Cries and moans. Gurneys rolling. My hands stained with Heather's blood. A collapsed medical bay. They rushed her to the operating room and pushed me away. All the rooms were full of injured officers. The hallways teemed with doctors sprinting back and forth. Chaos. I couldn't slow my breath, nor could I stop my tears. I felt shattered. That painful image was stuck in my mind, replaying in a loop of agony. Michael. The shooting. My vision blurred as if I had stopped living the moment Heather collapsed to the ground, and now my eyes couldn't focus on the new reality. Had that really happened? It felt unreal. Could I have prevented it? My mind scanned all the possible alternative realities like a mental time traveler hopping between dimensions. There were countless other ways everything could've played out differently. Why was I stuck in this one?

An unnatural force bolted my heart. A surge of adrenaline coursed through my entire body, from the tip of my toes straight to my brain. I tried to catch my breath, but my lungs blocked. I gasped as strongly as I could, but nothing came. My body failed to respond. My skin felt sweaty. I collapsed to the floor. A nurse spotted me.

"Calm down, calm down." She said, wrapping her arms around me.

I looked at her. I couldn't speak. My body didn't obey me, and the only thing I felt was my heart threatening to give out.

"Hey, breathe with me. You're okay. It's a panic attack." She said.

Her words were a distant whisper. A panic attack? I had never experienced one before. She helped me move to the side, where I could lean against the wall. She took my hand and linked our Reg bracelets until a reassuring beep emitted.

"Grace, right?" The nurse said, reading the name that popped up on her bracelet. "Listen to me. It will pass. Trust me. Just let it happen because it will go away."

Her soft voice was comforting, and it made me feel better. Gradually, the tension in my chest began to ease, and my heart rate slowed down. The frenzy my body had been caught in seemed to recede. I took a deep breath, and finally, the air got in.

"See? It's gone." The nurse said.

As I exhaled, tears cascaded down my cheeks.

"Let it all go, honey." She said softly as I cried.

I allowed myself to collapse onto the nurse's shoulder.

"A lot has happened; it's totally natural to feel this way. Don't hold it back." She said.

That was true. A lot had happened. And the worst part was that I was the only one who knew. Michael had vanished into the darkness of the tunnels. After all this time looking for him... After all this time, dreaming of finding him, of hugging him and laughing with him. After all the fear and uncertainty, and Erik's sacrifice, everything had swept away.

And Heather... Well, a hundred knives stabbing my heart, that's what every thought of her was. I couldn't erase her bewildered gaze when I pointed my laser gun at her. She had never looked at me that way. Nobody ever had. A fracture into a dark void of anger, disappointment, and sadness, that's what her eyes looked like.

The nurse glanced at my heart rate on her Reg bracelet. "I like those numbers going back to normal. You're better now."

I rose from her shoulder and smiled at her. I had truly missed an empathetic person. Someone who didn't suggest that suppressing emotions was the best approach, like everyone else did there.

"Take it easy, Grace." The nurse said, standing up with a wide smile.

"Wait, what's your name?" I asked.

She turned to me. "Claire."

"Thank you, Claire."

"You're welcome." As she turned to leave, shiny metal and turquoise light points emerged from the back of her head. I stared at them, surprised; she was a techno-human. A kind and empathetic one.

I sat on a chair next to the door where I had seen Heather disappear for the last time. Everything had happened so fast. It was like one of those nightmares you cannot wake up from, and it seemed far from ending. I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the wall.

"Grace?" Said a familiar voice.

When I opened my eyes, Kate stood in the hallway, concern crossing her face in a way I had never seen before. Her Narval uniform was sodden with a blend of mud and blood. I rushed to her, and we wrapped our arms around each other.

"Are you okay?" I asked her immediately.

"I've been better. But yeah, I'm fine. How is she?"

"I don't know; they took her inside, and that's it."

"I can't believe what happened. How are you?" She asked, gazing at my uniform, stained with Heather's blood.

"Still processing."

"Yeah, me too."

"How's everything at the Narval House?"

"Bad. Really bad." She said.

"Fuck."

Kate checked on her Reg Bracelet. "This could take several hours. I'll go back to the training field; we're short on hands there. You should come."

"I can't leave her."

Kate placed a hand on my shoulder. "You can, and you should. There are still lives to be saved. We'll come back later."

"No."

There was no way I was leaving her alone. I couldn't. Not after everything that had happened. Not after what I had done, what Michael had done. I had to be there when she woke up... if that ever happened. Ugh, no, I couldn't even think of that possibility.

"She's in good hands right now. There's nothing else we can do. Waiting here is a waste of time." Kate insisted.

I pondered her words. The situation was critical, and we still didn't know the magnitude of the attack. Injured people were arriving every moment. She was right, we needed as much help as possible.

A nurse rushed out of the operating room. I stopped her, almost making her stumble over me.

"How is she?!" I said.

The nurse stepped back. "Who are you?"

