Tony Stackhouse heard screams from the admin roof as the gunfire there stopped. He turned to see the impossible: the Institute’s Front Half lifting from the earth, swaying and rising into the moonlight. A figure on the roof, identified as Gladys, tried to keep her balance, then was flung off into the darkness.

Front Half continued to ascend, tearing loose from the ground with snapping and crunching, dragging parts of the playground fence and shedding debris. On the admin roof, Zeke Ionidis and Dr. Felicia Richardson dropped their guns and cowered against the parapet, stunned by the sight of a building slowly climbing into the sky.

As the structure tilted, a cigarette machine tumbled from the West Wing lounge into the playground. On the ground, George Iles stared up and would have been crushed if Nicky Wilholm had not yanked him to safety, while Doug the chef and Chad the caretaker emerged, dumbstruck, their weapons forgotten.

Front Half reached above the admin roof, drifting with ponderous momentum. Dangling insulation, sparking wires, and protruding pipes scraped the rooftop equipment. Zeke and Richardson ran for their roof hatch; Zeke made it through, but Richardson was too slow and was crushed as debris descended.

At that moment, the already weakened access tunnel gave way under the combined strain of neglect and the building’s levitation. The collapse crushed children below who were already dying from chlorine gas and mental overload. Despite this, the Ward A circle held until the roof fell, and Avery Dixon’s last thought was a calm farewell to friendship: he loved having friends.