The red Peterbilt was followed by another and another, all connected to trailers loaded with tractors and machinery. Then came straight trucks and cube vans, and pickup trucks pulling bullet-shaped airstream trailers. The procession was a dozen vehicles long, each one of them displaying the Conservco Resources logo on all their doors. Then, just as the line of trucks was all but gone, a lone school bus, painted green and loaded with men, chugged past as if it were desperately trying not to be left behind.

Daisy barked the entire time the trucks rumbled past, and kept barking long after they’d gone.

“What are they doing here?” Donna wondered aloud. While there had been sections of the Redstone forest that had been slated for selective cutting, the road they were on didn’t lead to any of the approved areas.

“Something’s not right here.”

Daisy barked in agreement.

“C’mon girl,” Donna said, turning for home and moving as quickly as her aged bones would allow. “I think the police, or that ranger fellow…What’s his name again? Brock, that’s it. I’m sure he’ll want to hear about this.”

* * *

Harlan walked down the main hallway on his way to his locker. His morning classes were done and he was carrying both his math and science textbooks against his right hip.

“Hi Harlan,” a couple of cute girls said as he passed their locker.

“Oh, uh, hi girls,” he responded, wondering why these two girls, these two good-looking girls, would want to say hello to him. That sort of stuff happened to Noble, sometimes even Argus, but never himself.

“Would you be able to help us with our science homework after lunch?” the blonde one asked. He’d seen her around the school and remembered her name was Margaret, but all her friends called her Maggie. She was a bad girl who wore too much makeup, liked bad boys, and was always on the wrong side of right. But Harlan was able to overlook all that because she was hot, a real fox, and hey…she’d said hello to him.

“Sure, I could help you with your homework,” he said, stopping next to her locker and casually leaning against it, like it was the most natural thing in the world. “In fact, I’d be happy to.”

Maggie and her friend giggled.

And suddenly, Harlan felt sick to his stomach. Something was definitely not right here.

A moment later the books by his side were gone, kicked out of his hand by a big black boot. His books opened up as they spun through the air, their pages flapping like useless wings that did nothing to stop the books from landing on the floor with a loud thwap, and skidding to a stop.

Maggie and her friend howled with laughter.

And so did everyone else.