"Creak, creak, creak..."
The broken load-bearing beam slowly rose under the pull of steel cables, giving off a teeth-grating metallic groan.
The massive thing resembled the rib of some colossal beast, its twisted rebar and shattered concrete peeling away from the rubble inch by inch.
Under the operator's precise control, the crane's arm turned slightly, shifting the beam that had spanned untold tons of rubble aside and opening a new gap.
Sunlight poured through the gap, illuminating the gray wreckage below, where dust danced like golden motes in the shafts of light.
The soldiers of the Colchis Auxiliary Army surged forward before the dust could settle.
They wore work clothes caked in mortar dust and simple dust masks. Entrenching Tools and cutters went to work together, carving narrow passageways through the rubble.
Some crouched beside gaps and shouted down into them, some knelt and dug away broken bricks pinning people beneath them with their bare hands, and others raced along the edge of the ruins carrying stretchers.
Every time someone was brought out alive, a brief, subdued cheer rose from the crowd, only to be drowned out by another round of roaring machinery.
This area had once been a large residential district, reduced to a heap of twisted fragments in the aftermath of Corax and Vulkan's assault.
Ten days had passed, yet an unknown number of civilians and soldiers remained buried beneath the rubble. Rescue teams worked in shifts without a moment's pause.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
The dust made Johnny cough. He bent over with his hands braced on his knees, his violent, dry hacking almost shaking his lungs out through his throat.
He pulled off his dust mask, revealing a dirt-covered face, cracked lips, and a ring of gray-white crust around his eyelids.
He wiped his face, only to