Memory Registry

[overworker]

Baby Stars
First Loss
( time gap )
Class VI
School Festival
( time gap )
Orientation Meeting
( time gap )
Bonds and Books
( time gap )
First Death
( time gap )
Pick a Weapon
Graduation
Beginners' Lessons
Crossbell Bracers
( time gap )
Second Loss
Reunion and Heartache
Third Loss
( time gap )
Captain Towa

Comments

Memory One. (Day 283)

[overworker]

News passes that some students from Thors assisted in successfully deactivating the first Railway Gun. A small sigh of relief floods the room-- but not for you. Your hands are pressed tightly together, clutched to your chest as you bite your lip. “Everyone… Please be safe.” But that moment of relief is short lived as suddenly several people begin to cry out in distress, pointing towards the second canon. “...no way. There’s no way they could have prepared it that fast! Just to take aim would…” And then your voice dies in your throat for a split second. “No… they wouldn’t… Do they plan to fire without aiming?!”

This seems to alarm the entire room. Guests are demanding to be let out. It’s a complete disaster. The room is filled with noise. You can’t make out any one voice anymore. So you shout out over them. “Please! Listen, everyone! I know you’re scared. That’s why we need to work together. There are people out there fighting with everything they've got to stop it.... But we can't leave this all on them. We can’t stay here. We need to evacuate the building.”

Orchis Tower is too much of a target, and there are few means of protecting themselves here. Together, an evacuation plan starts to come together. A few at a time, people are escorted towards the emergency stairwells.

You hear the blast second before the impact sends you tumbling to the floor. Light fixtures burst and tables collapse. But you’re immediately grabbing the first solid thing you can find and standing, albeit on wobbly legs. You’re terrified and yet--

“Get everyone out as quickly as you can! Avoid the elevator passage-- take the emergency stairwell!” You’re motioning to indicate the necessary paths, offering guidance and comfort to the panicking masses around you. “Do we have a detailed list of the personnel that are in the building? We need to organize the staff and get everyone out safely. What floors were being occupied?” The people around you are quick to offer the answers they have and it tells you what you need to know. There should still be people higher up. “I’m going to check the landing-- please make sure everyone gets out safely!”

No one can find the words to argue with you; although you see the uncertainty in their eyes like they know they should say something. But you don’t have time for that. This is the moment you realize your arm is bleeding through your school jacket. It must have been the glass earlier.

You immediately push it from your mind.

Everyone else descends. You climb. It’s just an extra floor, but you’re grateful that’s all it is. You don’t have much time. You feel the foundation shaking and cracking underneath you. If you had to guess, there’s probably little more than five minutes before the whole building falls.

There’s a group of people stuck behind a door that got stuck in it’s frame. “Stand back! I’ll make a path!” With your orbal gun, it only takes one shot to knock it loose and help get them back out into the hall.

“Hurry! The emergency stairs are that way! Everyone’s begun evacuating, you can still catch up!”

Just one more room to check.

You can’t linger.

But just as you pull that final door open, you feel the whole building shift. A crack on the outside of the building is causing the upper floor to cave in. You try to hold on to something that might be attached yet, but your grip is too weak. With a scream you plummet into a sea of debris; resting upon rough patches of broken stone, steel shards, splintered wood and even small bits of shattered glass. You brace yourself, heart in your throat as you feel yourself falling.

You just hope that everyone else made it out alright… Class VII too.

At impact, you know several things are broken. Not just from the fall, but from the debris still falling around you. Your body is tossed like that of a ragdoll into a heaping pile of parts from the once standing building. You can feel yourself growing weaker. You’re losing blood from several places and the pain itself is bad enough to make your consciousness swim. You fight it because you know that if you don’t, you won’t wake back up.

Sorry… everyone…

No matter how much you want to, it’s too much. You’re too weak. You can’t make it on your own. In your last moments of consciousness there are three people you think of, their names sharp and vivid in your mind.

Crow... Angelica... George...