The Athena Operation Read Online Free PDF

raining down from above him. Chunks of concrete, wood, and plaster crashed around him. Screams came from all sides of him. Smoke engulfed the area.
    Seraph crawled across the room and dove under the bed. The building continued to fall around him, and it was all he could do to curl into a fetal position and try to outlast it.
    Seraph closed his eyes. He had no sense of how much time was passing, but eventually, the building stopped shaking and it grew silent. Seraph lay there a moment, unable to believe it was over, unable to believe he was alive. After a few minutes, he crept out from under the bed. He crawled out of the rubble pool surrounding him and stumbled across the large pieces of concrete and debris, turning to look at the wreckage. He looked around to find a way down. He knew the building couldn’t stand much longer. He opened the door of the room and saw that the building’s frame was nearly all that remained. Somehow, part of the staircase was still standing. Seraph shimmied down the wrought iron stairs as fast as he could. A few floors from the ground, the staircase started to sway, and Seraph decided to jump.
    He hit the ground hard and winced as he rolled onto his side. He pushed himself up and stared at the wreckage. Most of the building had been torn away. Seraph gathered bits and pieces of the story from frantic survivors. They had been attacked. Missiles and heavy gunfire had ripped into the building. Seraph was shocked that he had survived. The sheer sight of the building now in ruins struck him hard in the gut.
    Survivors limped out of what remained of the building’s center, but far more bodies lined the wreckage than were emerging. Most of the people inside had been crushed to death.
    He looked for anyone familiar. Sadhis wasn't in sight. Everywhere he looked there was chaos. People were screaming and running around looking for loved ones. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw three seythra soldiers marching in the distance. At least a dozen civilians were running in front of them, trying to get out of the city. The seythra raised their assault rifles and mowed the innocents down in one fluid motion. Seraph’s jaw dropped in horror. He ran to take cover behind a large piece of rubble. The seythra were a half mile away and advancing. Bodies were beginning to line the streets.
    Seraph pulled his pistol from its holster. This felt like a bad dream that he couldn’t manage to wake up from.
    There was a rendezvous point about twenty miles south in a smaller, secondary command base. That was the go-to point in the event of a catastrophe. There was also another military command building in Rotcher, which was forty-five miles due east. The Rotcher command center would no doubt be more fortified, but right now, he wasn’t sure if reaching it was feasible.
    He turned to go to the other side of the debris, and saw a figure behind him. He pulled his pistol up and aimed it.
    He relaxed his grip when he saw that it was an othal child. He couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. Seraph lowered his gun, and motioned for the child to come closer. Suddenly, the child’s head exploded, sending a spray of blue blood everywhere.
    As the boy’s body fell to the ground, a seythra holding a smoking shotgun advanced on Seraph. Seraph raised his pistol and fired several shots into the seythra’s stomach. Seraph charged forward and tackled the seythra to the ground. Seraph brought his pistol up and fired a final shot into the seythra’s head.
    Civilians ran by him, darting in every direction, chasing ghosts of friends and family. Gunfire rang out in the distance, and Seraph thought he heard more explosions coming from far away. Seraph stared at the body of the seythra, enraged. He wanted to rip him limb from limb.
    Gunfire rained all around him, halting his thoughts. He grabbed the seythra’s shotgun and went to retreat behind the debris, but a huge blast obliterated the cover and sent him crashing to the ground. He