"Me and Lee were going to shoot up the school tomorrow," he admitted, too ashamed to look her in the eyes. "He was going to pull the fire alarm and we were both going to expel the whole school ... before we got expelled."
The chills piercing the entire length of Nicole's spine kept her pinned in place as she hung on every terrible word that Adam uttered.
Nicole waited a second to see if he had anything else to add, but he just stood there — looking down at the grass, hands in his pockets, awaiting her judgment. She couldn't believe the dream's warning had been so dead-on. It took her a few more seconds to form a question.
"So, Brody pulling the alarm on Thursday was the dress rehearsal?" she asked, forcing herself to keep her tone calm, no different than if they were talking about the school play. Nicole wondered if anyone would get to try out for "Romeo & Juliet" tomorrow. She pushed the thought aside. This was the absolute worst time to think about a teen tragedy.
"Yes," Adam acknowledged.
"And you planned to bring your guns to school and kill all of us, me included, tomorrow?" she asked, again suppressing her emotions for the sake of gathering the facts.
"No, you and Brody and Candace were off limits," he said, finally looking her in the eyes for the first time since she came down the hill to stand next to him.
Nicole shuddered and gazed up at the stars for guidance, but now her emotions started getting the best of her. She looked back down into Adam's lost eyes and suddenly wanted answers. If only her tongue could keep up with her dizzying train of thoughts.
"How could you even ... Adam, I'm so ... you did say, 'You and Lee were going to shoot up the school,' did you not? Is the plan on hold? Canceled, I hope?"
"My Dad told me a couple of nights ago that he's dying of liver cancer," Adam said, dropping another bombshell rather than answering her question. Then he pulled another bottle of Beam out of his other pocket and took a swig.
Nicole's eyes popped open and her mind raced to process all of Adam's revelations.
"Wow, that's awful, Adam," she said, forcing herself to put a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah," he nodded.
"I'm so sorry ... no wonder you're a mess right now," she said, then pausing. "But you're not ... I mean, you and Lee called it off, right?"
Adam looked down again and then launched into a drunken ramble.
"Not exactly ... we had a fight ... I've been avoiding Lee ... I don't really want to go through with it, but he's pissed off ... I left my truck ... I don't think I need it anymore."
"What? Why, Adam?" she begged.
"Because I don't want to live anymore, Nikki!" he yelled, his desperate eyes fixed on hers again.
As Nicole struggled to think of what to say or do next, a loud gunshot erupted from the woods.
"Ah, what the?" Adam yelled, staggering, falling and grimacing in pain.
Nicole jumped in place, then froze with her hands over her mouth, staring down at her wounded classmate. Adam had been shot in his backside.
"Don't move, Dead Girl Walking!" Thomas "Lee" Harvey shouted as he emerged from the nearby woods and stalked them with a black pistol in his hand.
It was aimed directly at Nicole.
Her heart pounded as she now wished she had just driven straight at the red light. She'd be home with her mother — safe, warm and catching up on all of her schoolwork.
Not here. Shivering. Facing death.
Thomas grinned as he moved next to them and then spit on Adam as he groaned on the ground. His right hand was covered in blood from pressing it against his wounded buttocks.
"Holy shit! I shot you in the ass ... perfect! Not a bad shot in the dark," Thomas said, wearing all black clothes and a creepy, satisfied smile. "Killing you would be too easy. I want you to suffer for backing out of our plan and acting like a pussy. I make good on my motherfucking threats. I told you that!
"And you," he continued, turning his cold blue eyes toward terrified Nicole with the gun now a foot away from her chest. "You crossed the tracks to our side and wanted to be pals. How's that working out for ya right about now, DGW? Thanks so much for screwing up all of our plans and turning this loser into a useless pile of shit. Now I'd like to turn all of you blue to match your hair. How does that sound?"
"Don't do it, Lee!" Adam shouted through his pain. He tried to get up while fumbling around with his left hand along his belt line. He had a pistol concealed beneath his extra-large shirt.
