"Do you think they're mad at us, Ezekiel?" Marah blinked into the distance, chewing the inside of her cheek after she spoke. After a few moments of silence, she turned to look up at him again. "Ez?"
"I don't know." He finally breathed out, scuffing his feet into the grass as he shared a glance with his sister towards the horizon. Nothing was the same anymore. "We should have told them."
Told them what? Told them about how they knew this was coming? Told them about the reason they ran away from the city, leaving them there to die?
"We couldn't have, they wouldn't have believed us. We're just kids, right?" Marah reached over and started to pet their dog, which responded with labored breathing, and soft wags of the tail onto the grass. "I've never seen the sky look so beautiful though," she commented, giving her best shot at a smile given the situation.
Ezekiel gave a half-hearted smirk and pulled up the collar of his shirt to cover his nose, watching as the flakes flew up into the sky. To anyone else, from a distance these may appear to be firebugs, and you know what, that was a completely fine thought. Let others live in their blissful moments. "You know, Marah," he spoke, muffled by the fabric. "I wonder why the smoke is purple."
"Iodine."
There was a tension that filled the air between them, before Ezekiel started kicking his feet again. "Marah, we need to get going. We won't be safe from the toxins much longer. Pull up your shirt and cover your nose, we've got to go."