For three years they called me a freak—and I stayed silent—until they touched my little sister in front of everyone, and the truth I buried finally came out and changed everything.

Every step we took away from the suburban neighborhood was a step closer to the vast, unforgiving expanse of the interstate highway system.

The concrete canal eventually terminated at the rusted iron fence of an abandoned rail yard, a vast graveyard of decaying cargo cars and overgrown tracks that spanned several hundred acres. The area was a tactical continue reading …