The Other Side of Dawn, Part One

by homeryannosfan

Part 1 of The Other Side of Dawn written from Homer's view. Enjoy and feel free to comment on any mistakes. Characters and setting are copy writed to John Marsden. This is part one, to read by chapters, search for The Other Side of Dawn Chapter ONe

Chapter 1

Sometimes, when your really scared time passes slower than ever. Everything is a million times longer than usual. But then again sometimes when your scared but you have a purpose things go by so fast that you hardly have time to react.

When I shot the soldier that was surrendering, well I've tried not to think too much about that. But it was a mistake. Sometimes when you are so hyped up, when your adrenaline levels reach the max, when everything you are doing has to happening instantly, when your so afraid that you are about to lose the one friend that is closer to your heart than any one else. The one friend that you would go to Hell with, when you think that the friend is in instant from death you don't think clearly, you react.

I sometimes look at the index finger on my left hand. I look at it, the finger that killed. I'm just glad that Ellie's alive. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her when we went to meet the helicopter, she was alive, she was alive. I never want to kill, never again. I've killed too much! I took so many lives trying to survive in this war. So many times I've wondered if I have something special, if I'm going to do something great. Or if my nerve went sooner than the guy over there and my bullet hit him first.

Sometimes I think its just that. Sometimes I wonder if it was just because my nerve went first, half a second before the other guy. Because my mind said "Shit trigger finger squeeze!"

In fact I'm sure it was just that, I'm sure that I wouldn't have been here if it hadn't have been for my nerve being lost a fraction quicker than the other bloke.

I wonder, if there is a God, when you get there, if you get there you get to talk to him. If he explains that your brain was just a fraction too slow. If you wake up and he says, "Sorry mate, your brains a wanker, it wasn't fast enough go sit on that cloud and see what the faster bloke is doing with his life right now."

Well maybe not that, but this is getting off topic. Just like a few hours ago, when me and Lee started talking about this exact thing. We started off talking about how much land we would win back from these bastards and it turned into reaction time.

I wonder if reaction time is just your nerve losing it, if the faster your reaction the weaker you are when it comes to you nerve. It would seem logical, then again maybe your just a stoner if you can't react, maybe your nerve just isn't there.

Anyways, I was lying on the edge of a bank on the far side of one of Ellie's paddocks. I was watching the track. Waiting, just waiting for them to come. I realised that if they came my way I might be able to save the lot of them. But in reality the rest of the lads knew, we had agreed on it. If they came we would stall them for as long as we could.

Lee had joked to me about throwing pebbles at the tanks to get there attention, it was one of weird laughs, you know the stressed laugh.

I just lay there scanning when the helicopter came overhead. It was as loud as a bloody army of tanks rolling up on your doorstep and everything around you was consumed with the noise.

I looked back and saw these guys jumping out and passing crates and barrels out of the copter. I smiled and then looked back out into the darkness.

After a few minutes the copter lifted off into the air. I smiled, I hoped this was a clean getaway.

I stayed where I was for about five minutes. Suddenly I heard something move from behind me. I froze and looked back. I saw something move from behind a tree and then I thought I saw something moving off in the distance, my hand went to my pocket until I remembered that I'd lost the bloody knife to the little shits back in Stratton.

I picked up a big ass stone and got ready, whatever happened I wouldn't go down without a fight, without a blaze of guns and blood and adrenaline and definitely testosterone.

Then suddenly Kevin skidded in beside me, frigging idiot. He had approached so frigging quickly. I just about clunked him with that. He looked at me and said "The copter's came and left mate, we can go help."

Bloody Kevin, even Gavin could have heard the frigging copter landing and leaving, I was only about five hundred metres away from it for frig sake! So I looked at him and said.

"No shit Sherlock, that big thing with the blades spinning around I thought that was a great big bird."

Kevin took offence which just made things worse.

"Hang on I thought I saw something out there." I said as Kevin sunk lower into the bank.

"Do you think it's an ambush."

"Well if it is they're taking the bloody time. You've made as much noise as an elephant and they would have seen you when you slid over. If they're out there they're waiting for something."

"What?" Asked Kevin.

"Well think about it. They shoot you and me that gets them squat. Then they might let who ever got of the copter escape. That's the thing, I think they're just watching. They want to know what they're up against. If we're going to get it, it'll be a tad later."

So we waited for another few minutes. Finally I picked up a rock and threw it at the tree. There was a thud but nothing else happened. I crawled backwards and Kevin waited for a second before picking up a rock and throwing it into the trees.

