365 Days At War

by Nancy Isaak

  Cammie had been whipped.

  Some of the guys gasped at the sight—others growled in anger and horror.

  Head down, Cammie quickly lowered her shirt, turning back around to face the guys. Cherry moved in quickly, placing an arm around her in support. Jay, standing on the other side, took Cammie’s hand in hers and gave it a quick squeeze.

  Up on the cage, Kaylee waited until she was certain that everyone was listening. Then, she began again.

  “We are girls,” she spoke, loudly, “but we’re tough and we’re smart and we’ve lived through this last year just like you all have. Jacob tells you that you should protect us and he’s right. You should…you should protect us—just like we will protect you! Because that’s who we girls are. We will fight with you, we will fight for you—just like you will for us. Because we’re one tribe now—guys and girls—we are Locals!”

  As the guys began to cheer, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Kaylee.

  I was just so proud of her.

  * * * *

  And—I was proud of my guys.

  They moved forward, slower now, falling into one line—each guy waiting his turn to shake each girl’s hand, introducing himself and welcoming them into the tribe.

  There was still uncertainty on the girls’ faces, but I could see that they were trying to hide it. They met each new guy with a smile and a strong handshake, asking a few questions here and there, trying desperately to remember each new name, each new face.

  Meanwhile, I moved a short distance away—spending a few moments with my guards, making sure that they understood how important it was to watch over the girls.

  No matter the good manners my guys were now showing, one fact remained.

  Six girls and over a hundred boys.

  Without a doubt—that added up to trouble.

  * * * *

  Porter eventually made his way through the crowd toward me. I reached out and shook his hand, then pulled him toward me for a quick shoulder-bump.

  “You guys were supposed to leave me there,” I reprimanded him.

  “Yeah, like that was ever going to happen,” he grinned.

  “So, how’s it been since I was gone?”

  “Lots of interesting things going on. I’ll give you a full report after you’ve had some rest.” He looked over at Kaylee, marveling, “Wow, she’s looking super-hot! Kaylee’s like, gone all “Xena Warrior Princess”, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “She’s pretty amazing.”

  “And smart. That thing she did just now—talking to the tribe. Smart to introduce all the girls like that—lets the guys know that they’re not just things, but actual people.”

  I nodded. “It worries me, though. So many guys, so few girls.”

  Porter sighed. “There are probably going to be fights.”

  “Probably…the other thing is that we’re going to have to keep an eye out for other girls showing up now, especially on the highway. We’ll have to establish rules for that—make sure the guys know that they’re not to be touched.”

  “Which means that we’ll have to establish punishments,” said Porter. “Because, when it comes to girls—let’s face it—guys can get pretty stupid at times.”

  “Tell me about it,” I sighed.

  * * * *

  “Hey, Porter!” Kaylee gave him a quick hug, which kind of surprised Porter. He didn’t move, simply stood there in his shyness, his arms hanging limply by his sides.

  “Hi, Kaylee,” he squeaked, blushing.

  “I’m so sorry, Porter,” she said, with a sad smile. “But the girl I talked about—the one who turned eighteen.”

  Porter looked down at the ground. “It was Jude, wasn’t it?”

  Kaylee nodded. “But you would have been so proud of her if you’d seen her this last year. She was the backbone of us girls—she was our strength.”

  “Jude?” Porter’s head came up. He looked confused. “My Jude?!”

  Jay came over to stand beside Kaylee. “She was our Jude, too. She took care of us and fought for us—and gave us the finger—all at the same time.”

  Porter broke into a grin, nodding. “Yeah, that would be my Jude. I’m so glad that you finally got to meet her.”

  * * * *

  I was excited to show off the prince’s mansion.

  We wandered up and down the hallways, looking into the various rooms—the girls oohing and aahing. When we got to the wing where I had my bedroom, I suggested that the girls might want to take rooms nearby. It would be easier to protect them there, especially with my guards living in the same wing.

  Plus—truthfully—I wanted Kaylee nearby.

  But—then I saw the looks on the girls’ faces.

  * * * *

  “It’s not safe to be by yourselves,” I insisted.

  “This is what we’ve decided,” argued Kaylee, her arms crossed, her brow furrowed. “So, you have to respect that.”

  “But you’re part of our tribe now. You’re Locals.”

  “And we understand that. But we also need to be on our own—at least for a little bit. And it’s not like we’re going to be far away. We’ll be just down the road, at my dad’s house.”

  I didn’t like this one bit. “What if the Crazies come…what will you do then?”

  “You’ve got sentries all up and down the coast,” she pointed out. “Plus, you’ve got guys watching all the access routes onto Point Dume.”

  “That doesn’t mean that someone couldn’t sneak by us,” I snapped, my voice rising in its frustration. “Or that Brandon has some guys who have infiltrated our tribe. Because it’s happened in the past and, let me tell you, the results were disastrous.”

  “Those are what ifs. So, what if we’re sleeping inside this mansion—feeling all safe and secure because your guys are all around, and someone comes up and sticks a knife in our back?”

  “But—that’s not going to happen,” I huffed. “That’s ridiculous. Listen, Kaylee…it just makes sense for you girls to stay with us guys—where we can take care of and protect you.”

