Zeke and his group had been walking for miles. The progress felt non-existent as the cathedral in the distance didn’t pull any inches closer to them, like being trapped in a nightmare with a never ending hallway and a door at the end that you can never reach.

But there were worse places to be perpetually journeying in, like under the scorching sun and shoveling heavy hot sand with your feet — like Moses and his group did for 40 years on their way to the Promised Land, which was the story Isaac told verbatim from the Bible.

Zeke felt bad for not paying attention to any of it, AJ definitely wasn’t paying attention, and Ugo just kept looking at Naomi back and forth, probably fantasizing about a thousand different scenarios that results in them being together, their following marriage, theme, location, and everything until the moment they die surrounded by their children, grandchildren, each of them already named in his head and with their personalities picked out. But there was also a noticeable struggle in his expression. Naomi was the only one paying full attention. Bless her.

“Why don’t the rest of the Tainted Generation come to help us?” Naomi asked.

Zeke was caught off guard, not realizing that Isaac’s story already ended and a new conversion was spawning. One that he was interested in this time.

“Unfortunately, not everyone has their schedules cleared to tag along on an adventure like this,” Isaac responded.

“Or they are all just being assholes like Vee,” Ugo added. “She brags about being able to survey us throughout the day and doesn’t show up during a crisis like this?”

Isaac exchanged a look with Zeke. With his dim gray eyes he said, ‘It’s okay, I won’t say anything.’

“Do you know the rest of the members of the Tainted Generation?” AJ asked Isaac.

“Yes, I do. A bunch of talented and passionate folk,” Isaac answered.

“I’d like to meet them all,” Naomi said, “so far, you’re all so kind.”

“Well… they aren’t all exactly… amicable, little one,” Isaac lamented. “Especially towards your kind.”

Naomi lowered her head. “Oh…” She looked down at her hands and twiddled with her thumbs for a while. “I hope angels and the Healers get along soon…”

AJ scoffs. “Well, maybe you guys should do a better job.”

Naomi looked back at her with a blank expression. “What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about the world, of course! How come when it comes to miracles it’s a rarity, but when it comes to downright bad luck and unfortunate events, there is a straight up abundance.”

“I’m sorry that you’re upset,” Naomi said. “But I am sure there is a good reason for that, or maybe, the angels are doing the best they can with what they’ve got, and they slip up sometimes…”

Losing the will to argue any further, AJ groaned and looked away. “Whatever…”

Even in the harmonious environment, tension brewed in the air. A troubled, suffocating silence took over.

A glint shined in Isaac’s eye, Zeke noticed it, and prayed that he wasn’t going to whip out a cheesy, never-ending sermon about friendship or something.

Ugo came to the rescue and slid over to Naomi. “Hey, Naomi, wanna hear about how we met AJ?”

A chagrined look flourished on AJ’s face. She stared at Ugo anxiously.

“It was first grade show-and-tell…”

Ugo turned his head to AJ and gave her a smug smile. AJ’s cheeks bloomed with red.

“Don’t you dare…” she threatened in a feeble voice.

“‘First grade’? Is that a ranking?” Naomi asked.

“Yeah, for school,” Ugo responded. “Show-and-tell is when kids can bring their favorite toy, or book, or maybe a photo of their family to share with their class, and AJ sang a song…”

“Oh, yeah! The broccoli poem!” Zeke blurted.

Isaac raised a brow. “Broccoli poem…? Oh, wait, I think I remember. AJ became somewhat of a celebrity, a spokesperson to have other kids eat veggies for the school’s Get Healthy Initiative. They made her do all kinds of events till the fourth grade.”

“Stop talking!” AJ shouted.

“Fine, we’ll stop talking,” Ugo muttered, trying to contain his rioting laughter. While making a face, he looked at Zeke, and he responded by looking back and making a ridiculous face of his own. Ugo and Zeke took in an exaggerated deep breath.

“I hate you guys…” AJ said.

And they began to march and sing in unison.

“Oh, broccoli, I love you!

Oh, broccoli, when times are blue!

Oh, broccoli, you make me anew!

Oh, broccoli, I love you!”

Zeke marched over to Ugo’s side and the two put their arms over each other as they continued.

