​     Shawnacy flew Noel to the safe room where Gramps' family still sat around a table bolted to the floor.

​     He's blind, was the first thing Cathy thought as she looked at the guy. He's wearing those thick, so-very-dark glasses that blind people wear.

​     Shawnacy placed Noel's hands in the middle of the table.

​     "Grab me!" the blind man yelled. "Do it now!"

​     He said that with such authority that everybody just automatically did it. 

​     Which was good, because in the next second a barrage of bullets slammed into the safe room. They embedded themselves in the cement walls and pinged off the utility trunk and the weapons rack, and some of them even struck those who sat around the table. 

​     But the bullet didn't wound.

​     It was like now everyone wore an invisible force field.

​     Because of Noel.

​     "You will not be harmed as long as long as you stay in personal contact with me!" he yelled over the barrage of gunfire.

     Shawnacy touched Noel's cheek, then darted back outside, headed for Estelle.

​                                                    CONTINUE