Ame Perdue

Chapter Ten

"Are you sure that we want to save this place?"

Milo didn't respond. He had nothing that he could say to refute it; he was staring out at the same smoldering ruins that I was. What was once a small city, was now nothing more than chunks of rocks laying among the ashes of the people who once lived there. Even from a distance, I could feel the heat of the dying flames burning my skin, could see the black smoke trailing up into the air.

Wordlessly, Milo started towards the destruction, going no faster than a slow jog. I followed him after a moment, struggling to attach the dagger's sheath to me as I moved. They made that look far easier in the movies. I kept a careful eye out as we entered the ruins. Whereas Milo kept his eyes on the piles of rocks, the healer in him searching for a sign of any survivors, my eyes were flickering around, wary of what caused this city to tumble into a pile of rocks and burning ashes.

And that was all that it was. What had once been a busy city had been blown to its foundations. Everything that once stood tall was reduced to rumble, only the shells of the sturdiest remained standing. Whatever happened hadn't been long, small fires were still blazing their way across anything that remained standing. A deep rumble had my gaze shooting to my left. By the time what was happen a process in my brain, the building was already at ground level, a cloud of dust rising around it being the only evidence that it ever existed.

I half expected to see the bones of the people who once lived there scattered around, but there was nothing disguisable. Just piles of ash and dust. As if sensing my thoughts, Milo grimaced, "The force of the bombs would have blown apart most everyone. Any chunks large enough to be recognized have already been carried away by scavengers." His eyes scanned the area, "There are enough drop sites here to take out an entire country."

I glanced around at the 'quiet city' Amil told us we would land in, his words ringing in my mind. I frowned, a thought crossing my mind, "How does time here compare to Ame Perdue?"

"Normally, it runs far slower, however, Amil quickly its pace for us so that we wouldn't be lost to time while we were here. Now time here is nearly equal to Ame Perdue, every hour here is equal to about 52 minutes there." I didn't miss the way his eyes glanced towards his phone as he spoke. His memorization skills weren't as good as he pretended them to be. I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't been aware that Amil was able to manipulate time.

Perhaps he spun around the world counterclockwise a few times.

I didn't respond as I mentally went over the differences in the gases of the atmosphere. Everything here was borderline acidic, the gases far more flammable. The increased temperature wouldn't allow as much of the heat to dissipate into the air. Everything here would burn longer and hotter than I was used to, according to the laws of physics of this place. I didn't feel like accessing the damage, figuring out exactly how long it had been since the flames had taken over this city, but at a simply guess, this had been burning for at least a week, the remainder of the flames finally starting to extinguish themselves as the last of the buildings crumbled around the graves of its inhabitants.

Milo didn't seem to notice anything wrong with the equation, or at least if he did, he didn't show it. I did a slow circle of the ruins, staring at the smoldering embers. I was certain that this place had been burning for at least a week, which meant that it had been burning for a week in Ame Perdue as well. Something wasn't quite adding up.

I cast a suspicious gaze at Milo. He was kicking through the rubble, searching for any clues on what happened. He didn't seem to realize that if this city had been destroyed for a week then it was something that Amil must certainly would have known. Especially if this world moved slower to Ame Perdue. This city had been destroyed for at least a week, no matter when he changed time. He should have known that this place was destroyed.