Nothing, I was glad Kevin had done that though. It had proved that nothing was out there. Or if it was they weren't afraid of rocks the size of fists coming at them.

So we went to the meeting point and saw the others coming as the two of us hoisted a set of boxes up and began to take them to the stash over by a group of rocks about a hundred metres away.

The man was about thirty, sort of tall, black hair and bushy eyebrows. I could smell the smoke off of him, he was definitely a smoker. We stood there and had a rapid fire conversation.

It ended with him wanting us to take the supplies in the direction of Stratton and that's when I got a little pissed. Colonel Finley, the bastard, was going to get us to do something again. All I could think was, "Well shit, on the road again. Shit!"

Ellie decided to take the crates to the wetlands, that meant a lot of carrying. The five of us could do it in two trips. But all three of the guys and the Kiwi soldier took a little extra so that there was only one crate for two people on the way back.

When we got there Ellie and Kevin got the job of hiding the crates. I had to take the other two back to where we were in the first place. That's one thing Ellie will tell you, I know her property as well as she knows mine. We both could tell you exactly where you were if you just told us what the tree looked like. All right we weren't that good but you get the point.

So as we were heading back along the shoreline we couldn't resist, there is this part where you go up about ten metres. Well me and Lee slipped up there and Lee grabbed some mud and chucked it at them.

Not to be out done I grabbed a rock, well maybe closer to a boulder and heaved it at them. I've never seen Kevin react like that. He just about pissed himself I think. The boat rocked back and forth and the oar was just about lost.

I don't think the two of us had laughed that hard since the war started. Suddenly the Kiwi went purple and started to yell at us in a whisper, if that's possible.

He told us off and we left. All the way back I talked to lee in murmurs about him, the Kiwi guy. He was strange, slightly, well odd. I mean any time you drop in a helicopter for twenty-four hours its odd but this time it was really odd.

There was this feeling about him. He had this overly worried air to him. He was jumpy and his head was spinning three sixty. He was real bloody worried, not saying I wasn't, but he was over the top.

Anyways he had this anger about him too and we found out why later. But he just seemed like he was so macho and ready to attack but at the same time he couldn't. It was like he was in a bubble, the rest of the world couldn't get in and from the inside he must have felt that he couldn't get out.

But that's off the plot. We staggered to the hiding spot and picked up the last crates. I made sure I got the two small ones that weighed more than the big barrel and the big crate.

Why? Because I didn't like the size of the box, too bulky and the barrel would be hard as heel to carry, its shape was all wrong.

When we got to back to Ellie and Kevin they looked exhausted. I just got everything onto the boat then slipped up to watch for the enemy.

In the distance I heard a helicopter but I didn't get anyone, it was going in the opposite direction. I think they might have been following the Kiwi one but I couldn't be sure.

Anyways when they got back from their second row across the water Lee picked up some rocks and Ellie gave him a string of curses and he dropped it sulkily, which didn't make anything better I was going to hear about this next time me and Lee was alone.

The Kiwi was half asleep curled up under a tree when Ellie screamed at Lee, that woke him. Now the bastard was really starting to show signs of his true anger and I was thinking about ways to wind him up, should he get to pissed off at us. I was hoping to maybe get all of us a laugh or two.

So as Ellie tried hopelessly to tie the dingy to a tree the rest of us went and got some branches and leaves to cover the dingy as well as cover our tracks.

The Kiwi at this point had gone up to the top of the little rise by the water and was staring off into the distance, this was only the start of what made me like him slightly less. He was so overly professional that sometimes he would forget that he should be helping.

But then again maybe he didn't help us much because he figured that we it wasn't his problem. Although I wish he would have thought about it a little closer, it was our bacon on the lines here. If he decided not to help us in the slightest when he could have showed us a little trick to make us less noticeable and we died because of it, well.

I'm rambling now. I've got to stop and get on with the story. When we finally finished it was nearly 5.00 and we were all ready to hit the ground and sleep forever.

But we al realised that we still had to climb up Tailor's Stitch and the trek down into Hell, that was what was getting at us, this would be Hell and boy were we tired!

Chapter 2

We found out that the Kiwi's name was Ryan, he was 28 and before the war he had been an engineer who lived outside Dunedin. Now, during the war, he was a Captain in the Kiwi SAS.

We were slow heading up the hill and I only paid attention at times. But mainly I was trying to grill him about the conditions in New Zealand, I wanted to know what was happening.

