When I heard the first burst of gunfire, my immediate reaction was to roll my eyes and shout 'Oh, come on!' I refrained from this course of action, however, and instead merely whispered it.

Ria watched me, maybe a bit puzzled, but jumping at every gunshot.

"There's some stuff going on right now." I explained.

"It's Hell." She said, evidently finding this answer pleasing.

We had gotten off the elevator at the city, but there were a number of halls to traverse before we actually saw the city.

The sky was orange. It was past midnight, and the sky was an unnatural orange, the artificial environment tweaked to a twilight daytime. In four directions in the sky, a single message of 'Relax' was unhelpfully displayed. A desperate attempt to try maintain control.

Hell was a military state, and the police should have had enough power to keep a small riot under control. Something additional must have run amok.

I wanted to learn what had happened, being a self loathing idiot and all, but I wasn't going to risk anything with Ria in tow. I headed straight for my apartment, stopping every street block to listen for chaos.

"Normally there isn't-" Almost on cue, a woman screamed- "So much violence."

"But this is Hell, right? You'd think it'd be like this."

"It is Hell in that everyone is a demon, but honestly, it's really just an... underground socially liberal city run by marshall law and fiscal conservatism. If that sounds possible."

"Sounds like a bit much."

We got to my apartment without any conflict, as the streets were near empty. I immediately turned on my television and flipped through the channels. The main channel bore the message 'Stay indoors'. The rest were off.

I fell back onto my bed in frustration. Ria has settled on the floor next to me, leaning against the mattress and her arms wrapping around her legs.

"So..." She said. "What happens next?"

"There's so much going on right now. You can- We might- Sorry. We have to wait until this," I gestured to the window, "thing ends."

"Then what?"

"You can stay here, or you can go home."

"But home isn't home anymore, right? So what's the point of that?"

"It's still Earth."

"Adeline won't be there. She'll never be born."

"I don't know a thing about your parents. In a few more years, she might show up again."

"But without me, she won't be her."

With no ill contempt of Ria in mind, I had begun to space out as conversation turned towards the inevitable: the inevitability of our situation. I opened my phone at one point, and noticed I had a series of a text from Micky.

'Where are you?? Call me asap!!!' It read. There were a few emoticons tossed in for emphasis.

"I have to make a call." I said to Ria. I dialed Micky. He answered the second time around.

"Hey!" He said, hurried. I could hear indistinct shouting on his end. "Where are you?"

"I just got back from Earth. Just realized my sisters would be reset, so I went and grabbed... her."

"Oh. You notice everything's sort of gone to shit? Couple of people with guns are running around causing trouble. Like half the cops are on strike, and they called me in. Can you get out here?"

"I'm super tired. Can this wait until morning?"

"I'm fucking dead too. Can you come and meet me? I'm down in the Southern block. I'll try and meet you on street one in the northern quarter, if possible."

"No. I'm not a soldier. I don't want to get shot. Besides, I have my little sister here."

"What, is she three years old? Leave her alone. Please, Robles."

"Will I get shot?"

"Try not to?"

"I'm not going."

"I'm going to go to your fucking house and abduct you myself if you don't come down here. There's just a couple of people with guns, rebels, and angel sympathizers are doing jack shit about it."

"Why do I have to go? What do you need me for?" I demanded.

"You're my partner, okay? Just-" His voice caught. "Logan's dead, Moll's been shot, and-" His voice chocked again. He regained his bravado. "Don't be such a fucking pussy, Robles, and get the fuck over here."

He hung up. I considered my options.

I could get go out, probably get shot and die, or I could not do that.

I stood up and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Ria asked, following me.

"Go to sleep."

"That is not an answer." She stared at me with a determined glare.

"My friend asked me to meet up with him."

"You're going to go out during a riot?"

"It's not a riot. Just a couple of armed rebels."

"A couple of rebels caused this big of a lockdown?"

"I don't know. I'll be back by tomorrow morning. If I'm not, uh. Here." I handed her my cell phone. "Call Micky. Or the police, if that doesn't work. We'll see."

As I went to open the door, Ria stopped me. "You're not going out there!"

"Ria, I'm a giant dog. I'll be fine."

"You're not much older than me!"

"Ria." I said harshly, and I grabbed her hand off the door. With my arm keeping her away from me, I slipped out the door. Just for good measure, I ran down the hall.

I didn't see Micky as I came down street one, but rather was waved into a small alley by him.

"What is this?" I asked. Midway through my sentence, a loud crash of a gunshot made me cringe.

"Little more than a couple of gunmen. Down the street, holed up entrance to the old tunnels, there's a good hundred rebels." Micky said, breathless as he peeked out to the street. "A couple of them were with the police. They placed bombs in the police headquarters and barracks, shot as many as they could, and then met up with the rest of them."

"Rebels, though?" I said. My certainty that I was going to get shot had just gone through the roof.

"We assume. They haven't released any sort of manifesto. We only know from witnesses that most of them are birds."

"So what do you want me to do? I mean, the two of us will die if we try and run right into their base of operations."

Micky looked me dead in the eyes. "I was thinking of joining them."

"What?"

"I don't like them, but they're winning. Everything is a mess. I can't get a hold of Kell or Glenn or Lane or... I don't know who else is dead. And no matter my loyalties, I don't want to die."

"Well, you don't need me for this. I'm going back."

I patted him on the back as he had done so many times to me, and cautiously started on my way.

"Wait!" Micky called after me. In a moment, he had run up beside me. "Robles, please. I would go, but I- I'm scared to, right? They'll fucking shoot me! I need someone to go in front."

"A meat shield, really? That's why you fucking need me? Fuck off Micky. I gone through a lot of tiring bullshit today, and I need to sleep it off."

