365 Days At War

by Nancy Isaak

  There were two more episodes of vomiting—each less violent than the previous one—before Cherry finally opened her eyes and looked around. She seemed confused and very cold; her body was shaking, trembling so hard that her teeth actually chattered. There was a long gash along one arm that I worried might require stitches and I could see the beginnings of bruises all over her body.

  “Wh-what…the river…how?” she stuttered.

  “We followed you until we found a place where we could rescue you,” I told her. “How are you doing? Does it feel like anything is broken?”

  She shook her head. “C-cold.”

  * * * *

  We carried Cherry to a small farmhouse, directly across from where we’d fished her out of the river. By the time we tucked her into the only bed, having first stripped her of her wet clothes, she was shaking violently.

  “She’s so cold,” said Jude, her brow furrowed with worry. “I think she’s in hypothermia.”

  “No doubt,” I said. “And there’s no fireplace here.”

  “We could burn some of the furniture,” suggested Topher.

  “Everything’s so old in here, we’d probably burn the house down.”

  “But we can’t leave her like this,” Jude insisted. “We have to do something.”

  “We will do something,” I said, undoing my shirt. “Topher…you look for anything we can use to start a safe fire—barbeque, hibachi, that kind of thing. Rhys, you and Andrei head on back to the frontage road and bring our stuff over.”

  “What about the things we left farther back—Cherry’s bike and the bike trailer are a couple of miles away?” said Rhys.

  “Don’t worry about those things. We can pick them up on our way out tomorrow.” I turned to Jude. “You okay with nudity? Because you need to take those wet clothes off. You and I are going to get in this bed with Cherry. We’ll use our own body heat to bring hers up.”

  “Whatever,” drawled Jude, immediately unzipping her jeans.

  At the door, Topher froze, unable not to look.

  “Go!” I ordered him. “You know what you have to do.”

  Reluctantly, Topher turned and disappeared into the hallway.

  Trying not to look at Jude’s nude body, I raised the blanket over Cherry—another nude girl!—and climbed in beside her.

  “H-hey, J-acob,” Cherry said, softly.

  “Hey, yourself. You gave us quite a scare, you know.”

  “S-sorry.”

  The bed shifted under Jude’s weight as she climbed in on Cherry’s other side. “Cheezie-crispies, you’re cold, Cherry!” Jude gasped. “Like a fricking ice cube!”

  “S-sorry.”

  Jude lifted her head slightly, grinning over at me. “What do you think Kaylee would say? You naked in bed with two gorgeous girls?”

  “I don’t think she has anything to worry about.” I grinned back.

  “Th-thanks,” whispered, Cherry—her teeth still chattering.

  “Oh, no,” I said quickly, not wanting to hurt her feelings. “I didn’t mean you guys weren’t pretty, nothing like that. It’s just that—“

  Cherry put an ice-cold hand on my arm, stopping me. “N-no…I m-meant…th-thanks.”

  I took her hand in mine, rubbing it briskly—trying to warm it up. “My pleasure…you’d have done the same for me.”

  “Y-yes.”

  Then, Cherry turned to Jude. Before she could even open her mouth, though, Jude frowned at her and said, “Just shaddup…we’re even now, bitch, so shaddup!”

  With a contented sigh, Cherry turned her head back and closed her eyes. Moments later—she was asleep. On the other side of the bed, I heard a soft whimper—muffled against a pillow. I pretended not to hear, instead closing my eyes.

  I understood Jude’s tears of relief—because, frankly—I wanted to cry myself.

  * * * *

  It was very awkward—waking up beside two naked girls the next morning. I was lying on my back when I opened my eyes. Looking down, the first thing I saw was the blanket moving upward over my nether regions.

  Oh God…morning chubby!

  Luckily, both girls were still asleep.

  Quickly, I reached down along the side of the bed, searching for my clothes. Someone had kindly dried them out the previous night and placed them, folded, in a pile next to me. I grabbed my briefs and—moving as carefully as I could—slipped them on underneath the blanket.