"Get your bloody ass back down on the ground and throw your gun toward me right now or I swear I'll shoot you between the eyes this time!" Thomas yelled.
Adam fell back down and reluctantly tossed the pistol toward Thomas' black boots. He grabbed it and stuffed it into his jacket pocket while still keeping his gun pointed at Nicole.
"Please don't kill me," she begged, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I was only trying to help Adam."
"True, Lee, she was only ...," Adam joined in.
"Oh, shut the fuck up, both of you!" Thomas shouted, glaring more at Adam now. "We had a great plan. We were going to be famous — way more famous than that baby killer Lanza or that punk in Norway. And then this rich little whore got in your dicked-up head ..."
A flash of headlights entering the parking lot above the hill made Thomas freeze as much as his victims. The gunman looked to his right, in the direction of the approaching vehicle, and Nicole saw an opportunity to bolt. She sprang into a sprint as fast as she could, but Thomas calmly aimed his gun and blasted her with a shot to her right side. She cried out, fell halfway up the grassy slope and blood poured out of her bullet wound.
"No!" Adam yelled, once again struggling in vain to get up.
Thomas cursed several times, then took off toward the woods to flee the scene.
A female police officer — who had gotten out of her car to see why an empty green Nissan Altima, with its headlights on, was parked at the high school on a Sunday night — now drew her gun after hearing the gunshot.
"What's going on here?" the officer shouted from the top of the hill.
"Help! We've both been shot!" Adam screamed. “The shooter’s getting away!”
"Who's we?" she yelled, pointing her gun with one hand and shining her flashlight down at him with the other.
"There ... in the grass ... it's Nikki! Go to her first!" Adam shouted, pointing at her crumpled body 25 feet away. Her lifeless strands of brown-and-blue hair haunted him now and made him sob.
"I see her!" the officer confirmed when her flashlight illuminated Nicole's motionless form in the grass. She raced down to the girl's side and yelled into her shoulder radio. "I need backup and ambulances at Lakeview High School right now! Two students are shot — both in the field to the left of the main parking lot!"
"He's getting away!" Adam cried. "Into the woods!"
"Who? Who did this?" the officer yelled.
"Thomas Lee Harvey!" Adam replied.
Just then, Nicole's iPhone ringtone went off inside the pocket of her blue windbreaker, and Adele's "Rumour Has It" cut through the panic-filled night air.
On the other side of town, Lynn Barrett began to worry when her daughter didn't answer her call.
CHAPTER 20: THE AFTERMATH
Caleb rolled over in bed and glanced at his alarm clock with one eye. 7:32.
7:32?
He sat up in a panic. His alarm clock was supposed to go off at 6:45. He would have to rush to get ready and make the bus. Then he noticed his bedroom door was open a couple of inches and his mother was looking in on him.
"He's awake," Angela Evans told her husband, Marc, before they both entered Caleb's room.
"Good morning, buddy," Marc said, greeting him cheerfully in words but not the normal tone, Caleb observed, as the boy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked completely baffled.
"Mom and Dad, what's going on? Today is Monday, right?" he asked.
"Yes son," Marc said with a smile, but Caleb noticed his mother's face appeared downright grim. He immediatel
y feared one of his grandparents had passed away in the night.
"I'm afraid we've got some rather shocking news, Caleb, and because of it there won't be any school today for you or any of the students at Lakeville High," his mother said, now sitting next to her son on his bed as Marc stood nearby.
"What? What happened?" Caleb asked.
Angela clutched her son's hand and spoke softly, "Two students were shot at the school last night and a third student is on the loose — the boy who shot them."
"What?" Caleb gasped, both of his brown eyes wide open now.
"We saw it on the late TV news last night after you went to bed, but we didn't want to wake you until we learned more about what's going on," Marc said.
"We found out early this morning that school was canceled and we figured we'd let you sleep in," his mom added.
Caleb shook his head and wondered if he was still sleeping, still dreaming now.