In a sick way I hoped they were suffering as well. Our two nations are so close, so bonded, but at the same time the Tasman Ocean separates us more than just physically. I guess its like the Canadians and the Americans. Nothing could come between them, if one got into trouble the other would back it. Well I don't know completely about that. I don't get the feeling that the Canadians are exactly as full of themselves or ready to charge into Hell with the States, but no one really is.

The point being that if one of us, New Zealand or Australia, were suffering then it only seemed fair that the other was suffering as well.

Ryan was vague, maybe because he just didn't like talking about it. But he blamed it on being dangerous to talk in the bush at night, fair dinkum I suppose.

Anyways the last thing I got out of him was about the conditions on the whole.

"Listen mate, I don't want you to know too much it would damage your morale-" I cut him off.

"You listen to me, mate. Do you really think that because you Kiwi buggers are taking some heavy flak will damage my morale right now, you must have missed a hell of a lot. Look around buddy, I don't think a sad story about everything being rationed is going to hurt my morale too much. I wish we had stuff to be rationed!"

That got him slightly ticked I think, he didn't say much after that. I guess it had sort of hurt him. That's fair, but I mean really. Here we are sweating our arses off blowing shit up, attacking people, killing people and living on the edge of existence fighting so that we could have a country back and this Kiwi who's been sitting on his fat arse for most of the war comes in and tries to tell us what will damage our morale and what won't well, let's not get onto this.

Anyways as we started to stop talking, only mumbling, making small talk. Who had the better rugby team before the war. Some rules about footie, that kind of stuff. Anything to dance around the sore topic of the home fronts, for both of our nations.

Slowly the light started to return and that started to give me trouble. I never like it when the sky starts to turn from black to grey, it's the peak time for you to start to lose focus. Why? Because the world is awakening, everything is returning again!

I like it when its so dark that you can only focus on everything around you, with nothing to distract you. In full light, you can only focus on what your looking for.

But under the circumstances I preferred darkness. But that's natural when you might get shot in the light. We might get shot in the dark as well though.

I didn't notice when Ellie froze or when Kevin froze. I didn't notice five soldiers march across the track about two hundred metres ahead. I didn't notice, that still haunts me. If I hadn't have caught the glint off one of the helmets, if I hadn't, there are so many ifs about that night.

But that one haunts me like nothing you could imagine. I saw them and froze to the spot. Lee suddenly was as still as a tree one a day without a whisper of wind.

It took Ryan a second to realise that they were in front of us. He sort of jumped and was in a combat stance before he realised that they were in front of us.

Then suddenly they were gone. But the danger was still there. All I could think of was Fi down in Hell by herself, with the kids. If I was in a video game with a submachine gun and a million health points I would have run up the track firing it like mad. I think I would even have paused the game and put in the invincibility cheat and then put in infinite ammo cheat and just ran to Fi shooting everything that moved.

But it wasn't a video game and me getting killed would do absolutely nothing good. I just wished that we could alert Fi before they came barrelling down the track into Hell. I just couldn't picture it or I could. A massacre, the bodies of six children lying mutilated on the ground in Hell and then Fi lying ruined on the ground by bullets.

Fi is a great person and I do love her. That's why I was willing to do just about anything to get to her. I think it was because I knew that despite her best efforts she wouldn't be bale to accomplish anything other than getting everyone killed and that scared me.

But they had gone, they were across the horizon and now we had to worry about our next move. I think that it would have been a major massacre at that moment in time. I could picture that one as well. The five of us lying on the side of the track with all kinds of journalists from the enemy's country taking flash photography and people chatting as they looked at the five bodies of the dead. As they looked at us, five dead guerrilla's.

It would have made the news. Us lying on a cloth line up and blood covered. It still sends chills through my spine. It reminded me of this story of refugees from Vietnam. We learned about that war some time in Year 9 or 10. Anyways this book was all about them and at the very end, just as they got to the frontlines where the Americans soldiers would give them shelter where they thought the Red Cross was the Americans started shooting and they were slaughtered.

I just pictured the main characters being us. I just pictured five carbon copies of Lee being slaughtered. I know that's racist and what have you, but still. What I'm getting at was in the book how they died was just like what would have happened to us. A quick burst of fire and everything would be over, all things ended in a flash of fire and flames.

We all slid on our knees into some scrub everyone shaking and everyone terrified. Lee was the one who looked like he was ready for some blood. He looked fierce the way he was. He sat their looking up the track, I noticed a huge rock in his hand and his knife in the other.

Kevin was shaking hard, I think he was worrying about the kids. They were so precious to him. He loved them like they were his own children or maybe his little brothers and sisters so I don't make him sound like a pervert.

