Maya hesitated before answering, her gaze fixed on the growing black pillar. “I think one of the rockets hit my street!” The soldier got up and quickly made her way to Maya, putting a hand on her shoulder when she arrived.

“You did good here. Go to your family,” she said. “If you see a medical team on or near the promenade, send them this way!”

“I will,” said Maya before taking off.

Maya followed a maze of tight smoke-congested streets out of the beach area to her neighborhood, the smoke intensifying as she approached the intersection just west of her family’s apartment building, reducing visibility drastically. She stepped onto the sidewalk to avoid getting hit by a speeding emergency vehicle and reached the intersection corner a few moments later.

Hal Cohen, a close friend of the family, stepped out of the small market at the corner, blocking her path. He motioned for her to come inside.

“Maya. In here. It’s too dangerous that way,” he said. “A police car backed out of your street a minute ago and told everyone to stay clear until the firefighting teams arrive.”

“I have to check on my family,” said Maya.

“It’s not safe,” he said. “Fires and collapsing buildings everywhere. There’s nothing you can do right now.”

“I have to go,” she said, pushing past him.

“You always have a home with us!” he said as she turned the corner.

Maya considered his words while blindly navigating the sidewalk. She could barely see more than ten feet in front of her at this point, her eyes stinging from the acrid smoke. Maya lifted her sweat-soaked shirt collar over her nose to ease her breathing, but the simple trick had little impact. She started coughing uncontrollably a half block from her family’s apartment, which stood somewhere on the other side of a seemingly impenetrable wall of smoke.

Her lungs rebelling, she stumbled forward until a stiff breeze off the Mediterranean Sea momentarily drove the smoke inland, giving her a quick peek down the street. A tower of flames leaped skyward from the charred, skeletal ruins of her family’s apartment building. Maya dropped to her knees on the sidewalk and screamed until the smoke once again engulfed her.

Maya tried to get up but was unable to rise to her feet—or even take a full breath. She reached for the car parked next to her and tried to pull herself up but found the task impossible. Her lungs were spent. She leaned against the car and gasped for air, realizing she’d made a costly error. A fatal error that would keep her from reporting for duty in a few weeks and avenging her family’s murder.

She slumped a little farther, her sight dimming, until a familiar voice boomed nearby.

“I found her!” said Hal Cohen, his rotund figure appearing in front of her moments later.