Free Hunter's Games by James P. Sumner

expecting to find a flaming wreck and the bodies of forty-three dead kids. But I’m relieved to see it still intact. Agent Chambers appears next to me. We exchange a confused glance.
    I’m obviously happy the kids are still alive, but what the hell blew up?
    Disoriented from the blast, I quickly scan the area and soon find out. The SWAT van’s completely destroyed, along with the entire team who were either inside it or standing close by.
    Jesus Christ...
    I hear what sounds like two gunshots, but they’re faint amid all this noise and chaos. I look around trying to see where they came from, but it’s futile. There’s too much smoke and too many people running around and screaming. My gaze rests momentarily on some scattered body parts on the road—probably what remained of the SWAT team…
    I see Agent Johnson running over to a small crowd of people nearby, waving at them wildly and imploring them to get back. Agent Wallis takes his time standing up, and looks a little concussed. He would’ve been standing closer to the blast than the rest of us, so he probably caught more of it.
    I know what that feels like…
    “What the hell’s happening?” shouts Chambers. “Where is this guy?”
    I shrug. “I have no idea!” I shout back.
    A second explosion sounds out, further away than the first. We all half-duck again before realizing it isn’t nearby.
    But it must be…
    I look up, trying to see the tops of the buildings in the mid-distance in the vain hope of seeing a small figure looking down at us or something, but instead I see the chopper that's been hovering above us spinning out of control and plummeting quickly toward us in flames.
    Straight for the bus.
    “Oh, shit!” I yell.
    Without thinking, and before anyone else can react, I race over to the school bus and yank the doors open, no longer caring about the initial bomb threat. The way I see it, if he was going to detonate the bomb under the bus, he would’ve done it already.
    I climb on board and look at the sea of shocked and scared children. I have no idea what to do, and for a valuable second, I freeze completely as I gaze down the bus and see nothing but small faces, mouths hanging open in unimaginable horror.
    Then my brain resumes normal service.
    “Everyone, I need you to listen carefully and do exactly as I say. I want you all to make your way to the front of the bus as quickly as you can and jump off, okay? Single file, right now. Once you’re off, you have to run as fast as you can and get as far away from this bus as possible.”
    I clap my hands together to speed them along.
    “Come on,” I said. “Now!”
    They don’t need telling twice. A stampede of small feet run to the front of the bus and jump down to the parking lot. I look for the teachers in the crowd.
    “Hit the ground running and get them as far away from here as you can,” I yell. “You’ve got less than ten seconds!”
    I stand watching as the last of the kids escape the bus. The last one jumps off and starts running, but loses their balance and falls forward on their face. It’s a little girl, probably about seven years old. She has pigtails in her hair…
    I look at her lying on the floor, crying and screaming, and I think of my own daughter, Maria. She was roughly the same age when she was taken from me. Everything stops and I feel my heart breaking all over again.
    I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose another little girl...
    I jump off and rush to her, scooping her up in my arms and run as fast as I can. A couple of seconds later and I hear the flaming chopper hit the bus. The impact is deafening, and the explosion it causes knocks me off my feet. I’d managed to get maybe thirty feet from the bus, but the blast hits me like a freight train and I’m thrown forward. Instinctively, I throw the little girl out in front of me—I’ll crush her if I land on top of her. It’ll hurt her, but it’s better than the alternative and I’m sure she’ll forgive me.
    I