Kade jerked back to the present. He reached to his right, now above him, pushed to open the door. Feng felt the pain flare through his friend’s right hand, still too weak and sensitive for this.

Feng unclipped his safety belt, got his feet beneath him on the driver’s side door, now the floor of the sideways vehicle. He climbed up, over Kade, still belted into his seat, and threw the door open, climbing out onto the uppermost side of the toppled vehicle.

It was chaos outside the car, in the building. Dust and smoke filled the air. Water sprayed into the air from broken pipes. A torn-up power line was throwing sparks. The wheels on the jeep’s right side, the side he stood on now, were still spinning.

The building was groaning ominously. More dust was falling from the ceiling above. They had to get out of here.

He reached down, grabbed Kade by forearm and belt.

“Unclip!” he yelled.

Kade nodded, snapped off his safety belt, and Feng hauled him up onto the side of the armored jeep, then helped him down to the ground. Kade stood there, leaning against the vehicle, coughs racking him, his neck and midsection throbbing in pain from the whiplash of the crash, the constriction of the belt.

Feng dropped to his belly atop the jeep and reached back into the passenger compartment, pulled out weapons. A belt with grenades and knives he slung over one shoulder. A wicked sixty-centimeter blade over the other. A submachine gun and two spare clips of ammo.

The building was groaning louder now. He looked up. An exposed support beam they’d clipped on their way in was swaying, leaning, giving way. Time slowed as the beam canted, millimeter by millimeter, as the supports above it began to sag and buckle, as dust fell through the cracks as they shifted.

KADE! he sent. RUN!

He leapt down next to his friend even as he sent the thoughts. He fell in slow motion as the beam began to warp, cracks appearing on it as it tilted towards them. Kade was frozen in time, leaning over, trying to move, a massive cough shaking its way through him. Feng’s toes touched the ground and then the heels of his boots and then he shoved, pushing Kade violently out of the way, pushing himself backwards against the upturned jeep in recoil.