I walked over, drawn helplessly by the shattered view, and stood staring down at the remains of the city for a long time. And as I did, a chill ran over me. There were no helicopters flying over it, no sign of relief aid. What did that mean? Even if no one else in Mexico could help, what were things like in the United States, if they hadn’t sent aid after such a major catastrophe? The only answers that came to mind weren’t really ones that I wanted to dwell on.

I thought I saw a few angels circling over the ruins, though – bright, moving glimmers that somehow I knew weren’t just a trick of the light. A shiver went over me as I watched them.

Footsteps on the grass, and then Alex was there; he had on jeans and a T-shirt, his dark hair still rumpled from sleep. Without speaking, he put his arms around me from behind and drew me back against him as we both stared down at what used to be the largest city in the world. I knew from the tightening of his muscles that he’d noticed the lack of helicopters too, but he didn’t comment. My chest felt empty as I watched the tiny angels glinting over the devastation. The sorrow I felt was too great for tears now – too deep for anything that could be verbalized.

“Okay, enough,” said Alex finally. He turned us both around so that we were facing the mountains to the north. “Look that way instead,” he said, his voice firm. “That’s the way we’re going.”

The view was clear, uncluttered, and something in me eased. Somehow, looking at the soaring mountains with the sunrise on them made me able to breathe again. Alex was right. We couldn’t live our lives looking back – no matter what, we had to move forward to whatever waited for us. Alex and me, Seb, Sam, Liz, whoever else we managed to recruit – we all had to keep moving forward, or else we were lost.

After a long time, I cleared my throat. “So anyway, when we get to Nevada...I think we should rethink your dad’s rule.”

Alex glanced down at me and smiled – the first real smile I’d seen on his face in a long time. “You know what? It’s already been rethought and completely ditched,” he said. And he wrapped his arms around me and we stood looking up at the mountains, with the rising rays of the sun lighting them from the east.

Angel Fever

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Angel Fire was a book that, at times, I really didn’t think was going to get written.