POV: Kim
The building emptied in eleven minutes.
I know because I counted.
The first four minutes I spent sitting on the edge of my bed, back to the wall, listening to the sounds of organized departure move through the floors like a tide going out. Footsteps. Low voices. The specific rhythm of people who knew exactly where they were going and hadn't needed to be told twice.
We should go look, said Adventurer, at the ninety-second mark.
We should absolutely not go look, said Voice of Reason.
GOING TO LOOK IS TACTICALLY INADVISABLE, Panic agreed, and then, approximately four seconds later: but if we don't go look we will never forgive ourselves.
That's not— Voice of Reason started.
NEVER. FORGIVE. OURSELVES.
So. The last seven minutes, I watched from the landing of the second floor,
