Jake sprang forward. His mother rushed through the front door to the porch, but he was already running. Wind cut through his clothes. His feet pounded the cobbled road, gaining speed like relentless machine gears. His lungs inflated and deflated with desperate force. The shock of air stung his eyes.
He slowed as he approached the skirts of the murmuring crowd that had gathered outside the plant. Like a stone tossed into still water, Jake’s arrival set off a rippling wave of turning heads and silent stares as bodies shifted to make a clear path for him.
Will?
In the midst of unnatural stillness, he fought the violent energy that surged through his body. The faces around him blurred as he stepped forward with deliberate effort. Once inside the plant, someone guided him to the site of the
