"You shouldn't have to do anything but be a kid," Trudy said. She believed firmly in this concept and nothing anyone else said had swayed her so far. "You stay out of the fighting and leave it to people who are trained to do it, okay? Just having you kids around makes me nervous."

She wished to God the kids had been left in the pods. Sure, some of them had experienced this kind of thing before - which made her really goddamn angry when she sat down to think about it - but it would have been better for them.