The narrative switches to Sage’s perspective. Sage is the oldest student on the bus. She is irritated with Bonnie and resentful of having to go to childcare after school. Until recently, Bonnie and Sage were cared for by their grandfather, but his declining health meant they needed to begin attending childcare after school. Sage observes that the bus is approaching a large orange detour sign. The sign is blocking the road and directing the bus to turn down a small dirt lane. Sage also notices a white van with a “Speedy Shuttle” logo parked on the shoulder of the road.

Jessa turns the bus onto the dirt road, obeying the detour sign. One of the other children, Ked, comments on the deviation from the usual route. Suddenly, the bus comes to an abrupt halt as another vehicle is blocking the road. Jess honks, and when the vehicle doesn’t move, she begins to reverse the bus. However, the white Speedy Shuttle van pulls up just behind the bus, blocking it in. Someone knocks on the door of the bus, and Ked comments that there is a man with a gun standing outside.

Meanwhile, Sheena, the mother of Bonnie and Sage, is working in her home office. She is interrupted by her father commenting on what he believes is a Rolex watch. Seven years ago, Sheena’s father retired after a 30-year career with the Idaho state police; five years later, he began to experience significant memory loss due to Alzheimer’s. After his initial diagnosis, Sheena’s father moved in and helped care for the children, but in recent months, Sheena has seen his symptoms worsen and has become uncomfortable with him caring for the children. Sheena feels guilty because a GPS tracking device is hidden within the watch in case her father ever gets lost or goes missing.

Sheena is unhappy and stressed with the current family situation. She knows that Sage dislikes attending child care, but she has no other options. She is also secretly preparing for her father to move to Cherished Hearts, a full-time elder care facility nearby. Sheena has not told her father that she can no longer care for him, as she feels guilty about this decision.

Sheena tries to focus on completing her work: She is preparing a government bid for new buses to serve the local school district, including the school her daughters attend. Fearing she will be late, Sheena wraps up her work and rouses her father from a nap so they can drive to the childcare center and collect her daughters.

Horrified, Jessa gazes at a man standing just outside the bus’s glass door and aiming a gun at her. He orders her to open the door, but she hesitates. There is no way to turn around or reverse the bus since it is blocked by the white van behind and the other vehicle in front. Jessa blames herself for having obeyed the detour sign; when she saw the sign, she feared that if she was caught ignoring a traffic sign, someone would investigate her more closely, uncover her secret, and fire her. She wonders if she could access any of the cell phones on the bus: Most of the children have phones, but they are required to store them in cubbies during the bus ride.

When the man threatens to shoot the children if she doesn’t obey, Jessa opens the door to the bus. As she does so, she sees a second man emerging from the white van. She briefly hopes he will intervene, but realizes that he is also disguising his face and is an accomplice of the man with the gun.

Ted is the second man, who is working alongside Andy, the man holding Jessa at gunpoint. Ted is slightly horrified by the plan he and Andy are now carrying out, but hopeful they will get rich as a result of kidnapping the children and holding them for ransom.

Andy keeps his gun trained on Jessa while Ted gathers all the cell phones. Ted orders all the children to raise their hands and ties Jessa’s hands. Then Ted and Andy force Jessa off the bus. Ted prepares to begin tying the hands of all the children. He will need to work quickly since they only have a small window of time—once staff and parents notice that the bus has not arrived at Bright Beginnings, chaos will quickly erupt.

Sage is terrified but tries to keep calm for the sake of her sister and the other younger children. She is startled and distressed by how meekly Jessa seems to be obeying their captors. Sage observes that Ted seems nervous and is less frightening than the other man. She also notices that there is something familiar about him.

The men force the children to get off the bus and board a grey van. The van is dark and ominous, and Sage feels increasingly frightened and overwhelmed.

Ted is increasingly frightened and stressed by the enormity of what he is doing. After all the children have moved into the grey van, he retreats to the white Speedy Shuttle van to calm himself. Ted watches as Andy drives the school bus into the dense orchard that borders the road, partially concealing it. Then Andy returns to the grey van and begins driving back towards the main road.

Ted pauses to review a document listing the 12 children who regularly take the bus with Jessa as the driver. Two of the children are absent, so there are only 10. Ted prepares for the next part of their plan, grateful that Andy is the one with the children in his vehicle.

