Childish War

Chapter 3

I spent the rest of the day drifting in and out of a sluggish sleep. The soft ground and sheet was incredibly comfortable compared to the hardwood floor I was so used to, but Pike snored more loud than anyone I had ever heard.

"Wakey, Wakey!" I felt a violently shaking hand on my shoulder, which jolted me awake.

"What?" I mumbled, yawning before opening my eyes. Like was kneeled beside me, both hands stretched and curled around my shoulders. A lime green bandana wrapped loosely around his forehead and redirected his brilliant red hair upward.

"It's night time. Time to recruit," He declared, his face stretched into an almost maniacal smile. I reached up to run the fatigue from my eyes.

"What?" I repeated myself, genuinely confused.

"We're recruiting other soloists tonight. Get up," He rephrased his words. I sat up, pushing the thin sheet from my body.

"You mean Night Owls?" I yawned, weary from the day of safe, unsatisfying sleep. Pike laughed, his body shaking with every breath.

"You call us Night Owls?" He giggled, wiping away forming tears.

"Yes," My voice weakened with uncertainty. It was just a term I came up with to differentiate ourselves from the other lifestyles.

"Perfect," He chuckled. Although the line itself sounds sarcastic, I could not sense a shred of sarcasm in his voice. The only emotion I heard was genuine and pleasant amusement. "And what do you call the others? You know, the ones in the teams?"

I shrugged, "Daylight siblings, I suppose," I responded. I didn't come up with a fancy name for the more diurnal of my siblings. Morning Larks didn't fit as Night Owls did. That would assume they were awake only during the morning. However, their un-bird-like presence lingers from dawn to dusk. And plus, in the world of birds, owls tend to be slightly more threatening than larks. That was definitely not the case between my siblings.

Pike and I were crawling through the ventilation once more. Pike was in front this time, leading me by a string. It was still very dark. I marveled at Pike's memorization of what was possibly the entirety of the building's crawl space.

We crawled for a good hour or two, making various twists and turns. I gripped onto my end of the string as though my life depended on it; I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to safely make it out alive if I lost Pike.

"Are we almost there?" I whispered under my breath. I was answered by a yes and we continued.

We stopped only when Pike halted over a crack of light. Naturally, I bumped into him with a soft "ow!", as he did nothing to warn me.

"Shh!" He urged. I crawled up next to him, trying to get a look into the room below. It was an empty bedroom with a maroon carpet and two twin beds. Pike stared into the room intently, looking around for something or someone.

"Stay here," He commanded before turning around. "And I'm borrowing your rifle." I felt a slight tug at my back. Pike carefully unhooked the rifle from its strap and backed into the darkness. I waited for a while, peeking into the room below. When I got a close look, it was obvious that the room had been lived in. Some wrappers here, a faded food stain there, clothes neatly stacked and hidden on top of a tall wardrobe.

Bang. The sound of a rifle echoed from the hallway; my rifle, to be exact. What was Pike doing? I heard a slight squeak from inside the wardrobe.

I heard footsteps from the hallway before long.

"What's up with the nightly gunshots?" Karne asked, exhausted from running.

"Conflict between the Nightlies?" A boyish voice responded.