Chapter 3: Rest, revitalize, plan and fear for the potential motion of the superpowers of the world
The fatal flaw of gravity; when you are down, everything falls down on you. Sylvia Townsend Warner
I wake up, groggy like the dead, everything hurts; everything! Damned hard labor give the injured a break. I rush to the bathroom give me some painkillers damn it. After the pain finally settles to a dull knock instead of a battering ram. I head to the kitchen and make breakfast, the full monty with bacon eggs, toast with cheese, tomatoes, absolutely gigantic I was hungry.
I needed to recover my energy from the nightmare that was yesterday. As I eat I put on the news. “The government has realized a statement saying that the new material that struck earth is an untapped resource and if handed in to the government you will be rewarded”. Ha, I'm sure of it they didn’t even specify an amount they will probably just steal your supply and lock you up. The news goes on about the lost life and injured, hospitals overwhelmed. That lady who got hit by a meteorite at least she is not the only one now.
After wolfing down my breakfast I get to work, I grab a backpack some rope and some small items, and lunch, won't make that mistake again. I walk into town, as I suspected its heavily guarded by the military. Realizing the chance of me getting in there currently is zero I circle the outskirts looking for small bits of rock that didn’t hit the town. It's harder than it looks but I spend about 3 hours getting into the early afternoon collecting about 2 heads worth of material, I might get away with this one more time before they completely clean up the area and monopolize the stuff. During the search I had to dodge military equivalent of a dustpan and brush twice, collecting rocks in a wind hooked vehicle. Holds it to the ground most likely. I noticed that the rocks themselves have weight but after carefully interacting with the rocks they create a radius that nullifies gravity. This radius increases with larger stones or if its clumped together all though I think its more efficient with the former. I find a few unnaturally black stones, not to risk losing out on a potential windfall I grab them too, il have to have a look at what they are too. On the way home I see other people rock picking as well, “the world is gonna change” I mumble. I walk up to one of the pickers “ hey what's up” he looked visible started but calms down when he sees my backpack and clothes. “Thank god your not the military they been picking up people left and right grabber there hauls ant nobody safe” I'm shocked, that bad already. “ thanks for the warning had an inkling but no idea” “no problem brudda us pickas gotta stick together”. I question him further and people are coming together against the military to collect the rocks. We trade numbers his name is Jerry.
The sun is up high, beaming down in subtle rays warming my body, its gonna be a nice warm day today, let's avoid falling rocks for a little bit. Who knows a giant gorilla might show up, wait, WAIT is that an actual gorilla running passed. I've seen it all, I've been struck by a meteorite and now random exotic animals in the streets. After a quick google search, I find a local zoo was hit and they are looking for the animals, a small reward of £100 for information aiding to the recapture. I call up the zoo and rat on the gorilla with a wallet £100 heavier, metaphorically it was a bank transfer not magically transporting money. Sorry buddy il give you food if I visit the zoo.
As I get home I deposit my haul, half in the basement, and half-buried in my backyard, When I put it in the basement and bury it I make sure to separate them so it doesn’t cause gravity phenomena, it works for small amounts. I get on my computer and email 3 rich looking researchers looking for the material enquiring about how much they are willing to spend for some. Il wait until one of them emails back but hopefully, I can sell a little bit not too much as I want to keep some, or almost all of it, ideally the second. What, it's really cool.
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Now on to the best part of the day, I get a rock the size of 2 fists go to place it only to realize I'm almost weightless, I've felt this somewhat when I'm stashing the materials. Since it has weight, I don’t float off into the sky too easily but I still basically have no weight I set it down on the floor and watch as I now can fly around, this is very cool. I spend the next hour roleplaying that I'm currently an astronaut I've always wanted to do this.
Back to reality, it was fun for a while, now that I rested I will head back to see if there is any more material I can collect, I spend a while searching to only find scraps, small pieces or discard black shards, only 2 handfuls of material, which I deposit before thinking of my next cause of action.
Looking at my body, scraped, bruised, and battered I need to go to the hospital. Now that my booty is hidden more or less, I'm safe, things have calmed down a little. Its time. Walking into the walk-in I explain my problems and the cause.
Nurse “Okay sir may I ask why you didn’t come sooner” questioningly
Quickly thinking I say “Had a feeling it would be pact right after the fall as they call it so I spared them the stress and waited for it to calm down”
Nurse “very noble; take a seat we will have a doctor with you soon”
What a joke 2 hours later and a doctor sees me, clean up my wounds, stitches the larger gashes, and questionably asks if anything went into my chest.
“Don’t think so” As I ponder “can't feel a thing”
Doctor “Okay, just checking”
Doctor “It seems you didn’t get off to bad, a small fracture on your left third rib but it should heal without issue, aside from that 7 stitches and some painkillers id gives it a week and you will be bouncing back. I warn you careful of that rib it be tender for a bit, don’t want you back in here for making it worse so limited heavy labor, good day” He says quickly, when did he breathe?
Heading home I go to the store and buy some tasty steak, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, some spuds for chips. Head home I make some homemade garlic butter fry up the steak and rest. I have about £2500 in the bank not too much but with a rent of £340 and an extra £160 in other bills, il be fine for a while. Hopefully, il make some cash when I get back with those researchers. I settle down for some tv I would watch a movie or something but I can't do it, I watch some tv. News first information is always number 1 simple as. With a magnum in my mouth, I start watching. The military has released information, probably couldn’t stop it so they gave it themselves. A new unidentified material with unique properties they called it. Researchers around the globe cry it wanting this new material. Certain religious advocates say it’s a gift from God and sacred, they think it should be collected and used in churches. Some people are concerned the military are going to try and monopolize it and potentially make war weapons. An idiot could see that a mile away. It's coming out from eye witness that it has antigravity properties, would have thought the several hundreds of tons of debris floating in the atmosphere was a good indicator I can see a house from my window.
They have hopes this will revolutionize the world, I'm just saying a war is totally gonna break out, I'm calling it. America got hardly any of this new resource whereas weaker countries hot more not to mention us we are made of the stuff now surprised Britain is not floating away. They will get jealous and try and steal it I'm sure of it. I need money, I need security. I've decided I'm gonna find a way to use this material if I could fly that’s a pretty good escape mechanism. Things are gonna get worse so my plan list, Money, Safety, Lots of the new resource, food, water and whatever else I can take with me when I need to dodge and run, like imagine living in a giant floating research facility and stuff, avoiding the war down below.
For now, though one step at a time, money then researching this material. Tomorrow is gonna be a very busy day I best rest.