"I can hear you staring at her." "I'm not staring." "Think she'd go with me?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "What's the worst that could happen?" "She says no?" "Wouldn't be the first time you heard it." "And the blue lace trim will go perfect with my eyes." " Your eyes are brown." " Contacts." "Duh." "Now all I need is the perfect date." "There's a car in the road." " I think he ran out of gas." "What's going on?" "That sucks." "Should I call for help?" "Oh, it's probably just a flat." "I need you all to remain in your seats." "Everybody quiet down!" "You all right?" " Get down!" "Oh, my God!" " What's happening?" " Shh, be quiet." " I'm scared." " Shh." "Oh." "Kevin." "I need you." "Yeah, I got your text." "Um, I've been meaning to call you back about dinner the other night." "Look, I had a" " really great time..." " Oh." "Uh, what are you talking...?" "No." "Have you seen the news?" "No." "Why?" "What's going on?" "We need all hands on deck." "What we have is a school bus abduction which occurred at approximately 1:00 p. m. this afternoon." "What we do know is there were 24 students on board, along with the driver and a monitor." "GPS appears to have been disabled." "Last known ping was a little over two hours ago." "Highway Patrol has traced the route it was last traveling, but found no signs of any accidents." "We have helicopters and ground units in the DC area working local search and rescue." "Which means we're likely dealing with more than one unsub." "We've attempted to contact everyone on board, but so far, all calls have gone unanswered." "But we can confirm that the students dropped off at the first two stops have been accounted for." "The average school bus holds approximately 80 gallons of diesel fuel, making it possible for them to travel up to 550 miles on a single tank." "Which is why we believe they're still within a 200-mile radius." "Could be a kidnapping, but we can't rule out anything from a terrorist act to a child trafficking ring." "How does a bus full of kids just vanish into thin air?" "It doesn't." "Whoever's got them's got a two-hour head start." "We're treating this as a mass abduction." "The SUVs are outside." "We'll set up our command post at Central High." "Get down!" "French novelist Jean Giraudoux said," ""I'm not afraid of death." ""It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life. "" "Okay." "Thanks." "Local PD says they just found a backpack full of the kids' cell phones half a mile from the second bus stop." "Disarming a GPS, disposing of cell phones- feels less random and more premeditated." "Well, there were seven other buses from different schools on their route." "Why target this particular bus?" "Maybe a group of kids got together to pull it off?" "Waited for their friends to get off at an earlier stop, then made their move." "Okay, I'm checking school disciplinary records." "See if I can find any recent suspensions." "It could be about a specific target, and the other kids just got in the way." " Alex, you're on speaker." "Uh..." "I've been looking over the personnel files of the bus driver, Roy Webster." "Something isn't adding up." " What'd you find?" "BLAKE:" "Over the past three years," "Webster had several altercations with students, but was never formally reprimanded." "Sounds like the school hasn't told us the whole story." "Well, we know how disrespectful some teenagers can be." "Maybe he snapped." "Could be payback for years of abuse." " What about the woman who was on the bus?" "KEVIN:" "That would be" "Carol Roberts, a retired teacher assigned to monitor Webster's bus six months ago." "What's that about?" "I took a bus all through high school." "We never had a monitor." "Makes you wonder who she was there to keep an eye on- the kids or Webster?" "Please, it's too tight." "Just let us go." "We won't tell anyone." "Wait, wait, wait!" "Wait!" "Wait, wait, wait!" "Addyson transferred to Central High last year." "Did she mention any enemies?" "So, Sean's been riding the bus since he was a freshman." "Did he have any run-ins with Mr. Webster?" "I know this is difficult for both of you." "I just have a couple more questions." "Billy's a sophomore, right?" "Can you tell me a little bit about him?" "He's a good kid." "Stays out of trouble, for the most part." "Been just the two of us for a while." "His dad passed when he was ten." "Please... find my baby." "He's all I've got." "All right, I compiled background info on every kid on that bus." "Their-their cell phone records, their texts, Twitter feeds, Facebook activity, everything." "Great." "Can-can you help me go through these SIM cards?" "Thanks, by the way." "Of course." "Oh, that's, uh..." "Sean Parker." "He never posts a status update without being witty or sarcastic." "That's Trent Walker, your high school classic jock." "Oh, my God." "That's Addyson Jones." "Look at the time." "That was taken when they were still on the bus." "That's right before they went