More people spill out. More broken bodies. More haunted eyes.
At first I’m too occupied to notice, a crack that sounds distant. Muffled. Almost unreal.
I barely register it.
Then a louder sound. Sharp.
Wrong.
My head snaps toward the building. Before I can even process it—the ground trembles beneath my feet.
A deafening explosion rips through the air, tearing the left side of the building apart. Fire bursts outward, swallowing concrete and steel in a violent roar. A plume of black smoke mushrooms into the sky.
I stagger back, the force of it slamming into my chest.
Left side.
Left—
We’re at the west exit.
So that means—
North?
Or… south?
What’s left of west?
My brain stutters. Fumbles. I can’t think.
My ears ring. Everything around me dulls into a distant, muffled haze.
People are shouting. Running. I tighten my grip on Theo—I think—but I can’t feel it.
I’m staring at the fire. At the part of the building that just vanished.
Somewhere in that blur, Bull’s voice cuts through. Loud. Panicked.
“Fuck! Wolf, come in.”
Nothing but static.
“Wolf,” he says again with a frantic scream. “Come in!”
A click and the line goes dead.
Something inside me just stops.
My lungs forget how to work.
My heart keeps beating, but it feels hollow. Like it’s echoing inside an empty space.
My eyes stay locked on the burning wreckage, unblinking. Unmoving.
If I don’t move, if I don’t think… Then maybe it didn’t happen.
Maybe he’s still—