  Kaylee frowned, waving a finger in my face. “Jacob Riker…we just spent 365 days taking care of ourselves. And before you say anything about us being in a cage, may I remind you that you were in the same position as us.”

  “That was different,” I began.

  “No, it’s not,” Kaylee snapped. “Bad luck happens. It happened to you. It happened to us. But this is what you have to get—we girls had 365 days without boys. So, I’m sorry, but that means that we learned how to survive without you. Don’t get me wrong…that doesn’t mean that we don’t want you around—or that we don’t want to be around you. That certainly doesn’t mean that. But, what it does mean, is that we girls don’t ever want to be in a position again where anyone is telling us what to do. We lived that life once before—and we don’t want to do it again!”

  I know that I must have looked angry. Frankly, part of me was hurt that Kaylee didn’t want to stay with me.

  Girls—so fricking irrational at times.

  Then, Kaylee reached out and touched my arm. “Please don’t hate me,” she urged softly. “I don’t think I could stand that.”

  My heart did a little loop-de-loop.

  Girls—so fricking amazing—always.

  KAYLEE

  I’m actually lying on my own bed as I write this.

  My hair is washed, my body smells of the lavender lotion I just slathered all over it, and my teeth practically squeak from the longest and most intense tooth-brushing I’ve ever given them.

  It feels so good to be clean again.

  It feels so good to be almost-safe.

  But—my teddy bears are missing.

  Pretty much everything else is exactly the same as the last time I was in my bedroom. So, I wonder—where are my bears?

  One of the weird things about my dad’s house now is that we can see evidence of the guys having lived here. It’s not in every room, but there’s definitely guy-stuff
around. Down in the kitchen, there’s a cupboard filled with ramen noodles and another stuffed with Moon Pies. The living room has a sword sitting on a coffee table and there’s a smelly pair of male sneakers by the back door.

  Also, there’s one of those big bouncy-balls in the backyard—the type you can get into and roll around in.

  And it definitely wasn’t there before. It just appeared suddenly.

  Hannah said that she woke up one morning and it was just there—just like all the other guy things we’ve been finding.

  One moment they weren’t there—the next moment they were.

  When I told Jay about my missing teddy bears, she suggested that maybe they transferred themselves to another alternate world, one where guys are still living in the house. Like maybe the mystery in that world is that they woke up one morning to find my bears and are now wondering where in the heck they came from.

  * * * *

  When we walked over to my dad’s house, Jacob and his armed guards came as far as the front gate. That’s where he said good-bye and handed me a large bell that could be rung by hand.

  “Thanks,” I said, not really knowing what to do with it. “I think.”

  “It’s for emergencies,” he told me. “If you get in trouble and need us to come, you ring it. Doesn’t matter how many times you ring—just keep ringing until we come.”

  “Good idea,” I acknowledged. “Maybe we should also get some trumpets like we girls had back in Agoura. Then, we could set up a coded system, so we could communicate with each other.”

  “I’ll bring it up with the Council.”

  “You have a Council?”

  “We needed it—with the amount of guys that we have—to organize everything. By the way, you guys should probably choose someone to be on it.”

  “We’ll talk it over…take a vote or something.”

  Jacob nodded. “Sounds good. So—guess I’ll be heading back. Unless you want us to go in with you.”

  I shook my head. “It’s okay. We’ve got the guns you’ve given us. Plus, Shawnee is a heck of a good shot with that bow. We’ll be fine.”

  “Listen, Kaylee…”

  For a moment, I thought that Jacob was about to say something—well, romantic.

  I was wrong.

  “About your guest house,” he murmured, looking down at the ground. “I don’t know if it’ll look the same as when we left it, but you should know—Brandon and Kieran were living there.”

  “Brandon Keretsky?”

  He nodded. “And—to be completely honest—Brandon was a pig. So, I want to apologize in advance if it’s trashed.”

  “No worries,” I sighed. “After what we’ve been through, I guess we can deal with a messy room or two.”

  “Yeah, well…it’s kind of worse than that. Brandon used the bathtub for a toilet.”

  That sickened me.

  Brandon really was the worst kind of human—self-absorbed, mean-spirited…disgusting. And now, apparently—he had trashed my dad’s guest house.

  Just another reason to kill him, as far as I was concerned.

  * * * *

  The other girls had already climbed over the gate and were halfway down the driveway. I stood where I was, however, watching Jacob walk slowly back down Dume Drive. Every once in a while, he would turn around to see if I was still there. Each time, I would raise my hand, then he would raise his in return.

  I sighed when he finally disappeared—already missing him.

  “You know, you don’t have to stay with us.” It was Jay, having returned to the gate, wondering what was taking me so long. “You can live in the mansion with Jacob, if you want. Really…it’s okay.”

  I immediately turned and climbed over the fence. Jumping down beside Jay, I reached out and gave her a friendly shove. “Maybe later. Right now, I just want to sleep in my own bed.”

