Creek spent the next several days, when it was safe, shuttling back between his apartment – which, like most buildings in Mykolaiv, was pitch black most of the day – and, after the air-raid sirens went off, the bomb shelter. Creek contacted his family and basketball community when he could, with increasingly dire messages. “When he was hunkered down in that bomb shelter, he sent me a voicemail,” said Joseph, Creek’s coach at GW. “It sent chills down my spine, just to hear the worry in his voice about not being able to get out. He was on his way out, and he heard the sirens, and he had to shelter. I can’t believe he was in that situation.”