365 Days At War

by Nancy Isaak

  Although it probably seemed improbable to most of the Locals that the Crazies would go to that length to bring us down, I knew that Brandon was now working with the Foxes. After living under Orla and Tray’s manipulations for a year, I had no doubt that their methods would be more complicated—more inspired.

  After all—it was the Foxes who controlled a community of girls just by telling them that ‘beasts’ roamed outside of the town’s limits. As ridiculous as it sounded now—we girls had all been terrified and had followed the Foxes for what we thought was our own safety and security.

  So—in case the Crazies came by sea—Nate and Xavier were a natural choice to create an ocean warning system. And, in their case, they were much more successful than Cammie; all it took was two surfers in the ocean, two trumpets, and one watcher up on the knoll in the Nature Preserve.

  The plan was simple—the surfers would watch for Crazies coming by sea. Upon seeing an enemy, the surfers would use the trumpets to sound an alarm—different note combinations would mean different things.

  After some experimentation, Nate and Xavier had discovered that the sounds of the trumpet would just reach the top of the knoll. By placing another guy there—the watcher—to relay the alarm farther onto the Point, we then had the means to almost instantaneously alert the compound of any intrusions.

  An added advantage to Nate and Xavier’s system was that the surfers would also be able to see much of the coastline; whatever came along the Pacific Coast Highway would be visible from the water—at least for some portions of the highway.

  If there was one downside to the system, however—it was that all of us still had to learn the trumpet codes. There were so many note combinations that—unless you were a musician or had an ear for music—it simply would take time to memorize them all.

  Still—it was a start.

  * * * *

  And, of course, we had one other early warning system in place—the messages we received from the Stars at the water tower.

  Once he had fully recovered, Kieran had taken over the job of going to and from Westlake Village. He would ride a horse part way up the canyon, leaving it at a sentry station. From there, he would go into the bush, crossing the Santa Monica Mountains by foot, in order to evade the Crazy patrols on the canyon roads.

  I was always worried when Kieran was gone.

  Although I knew that he was doing an essential job for our tribe, he was still Jacob’s brother. If something happened to him while I was leading the Locals, I would never have been able to forgive myself.

  Each time Kieran showed up at the compound after a trip into the Conejo Valley, I always breathed more easily.

  And then I ached for the Riker brothers who still had not returned.

  * * * *

  One day, while I was walking alongside the creek—backtracking to where it entered my father’s property, I heard hoof beats. Because my guards were behind me, I ignored the rider, my attention focused on the creek. If my guards weren’t worried about who was riding up, then neither was I. Most likely, it was just a runner from the compound, coming to deliver a message or ask a question.

  “So, are you going to completely ignore me or what?”

  I spun around, launching myself at Kieran and almost knocking him over in my eagerness to give him a hug. “You’re back! It’s been almost a week!”

  “Hell of a lot of Crazies on the mountain,” he said, extricating himself from my arms. “Almost got caught a couple of times.”

  “How much is a hell of a lot?” I asked, suddenly worried.

  “A lot.”

  “Do you think they’re coming our way?”

  “It’s definitely possible,” admitted Kieran. “But they also could be heading up to Camarillo and Oxnard. There’s a lot of movement along the 101. I saw guys traveling north every day.”

  “Maybe they’re just scavenging.”

  “Maybe not,” he said. “They definitely seem to be traveling in teams and they are all carrying a lot of weapons.”

  “That’s bad news.”

  Kieran nodded. “It gets worse. They’ve got a lot more guys than we thought. I don’t know if they’ve always been there or if they’re bringing them in from other communities, but I saw a lot more Crazies than I’ve ever seen before…and a lot more of those White Shirt-Crazies. The freaks are everywhere—whipping kids for the least little thing.”

  “I don’t understand why anybody even stays in their tribe if those White Shirts are being so horrible. I mean, they’d be so better off in our tribe, or even back on the road.”

  “I guess for the same reason you girls stayed with the Foxes,” Kieran shrugged. “Fear.”

  “There’s a lot of truth to that,” I sighed. “It was a scary time.”

  Kieran gave a weak grin. “Still a scary time.”

  “Different scary, though,” I nodded.

  * * * *

  “Still no sign of Jacob and his team?” Kieran asked.

  I shook my head sadly. “Except for what the Point Mugu guys told Larry, everybody we’ve sent out has come back with nothing. If Jacob’s team is in Oxnard or Camarillo, we haven’t been able to find them.”

  Kieran and I were at the far end of my father’s estate, where the creek bubbled up from under some rocks near the far wall. I stopped to examine the spot.

  “You know that Jacob is coming back. They’re all coming back,” said Kieran. “I mean, that team has two Rikers on it, so they will absolutely be coming back.”

  I tried to smile—to be confident—but I know it must have looked strained.

  “Seriously, Kaylee…they’re probably off on some side trip. Rescuing some slaves up in Santa Barbara, something like that. Isn’t that just like something that Jacob would do?”

  “Or like something that you would do.”

  “Well, yeah,” he admitted, grinning.