Ellie was showing some serious signs of distress and for a few seconds, before she got herself under control, I thought she'd curl up into a little ball and cry like Kevin in the back of the truck at the air base.

Ryan looked terrified to the greatest extent, I felt like saying in slow words, "It's alright Ryan, that's what the enemy looks like."

We slipped a little bit farther up the track about thirty metres I'd say then we got into a little group and prepared to discuss what our next move would be.

Ryan was angry now, maybe he was so upset about the fact that he nearly shit himself when he saw them, but then again maybe that's just me.

Then he said "Well that was a great effort. Good call Ellie."

I just about hit him. I just about killed him. He had no right to tell us what or when we made mistakes. He wasn't any help. He didn't do anything except sit there on his fat arse getting angry at us. He was so worried about his own skin he didn't seem to realise that it wasn't just him who just about lost his life. Who did he think he was?

Ellie said that his blood pressure was just about off the scale then. Well mine had gone a long time prior. This bastard was just about at the point were he could take his head and shove it up his ass so far that the bump in his throat would be his nose.

Ellie fought back, she told him that we knew the mountains backwards and that in fourteen months they'd only been the second group up the mountains. She didn't bother telling him that they were the second group in a little bit more than twenty-four hours but if he had of told him that then he'd have gone off the mountain in a body bag with his body in a straight jacket the man would have lost his mind with fear. He was almost there when we met him and now, well at that moment I think he would have lost his mind if we had of told him that.

He asked what we would do next, Ellie said go into Hell because Fi and the four rascals were down there. I think that Ryan shit himself there, four kids?

He said Mother of God, I remember that, which was his catch phrase like in batman or something like that.

Anyways I backed up Ellie on heading into Hell, which made Ryan worse still he didn't want to waste time, dirty bugger!

Anyways after we said we were going into Hell he said, "We're going to have to be bloody careful!"

Really? Not shit Sherlock I was planning to go have a party with the bastards. I think we should take out the noise makers and starting counting down to New Year, Christ!

Anyways we half ran up the side of the Hell and stopped fifty metres short and sent me and Kevin, expendable crew members one and two up to check it out. We were gone about twenty minutes.

I saw them spread out along Tailor's Stitch looking down into Hell, that isn't a good sign. They were spread out alone the ridge looking down into Hell so I was really worried. I had to move slow because if they saw me, well, I think we all know what would have happened.

Anyways I finally got back and told Ellie the news. She looked and me and suggested that they had seen something from the air and Ryan came in.

We found out that he wasn't aloud to actually attack the enemy unless he was attacked first. So what good was he? What the hell good was he? A trained SAS Captain who wasn't aloud to attack, what use was he? Like a mule at the Kentucky Derby.

We wanted to split the ammo between the four of us with our weapons that we got off the dead soldiers. Kevin had arrived and was unhappy about the situation. That was kind of rich coming from him, I mean considering a lot of things.

Anyways we sorted out the weapons and then we headed slowly up the side of Tailor's Stitch. I was worried because they had moved farther up the ridge since I had been there.

Me and Ellie were scanning the ridge when we saw this guy. He was holding onto something, he bent over and did something then he disappeared over the ridge. I was terrified at this point, they weren't committing suicide they were heading into Hell!

Suddenly there was a lot of scuffling from Lee and Kevin, I think Lee tripped right over the woman. But anyways Ellie sprinted over to check things out and I walked closer to the edge to see what was going on.

Then quite quickly I heard a movement in the bush, the others were now out of sight, they were over closer to the edge and I was right next to the path, they would have had to walked about five metres to see me. Anyways this guy jumped at me but I managed to push him backwards into the bushes. I punched him in the face and he was down. He had dropped a knife and as he groaned for a second I snatched it from his hand.

He saw the knife in my hand and was about to struggle but I got it into him and finished him as quick as I could. Then I got the hell out of there. When Ellie and them caught up about fifteen seconds later it was like nothing happened, even if they knew it wouldn't have made a difference, at this point we were reacting, not thinking or feeling.

I don't know if I could have done what I did to that soldier if I hadn't thought of Fi and kids being dead in minutes if I didn't.

There's something about killing someone like that, so quickly, so viciously that gets you later. When you think about it. But then again I think about what life would have been like if someone else did it, they all could have been dead because I didn't want to stick a guy with a blade.

When Ellie and the others came over she acted quickly. She pressed the start button on the time of Lee's watch and said that me and her would go down into Hell, Lee wanted to come so the three of us went. Ellie told Kevin to cut the rope in eight minutes, we would be cutting this one close!

