365 Days At War

by Nancy Isaak

  “But we talked to the guys at the Point Mugu Naval Station!” I insisted. “Well, kind of—I mean, they’re so paranoid. They just wanted to be left alone.”

  “Which is exactly why Orla said we had to get them. Because they’re nutso, just like the Crazies—well…the Brandon/White Shirt Crazies. And they’re practically up the street from you guys. Plus, they’re sitting on a crap-load of weapons. Like they’ve got boxes and boxes of grenades and flame throwers, stuff like that.”

  My blood had run cold; my fingers felt like ice all of a sudden. “So, Brandon and the Foxes have signed a treaty with the guys on the naval base?”

  Alice nodded. “When we attack you guys from our side—they’re coming at you from the other.”

  “With grenades?”

  She nodded again. “And other stuff.”

  “Crap,” whispered Erroll.

  “When is the attack coming?” I asked.

  “After the Halloween Arena. Brandon and the Foxes are thinking that around the new year will be a good time. By then they’re hoping that they’ll have picked up some new soldiers from all the scouting parties they’ve sent out—and more weapons.”

  “And it’s definite—the attack?”

  “Sorry,” murmured Alice. “And this time they’re not going to stop. The plan is to take the Point from you guys—one way or another.”

  “And kill us.”

  “Some of you,” she admitted. “Others will become slaves—or food.” Then, realizing how horrible that must have sounded, Alice quickly added, “Not for me, of course…or any of the Stars. I mean, we don’t do that, I swear. That disgusts us. But there are others…well, I’m certain that’s how they’re staying alive, what they’re eating now.”

  I felt sick to my stomach.

  My hand fell on my belly; I swear I could feel it roiling under my fingers—as if taking on a life of its own.

  Sensing my distress, Erroll reached out and patted me gently on my shoulder. “You have to send me in, Kaylee. I can do it…I know I can.”

  With a grunt, I pushed his hand away and glared at Alice. “I don’t believe you! Our sentries have talked with Point Mugu. The guys at the Naval Station there, they don’t want anything to do with anybody else. They just want to be left alone.”

  Alice sighed, looking ashamed. “Orla sent incentives.”

  “Oh god,” I whispered. “What did she give them?”

  “Girls!” announced an angry voice behind me.

  * * * *

  Erroll and I both jumped up—weapons in hand—swinging around to meet the sheeted figure that was walking steadily toward us. It certainly wasn’t Sue; we knew that because she was walking beside the figure. And, unlike the newcomer, Sue’s sheet had been removed and she was wearing plain old jeans and a t-shirt now.

  “It’s okay…we come in peace,” joked Sue.

  Not looking convinced, Erroll took a menacing step forward.

  I reached out and physically pulled him back. “Wait!”

  “Oo…you’re sooo scary, big boy!” chuckled the covered girl.

  At the sound of the girl’s mocking voice, a sudden electrical shock sizzled through my body—because I knew that sarcastic tone, having heard it many times before.

  “Ohmigod!” I gasped.

  Alice immediately stood up and walked around the table, stopping in front of the girl, to shake an unhappy finger at her. “You were supposed to remain hidden!”

  The girl shrugged under the sheet. “Whatever.”

  Even that one word resounded with me.

  “Please…oh, please,” I whispered as my heart began to beat quicker, my hands trembling in my rising excitement.

  Erroll turned and gave me a confused look.

  I just grinned at him—eager—anticipating what I was certain would happen next.

  “But you’re the one who didn’t even want them to know,” Alice was saying to the girl. “So, you shouldn’t have come out. You should go back into the winery.”

  “Well, a)…I got bored,” said the girl. “And, b)…you’re not the boss of me.”

  And just like that…it was confirmed.

  I began to cry—ecstatic, hiccupping sobs of joy.

  Poor Erroll didn’t know how to respond. He looked from me to the sheeted-girl—embarrassed by my sudden loss of control, my open display of emotions.

  But I didn’t care.

