Sean jammed the lug wrench bar against the accelerator and the front seat, wedging the pedal down.
The engine began revving quickly, the car shaking in place.
Sean stood up, reached in, and moved the transmission selector from N to D—
Then immediately yanked his arm out.
The police cruiser launched forward towards the entrance, the engine climbing in pitch as it sped up and up, the accelerator mashed to the floor. Behind them, the building charge of the tanks main cannon continued to slam and pound throughout the empty streets in faster waves;
ChugChugChugChug.
"Not sure what this is supposed to accomplish, but I hope it works," Sean said to Agent Leigh as they ran after the accelerating police car.
"Me too."
Sean saw the failure coming—the wall slowly continued swirling, nothing seeming different or changed. The cruiser accelerated full throttle, until it was inches away from the black wall—
And the black, moving ooze froze.
The cruiser slammed into the wall, the black blob thickly splitting and spreading apart. Glass blew out as the car launched through the front façade, leaving a giant gaping hole in the black-walled fortress.
People began to pour out from the hole.
There were only a dozen or so—and then Sean saw the kid behind them all, holding the hole open with his bare hands.
Sean and Leigh waved their arms over their heads, yelling. "Over here! Come this way!" The cluster of people came towards them, Leigh directing them to run towards the giant fortress of a tank—even though most of them froze in place when they first saw it.
The violent, machine-like industrial gnashing had reached a fever pitch—
CHUGCHUGCHUGCHUG.
Sean ran towards the kid. "Wait!"
The kid completely ignored Sean, still struggling to hold the black hole open—before turning his body to go back in.
"I said stop, goddammit," Sean hissed through grit teeth, grabbing the kid.
He brushed Sean off, and Sean fell over. He scrambled back up, grabbing the kid again, their only conversation the scuffling of fabric and shoes—
And then they both froze as Ava's voice suddenly drifted out of the mall.
"What in the...?" Sean looked around in wonderment mid-scuffle, same as the kid. Her voice sounded so full, so dynamic and full—so loud, like it was going through a sound system.
The black ooze covering the building began to bubble and sizzle.
"No time," the kid said, then gave Sean one last shove, which threw him across the grass, where he landed and slid backwards.
The building began to crumble.
Agent Leigh was suddenly right there next to Sean, helping him up. He got to his feet, and they sprinted behind the kids towards the tank, screaming and wild waving their hands around.
Morgantown Mall began to shake and sway
Large pieces of the outer wall crumbled and fell, making massive block sounds as they piled together. Ava's voice continued to soar, only getting louder and louder—
Sean saw the walls of the mall actually began to bulge as huge, deep cracks zigzagged and spread frantically all over the building.
"Get behind the tank!" Sean shouted as loud as he could over the noise—it was becoming deafening the closer they got to the tank.
Ava's voice was beginning to drown out even the charging of the main gun—which had reached maximum level. The entire super-vehicle trembled in place, pulling at its own concrete posts. Sean, Leigh, and random kids reached the tank, which was even bigger in person—Sean had to crane his head all the way back to see the communications dishes and antennas.
A high pitched whine joined the cacophony.
"Cover your ears!" Agent Leigh shouted over the noise.
The cannon fired.
The sound was more incredible than anything Sean could have imagined—it sounded like the Earth tearing itself apart, impacting and vibrating every bone in his body. He looked up, following the long bore of the cannon to see if he could tell where the warhead went—
Morgantown Mall exploded.
It didn't just explode—it vaporized into a gigantic fireball of a multitude of colors that burst out in every direction, a kaleidoscope of confetti that was the ultimate massive colorful firework of all time—
Completely consuming the warhead.
Ava's voice detonated outwards from Morgantown Mall like a nuclear explosion, expanding outwards in a devastating ring.
Sean thought he caught one flash, one quick image before he had to turn away—
The silhouette of a figure; levitating in the center of the chaotic flurry of glittering and sparkling colors, posed like a deity or angel.
And then everything was too bright, and he stumbled backwards, falling behind the tank.
Every window in downtown Chicago exploded simultaneously, blasting out above the streets and the air hang with sparkling, twinkling glass rain. The shockwave of Ava's voice flattened trees for miles around, destroying poles and fences and roofs—
A concussive blast with the equivalent megatonnage of a volcano blast.
Everything around the tank was blown away—Sean saw cars fly overhead; one come heart-stopping close as it banged and bounced off the turret.
Eventually her voice faded away, and an eerie silence descended.
Sean peeked out around one of the tank treads to see a wasteland. Rubble was piled where the mall had been. The skyscrapers around them were windowless, with thousands of sheets of paper fluttering and blowing around on updrafts.
"Holy crap," Sean whispered to himself.
He and Leigh slowly emerged from around the tank, their boots crunching over pieces of glass and metal. The skyscrapers still stood—but everything adjacent to the mall was just as flat as the surrounding land, pockmarked with mounds of grey rubble, for as far as the eye could see.