I don't think I've ever ran as hard in my life, I'm not a sprinter so much as a cross country runner. But this was hard we were constantly hitting things and Ellie was always pushing branches out of the way that would whip back and smack me in the face!

We kept running, running full tilt. All I had to do to pick up the pace was think of Fi, Fi dead and that made me speed up.

We got to the bottom and we stopped to a creep. They saw her just as we saw them, it was one of those moments that happen in the country westerns. It was six against three, I had said that I thought it was five, so that was such a big misjudgement right? Anyways I knew that if we got them quickly they wouldn't be a problem.

I had lifted my rifle at this point and my finger was on the trigger, I was ready to fire and then eight minutes was up! Kevin cut the rope and there was the scream of the woman. My God that scream was enough to make you want to jump off of the ridge itself.

I watched for only a second as the soldiers turned while everything went by in slow motion. Then my trigger finger pressed in and I felt the kickback of the gun. I felt it firing and I watched the effect as the soldiers began to turn and fall.

In the background Lee started firing and then Ellie. It only lasted for about five seconds but it was the longest space of time in my life.

I ran over and checked the woman's pulse. She was dead and I would have given her a shot for luck but I was running low on ammo. Lee was swapping a gun because his gun jammed and then he said, one got away.

That wasn't a big problem. He wouldn't be much trouble for us in the next few minutes.

We were heading for Hell when we found out that one of the soldiers had fallen into that big hole that Gavin and Lee had made. Anyways to make a long story short we took the woman from atop the ridge and we strung them to this tree.

Lee decided he would go up and make sure the ridge was safe. He would wave his green shirt if all was safe and my brown shirt of things weren't.

As we watched him go I could feel that Ellie was beginning to trust Lee again and that was probably one of the best turning points of the war, for me anyways.

Chapter 3

All I remember after we killed the guys was saying. "Let's take it slow and steady along the side of the ridge and watch out for the slightest sign of trouble."

Fi and the kids were beside themselves, they were all shaking and worried sick. Because I had become big Daddy Homer I tried to calm them and took the rear of our little group. We stopped just for a second to catch our breathes. I walked over to Jack and patted him on the back. He looked up at me red faced and wide eyed.

"Are we going to die Homer?" He whispered.

I just smiled and put my huge hand over the top of his head and said quietly.

"Not while Lee, Kevin and Me are here."

Then I went to Gavin, I figured that Fi and Ellie would calm the others down, which they were doing. That's one thing about Ellie's writing that she missed I think just from looking at it, she didn't mention that she held Casey to stop her trembling for about a minute and a half. I can understand why she didn't mention it, but I just thought that I'd put that out there.

Then I walked over to Gavin, his head was darting every which way.

"Are you alright Gavin?"

He looked at me and thought about it for a second before shaking his head yes.

"I just wish I could have been there to help."

I looked at him and smiled, he forced his little monkey smile and then I said.

"Are you sure that's not all?"

He looked annoyed with the question, angry that I thought he had any emotion other than tough guy, I suppose I was like this when I was a kid, but it was still kind of annoying.

"It's just well- anything loud enough for me to hear, especially here, makes me worried and when it's gunfire it's all the worse." There was a moment's silence, then he said "Were you scared Homer?"

I didn't way anything for a few seconds I thought about what Ellie had been preaching, show the guys it was ok to feel more than just tough guy.

"Yes Gavin, I was terrified, probably more than you. But I think that we're both ok. And besides we're all together and now we'll be safe and if you want to look at it this way if anything big happens you'll be right their with us."

It took Gavin a second before he nodded.

"Did you get all of that?" I asked him looking at his bright red cheeks.

He nodded yes and then we all got up and started off and at a medium walk.

When we met the soldier with the screwed leg they all looked at him like some kind of freak and nothing more. I suppose that's a really bad sign, I mean this guy had everything on his leg destroyed, I mean everything. If this had have been year earlier it wouldn't have been any damper on their character if they had wretched, but now they were tough to it.

In some ways I think Gavin to his lead from me, I just passed this guy by without word or worry, so when he took his lead from me the others took their lead from him, it had a ripple effect. I quite liked it, it made me feel so much more in control of these kids.

It was then that it hit me, this wave of utter joy that they were alive and that I was able to see them again. I wanted to give them all hugs and chocolate and lollipops and run around playing hide and seek and singing songs. Well alright that's a bit overboard but you get the point. I realise how attached I'd come to be to these little brats and I realise how much I wanted them to live and that I'd do anything for them, even die for them.

That's not going overboard. Especially Gavin, little bugger, he was like the little brother I never had. We got along for the most part. I mean sure sometimes we got into arguments, but we were good mates.

