Breaching the Perimeter

Confinement indoors grew stale. I descended the shelf frameworks and pressed past the front heavy timber door into open air. External ground reached. Concrete stairs descended like stone tiers into the sidewalk below. Halfway down the second step, an empty ridged aluminum beverage can blocked the corridor. I advanced without hesitation. Lowering my mass, I drove my heavy foot straight down onto the hollow cylinder. A sharp metallic crunch echoed across the pavement, the tin collapsing flat beneath my clawed heel. Stable platform established. Beneath the stone treads, the distant vibration of street traffic hummed through the masonry into my legs. I exhaled a slow, heavy draught into the morning breeze and held the steps.