  “So—how come you’re not back at the mansion with Cammie? Or is she out working on one of the bonfires? You could have waited to report in until the Council meeting this afternoon.”

  He sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “Ah, well…Cammie and me, we’re going through something at the moment.”

  “You guys okay?”

  “Hope so…she’s not happy with me going up into the Valley all the time. She thinks it’s dangerous.”

  “It is dangerous. Do you want me to assign someone else for a while?”

  Kieran shook his head. “Maybe later. Right now, I think I have to be doing it.”

  “Because of all the Crazies in the mountains?”

  He nodded. “What about you, Kaylee? Why are you out here, following the creek? That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”

  “Just another one of my worries,” I grinned. “Of course, this one is kind of a big one.”

  “You thinking that maybe the Crazies might go at our water?”

  I nodded. “This creek is our main source. If the Crazies take the creek, they control the water—they control us.”

  “But they’d have to get onto the Point to do that,” said Kieran.

  “Maybe…that’s what I’m checking.” I pointed to where the creek ran down into the ground under the rocks. “I want to search the Point farther on, see if this creek comes up somewhere else. Because, if it does, we could be in big trouble.”

  “What are you thinking?” he asked me.

  “It’s not so much Brandon I’m worried about,” I admitted. “But the Foxes—especially Orla—are really smart. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and poison us through our water.”

  “Is that even possible now?” he asked. “I mean, it’s not like the Foxes are some super-sophisticated terrorists. Where would they even get enough poison to mess up our water? That would take an awful lot, right?”

  “That’s what I asked Porter. And he told me that it doesn’t even have to be that complicated. They could do it old school—drop a bunch of dead animals in the creek. Porter thinks that would poison the water enough to make us re
ally sick, maybe even give us cholera or something like that.”

  Kieran whistled. “That would never have even occurred to me.”

  “Because you’re not a Fox.”

  “So, what do we do then…if the Crazies get at the water? Have you got a plan?”

  “Working on it,” I admitted. “There are quite a few construction sites on the Point and a lot of them have empty septic tanks lying around. Because, like in Malibu—you’re not allowed to have underground plumbing, right. It’s all septic tanks here.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “It’s a Malibu-thing,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Anyway, I’m having all the empty tanks we can find brought over to the compound and put down in the underground garage. We’ll fix them up, make sure they won’t leak…then, fill them up with water from the creek and store it all there. I mean, the tanks will take a while to fill up but, if the Crazies attack, at least we’ll have water.”

  “Kaylee…that’s genius.”

  “I’m just doing what Jacob would probably do,” I said, feeling embarrassed at his compliment.

  He shook his head. “Dude, I love my brother and I think he’s a great tribe leader but you…man, I can see why he married you…seriously!”

  My cheeks burned—blushing.

  * * * *

  Kieran and I spent three hours, searching across the Point for the re-emergence of the creek. Thankfully, we never found it—which meant that the creek probably bubbled up from an underground source.

  At least we hoped that was what it meant.

  On our way back to the compound, Kieran told me of his latest trip into the Valley. “I know that Josh was supposed to come back with me, but he’s decided to stay up in Agoura Hills.”

  “Sophia is going to be depressed about that,” I noted.

  Kieran grinned. “That relationship is like so random.”

  “I know…it’s like, so weird, those two.”

  “Do you think it’s a religion thing? I mean, Josh is a Catholic, too.”

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “Or maybe they just kind of like each other.”

  A ferret suddenly shot out of the bushes in front of us. We stopped to watch it move, a strange side-shuffling dance that made us both smile. When the ferret disappeared, running along the side of a house, Kieran and I started walking again.

  “Is Josh staying up because of all the Crazies moving around?” I asked.

  Kieran nodded. “He’s trying to figure out what’s going on.”

  “But he doesn’t have any idea.”

  “Not really,” he admitted. “Just the same ideas we all have. That the Crazies are planning something evil and Brandon and the Foxes are behind it. By the way, Orla and Tray have gone all Marie Antoinette on everybody.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Josh says that they’re acting like royalty. Everybody has to bow down when they see them now. Not that they come out of their compound much anymore. But, when they do come out, they’ve got, like a ton of soldiers around them. And if they pass by, you’re supposed to bow down and not look at them. If you do, you can get whipped by the White Shirts.”

  “They’ve gone completely psycho, haven’t they?”

  “Pretty much.” Kieran said. “It doesn’t help that Mateo is leading the White Shirts. I mean, that dude will do anything, especially if it means hurting someone. Everybody is terrified of him. Maybe even more than they’re scared of Brandon.”

  “You didn’t actually go into Agoura Hills, did you?” I asked, worried. “Because if Brandon sees you…”

  “No worries. Josh and I met up in Westlake Village. I didn’t go anywhere near Agoura Hills on this trip. But I’ll tell you this—there was an Arena while I was there. A really big one.”

  “But you didn’t go.”

  He shook his head. “Brent stopped by the safe house I was at. He told me that they were going to have extra guys on security at the Arena and that they all had copies of those Wanted posters of us.”

  “They thought we might be there…which means they’re thinking we might infiltrate. That worries me—for our spies.”

