Hannah
The hesitation changes everything.
Not completely.
Not magically.
But enough.
Enough for the boy bleeding behind the overturned medical cart to stop reaching for his rifle.
Enough for the girl beside him to lower hers slightly.
Enough for Wu to realize he’s losing control.
And Wu does not handle losing control well.
The bunker lights flicker violently overhead.
Emergency systems screaming through the walls now.
Somewhere far below us, Ascension Core groans like a dying machine waking up too fast.
Gabriel checks the portable reactor monitor.
His face tightens immediately.
“The meltdown’s accelerating.”
Russ destroys another ceiling turret with three precise shots.
“How long now?”
Gabriel swallows.
“Maybe twenty minutes.”
Twenty.
Not enough time to fight through an underground army and evacuate children from multiple sectors.
Wu knows it too.
His voice echoes through the corridor once more.
“You cannot save them all.”
The words hit me harder than they should.
Because once—
once I would have believed him.
That survival required sacrifice.
That weakness had to be abandoned.
That some lives mattered more than others.
