Chapter 13: The Sky Over Galewood
“My God…” Rick, the cameraman, muttered, his voice barely audible over the roar of the helicopter blades.
Lisa’s hands tightened around the microphone in her lap, her knuckles white. The shockwave from the explosion had been visible even from this distance—miles away from Galewood. The city, which had once been a sprawling mess of broken-down streets and towering buildings, was now little more than a massive cloud of debris, rising higher and higher into the atmosphere.
“What the hell just happened?” Lisa whispered, her heart racing as the magnitude of what they’d witnessed began to sink in.
The pilot was the first to snap out of the stunned silence. His fingers gripped the controls tighter, adjusting their altitude as the helicopter pitched forward, heading directly toward the rising column of smoke.
“We’re heading in,” he said, his voice shaky. “We’ll be over Galewood in ten minutes.”
Lisa exchanged a look with Rick. The adrenaline was rushing through her veins, but this wasn’t the usual thrill of breaking news. It was something darker—something that sent a cold chill down her spine.
“Are we getting any information from the station?” she asked, her voice steadier than she felt.
Rick shook his head, adjusting the camera on his shoulder, readying it to capture whatever they were about to witness. “Nothing solid. Just scattered reports of a massive explosion. Power outages everywhere. And—”
The radio crackled to life, cutting him off mid-sentence. Static buzzed in their ears, and then a garbled voice came through, panicked and distorted.
“…this is unit twelve…can anyone hear me? We’ve lost—”
The signal cut out again, leaving the helicopter cabin in tense silence.
Lisa swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on the horizon as they drew closer to the city. The rising plume of smoke was massive—bigger than anything she had ever seen. It stretched across the entire skyline, a dark, roiling cloud that seemed to block out the sun itself.
The further they flew, the more details came into view. The edges of the city were in chaos—streets clogged with abandoned cars, fires spreading unchecked, buildings leaning at unnatural angles. But it was the heart of the city, where the explosion had originated, that looked the worst. Entire blocks had been reduced to rubble, nothing but piles of twisted metal, concrete, and broken glass.
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“This is insane,” Rick muttered, leaning forward as he zoomed in with the camera. “I’ve never seen destruction like this.”
Lisa didn’t respond. Her eyes were glued to the ground below as they passed over the outskirts of the city. There were no signs of life. No movement, no people. Just devastation, stretching as far as the eye could see.
“Pilot, how close can you get us?” Lisa asked, her voice tense.
The pilot hesitated. “I can take us lower, but… we’ve got turbulence from the fires. We’re going to have to keep our distance from the worst of it.”
Lisa nodded, her pulse racing as they descended lower, the helicopter shaking slightly as it hit the rough air currents rising from the burning city below.
The radio crackled again, more static buzzing in their ears. This time, the voice was faint but clear enough to make out a few words.
“…casualties… everything’s gone… we need…”
The signal cut off once more, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.
“Emergency services?” Rick asked, glancing at Lisa.
“Maybe,” she muttered, her eyes scanning the landscape. “But no one’s getting through. Not with this level of destruction.”
As the helicopter dipped lower, the full scale of the devastation became clearer. Fires still raged in scattered pockets across the city, sending thick columns of smoke into the air. The streets were cracked and broken, the ground itself torn apart by the force of the explosion.
“Zoom in on that,” Lisa said, pointing toward the heart of the city where the smoke was thickest.
Rick adjusted the camera, his hands moving automatically, but his face was pale, his jaw clenched. “It’s like a bomb went off.”
Lisa didn’t reply. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the scene below. This was beyond anything she’d ever covered. Even war zones didn’t look like this. This was total devastation.
Then, she saw something.
“Wait—what’s that?” Lisa leaned forward, squinting as she pointed toward a moving shape below. Amid the wreckage, barely visible through the smoke and debris, was a figure.
“Zoom in,” she ordered, her voice sharp.
Rick zoomed in, focusing the camera on the figure. It was a person—someone walking, or more accurately, staggering through the wreckage. They were covered in dust and ash, their movements slow and unsteady, like they were barely holding on.
“Is that a survivor?” Lisa asked, her heart racing.
“Looks like it,” Rick muttered, adjusting the focus. “But they’re not alone—there’s someone else with them.”
Lisa squinted at the screen, her breath catching in her throat as she realized what she was seeing. The first figure, a young man, was dragging someone else alongside him—another person, slumped and barely moving.
“They’re both alive,” Lisa said, her voice tinged with disbelief. “They survived…”
The helicopter hovered lower, the camera capturing every second as the two figures moved through the ruins of the city. The man was holding the other person up, practically carrying them through the rubble. Both of them looked like they were on the verge of collapse.
“Get closer,” Lisa urged, her voice tight.
But before the pilot could respond, the helicopter shuddered violently, the cabin shaking as the turbulence worsened.
“We can’t get any closer!” the pilot shouted over the noise of the blades. “It’s not safe—too much heat coming off the ground!”
Lisa cursed under her breath, her eyes still fixed on the two figures below. There was something about them, something about the way they moved through the destruction, that made her stomach turn. Whoever they were, they had survived something unimaginable. But how?
“Circle around,” she ordered. “Keep filming.”
Rick nodded, his face set in grim determination as the camera followed the figures’ every movement. The helicopter banked away, leaving the wreckage behind for a moment as they circled back around.
Lisa’s heart pounded in her chest. They were the first to see the aftermath of whatever had happened in Galewood. But what had caused it? And who were those two people, the only signs of life in a city of the dead?
She couldn’t shake the feeling that they had just witnessed the beginning of something much bigger.