Gone

61.

Running Away by Midnight Hour

They cough from the smoke and ash that sticks to their lungs, "everyone alright?" Amoura stands up, "Clive." Amoura rushes to feet before bolting into the darkness, "No Stone!" Volkov grabs her, "there's nothing left there. No one recovers from that. Not that this range."

"We have to check," Amoura squirms in Volkov's tight grip, "Stone Stone!" Johnson tries to see Stone past the dazed look on her face, "let me go! They're there, I have to go!"

"Who's there Stone?" Amoura stops moving long enough to look at Johnson, "Clive." Amoura breaks free and bolts into the darkness, coughing up silver and smog as she goes in deeper.

"Clive!" Amoura screams as she tries to find him in the darkness, "Clive!" The other Commanders rush in after her to try to stop her "Stone!" Lang finds her first. "Stone they're gone. Stone there's nothing left. We have to get out of here!" Lang coughs from the smog that fills her lungs, "we have to go Stone. Stone!" Amoura looks up, "Lang!" Amoura pushes Lang out of the way as the building collapses.Amoura covers Lang as the building falls on them.

Amoura wakes up three days later in a cot, "where am I?" Amoura rubs her sore temples, as she sits up, Amoura walks out and looks for someone, she follows the voices, before she reaches them she comes across the makeshift graveyard.

Her legs move before she comes up with a thought, her eyes scan the bodies covered in white sheets, "the body bags are on their way." A woman in a lab coat walks up to her, Amoura turns to look at her, "most of the bodies aren't compete and we are hoping to match them with DNA. It's taking a while since the bodies are badly burned. We're trying to use the tags but some are to destroyed to read." Amoura walks off and continues looking through the rows of bodies.

She stops when a wedding band sticking out of a sheet, she quickly notices it was Clive's ring, "Clive." Amoura stares at the white sheet until she gets the courage to pull it back, "what now?" Amoura stares at Clive's burnt body, the gold wedding band catches the light.

Amoura unwillingly falls back into a small corner of her mind, a part she hasn't visited since her time in Alzack's metal box. "Stone!" Commander Lang runs yelling for Amoura until she see's her standing by a body. "Stone!" Lang tries to snap her out of it, but her attempts at shaking her conscious fall to deaf ears.

"Stone he's gone. Come on let's go Stone." Amoura doesn't budge from her spot by Clive's feet. There was nowhere else she'd want to be. "Commander Amoura Stone snap out of it!" Lang tries to pull her away but Amoura won't budge, instead, she falls down to her knees.

Lang gives up and walks away, Amoura stays where she is. Lang returns a few hours later with Johnson who also fails to pull Amoura out of her deep bubble.

"We have to do something? We can't leave her like this. If anyone knows how to bring the Council down it will be her." Johnson comments as he joins the other Commanders in a small huddle by the edge of the graveyard.

"Damn it Stone! This isn't over, you have to snap out of it. The council can't get away with it." Volkov storms over to her, "come on snap out of it. Get whatever you have to and pull yourself together and make the bastards who killed your husband pay."

"Volkov it's useless we've been at it all day." Sollov sighs in resignation, "then call someone, someone who will snap her out of this," Volkov stomps back to the group huddle. "Stone get up!" Lang tries to pull her to her feet. "You can't stay like this forever! We both know this wasn't an accident. The Council can't get away with this. So get up Amoura Stone. I need you to get up Stone, my unit, my friends died here too, so you need to get a hold of whatever you can and move forward and help us take these bastards down. Get up Stone!"