Explosion at Overwatch HQ: Aftermath
Continued from Explosion at Overwatch HQ or can be read as a stand alone.
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Jack woke to a dull roar. His ears struggled to make sense of his surroundings. The high pitched ringing cut through the deafening growl of the raging fires around him. Rolling to his knees, Jack bit back a cry of pain as the movement ripped open half healed wounds. Shards of glass still dug into his back. He forced himself to his feet, cringing as every muscle and bone protested the movement. There was no counting the number of broken bones or torn tendons trying to repair themselves even as he shed his tattered blue coat.
Blood trickled down his forehead, closing his left eye. He felt the annoying warm drip from his chin to neck. The smallest possible problem in the world exploding around him.
Staggering towards the rubble, cries of agony and pleas for help pierced the drone of the massive blaze. Some cut off abruptly with a crash of concrete and steel. In this devastation Jack searched in the direction he last saw Gabriel. A desperate hope in the inferno infused wind. The Blackwatch Commander had been swallowed by the explosion. But the man had survived so many past catastrophes. This could be just another miracle that followed Reyes.
Amid charred stone and whipping flame a black figure sprawled among the rubble. Jack smeared the sweat and blood from his eyes, unsure if he found a corpse. The details on the uniform survived the flames. Fire retardant fabric still bore the black, red and white circle of Blackwatch’s symbol. Jack made out the burnt wool cap melted into bubbled charred flesh. His own body sympathetically ached and screamed in agony as he heaved his friend over his shoulder.
The man did not move. Did not groan. Did nothing. Jack tamped down his fear and trudged away from the burning shell of their Headquarters.“Come on, Gabe. Stay with me.” This wasn’t the first near death experience Gabriel walked away from. The healing factor gained from SEP worked quickly and worked well, but the scars Reyes wore told the stories of harrowing encounters with death. Jack prayed for this to be one of those moments.
He collapsed on the far side of the courtyard. Tremendous heat washed over them even this far from the inferno. Gabriel’s body weighed him down, but Jack did not complain. It was a burden he needed to carry. One he would never relinquish to anyone else. Twisting to lay beside the broken man, Jack pried the bionic emitter from his armor. He had never been more thankful to have it built into the design of the Strike Commander’s uniform. A reminder of his days on the field. Front and center on his chest as an icon for his desire to heal the world. It could easily have been faked, but Jack insisted on it being real. Chalk it up to the small town authenticity he clung to. This can of healing agent could save their lives.
The bionic field flooded their tiny corner of calm in the maelstrom with warmth. Jack released the straps on his armor and just let the medical grade chemicals speed up their healing. He turned towards Gabriel and the black smoke drifting from the man’s body. Fear fuel his adrenaline. Despite his pain, Jack immediately rolled over to his friend and started to pat out the smoke. More appeared. Almost as if Gabriel Reyes was trying to spontaneously combust.
Jack stripped the armor from the man, hoping to find the source of the smoldering smoke that only grew. Then the bionic field ended. Still no sign of movement or breath and increasing smoke rising from the body. Their last hope gone. His frantic attempts to put out an impending flare ended only when the black smoke engulfed him and he started coughing. Scooting back, Jack watched helpless as his closest and oldest friend was consumed by the smoke with no source. Around them everything he and Gabriel had built crumbled into ash.
Gabriel Reyes was gone. Overwatch was gone. Perhaps it would be best for the world if Strike Commander Morrison was gone.
“I’m sorry, Gabe.” Jack removed all overt signs of his association to the organization he once led. “I can’t do this without you. Perhaps someone else will pick up where we failed.” He spoke to the plume of smoke obscuring his friend. Tears mixed with blood trailed. He had never been good at saying goodbye. Heaving his body onto his tired legs, Jack reluctantly turned his back on his life.
The smoke emerging from the body of Gabriel Reyes hovered low to the ground. A vague consciousness watched the figure of a once proud man limp into the distant forest. White hair coated with soot. Armor discarded. Disappearing from the disaster. By the time the body fully transferred into smoke, the last footsteps of the Strike Commander vanished into the forest. The smoke waited as if hoping for the soldier to turn around. Then the black cloud raced through the burning ruins, silencing the screams of the dying.
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