"Who got shot? Are they OK? And who did it? ... And why were they at school on a Sunday night?" he asked rapidly as his parents nodded at every obvious question. Clearly they felt awful having to hold this conversation with their son, who now would face unexpected mental and emotional hurdles at the start of his sophomore year to go along with his physical challenges from cerebral palsy.
"Nicole Janicek and Adam Upton were shot," Angela said. “The TV news didn’t give out their names, but one of the school counselors called us to tell us more about what happened.”
"Oh my God. No, no, no," Caleb said, his eyes tearing up and his stomach feeling punched.
"The same two kids who stuck up for you in the cafeteria — the ones you told us about, Caleb," his father said before taking a deep breath and shaking his head.
"I can't believe this ... who shot them? Timmy?" Caleb asked, his anger rising.
"Yes, right Marc?" Angela said, turning to her husband for confirmation.
"No, close ... it was a Thomas ... Thomas "Lee" Harvey, I believe they reported," Marc said.
"Did you know him, Caleb?" his mother asked.
"Not really, but I know he was friends with Adam so it doesn't make sense."
"None of it makes any sense, dear," Angela lamented. "You just started school only a couple of weeks ago and this happens ..."
"And keeps happening, again and again," Marc added.
"Thank God when it happened in our town no one was at school. At least we can be thankful for that," Angela said, hugging Caleb tightly as Marc put a hand on her shoulder.
"Is Nikki dead, mom?" Caleb asked dreadfully.
"No," she replied, looking him in the eyes but providing little hope. "She's in critical condition at the hospital. That's what they said late last night and we've been watching the news this morning for any updates."
"I just sat with Nikki at the football game Friday night," Caleb said, barely resisting the urge to cry. "We had such a great time rooting for the Eagles ... she's like one of the nicest people I know."
Caleb's parents both nodded somberly.
"They're going to have counselors available at the middle school as soon as they catch the Harvey kid," Marc told him. "This whole area is in lockdown until he's caught. We heard police helicopters fly by earlier. Hopefully they'll get him soon so we can all take a breath and start dealing with what happened."
"Yes, they canceled school all over town today," Angela added. "If they do catch the shooter today, there's supposed to be a vigil Tuesday night at Our Lady of the Mountains … if you want to go."
"Yes, definitely," Caleb said. "I want to pray for Nikki ... and Adam. How is he?"
"He was stable last night so it looks like he'll be OK for sure," Marc replied, trying to sound more upbeat.
"That's good. Hopefully Nikki will be OK, too," Caleb said sadly.
"I'm sorry you had to wake up to this horrible news about your friend, Caleb," Angela said, stroking his short brown hair and wishing he were about 12 years younger at that moment so she could cradle all of him in her arms.
"I don't understand why terrible things like this happen to good people," Caleb said. "Nikki and Adam are good people. They don't deserve to be shot."
"Hopefully the truth will come out about what happened and then maybe we'll understand," Marc said, "but many times with these awful events, son, we're left with more questions than answers."
...
Lynn, Candace, her mother, Tracy, and Derek all huddled together in the corner of the ICU waiting room at Middlebrook Regional Hospital. Their eyes, worn out from too many tears and too little sleep, all turned in unison when the door opened and Dr. William Hamilton approached them with another update on Nicole's condition.
The tall, thin man in the white coat with the kind blue eyes and silver-rimmed glasses had their complete attention.
"Good news," he said, smiling, as the four grateful listeners exhaled loudly, hugged and each uttered a relieved "Thank God."
"She's going to make it?" Lynn asked, her hands clasped in prayer-like fashion on her knees as Tracy embraced her tightly.
"Nicole's chances for a full recovery are quite good actually," Dr. Hamilton said.
"Thank you so much, doctor," Lynn said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Nicole is very lucky that she was shot in the side and not more directly," Dr. Hamilton explained. "She has some muscle damage, but very little impact to the abdominal cavity itself. Surgery went very smoothly, all things considered, and she is in recovery now."
"Wonderful, wonderful news," Tracy said, now hugging her sobbing daughter Candace, who seemed on the verge of passing out. Derek, too, helped prop her up in her chair. "Nikki's just super tough," he said with a relieved grin. "And almost faster than a speeding bullet."
