“Pres—”
Hoodoo appears beside him, panting, eyes going wide as he takes it all in. “Fuck, Pres.”
“Hoodoo…” I rasp, forcing the command through the pain, “… we don’t have time. You gotta get City outta h-here. This place is rigged to go up.”
City lets out a raw, animalistic sound as he leans back into the beam, giving it everything he has left.
Then Hoodoo wraps his arms around him and hauls him back.
City fights it. He kicks and growls, grief ripping through him as he’s dragged away, boots scraping against the flooded floor.
“C’mon, VP,” Hoodoo says, voice breaking. “I fucking hate it, but we gotta go.”
I watch them retreat, my vision blurring, my body going numb.
Then Grit bursts into the corridor like hell itself, bloodied and wild-eyed, one woman cradled in his arms while two more stumble behind him.
“Wait, there’s still more,” he roars. “Move,move, MOVE!”
And I pray they make it out in time.
00:00:10
My mind shifts to my baby girl.
Oh God, Immy.
My little girl with her mother’s eyes and my wild spirit. She’s only a few years old, just starting to really know who I am, what Imean to her. She calls me‘Daddy’in that sweet voice that melts every hard edge I’ve ever had.
She won’t remember me when she grows up.
She’ll only know me through stories.
Through pictures.
Through the memory of a father who never came home.
00:00:05
And Kaia.Jesus, Kaia.
My wife, my old lady, the woman who tamed the fucking hurricane and made me want to be better.
We just had our honeymoon.
We just found out about the twins.
Twins.
Two more babies I’ll never get to meet.
Two more chances to be the father I’ve always wanted to be, and I’m going to miss all of it.
I’ll never see them take their first breath.
Never hold them in my arms.
Never watch them grow up alongside their big sister.
