A fine mist poured from the sky, barely enough to feel but enough that even only a short while outside would leave you soaked. He fumbled with his keys, trying desperately to find the correct one for the lock.
The stomping got closer.
“Shit, fuck!” Fred finally found the correct key, and it slid into the padlock with relative ease.
“Open the gate, Fred, hurry!” Quinn looked around nervously, her heart caught in her throat.
“I’m trying, I’m trying!” With a turn, the lock mechanism clunked opened, and Fred slid it off of the chain. Pulling it free of the gate, he grabbed a hold of the deadbolt. Its metal was slick and slipped out of his fingers.
The stomps squelched through the mud of the garden a street away.
“I got it!” Fred tugged at the bolt, its slightly rusted spring coiling with a malevolent creak. He pushed open the gate, and he and Quinn stepped though together.
“Lock it. Lock it?” asked Quinn, as she wiped away her soaked hair from her forehead.
“I dropped the padlock. We just need to run.”
“This is all your fault. If I die here, it’ll be on you, not your marvellous creation over there,” Quinn shoved Fred, stumbling off into the rest of the facility. Fred followed soon after.
“I never meant for this to happen. It’s not like murderous fervour was meant to be a design feature!”
“Shut it!”
As the pair rounded the corner into the north-side of the facility, the gate crumpled, the metal releasing a shrill cry as it was crushed in the hands of Fred’s monster.
Today's prompt: design feature
This week's worldbuilding prompt: inventions
If you'd like to participate too, the contest/prompts can be found here:
@mariannewest/day-1646-5-minute-freewrite-monday-prompt-design-feature
