Chapter 2: Strange Day

Sarah's young adult novel, "Peacekeepers/Truthbringers," continues

Sarah has written a young adult novel, “Peacekeepers/Truthbringers,” and we’re excited to share it with you. As a holiday gift, we’ll be serializing the book—releasing a new chapter every Monday for 12 weeks. We’ll also continue to post occasional non-fiction reflections as inspiration and news arise.

We’d love to hear what you think of the story as it unfolds, so please let us know how this serialization lands with you!

Two things happened very quickly at once. Gaster turned and ran toward Signal Peak Road, heading out of White Swan. At the same moment, hundreds of birds flew straight for the four boys surrounding him. All they could really do was cause a distraction; the tiny creatures couldn’t really do much damage to four large humans, but they sure tried. They flew at the boys in small flocks, pecking at their faces and hands. The impact fell more on the students hanging around nearby. There were several screams and general mayhem as teenagers and cars careened out of the way. Out of the thicket of Russian Olive trees across the fence flew a dozen large crows, diving at the eyes of the almost attackers.

Gaster didn’t see any of this as he ran flat out for the road. The hope thundering through his head was for a car driving out of the tiny town. This was unlikely at 8:00 a.m., he knew, since most cars were driving into town toward the mill.

Panic urged him on. Cold air burned its way into his lungs in gulps, then steamed out in a cloud behind him. He could hear the honking and shouting from the school parking lot recede as he pounded across the sports field, scaled the five-foot fence surrounding the school grounds and charged into the road. His head was filled with a loud buzzing and this thought: Don’t think, just run. An old diesel pickup nearly hit him as, unseeing, he crossed the road. Luckily, the truck swerved at the last second. Dust and burning tires choked him while the driver cursed and leaned on his horn.

And then he heard the barking.