“Yeah. I’ve never seen one that size before.” He put his gun away, revealing a ribbon of toned, flat stomach. “I guess they’re from the Second Wave – maybe heading down to Albuquerque to live.”

I swallowed. It was already starting, then. The Second Wave of angels, settling into our world alongside the first. Silently, Alex crouched to finish strapping our stuff to the bike; when he straightened again he wrapped his arms around me, holding me close for a long moment. “Are you ready?” he asked.

I nodded; suddenly I could hardly wait to get away from this place. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

We drove for hours, heading south on minor roads, stopping only once to grab food from a tiny convenience store in the hills north of Alamogordo. The land turned to desert, vast and empty, with the stars shimmering overhead. Once, as we skirted a town, I saw another angel in flight, its pure white figure clear against the night sky. As I watched, it wheeled sharply on one wing and plummeted, deadly as an arrow. I turned my head away as we sped on, hating what I knew was happening at that very moment.

We started climbing back into mountains; the cold wind whipped at my face and arms. I shivered, pressing against Alex’s back, and was glad when he finally pulled off the road. It felt late, after midnight.

“I thought New Mexico was supposed to be hot,” I said as we got off the bike. He’d taken us down a dirt road that led deep into the woods; we were at the bottom of a narrow canyon. Moonlight cast a faint, silvery light – I could see my breath in the air.

“Not up here,” said Alex as he unstrapped the tent. This was his home state, and he seemed to know it inside and out. I fumbled coldly in the storage compartment for the sweater I’d bought, pulling it on over the one I was already wearing – and remembered how Alex hadn’t even needed a map back in September, when he’d guided us over a hundred miles of New Mexico back roads.

“But we’re not too far from the border now, and then it’ll be desert again,” he went on. He tossed the rolled-up tent onto the frosty ground, and started undoing the sleeping bags. “I just thought we could get a couple of hours’ sleep up here where we’re hidden, then cross before dawn when there’s a little more light – I don’t remember exactly where the crossing-place is; I might miss it in the dark.”

Needless to say, we weren’t going into Mexico the legal way. Pushing aside my apprehension about what the next few hours might bring, I helped Alex put up the tent.

“I’ve never gone camping before,” I commented as I unwound a guy rope.