“Oh, broccoli, I love you!

Oh, broccoli, make my dreams come true! Oh, broccoli, through and through!.

Oh, broccoli, I love you!”

AJ sauntered to the railing. “Okay, I am going to jump off this bridge now,”

“Oh, let me take away your suffering by doing it for you!” Isaac insisted.

AJ looked back at a smiling Isaac, puzzled. “I was joking.”

Isaac laughed hysterically. “Okay!”

Naomi giggled. “I like the song.”

“It’s a classic,” Ugo said. “You have to learn it, Naomi, then we can drive her crazy all together. Only then will you be one of us.”

Naomi stared blankly and then took in a deep breath.

She sang.

“Oh, broccoli, I love you!

Oh, broccoli, when times are blue!

Oh, broccoli, you make me anew!

Oh, broccoli, I love you!”

“Yes!” Ugo said like a proud father watching his daughter ride a bicycle without training wheels for the first time.

“I know a lot of embarrassing stuff about you, too, Ugo,” AJ said.

Ugo stared back, undaunted. “You’re talking to the guy who asked the History teacher out on a date in the middle of class using a serenade from a video game, I know no fear nor shame!” Ugo looked at Naomi. “She only said, ‘no’, because she was married, so…”

“Yeah, that was the reason,” Zeke said.

“How about in Sophomore year when you lied about having a girlfriend? Those photos you posted on Friendbook,” AJ added.

Zeke grimaced as Ugo scoffed.

“Please…” Ugo started. “I found a mannequin, a plastic statue of a woman, alright,” he explained to Naomi. “I took it home, stylized it a bit, and took photos with it, telling everyone she was my girlfriend, so what? I’m not ashamed.”

AJ arched a brow “Is that it, Ugo…? Or are you still going to deny it?”

“What else is there?” Ugo asked.

“Ugo…” Zeke uttered.

“It was a mannequin—”

“It was a sex doll, Ugo!” Zeke snapped. “I know it, you know it, we all knew it!”

“There was no evidence pointing to that. It was just a mannequin!”

“You found it in the alleyway of a strip club.”

“Strip clubs have mannequins.”

“You kept it hidden under your bed for almost a month! Who knows what weird stuff you did with it when I was gone…”

“I didn’t do anything weird!” Ugo argued. “Ugh… and what are you criticizing me about? You had a panic attack in freshman year when trying to climb a rope in PE.”

“I never went up that high before!” Zeke yelled.

“You were barely four feet off the ground, Zeke...” AJ said.

“It was too high for me, okay?” Zeke defended. “I’m short! Everything is high to me!”

Naomi was hunched over, laughing uncontrollably, letting out little squeaks and cries of joy.

Zeke, Ugo, and Naomi stopped roasting each other and fixated on Naomi. They smiled.

“Stop!” Isaac cried and extended his arms to the side, bringing everybody to a halt.

Zeke glanced at Isaac and then looked forward.

The rest of the path was gone. They were standing on the last pieces of bridge left from what looked like the assault of a giant bite. The edges of the bridge were curved and undulated, cutting off exquisite relief carvings and leaving just awkward and mangled imagery.

Isaac stuck one foot out into the open air and let his body drop.

Ugo and AJ grabbed his collar from behind and pulled him back.

“Zach!” Ugo shouted and gave him a look.

Isaac reached his hand out to his side. “It’s fine…” He grasped onto Zeke and pulled him close. “Watch.”

Isaac pushed Zeke off the bridge.

Zeke heard loud, horrified gasps before everything became muffled with the sounds of roaring winds punching into his eardrums. His heart dropped as he whirled, plummeting towards nothingness. The medical bag flew out of his grip. He reached his arms out and tried to grasp on to something, but all he got was nil, and then flailed his arms and legs as he gyrated wildly, performing Olympic gymnast levels of acrobatics, executing a record-breaking number of flips in short intervals.

As the world spun around him, smeared shapes of blue and white and gray overlaid his vision. He was screaming and cursing in Spanish, using the most rural of exclamations he didn’t even realize he remembered.

