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Everywhere we fly, people scatter below us

They see the great shadow of our swarm above them, and they run

We fly over a cityscape that has been charred, broken, and mostly abandoned San Francisco used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with its trolley cars and famous restaurants Tourists used to stroll Fisherman’s Wharf and cruise the crowded alleys of Chinatown

Now the grungy survivors fight for scraps and harass terrified women They scurry into the shadows and disappear as soon as they spot us The only ones left are theto escape the gangs for the few seconds it takes us to fly by

Below us, a girl hunches over a deadwith limbs spread wide She hardly notices us, or she si off soh binoculars, ora rifle at us as we pass

We ht A cloud of scorpion-tailed,out the sky

And in thea teenage girl At least, Raffe must look like a de on borroings

They probably think he kidnapped the girl he’s holding They couldn’t possibly guess that I feel safe in his ar my head on the warm curve of his neck because I like the feel of his skin

‘Do we humans always look like that from above?’ I ask

He answers I can feel the vibrations in his throat and see his , but I can’t hear him above the thunderous buzz of the locust swarm

It’s probably good I didn’t hear hi from one shadow to another

But we’re not roaches or els think of us We are still the same people we once were At least, we are on the inside

I hope so, anyway

I glance over atbeside us Even now, I have to reirl I’ve always loved Well, maybe not exactly the same

She’s riding on the shriveled body of Beliel, which is being carried like a palanquin by several locusts He has blood all over hih I know he’s still alive It’s no worse than what he deserves, but there’s still a part of me that wonders at the primitive cruelty of it all

A gray island of rock appears ahead of us in the middle of San Francisco Bay Alcatraz, the notorious former prison There’s a ind of locusts above the island It’s a se called for help on the beach a few hours ago

I point to an island behind Alcatraz It’s bigger and greener, with no buildings that I can see I’el Island Despite the nae on that hellish rock

We veer around the locust ind and head to the larger island

I e to come with us Her locust and the ones closest to her follow us, but thethe size of the dark funnel above the prison So direction and heading back to Alcatraz as if compelled to be part of the hive

Only a handful of locusts stay with us as we circle Angel Island for a good spot to land

The rising sun highlights the ele, Alcatraz sits in front of the wide panorama of the San Francisco skyline Itview once Now it looks like a jagged line of broken teeth

We land by the water on the west shore The tsunamis left a rubbl

e of bricks on the beach and athe other side mostly intact

When we reach the ground, Raffe lets ainst him for a year My arms are practically frozen in place around his shoulders, and s are stiff The locusts stu the same issues

Raffe stretches his neck and shakes out his ars fold and disappear behind hi his mask from the party-turned-h with silver, and it covers his entire face except for his mouth

‘Aren’t you going to take that off?’ I shake the nus’

‘Good That’s how every angel should look’ He rolls his shoulders I suppose it’s not easy having so to relax his muscles, he’s on full alert as his eyes scan our eerily quiet surroundings

I adjust the strap around uised as a teddy bear, sits against my hip for easy access Then I step over to help e, her locusts hiss at ers in my direction

I stop,

Raffe is beside me in an instant ‘Let her come to you,’ he says quietly

Paige climbs off her ride and pets a locust with her small hand ‘Shh It’s okay That’s Penryn’

It still a to er until the beasts lower their stingers under Paige’s gentle crooning I let out e soothe them

Paige bends to gather up Raffe’s severed wings She had been lying on thein fluffing al the with the rest of the demon, but I wish he hadn’t had to do it Noe’ll have to find a doctor to reattach them to Raffe before they wither

We start up the beach and see a couple of rowboats tied to a tree The island must be occupied after all

Raffe motions for us to hide while he heads up the slope

It looks like there used to be a row of houses on one side of the hill On the lower ground, only the concrete foundations remain, littered with sround, several boarded-up buildings are intact

We skitter behind the nearest building It’s large enough to have been barracks of some kind Like the others, it’s sealed up hite painted boards They look like they’d been shut up long before the Great Attack

The whole thing feels like a ghost settle the bay It’s a perfectly intact Victorian, co that looks like a family home and the only one with color or any sense of life

I don’t see any threats, certainly nothing that the locusts can’t scare off, but I stay out of sight anyway I watch Raffe as he leaps to fly up the hill,behind the cover of barrack to tree, barrack to tree, working his way toward the main house

When he gets there, gunfire shatters the peace