Usually the uncertainty suited her; it allowed someone like her to get the job after all. But now? Heart stuttering in her chest, she reached blindly towards her nook and grabbed another ratty jumpsuit, more grimy tears than anything else, wrapping it quickly around her head to protect her face from the worst of the icy winds and stepped into the released storm. She couldn’t hear anything but the rasping draw of her breath as she pushed the door the rest of the way open, now battling against another foot and a half of wet snow that had accumulated in the few moment’s she’d taken to assess the damage. Flimsy boots and moth-eaten socks immediately soaked through with frigid waters. But still she pressed on. Section B-32, Rahja’s section, was across the narrow pathways from the damaged B-25. Anais slipped through rows of shelving just wide enough for pallets to pass through, keeping an eye on the growing ice scar dominating B-25’s wall, close enough now that she could hear the tinkle of its crystals as it continued to grow. Snowpack deep enough that her trudging had slowed significantly, her eyes continuously searched for signs of her best friend. She knew the foremen were likely fortified down in their bunkers, while the other workers who had escaped the initial blast radius were forced to find whatever shelter they could in the crevices they could find. Grinding out curses against them from between her clenched teeth, still she pressed on. Rounding B-32’s first corner she received her first clear look at the ice damage, still growing through the stacks, and immediately looked away. Eyelashes freezing as tears welled, four of her friends caught in the initial radius; solidified into the growing ice. A collapsed heap shrouded under the snowpack she knew was Rahja. She wouldn’t have left Jonah. As the full force of her grief swelled, noise swooped back in with the screech of rending metal, snapping her gaze to the shelving across from her; deformed by the creeping frost. And she did nothing as the shelf, containing thousands more pounds of magic, holding who knows what else, came crashing down towards her. 21
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