As Sheena and her father approach Bright Beginnings for pick-up, they notice dense traffic and the sound of sirens. Sheena presumes there must be an accident nearby. Resigned that she is going to be late for pick-up, Sheena prepares to call the childcare center but notices she has already missed a call from them. Irritated, she assumes they were calling her to check on her estimated time of arrival and turns off the ringer on her phone to avoid more intrusive calls.

When Sheena pulls into the parking lot at Bright Beginnings, she sees a crowd of police cars. Sheena gets out of her car and sprints into the childcare center, demanding to know what is happening. A staff member explains to her and the other panicked parents that the bus has not turned up, and no one knows where it is. Since Jessa is not answering her phone, they have called the police to investigate.

Before she can learn more, Sheena is distracted by her father, who has gotten out of the car and begun yelling at the drivers of cars now ensnared in the traffic jam. She rushes over, trying to soothe him, and accidentally breaks his treasured watch.

Sage, Bonnie, Jessa, and the other children are now all crowded into the back of the grey van. It is hot, dark, and uncomfortable; many of the children begin crying. Jessa harshly tells them to stop, fearing they will anger the man with the gun. The van is driving erratically and making frequent turns, disorienting everyone.

Sage is frustrated that Jessa is not comforting the children. Bonnie desperately needs to urinate and is ashamed and distressed to realize that she is going to end up losing control of her bladder. Sage is in the same situation, and she comforts her sister by explaining that they have no choice and it is not shameful to wet yourself in this situation. Sage accepts the situation and urinates while sitting on the van seat; this comforts Bonnie and makes her less upset about doing the same.

Jessa recognizes that she could try to comfort the children but decides not to do so. She thinks back to past events, recalling the abusive relationship she endured with her ex-husband, Matt. While the relationship began as loving, Matt began to drink heavily and became angry and obsessively jealous. Matt’s accusations that Jessa was being unfaithful led to frightening confrontations between the couple. Due to Matt’s abusive behavior, Jessa always tried to pacify him and also comforted her daughter. These experiences prompt Jessa to be passive.

The van comes to a stop, and Jessa notices that one of the children is picking at the black paint that has been applied to the van windows. This paint keeps the van interior dark and makes it impossible to see out the windows. Jessa panics, thinking that the child’s “defiance was exactly how things spiraled from bad to worse” (66).

Alone in the white Speedy Shuttle van, Ted begins driving towards Boise. He recalls how he and Andy had debated who would drive which vehicle while they planned their crime. Ted ended up with the shuttle since he is only familiar with driving automatic, and the grey van has a manual transmission. Ted notes that the plan is unfolding smoothly so far; no one will even have noticed the bus’s failure to arrive at Bright Beginnings yet. He discards the bag containing all of the cellphones in a roadside ditch.

As he drives, Ted observes the wealthy new development in a neighborhood known as Sunset Springs, on the outskirts of Boise. Since Sunset Springs is a new development, there is not yet a school located there, and “all of the kids still had to be bused 10 miles to shitty Northbridge” (68). Ted stops at a local pizza restaurant and explains that he wants to have a pizza delivered to a friend who has recently given birth. He asks that a sealed note be placed on top of the pizza box and that the pizza be left outside on the front step. The cashier happily agrees, and Ted pays for the pizza and leaves.

Ted reflects on his life. When he was 18, he took a dirt bike that Andy claimed to have borrowed from a friend and crashed it. After the crash, Ted was found to have marijuana (also from Andy) in his pocket, and the bike turned out to have been stolen. The bike’s owner pressed charges, and since Ted had just turned 18, he was sentenced as an adult. He did not complete high school and found it extremely difficult to get work as someone with a criminal record. Ted now feels a newfound triumph that he is “on [his] way to pulling off the best and biggest heist in Idaho” (72).

Sage is scratching at the paint on the van window. She ignores Jessa, who tells her to stop. Sage creates a small circle through which she can look out the window, but she doesn’t recognize what she sees: cliff walls and a pile of rubble.

Sage watches Andy get out of the van and gets a clear glimpse of his face. Jessa keeps urging her to sit down, fearful that Andy will catch them and become enraged. When Andy looks towards the van, Sage is almost caught and lunges out of view. She sits back down and distracts the other children with a word game as they wait in the van. Eventually, Sage hears the sound of another vehicle pulling up.