  Because I knew—without a doubt—exactly who it was under that stupid, ridiculous sheet…Cherry.

  * * * *

  “Seriously, dude—you’re making it hard for me to breathe!” Cherry finally managed to pry my arms off of her, pushing me away.

  Moments earlier, she had pulled off her sheet and I had leapt for her—enfolding her in the biggest, tightest hug I could manage. Now, I stood back, checking her out—searching for wounds, scars—anything that would give me a hint as to what had happened to her since she’d left Point Dume so many months ago.

  “Your hair is pink again!” I giggled.

  Cherry ran a hand through her inch-long hair, rearranging it with her fingers. “Sue traded for some dye down in the market. I had a choice between bubble gum or blood orange.”

  “And pink won out.”

  She snorted. “Blood orange…like I would have wanted to be mistaken for Orla’s younger, prettier sister!”

  “Speaking of sisters,” I grinned. “When Shawnee finds out…and Wester…”

  “Except that you can’t tell them that you’ve seen me!” Cherry quickly interrupted.

  “But they don’t know what’s happened to you! Like they think you’re dead or something. We all did!”

  “And it has to continue to be that way for now,” she insisted.

  “But they’re so upset…they’re taking your disappearance so hard.”

  “Well, I should hope so. At least I know they still care.”

  “Are you kidding?! Shawnee and Wester were devastated when you didn’t come home…they are devastated!”

  Cherry passed a hand in front of her face, ostensibly to move the bangs from her forehead; in reality, she was wiping the tears from her eyes. As tough as Cherry was trying to portray herself, it was obvious that she still desperately missed her brother and sister.

  “You’ve gotta’ understand, Kaylee…it’s for their own safety,” she explained. “I actually think that Alice and the Stars have got a pretty good plan going, and I’m a part of it now. But if Shawnee or Wester find out where I am, you know they’d follow me up here.”

  I nodded. “They would.”

  “So, I want them where they’d be the safest. And right now, that’s Point Dume.”

  Beside us, Erroll sniffed. “Guess the girl hasn’t been told we went to war.”

  Cherry’s eyes went wide. “What?!”

  She swung around to glare at Alice, who simply shrugged and gave her a grimace. “Yeah, right…about that.”

  * * * *

  We spent the next hour catching up.

  I told Cherry about the Point being attacked and how Shawnee and Wester had fought alongside the rest of us.

  And Cherry explained what had happened on her expedition. “It was brutal at the safehouse. Like Andrei and Ian just kept getting sicker. Connor gave them every medication he could think of, but nothing seemed to help. Then, one day—we woke up and Ian was dead. The next day—it was Andrei.”

  “Jude found their graves in the backyard,” I told her.

  She nodded, sadly. “We thought it would be nice—for them to be buried together…kind of like brothers.”

  “What about you and Connor and Topher? Did you guys get sick, too?”

  “Not me. I mean, I was feeling rough from my ride in the river, but I didn’t get whatever it was the guys had. But Connor and Topher got sick—really sick.”

  My heart dropped. “Did Connor…did he die?”

  “No…not Connor,” she said. “It took about a week and a half, but he got better. So, did Topher—a few days later.
” Cherry suddenly looked worried—chewing on a pink fingernail. “Tell me that Topher made it back to the Point. He did, right?”

  I shook my head. “I’m so sorry, Cherry. His body was found a little ways away from where you guys were staying. We think that probably the Crazies got him. He’s buried with Andrei and Ian now.”

  For a moment, Cherry said nothing; she was choked up, struggling not to cry.

  Finally, she took a deep breath and continued with her story. “After Andrei and Ian were buried we waited for the rest of the team to return, but nobody came. It was getting scary—well, scarier—because all these Crazies kept coming near where we were staying.”

  “Because they were gathering to attack us.”

  “I know that now. But then—it just felt like they knew we were somewhere close by, that they were searching for us. And when Jacob, Jude, and Rhys never returned, we thought that maybe they had been captured and had told the Crazies where we were.”

