Trapped

The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That it would be "one for the record books," as the forecasters safe and dry in their TV studios would later say. That it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but keeping aliveÂ… Scotty and his friends Pete and Tommy are among the last kids waiting to get picked up at their high school that day, and it doesn't take them long to realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn't seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when Krista and Julie, two hot-to-the-point-of-being-distracting freshmen, are sleeping in the next classroom over. But then the power goes out. Then the heat. Then the emergency generator. As the snow piles higher and higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, tempers rise and friendships fray....

Michael Northrop<br>Michael Northrop has written short fiction for WEIRD TALES, the NOTRE DAME REVIEW, and MCSWEENEY'S. His debut novel, GENTLEMEN, earned him a PW Flying Start. An editor at SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS for many years, he now writes full-time from his home in New York City. You can visit him online at www.michaelnorthrop.net.