Chapter 1

It was halfway through the first lesson on Monday. Jess and I had history with Miss Marshall. I got to class a few minutes late because my locker was being difficult and my combination didn't work. As I walked into class ten minutes late the teacher handed me a detention slip as I knew she would. The seat next to Jess was taken and I didn't really know anyone else in the class so I sat by myself near the window instead.

I had zoned out while Miss Marshall read out the school notices. I was staring out the window at the playground but wasn't focusing on anything in particular, thinking about the strange world I now lived in. We were only months out of a war and yet things were slowly returning to normal. I mean businesses were up and running again, TV stations were coming back on air, sports had resumed and many people were more worried about what the weather would be tomorrow than the new country just kilometres away that had invaded us. Of course not everything was back to the way it used to be. There are way more people than before and people you know like Mum, Dad, Corrie and Robyn are dead and craters from bombs set off in the war are still around. Yet here we are worrying about stupid things, it just doesn't make sense.

I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye, but assumed that it was a bird or something. When I saw the movement again, I turned to face it. I wasn't suspicious but just curious. What I saw definitely made me suspicious. I was shocked and horrified to see soldiers creeping stealthily through the playground. I could tell immediately that they were from the other side of the border.

There were heaps of them. I'd say about a hundred but maybe more. They moved with such determination that I knew they weren't here for a random raid. I knew they were specifically looking for something. Or someone.

I was immediately filled with terror. It's not that I wasn't scared before, I was of course, but it was just a normal kind of fear. The same as I guessed anyone else would feel in my position. A fear that something could happen to you but not that you were the specific target. But now I felt a new kind of fear. The fear of knowing you are the direct target of so many focused, determined, armed soldiers. It was the worst feeling I've ever had.

"Miss Marshall, I think-," I started, pointing out the window, still trying to make sense of what was happening. I never finished that sentence. As I turned back to the window I saw one of the soldiers face tense as he realised I was pointing to him. He shouted something, dropped to his knee and lifted his rifle with me in his sights.

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