Hereafter

CHAPTER 6

March Madness "Creator's Choice"

Wufei Chang didn't care for trivialities. He also didn't like sweets, and thus didn't partake in the cake that was offered after orientation for the Preventers. He had been sipping a cup of tea—slightly bitter from having been allowed to steep too long—when the ceiling collapsed.

Having grown up on the Colonies and spending most of his time in Space, he had never experienced an earthquake. For a split second, that was what he thought it was. In the next second, all the glass windows shattered, the overhead lights burst, and the ceiling tiles crashed all over the floor. The whole world seemed to shudder, and darkness closed in around them like a cloak. The sound was deafening. Wufei hit the ground, both hands stinging, fragments of linoleum rolling off the back of his coat. He looked up to see thick steel beams exposed overhead and warping low from having absorbed the collapse of an entire building.

"Get out!" Noin's voice rang out through the room. "Everybody get out right now!"

That was easier said than done. The steel door leading outside was twisted in the frame and would not budge. All the window glass had shattered but most were blocked by heavy asphalt. Only one on the west side, which had been above the small counter in the small kitchen, showed slivers of sunlight and sky through cracks and crevices of fallen debris. Together, they pushed at the pieces they could reach until one gave way and rolled clear, making just enough space for a body to squeeze through. One by one, they climbed up onto the counter and out through the small window.

Only when they were standing on the rubble, footing uncertain and faces covered in ash, were they able to take in the massive calamity of what they had somehow survived.

"My God," Une was saying over and over. "My God. My God."

"Where's Trowa?" Duo asked, turning frantically in circles.

"He left before," Sally said. "He thought he saw Heero. I'll… I'll go find him." She was carrying a medical bag that she must have grabbed from inside.

"We should move clear," Noin says. "Pieces may continue to collapse."

They heeded this advice in a daze, moving out from the shadow of the collapsed structure and into the sunlight. Wufei hadn't felt such an adrenaline rush in years. His chest and arms were shaking. His head felt lighter than air, like it was about to pop right off his neck like a balloon and float away. He had experienced something like this before, back when his home Colony had… back when he lost…

Instantly, it was like he was there again, like it was happening again, and so real. He was in a field of wildflowers and the sun was shining and Meilan was dying. He told her he would never call her that.

"Whoa," Noin said as he went down.

Wufei could hear her voice, but only distantly. It took him a moment to realize he had blacked out, feinting right on his feet. He came to just as quickly, but now the sky was above him and a woman's face blotted out the sun.

"I'm so sorry, Nataku," he muttered.

But it was Noin's face. He blinked, disoriented.

"Hey!" Noin shouted, turning toward someone Wufei could not see. His vision was all blue sky. Where were the flowers? "Duo, help me! He's… Something is not right."

Wufei was carried further out of the impact zone and laid down on ash-soaked grass. He opened his eyes to see Duo peering over his face. "You okay?" Duo asked.

Wufei blinked. Everything was coming back into focus. He sat up slowly. He still felt odd. "I don't know what happened," he said. "I just… I went somewhere else."

"Yeah, I've had that before," Duo said. "Kicks you right in the teeth."

"We need water," Noin said. She stared out at the rubble. Her eyes became distant, vacant. "We should look for other survivors."

Sirens blared on the horizon as she spoke.

Wufei lay his head back down.

A phone rang.

Duo's face went white as a sheet. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a phone. He turned away from them as he answered it. "Hilde?" Wufei could hear him saying. "No, I'm okay! We were in the building, but we got out. Hold up, where are you?" Duo was quiet for a moment longer, listening, and then turned back to them. "You're not going to believe this," he said. "Hilde thinks she caught the person responsible."

"What?" Une exclaimed.

"No way," Noin said. "Who? Where?"

Wufei took a couple of deep, calming breaths. Hilde had joined the Preventers right after the Mariemaia incident. She missed orientation because she had attended the last one. But she was in the area for recruiting. Could she have seen something, been in the right place at the right time?

"She says it's a kid," Duo said, his voice heavy with disbelief. "Not even a soldier. Just some kid. Maybe sixteen? She found him slumped over the wheel in a truck on the side of the road. At first, she thought he was unconscious, a victim, but there were empty cans of ammonium nitrate in the bed of the truck. She says he surrendered when she identified herself as a Preventer. I'm… I'm going to go check it out."

"God," Noin said, angry tears pooling at the corner of her eyes. She dashed them away with the back of her hand. "It's never over, is it?"

"No," Wufei said. "It never will be. But that's why we have to keep fighting."

"And Relena," Noin whispered, gasping with sudden realization. "If she's dead, what will that mean?"

"War," Wufei said without ceremony. "That would quite possibly reignite the war."