The Silent Explosion by Robin D. Mahle

Author:Robin D. Mahle [Mahle, Robin D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

3

NELL

I was sitting in my bedroom, tinkering with my golden bracelet when an eerie silence descended over Central Island. It was a tangible silence, heavy in its weight and more than the mere absence of sound. It left in a flash of blue light, as quickly as it had come. The rocking of the island and screams that followed in its wake were much worse.

I was uncomfortably reminded of my past, my home island, and I pushed the thoughts out of my head. It took nearly half an hour to make my way from my Third Sector home to the edge of the enormous blast site, picking my way down an unfamiliar walking trail.

As soon as I got there, I wanted to return home. I had thought I needed to see what happened, but the enormous gaping hole where only minutes ago there had been factories, hotels, and rundown apartment buildings, was something I could have gone my entire life without seeing. Families, children, entire lives and futures erased in the time it took me to snap my fingers.

At the outskirts of the blast radius were caved in buildings. That’s where the loudest screams were coming from. Redshaw and the Corporation’s elite private forces, the Red Sons, were already there organizing search and rescue parties. Some citizens were helping. Others were kneeling around the bodies keening or shouting or begging for help.

A handful of people were running down into the sunken circle where nothing remained, looking lost or calling out names as though there were anything left to be found there. The rain came down to mingle with the blood running down the sloped sides of the indentation.

In the war, villages had been pillaged and raped and burnt to the ground. Families had been torn apart in droves and what Ceithre thought of as the unspeakable evil on The Other Side of the World had tainted the Empire with its blood and death and malice.

Even so, the mass destruction and devastation before me was on a scale I had never seen before, never imagined. How many had died today? How many more had lost someone? Shouts loud enough to be heard over the mass grieving sounded, and I watched as a piece of the cliff from Third Sector larger than most houses tumbled down, crushing some of those still wandering around the blast zone. Just like that, another dozen souls were snuffed out.

I saw the world around me in a series of still frames. A tiny lifeless arm protruding from a block of rubble. A woman sobbing in a pool of blood. Red Sons carrying out sheet-covered bodies on stretchers. Maybe there were hopeful stories playing out, too, but not from where I was standing. I stood frozen, my skin growing cold even in the unnaturally warm heat. Tears burned behind my eyes but refused to fall down my cheeks.

I tried to shake myself out of it so I might go assist, but then I remembered Central Island’s feelings on women.

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