missing." "In the Chowchilla case, the unsub used car trouble as a ruse to get the bus driver's attention." "Yeah, I remember." "Driver became a hero overnight." "This is the most isolated part of the highway." "It's surrounded by nothing." "No witnesses, nobody to interrupt." " Making them the perfect target." " Mm." "Mr. Webster has worked with the school for 15 years." "According to his file, he was never reprimanded for the altercations he had with students." "Why is that?" "He agreed to complete mandated classes." "In exchange, the incidents wouldn't go on his record." "Were the parents made aware of the school's disciplinary actions?" "Look, being a bus driver can be stressful." "You're responsible for getting these kids to and from school." "Add a few unruly teens, and-and someone's bound to bump heads." "Is that why Carol Roberts was assigned to monitor the bus?" "Agent Hotchner?" "We found a body." "It's Roy Webster." "He suffered two bullet wounds." "The first was a clean shot through his left leg." "The second to the chest." "Why not go for the kill first?" "They probably still needed him to drive." "If they dumped Webster this quickly," "I'm sure Carol Roberts isn't far behind." "There's no way somebody pulled this off alone." "One unsub probably controlled the adults, and one controlled the kids." "But why get rid of them before they reached their destination?" " You're on speaker, Garcia." "Hey," "I reran the last GPS signal of the bus through a proxy server, retracing the route, and it turns out that the signal was never disabled- it was just masked- so I sent the coordinates to your phones." "This is less than a mile away." "Bus is all clear." "Morgan..." "All clear." "Northeast part cleared." "MAN Left corner clear." "Barn was registered to a Violet Burgin." "She died a few months back." "It's been abandoned ever since." "Ah, making this the perfect transfer point." "Sic!" "Sic!" "They found something." "Please, don't hurt us." "It's okay, you guys are safe now." "There's only 14 here." "We need to find the other ten." "Move!" "Are you okay?" "He's mine." "Why only take some of the kids?" "Smaller numbers, easier to control." "If this was a child-trafficking ring, they wouldn't have left any of them behind, regardless of the risk." "Whatever the reason, they only needed ten." "What do you want with us?" "!" "I don't hear anything." "DO you?" "No." "Mine is dead, too." "What is this thing?" "Where are we?" "What happened to Mrs. Roberts?" "They probably killed her like they did Mr. Webster." "They're going to kill us, too." " Sean." " Cut it out." "Why do you think they took their masks off?" "MAN Welcome to hell, people." "Did you hear that?" "Number two and number five step forward." "Wait." "Am I number two?" "Who's number five?" "That's you, man." "Addy..." "Let's go." "It's time." "MAN 2 The rules are simple." "You follow our instructions, you live." "You don't..." "That's enough." "They got the message." "You ready?" "May the best man win." "You okay, Addyson?" " Yeah, I'm fine." " You all right?" "Oh." "Yeah." "What was that?" "MAN 2 Players, the game will commence..." "Three, two..." "ODE." "Hmm." "Well, whenever I'm trying to remember important details," "I find it really helps if I close my eyes and try to relax." "Yeah, that's great." "You guys are on your way home from school." "Can you tell me what happened next?" "The bus had stopped." "I think he ran out of gas." "Ah, that sucks." " You all right?" "Is everything...?" "" "He shot Mr. Webster, and then..." "Okay." "All right, all right, slow down?" "All right?" "Let's..." "let's go back." "Let's go back." "Did you get a look at the man who shot Mr. Webster?" "No." "He wore a mask." "What type of mask?" "Like a gas mask?" "What happened next?" "They both had guns." "One walked up and down the aisle while the other one just stood there." "So there were two of them?" "Okay." "Then what happened when you arrived at the barn?" "They lined us up." "Our hands were tied." "I was so scared." "I wanted to run, but they..." "but they had guns." "They put collars around our necks." "And that's... that's when they started taking turns." "Taking turns doing what?" "Picking." "Mom." "Where's Billy?" "They said you found the bus." "There are still a number of students unaccounted for, but we're still looking." "Oh, my God." "I can't open it." "Those things aren't budging, Billy." " No matter what, we stick together, okay?" "Okay." "Okay?" "Okay." "How about we get the adrenaline going, huh?" "It's all about endurance." "Training is as important as the battle itself." "MAN 1 There's a table at the end of the hallway with a box on it." "Open it." "What's in it?" "It's a flashlight." "What's this for?" "Look to your left." "Dividing them into groups." "You think that was to maintain control?" "Mm, could be, but how do you explain the shock collars?" "Torture." "Still, there doesn't seem to be any method to how or why they were