365 Days At War

by Nancy Isaak

  We eventually had to take her into one of the house’s five bedrooms and tuck her in for the night. Shawnee remained with her there, holding her hand, and talking softly.

  Meanwhile, the rest of us returned to the dining room table.

  As we all sat down, Pauly grinned and said, “Guess that went well.”

  The guys immediately burst into laughter again; pretty soon, us girls were laughing, too.

  And then—we were listening, mouths open in amazement—as Jacob told us the story of how they had found Wester one dark November night.

  * * * *

  We talked long into the evening—guys and girls—telling our different tales of how we had spent the last 365 days. The guys laughed incredulously when we told them of the Foxes controlling our movements by scaring us with tales of ‘beasts’ in the hills. And we girls were horrified by Brandon and the Crazies setting up slave farms.

  Josh told us how Pauly broke his arm trying to save Jacob. Then, Jay talked about our trip to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station and how frightened we both had been until we finally found Lily.

  And—the stories went on and on.

  * * * *

  Eventually, Cammie told the tale of how she had been kidnapped by the Protection Detail, set free by us girls, and then made her way down to Malibu without any further incidence.

  “And then Shawnee showed up?” I asked.

  “With Pugly.”

  “Pugly’s still alive?”

  “And farting everywhere.”

  Jay and I burst into laughter. “That sounds like Pugly,” chuckled Jay.

  “And Shawnee brought another girl, too,” continued Cammie. “Little thing named Hannah. She’s 10-years old. We left her back at the house—to watch Pugly—when we came back to get you guys out.”

  “How did Shawnee get that scar?” asked Jay. “The one on her neck, going up to her face.”

  “Mountain lion.”

  Mouths fell open all around the table.

  “It was coming down the canyon. She came around this corner and the mountain lion was just there. Shawnee says that she hid from it under this enormous rock in a cliff,” nodded Cammie. “Said she kept squishing back and the mountain lion kept swiping at her. Like the thing was lying on its side, trying to get her—or more likely, Pugly. Anyway, one of the swipes caught Shawnee on the neck.”

  “She’s lucky it didn’t get her carotid,” muttered Jay. “She could have bled to death.”

  “So, what happened?” asked Kieran. “How did Shawnee get away?”

  “Well, she kept squishing back, farther and farther. And, somehow, she just pushed through the dirt on the other side of the rock. She doesn’t know if the mountain lion didn’t realize that she was gone, or if she just got lucky. But—there you go.”

  “And then she found this Hannah?” I said.

  Cammie nodded. “In one of the houses along the way. Kid had been living there all by herself since her parents disappeared. Now, she lives with us—at your house.”

  I sighed, thinking. “I can’t wait to get home—sleep in my old bed.”

  At the far end of the table, Kieran looked to Jacob, who responded with a slight shake to his head.

  “What?” I asked, noticing. “I can tell you guys are thinking about something. What is it?”

  “Um,” began Jacob. “Well…uh…”

  “We were living in your house,” Rhys piped up, still digging for scraps at the bottom of his can of pork and beans. “Jacob took us there when we left Agoura.”

  “You were living in my dad’s house?” I was confused. “On Point Dume?”

  Rhys nodded. “It’s a nice house.”

  I looked over to Jacob for confirmation. “Why would you stay in my dad’s house?”

  He shrugged, looking embarrassed. “It’s a nice house.”

  Before I could ask more, Jay stood up. “Rhys is wearing a wind-up watch, Kaylee. It says it’s almost seven!”

  I immediately stood up beside her. Moments later, Cammie joined us.

  “What’s going on?” asked Jacob, confused.

  “Would you guys excuse us?” I said. “We girls need to do something.”

  * * * *

  Cherry and Shawnee eventually joined Jay, Cammie, and me down by the lake. We were lying on the lawn on our backs, looking up at the stars.

  Jay had borrowed Rhys’ watch and was slowly counting down the seconds. “Three…two…one…,” she said, quietly. “It’s time.”

