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"David? Can you hearon? The Internet thinks there are zoot dropped She redialed, and ie

The scene on the TV changed, and suddenly she was looking at David’s house and …

Oh my God

It was on fire

Why would that happen? Did David even know? She held up the phone, zoo house Juggling the cupcake box so she could text with her one hand, she sent David a sie:

WHAT IS HAPPENING

It said it was sent Who knows if it actually got through Meanwhile, the roo and crying and arguing and cursing at their phones Somebody rudely slammed into her from behind on their way to the door She dropped the cupcake box but it landed right side up so she thought it was okay She needed to find a chair She needed to sit, and breathe, and wait to hear fro

They sold office chairs over at the far side of the store and there were people sitting in the back tears ive up their seats at the same time She took the one in the middle

She waited, and waited She tried to call, circuits busy

It wasn’t as bad as she wasit out to be Didn’t David say they had made it out of town? And that they were fine? That’s what ry she was Was there anything to eat at this place other than those disgusting cinnamon rolls at Cinnabon?

There wasn’t Tentiny bits off of an enor out in the parking lot She needed to keep an eye on the bus, it still had her suitcase on board and she needed to make sure it didn’t leave with it

The driver was back at the bus, opening up the luggage co out on the trip A tall guy with long hair and , and the driver was telling hiuy reminded her of--

"JOHN!"

Amy ran out the door and across the pavened-purely-with-cuteness-in-mind shoes would let her John was startled to see her Before he could speak, she threw her arms around his torso

"Oh, thank God Oh my God, John I can’t believe you’re here"

John still looked baffled and said, "Yeah, I fell off but … I ht that … Anyway It worked out so, great Great Oh et as far away as we can, and just kind of regroup Need a ride though, I’et a spot on the bus but apparently that’s not allowed…"

John looked around Amy looked around At the exact same time both of the, noisy, circling, ht of as she saw, for the first ti around in the same sky A couple of the, that soft thwupping fading in and out as their blades chopped up the air If you ever see more than two helicopters over you, you can be sure that so terrible has happened

Amy made John take her out to the water tower and the toilets John went to the one on the far right and opened it, showing her that it was just a toilet, showed her that if he went and stood inside, nothing happened She ested he try the other two, he said that he had done that and that they, too, were just toilets

A And she would rather puke on live television than cry in front of John right now She wasn’t a large person under normal circumstances but when she cried she could feel herself shrink two feet She instantly got deizing for things they didn’t even do Strangers inviting themselves to put an arm around her shoulder like she was a five-year-old lost at the bus station

And she was a crier She cried when people yelled at her, she cried when she got frustrated, she cried during particularly sad coet hysterical She didn’t fall apart But everybody treated her like she did, because her eyes were so quick to start leaking when things rong And now, as John opened the toilet door and again she saw nothing but blue plastic walls and a whiff of poop che in her tear ducts and knew they were going to betray her for the ten thousandth tiot louder and one of the helicopters seee thing with two blades She could feel their pulsing in her gut

A black seht toward theet out of here We’ll regroup and come up with a plan But if they catch us then it’s over, we can’t help hilanced back, toward the truck, and then toward the tiny ar they were stretching across the field, sealing off the town behind theh the air Yells fro under the terrible hollow dru of the helicopters--the soundtrack of every worst-case scenario<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>