Chapter 16

• Sophia ducks her head and dodges the flailing arms of her security team wrestling with the protestors. She scoots by with a confident walk until she's around them and on the other side of their human wall. She starts looking for the car that she requested to be brought to the front door. Many vehicles are abandoned on the sidewalk haphazardly, of all makes, colors, and models, and it irritates her that they have congested the road. She guesses most are from the protestors and clenches her fists in anger while looking around to try and locate her car.
• "Sophia, move." The raspy and urgent male shout comes at her from her left side, and before she can turn around and see who or where it came from, she's yanked backward, spun into a warm body, and hugged in tight as she's pulled sideways. A hand reaches over the top of her head, pushing her down in a crushing manner into the cocoon of his body, and covers her skull. At the same time, the black wool coat of her protector is pulled around her to conceal as much of her body as possible. Debris rains down on them from further back, and she squeals as she realizes what is happening.
• Bottles, boulders, cans, and a manner of hard and heavy objects fly around, over, and at them from all angles. Coming for people and the building, she's overwhelmed in panic mode to find they're right in the epicenter, like a cyclone of weapons flicking around and smashing at their feet.