  “It got—complicated—up in Ojai. The team had a lot of trouble making their way back.”

  “But they all did get back—Jacob, Rhys, and Jude?”

  “They’re safe.”

  Cherry smiled, breathing easier. “What about the girl…Laura? And the girls they went to save?”

  “Laura’s at the Point. And they managed to get another one out…Mia. But there was another one who didn’t make it, who died in Ojai.”

  “So much death everywhere,” Cherry murmured. “It doesn’t seem fair, does it?”

  I shook my head. “And it’s always like just a few people causing it—and the rest of us trying to stop it.”

  “Another reason why I have to stay here,” she sighed. “Anyways…after Andrei and Ian died, we waited for the others to return, but they never came. So, when Connor got better, me and him decided to head back to the Point with some of the medical supplies. Topher wanted to stay at the safehouse for a few more days, just in case Jacob’s team returned.” She stopped for a moment, thinking about Topher. “Where was he found?”

  “A small strip mall nearby.”

  “He probably was doing some last minute scavenging,” she reflected. “I liked him, you know. I mean, I’d never really spent much time with Topher before the expedition—but he was a really good kid. Very kind—and he had like the most serious crush on Jude.”

  “I heard that…Jude’s taking it kind of hard.”

  There was a faint honking; high above us, a vee of Canadian geese were heading south. We both looked up, watching the birds until they passed over, heading toward Mexico.

  “They’re migrating early this year,” said Cherry. “I wonder if that means we’re in for a cold winter.”

  “This is Southern California. Even our cold winters are never really that cold.”

  She grinned at me. “Sometimes we do have to zip our coats up.”

  I casually glanced over toward the winery’s main building. Alice, Sue, and Erroll were sitting on an outside patio, drinking wine and—from what I could guess from this distance—eating potato chips. It was their way of giving Cherry and me a private moment, a chance to reconnect.

  “Between you and me,” I said quietly. “The geese might not be the only thing migrating this year.”

  Cherry’s eyes narrowed. “Are you thinking of abandoning the Point?”

  I shrugged. “Plans are being made, but not everybody knows, so you can’t tell anybody. And you certainly can’t tell Alice or Sue—nobody from up in the Valley, not even any of the Stars.”

  “You don’t trust them?”

  “I trusted Josh. He was one of us—and he talked. I mean, he wouldn’t have wanted to, of course—but it was torture, right?”

  “So—only ‘need to know’ at the moment.”

  “And you need to know,” I told her. “Because when you come back from the Valley—and you are coming back from the Valley—if we’re gone, I want you to know how to find us.”

  For the next few minutes, I spoke to Cherry of Catalina Island and northern escape routes and graffiti stars with directional points. It wasn’t until we were both certain that she could find us again if we suddenly disappeared that Cherry continued with her story.

  “It was always mine and Connor’s plan to get to the Point and bring back help,” she told me. “We thought that we could make it home in an afternoon, a day at the latest. Then, we’d grab some guys, pick up Topher, and go find Jacob’s team. At least, that was our plan.”

  “But you never made it to the Point.”

  She shook her head. “Not even close. Like maybe a mile from the safehouse, we ran into some Crazies. Dudes just stepped out from between some bushes right in front of us. They caught Connor, but I took off.”

  “How many were there? Were they armed?”

  “I didn’t abandon Connor if that’s what you’re getting at,” Cherry muttered—all defensive. “It’s just that they grabbed him so quickly. And like he was the one yelling at me to keep going.”

  “I wasn’t accusing you,” I quickly said.

  “And I tried to get Connor back,” she insisted. “I trailed them all the way up into Moorpark—because I was trying to figure out how to save him.”

  “Cherry, seriously—I wasn’t accusing you. If there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that you wouldn’t have abandoned Connor.”

  There were tears in her eyes, and she rubbed at them—frustrated.