  We stayed silent for a moment, then—

  “Jude is eighteen,” I said, sadly. “Truly eighteen.”

  Up in the sky, a streak of light plummeted briefly toward the earth, then blinked out.

  “Do you think Jude’s in heaven?” asked Shawnee.

  Jay, Cherry, and I looked at each other, considering. Then, we all burst into laughter.

  And then…we cried.

  * * * *

  Later, when we’d returned to the table, we all talked about the escape.

  “It was Connor who came up with the plan,” explained Josh. “He said that—because the football field was built in a depression—that it made it kind of a fishbowl. All we had to do was to get up high and we’d be shooting down into it.”

  “He came up with us on our first recce,” added Kieran. “We came in through Oak Park and we sat up on that hill overlooking the school. Connor talked us through where it’d be best to put guys, so that we’d have the whole area covered.”

  “But he’s not here now, right? You guys sent him back to the Point?” asked Jacob.

  “He didn’t like it, but yeah,” said Josh, “we sent him back.”

  “We knew that we would have to move quickly,” said Kieran. “And you know how slow Connor is with that bum leg of his.”

  Jacob nodded. “And how did you guys connect with Brent and Han?”

  “That was Nate,” said Kieran. Then, he turned to the blond on his right. “Show him,” he ordered.

  The kid turned around and lifted his t-shirt; on his back was a tattooed ‘A’.

  “Is that real?” asked Jacob, looking amazed.

  “Hurt like a sumbitch,” said Nate. “One of the new guys—Wyatt—used to work in his uncle’s tattoo parlor. He did it for me.”

  Kieran patted Nate on his shoulder. “Kid simply walked into Crazy-town and asked where Brent was. It was easy-peasy with the tattoo—marked him as one of theirs, you know. Nate could go pretty much anywhere, so he became our go-between.”

  “He even walked by your cage a couple of times,” added Rhys.

  I looked over at Nate, surprised.

  He shrugged. “You were asleep.”

  “Then, today, Nate was in the stands,” continued Kieran. “When the craziness started, we had him go to the front gates and lock them. That way, there’d be more people on the field—more chaos, greater chance of getting you out by hiding you in the crowd.”

  “Well, that was the plan,” said Josh.

  “What happened to change it?” asked Jacob.

  Josh pointed to us girls at the end of the table. “They did.”

  “It was weird how they all just started popping up,” said Rhys. “Where did you guys come from anyways?” he asked us.

  “We were in the football field,” said Jay. “From where we were, it was you guys who started popping up. Like, you just appeared.”

  “That’s what I saw, too,” said Cammie. “One minute, I was behind this building, looking at all you girls in the cage. Next thing, I got this nut standing beside me. Came right out of nowhere.”

  Pauly—who had been mostly silent up to this point—grinned and nodded in Cammie’s direction. “And it was love at first sight.”

  I looked over at Kieran; he definitely looked perturbed.

  Interesting…guess I wasn’t the only one who got irrationally jealous.

  * * * *

  Later, as we were choosing our bedrooms, I wandered over to where Jacob was arguing with Kieran.

&n
bsp; “Is everything okay?” I asked.

  “It would be,” growled Kieran, “if my worrywart brother would let me go.”

  I looked over at Jacob, confused. “Go where?”

  “Kieran wants to go back into Agoura Hills.”

  “No!” I cried—shocked. “Kieran, you can’t go back. If they catch you, they’ll kill you!”

  “But somebody has to check,” he insisted.

  “Check what?” I asked.

  He sighed. “To see if our families are back?”

  * * * *

  I knew that Jacob was angry, but—ultimately—I had to agree with Kieran. If there was any chance at all that my mother was back, I needed to find out.

  “Kieran’s right,” I said. “If us guys and girls are back together, then maybe there’s a chance that the rest of the disappeared came back, too.”

