Leva Dorm exited the Pineville Medical Center, totally lost in her own thoughts. She passed through the glass doors flanked by two armed guards and walked into the open air. Midnight had arrived and a hush had fallen over the town. There was still noise coming from the shanty towns of improvised shelters and the neighborhoods of hastily-thrown together homes, but it was a background din, like so many wild cicadas chirping in the night’s heat.
Leva looked back at the guards over her shoulder. The pair held their machines over their shoulders, noting Leva but saying nothing. Leva felt a pang of fear, worried about those guns they held. It dawned on her that she’d walked right by them, right in perfect range of guns that could kill her before she even knew it. She could have walked into a trap.