  “It’s just that, you gotta’ remember, Kaylee,” continued Jay, “that our lives are short now. If we only live until we’re eighteen, then we’ve gotta’ grab what makes us happy right away. So, if you want to be with Jacob—then, you need to go be with him.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe he doesn’t want to be with me.”

  With an amused snort, Jay reached out and gave me a shove. “Dumbass.”

  * * * *

  Halfway down the drive, a tiny figure came hurtling toward us.

  “Pugly!” I cried, leaning down to scoop up the little dog. He commenced to wiggling and licking and farting.

  “Yup, that’s definitely our Pugly,” frowned Jay, holding her nose. “Sheesh—what has that Hannah girl been feeding him?!”

  I gave the funny little pug a kiss, causing him to erupt into even more licks and farts. “Guess we need to give him to Ethan now. I mean, he is his dog.”

  “It’s kind of bizarre, don’t you think…what Ethan said about Lily coming here.”

  “He says that he can feel her. Remember, when we first met Lily—how she said that she knew her brother was gone because she couldn’t feel him. Maybe it’s just like that.”

  “So, do you think he’s right?” asked Jay. “Do you think Lily is coming here?”

  “I sure hope so. Because that would make it so much easier than going up against the Crazies and the Foxes to get her back.”

  Jay leaned in close to me, whispering—even though there wasn’t anyone else close by. “Cherry’s kind of hurt about Wester—that he’s not coming to live with us.”

  “Well, she can always stay with him in the boys’ camp if she wants,” I suggested.

  “Except that…well, can you imagine how Wester would feel?” Jay said. “He’d be the only boy there with a big sister telling him what to do.”

  I sighed. “Poor Cherry…damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.” Then, I smiled at Jay. “But how great is that, really?! I mean…these are our problems now!”

  * * * *

  When Jay and I reached the house, Cammie was waiting for us. She was standing at the front door with a tiny, black-haired girl—Hannah.

  “Hello,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m Kaylee and this is Jay.”

  The little girl reached out reluctantly; the hand she offered me was boney and fragile.

  “Hannah has been taking care of the house and Pugly while Shawnee and I were gone,” said Cammie. “She did everything all by herself.”

  “It was scary,” said the girl, in a tiny voice. “There were noises at night. And then there were boys. I saw them on the street, but they didn’t come into the yard. They scared me, though.”

  “Well, it’s okay now, Hannah,” I said. “Because we’re here now and those boys you saw—they’re good boys who are part of our tribe.”

  “It’s safe, then?” she asked, looking worriedly down the driveway.

  I looked over at Cammie and Jay; they both shrugged at me.

  Of course, it wasn’t safe…not really; it would never be safe again.

  Patting Hannah on her hand, I smiled at her. “We’re going to keep each other safe, kiddo. We’re Locals now—and, apparently, that’s what we do.”

  * * * *

  I had a hard time sleeping that first night. Even though I was both completely exhausted and ecstatic about being in my own bed again—ironically, sleep eluded me. For hours I tossed and turned, my mind churning over all that we’d been through the last year.

  Faces of people we’d lost along the way kept swimming into my thoughts—Peyton, Wandy, Lily, Jude.

  And there were other people I thought about less kindly—Orla, Brandon, Tray.

  What if the three of them were all still alive?

  Even though I knew that we were safe from them for the moment on Point Dume, I now worried about them back together again.

  So close to their 18th birthdays—were they even now riding down Kanan-Dume, an army of Crazies snaked out behind them?

  * * * *

  As the first rays of the morning sun broke through my window, I gave up on sleep and went up on the roof. I
found Hannah already there, curled up in a blanket and sitting in a chair near the far wall. Pugly was asleep in her lap, happily snoring away.

  Pulling up a chair, I sat down beside her. “What are you doing up here, kiddo?” I asked, when she opened up her eyes.

  “This is where Pugly and I slept—when Cammie and Shawnee were gone,” she said, in a soft voice. “So we could see the bad guys, in case they came.”

  A seagull flew overhead, announcing its existence to anyone who would listen. Another one flew a few feet away, echoing the call. I watched the birds for a few moments, then turned back to the girl. “But no one came?”

  Hannah shook her head. “No—but there are boys out there now. They’re out near the gate. I can see them hiding in the trees—and they have guns.”

  I immediately stood up and looked out toward the front gate. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the shadows but, sure enough, their shapes became clear—two guys with rifles in the trees, one on each side of the driveway.

  “They’re guards,” I told Hannah, sitting back down. “From the Locals. I’d guess that Jacob sent them here to take care of us.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, worried.

  I nodded. “I recognize both of them. They’re two of the guys who guard Jacob. He’s the one who’s in charge of the Locals.”

  “He’s their boss?”

  “He’s their boss.”

  “If we’re Locals now,” she asked, “does that mean that Jacob is our boss, too?”

  That was a little more difficult to answer.

  “Sometimes yes, sometimes no,” I said. “It’s complicated.”

  * * * *

  Pugly’s paws began to twitch—chasing after bunnies no doubt in a little doggy-dream. Hannah looked down, smiling. “He’s a funny dog, isn’t he?”

  I nodded. “Thank you for taking care of him while Cammie and Shawnee were gone.”