_Where is that file? I know she sent it to me. _I was meant to debrief the rest of my team on the contents of the file 30 minutes ago, but I cannot find where I saved it for the life of me. I hear some commotion coming from the meeting room down the hall probably because they’ve grown restless waiting for me. _Wait, what is that sound? Oh god, is that a drone-_

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I don’t know how long I’ve been out, but I wake up under the debris of my very broken desk. Miraculously, I feel okay, but the ringing in my ears is obnoxious. It must be the reason why I didn’t hear Malik enter the room.

“Ellarie! Oh my god, _____ okay? Hey, we gotta _____ here! Ellarie there ____ more- we have to ___ C’mon, we have to leave now!” Everything is muffled and I can only catch pieces of what Malik is saying, but the panic in his eyes tells me all I need to know. They found us and they’re going to kill us.

He helps me out from under the debris, but when I go to take a step my right foot feels like it went straight through a hole in the floor. With the amount of damage that hit the room, I half expect it to be true. But when I look down, the floor is still there and my ankle has now swelled to an alarming size.

Malik grabs my face so that my eyes meet his. He must’ve been trying to get my attention before, but damn it my ears won’t stop ringing! He motions for me to follow him, and I try my best to hobble after him as fast as I can.

When we get to the door frame, I stop and lean against it to catch my breath and take the pressure off my bum ankle. That’s when I see that the entire east wing is gone. It’s rubble, smoke, and fire. _Oh god, that’s where the meeting room is. Was. _

Before a tear is able to drop, Malik is pulling my arm again. “We have to go! There’s already ____ strikes.” He says something else that I don’t catch, but after he says whatever it is, tears well in his eyes. Maybe it’s best I missed it.

We start running in the opposite direction of the fire. Well, Malik runs. I do a very quick hobble. _We have to let the rest of the team know. _I call out to Malik who’s at least five feet ahead of me, “We have to find a radio so we can alert the others!” I must be screaming because he turns around and motions for me to lower my volume.

At that exact moment he quickly looks up and then grabs me with his whole body and throws us both to the ground, his body as a shield over mine. I still can’t hear a damn thing, but I feel the ground beneath us shake violently over and over as dust from the walls and ceiling start raining down.

_Is this really it? Is this how I die? We came so close, it can’t end like this._