Adventure of Ahora May 1

Ahora May reaches the bridge as charges thunder beneath its supports. Smoke rolls across the roadway, swallowing twisted railings and the far approach.

A morgue technician, a gaunt middle-aged man in a stained white coat and orange safety vest, crouches behind an ambulance. Gray dust streaks his shaved head and spectacles.

Another blast bucks through the bridge. Concrete cracks widen beneath the roadway, while smoke pours from the supports and loose metal shrieks overhead.

Beyond the ambulance, a Marine rifle lies beside a burned-out patrol vehicle. Dark figures drag themselves through reeds below, climbing toward the shattered span.

The technician grips the ambulance mirror, staring between Ahora May and the wreckage. The bridge groans again, and a fresh fracture races across the asphalt.

Ahora May moves through the smoke and closes on the Marine rifle. The asphalt bucks under her boots as the patrol wreckage shifts toward the fractured edge.

She grabs the rifle and pulls, but its sling is trapped beneath the patrol vehicle's crushed frame. The weapon tears free only halfway, pinned by twisted metal.

A slab of roadway drops beside the vehicle, plunging into smoke below. The rifle's stock wedges tighter, while reeds and grasping silhouettes climb nearer beneath the span.

The patrol vehicle rolls another inch toward the broken edge, pinning the rifle beyond a safe reach. The wreckage is no longer a place to search, only a collapsing trap.

Ahora May braces against the bucking asphalt and wrenches the rifle free. The sling snaps loose, leaving the loaded Marine weapon secured in her hands.

She checks the patrol wreckage through smoke and broken glass. The front compartment is crushed and empty, but a medical pouch and two magazines remain beneath the rear seat.

A metal case slides from the vehicle as it settles. Ahora May catches it before it reaches the fracture, finding field dressings, a tourniquet, and sealed antibiotic packets inside.

Below, wet silhouettes haul themselves over the reeds and onto the lower concrete. Their hands scrape upward as the bridge continues to groan around Ahora May.

The rifle, ammunition, and medical supplies are now hers. Behind the ambulance, the morgue technician points toward the intact side of the bridge, urging a retreat from the failing span.

The climbing dead emerge from the riverbank, water streaming from their clothes and hair. More shapes roll beneath the dark surface, rising wherever the current breaks against concrete.

A corpse catches against a bridge piling, then jerks upright as the current turns it. Another drags itself from the reeds, proving the pattern is spreading along the bank.

The bridge gives a deep metallic groan. Below, the river folds around drowned bodies and pushes them toward the intact shore, while the smoke thins enough to reveal dozens more.

Ahora May turns from the river and heads for the intact side, rifle secured and medical case tight against her body. The bridge bucks beneath every step.

A widening fracture splits the roadway ahead. She reaches the far lane as a section behind her shears away, carrying the patrol vehicle into smoke and water.

The morgue technician scrambles ahead along the surviving pavement. The bridge slants sharply, forcing Ahora May toward a narrow service ledge beside the concrete rail.

She searches the wreckage visible through the smoke as she moves, finding no living patrol members. A torn radio antenna blinks faintly near the lower pump access.

Ahora May reaches the maintenance stairs and descends beneath the pump station as the bridge collapses behind her. Concrete dust fills the stairwell, and her left forearm scrapes hard against the rail.

The blinking antenna leads to a service alcove below. Sgt Dunn, a young adult man in a torn Marine uniform, braces one bleeding knee beside Cpl Bawer, an adult woman in dusty combat gear.

Ahora May reaches the patrol survivors and confirms their wounds: Dunn can stand, while Bawer's ankle is swollen but stable. The medical case remains sealed against her side.

Dunn leads them through the service alcove, limping hard. The corridor bends toward the radio room, but rising water already covers the floor ahead.

He stops at a rusted junction panel. Behind its cracked cover, a maintenance diagram shows a dry upper route branching toward the radio room through the pump-control gallery.

Ahora May reaches the emergency shutter beside the ladder and grips its corroded release bar. The mechanism resists, packed with grit and rust.

She hauls downward. The shutter lifts several inches with a shriek, then jams hard as a bent guide rail twists across the track.

Dust sifts from the housing. Through the narrow opening, a dry maintenance crawlspace is visible beyond the shutter, leading around the sealed gallery toward the radio room.

The release bar remains wedged in Ahora May's hands, but the failed lift has exposed two usable options: force the lower rail aside or enter the cramped crawlspace.

Sgt Dunn limps to the junction panel and tears the cracked diagram free. He studies its reverse side, then follows a faded line toward a narrow utility door beside the pump controls.

Sgt Dunn forces the utility door open with his shoulder. Beyond it, a dry concrete passage slopes upward, marked by painted arrows toward the radio room and the yard exit.

Ahora May ushers the survivors through the utility passage, then turns back to the open doorway. A loose valve handle and a heavy maintenance cabinet stand beside it.

She wedges the handle through the door pull and drags the cabinet across the threshold. The cabinet grinds into place, sealing the passage behind them.

Dunn tests the barricade once, then limps onward. Bawer leans against the wall, keeping her swollen ankle raised while the dry passage climbs.

Behind them, something thumps faintly against the blocked utility door. Ahead, painted arrows point upward toward the radio room as distant water pounds through the station.

Ahora May opens the medical case and supports Cpl Bawer's swollen ankle with a firm wrap and a splint, securing it before the climb.

Bawer tests the support carefully. The brace holds her ankle steady, and Dunn waits beside the upward passage with one hand against the wall.

The three move upward through the dry passage. Behind them, the barricaded door shudders again, followed by a muffled scrape across the metal.

At the top, a reinforced door stands ajar beneath a faded RADIO ROOM sign. Dust trembles from the ceiling as water booms through the station below.