town hall, the USB drive clutched in my s

ing my speech, the words

ound bucked like

h a sickening dread that had noth

asn't

I'd tried to w

screams

was king. Dust filled the air, thick and chok

square, usually a gentle burble,

of resilience for over two hundred years, was already wilting

e shrieked, cuttin

son, her fa

ller! She

ng eyes, hundreds of

forward from beside my adoptive father, Mayor Thompson. He

hat have

le, not with concern for me, but with a dawning

m everything, stood beside him, his expression hardening int

mised me forever, was already at Veronica

t even mee

voice raw. "It's GlobalCorp! Their fr

p the US

ut a small, th

vice you used to trigger

erfectly manicu

GlobalCorp project, Sarah. You've

st night!" someone shouted. "Nea

d dismissed my warnings again, calling me hysterical,

to cause harm, but to make it malfunction spectacularly if they trie

ained failure, an embarrassment for

imagined

w being twisted into the cause of an e

her voice ringing with conviction. "Eco-terrorism! And no

ed, a wave of

nst

ait

curse

ard, not to defend me,

t firm. "We will get to the bottom of this. If... i

save himself, to appease GlobalCorp, who I knew were al

my arm, his

Sarah. Now. Before t

ture of fear and disgust. He, too, b

, tears stinging my eyes. "Et

sound. "After all the trouble you've ca

uare. The path was clear for a moment,

n I was tr

ds, my town – they

ra

I was going, only th

g them that GlobalCorp would help Havenwood rebuild, that justice

e

fled in disgrace. Others whispered I'd met with a fatal "acc

d, the image of the dying Founder's Oak burned

ious adopted daughter who had finally, catastrophi

complete, my name a