  “They aren’t back,” insisted Jacob, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “If they were, don’t you think that we would have seen some sign of them? We came down the 101 Freeway and not one adult, not one little kid was in any of those cars. Even now, just standing outside—you’re not going to hear anything, because there’s nobody out there to hear. For that matter, where are the people who live in this house?”

  We were standing out near the boathouse, watching the horses graze along the lawn. Pauly came out of the house, carrying two guns. He handed one to Kieran and kept the other one to himself.

  “Sorry, dude,” he said to Jacob.

  “You know, I could order you guys not to go,” Jacob said.

  “And you know Pauly and I would still probably go,” admitted Kieran. “But we’d rather have your blessing.”

  Jacob pulled Kieran in for a quick one-armed hug. “You get stuck in that cage, I won’t be coming to get you out—understand?”

  “Whatever,” said Kieran, pulling away from Jacob’s grasp. “You know darn well that you’d come if we got caught, so shaddup.”

  “You shaddup,” growled Jacob. “And come back before it gets light.”

  “You’ll check my house, right?” I asked, giving Kieran a quick hug. “Like you promised.”

  Kieran nodded. “As long as I get a kiss when I come back for doing it.”

  Jacob pushed at Kieran. “Get out of here already!”

  As the two of them—Kieran and Pauly—disappeared into the night, I could hear Kieran snickering, while Pauly made kissing noises.

  “You know,” Jacob pointed out—a tad nervously. “Kieran was just kidding—about that giving him a kiss-thing. You know that, right?”

  * * * *

  I don’t know if Jacob managed to sleep at all that night—but I certainly didn’t.

  As I turned this way and that on the king-size bed in the master bedroom, with Jay and Cammie snoring softly beside me, I could hear Jacob pacing back and forth in the hallway outside. He was moving from one window to the next—staring out into the dark—searching for any sign that his brother or Pauly had returned.

  At one point, Jacob came and looked into our bedroom. Through my lowered lashes I watched him standing there—looking in my direction—so handsome, so troubled. Part of me wanted to go to him; the other part was too shy to make a move.

  A moment later, the decision was made for me, when Jacob turned and walked away.

  * * * *

  Sometime, just before dawn, I heard noises from downstairs.

  Giving up on sleep, I rose quietly—so as not to disturb Jay or Cammie—and made my way down into the kitchen, where Kieran and Pauly were talking to Jacob.

  The guys all looked exhausted and, from the frowns on their faces, I immediately knew that it hadn’t been a successful mission.

  “No luck, huh?” I asked.

  Pauly shook his head. “No adults anywhere.”

  “And our house is still burned.” added Kieran. “Just like before.”

  “And my house?” I asked. “Did you check it for my mom?”

  Kieran didn’t say anything. He looked down at the floor.

  “What is it?” I asked, concerned.

  He still didn’t answer.

  I turned to look at Pauly. “What?!”

  “Sorry, Kaylee…but your house is burning,” Pauly confessed. “Brandon and the Foxes are burning it down now.”

  All three guys looked at me, obviously worried that I would take this news badly. Instead, I merely shrugged my shoulders.

  “My mom always says that home is where my family is,” I told them. “And right now—my family is here.”

  JACOB

  It’s going to take some getting used to—sitting across the table from Kaylee.

  I find myself staring at her all the time, getting lost in the way her eyelashes curve or how her blond hair reaches all the way down to her waist or…you get the idea.

  She’s so much different from before—but in a good way.

  There’s a confidence to her now, a certain strength. Kaylee still has the kindness and sweetness that I fell in love with, but she’s also tough and fierce—an odd contradiction that makes her even more compelling and interesting.

  I don’t just love this girl—I really like her, too.

  God, I hope she doesn’t break my heart.

  * * * *

  At breakfast, that first morning in the Lake Lindero house, we feasted on Lucky Charms cereal and soy milk that Josh and Nate had scavenged from a nearby house. There were also little cartons of pineapple and apple juice that we fell upon like little kids, jamming the straw through the carton’s little hole to suck away happily.