Candace laughed through her tears at that. "I'm so happy right now, but all I can do is cry," she said, sobbing again as Lynn and Tracy nodded in agreement.
"Doctor, how long before we can go in and see Nikki?" Lynn asked.
"I'd like her to rest for another hour or so to recover from surgery, but after that, we'll bring you in a couple at a time to visit her. She’ll likely be disoriented from the pain medication at first, but I'm sure she'll be anxious to see you all after such a traumatic experience," Dr. Hamilton said.
"How long will it take for her to recover in full, doctor?" Derek asked.
"It can vary with these injuries somewhat, but generally patients with similar gunshot wounds have been able to resume normal activities within three to six weeks. Nicole is young and otherwise healthy, so I wouldn't be surprised to see her make the lower end of that range. My guess is we'll keep her in the hospital for several more days just to make sure there are no signs of infection or any other issues. OK?"
"Great, thanks again, Dr. Hamilton," Lynn said, breathing another huge sigh of relief.
"We'll send for you when she's ready for visitors in a little while then," the doctor said before departing and closing the door.
"OK," Lynn said, then collapsed against the others for support as the tears started anew. "My baby's gonna make it. My only child is gonna make it."
...
In a different wing of the hospital, Adam already had told his father everything. Brody had been sent to raid the vending machine while Gary endured his older son's rambling, tear-filled confession with grim, resigned silence.
It was 11:50 a.m. on Monday, and Adam's superficial wound to the buttocks would not keep him hospitalized much longer. Gary knew his son's next stop would be the police station. Two detectives were pacing somewhere outside the door, just waiting for the doctor's clearance to transport Adam there for questioning.
"I'm sorry, Dad," Adam said through tears. "You wanted me to be a man and I'm still just a screw-up."
Gary stood up from his chair and approached Adam's hospital bed. Leaning on his left side due to the pain in his right buttocks, Adam still couldn't believe his father only had an uncertain number of months to live. And now the big man would have to face the g
rave knowing his eldest son had conspired to kill scores, perhaps hundreds, of people.
"Listen to me, Adam," Gary said, staying strong for his son and showing no signs of tearing up this time. "You didn't kill anybody, OK? What you were planning to do with Lee was downright Satanic, but in the end, you didn't want to do it and you became a gunshot victim yourself. You've told me the truth. That's a good first step. Now go out there and tell the police the truth. Be a man and take full responsibility for what you conspired to do. You probably will go to jail, but if you cooperate and help them in their case against Lee — and believe me, they'll catch that stupid little shit — then you won't go away for very long."
Adam nodded and hung on his father's every word.
"This is your chance to turn your life around — right now, son," Gary continued. "If you handle this adversity like a man, I guarantee you it'll make you stronger and you'll begin to feel better about yourself. On the other hand, if you had gone through with your evil plan, you would either be dead today or going away to prison for the rest of your life. You also could've been killed or maimed by Lee last night. Instead you're walking out of this hospital today, you're gonna tell the truth, you're gonna learn a great deal from all of this and, some day, you'll get a chance to start over. Lee won't get that chance. Today his life is already over — one way or another."
"I guess you're right, Dad," Adam said.
"And I'll tell you something else, son. That girl down in the ICU," Gary added, pointing toward the door with a slight tremble in his lips, "that girl saved your life and her entire high school last night. She took a bullet for you, son — so remember that every time you breathe, every time you make a decision from now on. You owe her. I owe her for what she did. She's more of a man than you or I will ever be, and she's a young woman — a brave young woman."
"Nikki came looking for me ... she wanted to help me ... and I let her get shot, Dad," Adam said, his voice cracking.
"Yes, you did," Gary said firmly. "Imagine how her mother feels right now. Maybe next time you'll use your brain to think about consequences before you come up with evil ideas. Maybe next time you won't hang out with people like Thomas Lee Harvey."
"I feel horrible that I might miss what little time I have left with you because I'll be sitting in jail," Adam said dejectedly.