Fire, Fire Everywhere

A group of college friends survived a mass shooting that left one of them and 1 others dead. Days later, a raging wildfire engulfed their community, threatening their lives again. They're among scores of young people now coming of age as survivors of large-scale, cascading traumas. And mental health experts are only beginning to comprehend the toll.

- By Nancy Walecki. Hand Lettering by Mary Fama

SHE WONDERED IF SHE COULD SCALE THE FENCE, IF IT CAME TO THAT.

Alicia Yu could feel it-her thoughts shifting into high gear again. On the surface, she looked like everyone else grabbing drinks on the patio of a Los Angeles brewery that day, just a recent college grad chatting with her new coworkers. In Alicia's mind, though, the familiar what ifs were rising: What if a shooter shows up? What if we all need to escape? The fence between the patio and street was too tall to climb, she decided, and there were no windows to shatter like last time.

She looked around at the crowd: baseball fans in jerseys celebrating the Dodgers' victory over the Giants, friend groups petting cute dogs sprawled underfoot. She was vigilant. She knew terrible things could happen. Four years earlier, she had survived one, then another, in the very same week.

The night of November 7, 2018, started like pretty much any other Wednesday.