Stefan didn't encounter anything out of place on his trek to the tower, at least nothing more out of place than the new normal he lived in. Dust, debris, rubble, rusted-out vehicles. It was all pretty normal nowadays.
His heart sank when they reached the top floor of the tower. There was nothing here. Not even a footprint. Stefan would have expected to at least see his footprints, but it was as if someone had just swept the place clean.
"Are you sure this is where you saw him, Stefan?" Dahl asked as he looked around.
"Yeah, this is where I was." Stefan glanced over the edge. He could see the silver flier and the two scarabs he'd taken out as well as the scorpion and silver flier that—he assumed—Sawyer had taken out. "I don't understand it. There's no sign of him. There's not even a sign of me."
Dahl squinted at him. "A sign of you?"
Stefan gestured to the cement floor. "No footprints, nothing. There's no sign that anyone has been up here ever."
Dahl frowned as he slowly turned in a circle. "There's no footprints."
Stefan rolled his eyes. "That's what I've been saying. Enough dust and debris have settled up here that you should be able to see my footprints at the very least, but there are none."
And that really disturbed Stefan.
It just didn't make any sense.
"Come on, we need to get downstairs and tell Roark," Dahl said. "Maybe he can figure it out."
Stefan was kind of with Dahl on this. He was really glad he was just a peon and didn't have to think of the tough stuff. Give him a target and let him pull the trigger and he was pretty damn happy. Command decisions were better left for those in command.
That wasn't him.
Stefan kept a tight grip on his rifle as he followed Dahl down the stairs. It was only a five-story building, so it didn't take long for them to run into the others as they were coming up.
"Find anything?" Roark asked.
"No," Dahl replied, "and that's the weird part."
"Weird how?"
"There's no sign that anyone has been up in the tower, not even Stefan."
Roark's eyebrow lifted, but he didn't say anything.
"I know I left my footprints in the dust when I left the tower," Stefan explained. "But there is not a single trace that anyone has been in that tower at all, and considering it's exposed to air, there should have been something. Dust at the very least."
"And there was nothing?" Roark asked.
"No, Commander," Dahl replied. "Nothing."
"We didn't find anything either." Roark glanced back down the stairwell. "Let's go see if Sam and Foster found anything."
Stefan brought up the tail end as he followed after everyone else. When they reached the first floor, they kept on going down. He thought they would have run into Sam and Foster by now. The basement couldn't be that big.
When they reached the basement, they found it to be nothing more than a maintenance room with a generator, heating system, and electrical system. The only thing really remarkable about it was the massive hole in the wall leading to the next building.
"I think this was recent, Commander," Stefan said as he scanned the area in front of the hole. "There's footprints in the dust."
"That doesn't mean it's recent," Roark pointed out.
No, that was true, but Stefan still felt as if it was recent. He didn't know why he felt that way. Just that he did.
Stefan almost jumped out of his skin when Sam appeared in the opening. He growled as he gripped his rifle tighter. "Don't do that!"
Sam chuckled before glancing at Roark and nodding his head back the way he'd come. "These breaks in the wall go for several buildings. I think someone was using them to get around."
