It was difficult to miss what seemed just like an explosion in the middle of the eerily silent, empty city. And if Malcolm were perfectly honest, it was a welcome distraction. The light had caught his eyes, and the shockwave rattled the ground beneath his feet. Instead of fleeing like he thought most civilians, rightly, would do, his officer training instead sprung him toward whatever new chaos had happened.

On the other hand, it meant whatever the new chaos was, it might be all over by the time he actually arrived somewhere around where it seemed to be coming from. There wasn't any smoke, no rubble or craters to be seen--a good sign, perhaps not exactly the explosion he'd immediately imagined it to be. His eyes did their distressing trick he'd come to realize had popped up during the journey across the land. He spied the caravan, and, well, it didn't quite seem to be in ship-shape, to say the least. Worth checking out.

"Hello?" he called when he got within range to be adequately heard. The subsequent echo sent a chill down his spine. He had images of sirens going off, police and fire vehicles, ambulances, but there was next to none of that. "Is there anyone in there? Or around at all?"