Excerpt: Living Between the Light

The clock struck midnight; its chimes sounding an alarm for those on the streets that they were coming. Every night for the past few months the same actions happened in the same order: the grand clock would strike midnight—its little tune then the gongs. Followed by everyone (even the children) glimpsing up at the huge clock to see the true time only to drop their previous activity and sprint in to their houses. They all hoped that they would make it into their homes before the big sweep of the city. No one knew what the men who worked the sweeps did with the people they rounded up—not even the law. All anybody knew was that the government was using military men of great skill. Beyond that amount of knowledge, we were all ignorant.