"Robles-"

"Fuck off!" I snapped. "God. Leave me alone. You don't think I haven't realized why you spent so long with me by now? You only give a shit about me because I used to be someone. I'm just some fucking joke for you, an insecure attempt to... oh, fuck it." I stormed off to the best of my abilities while still maintaining a jog.

"Robles!" Micky called after me. He was a fast runner, and grabbed me by the shoulder. "Blake." He caught his breath. "I'm- I don't need you like- I mean- I need you. I can't do this alone. I'm so fucking scared I'm going to die. I need someone to walk with me. Hold my fucking hand, uh, metaphorically."

"Am I going to get shot?"

"I hope not."

"Alright." I turned around, and the two of us began to walk down the street. No one else was in sight, but the occasional sounds of crashes and bullets kept me on my toes.

"I stopped spending time with you for status the moment I met you, you know."

I nervously looked to Micky, who was staring at the ground, eyebrows creased, struggling to speak.

"You're great. The best guy I know. Always cool with everyone, never mean to me, just really, er... sweet. I met up with you because I thought it'd be cool, hanging with this famous guy. But we're friends now, so it's not really cool. It's just friendship."

"Sorry for yelling."

"Man, you need to stop apologizing." Micky said with a late half laugh.

As we curved into view of the gate of the underground, we finally saw a few other people on the streets. The actual gateway had a number of people visible, crouching below pillars and cement blocks. There were a couple of dead policemen in the area across from them, but that was it.

"What are they on the watch for?"

"Again, no clue." Micky put his hands up a while before I thought we were visible to them, and nudged me until I did the same.

My heart raced every step we took, even as we got near enough to the rebels that they easily might've shot us. I exchanged a look with Micky, whose eyes were as wide as mine. When the distance became a couple of feet, we were ushered forward by one of them.

"We're here to join." Micky blurted immediately.

We were ushered further back.

Every person we stood in front of for more than a second presented a new opportunity for Micky to nervously explain he was here to join, and every person only pointed us further to the back. Soon we were standing at the entrance to the excavated tunnels, blocked by two guards. The latest rebel to point us in this direction reappeared after whispering to someone else for a minute. She nodded, and took us back through the atrium and to the elevators.

"Where are we going?" Micky asked. "We are here to join."

She didn't answer the entire ten minute wait as we traveled down to Wrath, despite Micky's occasional nervous chatter. Eventually, she said "Here," but it did not explain very much.

We arrived in the old tunnels of Wrath, and the rebel led us to the pit room. At the top of the room was a set of large bay windows, things I had always sort of forgot about. They belonged to an old blocked off office in Wrath. A ladder leaned against the wall, leading right up to one of the windows.

Rebel Lady motioned for us to climb, and we slowly did. Neither of us seemed particularly good at it. Even if I wasn't scared of heights, I did not like slightly wobbly ladders leading forty feet straight up.

She followed from behind, and immediately continued to wordlessly lead us away. The hall beyond the wrecked office seemed to have been mostly preserved behind several layers of rock. Lights had been strung up, and every few feet there was a plain unmarked door from which someone was watching us. Many of them did seem to be angels, by my guess, but I saw a good number of women and older men as well.

At one of the rooms, the rebel stopped. She motioned for us to go in the room, so we did. It was white, empty, and she closed the door once we had gone in. Then she locked it.

It only took a second for Micky to start banging on the door. "We want to join you!" He cried out.

I stopped him with a gentle touch. "They might kill us if we don't behave."

"I assume they'll be killing us one way or another."

"We'll have to wait."

We sat down to do so.

After five minutes, it was clear Micky's nerves couldn't take this. He was absolutely jittery, fidgeting with his hands and checking the door every few seconds. It made me nervous just watching him.

I got up and tried knocking on the door. After a period of time long enough that my knuckles hurt, the door was opened a slit. The rebel from before glared from behind it.

"Are you going to kill us?" Micky called before I could get a word in.

"Most likely." The rebel said. "In a few hours."

She closed the door again.

When I looked back to Micky, he made a sort of 'Gwa' sound and fell back against the wall.

"This is worse than being shot." He said.

I sat down next to him. "If they shoot us point blank, it will actually be a lot better than far range."

"Blake..." Micky sniffed. He wasn't crying, but he seemed to be tearing up. "I'm not gay or anything, but..."

"Yes?" I rolled my eyes. This was a terrifying life or death situation, and he had brought me to rolling my eyes. I hope he noticed.

"Since we're going to die in a couple of hours, do you want to fuck?"

"Nope." I said immediately. "No. That is not happening." My face probably carried my emotions of surprise and unease.

"It's not a gay thing." Micky insisted. His watery eyes were wide and serious. "Just since we're both going to die and all."

"No."

"I'm not going to die without experiencing anal."

"No."

"Are you a virgin? I mean, I could just suck you off, I'd like to try that too."

I groaned loudly.

"You are a virgin, right?"

"Yes." I about hissed. "God. Micky. I'd like to die with dignity."

"Sorry. Whatever. Just- I don't know what I'm going to do. If I'm going to die, let me die already!" He chuckled nervously. "You know I'm not gay-"

"For someone who is so keen on reassuring me of this fact, you sure do seem quick to break this rule."

"We're going to die!" Micky said like it was obvious. "I'm frightened as fuck, and I need something to take my mind off things, and I thought, since we're like friends and all..." His voice trailed into a murmur. "I thought you wouldn't judge me."

"I don't." I said, though I sort of did. "I guess, you know, it is the kind of thing people do when they know they're about to die."

Relieved, Micky smiled and nodded. "So you're up for it?"

"No."

"Not even like, mutual mas-"

"No."