hard on something. As he stared into the swirling abyss, his mind drifted into thoughts of ever finding out what the machine did. He had heard the rumors; from powering the weather to keeping the laws of physics engaged. It was a common topic over drinks at the tavern, and a lot of what the townspeople talked about. Quite frankly, there wasn't much else to do in town.
The sudden silence broke his gaze and daydreaming. The siren had stopped, and that was when he realize the ringing in his ears had stopped as well. The pain in his head was still there, but it was getting better.
Cole fell backwards when the door swung open. A large man, as big as the doorframe, walked in swinging a large flashlight around. The beam centered in on Cole, sitting on the dirt floor, fuel dripping off his clothes.
The large man's eyes bulged. "What the hell did you do?"