Page 37.
Machine Man (serial)
On the sidewalk below me, the mother yanked her son’s arm. This kid was no toddler: he was seven or eight. I have seen women wrestling with children of this age before, in supermarket aisles and parking lots, and usually the kids don’t budge. But apparently a man plummeting out of the sky changed everything, because this kid flew through the air like he was hollow. It was a convincing example of the strength-boosting properties of adrenaline.
My legs could not correct my flight path, and thus were forced to abandon their original plan to use the boy and his mother as shock absorbers. I impacted the sidewalk ten inches from them. The concrete split beneath my feet. Dust burst into the air. My spine bent in a way that felt very, very wrong. I lost my breath and sucked in a lungful of dust. I felt the Contours moving beneath me, and tried to tell them to wait a second, because I had to apologize to the mother, and check she and her son were okay, and so was I. But the legs didn’t care. Their world was defined by a location, a destination, and the optimum path between the two; everything else was a waste of time. I was pretty sure now they were going to kill me.
Comments
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Alex (#237)
Location: London, England
Quote: "We're today's scrambled creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature (Bowie)"
Posted: 5439 days ago
Mapuche (#1184)
Location: Darwin, Australia
Quote: "Inconceivable!"
Posted: 5439 days ago
Sounds like serious lab time needed before road time in future for this puppy...
Impotent Verse (#3907)
Location: Cambridge, UK
Quote: "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog"
Posted: 5439 days ago
Ian Manka (#3916)
Location: Los Angeles, California (school) | Akron, Ohio (home)
Quote: "Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance."
Posted: 5439 days ago
Also, I've never heard of the expression "flew through the air like he was hollow." Do things that are hollow fly faster through the air? Is this common knowledge? Or did someone have to hollow out the nearest child to discover this useful fact? I'll dismiss it as my lack of understanding of anything remotely science-y.
Abgrund (#3357)
Location: Atlantis
Quote: ""Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority." - Ayn Rand"
Posted: 5439 days ago
Brian (#3987)
Location: Arizona
Posted: 5439 days ago
Max, did you know this real life machine woman?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html
C Leffelman (#3968)
Location: IL
Quote: "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature. - Dave Barry "
Posted: 5439 days ago
@Ian Manka, the hollow thing, perhaps relating to birds with hollow bones, in general lighter things fly easier.
Mary Rose (#2854)
Location: San Francisco, CA
Quote: "go big or stay home"
Posted: 5439 days ago
Yannick (#3858)
Location: Heist, Belgium
Quote: "he reads things"
Posted: 5439 days ago
Chemical Rascal (#3964)
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Quote: "Don't read this. It's not relevant to anything. Go away."
Posted: 5439 days ago
stanley becker (#5283)
Location: black hole
Quote: "DON"T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!!"
Posted: 4725 days ago
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