Tent City (27 page)

“Why?”

I find myself getting upset. I don’t want him to go. If he is saying it’s dangerous, it most certainly is. Bentley usually brushes stuff like that off. When I was terrified on the raid we went on, he laughed it off and said it was nothing.

“I have to. Even if he’s a sleazebag, he’s still my friend. If I were in there, I know he’d come for me. So he made a mistake, one I’d like to kill him for, but I’ve still gotta go.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

 “Oh no, you’re not!”

“I’m ready now. You need all the help you can get!”

We’re both shouting now and I realize we are probably making a scene.

He has jumped off the swing and onto his feet. People have stopped milling around and have now stopped to watch. He pulls me to the side of the cabin in an attempt at privacy.

“Are you crazy! Did you forget about what happened last time?”

His face is red now and I actually imagine steam coming from his ears. I force myself not to laugh at the thought.

“What was all that training for? I’m even stronger now than when I first came here. And Grant’s trained me well. He even said so himself. Ask him.”

“You are not going. It’s not open for discussion. What do you care anyway? Wes hasn’t exactly done right by you.”

“Because you need help. This is a big mission. I can tell. You’re nervous about it. Admit it!” I challenge.

“Okay…I admit it, but could you imagine how nervous I would be if you were there?” He looks hurt and he touches my arm slightly as if to make his point.

“I’m going.” I cross my hands over my chest in a stubborn gesture. He is not going to talk me out of this. He needs my help and I’m determined to support the cause.

Well, I don’t get to go. Jack wouldn’t hear of it either. I can almost bet Kit weighed in as well. Apparently, I don’t get a say in it.
 

I know what I said before about never leaving Brody again, but now, knowing that the camps are so close, I feel like I have to start doing something. When I was training, I kind of always knew it was going to come to something like this.

Oddly, Jack
is
going. This only heightens my fear about what is going to happen. I can’t picture losing one of them, let alone both. Obviously, Grant is going as well. Kit is going crazy with the thought of it.

The guys are all downplaying how dangerous it is, but I know the truth. In the back of my mind, I feel like none of them are coming back.

In the way back of my mind, I’m formulating a plan on how to leave here when they don’t. Obviously, we can’t stay here much longer. If Bentley’s correct, and they are only an hour away, it’s only a matter of time before they find us. We will be better off if we can get higher up in the Hills. Maybe make the camp a little more discrete. Maybe disband.

I’ll miss these people I’ve come to know as family, but we’re all better off on our own. Of course, I’ll take Kit and Brody with me. It would seem wrong to leave Callie on her own and I can’t picture saying good-bye to Jonah and his family.

Camp has an electric feel to it tonight. I think the rumors have passed through and most everyone knows what’s going on.

Jonah has volunteered to keep perimeter watch along with some of the other guys who are not going. Kit has been missing all day, as well as Grant. I imagine they are saying some form of a possible last good-bye.

Jack and Bentley have been holed up in Callie’s cabin. I try to go in a couple of times to talk, but they just tell me to leave. They’ve got some maps and papers out. I suppose they are coming up with a plan. With nothing better to do, I take Avery and Brody to the kitchen to see what Callie is up to.

She’s busy preparing the supper meal. I wash my hands, eager for something to keep me busy. She doesn’t seem to be her usual bubbly self.

“Everything okay?” I ask, as I hand her the flour she asked for.

She looks to be making some kind of gravy base for tonight’s meal. It’s awakening a hunger in me, as I realize I haven’t eaten all day. Thankfully, Kit’s been too busy with Grant to notice.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” she says.

“You must be worried,” I say, trying to sound sympathetic without prying. Callie and I really aren’t close. The only thing that really bonds us is that we both care for Brody. In a way, I’m sharing my little brother since she doesn’t have hers.

“What do you care?” She scowls and is throwing stuff around the kitchen. I’ve never seen her like this.

Part of me just wants to gather up the kids and leave her to sulk, but she has all but completely pulverized the meat she is working on, so I stay, if not for the sake of saving supper at least.

I resign myself just to stay silent and it actually takes a lot for me to quiet my temper. I tell myself that she’s just cranky and everyone has a right to their moods and I give her a break because everyone is on edge today.

It’s possible that after tonight, all our lives will be different. The way I see it, however it goes, with success or not, life is going to change.

If they succeed and make it back with Wes, I imagine we still have to leave. The safety camps are just too close. If they don’t make it back…I don’t really want to think about that. But how long do we wait before we have to make a move?

“Callie, we have to come up with a backup plan,” I start again.

“What do you mean backup plan?”

“In case they don’t come back.”

