The workers came in and out of the laboratory, delivering boxes of chemicals, the last few days have been busy here, the Industry has developed a kind of synthetic rubber that has several commercial applications.
So we have to test them in all aspects before launching them. The chemistry department is responsible for this, and that is how the place is packed with people working twenty-four hours a day.
It all happened very quickly. I was working on my bench, looking at a rubber sample in the microscope, pipettes and test tubes made of glass that held chemical reagents covered the entire table, then,a delivery man stumbled and fell near the countertops, breaking several glass bottles and collecting reagents that should not be mixed. The chemical reaction was further accelerated by all the components that were on the floor, my bad luck was being next to the delivery man and all this mess literally falling on my feet.
Even with all the protective equipment it was not enough to stop the reaction that occurred at that moment, the addition of the reagents caused the creation of an acid vapor that corroded my mask and entered the respiratory system.
The most painful death possible is trying to breathe and failing. The burning of the acid burning inside my body and the shortness of breath reaching my brain, were the seconds that felt like hours before everything became a blur and stopped hurting.
I can't measure time, but it seems to me a lot since I am in a void, everything around me is darker than anything I have ever seen, a shade of black that invades the other senses and darkens up to what I thought impossible . Hours or weeks may have passed within that space, until I feel a tug, a feeling of being crushed as I am thrown in one direction.