AND IT DID.
For a while, their anticipation was met only with silence. The First Street was slowly built over, and business near the line of marred stores stirred again. There were still murmurs about the Alpha mark and the mastermind behind it, but dire conspiracies had become little more than casual speculation. Others still spoke in whispers about Lews's apparent lack of action, but such conversation was growing fewer by the day.
The illusion of peace was broken with an outcry near the edge of the city. The water tower, responsible for filtering water from the nearby inflows, had unexpectedly burst open on the side, flooding many of the smaller homes nearby. Dozens were left bewildered; some wandered closer towards the center of the city in hopes of compensation, while others lingered dangerously near the destruction in hopes that the catastrophe would somehow undo itself before their eyes.
Once again, a great red mark stood over the remnant of the tower, squashing any hopes that this had been misfortune and nothing more.
Lews called for a full conclave on the day of the disaster, bringing forth any figure of importance that could be present: Cal, Nina, Lews, Andrew the head of health, and many others who had taken charge of the rebellion. Seeing all of them gathered in one place, an occasion never occurred since the victory of the rebellion, Nina felt a twinge of sentiment. But such thought was trivial in the face of their circumstances.
Lews's urgency was evident through his questions. How quickly could the mess be patched up? How quickly could the houses be repaired? How quickly could people return to their homes and where would they stay in the meantime? How much would the repairs cost their resources?
Then, placing his attention on Cal in particular, he asked why the watch had been unable to divert the rupturing of the tower. Cal could only relay his men's feeble excuses, saying there must've been a blind spot or a gap between shifts of the patrol, all while trying to salvage his own dignity under the stares of the others.
Outside, the dissent of the public was just as fierce. What begun as whispers of Lews's inaction turned into outright declarations of his incompetence. They spoke of how long it'd taken to repair the First Street. They spoke of how the people had been left to manage themselves when the stores were attacked. They spoke of how, even during the reign of Soto, the water tower had never broken down and flooded, with some even venturing to say that the water tower, with its source of purified water, had never been there until Soto came into power.
One fellow was even bold enough to imitate the alpha mark over the headquarters of the military, but before anyone else could follow his example, he was apprehended and brought to the Core House. The symbol itself swiftly removed.
As Nina was sent off to commandeer a search of potential blind spots, she could feel the spiteful eyes of others upon her, the eyes of those who knew she was partly responsible for what Lews hadn't done. For the first time since Soto had been overthrown, she no longer felt safe walking down those streets, and the feeling unnerved her. What had the fruit of their efforts come to?