When we met Lee and Kevin they had the woman soldier from the top of the trail and they wanted to tie the other one up against a tree. I thought that to be a good idea and considering that she had gone clean clipping crazy.

Lee and Ellie went off to tie the two of them to the tree and we went to the top. About ten minutes later we got there, man we went fast. But we still had a few minutes so again I tried to comfort them in any way I could. Kevin was amazing with Natalie, she was still sobbing a little and he took her in his big arms and walked over and sat down on a dead eucalyptus tree and just sat there with her comforting her. Jack sat on a big boulder with his fists under his chin and his elbows on his knees.

Fi was sitting on another boulder with Casey, her arm around Casey gently stroking her hair and giving her soft words of encouragement. Gavin stood by me looking around with his tough guy face on.

I walked over to a tree and broke a branch off and then returned to Gavin.

"Want to see something cool?" I asked not quite sure was I was going to show him and suddenly Jack who was now wandering over.

"Do you know how to tell if a tree is dead or not?" I asked, sure that they would know, after all we'd sent them looking fro fire wood. But to my great surprise they just stood there and shook their heads looking excited, despite the situation.

"Right here where I broke it what colour is it?"

Jack answered quickly, "Green!"

"Yeah so this one is alive, that's why its so hard to break it off the tree sometimes it's still alive."

They seemed to be pleased with that, then Gavin said something about taking a leak and he walked off about twenty metres into the bush. In the meantime the others arrived in front of us, panting after running all the way up the side of Hell. We had all been out of breathe just jogging but it looked like they had really made some haste to get there.

Suddenly Gavin paid his way again. He started waving and he mouthed that there was something glinting in the bush. So now we went super slow and this time we started to go ahead. Our guns still at the ready. I don't know how many times me and Lee headed off to what would have seemed like out demise. Kevin went a lot too.

God bless Kevin, even though he's pigheaded, I guess I shouldn't be talking and can be a Grade A asshole he really is brave. When he took his breakdown, you can't blame him he was brave before any of us had any idea the meaning of the word.

When Corrie got shot there hadn't been much discussion about what was going to happen if I remember right. He just got into the car and went for Wirrawee. Even thought he knew what was going to happen, he knew that he was going to get captured and or killed he still did it and that was damn brave if you ask me.

Anyways we found Ryan roughly where we'd left him and he was looking genuinely ecstatic to see us. However there was a slight difference between the four teenagers that he'd watched disappeared in a fire fight and the group of people he saw right now. There were five teenagers now and four little kids in toe, this was one confrontation that was quite comical if it wasn't under the terrible circumstance of the fact that we all might be about to die.

He looked at the feral kids, dismayed at the sight of them, they were just more of a burden for him I guess, more to worry about more to keep a watch on. Or maybe this complicated his magic plan that he'd kept so secret from us the whole time.

We opened one of the secret packs and found what we'd been craving for so long, actual food! Fresh bread, avocados, even though I hate them, Weet-Bix, two big 710 ml bottles of Diet Pepsi, yes even Pepsi had been rationed in New Zealand I'm sorry to say, ration the calories! Aside from that there were three big packs of the little bit sized Kit Kats and some Iced Vo-Vos and a little plastic bottle of Vegemite, yummy and I mean that.

We couldn't stay there any longer but we needed the food so badly. I looked at Lee and we both tried to ration it out, although Ellie got first grabs. That's one thing about Lee, no matter how badly she treats him he still loves her and he always has.

Then we handed it out in fists at a time. I made sure that all the kids got at least three swigs of the Diet Pepsi to bring their energy levels up, even though it was sugarless and made them each eat three Kit-Kats, I may not be the smartest but I know that if your blood sugar is low you're better off dead when you're being hunted.

Then I let Lee take what he could scrape off the bottom and I took the last little bit, not noticing the other compartment that was still filled. I stuck everything I could into my hoodie pockets and then I shoved the rest into my Levi pockets, hoping that the Kit-Kats wouldn't melt in there.

Me and Ellie took the lead and we made the long jog downwards. It was a nice feeling being able to run downhill wasn't as tiring, but we still had to focus and by God it was hard and by God it was hard to eat and run and watch and look at Ellie and look back make sure that we weren't all being taken out one by one.

Another problem that came up was hat Gavin was in a terrible sulk, probably because he'd missed some of the action the little sadistic bastard and he wouldn't go near Ryan.