chosen." "Okay, so far, we have two white males, early twenties, and wore gas masks, of all things." "Abducting a bus, a form of transportation, gas masks, shock collars, dividing people into teams." "This sounds a lot like Gods of Combat." "This is a video game." "It's okay." "It's just a little steam." "We're almost there." "Now what?" "MAN 1 I want to get you out of here safely." "To do that, I'm gonna need you to follow my orders." "It's important that you listen to each command." "Take the one on the right." "He's telling me to take a right." "Addyson, I know what you're thinking." "Don't follow him." "It's not worth it." "Take the path to the left." "Why?" "Just trust me." "I'm not leaving you behind." "You see what you made me do?" "Trent, just go, just do what they say." "MAN 1 Don't make me do it again." "These guys are replicating a video game?" "In the game, you take over a form of public transportation." "Subway, train, bus." "That's how you get your players." "Wait a minute." "You've played this game before?" "Well, I may have played it once or twice." "As I remember, the game consists of five players- captain, lieutenant, a pair of soldiers and the pawn." "Maybe the UnSubs picked them based on their personality type." "Well, Serge and Trent are both athletic, so they probably would have been considered lieutenants." "Wendy would most likely have been considered the pawn." "They preselected these kids." "Mm, probably got details about their lives from social media sites." "Most teens don't use privacy settings." "Anyone can gain access." "They planned their attacks, and struck the bus when it was most vulnerable." "That explains why the UnSubs only needed ten of these kids, and left the rest behind." "So how do the collars fit into all of this?" "They're used to keep your player from straying from their mission." "The object of the game is to destroy as many of your opponents as possible." "The one with the highest body count wins." "MAN 2 It's just a rat." "Don't worry." "You'll get used to those." "MAN 2 What?" "It's only blood." "You haven't even gotten to the best part." "Oh, my God!" "My captain's asking for an update." "He wants to release a statement." "We're just concerned if we release certain details that we'll have copycats." "Can you at least give me something?" "What kind of people are we dealing with?" "Well, based on the unsub's behavior at this point, we believe they suffer from an extreme gaming addiction." "They're avid gamers involved in the multi-user online first-person shooter game, Gods of Combat." "And like any addiction, this took over their lives and became an obsession." "We think that this video game aggravated a preexisting affinity for violence." "Then something blurred the lines between fantasy violence and real violence." "They've managed to depersonalize these kids as a way of rationalizing the body count." "And playing this game taught them to be methodical and dangerously strategic." "The fact that they're mimicking specific and unique elements of this particular game will help us predict their behavior." " They probably met online." "We think these UnSubs chose these particular kids because they displayed certain traits that... match the characters from the game." "These kids are motivated and positive when the game goes the way that they want it to." "On the other hand, if the game doesn't go as well..." "they will be the opposite- blinded with utter rage." "MAN 2 Snap out of it!" "All right?" "Let's focus." "There's a key in her sweater pocket." "Go grab it." "Move!" "MAN 2 Okay, now put it on." "See?" "That wasn't so bad, now, was it?" "So these guys just got together and decided to pull this thing off?" "Yeah, with something this elaborate, it's likely they've known each other for years, actually." "Hey, I just got off the phone with the people who produce Gods of Combat." "Turns out, they have six million players worldwide, 40,000 of which are D.C. residents." "Garcia, if they're capable of this type of violence in real life, do you think we'd see some sort of evidence of it in their gaming history?" "What type of evidence?" "Yeah, he's talking about the universal online gaming code of conduct." "Sure, it prevents against stuff like harassing, threatening other players, cyberbullying," " that kind of thing." "How is it supposed" " to help us find these kids?" "Instead of looking for people who play the game, we need to look for people who were kicked out." "What do you think is happening to them?" "I don't know, Wendy." "You think they're dead?" "I said I don't know." "Come on." "We need to stick together, okay?" "Yeah?" "Oh, man." "Hey. guys, I think I found something." "When I downloaded the TPF file," "I was able to extract the source code and generate an outpost based on blacklisted Hell Mod players." "English, please?" "Oh, yeah." "Mod levels are-are hacked modifications to the game." "They were not a part of the original game