  Beside me, Cherry was snoring softly. Even as I stood and put on my jeans and t-shirt, I studied her. Although she looked like she’d been through a couple of rounds with a MMA fighter, there was color in her face now and her shivering and chattering had ceased.

  Next to her, Jude slept on her side, away from me. I noticed that there were old scars on Jude’s shoulders and back. It made me wonder where she had gotten them.

  From what Kaylee had told me, I suspected it was from Tray.

  When I finished dressing, I slipped out of the room as quietly as I could. The moment I cleared the door, however, I heard giggling. I stopped in the hallway and listened as Jude and Cherry began a quiet conversation.

  Crap…the two of them had been awake the whole time!

  * * * *

  Sometime later, Jude spent a good hour—going over every part of Cherry’s body—cleaning her wounds, sterilizing, and bandaging them. Luckily, the gash on her arm didn’t appear to need stitches after all—just fifteen butterfly bandages.

  Topher and Andrei, meanwhile, used the time to check out the bikes, making certain that they were still okay to ride. Cherry’s front tire had been mangled by her crash, but they replaced it with one of the spares we each carried attached to our backpacks.

  As they worked, Rhys stood guard on the roof. While it wasn’t a sunny day, at least it wasn’t raining anymore and I wanted Rhys up high, where he could see for miles all around us. We’d made such a spectacle of ourselves yesterday—yelling and screaming—I figured it would be smart to make sure that our ‘activities’ hadn’t attracted any unwanted attention.

  * * * *

  When we finally had breakfast—canned chicken soup and crackers—Jude placed pills in front of both Cherry’s and my bowls.

  “Antibiotics,” she told us. “Connor gave them to me, just in case. I think swallowing that garbage-water yesterday probably means you both should dose up. The last thing we need is you catching one of those Third World, lack of hygiene diseases.”

  Cherry immediately popped her pill into her mouth, then reached for her bowl of soup. “I’m so hungry!”

  I watched her eat for a moment—marveling at how close she came yesterday to not being here.

  Cherry sensed me watching her and looked up. She grinned at me—happy. “If I didn’t play for the other team, Jacob…I would so take a swing with that magnificent bat of yours.”

  Jude burst into laughter; the guys just looked confused.

  My embarrassment was immediate; I turned bright red, my cheeks heavy with mortification.

  * * * *

  It was bizarre, traveling back along the frontage road.

  We moved at a moderate pace, close together—as if we were afraid something bad would happen again if we separated. By unspoken agreement, Cherry biked on the far side of the road—away from the river’s edge. She kept looking warily at the water, though, her eyes narrowed, brow furrowed, as if reliving the trauma of yesterday’s events.

  When we reached the place where Cherry had fallen in, we stopped while Andrei retrieved the trailer he’d hidden in the bulrushes and reattached it to his bicycle. As he did, Cherry got off her bike and stood, looking at the river. It wasn’t as fast-moving as yesterday, but it would still be dangerous to anybody falling in.

  “You okay?” I asked, moving over to stand beside her. Jude stood on Cherry’s other side and I wondered if she was there for the same reason as me—to grab Cherry in case she got too close to the edge.

  “I almost died yesterday,” Cherry whispered, amazed. “I mean…I was ce
rtain that I was dead.”

  “But you didn’t,” I said.

  Cherry reached out and put her hand in mine; her other hand grabbed onto Jude’s.

  “This is such a good day!” Cherry said, happily.

  * * * *

  The sun was setting when we finally reached the National Guard armory in Ventura. We moved slowly toward the low buildings, stopping behind first a jeep, then a 2-ton truck—peeking around the bumpers to make sure that we weren’t being observed by anyone inside any of the buildings.

  We had hidden our bikes a block away and we were traveling on foot. It had been Jude’s suggestion to leave our bikes behind, so that we could approach the armory as silently as possible.

  I saw that there was a large electrical box over to one side of the biggest building. Motioning silently for everyone to follow me, I sprinted over and hid behind it. One-by-one, the rest of the team joined me.

