The two of them walked out of the office. The announcement had been calmly delivered and seemingly noncommittal, but even though it had only been a few minutes, word had obviously gotten out, as it always did, and, outside, students were rushing to their classes in a panic, as though a bomb were about to go off.

“Do you think he found her?” Nick asked quietly. “Do you think he did something?”

Aaron shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Two sheriff’s deputies hurried by, already on campus, and jogged past them, hands on their weapons.

Ms. Sanchez repeated her announcement, and without another word, Nick and Aaron parted, walking through the quickly emptying atrium to their separate classes in different buildings.

****

They captured him in the gym.

Before making the announcement that lunch was over and everyone should go to their classes, neither the principal nor anyone else in the office had thought about where Victor might be headed. The cheerleaders were practicing at lunchtime in the gym, a fact known to the administration. Having been told of Victor’s intent, they should have been prepared for him to make his way there, but they weren’t, and all of the kids who had P.E. fourth period ended up in the gym, finishing their lunches on the bleachers.

Where they had a perfect view of the takedown.

Nick heard about it in fifth period. Josh Burns, who’d been there, filled them all in on the specifics. He and his friends had taken seats near the top of the bleachers and had been there for several minutes, with other students still coming in, when they saw Victor.

“He was walking in with a couple of freshmen, and you could tell right away something was wrong,” Josh said. “He looked like a zombie, for one thing. Even from up where we were, his skin looked all weird and white, and he had his hands around the freshmen’s necks, leading them in. Like Michonne when she first showed up on The Walking Dead. Coach Phelps was by the door, and he saw it and started to say something, but Victor went wild and started running through the gym. I was glad we were up there at the top, because he was knocking people over right and left. It was like he was looking for someone. Everyone was screaming, and Coach Phelps and a couple of jocks blocked his way, and then the law showed up, and they grabbed Victor and put handcuffs on him and took him away. The whole thing? Three minutes, tops.”