6 CHAPTER II: IT WAS THE FIRST, BUT NOT THE LAST - Part 1

"During the separation and reconstruction of the nuclei, many lives were lost, reducing the number of children to almost the initial half." - History of Ádiazo: Second volume _ By: Minzi

Another tremor shakes the ground under her feet, and an instinct makes Virla run towards Telos as fast as she can. The girl takes the back bags and quickly crosses them over one of her arms and pulls Telos from his sleeve to make him move, her shoes tightly grasped in her other hand.

The tremors continue. ~So, there will be an earthquake?~ Virla considers as they run outside the building. They are on the second floor, and without much thought they go down the escalators, which are still moving, incidentally choosing the ones that go up. The girl mentally curses her luck.

Far away, a bit muffled by the distance, an explosion is heard. But neither of them gives much time to pay attention to it, being aware that the mall may not support the tremors.

The entrance becomes visible, Virla pulls Telos from his wrist, trying to make him go faster and in a few seconds the sun appears over their heads. Telos stops to take a breather, but Virla has the urge to keep moving. The tremor becomes stronger, and when she turns towards the building, the place collapses in its inevitable collapse.

Virla tries not to pay attention to it, putting on her stockings and boots when she feels the tremor become weaker without being sure how she maintains balance in the process. She quickly settles her briefcase of provisions on her back and gives the other to Telos, who is still immersed in the collapse.

The girl waits, counting the seconds. They settle a little more in the center of the street, holding Telos by his hand to help him not fall, but she almost does it herself when the tremors get stronger again.

A building collapses next to them and is followed by several, the noise of destruction sounding everywhere, but her concern is directed at a crack that makes its way through the street in front of them in the distance, closer and closer. The hole that opens behind the cracks giving Virla a twist in her belly.

Her legs begin to move before her mind. They run in the opposite direction trying to get away from the hole that threatens to swallow them, but when the buildings fall, so do they. The girl feels her head resonate with the blow, but immediately tries to clear herself and sit up.

Still on her knees, Virla turns to see the crack from which they were escaping, but noticing an immense shadow, she lifts her gaze and does not know whether to believe her eyes when she sees the earth in front of her rising towards the distant sky.

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After getting up, Telos notices that the girl does not move. Definitely thinking about something that does not suit in this situation even though a few moments ago it was her who was rushing him.

There is something strange about the earth that is rising, like something that draws him to it, like a pull, but the more conscious part of his mind is sure that it's not a good idea to respond to that impulse. As if the ground under their feet could also feel that pull, little by little parts of the street begin to detach and approach the land mass, the crack every second closer to them, the hole behind it seeming deeper.

Telos pulls Virla by her arm, forcing her to stand and make her run with him. They have to survive this first, then they would see what exactly "this" is.

"Where are we going?!" he asks screaming a little when another explosion is heard, closer than the previous one.

Virla looks at him, with a puzzled look on her eyes. It takes Telos a moment to realize that she doesn't know the answer. So, he stops even though a part of him yells not to. His body too sore to keep running without even having an idea of where they were going.

"For now, we have to get away from that," says the girl while pointing to the raised earth when another building collapses, Virla stops next to him "and fast, it is getting closer and closer to us."

Saying this, Telos manages to see that the crack is about to reach them, and Virla has already started running again before he can say anything, so he also starts to move.

But their speed does not improve because of the tremors and the cracks reach them, creating a spider web on the ground below them. They run alongside the small fissures that are forming, barely managing not to be reached by the ground that is breaking into pieces behind them, but against all will and explanation, Telos begins to feel lighter.

The boy is slow to realize that his feet are not touching the ground, nausea begins to take hold of him as he desperately tries to stay on dry land.

"VIRLA!" the girl takes too long to react to her name, enough time for panic to start taking over him.

The boy tries to grab something, but only lifts some small stones that end up detaching into his eyes, making him close them tightly.