  “Do you really think this is necessary?” whispered Rhys, as he kneeled down beside me. “I mean, we haven’t heard anybody and it doesn’t look like anyone is living here?”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s necessary,” I said, pointing. “Look over there!”

  * * * *

  It was a single horse, tied up at the back of the building. We could barely see it; its dark brown color blended in with the shadows.

  “Definitely not a stray,” whispered Cherry. “It’s got reins and a saddle.”

  “Is it possible that’s what it had on when the thing happened?” asked Andrei.

  Cherry shook her head. “That horse belongs to someone. There’s no way a saddle would have stayed on him for a year and a half.”

  “So, what are we going to do?” asked Topher. “Should we leave and maybe find a gun store somewhere?”

  “I only see one horse,” I said. “Plus, I’m not hearing any conversation from inside. No noise at all. So, I’m thinking that maybe there’s only one person there.”

  “Inside with all the guns,” Jude said.

  “And we need those guns!” growled Rhys. He was still pissed about my losing his sniper rifle in the river. While Rhys understood that it had been a choice between Cherry’s life and the rifle—he still mourned its loss.

  “But what if they start shooting?” asked Andrei, looking worried. “All the guns will be on their side!”

  “How about this?” I suggested. “I’ll go in there and talk to whoever’s inside.”

  “I’ll go with you,” said Jude. “You can’t go in alone.”

  “Me, too,” added Topher. “I’m going.”

  “Well, if you guys are going, then I get to go, too,” said Rhys. “And I get first dibs on the sniper rifles!” he added.

  * * * *

  The armory was quiet—too quiet.

  As we walked through the dark hallways, I wondered if maybe we had been mistaken—that there was no one there after all. Or, perhaps, they had simply heard us coming and taken off through a rear entrance.

  There were obvious signs that someone had been there before us; cabinets had been opened, drawers thrown on the ground, cases of cartridges half-emptied, the bullets spilled out on the floor.

  “They’re pretty messy, whoever they are,” whispered Andrei. He picked up a couple of shells that were lying on a desk. “Do we need these?”

  I nodded. “Even if they don’t fit the weapons we have, we take every bullet we can find. We’ll either find a gun to fit it later or we’ll crack the cartridge open and use the gunpowder for something.”

  “What about grenades?” asked Andrei. “Are we taking those back with us?”

  “We find grenades…we’re definitely taking them with us!”

  * * * *

  To make our search for weapons quicker, we decided to split up into teams. Cherry and Jude took the upper level of the armory; Rhys and Topher, meanwhile, searched the outer buildings and vehicles that surrounded them. The lower level was left to Andrei and me to search.

  “Maybe we’ll find a rocket launcher,” Andrei said, hopefully—as we searched through a room at the far end of the building.

  “That’d be good,” I said.

  “Like one of those ones we can shoot into the sky and it takes down a plane.”

  “Not like we have any planes anymore,” I said, opening a desk drawer. It was full of pens and pencils, all lined up in an obsessively-compulsive kind of way.

  “Did you see, Jacob…that they got a tank outside?” Andrei was looking out a side window, pointing at the giant vehicle parked behind a chained link fence.”

  “Wouldn’t mind riding in a tank. That’d be cool.”

  “That’d be sooo cool!” Andrei pushed himself away from the window and practically danced to the far side of the room. He was making bomp-bomp sounds, pretending to be a tank firing away. “If we had a tank, we could really take out the Crazies. They wouldn’t be bothering us ever again!”

  Before I could respond, however, I heard something that sent the hackles on the back of my neck vibrating. It wasn’t quite a scream; nor was it a yell. Instead, it was something in between—a girl’s voice, full of fear and outrage—and it was coming from one of the small buildings outside.

  All I could think was—oh God, please not Cherry!

  Then—I took off running.

  * * * *

  The girl’s eyes were filled with terror; they rolled back into her head, the way eyes do in horses who have been traumatized.

