A Dance Of Crowns & Thrones | Book I

Chapter 66 | Destruction Of SeaTac

Even on the most horrible of days, remember to find a moment to breathe –

There is a calm that can be found even in the middle of a hurricane.

***** *****

Matthew burst into the area where Sea-tac had once been standing. Overhead, a nearby aircraft from one of the academies off the main island already hovered, its engines roaring against the backdrop of chaos.

The man-made island, the sanctuary of the refugee academy, lay in ruins—an extensive expanse of burning rubble and collapsed structures stretching for miles before him.

Paralyzed by horror, he stood amidst the surreal scene where the heavens themselves appeared to be ablaze. The man's ashen features twisted in disbelief as he squinted, his eyes straining against the cascading ash that enveloped him like a ghostly curtain.

Jesus, he was only just here hours ago. He was just here laughing and smiling with Eko ...and now it was gone. Gone.

The ash descended like mournful confetti, each particle carrying the weight of the once-standing structures now reduced to smoldering ruins. The air, thick with the acrid scent of burning remnants.

As he shivered involuntarily, it wasn't just from the biting chill in the air but a fraction of his being responding to the profound destruction unfurling before him. The world he knew was now an apocalyptic painting etched against the canvas of a once serene skyline.

She's gone.

Matthew's view was replaced with bodies at his feet, charred remains of unrecognisable people that had no chance of survival in this war. His fear crippled him. What if she was one of those bodies? What if...

He was torn from finishing the thought with the pouring water sprayed from above from one of the many aircrafts trying to extinguish the fires that rose into the heavens around him.

He meant to move, intended for all purposes, but for once, the fear controlled his body more than anything else. Ezra had orchestrated this; she had sent these people to their deaths, and for what? – for fucken what?

He couldn't think about any of that; he didn't have the time to process something so monstrumental. Matthew took off into the chaos to find Eko; there had been more than seventy thousand people on SeaTac, and they had pushed the limits of living capacity on the island.

His mind ran the statistics; there had been close to five thousand of those that were survivors of the moon. Eko being just a statistic now.

Like her, in an instant, their lives were gone with the downpour of water from the aircraft above him again; it made the sooty, beaten figures in front of him finally recognisable.

He could see how the blood clung to them, etched into the crevasses of their skin—bruised, scorched bodies crawling away from the heart of the attack, limping past him as though he had been a ghost in their world.

Did they even see him standing there?

Matthew's senses peaked when his attention was diverted from the gravity of the situation to the horrific cries of those who survived far off in the distance. His body gravitated towards them, one foot in front of the other, and his mind barely comprehended what he was doing.

Then he broke onto the SeaTac base and stood where the academy's entrance would have been. All other sections had been burning, structures and columns. A smoke haze around him forced his lungs to breathe deeper as the air thinned out more.