My head acts as a battering ram against the humid gusts. No sunlight falls on my shoulders as I charge out into a grey afternoon.
“This way,” Angel growls through the wind. I try to follow his voice, but I’m essentially walking blind. The further I stumble from the backdoor, the more intense the mighty drafts become; they blow so hard that they threaten to draw tears from my shut eyelids...
Suddenly, though, the wind stops. I can still hear the howling but something blocks it from getting to me. Something big. I blink back into focus and see Angel towering over me.
God, sometimes I forget just how massive he is. There’s a look of concern drawn on his ruggedly handsome face. His sharp jaw clenches and his fiery eyes suck in the wind.
“The wind, it’s too strong...” I mumble. Guilt creeps through my gut at the thought that I’m slowing us down. Something is coming for us, something bad, otherwise, why would Angel be rushing us from the only slice of safety we have left?
“Hold Ozzy tight,” he growls. Suddenly, I’m off my feet. Angel has swept me up like a bride. I huddle over Oscar and brave the wind once more, but this time the heat of Angel’s thumping chest helps calm my frazzled nerves.
... Then, I’m back on my feet again and out of Angel’s arms. The wind is still just as loud as ever, but something other than my burly protector is guarding us from it. I manage to blink away the tears and focus through the blurriness. A steady brick wall stands before us, blocking off the gale-force gusts.
“What’s happening, Angel?” I plead. There’s no malice in me, I just want to know what we’re facing. Is it Dante, is it mother nature, is it a bit of both?
The giant seems to finally take some pity on me, or maybe it’s just my son that cools his jets. His green-laced eyes wrap Ozzy up in their gaze as he steps forward and comforts us with the heat of his heaving body. Even he’s out of breath. I look over my shoulder. I can’t see Wilmar’s house anymore. The one-story abodes that line this new block are unfamiliar to me. How far have we gone already?
“I’m getting us out of here.” Angel grumbles through the howling wind.
“But why?” I implore. What’s coming for us?
“Because I can.”
My heart drops as it all suddenly becomes clear.
We’re not running away from anything—at least nothing immanent—we’re speeding towards something. An opening. This is Angel trying to rip us away from the revolution he started and bring us to safety.
I thought I told him I wasn’t okay with that!?
“What the fuck, Angel!?” I shout, my voice nearly getting lost in the hurricane.
He hears me loud and clear, though, and I know that he’s been purposely keeping details from me for this very reason. Angel maybe stubborn, but he’s no fool; he remembers the guilt I spilled on him about leaving—he just doesn’t care.
Bastard.
My fear and anxiety whirl around in the wind before mixing into a deadly potion of anger and inner conflict behind my pounding chest.
“We’re leaving,” Angel booms. “And that’s that!”
“Like hell we are!” I shout back, covering Ozzy’s ears with my trembling palms. Somehow, he’s still asleep. Thank god.
Angel steps forward and I can’t help but shrink away. Even though I know he only wants what’s best for us, there’s still something so intimidating about the dark hulking figure when someone is refusing to obey his orders. “I’m not taking a vote,” he growls, reaching for my arm.
I lurch away.
The truth is, I still hadn’t made up my mind about whether or not we should leave. Oscar’s safety is more important to me than anything... but how could we raise a baby boy in a world we destroyed just to make him safe? What kind of selfish example does that set? People are fighting and dying for us, and we’re just going to abandon them? Anna? Lady? Everyone?
“I’m not leaving! We’re not leaving!” I yell, tightening my grip around Oscar. He kicks in my arms, but when I look down, the baby boy’s eyes are still closed.
When I look back at Angel, a stone drops in my gut.
Something has changed in his eyes. The fury is back, but this time, there’s nothing else to hold it back. A single flash of fear cuts through my body. It stuns me for a terrifying moment. Slowly, though, I’m able to start fighting it back.
Angel’s not who I should be scared of, and I’m not who he should be mad at.
“We need to stay, we need to fight,” I tell him.
“We?” His voice is so deep that I can’t distinguish it from the roars in the distance. “You haven’t been doing any fighting, and I’m going to keep it that way.”