The sky over Blackwood seemed to have shattered into a thousand pieces, spewing forth a deluge that punished the earth with relentless fury.
To anyone else, that storm was an unleashed hell, but to me, in that moment of pure despair, it was a shield sent by providence.
The icy water lashed my face and soaked my clothes, weighing heavily on my shoulders, but it was also doing the dirty work for me: the torrential rain was washing away any trace of my boots in the alley mud almost before the soles left the ground.
I pressed myself against the brick wall of the last building facing the docks, trembling uncontrollably, and peered around the corner.
The scene unfolding behind me, on the main street, was worthy of a war zone. Through the roar of the wind, I heard the echo of military orders