“They are coming back!” She sounds like she is on the edge of hysteria, but she glances over at Brody and Avery playing on the floor and pulls herself together.

“It’s so easy for you, isn’t it?” she finally asks. She has finished mixing her stew and is now carrying it out to the fire. I beat her to the door and open it.

“What do you mean?” I say, trailing after her. She hefts the big pot on the warming stone and stokes the fire.

“What I mean,” she glares at me, “is that you have him and you don’t even want him!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on, you’re not that dense. Do you even care that he’s probably going to die?”

“Of course I care!”

Clearly, we are talking about Bentley. I’ve known that she has feelings for him, but seeing her in this state right now really drives the stake home how much.

“I do care,” I say a little more softly.

“Then why don’t you get him to change his mind?” She has a few tears slipping out now and any anger I had for her a minute ago has vanished.

“I did. He won’t listen to me.”

“Bull. If you ask him, I mean
really
ask him, he’ll stay, you know. He’ll stay for you.”

I hear what she’s saying, but it’s not true. Sure, I would like to believe that I have that power over him, but the simple truth is that I don’t. I think that I could convince Jack to stay, but Bentley’s different. He comes across as having a thing for me, but Bentley’s true love is this war.  

I see him sitting alone in thought and I know he’s not thinking about me. He’s thinking about some kind of revenge he’s going to have on Burke and The Council. He has a quiet rage that cooks beneath his beautiful face. It pulses through him like hushed electricity. When he thinks no one is watching, he’s silently simmering. It distorts him in the slightest way. If you weren’t watching for it, you would miss it altogether.

If I didn’t know Jack the way I do, I would have missed it too. They have the same aura, but Bentley’s is tainted with some inside force to destroy. Jack’s is soft and healing. Both of them have the power to draw you in.

Bentley represents all things dangerous and scorching. If he had a color, it would be red. Jack stands for all things safe and calming. Jack’s color would be blue or maybe the silver gray of his eyes. And I can’t convince Jack to stay. Bentley needs him.

I don’t tell Callie I will try and she stomps off. I guess I’m left to tend the pot.

Supper that night is subdued. No one is saying much, but I get Jack to tell me what the plan is.

He says that they will leave at nightfall, set up just outside the safety camp and scout it out for the day. Then when nightfall hits the following day, they will move in. After they find the safest place to breach the fence, they will use wire cutters to open the fence.

I’m not sure how they will locate Wes to get him out, but I have a feeling this is about more than just Wes.

Jack said they have roaming spotlights that run at night. They will have to move quickly when cutting to avoid the lights. The guards on the top of the watch towers have guns. If they are spotted, they will not return to Tent City until it’s safe. It could be days. It could be weeks.

Jack and Bentley seem to respect each other enough to give me a little time with each of them. I start with Bentley.

“When I get back, you’re going to have to make a decision,” he teases lightly, as he pokes me in the ribs.  

“I choose both,” I say with a smile.

I know we are trying to keep this light, but in every joke there’s truth. He’s contemplating what I’ve said and decides not to push it. He doesn’t say anymore, but just picks me up and embraces me in a huge bear hug. The kind your dad puts you in when you’re five. Only, I’m not five and he’s not my dad. I take in his scent of woodsy citrus and I’m just about to cave and try to convince him to stay, when he puts me down.

“Don’t worry, Dani. We’ll be back. You’ll wish we weren’t because we’ll have Wes with us, but we’ll be back. Take care.”

He shuffles off before I can respond. Jack who has been waiting patiently asks me if he can talk to me at the cabin.

“Sure,” I say.

This is all very awkward, but necessary. I need a chance to say good-bye to both of them. I’m not even looking at it in a romantic way.

These two have come to mean a lot to me. It’s funny that it takes them leaving for me to realize that they’re my family now. I can’t bear to lose them, but I can’t stop them. It’s a terrible feeling really. It leaves me feeling empty and hollow.

“I’ve got something for you,” Jack says. His face is a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

“What is it?”

“Before you get mad, I wasn’t going through your things. It was just in one of your books and I ran across it. It was ruined, well pretty much, but I think I’ve fixed it.”

“What?”

“Remember that letter from your dad?”

“What gave you the right? That was mine!”

The heat is flushing my cheeks and anger is nipping at me, not quite let loose because in the back of my mind I know he’s leaving within minutes.

“I didn’t read it, I swear. I mean I caught some stuff because I had to trace over it, but you have to believe me, I really didn’t read it. It’s yours. I just wanted you to have it. I know it means a lot to you.”

“Give it to me.”

I hold out my hand and he reaches into his pocket. He has it sealed in a plastic bag. I slowly pull it out. It’s seen better days, but it actually looks legible now.