Kerry tightened her grip on May’s arm, but May had not had twenty-nine years of being the baby sister without learning evasion techniques for that particular grasp. She stomped on Kerry’s foot, twisted her arm away with a hard wrench, and then she was free.
“Don’t you dare follow me!” she shouted to her sister. “Stay here and look after things!”
Gulping in what she knew would be her last breath of fresh air, May raced into the building, pursued by Kerry’s desperate shouting. Her heart was hammering. The lobby was filled with smoke. She heard discordant clashes as structures began to collapse.
Where were the stairs down? She had to get there!
The building was in complete chaos. Smoke hung in the air. Emergency lights flashed on the walls.
The explosion had destroyed one whole wing of the building, and now it was blazing.
Spotting a stairwell, she raced to it as fast as she could.
May charged down the stairs, two at a time. The smoke was thicker down here, and she got to the bottom and almost choked.
"Owen!" she screamed.
The basement was ruined.The explosion had flung debris everywhere, and smoke seethed through the underground space. She could see the shells of cars, some on their sides, that looked to have been damaged and destroyed in the blast.
She could hear the fire crackling and growing to her right, as it ate up more and more of the building.
Was he here? She had to find him. She needed to find him!
May didn't know where to even begin. He could be anywhere, he could be hurt and dying, and she wouldn't know.
"Owen!" May screamed, her voice tearing her throat. Why wasn't he answering? Was he even still down here, or was he dead, and she'd gotten here too late?
Half running, half falling over the debris, swerving to avoid an overturned car, she lunged ahead. She was desperately trying to control her breathing to spare her from inhaling too much smoke.
She jumped as, from the far side of the basement, another minor blast rang out and the whole structure shook. Plaster fell from above and a pillar quivered.
That was a car, May thought. That had been a car exploding. Perhaps a second lot of explosives had been in another car, or else the gas tank had gone up.
She didn't know. All she knew was that she hadn't found Owen.
She ran on, stumbling over the rubble, getting closer to the burning chaos that she knew represented the epicenter of the explosion. She was so terrified of losing him, that she forgot to be afraid of the whole building coming down on top of her.
And then, she saw it.
Slumped behind a pillar. A body, on the ground. But in the flickering light from a nearby fire, she recognized the shape of the jaw, the form of the haircut.
It was Owen lying there. Without a doubt.
"No!" May shouted, her voice now hysterical.
She rushed forward, praying that by a miracle he'd survived the blast, but knowing deep inside that she might have to accept the worst.