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He didn’t

He lifted his face frorown di to his arritty wind swirled the air The sky, it seele page dropped lazily into his hands "Memo," it read at the top And, beneath that, "From: HR Department To: All employees Re: Benefits enrolleness of these words They felt like a code Within theirlay an entire reality, a world lost in tiust of air had stripped it fro sound came from his left Second by second it increased, as did the wind He turned his head to look uptown, toward the source of the noise

A great graytoward his felt like wet sand

He ran, nonetheless, like hell

--

The first building to fall was not the one Michael saw By this time, the collapse of e of Central Park to Washington Square, edifices large and small were in the process of acute structural liquefaction,sinkhole that the island’s central core was on its way to beco vertically into their foundations like prisoners felled by a firing squad Others were encouraged by their neighbors, as building after building teetered and toppled into others A few, such as the great glass tower on the east side of the trapezoidal city block at Fifty-fifth and Broadway, appeared to succuiving up the ghost--why don’t I do that also? The processan to organ, it churned through the avenues of blood, it wrapped its lethal fingers around the bones of steel Dust clouds roared in a great carcinogenic regurgitation, blackening the skies

An ersatz night fell over Manhattan

Beneath Grand Central Station, the water arrived froton Avenue subway line froh the Forty-second Street shuttle line froed; like a tsuna as it approached the shore, the water’s power rateful bitch!" Fanning cried "What have you done?"

He said nothem off their feet In a blink, the , tossing, her sense of direction obliterated The water was six feet deep and rising Glass was shattering, things were falling, everything was in a tuh s burst inward; the current grabbed her, sending her under again She flailed helplessly, searching for sorasp The body of a viral careened into her It was the felimpsed her eyes, full of terrified inco swept toward the balcony stairs She irab hold of the rail with her right hand Her lungs cried out for air; bubbles rose froe to breathe could not be forestalledto do was let the current take her, in the hope that she would be carried to safety

She let go of the rail

She s in the right direction If she’d been carried into the tunnels, she would have drowned A second shock wave hit her, squirting her upward

She landed on the balcony, clear of the water at last On her hands and knees, she coughed and retched, foul-tasting water spewing from her mouth

Peter

Hurled up the stairs by the sa just a few feet behind her Where was Fanning? Had he been pulled under like the other virals, carried to the bottoht this, the floor lurched The air cracked She looked up to see a large chunk of the ceiling detach and tu down

Peter’s chest was in She shook him by the shoulders, called his name; his eyes fluttered open, then squinted at her face She saw no recognition in theue puzzleet you out of here"

She drew hiht shoulder Her balance wavered, but shelike the deck of a boat Hunks of ceiling continued to break away as the building’s structural underpinnings failed