Kate interjected, "We are Heather Anderson's colleagues from the Narval House"

The nurse briefly looked at our devastated uniforms, which seemed to convince her.

"We are working. I can't say much more. She is stable so far, but there's still a lot to do. I can't stop now, sorry." She rushed off again.

I gazed at Kate, concerned, and she took my hand kindly.

"She's stable. That's what she said. Don't overthink. It's Heather we're talking about, remember? She'll be okay."

"I wish I could be that sure."

Both of our Reg bracelets beeped at the same time, and we checked it out. It was a general message that asked for as many hands as possible in the training field, where one of the bombs had shattered.

"They need us. You coming?"

I glanced at the door, behind which Heather lay in the operating room. It was true that it could take time. It was true that they required help. It was true that I needed to feel as though I was somehow compensating for the damage I had caused.

"Yes. Let's go."

* * *

My soul froze at the smoky, gray, and dreadful sight of what once was our training field. The floor was broken, and cracks surged and grew as if desperately escaping destruction. The grass was charred and blackened, crumbling to ash beneath our feet. Fires still burned on each side of the field, and a suffocating smell of burnt, sour debris followed you everywhere. But that wasn't the worst of it all. A large group of newcomers lay on the ground as if someone had thrown them away like lifeless puppets. I couldn't believe it. The training field had suffered by far the bloodiest explosion.

The Phoenix group had already withdrawn, but now we could clearly see what they had taken. The toll was staggering, more than forty newcomers gone. Most of them were youths who had braved this wall seeking a mirage called a better life. Ha, "a better life." more like a cruel joke.

We joined several Narval Officers who were already securing the injured and began removing the runes and extinguishing the fires. Beneath the collapsed training store, sunken as if swallowed by the earth, I found Rachel, the complaining newcomer I had fought against in combat class. My chest tightened, folding in on itself, and a sharp pang of heat rushed through me. She was still clutching her laser gun with a death grip, as if she had fought to her last breath. Not too far from her, there was a young Phoenix Soldier, probably the same age as Michael, his arms hugging himself as if protecting himself from the explosion. I couldn't help but wonder what his story was. Surely not so different from Rachel's, not so different from mine.

Kate and I kept exchanging glances every moment. As if reinforcing each other on the horrible task we were doing. After many hours, we had identified all the dead, and Kate left with the last injured ones for the hospital, while I stopped at the Narval House. I needed to change and get some clothes for Heather. I wanted her to feel as comfortable as possible when she woke up.

When I came into my room and began changing, I heard someone sobbing. I turned around. Laura was curled up on her bed, crying.

"Laura?" I rushed at her. "I'm so, so glad to see you."

She looked at me, with her face soaked with tears, and we both hugged.

"Are you okay?" I asked

"No." She replied.

"Yeah, what a stupid question, right? And yet, it's what we're all asking each other..."

"It's okay. I don't know what to ask, either. I can't even bring myself to leave the room."

I sat down beside her on the bed and wrapped an arm around her.

"Where's Mark?" I said, realizing his absence.

"Haven't you heard?" She mumbled.

"No. What?" Fear crawled.

"Mark... was arrested."

"What do you mean, arrested?"

Laura sighed, continuing that conversation seemed like the hardest thing she'd ever done.

"He was part of the Phoenix group, he was with them..." She explained.

My mind went blank. "What?!"

"I can't believe it either. They said he was the mole. He passed on all the info needed for this attack." She continued.

Time seemed to stand still as my mind struggled to make sense of the situation. No, Mark. No. Damn it. Was all this because of him?

"He planned to return to The Other Side today after the attack, but they caught him." She said.

"I wanna see him. Where is he?" I asked.

"Not sure. They took him, so probably to the Reg Punishment Center."

"Fuck." I mumbled.

"I still can't wrap my head around the fact we didn't suspect anything. How could nobody know anything?"

Her last words were like a sharp pin piercing me. I knew. I knew, and I didn't say anything. I had seen Mark on the electric tower the night the tunnels flooded. The same night, a bunch of data was stolen. I had the chance to warn Heather when she asked me about it. But I didn't. I could have prevented... everything. All the deaths, Heather's shot... Michael running away. None of this would have happened if I had told the truth. And Mark... How could he? It was my friend. Our friend. Was he?

"Grace?" Laura's voice pulled me back to the present, but I couldn't answer. Guilt was devouring me from the inside out, and I closed my eyes, feeling a fall I couldn't stop.

My Reg bracelet beeped.

It was Kate. My heart pounded at her message: H is awake.

Hey there, readers! 💖

Writing this chapter was quite an intense experience for me, and I hope it had a similar impact on you. Now, I'm really curious about your thoughts on Heather's reaction to everything that's happened. Put yourself in her shoes for a moment, what would you feel? How do you think she's going to react to Grace?

Love you all and thanks for the support, every comment means the world to me! 😄

Ava 💫