Looking around, Devin considered the remainder of the upper floor, which had fallen partially into his room. The separating wall between the two upstairs rooms also had a connecting door in it. It was by no means an easy route, but it appeared slightly safer than the alternative.
Climbing onto the desk, he reached up slowly to see if he could touch the ceiling. It was almost six inches beyond his fingertips. He could grab hold of it with a slight hop, but would need to pull himself up. He could manage six pull-ups in gym class, but this was trying to pull his entire body weight over the ledge.
He looked around for alternatives and regretted it as vertigo struck. Dropping to a crouch, he closed his eyes and waited for it to pass. The prospect of jumping up to grab the ledge became even less appealing. If he had to drop back down onto the desk, he could fall backwards off the fifth floor and to his demise.
He stood up slowly, legs shaking and head swirling. He tried to focus, visualize how simple it was, one small hop.
Before he realized it, his fingers hooked onto the ledge and the rest of his body swung back and forth uncertainly. He waited for the swinging to subside, his muscles taut with fear, before pulling himself up. He paused with his chin above the ledge. How was he supposed to scramble his way onto this flat surface?
His arms started burning and his breathing quickened. His pulse throbbed at the possibility of having to drop back onto the desk. He swung his right leg up to try and get a foot onto the ledge. He made it on the third attempt. His arms were on fire now and his entire body trembled under the strain. Edging his foot further onto the ledge, he crooked his arm and pushed his torso up onto the smooth surface. With enough of his body on the ledge, he rolled over the rest of the way to safety.
Devin lay there, trying to steady his jittery nerves, thankful for breathing. Finally, he rolled over onto his stomach and crawled on all fours away from the ledge, further into the room. Only when he felt like a light breeze wouldn't blow him off did he dare rise and walk to the adjoining room. Most of the floor where Alice was working earlier was still there, although much of the upper level had fallen into it. If Alice survived the power outage, she would also need to survive the falling debris.
Devin scooted parallel to the ledge, and dropped one leg over the side cautiously. He swiveled his other leg over and lowered them both. Lifting his torso up on his palms he held his breath and dropped down to hang by his fingers into the room below. He dropped less than a foot to a tabletop and let go a sigh of relief. A quick survey of the room revealed relatively little damage. The computer storing the AI was untouched, but Alice's SDC was open. Devin found her, lying naked on the ground nearby unmoving.
He jumped down from the table and ran to her side. She looked up at him through fluttering eyelids without recognition. There was a small gash in the crown of her head, and some blood matted her hair, but she appeared otherwise unharmed.
"Alice?" he said to her, wrapping his black overcoat around her. "Alice can you hear me?"
Her eyes rolled listlessly and she was having difficulty breathing. Her mouth worked awkwardly and her face contorted. Devin could only watch in horror as she gurgled, emitting desperate choking sounds. There was nothing he could do to help her. He didn't know anything about first aid, or even what was wrong with her beyond the head wound.
He stood up, focused on the far wall. Stepping over Alice, he knocked on its surface to confirm his suspicion. It was made of plaster, not concrete.
He grabbed a stool from beside the workbench and slammed it into the wall, legs first. They punched four holes the plaster. He wiggled the stool out, reared back, and slammed it into the surface again. It penetrated deeper this time. Ripping the stool out, he dropped it, opting to kick at the wall repeatedly. On the fourth kick, his foot went straight through and his leg sank into the sheet rock up to his thigh. He pulled his leg out with some effort and bent down to look through the hole. On the other side of the wall was another office, lit by emergency lighting.
Alice bolted upright into a sitting position from where she lay. She surveyed the surrounding destruction calmly, staring at Devin for a moment, then at the hole in the wall.
"This was once two offices," she said simply and stood up.
"Wait a minute!" Devin said, putting his hand out to keep her from rising, "You might be in shock. You shouldn't be moving around. Why don't you just sit back..."
He trailed off at seeing the blank expression on her face. She looked around the remains of the room again and stopped when her eyes found the AI's computer. She took a step toward it, stumbled, and almost fell onto her face, but Devin kept her on her feet. He walked her over to the computer, with each step she grew more stable. So that by the time they reached the system, she was walking on her own.
She dropped to her knees beside the computer heavily and peered at the exposed components. Reaching into its electronics, she grabbed the flash drive and pulled it out roughly. Then she stood up and walked over to the component tower she assembled to provide the AI growing room and pulled out the other flash drives. This done, she turned to Devin cradling seven disks in her arms.
"This structure is unsound," she said, "We must get to one of the remaining stairwells and navigate to the ground level."
Devin nodded, convinced she was still in shock. He turned back to the plaster wall and resumed kicking out the hole he had made. Soon he had an opening large enough and crouched to step through it to the office on the other side.
Once there, he looked back at Alice, who was attempting to negotiate the portal with two armloads of hard drives. "Let me carry those for you," Devin said, reaching out to take the components.
She frowned and held the drives away protectively. Devin stepped back and watched with frustration as she put one leg through the hole and tried to crouch down enough to cross it. It took her several minutes, falling down onto her rear numerous times, but she eventually made it.
Devin led her into the hallway in the red glow of emergency lighting and they wandered to the nearest stairwell. He recoiled as the stairwell door opened outward and a bright spotlight blinded him.
"Are you all right?" a man's voice came from the darkness. Devin could make out the shadow of an Emergency Contractor's helmet behind the light. "Is anyone injured?"
"She is," Devin pointed at Alice, who clutched the hard drives instinctively when the light revealed her. "I think she might be in shock."
"Okay," the contractor gestured to someone behind him, "Help this one down to the ground, I'll bring the other. Is there anyone else on this floor?"
"I don't know," Devin said, and followed the man down.
On the ground Devin thought he might relax for a second, until he was confronted with the chaos on the street. Rescue contractors were running every which way. He was led through the throngs of people until he was brought to an ambulance and finally allowed to sit down. A bloodied Dana Summerall materialized from the crowd. Her clothes were torn and singed in places and a trail of dried blood lead from her left ear down her neck.
"Alice?" she asked, her feet dragging to a halt in front of him.
Devin squinted and looked around until he saw the other contractor walking toward them, carrying Alice in his arms. He nodded in the direction, "There."
"Thank God," Dana muttered tiredly.
The contractor set Alice down on her feet; "There's nothing physically wrong with her except that bump on the head, maybe a concussion. The doctors will check her out."