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collect my belongings.  
    If things go according to plan I will locate my mom during her shift change and be beyond the perimeter fences before anyone is alerted. That is the best case scenario. Life has taught me to bank on the worst and that means that by morning I could be locked up in the brig instead.
    Curfew begins at dusk each evening but you would be hard-pressed to find a soul outside the safety of their homes after 4pm. The streets become a ghost town each night as patrol units in armored trucks rumble through with blinding searchlights. They will make the one-mile trek to the apartment building where I am pretty sure my mom is being housed tricky, but I am smart. I know how to keep my head down when I need to.
    Dropping my boot to the ground, I whack my heel against a solid case and bend over. “What’s this?”
    Beneath my seat, I find a long metal box that runs from one side of the bus to the other. It is a dark green with while yellow painted lettering. “You guys ever see this before?”
    Austin and Sammy duck down low to survey the box, but both shake their heads.
    “Interesting.”
    “What is?” Austin asks.
    “Nothing.” I shift my foot away and look back toward the window.
    Since when did school buses haul ammunition cases? Was this the first time or had I just failed to notice before?  I try to glance down the aisle to see if there are any more cases to be spotted but my angle is all wrong and I don’t want to alert Sammy to my curiosity.
    “I’m telling you, Maxx, the soldier gunned him down in his front yard last night. No questions asked. He didn’t even have a weapon. I saw it all through my bedroom window.”
    “It was after midnight, Lathan. You were  probably dreaming.”  Maxx Galton sounds bored and normally I wouldn’t blame him. Lathan has a way of embellishing stories, especially when a certain Kinsley Rutherford is sitting nearby. Everyone knows that he has been crushing hard on her but the guy doesn’t stand a chance. That girl might be hot to trot but she is an ice queen with claws sharpened to rip his heart out. Even I am smart enough to leave that sort of crazy alone.
    But this time, I listen to Lathan’s story unfold. He lives a few streets away from my mom’s apartment. If something went down over there last night it’s possible the patrols will be higher tonight.
    I lift my head as we reach the double gates that surround the school just in time to see Lathan Hadley’s head dip again in conspiratorial conversation. This time, he doesn’t seem to be trying to impress anyone and that makes me think over his words. When Lathan lifts his shaggy blond head and sees me watching him he clears his throat and sits up straight.
    “Dammit,” I mutter under my breath. Even though I give no outward sign of concern, I know now that there has to be some truth to his words.
    Is it possible that I missed the presence of a second extraction during the rapport of an AK-47 last night as they were taking down the Gentry group home? Could it have been coordinated in order to mask the other?
    If my mom were around she would tell me that I’m being paranoid but gut feelings win out over logic any day in my opinion.
    As the second set of gates close behind our bus I stare up at the temporary water tower that has been erected to supply this quadrant. All around the campus, tall mobile floodlights stand every twenty feet. All of the entrances into the school apart from the front doors have been chained and locked. Iron bars across the lower floor windows appear to be a new addition overnight.  
    “Well, that’s not creepy at all.”
    Austin glances over at me. “What do you think it means?”
    “How should I know?”  I may not know the real answer but I can sure as hell guess and the answer isn’t good. Things are changing.
    There are two buildings on this premises: one for the high school and another for the lower school. The teachers, those few who were left, told us on our