​     "No!"

     This exclamation came from Katy Armstrong.

     So much violence, she thought. 

     Katy had seen such things on TV and in action movies, although rarely because that wasn't the sort of entertainment she generally enjoyed. But to see it all splattered before her like that. She saw blood on the floor and walls. Katy saw three guards on the floor, not moving. Dead? Comatose?   

​     This is horrible, Katy thought. Why doesn't somebody do something? And Adam, flying out the window and into the empty night the way he did. How could he possibly be still alive? 

​     Someone had to do something. 

​     "Suddenly, I have to use the bathroom real bad," she said. "I mean, like, real bad, like, if you don't let me go in the next...It must have something to do with the stress. I can't..." 

​     Why was she lying to Gramps like that? She was a horrible liar. She tried something else instead, an old trick, one of the oldest, although it still almost always worked. 

     She looked over Gramps' shoulder and gasped. She pointed at an attacking someone who didn't really exist and exclaimed, "It's...It's..."

     Gramps turned to look. 

     And, in that half-moment that he turned his head, Katy made a dash for the auditorium.   

​     "Katy!"

​     Someone's got to do something, Katy thought. Someone's got to... 

CONTINUE