Despite the storm, two fire trucks made it to the school, and while all the students and most of the teachers waited in the auditorium, rescuers tried to search for survivors in the piles of metal, concrete, wiring, howling winds, and blinding snow. Whit and Danny had Beau sitting between them, all hatred and fighting forgotten, and they just talked about childhood, and what Beau’s friends had been like, what they had gotten for Christmas or on other various holidays, things like that. After a while Jacob and Larissa came over and sat talking with them in the near darkness. Eventually some teacher began to bring in candles and flashlights to augment the dim light that the generator was providing, along with a degree of warmth. There was not enough of either to be totally comfortable, but e
