As with most things of a critical nature, the events on the west side had started off slowly but they were steadily picking up speed, the threat they represented was growing....and spreading. What the police chief, and by extension the mayor had originally seen as no more than an annoyance and possible embarrassment if handled poorly was quickly turning into a genuine crisis. The initial task force that had been dispatched to break up the riot had failed completely.<br/><br/>As the chief  listened to the panicked reports of those officers who were in the process of retreating from the mob the man could hardly believe what he was hearing..... What kind of a mob was able to stand up to tear gas and rubber bullets without even slowing down?!? And cannibalism....there was no way that was right. Either way he had several officers down. Closing his eyes and sighing deeply he reached across his desk and grabbed his office phone, quickly dialing the extension for the SWAT offices he waited the few seconds that it took for the phone to be answered by Rodriguez, his current SWAT captain. "This is Lorenzo" he said "I want you to prep all your teams, you're moving in to stop the riots over on west side before they get any more out of hand....start off with non-lethal weapons, but if you come under attack use any means necessary." 15 minutes later two SWAT vans and one riot tank (http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/cnishared/tools/shared/mediahub/09/98/64/slideshow_764989_cobbtank.1011-da_2.jpg) left the police station and sped off towards the corner of Ennerdale and Union Street. The mob had turned in the direction of the south east and was now headed down Ennerdale in the general direction of the central residential district. .<br/><br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>As Haley Alls' report on the riots continued, it did not fall on entirely deaf ears. Rockford High School's Principal, Alex Carlson (http://www.gazette.net/images/2009_0513/dursou051309_rgbb.jpg) was watching the report closely. Paying attention, his face a tense crease of worry lines. He could feel his ulcer acting up...He didn't need this kind of stress for God's sake! The day wasn't even half over and already it was looking like he'd have to break from the normal routine of things. Not that he thought there was any real danger, but what he thought didn't matter.....what mattered was that he follow state guidelines for dealing with 'crisis situations.' And one of those guidelines stated that when there was a riot in place public schools were to prepare for possible evacuation procedures. Forget that it was over reaction at it's stupidest, and forget that it meant the loss of a whole day's worth of preparation for the state level exams.....Alex groaned a bit as his ulcer pained him even more. It was no good getting himself worked up like this.<br/><br/>Pushing the aggravation from his mind he pressed the button on his phone that allowed him to talk with his secretary. "Ms. Cortez, please get in touch with the bus barn and tell them to get all the buses ready for a possible evacuation of the school." he then let go of the button not waiting for her response. Pressing the button beside it he patched himself into the schools p.a. system "All teachers, this is Principal Carlson would you all be so kind as to pick up your classroom telephones, I have an urgent announcement for the faculty."<br/><br/>Letting go of that button he waited a bit to give each teacher time to grab their phone. He watched as the 'connected' lights winked on one by one. Once they were all on he pressed the third button on his machine that patched him into the school's faculty phone line. They'd installed it to allow private communication between the faculty without the students overhearing. And it was sure paying off now. "Teachers" he said "As I'm sure most of you may know by now, we have a bit of a situation on the east side of town. And in compliance with the state's guidelines for possible emergency situations I'm taking the steps necessary for us to be prepared to evacuate the school should we need to. So I ask that all of you please remain calm, keep your students calm, and move everyone into the auditorium. Where we will play a movie to keep them occupied until the situation blows over. That is all"<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The news of the riots and the police's attempts to quell them overshadowed most other events happening that day. With all cameras and eyes on the 'front line.' As a result most citizens didn't know of the fire that had started up in the wake of the riot. As the police were battling against the rioters an old apartment building at the corner of Ennerdale and Ema street had caught fire. And was going up fast. The mob was moving down Lincoln street which branched to the south east off Ennerdale in the direction of Abe's bar and the middle class residential area there. The alarm in the fire station went off as soon as word about the fire was heard. The dispatcher's voice could be heard over the speaker announcing which units were dispatched to put out the fire, Sarah's truck was among them.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Far on the other side of town from the riots life at Rockford College was going at least somewhat normally, classes were still being held and the riots were little more than an interesting news story to most people there. Something that they could watch more about on the evening news, and most definitely not an imminent threat. Walking though one of the buildingsDr. Kadensky (http://o.aolcdn.com/gd-media/galleries/704/Intro-402.jpg) was busy looking over some notes she'd taken. Her latest round of tests had  proven very interesting, one of the rats had shown a high level of improvement when injected with the compound she was attempting to synthesize. It was currently showing signs that it wasn't very long for this world but she had a large supply of rats and her research was advancing much faster than she'd expected!  She was completely lost in her own thoughts not even bothering to look where she was walking her research findings having pushed all other thoughts from her head.<br/><br/><br/>