Owen collapsed for just some minutes. In no time he opened his eyes again. His body was still at full throttle and his mind turned on abruptly already alert.
Once his vision was normal again, the first thing he did was to look at his own body and see how was his state.
As long as he could see, he had some new wounds because of his fall, but besides it he was fine. The cut he received on his flank was bleeding, but nothing too concerning as well.
'What happened to the plane? Wasn't it coming on my way?' He thought, raising his trunk from the ground, then realizing that the plane was there… but right in front of him.
It was already entirely stuck on the ground, so it couldn't keep sliding. Owen had been lucky. If he had given up on running just some meters before, he could be dead.
Anyway, luck or not, the fact was that he could survive, and that was all that mattered in the end.
The man could keep up with his search for his daughter and wife.
Another part of the plane exploded into a burst of flames, scaring Owen and making him raise from the ground bruskly and run away again, without looking back.
He would not dare to keep in the same place and end dead if something happened with that plane again.
That street was less crowded than before. Everything he could see was just a few people trying to help others, or hiding, incapable of keep running for their lives and resorting to praying instead. There were firefighters there as well, trying to take control of the situation and save the citizens in need, as well as paramedics and policemen.
Owen just ignored all the people around him. That decision wasn't about being selfish or selfless anymore; the manager was in a fight or flight state. He was focusing on his main objective, and nothing more.
His hearing was more distant. His vision acquired a tunnel aspect, and all he could focus on was the end of that large street, which would take him to his goal. The blood was boiling in his veins and his mind couldn't think of anything else but means in which he could get to his family as fast as possible.
'Wait, the car!' As he was reasoning, he stopped to get distant from the plane and looked at the car he hit with his shoulder.
It was in the middle of the street, which meant that someone abandoned it immediately.
'If an individual left this car as fast as possible, they certainly didn't take the keys with them!' He approached the place he just left again, hoping the plane didn't explode again, nor did his flames spread and messed with everything.
The manager entered the car hurriedly. Just as he thought, the keys were still there.
'I hope that the person who left this car made it out of despair. If this thing got a punctured wheel or engine failing, then this risk will be for nothing!'
He closed his eyes and turned the key. At the exact moment, the engines of the car made a good sound and all his worries vanished.
When he backed up with the car, he noticed that it had a problem with the wheel, which made it go slowlier than it should. However, it was better than just run and depend on his short stamina.
Owen maneuvered the car, leaving the local hastily to not be caught in any other accidents.
He stepped on the accelerator and sped up as much as that car could bear, driving through the cracked and streets and going to meet his family.
'That's something crazy. Just some hours ago I was thinking about how it would be awesome to leave you two, but now everything that I want is to be beside you…'
He felt disgusted because of the thoughts he had regarding his wife and daughter.
'I will surely make up for it…' He accelerated more, feeling spirited. He was decided to find his family. 'I will surely make up for it by saving you two!'
Just as he thought of those words Owen's heart started to burn. It was just as if flames were surrounding it and warming it up.
It lasted for some minutes before disappearing completely.
He found it strange, but, regardless, kept on driving.
…
Sarah was running at full throttle through the streets, a lot of people did the same beside her. She felt like having a heart attack at any moment.
She had a healthy and athletic body, and she was used to jogging for longs distances. However, run in a life or death situation was completely different from a simple exercise and she discovered it by a painful experience.
'That thing will explode! That thing will…!' She was thinking the same nonstop, and after each sentence, she put more strength in her legs.
A loud sound echoed through the entire capital as a chemical industry exploded.
That explosion wasn't like the others that happened before, not even the lightning bolts were the same.
No, that one seemed to be a bomb that just landed on the capital.
Its power made people fall to the ground which was shaking and cracking even more. Flames spread in the surroundings in a large range.
All the constructions in a radius of 2 kilometers got resumed into ruins, the closest ones into ashes.
That was the biggest chemical industry of the capital and an icon for everyone who visited that place.
A second before the explosion, Sarah threw herself against the showcase of a store, breaking it with her body and falling inside on top of the broken glass.
The shock wave of the explosion made the windows of the surrounding constructions break as well and the shelves of the store which Sarah was fell to the ground as a storm wind entered there.
Sarah was having a panic attack. Her breath was completely unsteady and she didn't feel that she was breathing the necessary amount of oxygen at all. Her diaphragm was stiff and not working as it should.
Her shoulders were so tense that she couldn't move then at all. Tears were flowing down her face nonstop.
It lasted a few minutes before she could break that state and calm herself down again.
"Please, Sarah…" She said to herself, out of breath. "Please come back again… For God's sake come back… You need to run away, you need to act!"
She closed her hand into a fist. Her muscles were stiff and she had difficulty exerting enough strength on them, but she could go through it.
"Awake… Awake… AWAKE!" She shouted, punching herself hard on the face.
Her mind got a bit dizzy with the strong punch, but she stopped panicking, and her body relaxed. It served as a trigger to reset her system.
"Ok… That's good… Now, go."
She stood from the ground, don't waiting any further, and running away from that store.
'Risking my life just because I need to be with my fiance… It's even dumb of my part, isn't it?' She wiped out her tears, sniffing. 'But… When there is just one thing left for you in this world, how can someone just leave it behind? If the world is going to be just like I think it will… What's the point if I got nothing but my pointless life!?'
Facing those thoughts, she realized that, rather than a successful, strong, and decided person, she was just a helpless and naive woman.
Sarah kept going through the streets. Deep inside, she wanted to help all those people who were suffering to be alive, but in a lot of cases, there was nothing she could do about it.
She was running for more than third minutes, trying to get in the center of the capital, and on the way, she helped a lot of citizens in need, which caused her delay.
She tried to ignore the most victims as possible, but it was just heartbreaking for her.
Sarah wasn't really a kind person, but she still had humanity inside her.
In her way, just two kilometers or so far away from the center, she spotted a woman that had half of their body stuck into the wreckage of a collapsed building.
The lawyer was going in her direction, and she would need to pass by her.
'Ignore her… Ignore her, Sarah…' She closed her eyes while quickening the step.
However, she needed to stop when she heard the cry of a baby.
She opened her eyes immediately, turned her head to look at that woman on the ground again, and saw that she was using her body to cover a little boy.
She was looking at Sarah with pleading and watering eyes. Without words, she showed what she was begging her to do.
Sarah looked to all the dangerous way she needed to cover, then to the kid again.
'What… What do I do…?',