I don’t know how much longer I can take it.” Chloe sat on the floor, playing with her cell phone. So far, she had worn the battery down to a meager 39% and that number kept dropping. Shitty day to leave my charger at home, she thought. “Me too,” Nolan said. He was exhausted. They all were. Every student aboard bus thirty-three had been corralled in the nurse’s station since the crash that morning. “Have you heard any more from your dad?” “Nothing,” Chloe said blankly. She spun her phone in her palm and stared at it, as if a call could come through at any moment. “Not since his last voicemail. ‘Stay safe, do what you’re told.’ Look how that’s working out.” “I’m starving,” Nolan said, and he yawned. He stretched his arms high up above his head. “And my ass has gone completely numb from sitting on this floor.” “Yeah, hey…” Chloe stood up, dusted off her pants, and hollered over to Nurse Lowell, “When do we get lunch?”
