Free The Remaining by Travis Thrasher Page A

back from the dead.
    “Dan? Sky?” Tommy’s eyes scan through the blurry motion and then see the white bridal dress moving around. Skylar is up and moving and that’s a good thing. She’s hovering over someone, trying to revive them.
    Then Tommy sees Jack nearby and darts over to him.
    “Jack   —man   —Skylar’s parents in the elevator   —they just fell down dead   —and this   —what just happened?”
    His mind is moving so fast he can’t even finish whole sentences. Jack looks like he’s in a slow-motion daze himself.
    “I don’t know, Tommy,” Jack says as his eyes look all around them. “I don’t know. . . .”
    Two voices rush up to them. Tommy sees Dan’s pale face and Skylar’s wide eyes.
    “Lauren’s dead,” are the only words he hears Skylar say.
    She’s dead?
    He thinks of the figure Skylar was just hovering over and knows it has to be Lauren.
    She can’t be gone.
    “I’m looking for my mom and dad,” Skylar says through tears.
    Tommy thinks of his own parents and his sister. Then of Lauren and of the end of last summer when she told him she thought something bad was going to happen, how she kept dreaming about it.
    “Have you seen my parents?”
    Tommy hears Skylar but can’t answer, can’t even look at her.
    “I can’t find them anywhere.”
    He feels numb and just wants to close his eyes to this and to everything.
    “Tommy?”
    Jack is looking at him. Skylar’s waiting for an answer. Dan looks scared.
    “Come on, man,” Jack says.
    It seems like only five seconds ago Dan and Skylar were saying their vows. It seems like they were only another five seconds away from leaving to go on their honeymoon. But now this.
    Now Tommy has to tell her the truth.
    “I’m so sorry, Sky. I was with them in the elevator and they just   —”
    The bride crumbles to the floor, ignoring her dress andher makeup and anything else as she bursts into fresh tears. Dan goes to her side, cradling her with his arm.
    “I just want to go see them,” she cries out between sobs. “Now.”
    Jack looks at Tommy and seems to realize something. “Allison,” he says.
    Skylar is on her feet again and sprints out of the room with Dan following. Jack pulls out his phone as an elderly woman behind them starts screaming at a high pitch.
    “Cell service is busy,” Jack says.
    An explosion shakes the building and causes both Jack and Tommy to hunker down as if it’s in the room. Audible gasps and moans are heard as everybody realizes the boom came from outside.
    “That sounded like a missile,” Tommy says to Jack. “Come on; let’s see what’s happening outside.”
    Nothing in him wants to go out and see where the blast came from, but then again, nothing in him wants to remain in this open grave of a room.
    Tommy and Jack head toward the glass doors of the balcony, unsure what awaits them.
    The air outside feels thick while the sky looks even thicker. Angry clouds cover it only moments after it was a clear, open window up to heaven. Tommy feels a gust of wind and sees figures already scattered on the rooftop deck, looking out at the chaos around them. He pushes past a couplehe saw talking to the Chapmans. The woman is crying while the man consoles her. Tommy walks up to the edge of the rooftop and stares out over the city.
    Columns of smoke rise from the buildings below. Dozens of different noises try to tackle him down. Sirens and car horns and muffled voices and screams sound from everywhere. Tommy watches in disbelief. There’s nothing he can think. It’s all too real, too horrible, too raw.
    He sees a balding man with an arm around a woman who might be his wife on a rooftop across from him. Tommy can see their expressions. Bleak, scared, empty. They look his way as if waiting to see how he can help.
    They all seem so helpless. So alone. Is that how he looks too?
    Behind the couple, something explodes, followed by a large smoke plume resembling a thought bubble. Tommy can imagine the words