Chapter Text
The world ended on a Friday. Bobby could smell the smoke and ash from where he and Alex were staying out in the country for the weekend. That morning he was staring out the north window when his partner came up beside him.
“Hey.” she greeted, her voice still rough with sleep. Bobby turned and kissed her. His eyes roamed downward to the slight swell of her abdomen. Only six months remained until he became a father.
“Alex?”
“Hm?”
“Do you smell something?” Alex furrowed her eyebrows and sniffed.
“Smoke,” she observed. “coming from the city. A lot of it-- Bobby, what's wrong?”
“I- I don't know.” he admitted. “I, uh, need to make a call.” He wandered off into the den. Alex remained at the window, thinking. Her hands drifted to her stomach, where her and Bobby's offspring grew blessedly unaware of the danger brewing in her parents' hometown.
Meanwhile, in the city, all Hell was breaking loose. Mike Logan, four years retired from the New York City police force, scrambled to evacuate people from the burning pub where he had been enjoying a cold beer just moments before.
“Okay, everybody out, this way, c'mon, let's move!” Soon he heard firetrucks coming from nearby. 'Finally.' he thought. Another loud boom came from just beyond that. “Oh, Jesus!” he exclaimed, earning a worried look from the woman he was escorting from the demolished pub. He gave her a reassuring look and handed her off to the waiting arms of her family, who had come, along with many others, once they heard what was happening on the news.
In the midst of the chaos Mike found himself thinking, 'What the hell's going on?'
It took Carolyn a moment to remember where she was. The Anti-Terrorism building had collapsed after the third bomb had struck the iron and concrete structure. At least, she thought it was a bomb.
Why was it so dark? The blackness seemed to go on forever. The pain in her head only made matters worse. She reached out a hand tentatively to try and find an intact wall to guide her footsteps. Instead, she found herself being hoisted up by unseen hands. A tingle crept up her arm to her aching head. The pain subsided and she began to be able to make out rough patterns of light and dark.
“Thank you.” she croaked. Her voice felt raw, like she had been screaming. 'The smoke.' she decided. 'I must have inhaled some smoke when the building went down.' Out loud, she asked. “Why is it so dark in here?” Her rescuer was silent for a long moment before he said,
“We're outside. It's daytime.” Carolyn took this in. Daytime. Outside. 'No.' she thought. This couldn't be happening. “You need to get me to a hospital.” she told her companion. She felt him tense.
“The hospital's gone. It blew soon after your building was hit.” Carolyn started shivering, not from the cold, but from fear. Did this mean she would be blinded forever? If so, she's have to quit the police force. What would she do then? Her rescuer interrupted her rising panic by guiding her away from the wreckage, taking care to help her avoid the fallen rubble.
“Detective Zach Nichols, Major Case.”
“Major Case. I used to work there.”
“Oh really?” Zach lead her to what felt like the back end of an open ambulance. She sat down, feeling her way to a safe perch.
“Yeah. Transferred out after my partner, Mike, propositioned me.”
“Mike?” Carolyn could hear the frown in her rescuer's voice. “Mike Logan? I met him once before I replaced him. Yeah, he seemed alright. He retired.” Carolyn nodded.
“So I heard.” Someone came up beside her and dabbed at her face with a damp cloth. A paramedic, Carolyn guessed. The shallow cuts on her face had gone unnoticed until now. They stung, but she could take it; cuts would heal.
“Y'know, I didn't catch your name.”
“It's Barek. Detective Carolyn Barek, Anti-Terrorism.” She almost stuck out her hand to shake, remembering just in time that she had no way of knowing where his hand was, though she could probably make a halfway decent guess based on his height, about six three if the way she could feel him ducking under a beam was any indication. The paramedic shined a light in her eyes, testing her pupil's reaction. Nothing. Carolyn Barek was blind.
Megan Wheeler watched as the daycare employee read to her daughter's class with the exuberance of a small puppy, Katie's naturally frog-like voice croaking out The Frog Prince. 'How appropriate,' she thought. 'except my frog prince turned into a toad.' From the next building over megan heard a loud bang. The children in her daughter's class turned towards the noise and began to whimper. Katie tried to reassure the class when the teacher came rushing in, her face red from running up the stairs.
“Call the parents,” she ordered Katie. “the mayor's ordered everyone to get out of the city.” Megan stood.
“When was this?” she asked, showing Ms Darbinian her detective's badge.
“A few minutes ago.” she replied. To her assistant, she said. “Now, Katie. Please.” Katie made one more futile attempt at calming her class before running to the daycare phone book.
“What'd the mayor say's happening?”
“We're being attacked.” Megan gave her an incredulous look.
“By who?” Ms Darbinian shook her head, tears welling up in her kind, brown eyes.
“They don't know. Nobody does.”