  She was skinny—almost skeletal—and there were bruises on her arms and face.

  When she had run at Rhys and Topher as they had entered the small administration building—a knife in her hands—they had easily disarmed her, pushing her down to the ground. Now, they had her tied up to a chair—a gag in her mouth.

  She looked to be about fourteen, but it was hard to tell because of all the dirt on her face. I thought her hair was dark blond, but it could have been lighter. Like her face, it was filthy.

  The clothes she wore were ripped and soiled. There was nothing on her feet and, when I look down at them, I immediately recognized the scars on her soles—because they matched the ones on my back.

  This girl had been whipped.

  * * * *

  “Did she cut either of you?” I asked Topher and Rhys.

  They both shook their heads.

  “She tried, though,” Rhys told me. “She tried hard.” He held up her knife; it was small, no more than five inches in length—more like a large penknife than anything serious. Still, if it had made contact, the result could have been disastrous.

  “Why did you gag her?” I asked.

  “Because she’s weird, bro,” said Rhys. “Like she kept making these screechy noises. We were afraid someone might hear it.”

  “Did you check her back for a tattoo?”

  “I tried,” said Topher, “but when I grabbed the back of her shirt, she went rank. Like she was flipping and flopping all over the place. We thought she might hurt herself, so that’s why we taped her to the chair.”

  “Where’d you get the duct tape?”

  Reaching out with his booted foot, Rhys toed open a drawer in a nearby desk. It was full of duct tape. “A thousand uses, right?”

  Standing beside me, Andrei leaned forward to stare at the girl. “Looks like a thousand and one,” he giggled.

  “What the hell are you doing?!” We all spun around to find Jude and Cherry standing at the door. They looked absolutely furious.

  “She attacked us first,” Topher squeaked.

  Rhys merely held up the pen knife.

  Cherry stalked inside the room, pushing at Rhys and Topher. “Go sit down there—against that wall! You, too, Andrei…move your ass!”

  “What...why?” Rhys looked over at me for help.

  “Don’t bother,” Jude told him. “Jacob is joining you at the wall.”

  “I am?” I asked, more than a little bewildered. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “That girl is absolutely terrified!” growled Cherry.
“You’ve tied her up and stuck a gag in her mouth. And you’ve seen what’s on the bottoms of her feet, haven’t you?”

  Immediately, the young girl tucked her feet up underneath her. Rhys and Topher moved forward, as if to look closer.

  Jude stepped in front of them. “Sit down, gentlemen.”

  * * * *

  Rhys was obviously offended. Topher, however, quickly followed Jude’s instructions. Andrei, of course, was enjoying the drama. For myself—I was curious to find out what the girls were intending.

  I sat down between Rhys and Topher—my back against the wall, my gun on a nearby desk.

  “This is so stupid!” complained Rhys.

  “Shh!” I told him. “Just watch what happens.”

  Across the room, Cherry and Jude slowly approached the young girl. As they neared her, the girl began to struggle in the chair.

  Immediately, Cherry and Jude stopped, holding up their hands.

  “It’s okay,” Cherry said, softly. “My name is Cherry and this is Jude. Those dumb boys over there—their names are Rhys, Topher, Andrei, and Jacob. You’ll find that they’re actually pretty nice guys if you give them a chance.”

  “We’re going to untie you,” said Jude. “I’m going to use this knife because Rhys says it belongs to you.” She held up the penknife, so the girl could see. “When I’m finished cutting the tape off of you, I’m going to put this knife on that desk over there. That one that’s next to the door.”

  The girl continued to struggle, although she appeared to be weakening. The tape over her mouth was moving in and out, as if she was gasping underneath, trying hard to breathe.

  “When Jude’s cut you free and put the knife on that desk,” said Cherry, “she and I are going to go sit down with the boys. Then, you’ll be free to do whatever you want, okay?”

  “I’m coming over now,” said Jude. She took small steps toward the girl. As she did, the girl’s struggles increased. “I’m going to open your knife and cut the tape on your feet first.”