The Truth About Us

Chapter 3: The City Of Thyron

After a twenty-minute drive, Clarke and Thomas finally arrived at Thyron. The city was a bright place but only because the sky was a burning red due to years of conflict. A fight they had narrowly won. Collapsed buildings line the streets as a result of bombs being dropped left, right and centre. People had to be evacuated to camps a few miles away to ensure safety, meaning homes were abandoned and rotting slowly. This is yet another reason Clarke was constantly hired to rebuild the city. With a few miles to go before reaching the desolate building, the pair ogled at the wasteland that many used to call home. Clarke had to swerve to miss the rubble that broke the roads perimeter. The place needed help fast. The car they'd taken was their most reliable company car although it wasn't a hard competition. The old Volkswagen polo had done them well despite the old age and the battering it had received over its seventy-year life span. Eventually though they reached the build site and opened the car doors with a deafening screech. The site already had a run-down office building with boards over the windows and doors in its place.

 "We'll have to knock it down tom" said an excited Clarke.

 "Thank you, Captain Obvious" chuckled Thomas. 

"Come on then" Clarke said as he ran up the steps to the doors.

With three shoulder rams, the door was smashed open. The duo eagerly stepped into the desolate building and looked around. The dark eerie atmosphere made them both shudder in the cold. The stairs wasting away, dissolving by the second. The two of them daren't step on them in fear of them falling through. Despite being restricted to the ground floor, they parted in separate ways to explore further. 

Clarke walked through some double doors and found himself in what would have been the chief operations officers office. This room too had been abandoned for many years so was rotting at a rate that was unsavable now. On the desk was a form, the piece of paper that changed the country. This was the document that put The Rijik in charge. Clarke picked it up and breezed over it before putting it in his pocket to return it back to them. Out of nowhere, a massive crash came from the other room and a bloodcurdling scream made Clarkes heart skip a beat. 

He ran next door and found Thomas trapped under a metal beam that had fell from the floor above. "What the hell happened here!?" in a breathless gasp. 

"ugh, it collapsed as I was reaching for the door over there" Thomas responded who was clearly in a lot more pain than he was letting on. "Can you get it off?".

 Clarke Sighed and said, "We'll see" and started to lift the 1.5 tonne beam of Thomas' legs. With a nasty gash spanning the length of his shin, Thomas limped over to the near desk and sat.

 "That sucked! It just dropped out nowhere"

"Can you walk to the car? We should get you checked at the hospital" Clarke asked in his most concerned tone.

 "I think so." Thomas slowly rose from the desk and Clarke went to support him. Both start heading for the front door, thinking about what had just occurred. Then, almost in slow motion, a stone beam above the door cracked. Clarke looks up and, noticing the inevitable, pushes Thomas through the archway and out of the drop zone. He hits the floor with a breath-taking 'thud' and sees Clarke being buried by the collapsing doorway.