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one of the wounded survivors. She has been credited for possibly saving dozens of lives by activating the school’s intercoms and alerting the school of the attack. The other two wounded are Coody, one of the gunmen, and, finally, Erica Weisz, a teacher who, by some accounts, was responsible for saving, not only the lives of the students assigned to her, but quite possibly many others. She was, reportedly, the teacher who armed herself and fought back against the heavily armed intruders. On scene and giving us live, exclusive coverage of this tragedy is Dave Gruber. Dave, do you have anything new for us about Erica Weisz?’
    The camera shot switched to Gruber, the Lakeland Regional Hospital in the background. The reporter held his hand against his ear, the mic to his mouth, as he continued the story.
    ‘Yes, Gail, we’re here at the hospital where not only some of the survivors were taken but one of the gunmen as well. We’ve been trying to get an interview with Erica Weisz, the brave young teacher who, it’s been reported, was able to obtain a gun and shoot the gunmen, in a strange twist of fate we don’t usually see at these tragedies. It’s been reported that she has undergone surgery and is recovering, but that’s all we’ve been able to get from the hospital’s public information spokesperson. Now, the alleged gunman, we’ve learned, is still in a medically induced coma, but we’ve also learned that David Edward Coody was a troubled young man. As we’ve seen in other cases like this, Coody was a loner who seldom talked to classmates and, in fact, did attend classes at Travis Hanks Elementary School several years ago. More recently, he was a student at the University of Central Florida where he was majoring in agricultural science, until he dropped out about six weeks ago. There have been sporadic reports from fellow students that he’d been seeing a psychiatrist, but we don’t have a specific diagnosis as to what he was being treated for. We’ll keep you informed as we get new information. This is Dave Gruber, reporting for THN. Gail?’
    ‘Thank you, Dave. We’ll get back to you soon. Now, we have to take a break but please stay with us for live, up to the minute coverage of the Tragedy at Travis Hanks, and, later, please tune in to my own show,
The Summer Report
, where I’ll be discussing the Human Tornado Phenomenon with our guest, celebrity psychologist and best-selling author, Dr Jay Gill.’
    Before cutting to commercial, they ran a video clip showing a seriously concerned-looking Dr Gill, who was commenting, in his pseudo-southern drawl, ‘I agree, Gail, these
Human Tornadoes
, as you call them, come in like a wrecking ball and destroy so many lives, and it’s usually because they come from destroyed lives themselves. They’re looking for what we are all looking for: love and acceptance … ’
    Thiery accepted Croll’s offer to drop him by the FDLE offices in Orlando, where he had called ahead and arranged to pick up a loaner cruiser. The governor went on to meet the media at the school while Thiery filled out the necessary paperwork and picked up the navy blue fleet car; a gas-guzzling Crown Vic that smelled like cigarettes, and was home to an army of black ants that lived in the Burger King detritus littering the floor.
    The drive from Orlando to Frosthaven was soporific. The air conditioning in the car held the shimmering outside heat at bay, but made Thiery’s eyelids heavy. He felt as if he was dreaming as he drove into the nightmare ahead. Crows stood along the arid road as if too tired to fly, their beaks parted, pointed tongues jutting out as if issuing a silent warning. The topography was mostly flat; wildlands turned into cattle pastures or citrus farms. A cow’s skull hung on the gate of a ranch he passed. One stretch of highway looked exactly like the last, but Thiery grew more anxious with each passing mile. There was a segment of I-4, then on to US 27, a two-lane road that