Chapter 1
There is a freshly-cut hole in the chain link fence separating the Buckhead High School cafeteria from the surrounding woods.
It is a crisp fall day in September when sixteen-year-old Samuel Braxton climbs through the hole and makes his way toward the building. He passes some students eating at the tables outside, but they are all focused on their phones. No one seems to pay any attention to this young man dressed in an over-sized trench coat as he arrives at a side door to the cafeteria.
He stops momentarily to put on a gas mask which partially obstructs his view, leaving only the two eye pieces to see through. Then he calmly walks through the door into the cafeteria, which looks more like a food court found at a mall, packed with students eating lunch.
Braxton pulls the pin on a tear gas canister and tosses it into the center of the cafeteria. As the canister explodes, students start screaming and panicking, trying to get away. Tear gas fills the room and makes visibility difficult.
From under his trench coat, Braxton pulls an M16 assault rifle set on “Burst” and begins firing three bullets at a time with one trigger pull – BANG! BANG! BANG! – into the scattering crowd. Students start dropping to the floor.
Braxton continues the assault, walking further into the cafeteria, still firing his weapon. After 10 bursts, the firing stops. He reaches under his trench coat and gets another magazine, loads it, and begins firing again. BANG! BANG! BANG! More students hit the floor.
That magazine finally runs out as well and Braxton reaches under his trench coat again for a third, but is suddenly hit with a bullet himself – BANG! – and staggers. He can just barely see a security guard in his eye pieces aiming his pistol at him and firing a second round – BANG! – which sends Braxton to the floor.
Blood starts to fill up Braxton’s eye pieces, and then everything goes dark and silent. Even the students’ screams fade out.
* * *
The logo of the Global New Network fills the studio monitor while on off-screen voice says, “Welcome to the GNN Midday News. Here are your anchors, Robert Coyne and Sarah Hathaway.”
The logo fades, revealing Robert Coyne, mid-30’s, a stereotypical news broadcaster sitting behind the news desk alongside perky Sarah Hathaway, in her late 30s.
“Good afternoon,” Robert says. “In this half-hour, we’ll bring you interviews with top Pentagon officials about the military buildup in South Korea and what that means to the possibility of an all-out war with North Korea …”
Sarah takes over seamlessly, “… along with new evidence of a secret chamber inside one of the Great Pyramids at Giza in Egypt, located by some fascinating new x-ray-like technology …” and then hands off to Robert again.
“… But first we want to check in with our Washington, D.C. correspondent, Joe Schell, who has some breaking news about the budget resolution passed this morning by the House of Representatives. Joe?”
Joe Schell is in his late 20s and looks like every other TV news correspondent, standing in front of the Capitol Building. “Thank you, Robert. By now everyone knows that the House passed a budget resolution this morning, but what many don’t know is that it will increase this nation’s deficit by 1.5 trillion dollars or more…”
“Joe …” Robert tries to interrupt Joe. Joe’s hand goes to his ear, thinking he heard something in his earpiece, but continues on. “The House Freedom Caucus, clearly the farthest-right group within the Republican minority, was surprisingly instrumental in the passage of the resolution…”
Robert tries again, louder this time. “Joe …”
Joe finally realizes that Robert is interrupting his report. Although he doesn’t look too happy about it, he stops. “Yes, Robert?”
“Sorry to interrupt, Joe, but we have a breaking story happening right now, here in Atlanta.”
The GNN newsroom is abuzz. Robert and Sarah are at their desks and both on screen. Robert has his right hand to his right ear, obviously trying to hear transmissions from his producer in the control room.
“We’re getting reports that there has been another mass shooting incident at a local high school. The details are coming in slowly, but it seems a teenage boy entered the cafeteria at lunchtime and began shooting, killing a number of students and wounding many more. At this time, we don’t have any confirmed numbers of dead and wounded, but unfortunately it appears that it’s going to be a lot.”
Sarah has been looking at Robert the whole time, holding her own hand to her ear. She finally speaks, but more to her producer than the audience.
“Which high school? Do we know yet?” She’s getting slightly panicked. “Which one?”
Without thinking, Robert passes on the information he gets from his producer to the viewers. “I’m now being told all of this happened at Buckhead High School.”
Still on camera, Sarah screams, yanks off her microphone and earpiece, and bolts for the studio door yelling… “Oh, my god! Lacy?!”
* * *
Sirens can be heard everywhere as multiple police cars and ambulances arrive at the Buckhead High School parking lot at the same time Sarah does. Sarah parks, jumps out of her car and runs toward the last of the students pouring out of the building, most of them crying, looking for their friends. Sarah yells after them. “Lacy? Lacy Hathaway? Has anyone seen Lacy Hathaway?”
She goes frantically from group to group of students gathered in front of the school asking about Lacy. Everyone just shakes their head. No one seems to know where she is. Sarah finally arrives at the doors into the building where a cop stops her.
“Sorry, ma’am, you can’t go in.”
“But my daughter … she might still be in there,” her voice desperate.
“I’m sorry. I can’t let anyone in. It looks like the last of the students are now out…” pointing to the hundreds of students gathered in the parking lot, “… so she must be somewhere around there.”
“But nobody out there has seen her. Please let me in.” She moves to go past the cop into the building, presenting her GNN credentials.
“Ma’am, please don’t make me call for backup, because they’ll just arrest you. I understand you’re worried. But if your daughter’s not out there, then you need to speak to someone in charge.”
“And who is that?”
The cop points to a command tent that has been hastily constructed on the lawn just outside the front of the school. Sarah starts running toward the tent in a panic.
The cop yells after her, “Ask for Chief Benson.”