The silence of a blacked-out Chicago was more deafening than the roar of the ‘L’ train’s engines. Standing in the belly of a dead steel beast, suspended sixty feet above the frozen veins of the city, the world felt like it had been plunged into a sensory deprivation tank. The only light came from the bruised, purple glow of the clouds reflecting the fires still smoldering on the North Side.
Roman was a shadow beside me, his breathing the only rhythmic thing left in a world that had lost its pulse. He didn't look at the doors. He looked at the ceiling of the car, his head tilted, his hand already gripping the hilt of the serrated blade he’d pulled from his boot.
Ttap. Ttap. Ttap.
The footsteps on the corrugated metal roof were light, almost playful. It wasn’t the heavy, tactical tread of