At least he wasn’t going to die confused. His hunch about Isaac was right. He always figured that Isaac was going to be the one to get him killed, one way or another, that, or by trying to defend Ugo in a future sexual harassment accusation.

The world fixed back into place.

Zeke’s neck dropped and then swung back. He was still falling, but in a more controlled way now. He looked down, saw a hand on his chest, and turned his head to the side, seeing Isaac with his hair blowing upward, happily plummeting to his death alongside him. Zeke figured Isaac must’ve had his other hand on his back to help him maintain balance.

Zeke attempted to yell over the sound of the booming winds. “Why did you kill me, man!”

Isaac screamed back. “We’re not falling, Hezekiah! We’re flying!”

Zeke’s expression contorted with confusion. So this is how I die, huh?

Isaac slowly removed his hands from Zeke’s body and floated a few feet away from him. He turned around with his back facing the heavenly emptiness below, crossed his legs, and put his interlocked hands behind his head, falling in a hammock position.

Zeke did his best to control his breathing, dealing with the violent winds pushing into his face and invading his nostrils, but the air was fresh and warm, feeling good inside his body. He looked to his side, and the cathedral was there — window after window, relief carving after relief carving, feature after feature shot upwards past Zeke’s line of vision as he descended.

Zeke looked down and immediately regretted it. His heart jumped back into place and started beating like a firing machine gun. Nothing but more light skies and puffy clouds. The bottom of the cathedral was nowhere to be seen.

Woohoos and Yeahhhhs came from above. Zeke peered up, having trouble with the winds forcing his eyelids to move away from his eyeballs, blinding him for a bit. Ugo, AJ, and Naomi descended in an arched skydiving position — their bellies pointing downwards and their arms and legs spread. They positioned themselves around Zeke.

“So, you guys jumped, too, why?” Zeke yelled. They could only communicate by screaming as loud as they could.

“Zeke, it’s alright.” AJ yelled, while clenching her glasses in one hand.

“You can’t see them, but there are angelic sigils in this open space,” Naomi clarified. “It permits flight to any creature born without the ability to fly.”

Zeke furrowed his brows and then noticed his medical bag in Ugo’s hand.

Isaac swam to the group and joined the formation around Zeke. “In a specified area within the boundaries of these sigils, you may fly. You need to train your eyes to be able to see them.” Isaac stretched out his hand, crossed his fingers, and then released.

A myriad of golden, glowing sigils appeared across the sky in the distance. Forming a wall of mystic symbols.

“If you fly outside the confines of these symbols and then you’ll truly plummet to your death.” Isaac drifted away from the group and slowly toward the wall of symbols.

“Zach…?” Ugo muttered.

“Somebody better stop me…” Isaac chirped as he stared at them.

AJ grabbed Isaac by the ankle and pulled him back.

“Oh, wonderful, you saved me, AJ.” Isaac said.

“You’re a real piece of work, Isaac.” AJ said.

“So… we’re not going to die?” Zeke asked.

“No,” Isaac pointed below to their left — their southwest. “That’s where we need to go.”

They looked in the same direction and there was a bridge connected to a giant door of the cathedral.

“Let’s race to it.” Naomi screamed and then, in a quick burst, she soared toward it.

“Oh, you’re on,” AJ said. “I love races!” she steered in Naomi’s direction and jetted after her.

“The loser has to kiss the winner!” Ugo blasted off.

Zeke watched, puzzled. How the hell did they get a hold of it so quickly?

Isaac wrapped his arms around Zeke aggressively from behind. His lips touched the rim of his ear.

“You need to stop thinking so much, Hezekiah,” Isaac whispered into his ears.

Zeke retreated to his happy place. Uncomfortable wasn’t even the start of what he was feeling.

Isaac released a subtle breath into his ear and then spoke. “Her soul does not have purity, but it does not not have purity either.”

“What!” Zeke yelled out without willing to turn around to prevent a rather unfortunate accident from happening.

“Sorry, I explained it badly. I mean, um… her soul doesn’t register any levels of purity or impurity.” Isaac was whispering about Naomi.

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Isaac said. “Violet was right. Naomi isn’t an angel. I don’t know what she is. I’ve never scanned an anomaly like this before. She may be the first of her kind and extremely dangerous.”