Waiting passengers stood clear of Lance, afraid of what nonsense he might start spewing at them, so he was isolated from the crowd to some degree. The ring of people standing no closer than a meter to him looked to some newly arrived passengers like Lance was a man with a terrible stink the closest passengers were too polite to say anything about.
Two orbs of light floating within the subway tunnel expanded into brilliant stars as the next arriving train pulled into the station. Before it could alert the passengers to its arrival with its high-pitched horn, however, the platform started moving and the earth crooning.
The chatter of the crowd faded as the earth sung louder and louder and the tiles beneath their feet moved. The vocals of the crowd exploded into a disordered array of screams and other panicked jargon as the platform tossed them about like a man filtering dirt through a filter in his quest for valuable jewels. People dropped down to the floor, and others fell on top of them when the tremors became too violent to withstand. Some rung their arms around the support columns, where they remained plastered as their feet slipped on the floor, as though they were dancing on ice. One woman on the escalator was jerked forward, and she tumbled down the descending steps. Some people, particularly those standing near the platform, fought to maintain their balance or threw themselves backwards to avoid being tossed onto the tracks just as the train was grinding to a halt.
Some of those people weren't fortunate enough as they were lobbed onto the train that screeched to a halt in response of the earthquake. Upon striking the train, their bodies were flung off, leaving nasty wounds on whatever part of their body the train caught. The most common were hands, which were pitched instinctively at the train as a tumbling individual tried to catch themselves. Blood was splattered onto the train and across the yellow line as fingers were lost, wrists were bent in unnatural ways, and one man lost his ability to smell.
Lance bet all of his strength in his fight to preserve his balance. But it was a losing fight as his knees banged the yellow line and his hands caught the very edge of the platform, fingertips jutting over the edge. But the platform, not done yet, plunged him off and headfirst onto the tracks.566Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvOXTNO4eur
