Chapter 5
Bangs, gunshots and screams rang throughout the boarding school. Teachers and students clogged the empty halls, adults failing to organise the children into neat lines in preparation for evacuation. A young girl clutched her stuffed dog as if it was a talisman. Her apple-green eyes were as round as dinner plates but she wasn't crying like the others, she stood in the doorway of her room and watched the chaos unfold with an intelligence not usually seen in the face of a five-year-old.
Suddenly the screams were closer and adults and children alike began to run full pelt for the emergency exits. Men in black combat suits marched towards the girl's dormitory, parting the panicked people like royalty. Their semi-automatic handguns were still holstered, but that didn't make them seem any less threatening. Spotting the girl in the doorway, the frontman shouted a command and the party halted.
"Are you Rosabeth?" asked the frontman, kneeling to be on her eyelevel. She appraised him curiously before replying.
"I am. I assume you wish me to come with you quietly?" Rosabeth responded eloquently, much to the surprise of the seemingly uninformed agent.
"Um, I - I guess I do," stuttered the man.
"You guess? That isn't very reassuring. One would hope you would be sure of your purpose for coming here and scaring these people witless."
The rebuked commander opened his mouth then thought better and closed it again. He indicated to two of his men then stood back as Rosabeth was blindfolded and hoisted onto one of the men's broad back.