design." "They're secret levels." "The only ones who can find them are those that know they even exist." "And the Hell Mod in this game was like a battle royale." "I mean, literally, anything goes." "There are no rules." "If you get killed off playing" "Hell Mod, your entire gaming profile is deleted." "Profile that would have taken years for them to build." "The sudden loss of access to their game could be what spun them out of control." "Let me get this straight." "Instead of starting over, they decided to build their own game?" "It's more than that." "This is a competition." "MAN 1 Trent, she's catching up." "MAN 1 Hurry up!" "Come on, man." "Come on!" "Come on!" "Damn it!" "You blew the lead." "What happened to you?" "MAN 1 Don't listen to her." "Keep going." "MAN 2 Unlock the box, then blow his brains out." "What?" "MAN 2 You complete this mission, you move to the next round." "Ne..." "What... what is this?" "Make me proud." "I did what you wanted already." "Trent." "What's happening?" "MAN 1 Focus, dude." "Say something!" "Trent!" "You know, I wonder what your family would say." "What?" "You didn't think I did my research?" "MAN 1 I can't believe you're blowing it!" "Damn it, Trent!" "You still live on Deep Wood Lane?" "Maybe I should go get your little brother Dylan to come and take your place." "He takes the bus, too, right?" "No... please don't hurt them." "MAN 1 Hurry up, Trent!" "MAN 2 Use the key to open the box on the table." "You'll thank me later." "That's the barrel." "It doesn't fit there." "Hurry up." "Hurry up, Addyson!" "He's almost there." "Load it." "Load it!" "You got it." "You got it!" "Come on, shoot him!" "Do it!" "Shoot her!" "Shoot her!" "Yes!" "Oh!" "Okay, a month ago, two players were kicked out at the same time for hacking into Hell Mod." "Previous to that, they had both logged thousands of hours playing the game, dating back to early 2000." "You got any names, Garcia?" "No, just online handles." "But..." "You know what's weird?" "They were both playing from the same IP address." "So they lived together?" "Roommates, maybe?" "Or siblings." "Did you see that?" "She just walked up to him and went boom!" "It's just the first round." "Trent, oh, my God." "Aw, you felt that rush, didn't you?" "I knew you would." "No." "I didn't feel anything." "Trent, I'm sorry." "He made me do it." "Oh, yeah, not knowing if it was gonna be you or him lying in that pool of blood." "Hey, you got to pull yourself together." "It's time to meet your next opponent." "Girl." "Dude, I beat you with a girl." "I get it." "Let me show you again." "Boom!" "Let's go." "Come on." " Round two." " All right." "Let's go." "Number four, you're up." "I can't..." "I can't..." "Maybe you didn't understand me the first time." "I'm going." "Hey, it's okay." "Here, Wendy." "I'll take her place." "I'll take her place." "Dude, no, that's not part of the rules." "It's okay." "Wendy!" "No!" "Wendy, come on." "Come on." "Why are you doing this?" "!" "You guys are crazy!" "Hey, what the hell was that?" "!" "What?" "He volunteered, you don't need her anymore." "She was my player!" "Oh, come on." "She was your pawn." "She was gonna die anyway." "You don't know that." "Can we please get back to the game?" "Take the corridor to your left." "There's a box with a gun near the end." "Take it." "You're gonna need it." "It doesn't make any sense." "If they are siblings, how do you explain the gaps in time when they weren't logged in at the same location?" "Yeah, it looks like it happened several times a year, sometimes in different states." "Maybe their parents got divorced." "Maybe their parents got divorced." "Maybe the parents got divorced." "Leave it to the genius to come up with the obvious." "Here we go." "Here we go." "Joshua and Matthew Moore." "They both went to Central High." "Their parents work two jobs each to make ends meet." "Led to a messy divorce." "Joshua went to live with his dad in Arizona," "Matthew stayed with his mom in D.C." "That's why they knew when to strike." "They probably rode the same bus route." "Long hours, different schedules." "They were latchkey kids." "Video games became their sitters." "As they got older, they got more competitive." "It became all about bragging rights." "This game became the core of their sibling rivalry." "Only it wasn't just a game." "Gods of Combat was their one constant connection to one another." "Oh, come on, Addyson." "Get over it." "There's casualties in every war." "Let's go." "Your enemy's closing it." "Are you all right?" "What happened?" "Don't come near me." "Oh..." "What's going on?" "Where's Trent?" "Take out your gun and shoot her." "She already killed Trent." "Oh, no." "Trent-Trent's dead?" "I had no choice." "You're gonna be next." "It's either you or her, Billy." "No." "They said they'd hurt my family." "Shoot her!" "Now!" " I'm sorry, Billy." " Shoot her!" "Shoot him!" " Clear." " Clear!" "If they were in here together, why are they using these?" "It's