Owen, Sarah, and Will arrived together at the entrance of the Capital. The road they took was short, the fastest way to get there.
However, they needed to depart once they got there.
"What will you two do for now? You didn't say it in the mountain…" Owen asked, seeming to try to make a subject, but, in truth, he was just scared, and trying to delay for a while before they entered for real the Capital.
"I will be going to search for my groom. He is a firefighter, and is probably saving people and risking his life by now." Sarah spoke.
"I will go to the university I work at. My students were having their last class when it all started, so they might be there. Also, there is some bus that stops by there, so it would be good to gather more people and go out of the city."
Will's intentions seemed to be the kindest and selfless one among them. The guy wasn't just looking for his students, but for the other people he could save.
"Why are you acting like others' interests have something to do with you?" The manager asked to Will, who looked at him with a helpless expression.
"I am a sociology professor. I know that things will just work if we offer a hand to the ones around us."
After that brief exchange of words, they all looked towards the Capital, breathing in deeply.
'I wish I could have a damn cigarette…' Sarah thought before she ran, entering the capital and going towards the center.
Owen was the second to enter there. He headed to the east, where the building he lived in was.
Will was the last one.
'It's very easy for anyone to do a beautiful speech and look cool…' He sighed, feeling even more helpless than before. 'But have the courage to do so is another entirely different thing, huh?'
The professor, then, slapping himself on the face, headed to the midwest, towards the university.
…
Owen was now closer to that devastated city. Buildings burnt around him, cars crashed into each other, people ran, screamed, and agonized; he couldn't take all of that at once, and his sanity was going down each second he remained staring at that chaos.
He saw a group of people trying to help others together. They were paramedics of an ambulance, together with other citizens who decided to give their support.
Owen admired those who occupied their minds trying to help the ones in need, even when facing such a terrible situation, but he couldn't understand them at all.
He was sure that those people had family and friends, but, even so, they wasted their time helping strangers. It wasn't just incomprehensible, but idiotic as well.
Brushing off his thoughts, he ran through that street.
The manager got the time to take care of that wound throughout the first part of his way to go home. He somehow managed to get that glass shard out of his thigh, then he cleaned the wound and made a tight tourniquet.
He couldn't do a perfect job since he was in a hurry to find his family and the chaos in the capital just increased as time passed, but it was better than run with a glass stuck on his leg.
The street he was passing by was a large and long one, with lots of establishments and commercial buildings. The part of the capital that served as a residential zone was far away from there.
What was before one of the most visited streets, because of iconic establishments that people ran into to take a good meal, a snack, or then to see an interesting attraction; turned now into a real mess.
The asphalt was completely cracked because of the strong and multiple earthquakes that were happening from time to time. A good part of the constructions was exploded, some in flames, others were collapsing slowly.
As he ran there, Owen needed to avoid a lot of people who were going to the opposite side. It was a bunch of desperate citizens, and the manager felt like trying to get out of a busy stadium just when people were trying to enter it.
For a lot of times, he nearly fell to the ground, but he forced himself to keep steady on his feet and fight against that flow of people.
'Damn! I already lost count of how many times they hit me with their elbows or bumped into me… My body is getting achy…'
Just as he thought it, someone that was running at full speed and was several centimeters taller than him threw all the weight of their body against him. That individual was opening space as he ran.
Owen couldn't maintain his balance and fell to the ground, hitting his back hard.
'Does that jerk thinks he is playing football or something!?"
He tried to raise from the ground, but before he did so someone kicked him unintentionally while running. The kick got him right on the jaw and he fell to the ground again, totally dizzy.
He was trying to find the strength to rise as fast as possible, but everything he could do was drag himself on the floor or roll to the side, trying to avoid the multiple citizens running around.
Another person stepped on his shoulder and a last one on his injured leg.
The pain was excruciating and he screamed as he felt the wound opening more.
Anyway, that acute pain was, somewhat, helpful. Once his body felt that agonizing shock wave crossing all his leg, he could push himself upwards and raise from the ground.
Owen was going to rest for a bit before continuing running. He was trying to take his breath, looking around.
The flow of people fleeing through that street was increasing.
'If I stay slacking on the same place, then I will be in serious danger. There are too many people coming this way, and if I don't start to run again, it will be too crowded to go against the flow…'
He gritted his teeth, enduring the pain and starting to rush again.
He never ran so much in his life, much less when hurt like that. It has been several kilometers already.
As Owen still needed to deviate from the others, it was even more tiring. He was starting to feel a headache on the left side of his head, his lungs seemed to be burning, and the muscles of his thigh were reaching the failure. Soon he wouldn't have the strength to run anymore.
'I need to catch a vehicle! I am not a freaking marathonist. I won't stand for much longer like this. I feel like my legs are ready to explode!'
Just as he was looking for an abandoned vehicle, people around him screamed louder than before, and instead of going in the opposite direction he was taking, they returned running in the same course.
Owen looked behind him, but there was no threat on the streets that he could identify.
However, the manager could notice something in the air, flying… no, falling in their direction. It was an airplane with one of the wings completely in flames and going towards that street like a kamikaze.
At that sight, Owen couldn't help but shout a cursing and sped up forward, forgetting completely how worn out his legs were.
He didn't look back and just kept using all the remaining energy he had.
However, he didn't need to look back to know that the plane was each second closer to them, and at a speed that they couldn't match at all.
He heard more screams of pure panic, and then the ground trembled under his feet. Owen nearly lost balance again.
A lot of people around tripped in the middle of their rush. Others accelerated more, which seemed to be an impossible feat before.
The plane had hit the ground, finally, and opened a huge wound on it. The rest of his structure exploded at once, but it didn't stop and slid forward, destroying everything in the way.
Pieces of concrete and asphalt flew everywhere, some of them nearly hitting Owen. The metal constituting the plane seemed like bullets flying across the air and cutting people.
'RUN! DON'T STOP TO MOVE YOUR LEGS, PLEASE!' He shouted in his mind, panicking.
The sound of the plane ruining the street behind him was getting louder and louder. The ground was trembling like never before, and Owen didn't know how he could keep on running.
Some wreckage struck him on his back and in his legs, but he didn't stop no matter what.
A metal piece hit him on his flank, cutting him, and he couldn't hold on this time and fell to the ground, rolling several meters and just stopping when hitting his shoulder against a random car in the middle of the street.
The last thing he saw before fainting was the plane coming in his direction.