Any food that was passed from Ryan to him wouldn't be accepted, it had to come through me which wasn't all that hot for me but what can you do? The kids were all very superstitious as well, it had been over a year since they had met any adults on their side, maybe even longer than that since they had had the safety of being able to eat food without worry of being poisoned that was another plus.

Jack was being a little show off and being a dickhead, trying to be smart trying to get jokes and laughter, but that didn't come. A couple of hard looks and some shushing and he shut his mouth and bit his lip.

Ryan was trying to redeem himself and that wasn't coming easy in my books. I was still bitter to him for being such a dick, if he was only here for a night then he could tell us a little more, like how the war was going. I would have really liked to have known that we were gaining ground, losing it anything to push me on.

Morning started to come on and it was getting brighter and brighter. Our jog had changed from a jog to a run and then a sprint to a sprint from a sprint to an exhausted stumble that was less than a jog.

We had to stop and with Ryan being the little comedian pulling up the rear we knew that it was time. It was almost fully bright out, but we were far away from the mountains. In Nellie's paddock with a view 360 for miles around. Our biggest worry coming from the sky, that wonderful bright azure blue sky. It made me think of the Italians and their sports uniforms all being the same colour of the sky.

We stopped in this little bit of bush, all mushy and kind of brownish green, nothing too exciting or happy about it. We were right near a creek. We had all just plunked ourselves down with groans of relief and sorrow when Ryan said that he wanted the kids to be gone.

So me and Kevin stood up slowly and led them off down to the creek. There was a lot of moaning and groaning. "Do we have to go down to the creek?" "Why?" "I'm cold!" "I've got a cramp from running!" "I want to stay with you guys!"

But it was Gavin who said the most sentimental thing I've ever heard out of him.

"I don't want us to be separated you mean too much to us to lose you."

"I'll only be a few secs Gavin, don't worry this Ryan bloke he's gone tonight, not a big problem."

Gavin got angry then and stomped off down the creek and there was a tremendous crash as some rocks and dead trees came splashing into the water. I just about died but Gavin saw me and Kevin about to round on him and he slipped down behind a big boulder and just stayed there.

Ellie had given them some paper and pens and they were going to make stories and pictures in our sight. Gavin was just behind a rock and we could still see his head and his ears so we were all ready to listen to what Ryan had to say.

He started with a little rant about how top secret this had to be. Alright, now I was starting to get pissed off, just tell us the bloody well reason you're here so we can get on with ours lives in whatever manner Colonel Finley had decided we had to live it.

Then he started with "If you get caught ..." Jesus H. Christ if I get caught there isn't going to be much use in me telling them that I'm just a little innocent school boy who's escaped capture for a year without doing jack, just sitting in the woods playing with sticks and stones and maybe, well I'm not going there.

The second line of defence when under interrogation was to say that he had landed here via chopper and given us some assignments, like nick this from a store or something, but he never actually told us how or why we had to do it.

The third line was to tell them what we were doing only change the details, only problem with that is if we all got caught and we all changed the details differently we'd be standing in front of the firing squad humming Waltzing Matilda right before we get our head blown off.

The last line was to tell them everything, oh that was just magnificent advice, yes "I'm sorry Mr. Invader, I was trying to kill you, let's go eat gummy bears and hug and play on the beach together while the sunsets and live happily ever after in our rainbow coloured castle."

God I've been telling Natalie and Casey to many bedtime stories. Anyways the point is that if we got to that point we'd have to hold of for as long as we could and then, then finally tell them. Which would do absolutely nothing for us, we'd still be out tied to a poll humming Waltzing Matilda before getting our heads blown off.

Then we had to repeat all four points over again so that he was sure we'd absorbed it all.

Then he gave us a little briefing about what was happening. He said that there was a lot of international pressure being put on the enemy and a lot of aid starting to flow, especially from Sweden and France and Japan, that was encouraging at least we weren't all alone. The Americans and I can only assume the Canadians must have been contributing as well. He talked about faulty intelligence being planted for the enemy and that they were about to do their big attack, their D-Day, all or nothing. The Kiwis were going for broke!

Ryan didn't like that term "broke," it was more that if they failed it would be catastrophic and that it would end the war. Yeah Ryan that makes broke look like a good thing, like broke is what you want in comparison to the end of us all. But we didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing the shocked looks that he was expecting.

After a few moments silence I said, "So we're one of the resources huh?"

Ryan replied something about it being a little bit harsh but yes that was exactly what we were, thank you Colonel Finley. Dirty bastard trying to get us killed after all we'd done, but mind you he was still sore about us losing his commandoes, or maybe I should say some of us losing the commandoes. I wasn't there I didn't wreck it for them, but that's being too harsh on Ellie actually it was probably them wrecking it on themselves but Colonel Finley couldn't admit to a mistake! Hell no!

