Better late then dead

Newo walked out of the shop and into the streets, it was far less busy than she had expected but guessing it was late enough in the day it wouldn't the the case soon. She rolled her sleeve down checking a device on her wrist with a flick of her finger it displayed the time. "That can't be right." she mumbled covering the wrist and checking it again. It was right. "No..no..damn it...no..." she throwing a mini fit as the bag jostled in the crook of her elbow. "I'm going to be late...again..." she chewed her lip a moment before hearing the monorail fly past above her and about a block away. It was six blocks to the station and she wouldn't make it before it departed. She knew she needed to make a call to the clinic.

"Hello. Yes, I ran into a bit an issue. I was held up for longer then I expected at the shops and missed the monorail. I will be a bit late if I need to reschedule I understand." Newo spoke to the nurse.

"Yes." she replied to a question. "No. Tomorrow then?" she asked. "Okay I understand I will call back later." she said, mumbling swear words to herself, she sat on a bench looking at the bag she held. "All for this..." she grumbled, "what a waste."

It would be another forty minutes before the next train arrived, she didn't want to stick around her. Maybe that shop owner would let her sit around there... though who knows what an old man that ran an adult store would ask for in return. Especially after her purchase.

"I will just wait at the station..." she sighed stretching her long legs before standing and starting the long walk to the station

-- At the station the monorail arrived, and a man in a cheap suit stepped into the car nearest the drivers pod. Taking a seat and sliding his briefcase under his seat and adjusting his tie. Giving the woman near him a smile, that kind of smile a snake would if a snake could in fact smile. It was clear she felt her skin crawl, as one would because she got up and changed seats. After it's short stop at the station the doors chime with a *ding dong* sound as they hissed shut and the monorail departed. --

Newo was walking down the street. "Well at least I have some free time now." she thought as she heard the clanging hum of the magnetic railed train approaching. The rail she would follow to the station was about a quarter of a block away now. Then another fiver or so to get to the station.

-- As the train reproached full speed the man in the suit kicked his heal back against the case. And before anyone could notice, in an instant. The car was filled with white hot light, screams, shattered windows, and the creak of strained metal as a blast filled the air. Sending a shock wave and a train the looked more akin to a dropped can of soda into the buildings and streets below. --

Newo wasn't to far from the tracks now as the train appeared in her vision. There was a deafening pop. All at once she felt like she was hit in the chest, and her feet kick from under her. Her ears were ringing, and head pounding. Her glasses though still seemed in tact and on her person were knocked off but held by the chain. Leaving her nearly blind and with swimming vision from the blast. She could see what she knew must be fire, and people running. She could hear the muffled screams through the ringing. Like someone screaming into half a dozen pillows. Blurry shapes that wobbled and melted at the edges was all she could see as she tried to crawl backwards and get to her feet.

Final managing to pull herself up right with trembling fingers she fumbled for her glasses, getting them on one lens was cracked leaving distortion in that eye. Newo now saw the horrible reality of what had happened. The monorail lay in a massive heap of twisted metals half on and half off the track, an old building threatened to collapse if not for the jutting, mangled metal tube holding it, for now. She wanted to cry, wanted to run, wanted to do something but all she could do was look on in slack-jawed horror. Hands raised to her face, maybe to keep her screams want to scream to join those deserving of it, or maybe it just felt like the thing someone would do right now. She didn't care. She just knew she would have been there if not for her shopping trip.