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They made their way back toward the city, but as they mounted a ridge which separated the city from the lake, William stopped in his tracks.
“Something's wrong.”
Something was very wrong. The dome of the city was glowing bright red. Sarah had never seen it that way before, it looked like an angry volcano about to spew forth lava. The city proper, sometimes visible even from a distance through the dome, was obscured completely by the vapor, which was turning dark before their eyes.
“God,” William said, his voice dry and tight with horror. “My god.”
Sarah knew something terrible was happening, but there was nothing either of them could do. There was a sound like a giant egg being cracked and then plumes of reddish black smoke began to pour from the dome, filling the sky and blocking out light from the sun.
“Sarah...” William's words were cut off by a reverberation which shook the ground beneath their feet. “Get down!”
Sarah dropped into a crouch. She was glad she did, for in the next instant there was an explosion which shook the ground so violently that it was impossible to keep her feet. She went sprawling and William landed atop her, covering her body with his own.
His weight was not inconsiderable, but it was a comfort with the chaos that was raining down all around them. Bits of charred glass and twisted metal were flying through the air like hot shrapnel. It took a long time for the shaking to stop and when it did the silence was so complete and eerie that her every hair stood on end.
“Are you alright?” William breathed the question against her neck.
“Yes,” she said. “Are you?”
“Yeah.” He stood up and shielded his eyes. “The city is gone.”
It truly was gone. Only a crater remained where the city had once been, blackened and hollowed out.
“What happened?”
“A fatal malfunction,” William said grimly. “A total overload of the power grid.”
“We should see if we can help anyone.”
“There's no one left,” he said. “In the case of a fatal malfunction the entire city is evacuated through the subterranean shuttles. A whole city can be cleared in less than three minutes.”
“And if people don't get out?”
“People get out,” William repeated himself with grim confidence. “Nobody stays behind in a fatal malfunction. The heat generated in a total overload is enough to vaporize anyone near it.” He rubbed his hand over his face, shaking his head with shocked dismay. “Every city is briefed about the possibility, but nobody actually expects it to happen.”
“It's all gone,” Sarah said. “The house...”
“My work,” William frowned. “It wasn't saved to the city's servers. It is lost. All lost.”
Sarah once would have danced for joy at seeing the city destroyed, but William's sadness made her morose. He was shocked and he was shaken, and though he was clearly trying to remain strong, the notion that his labors had been lost was hitting him hard.
“What now?” The question had to be asked. “Will we follow where they evacuated?”
“It is too late to follow,” William said. “The heat will have sealed those tunnels, and the other cities are thousands of miles away.”
It took a few moments for the reality of the situation to sink in for Sarah. It was really gone. All of it. The terrifying flying platforms, the cruel bureaucrats, the stinking kennels, all incinerated into their composite parts.
Next to her, William held the bird he'd caught. It was all he had left, besides the clothes on his back and the weapons in his holster. In the blink of an eye, he'd gone from a member of a powerful collective to a man alone in the wilderness, a wildling without any genetic protections. Somehow she sensed that he wasn't really registering the totality of his loss.
“We need to move away from this area as quickly as possible,” he said. “There's a possibility of fires and airborne contamination. Let's go.”
He was more interested in surviving the disaster than being emotional about it. She admired his strength, which had never shone more strongly than in that moment. It was easy for a man to be strong when fate was smiling on him, but adversity showed the true nature of all creatures. Without a second look back at the crater which had once been his home, William strode out into the unknown. Sarah followed quickly on his heels.
They fast marched away from the crater, making very good time as adrenaline surged through both their bodies. In all her time in the city Sarah had never imagined such a terrible force was boiling below it. She had never given any thought to the power which kept the place in pristine condition, all the gidgets and the gadgets and the marvels which had defied nature. The memory of the meltdown was fresh in her memory, playing itself over and over again with red surging glow and rancid scent carried on the breeze.