what they're using to communicate with their players." "Ugh!" "I recognize that "ugh. "" "I have gone through every frequency and wavelength and-and I haven't been able to pick up on anything." "All right, well, just slow down." " Frustrated." " I get that." "Now, let's go back." "You've checked Audix?" " Yes." " All right." "Nady Systems?" "AKG?" "Electrovoice?" " Voco Pro?" " Yes, yes and yes." "I've gone through every frequency in the frickin' Northern Hemisphere and nothing." "I don't know, I mean, these are the only frequencies that I know that are above ground." "Wait." "Underground." "No, I said "above ground. "" "E.I.F. Extremely low frequency." "It's the only one that can penetrate underground." "Got a hit." "You have lipstick on your face." "Picked up a ping on the E.I.F." "It's emanating from somewhere in this 25-mile radius west of Bolivar." " What fits?" " Well, there's a few old factories and a couple of bunkers from the '70s." "What is this?" " The old paper mill." " You know, given the size and location, that could be the perfect spot." "I'll go pull the schematics." "Find him." "He's in there." "If you miss, this time you'll be sorry." " Oh, come on." " It froze." "Hello?" "Can anyone hear me?" "If someone is there, please say something." "My name is Penelope, and I'm with the FBI." " They're listening to us." " No." "No, wait, listen." "You're safe." "I just..." "I" " I isolated the signal." "They can't hear us right now." "What is your name?" "I'm..." "I'm Billy." "You-you got to help us." "What the hell is he doing?" "Why isn't it working?" "Ah!" "What the hell was that?" "I don't know." "It was working fine a second ago." "Damn it!" "Lost the signal." "Oh, I bet that bitch screwed up something with that last shot." "No." "Something's interfering with the signal." "You did this, didn't you?" "Me?" "What the hell are you talking about?" "Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa." "Matt, you got to be kidding me." "Listen, Billy, we are on our way right now." "You just need to hang tight a little while longer." " I know you're wearing a collar." " Yeah." "I'm gonna help you take it off, okay?" "I tried that already." "It keeps shocking me." "Billy, listen to me." "They can't hurt you anymore, got it?" "Um... okay." "There you go." "Okay, now I want you to find me something sharp in there." "Remember when Mom and Dad split up?" "We made a promise that we'd stick together always." "It's us against the world, dude." "It's always been that way." "Come on." "Put down the gun." "What?" "What is it?" "Someone hacked into our signal." "They know where we are." "Make sure that..." "Billy?" "Billy, can you hear me?" "What happened?" "They shut down the system." "Shh-shh." "Listen to me, okay?" "The police are on their way." "They can't hurt us anymore." "They can't hurt us." "Okay." "Hold still." "Help me get the shock collar off." "I had to reboot the whole system." "It's gonna be a few hours." "Where are you going?" "I'm not waiting." "What are you doing?" "There's only one way to finish this." "Game on." " Come on." " Okay." " You can do it." " Okay." " You can do this." " Okay, okay." " Okay." "Uh-huh, uh-huh." "You got it, you got it." "Okay." "Okay." "All right." "No!" "No!" "Where do you think you're going, huh?" "Huh?" "Now's not the time to play hero." "Let her go." "Unless you want her blood on your hands, literally, you'll put the gun down." "Billy, just put it down." "Go ahead." "Listen to the girl." "Do it!" "You, come on." "Come on!" "Let's go." "That's it." "That's it." "Billy?" "Come on." "Now I'm gonna do what my players couldn't." "Drop the gun, Matt." "It's okay." "It's over." "Come on." "FBI!" "Drop your weapon!" "I'm Agent Morgan." "This is Agent Rossi." "We're the good guys." "But drop the gun." "How do I know this isn't part of the game?" "Kid, you got to trust me." "Just like you trusted my friend Penelope." "Come on now." "I know you're scared, but don't do anything stupid." "Drop the weapon!" "Mum!" "My baby boy!" "I'm so sorry, Trent." "Where's Josh?" "Where's my brother?" "!" "Where's Josh?" "You answer me!" "Where's my brother?" "!" "He's dead?" "I guess I won." "Frederick Douglass said," ""It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. "" "Hey, thanks for everything today." "I'm glad I could help." "Um, do you want to go and get a drink with me right now?" "Talk?" "Oh, um..." "I, uh, I kind of already have plans." "Oh." "It's just that we have reservations and stuff." "Yeah, I get it." "You don't have to explain anything to me." "I'll see you around." "Right." "See you around." "How you doing?" "You ever have one of those days that you want to unplug from everything?" "Literally." "Give me your phone." "And your tablet." "And your other phone." "Okay." "Tonight you're coming to my house, we're gonna listen to Tony Bennett on vinyl and drink 18-year-old scotch." "Uh..." "I don't drink scotch." "You'll learn." "Thanks." "Anytime."