He headed back to her room. On reaching her crib, he kissed the top of her head before laying her down.
She sleepily murmured, “Dah-Dah,” as her eyes fluttered closed.
“Love you, dewdrop,” he rasped, lightly brushing his fingertips over her curls, before pulling away and heading to the room he shared with Severo, intending to take a little nap himself before dinner.
Severo parked in the underground deck—one of the few things still made underground. He had just reached ground level, and was heading towards a side lift that would take him up to the floating apartment building, when it happened.
The ground shook. Multiple explosions went off in the building above. He stared wide eyed for a second as fire alarms started to blare and smoke began to billow around the upper floors. Part of the building collapsed, and while he didn’t know what floors, it was near enough to his apartment for him to panic.
Seri…Skya!
Severo dropped the pizzas and took off towards the single set of stairs, the only physical thing connecting the building to the ground. Ladders down were already appearing all over the building as people fled.
Bursting in, even while residents were running out, he pushed through them, uncaring who he knocked into or over as he struggled to get to the point of the explosion. On the way, he passed so many collapsed walls. Severo was gasping by the time he made it there. Pushing into the hallway of their floor, he coughed, smoke long having filled his lungs.
Reaching the apartment, he unlocked it and ran in. The whole place was filled with smoke, the fire alarms blaring even louder inside. Even over the alarm, he could hear Skya wailing at the top of her lungs.
The apartment appeared unharmed, despite the smoke. “Seri,” he called out.
There was no answer. Severo cursed and rushed forward, leaving the kitchen and living room on finding neither of them there, calling out for Seri as he went.
Pushing into the room he shared with the man, he froze at the first sight of damage. A collapsed support beam was spearing their room, coming down at an angle from the ceiling. There was debris everywhere, and the smoke even thicker here. Worse…he saw who was pinned under it all.
“Seri!” Severo screamed out in fear. He coughed as he drew in more smoke, and stumbled forward to his knees by the Nymph’s side.
“Seri,” he rasped.
Tears formed in his eyes as he caressed the man’s pale soot-covered face, hand smearing the blood on his cheek. He looked to where the beam had him pinned to the floor. Pushing off parts of the ceiling, along with a few broken pieces of wall, he got a good look of how Seri was stuck. The beam coming through the ceiling was actually holding down a separate large metal pole, which looked to be crushing Seri’s right leg.
Severo tried to lift the beam up. He screamed out from the effort. Muscles bulging, back straining, he pulled up with all his strength… But it didn’t move. He tried again, and again, but no matter what he did, it wouldn’t budge. There had to be something above weighing it down further.
“Seri,” he sobbed.
“Severo…” Seri gasped painfully.
He glanced up and found the man’s eyes open. “Seri…Seri…”
“Skya! Get Skya,” the man cried. “Nursery...”
Skya. Yes…Skya. He had to get Skya. Severo stumbled to his feet and sprinted into the hall, back towards the nursery. Slamming the door opened, his eyes widened in horror at the bowing ceiling right over the crib, a crack growing bigger by the second.
Running to her, he scooped the screaming baby up and away. He only made it a single step out of the room when the ceiling came down, filling the area further with smoke and soot. There were now burning pieces of wood and ceiling where the crib had been.
Abject fear washed through him at how close it had been to it all landing on top of Skya. Forcing himself to look away, he crouched down, trying to stay below the smoke for the little girl’s sake as he crawled as fast as he could back to Seri.
“Go,” Seri rasped on seeing him, tears in his eyes. “GO!”
“I can’t leave you. I can’t.”
“Skya comes first! It’s them…it’s them,” Seri sobbed. “I can’t… They can’t get her, they can’t.”
Severo hesitated… He knew Seri was right. Skya was what mattered now…but…
Another explosion going off somewhere below, they both screamed while the floor collapsed and they fell.
Severo wrapped his whole body around Skya, his eyes slamming shut as he landed hard in the apartment underneath. The little girl continued to wail in fear.
He coughed and laid there stunned, the ringing in his ears disorienting. The left side of his body began to ache almost instantly, a sharp burning pain radiating from his left arm.
