A meager group of people mill about by the water’s edge beneath the bridge, waiting for someone to tell them what to do. I didn’t expect thousands of people, but I was hoping that more would be here.

‘We’re the ones who rescued the people off Alcatraz,’ Dee shouts. He acts as if there are hundreds of people here. ‘You’ve heard of that, right? Those same boats are coming here. When they arrive, do what you can to help. It’s the nice thing to do.’

‘If you’re not inclined to do the nice thing,’ says Dum, ‘then meet us at Bay Bridge. Let’s show the angels what we’re made of!’

I look around and see that there are more people here than I realized. Small movements of clothes, hats, bags, and weapons shift all around us in the trees, the cars, and the wreckage of ships washed up on shore.

People are hiding nearby, listening, watching, ready to disappear at the slightest sign. A few yell questions out to us from their hiding places.

‘Is it true that the dead are rising?’

‘Are there really demon monsters coming after us?’

I answer the questions as best I can.

‘Are you Penryn?’ someone yells from behind some trees. ‘Are you really an angel killer?’

‘Hell, yeah!’ says Dum. ‘Come see for yourself tonight. You too can be an angel killer.’

Dum nods his head toward the car. ‘Go on,’ he says to us. ‘I’ll spread the gospel about the talent show here and catch up.’

Dee grins. ‘Do you have any idea what the betting pool will be like tonight?’

‘It’s gonna be epic,’ says Dum as he struts into the crowd.

I follow Dee back into the car. The woman from Apple and the Colonel stay to oversee the evacuation while the rest of us go to the Bay Bridge to prepare for battle.

‘What are the chances that our men just grabbed the boats and took off?’ I ask. My stomach turns at the thought as we drive through the city.

‘I’m guessing at least half of them will do us right. We picked guys who had family among this crowd.’ He nods at the people standing by the water where Dum is already circulating in the crowd, getting the word out about the talent show.

‘By random luck,’ says Dee as he drives around a fallen electrical pole, ‘we happen to have stowed away the grand prize on the other side of the Golden Gate.’

‘What grand prize?’

‘For the talent show.’

‘Duh,’ says Sanjay in a good impression of Dum.

‘We wanted it away from people who knew about it,’ says Dee. ‘But in the end, we couldn’t have planned it any better if we had known what was about to go down.’

‘What’s the grand prize?’

‘You haven’t heard?’ says Dee.

‘It’s an RV,’ says Sanjay, sounding bored.