ALESSANDRO The moment her thumb pressed down on that device, I ran towards her.There was no thinking, no weighing options, no second-guessing. Just instinct. I lunged forward, my body already reacting before my mind could catch up, and in the split second before everything went white, I remember seeing Emily’s face. Then the world detonated.The explosion wasn’t loud in the way I expected. It was… contained. Pressurized. Like the air itself had been squeezed and then released all at once. The force slammed into my chest, throwing me backward. My ears rang instantly, a sharp, high-pitched whine drowning out everything else. For a moment, I couldn’t tell up from down. Dust filled my mouth, my nose, my lungs.I hit the ground hard, my shoulder screaming in protest, and for a few seconds, I couldn’t move.Everything blurred.Then, slowly, painfully, the world started to come back.Sound came first, distant shouting, boots hitting concrete, someone barking orders through a radio. Then t
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