Ultraviolet

Chapter 12

June 6, 33 AE

According to Nakia, Camilla had been on the roof last, but the roof no longer existed, nor did most of the higher floors. Most likely, she fell when that first bright white fireball–the one made of magnesium–hit, and she probably would've kept falling until she reached a relatively undamaged level. So Mack had to start looking where the biggest damage ended.

The first ten floors or so were fine, and nothing was abnormally out of place except for the dim emergency lighting. Things started falling apart on the next ten floors, and Mack couldn't help but keep an eye on any large cracks in the walls he passed, as if he'd be able to do much if everything suddenly collapsed on top of him. When he reached the twenty-seventh floor, gaping fractures stretched through the stairwell like spiderwebs, and the door to the hallway was dangling on one hinge. After a shaky breath, Mack tentatively poked his head through.

It took a moment for Mack to process the scene and how it looked nothing like the Barracks he remembered. For one, everything was dark, and the only lights came from the moonlight shining through the building's new skylight that started about halfway down the hall. In the darkness, the sound of debris crumbling and the building ominously creaking seemed to echo in his ears, and Mack worried that the mere reverberations from the surrounding helicopters would demolish the structure instantly.

Mack took another deep breath, then started coughing as the smell of dust and quite possibly sewage encompassed his senses. As he cleared his lungs, he switched on the flashlight secured to his chest pocket, illuminating the musty hall before him.

Fortunately, the south side of this level seemed mostly intact; unfortunately, this stability ended about ten doors down, where the rest of the level had vanished. But it was possible he could spot Camilla from the hall's premature end, so Mack tested the floor in front of him with a fraction of his weight before proceeding slowly.

The place was, understandably, a mess. His flashlight bounced light off of the fine dust that drifted through the air, swirling with Mack's movements. As he steadily approached the gaping hole in the ceiling and floor, he could see debris crumbling off from the broken concrete before him, and the sound of it hitting some unknown floor below took ages to reach his ears.

Briefly, Mack froze, and he furiously blinked away memories from his mind before continuing.

He paused about eight feet away from the edge and leaned forward, attempting to see as much as he could from his relative safety.

As expected, it wasn't much. The attack had made a vertical crater in the building, and Mack could see remnants of his and the surrounding floors in the distance, leaving only fractions of kitchens and bedrooms behind. He could see bent rebar protruding from broken concrete and small waterfalls pouring from the few floors he could see. Broken cables dangled off the edges, and ripped plaster flapped gently in the breeze like white flags.

But there was no sign of Camilla.

"Camilla?" Mack called out, listening to his voice echo in the crater. "Camilla Wyatt?"

Silence.

Mack hesitated before he took a tentative step forward, then froze for a second, waiting for the floor to crumble beneath his feet. But it held, so he craned his neck out for a better look.

That's when he fell.

The concrete broke with a sharp crack, sending Mack plummeting down. He was helpless when he felt his legs crash through the level below as well, and he couldn't do anything except shield his head with his arms. After crashing through one more floor, he fell hard on the next one with a heavy grunt, landing harshly on his right shoulder.