Triple Point

Chapter 33: Switching Targets

By the time Camilla left at the end of her shift, Elsie had barely enough energy to get ready for bed. It was a miracle that Elsie even made it to her bed at all, especially since she wasn't sure she was entirely conscious while she took a shower and brushed her teeth beforehand. Nevertheless, she somehow made it safely to her mattress, and that was the only thing that mattered as she closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

It felt like mere seconds passed when a low rumbling startled her awake. Her first instinct was that it was an earthquake, a frequent visitor to the shores of sunny California, and Elsie was tempted to ignore it and go back to sleep.

But just as she closed her eyes again, a second rumbling echoed through her bedroom, but it didn't sound like an earthquake. For one, she didn't feel her building sway uneasily like it normally did. On top of that, the belongings in her shelves remained motionless, and it didn't sound like anything was falling over in the rest of her condo.

Curiosity got the best of her and Elsie felt around blindly for her phone, then winced painfully at the bright backlight from the screen. Once her eyes adjusted, she was able to see that it was shortly after midnight, and she had probably gotten only a couple hours of sleep.

Another low rumble got her upright, and she stumbled out of her room to look around her condo. From a quick glance, everything seemed to be in order, but what was that noise then?

Suddenly, a soft, red glow filtered through her curtains from outside. Elsie didn't find it unusual until, about five seconds later, it was followed by the same low rumble from before. It wasn't an earthquake—it was explosions.

Without thinking, Elsie rushed to her balcony and scanned the horizon. The city lights were as bright as they usually were, but in the distance, the mountains on the horizon that normally blended in with the night sky were now partially visible. And the unusual light came from a spot at the base of the mountains, where a tall building was illuminated by the blazing fire that engulfed it.

As Elsie stared at it, transfixed, another explosion went off, and the bright light pierced her eyes even from a distance. Again, seconds later, the rumbling of the explosion followed. And it was coming from the direction of the Org's headquarters.

Elsie rushed back inside, and scrambled around her living room in search of the TV remote. She turned on the TV as soon as she found it, and flipped through the channels for a local news station. When she finally found one, she almost dropped the remote in a daze.

She couldn't understand what the reporters were saying, but she didn't need to. The footage was more than enough to tell her what was going on. The Barracks, the nickname for the Org-owned apartment building, had just been attacked. And while there was no official report, there were rumors of several casualties.

Before she registered what she was doing, Elsie had her phone unlocked and was calling Camilla. She had no idea if Camilla lived in that building, but even if she didn't, she could be fighting the attackers. If that was the case, it was probably stupid to expect Camilla to answer the phone, but Elsie had to try. She had to, because she didn't know what else to do.

But Camilla didn't answer. Nor did she answer the second or the third time Elsie called. Elsie forced herself to wait five minutes before trying again, but she only made it to four before she was listening to the ringing of her phone trying to connect to Camilla's.

It took ten minutes of calling before Elsie had the sense to change tactics. First, she tried Mack, who she knew didn't live in the Barracks. But when he didn't answer, Elsie's concern only grew, and she frantically scrolled through her contacts looking for another guardian. Amira and Quentin were the only other two guardians she knew personally, and when they too didn't answer, Elsie felt as if her sanity was about to slip out of her grasp.

She stopped pacing and sat on her couch with her phone in her hands, willing it to ring. As she stared at it, her fingers grasping it in a vice, her eyesight began to lose focus, and her brain grew foggy.

"Shit," she muttered, but it came out strangled as she struggled to take in another breath. When had she stopped breathing? When had her phone fallen out of her hands? When had she ended up on the floor, keeled over and gasping for air?

A low hum shook her out of her spiraling mind, and Elsie felt around for the source. Soon, the sound of her phone ringing gave her mind something to grasp onto, and Elsie used that to calm her shaking hands enough to answer the call.

"Hello?" Her quiet and quivering voice sounded like a stranger's to her ears.

"Elsie?" a low voice replied, frantically and out of breath. "Are you okay?"

Elsie had to check the screen of her phone when her dazed mind couldn't match the voice to a name. "Mack? Is that you? You're—you're okay?"

"I'm fine. But Elsie, are you okay? Where are you?"

"I—I'm fine." Her voice caught when she heard an explosion going off in the background. "Mack? Mack, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Elsie," Mack insisted. It sounded like he was running, and the background noise grew quiet. "Elsie, I need you to calm down. Can you do that?"

She didn't think so, but Elsie nodded anyway, then belatedly realized that Mack couldn't see her. "I—I can do that."

"Good," Mack continued. "Alright, where are you?"

"In my condo," Elsie replied, trying her best to instill calmness in her voice. "Just at the edge of downtown. Mack, I—I can see the fire from here."

"I know, we're working on that. Has anything happened over there?"

"No," Elsie said, then added, "at least, not that I know of."

"Okay, well stay inside, okay? Is there a meta still stationed outside?"

Elsie didn't really want to talk to a complete stranger just then, so she turned on her doorbell camera to check. "Yeah. Two of them. One of them is on the phone."

"They're probably being told to stay where they are," Mack explained. "If anything happens, just follow their lead, okay?"

"Okay," Elsie promised. "But Mack, have you heard from Camilla? I tried calling her but she didn't answer. Amira and Quentin didn't either."

The silence on the line was unnerving, and Elsie frantically checked her phone screen to see if it disconnected. She would've preferred that to the silence coming from Mack.

"She doesn't live there, does she?" Elsie tried. But when all Elsie could hear were the muffled sounds of fighting, she grew frustrated. "Mack, tell me!"

"She—she does," he finally managed to say, and it was his turn to sound uneasy. "You said she didn't answer?"

Elsie shook her head, forgetting again that Mack couldn't see her. "I've been trying since I first heard the news." Her vision was starting to blur again, but this time it was because tears were welling up in her eyes. "She's alright, isn't she?"

There was no way Mack could promise that, Elsie knew that, but she had to ask anyway. She needed something to hold onto, something to keep her mind from spiraling out of her control.

"I—" Mack began, then let out a shaky breath. "I'll find her, Elsie. I'll find her."

Elsie didn't miss that Mack didn't say he would find her alive, but she didn't mention that. Instead, she just nodded and squeezed her eyes tight, letting the tears fall down her cheeks. "Thank you."

End of Phase One