  “As long as our guys keep their cool, they should be okay,” said Kieran. “Except for Josh, none of our spies were in the tribe when Brandon was around.”

  “Did Josh go to the Arena?”

  Kieran looked down, not wanting to lie—but not wanting to tattle either.

  “I guess that means yes,” I said, unhappy. “Dammit…Josh knows better than to take a chance like that!”

  “He thought it could be important to have one of us there, in case something happened that we needed to know about.”

  I sighed. “Let me guess…slaves were brought out and Brandon killed them.”

  “Well…kind of,” said Kieran. “According to Josh, three big slaves were brought out at the start, but it was Mateo and Tray who killed them.”

  “Did the slaves have weapons?”

  “No,” Kieran shook his head. “Weapons aren’t allowed at the Arena anymore. Everybody gets searched at the gate. If you’re caught with a weapon, then you’re immediately put into the Arena or taken away and whipped.”

  “They probably don’t want an escape like what happened with us.”

  “Probably…so now the only ones with weapons are the guards and people like Mateo and Brandon.”

  “Which gives them all the power, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “What does Brandon do in the Arena now?”

  “Josh said that he was the final act. He said that Brandon walked to the center of the Arena and said that, if there was anyone—including any slave who wants to be free—this was their chance. They kill him, they’d be free. And—get this—if they drank his blood, they’d take his power and be the new leader of the Crazies.”

  “Did anyone take him up on it?”

  “Two guys—both slaves. But they had no chance, because they weren’t allowed weapons. Only Brandon was.”

  “That’s not fair!”

  “We’re talking about a guy who’s drinking blood to gain major mojo,” said Kieran. “It’s like, not the most sane situation.”

  “So, Brandon killed them both?”

  “Josh said it lasted only seconds. Brandon took them both down with a sword.”

  “Did he…” I couldn’t finish my question, I was so sickened.

  Kieran shook his head. “But Mateo drank their blood…and Tray.”

  * * * *

  Even though Kieran didn’t go into Agoura Hills, he did meet up with Alice at the border with Westlake Village. Her safehouse was there, where she lived with her slaves—including Sophia’s once-best friend, Reena.

  “Do you think that Alice has really changed?” I asked. “You think she’s really a Star and not like a double-spy?”

  “I think Alice is legit,” said Kieran. “She seems really angry and sickened with everything that’s happened. Plus, she bought Reena—to save her.”

  “Well, that will be good to tell Sophia, at least—that Reena is okay.”

  Kieran nodded. “Reena is more than okay. She and the other slaves are turning into these soldiers themselves. They all train with Alice every day. I saw some of what they were doing. Like they were practicing karate and knife fighting, stuff like that.”

  I thought about this for a moment. “Weird, don’t you think—like they’re training for a battle.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought,” Kieran said. “Only when I asked, Alice said it was just for self-defense.”

  “Which would also make sense,” I admitted. “But if the girls really wanted to be safe, Alice could get them past the checkpoints to us. Which probably means that you and me are right—they’re training to fight. Which means that the Stars have a battle plan that they’re not telling us about. At least, not yet.”

  “There goes that scary brain of yours again,” Kieran snickered.

  “Shaddup…what else did you hear from Alice and the Stars?�
��

  “Not a lot from Alice really—except that she runs security for the Foxes when they come outside of the compound. She has to go everywhere they’re going ahead of them and make sure that everything is secure.”

  “Does that include when the Foxes go to the Arena?”

  Kieran nodded. “Why? Is that important?”

  “Maybe. I haven’t decided, yet. What else from the Stars?”

  “Just that there are more soldier cells being formed all the time. Brent and Han are trying to slow that down, though. They’re afraid that if they expand the resistance too quick, the Foxes or Brandon might catch wind of it.”

  “Plus, the more people who join, the greater the chance one of them will be a Crazy spy.”

  “Exactly,” he nodded.

  “What about Victor?” I asked. “Any news about him?”

  “Your stalker from the beach party…Alice says that he’s living up in a house near the Foxes’ compound. He doesn’t come out much, not to the market or anything, but she’s definitely seen him at the Arena.”

  “Now that’s one guy I wouldn’t mind actually going into the Arena,” I said, meanly.

  Kieran snickered. “That’d be so righteous!”

  We were nearing the turn-off from Dume Drive to the prince’s mansion. There was a figure waiting at the junction—a slight girl, with red pigtails.

  I grinned when I saw her, elbowing Kieran. “I think Cammie’s not upset with you anymore.”

  “Thank god,” he sighed.

  “Go on,” I told him. “Go let her know that you care.”

  But Kieran didn’t leave just yet.

  Instead, he turned and stopped me—placing his hand on my arm and leaning in close. “I want you to know that I think you’re doing an extraordinary job leading this tribe, Kaylee. I mean that, seriously. But the Crazies—they’re coming—I have no doubt. And if Jacob isn’t back by the time they attack, then that means you’ll be the one taking us into battle.”

  “Ohmigod,” I whispered. “I’m not sure I can do that.”