Chapter 17 Collapse #2
Viktor ignored them.
A foreman shouted.
Another grabbed his shoulder.
The older man shook him off.
The arguments lasted seconds.
Then he disappeared inside.
Straight into the unstable structure.
Straight into the nightmare.
"Elias!"
Someone caught his arm before he could follow.
Carlos.
The older worker looked terrified.
Actually terrified.
"You can't go in there."
Elias tried pulling free.
"Viktor's inside."
"I know."
The words sounded almost painful.
Carlos tightened his grip.
"The whole building could come down."
The truth of that statement stood directly in front of them.
Concrete shifted somewhere inside the wreckage.
Another section collapsed.
Dust exploded outward.
Workers stumbled backward.
The structure groaned ominously.
Like an animal dying slowly.
Elias stared toward the entrance.
Waiting.
Praying.
Every second felt endless.
Then movement appeared.
A figure emerged through the dust.
One of the trapped workers.
The man stumbled forward.
Bleeding.
Coughing.
Alive.
A cheer erupted from the crowd.
Several workers rushed forward to help him.
The relief lasted only moments.
Because Viktor wasn't with him.
The older man had stayed inside.
Looking for more survivors.
The realization made Elias feel sick.
Minutes crawled past.
Each one worse than the last.
Emergency vehicles finally appeared beyond the construction site.
Too far away.
Too slow.
Not enough.
Another worker emerged from the building.
Then another.
Both injured.
Both alive.
Questions spread through the crowd immediately.
Where was Viktor?
Nobody knew.
Nobody had seen him.
A terrible feeling settled inside Elias's chest.
The same feeling he'd experienced the day Viktor revealed the truth about Luka.
The same feeling he'd experienced during the storm.
Fear.
Pure fear.
Then he saw him.
A shape moving through the dust.
A massive figure supporting another worker.
Viktor.
Relief hit so hard it almost weakened his knees.
The older man emerged from the structure carrying an injured laborer across his shoulders.
The crowd rushed forward.
Helping remove the injured man.
Several workers shouted at Viktor.
Ordering him to stay outside.
Begging him to stay outside.
The older man ignored every one of them.
Of course he did.
A panicked voice suddenly echoed from somewhere inside the building.
Faint.
Distant.
Another trapped worker.
Viktor turned immediately.
"No!"
This time Elias's voice tore from his throat.
Loud.
Desperate.
The older man froze.
For the first time.
Across the chaos, their eyes met.
The moment seemed to stretch.
Dust drifted through the air.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Workers shouted around them.
None of it mattered.
Only Viktor.
Only the look in his eyes.
The apology there shattered Elias.
Because Viktor already knew.
He knew this was dangerous.
He knew the risk.
And he was going anyway.
The older man's gaze lingered for one final second.
Then he turned.
And disappeared back inside.
The crowd erupted immediately.
Shouts.
Arguments.
Panic.
Nobody could stop him.
Nobody could follow safely.
Everyone could only wait.
And hope.
The next minute felt like an hour.
The minute after that felt even longer.
Then the building groaned.
Louder than before.
Much louder.
Every worker on site heard it.
The sound cut through every conversation.
Every shout.
Every siren.
Silence followed.
Terrible silence.
The kind that comes immediately before disaster.
A structural engineer near the crowd looked upward.
His face went white.
"Everybody back!"
The warning exploded through the site.
Workers immediately retreated.
Dragging injured men away.
Running.
Scrambling.
Trying to create distance.
Elias couldn't move.
His eyes remained fixed on the damaged structure.
On the entrance where Viktor had disappeared.
Waiting.
Watching.
Praying.
The building shuddered.
Once.
Twice.
Then everything failed.
The second collapse hit like an explosion.
Concrete shattered.
Steel snapped.
Entire sections of the structure folded inward.
The noise was deafening.
Dust erupted hundreds of feet into the air.
The ground shook beneath Elias's feet.
Workers screamed.
People ran.
Chaos consumed everything again.
The entrance vanished instantly.
Buried beneath tons of falling debris.
Gone.
Completely gone.
For several endless seconds, nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Everyone simply stared.
The dust cloud swallowed the ruins.
The world disappeared behind gray.
Elias couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
Couldn't process what he had just seen.
Someone nearby started crying.
Another worker whispered a prayer.
A foreman lowered his head.
The reactions spread rapidly through the crowd.
Shock.
Disbelief.
Grief.
Because everyone understood the same thing.
Viktor had been inside.
The realization struck like a physical blow.
Elias stared at the collapsed structure.
Waiting for movement.
For a miracle.
For anything.
Nothing came.
Only dust.
Only silence.
Only ruin.
Beside him, Carlos looked utterly devastated.
The older worker slowly removed his hard hat.
Several others did the same.
One by one.
A gesture of mourning.
A gesture of respect.
A gesture usually reserved for the dead.
"No."
The word escaped Elias's lips.
Broken.
Barely audible.
Because he refused to believe it.
He couldn't.
Yet as emergency crews finally reached the wreckage and workers stared at the mountain of shattered concrete where Building Seven once stood, a terrible certainty settled across the entire construction site.
Viktor Novak had disappeared beneath the collapse.
And everyone believed he was dead.
· ? ·