Tears of Blood (wlw)

aftermath

DEVYN POV

"Are you okay?" I ask as I help Gabe up from the rubble. The sky looks black from all of the smoke. Andrea coughs behind me as she gets up holding her arm.

"I think I broke it." She says in pain as she tries to move it.

"You should stay out here and wait until medical comes. It's too dangerous in there. I'm going to go find our friends." I start to walk away but Andrea grabs my arm.

"I said I'm coming with." She stares at me, eventually winning and I let her come along. The building was half standing, almost leaning over. It was going to fall eventually so we had to hurry.

"Gabe you go from the right, I'll go this way. We need to split to cover more ground." Out of the corner of my eye I see Andrea wince in pain as she holds her arm.

"Ramos you're with me." I say as I walk with her. We walk over the rubble, climbing over toppled pillars and windows.

"How do we get up?" Andrea asks.

"The elevators are down. There might be the staircase if it hasn't been destroyed already. She nods and I lead the way. The staircase in the building looks intact, but there's pieces of glass, electrical wires and pipes all over the place. We slowly climb over all of it and climbing up the building. I have no idea what floor we were on after a while, but the stair case ended due to a big gap between the side we were on and the other.

"We can't get across like this. The staircase has a gap."

"I can see that." She replies, almost frustrated. She sits on one of the boulders. I look down from the big gaping hole in the middle of the staircase. Everyone on the ground looks like little ants, so I guess we were high enough.

"Let me see your arm." I walk over to Andrea.

"Don't touch it, it hurts."

"I just want to see it." I help roll up her torn sleeve. It looks bad.

"It's not too bad. You'll be fine after they fix you up." I say optimistically.

"God, sometimes you're such a bad liar." She cracks a painful smile.

"I guess so." I smile back.

"Devyn!?" I turn around to see Ash, Sierra and Isabella on the other side of the gap in the stairs.

"Oh my god! Thank god. Are you guys okay?" I wave of relief washes over me as I see their faces.

"We're fine, Sierra is hurt though." Ash replies as I notice how badly Sierra's head was bleeding. Her arms were draped over Isabella and Ash.

"It' okay. You guys just need to get across somehow, and then we can get you all down." Andrea explains. Ash looks at her with so much longing. I look at her and she gives him a reassuring eyebrow raise and then quickly looks down at her arm.

"I have an idea." I say as I climb down the stairs. On the way up I saw a metal panel, that could work like a plank. I think it came off one of the office walls. It had to be at least 9 feet long. Picking it up, I let it sit on my back and take it up slowly as it was very heavy. After what felt like forever, I finally reached them. Putting it down on our side, I let the other side of the plank land on Ash's side. It landed perfectly and Isabella let out a sigh of relief.

"Isa, why don't you go first?" Ash proposes. She nods and slips out under Sierra's arm. She taps the metal with her foot, making sure it was sturdy.

"You got this Bella." Andrea yells. She starts to walk across it and looks down, shuddering at the thought of how high we were. She jogs the rest of the way very quickly and gets onto our side. Running over to Andrea she gives her a tight hug, and Andrea screams in pain.

"Oh sorry."

"It's fine, I'm glad you're okay."

"Sierra won't be able to walk by herself. She's in and out." Ash yells at us.

"Do you want me to come over and help?" I start to walk towards the plank.

"No, I'm gonna carry her." Ash bends his knees to grab her legs. She looks limp in his arms and I suddenly feel scared for her. He walks steadily over the plank until he reaches us.

"There you guys are!" Gabe comes up from the staircase. We all sit around, exhausted and confused at what just happened. Ash puts Sierra down and I run to her.

"Hey, I'm right here." She opens her eyes a little and mumbles something I can't make out and then passes out. Ash is staring at his shoes and Isabella starts to cry.

"What is it?" Andrea asks while putting her good arm around her.

"Wait, where's Brianna?" Gabe says as he walks around. He stops in his tracks when he realizes what all of their looks mean.

"No, NO." He falls to his knees and Ash goes to him.

"She was the last one to zip line across when the aircraft hit us out of no where. The line broke.. and she.." Ash fails to complete his sentence because of the cracks in his voice. There's a lump in my throat as well and my jaw felt so heavy.

"How can you guys be sure..." Gabe cries.

"We were so high up, and the line broke.. we saw her fall." Isabella starts to sob. My heart starts to beat faster and I feel like I can't breathe. My legs feel like jelly so I turn around. Keeping my tears in the best I could. I could feel my hands starting to shake. Another hand grabs mine and I know its Andrea, I don't even have to turn around to see here. She gives it a squeeze. With my back towards them I look down at the stairs.

"I'm going to go find her." I say with a hint of anger at the world. I hurry down and find my way through the other side of the building. Medical teams were everywhere, recovering people from the aftermath of the attack.

"Everyone get away from the building! It will collapse!" Someone yells in the microphone.

"Ms.Ackerman are you okay?" A member of the medical team asks me.

"I'm fine, but my friends are on the right staircase in the building, please go to them."

"Right away ma'am. Your sister is on her way." With that a group runs towards the stairs.

I look around the rubble where she could have fallen. After almost giving up, I see a hand under the heavy rocks. The wrist is filled with bracelets, and my heart sunk as I spotted the yellow bracelet I made for Brianna when we were kids. Anger swelled inside me and I start to move the rocks with every drop of strength I had left, but they won't budge. I scream and try again, but they're too heavy, but I won't give up on my friend.

"Devyn! Devyn! Stop." Sloane holds me as I sink into her and drop to the floor.

"They're too heavy....Brianna...it's too heavy.." I can't control my tears anymore and they rush out.

"It's okay Dev. We'll get her, shhh. I got you." I cry into her shoulder and she lets me.