This Is War

five

"Yeah! That's it. How did you know?" He watched me carefully now.

"I live- lived- in Carlsbad. The city right next to Oceanside." In a flash I was up, sprinting for the tent where I saw Captain Weaver enter ten minutes ago, leaving Ky with Ben. I blew through the canvas flaps and nearly steamrolled over the old man himself.

"We're going to Oceanside? We have to stop in Carlsbad. We need to! If you don't, I'll leave and go myself, then the skitters might get me. And you can't risk that, you've told me too much already." I said quickly.

He placed his hands on my shoulders, steadying me, "Calm down, son, we'll stop in Carlsbad if we have the time."

"Two things were wrong with that sentence. One, I'm a girl and not your kid. Two, 'if we have time'. We HAVE to go. That's my city! People might have, I don't know, like, resurrected or something! I don't care if it's a ghost city or full of skitters, I'm going back to my home, whether you like it or not." I crossed my arms stubbornly.

Weaver closed his eyes and sighed, then, letting go of me, went to the tent entrance and yelled into the air, "Tom! Tent #7!"

A minute later, Tom Mason stood opposite me, "What do you need, Scott."

The Commander glared at Tom, "CAPTAIN Weaver, and this girl, Die On-"

"-Dion."

"-wants to divert our mission so she can visit dead bodies in Carlsbad."

Now it was my turn to glare at someone, I directed it to Weaver.

"I have important stuff in my household."

"Like what?" Tom had a hand placed on his rifle, the other in his coat pocket.

"None of your business," I stuck my hip out to the left. Then swayed it to the right.

Just then, Ben interrupted by inserting his brown-haired, green-eyed face into the musty tent. All eyes turned to him.

"I couldn't help, you know, overhearing. I don't think one day off the plan would be too bad. Besides, Carlsbad will have food, we can replenish our supply. And there's a lagoon, I think. I saw it on some map. The kids would have fun in that."

Weaver placed his head in his hands and considered. I tapped my foot impatiently. Ben came into the tent fully and stood next to his father. Then Captain stood abruptly, "Alright. One day. Only!"

I nodded and suppressed a smile, "Thanks. One day's great."

Then Tom, Ben and I left. Tom sat with Hal, Maggie, and Dr. Glass. Ben and I sat back down on our bench with Ky.

"Thank you," I said. "I probably wouldn't have won without your, uh, 'reasoning'." I fingered quotes around the last word. He grinned.

"Do you want to tell me what sort of important stuff you've got in your place?"

I gasped exasperatedly, "Nothing that would be important to anybody else. Just, it's all so special to me. Memories are all I have, I'm going to need anything I can get to help keep those memories. You wouldn't understand. Your whole family's with you."

Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out a multi-folded picture and handed it to me, "Not quite my whole family. I managed to keep this, had it on me when they attacked."

I unfolded the paper. Five people stood in the photo, Ben, Hal, Matt, Tom, and a woman who must've been Ben's mom. I stared at it for a few seconds, then handed it back.

If this were a movie, my family would be back.

And if this were a movie, my family would be back by now.

***

I didn't want to ride in the bus, it was cramped and hard to breathe in, so I rode on the back of a motorcycle driven by Hal. He leaned a little too much to the side and I was afraid I would drop Ky on accident. Therefore, I made everyone stop so I could find Lourdes and have her hold on to him. I found her in a truck with another woman who had a baby in her arms. Lourdes took Ky happily and soon we were off again. Two hours into the drive, we zipped past a billboard announcing that we were entering California. I must've walked into Nevada or Arizona while wandering with Ky. Wow, I didn't know I had that much energy.

I fell asleep against Hal's back, buckled to him and the motorcycle with belts, the sun beating on my head. I dreamed that Ky and I had stayed in Carlsbad, living in the fire station. Ky was sitting in a fireman's boot. I kept zipping down the fire pole, for some reason it was making Ky crack up. His little blue eyes squinted when he laughed. After I slid down for the last time, I scooped up Ky and threw him in the air. As he was coming back down into my arms, someone shook me. Before I could catch Ky, I was awake. I squinted into the morning sun and wrestled my greasy, brush-deprived hair into a ponytail, not caring how I looked. I glared at whoever woke me up, which turned out to be Ben.

"We're here," he said.