  I noticed that we had finally begun to feel more comfortable with each other; girls and guys weren’t segregated anymore. Kaylee sat beside me—on my right—her leg brushing intermittently against mine (causing me way too much distraction), and Cammie was between Kieran and Pauly.

  Meanwhile, down at the other end of the table, Shawnee and Rhys sat side-by-side, chattering away.

  * * * *

  “It’s weird,” said Pauly, sucking up the last few drops of his pineapple juice. “Seriously—don’t you think it’s weird that some things from our world survived and other things from the girls’ world survived?”

  Jay nodded, intrigued. “Kind of as if two strands of time smacked against each other and became one—only stuff got tossed off in the transition. Like the time continuum went all wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.”

  “O-kay,” said Pauly. “I can see that we’ve got a bright one here.”

  Cherry pointed to the “Doctor Who” t-shirt that Jay was wearing. “She’s the sixteenth doctor. That means, she’s brilliant.”

  “Speaking of t-shirts,” I broke in, “I had one just like the one Jay’s wearing—one of my favorites. Guess it burned up in the fire when nutcase-Brandon burned our house down.”

  Jay immediately turned to Kaylee, looking stricken. Kaylee shook her head slightly—as if to tell Jay to keep her mouth shut. Down at her end of the table, meanwhile, Cherry began to chuckle.

  “Am I missing something?” I asked, looking around at the girls.

  It was Shawnee who piped up, admitting, “That is your t-shirt, Jacob. We used it to make Jay a birthday present. It’s pretty neat, don’t you think? Cherry drew that Tardis and it has all of our names written on it.”

  I turned and grinned down at Kaylee. “You were in my house, weren’t you?” I accused her. “You were in my bedroom.”

  Kaylee refused to meet my gaze. “I’m not saying yes—I’m not saying no,” she blushed.

  * * * *

  Like our dinner the night before, we stayed at the breakfast table for a long time—talking, learning about each other—just spending time with the opposite sex. At one point, Rhys and Shawnee excused themselves, intending to show each other their weapons and compare battle secrets.

  Kieran, meanwhile, kept trying to get Cammie’s attention. Unfortunately, however, she spent most of her time trading quips with Pauly. Finally, frustrated, Kieran turned toward the other end of the t
able. “You clean up good, Cherry. I think I’m going to like you as a blond.”

  Cherry snorted, amused. “You know I’m gay, right?”

  Kieran shrugged. “No worries. I like redheads best anyways.”

  Beside him, Cammie pulled a gun out and placed it on the table in front of her with a thud.

  “Just saying,” she said, directly to Kieran.

  On the other side of her, Pauly burst out in laughter. “Dude,” he told Kieran, “your game sucks!”

  * * * *

  It wasn’t ideal, but we used the lake water to clean ourselves.

  While two people kept watch for Crazies (we rotated guards), the rest took soap and shampoo and scrubbed off the grit and grime. The water was cold and murky at best but—after weeks in a cage—for both the girls and myself—it was amazing!

  That said—there was a problem with bathing around girls.

  Their shirts tended to stick to them in the most inconvenient of places and—for us teenage boys—it was difficult to find a polite place to look.

  (And to be completely honest—there was definitely a reason why us guys stayed in the water so long after the girls got out.)

  * * * *

  “You look good, bro,” said Kieran, as we headed back up to the house, towels over our shoulders. “And you don’t stink anymore.”

  I reached out and gave him a solid push.

  “Sorry, dude,” he said. “But you were beginning to smell like Rhys.”

  On Kieran’s other side, Rhys looked offended—but I noticed that he didn’t disagree.

  Meanwhile, Nate passed by us, heading in the opposite direction, toward the lake. He had just switched guard duty with Josh and was looking forward to a quick dip.

  “Hey, wait up, Nate,” I called to him. Then, I turned to my brothers. “Kieran, you and Rhys go check on the horses. Make sure they’re okay in the boathouse. And if we leave tonight, we’ll want them well fed and watered.”