When he thinks he is so high up that he doesn't dare to open his eyes, something takes one of his feet. Telos allows himself to open one of his eyes and is surprised to see Virla running while pulling him as if he were a kite in the air.

"Ah?" the boy, perplexed by the situation, does not know what to do besides letting Virla take him.

Taking advantage of his position, Telos looks behind him and does not know what to think when he sees the depth of the hole that is forming where the street used to be. But what most grabs the boy's attention is how none of the buildings are being raised along with the earth beneath them.

"Virla, get off the street and enter one of the buildings! The buildings are not being elevated!" the girl seems to consider it for a moment and with a look behind them she confirms what Telos says.

"The buildings are not stable; you have already seen how they are collapsing! We will have to find one that has already collapsed so that it does not do so over our heads." Then, without any warning, the girl turns to a street on her left.

A step inside, the entire street begins to detach, so Virla hurries her step. Telos notices that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the girl to move, having to resort to jumps to reach the next part of the fragmented street.

"Hold on to me!" and with this, Virla pulls him closer to her.

Telos wastes no time and immediately surrounds the girl with his arms and then hooks his legs around her waist. But for some reason it becomes difficult for him to stay glued to Virla, as if something pushed him away from her.

With each step, Virla seems to have more trouble staying on land. But just as the girl takes a jump that Telos fears will not reach its destination, the two of them land heavily in the remains of a building.

Still feeling that strange pull, Telos does not dare to let go of Virla, who in turn immediately searches through the rubble until she grabs herself from a metal beam that protrudes from the wreck.

Somehow, now that they are in a relatively safe place, there seems to be a kind of tranquility being interrupted only by the sound of objects breaking and cars falling. There is something calming about seeing the floating earth take shape, a sphere like shape. It seems to be dirt and something else, although he doesn't see the green of plants or the gray of cement or something else he could recognize from a distance, so he's not sure what it is, but he doesn't really care. At that moment he is sure of only one thing, and its that he will never see something like this in his life again.

Telos decides to peek out of the edge of the base of the building, and what he sees is not far behind from what is forming over them.

Several of the debris of the street seem to be floating, the buildings as well, and below, remnants of different things and cars are suspended in the air, as is the platform on which they are located. The pit is so deep that he does not see the end, it seems that he could even see the sky of the other side of the world. He also manages to see more spheres forming in the depths, similar to the one above them.

"Don't look down there," Telos is surprised and turns to find Virla focused on the beam she is holding "who knows what other madness may come from there."

The boy nods, although he really doesn't have the worry she feels.

The two of them wait, watching as other spheres begin to form in the sky. The light becomes increasingly scarce, the sun being covered by some of those floating bodies. Everything moves, being taken and attracted by one of the spheres, and Telos does not doubt that the remains of the building will also begin to do so at any time. The boy could swear he saw beams and metals rising from the rubble, but with the darkness surrounding them it becomes difficult for him to be sure.

It doesn't take long for him to answer his question when a table starts to come out of the rubble beneath them. Virla lets go from the beam she was clinging to and jumps as far as she can. The boy is taken by surprise and let's go a little, causing the pull he was feeling before to come back to him, only this time it seems to attract him from all directions.

Nausea takes hold of him and his throat begins to burn when he swallows the vomit that he did not allow to leave. Virla eventually falls back into the rubble after a very long jump, but she doesn't stop when more objects start shooting out of the ground.

Telos tries to concentrate, trying to help her know about any object that needs to be dodged before it hits them both. But after dodging and jumping for a few seconds, his worries are focused on something he notices approaching them in the distance.

"Virla, look over there" the boy points out in the thread of a voice.

The girl lands for a second and points her gaze towards the horizon, noticing their next problem.

The metals that have been emerging from the buildings move at full speed, some fall into the hole under them, others move to the spheres in the sky, but they are more concerned about those that are heading in their direction.

Virla freezes for a deadly second, and Telos can't open his mouth either to tell her anything because of the panic that takes over his body. The two motionless before the lethal speed of the metals.

So, when Telos knew they couldn't survive that, they started falling.