Wash leaped out of bed and crashed to the floor. The sudden movement had made his wounds all hurt again, but that wasn't the issue. His hearing had all but gone, the last thing he remembered was an ear-splitting BOOM that took all the sounds away.
"Ching chong doh! What was that?" but his voice was silent. He staggered to the edge of the dorm, tripping over an abandoned pair of slig pants. He was vaguely aware of muffled sounds now, mostly of alarm. Confused and bewildered, he drifted along a metal platform above a meat prep line and scratched his ears, willing his hearing to return.
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Linc was sending the meat saws into the carcasses on the belt when it happened. The shockwave knocked him off his feet and off the platform. The lever was pulled at an unrecommended angle, and the saw, on the edge of a large robotic arm, decimated the carcass, knocked two more off the line and came spinning towards the control platform. The lever, wedged in position, did not automatically spring back to neutral, so the saw continued towards the platform.
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Wash's vision was unfocused, but when he leaned over the barrier to be sick, he saw a meat saw appendage advancing upon the level below. In it's path was what appeared to be a mudokon worker, clinging to the edge for dear life. Rubbing his eyes, the mudokon was de-blurred. It was Linc!
Wash looked around for something to help, panicking. His head was now giving him grief, and he couldn't concentrate. On the wall was a power outlet, and several cables emerging. Knowing how suicidal his next move would be, he tugged one of them out. The lights shut off. Ignoring this, he grasped the cable in both hands, keeping clear of the sparking end, and leaped over the barrier.
As he fell he swung on the cable, which then broke and he fell anyway. Wash hit the deck hard and started coughing up blood again. He rose and pulled on the lever with all his strength, but it would not budge, and the saw kept coming. In frustration he kicked it. The whirring of the blade increased on pitch and it came towards Linc even faster.
"Crap! sain hat shing..."
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Linc was losing his grip on the ledge. He now had two choices: fall to his grisly death, or stay here and then fall to his grisly death-one piece at a time. He closed his eyes and chose the former. As he relaxed his arm, another one flew over the edge and grasped his own. Wash! But the injured scrub did not have the strength to pull such a large mud up. Linc desperately scrambled at the smooth metal to avoid the spinning blades of death, and finally got a leg up on top. As Wash heaved his friend onto horizontal ground, the blades caught a glancing blow across Linc's torso, before plunging into the platform itself. Wash dragged the bleeding Linc away from the sparked and shrapnel to inspect the tall mud's wound. Linc stared up with bloodshot eyes and realised for the first time that he was almost entirely deaf. He laughed at this unexpected piece of information, before passing out completely.
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