  “They were just moving so fast, you know. I kept thinking that, if they would only stop and take a rest, I could get him. Like maybe they’d fall asleep or take a leak. Then, I’d be able to free Connor. But the Crazies, they moved so quick…and they dragged him along, like with a rope around his neck.”

  “But you still tried.”

  “Except that, in Moorpark…well, I just got stupid.”

  “What happened?”

  She shook her head, remembering. “Incredibly stupid! I was so busy following them that I never even realized there were Crazies following me.”

  I gasped. “You got caught.”

  “Four guys. They weren’t even from the same group as the ones who caught Connor. Just some other Crazies heading up the 101 to do some scavenging.” She shook her head—angry. “I still don’t know how I didn’t hear them. I mean, they weren’t even hiding or anything—just walked right up behind me.”

  “You were concentrating on Connor.”

  “Suddenly—there’s, like all these hands on me. I tried to fight, but there were just too many of them. One of the guys had handcuffs and he got them on me pretty quick. After that,” she shrugged, “they had me.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

  She sighed. “They stuck a gag in my mouth. I think they didn’t want the other Crazies to know that I was there—so they could keep me for themselves, you know.”

  My heart sunk.

  I was dreading what Cherry would tell me next.

  “One of them was really big. He tied my ankles together and slung me over his shoulder. Then, they all backtracked the way they came and I couldn’t do anything about it—just watch Connor get smaller and smaller and then finally…he was gone.”

  Cherry held up a finger.

  “Now, here’s the good news. To be completely blunt—the dudes felt me up a bit, but that’s all they did…because they recognized me from those wanted posters that Brandon and the Foxes put out on us. So, they didn’t want to wreck me up in case it messed with their reward.”

  That confused me. “But if they took you to Brandon and the Foxes, how come you’re not in the cage or something?”

  “Because I got lucky…like—angels were looking down on me lucky. When we turned down Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Alice and a couple of her Stars were just leaving the Foxes’ compound.”

  “They rescued you.”

  “Kind of,” she grinned. “First, Alice took all of us to her house in Westlake to get the reward for the Crazies. That’s where I got released. On the trip there, though—she was kind
of a bitch—slapping my ass, pulling at my hair, that kind of thing.”

  “You didn’t know she was on your side until you reached the house?”

  Cherry shook her head. “Not until my handcuffs were off. Then, she and her Stars shot all the Crazies in their stupid heads.”

  “So, they wouldn’t be able to tell anybody you were in Agoura.”

  “They got their reward, all right.” Cherry spit on the ground in disgust. “A grave in the next door neighbor’s backyard.”

  “And Brandon and the Foxes still have no idea that you’re in the Valley?”

  “No idea,” she grinned. “And putting sheets on girls makes it ridiculously easy for me to go almost anywhere without being recognized. I just have to have Alice or another Star with me, so the White Shirts don’t have a conniption.”

  “What about Connor? Do you have any idea what happened to him?”

  Cherry nodded. “He’s alive. He made it as far as the slave market before someone recognized him. Now, he’s slaving for Brandon and the Foxes. Alice says he divides his time between working in their medical clinic and building stuff for them.”

  I couldn’t help grinning. “That is such great news—not that Connor’s with Brandon and the Foxes—but that he’s still alive! I can tell that much to Jacob, can’t I? Because it would really help, you know—to let him know that Connor’s still alive.”

  She shook her head firmly. “You can’t…I mean, Jacob will find out sooner or later. But if it comes from you, he’ll know something is up. And knowing Jacob—he’ll try and rescue Connor, won’t he?”

  “Connor’s part of the plan, isn’t he?” I asked.

  “Dude,” laughed Cherry. “Connor’s the one who made it!”

  * * * *

  There had been guys in the hills after all—a handful of Stars that Erroll and I had never even known were there. Alice had stationed them at the crestline—to warn her of any Crazies nosing around.

  As Cherry, Sue, and Alice walked with Erroll and me toward the winery’s main gate, the Stars began to emerge from their hiding places.