The generator burned out before the last vehicle reached the receiving road.
Eli saw the light collapse along one edge of the barrier, then return under the second device’s load. The failed unit gave off a dark spill of smoke from its lower housing. Its operator disconnected and moved clear under the commander’s order. Nobody asked a volunteer to keep feeding a dead mechanism while the crew decided whether the fault was temporary.
The school vehicles kept moving.
At the corner, a defender waved the smaller transport past while another crew tried to recover the second device from its retreat position. The street beneath it had begun to crack. Eli was too far away to judge the ground and had no right to countermand the people standing on it. He heard the commander ask for the current assessment, then order the crew to leave the device when the opening widened.
They brought the operators out.
The device stayed behind.
A section of the street dropped after them with a sound like an enormous chest being shut. Dust hid the frame. The reserve had lost one generator to burnout and another piece of portable equipment to ground failure. The first barrier still gave the evacuation enough time, but the force meant for the next response had become smaller in ways no repaired roster could conceal.
