Chapter Sixteen #2
The ground was more than just uneven from the blast. Chunks of concrete and twisted metal scattered across the yard, forcing my stride to adjust without slowing.
I vaulted a bent section of fencing, hit hard on the other side and kept moving, the tower fixed in front of me through the shifting smoke.
Gunfire snapped across my path, close enough to feel in the air, the sharp crack followed by the hiss of rounds tearing past. I cut left around a disabled vehicle, using what cover it offered without breaking stride, then pushed forward again into open ground.
The air was thick and metallic, layered with burning fuel and dust that I could feel grinding in my teeth.
A man went down ten feet in front of me, dragged back by two others who continued without missing a step.
Someone shouted for a medic. Another voice cut over it, directing traffic, a futile attempt to insert order into a warzone.
A high-pitched buzzing grew louder as it sailed to the South Tower. I slowed down a bit, threading my fingers into my hair. “No! No!” I yelled.
The round fell short of the tower but decimated the fences.
“Shit!” I said, pushing myself back to a sprint.
I pushed past a cluster of militia holding a fractured section of fence, past a man on one knee reloading next to another slumped against a barrier with blood running down his sleeve, trying to stay in the fight with his rifle in his one remaining good arm.
The roar of another fire grew louder as I approached, this one large enough to rival every other sound in the sector.
A steady, consuming rumble under the gunfire, flames stretching like a living thing, claws climbing the structure and crawling along the ground toward the next.
From the other side, water hit in bursts, steam rising and drifting low across the yard.
I caught Zeke and my brothers in my peripheral as I passed, yelling at soldiers to stay back, driving the hose forward, forcing the flames back just enough to keep another structure from being reduced to ash.
I could’ve helped, but I couldn’t stop.
The tower loomed in front of me, rising out of the smoke in broken pieces, the platform cutting a hard line against the sky.
I tracked it as I ran, assessing distance without meaning to, measuring how much ground I still had to cover.
Every second stretched against the same thought I couldn’t avoid.
If the last one wasn’t a mistake, if they’d decided to blow the high ground instead of fight for it, if the tower took a direct hit, the only thing I could do is watch it burn and crumble.
Another crack came from the tower, this one sounding less like shooting and more like a pro golfer connecting on a line drive. I’d seen what a vehicle explosion could do to reinforced structure, and the tower was just some well-placed beams and bolts.
I pushed harder, lungs burning now, legs driving through resistance I didn’t acknowledge, cutting across the north quad at an angle that shaved seconds without exposing more than I had to.
The tower’s ladder took shape in front of me, a body at the bottom.
For half a second, I nearly lost it, but as I got closer, I saw that it was a man sprawled on the dirt.
Blood was oozing from the back of his head, nose, and ears.
“Fuck!” I hissed, looking up.
I brought my hand up to call out but thought better of it.
The last thing I was about to do was flag our position and give them a reason to look up.
I jogged over to the ladder instead, hands finding the rungs, finally feeling the pain in my aging bones from my sprint there.
I took the steps three at a time, anxious to reach my wife.
The metal groaned under the impact of my boots, each landing sharp and unstable with the tower already rattling.
I ignored it, keeping my eyes on the platform above, praying that all was well when I reached the top.
A quarter of the way, movement crossed the edge.
Kansas first, a quick check over the side, then Liis beside her, both of them staring down at me.
The barrel of a rifle dipped toward me before Liis recognized who she was looking at.
She reached out to Kansas’s weapon and pushed it aside, relief breaking across her face.
I cleared the top and came up fast, the soles of my boots meeting splintered planks as I closed the space between us without thinking. My hands found Liis’s shoulders, then her back, pulling her in, enveloping her in my arms.
“You didn’t respond,” I said, breath still uneven, the edge of it breaking into something close to irritation.
“We were busy,” she answered, her cheek pressed against my shirt.
“Didn’t you see our friend starfish taking a dirt nap down there?” Kansas asked, reaching into her pocket and popping a cube of pink gum into her mouth.
“I did,” I said, my attention returning to Liis. My hands cupped her face, pulling her in just enough to kiss her quick. I pulled back, scanning the platform. “These beams aren’t stable. We need to mo—”
An explosion hit the base of the tower before I could finish.
The force came up through the structure hard enough to throw all three of us off balance.
The planks jolted under my feet, the railing at the ladder shearing away with a sharp, metallic tear before dropping out of sight.
Kansas and Liis both went back with it, losing their footing in the same instant.
I dropped with them, sliding to the edge, catching both of them by the wrists before they cleared the platform.
The impact of it tore through my shoulders, my grip locking down on instinct as their full weight and the momentum pulled against me.
Below us, the ground spun into motion—debris, bodies, movement—none of it something I could afford to look at for more than a fraction of a second.
“Hang on,” I strained, trying to brace to pull them up.
Voices broke out somewhere below, panicked and overlapping, then another blast followed, this time bursting open whatever weapon the Carlisis had used on the tower.
The shockwave punched up through the tower and into my arms. My grip slipped a fraction, then tightened again, every muscle in my back and shoulders straining to hold them where they were in the midst of the blast wave.
Liis looked down once, then back up at me. “Déjà vu,” she said, a breath of a laugh under it.
Kansas glanced between us, her mouth twisting. “You two do this often?”
“Well?” Liis asked, still looking at me. “Who are you letting go?”
“Say what?” Kansas’s head snapped toward her.
“Neither,” I said, the word coming out through clenched teeth as I pulled, dragging them up together until their boots hit the platform again.
Kansas straightened first, brushing dust from her fatigues. “You had me for a second. Thought I was about to be another stain in the yard.”
“How was I going to explain that?” I said, glancing at her before scanning the structure. “You think I was going to tell Marcel I dropped you to your death because I couldn’t lift two hundred pounds onto a platform?”
She wasn’t amused, already looking past me at the action below.
I followed her line of sight, taking in what was left of the tower. The ladder was gone, part of the railing was gone, the frame had taken the hit and was still standing but not in a way I trusted for long.
“The tower’s served its purpose,” I said. “Now it’s just an elevated coffin. Ladder’s gone, so we’ll need to—”
“There’s a back way,” Liis and Kansas said at the same time, both already turning toward the enclosed section.