Anyways Ryan told us what we were supposed to do. The crate and supplies and stuff were for attacking the enemy and living off the land. That was another thing, God damn it were we not supposed to live? Was that it? Mind you I wouldn't want it any other way.

Ryan explained that he wanted us to be mobile guerrillas, picking our own targets, attacking them and then disappearing. Alright that's good. Then he explained that if we created chaos from behind then they'd not attack at the front as hard. That sounded like something we could accomplish, I was already thinking of places where we could hit.

A gas station, a railway, a road, a hospital would really shatter things, really piss them off and it'd be pretty low. A factory, a power station anything and everything was coming into my mind and I was forgetting being mortal and forgetting that I could die doing these things, then Ryan started talking again and I snapped back into the conversation.

I said something about us being totally destructive and thought back a few years to when this would have sounded like so much fun. Ryan explained that in the crates we had some things like automatic weapons, M16's, grenades, plastic explosives, combat knives and stuff like this. We were now a completely offensive outfit.

Fi said something about not wanting to carry explosives around and Ryan went to into one of the packs and dug out a box that was stuffed into the bag and sort of bend and wrecked. He opened it up and showed us two big long things that looked like play dough in salami form wrapped in plastic wrap. "Plastic explosives."

Ryan suddenly slipped up with one and jumped backwards!

"Mother of God!" He screamed.

I dove down a bank and rolled and ripped open my elbow and God did that hurt. I kept rolling and hit a tree, which hurt my back like hell and then I listened for the sound of an explosion and crash a thump a scream and bang? Anything? Bloody anything?

Laughter!

Laughter!

Laughter!

Ryan is a douche bag! I don't know why I rolled like that, there was nothing to set off the explosives but we were all so jumpy and because none of us were really keyed in to what was happening well I guess it was just a reaction.

Lee was emerging from some rocks by the creek. Kevin was coming back out of the clearing. Fi emerged from a tree right behind Ryan, if the explosion had been real she and Ryan would have been dead. Ellie was a little bit farther down than I was. We all slowly started back to where we had been.

I gave Ryan the hardest glare I had ever given him and decided that moment if it wasn't murder I would have walked over kicked him in the face and then put my foot and his neck, I was pissed and tired and worn out and not in the mood for tricks. Unless I was playing them.

Then Ryan punched the stuff and then he looked at Fi "Does this answer your question?"

Asshole you didn't need to try and kill us to show us that it was safe. Bastard, in a way I hoped that he'd fall out of the helicopter that night, but then we'd have to help so I wanted him to get away.

Next Kevin asked if anything made it blow up.

I said "Of course something makes it go off it's a bomb, isn't it?"

Kevin gave me a hard glare, but it had been a stupid question, of course it goes off it wouldn't be a bomb if it didn't. Or maybe Kevin thought that if he asked it nicely it would explode. God sometimes Kev!

Ryan took out plain detonators, little silver ones that looked like .303 shells. Of course they weren't but at first glance you wouldn't know it. Then he took out a fuse wire rolled up, about fifty metres of it. Then he handed us all the Zippo lighters that never go out until you click the cap back on.

He second little pressie was new watches for all of us, all ticking and all on exactly the same second. It was wonderful and they were digital with timers and everything under the sun, real watches.

Finally he took out explosive pliers, one side was metal and the other rubber to stop the two from touching and creating a spark and killing us all which would have helped a heap in Cobbler's Bay.

Then we spent the next hour, fifteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds learning about guerrilla fighting and tactics. I timed it on my new watch and I must admit that he was really good with this stuff, it showed that he was a professional even though he was a jack ass at times.

He taught us about the Pimlott Principals. The guy who create his principals had killed himself on his own backyard fiddling around with a hand grenade showing his kids how easily the pin could come out and boom he goes skyward in pieces and his kids are wheeled to hospital with serious injures and a few of them carted off to a mental institution because of it, good job Dad. You are truly a Dad of the year here's your medal.

Anyways the principals went like this. Achieve surprise, alright I'll jump out of the bushes and scream that I'm the boogie man and get my head blown off. Build momentum, meaning run as hard as you can and keep attacking so they don't have time to re-group and finally go for objectives you can achieve. Oh alright so attacking an airbase without any weapons or blowing up a carrier with anfo or blowing a bridge with a petrol tanker or, well the list goes on, should be within in reach so I guess using that scale we should nuke the bastards and then walk around riddling everyone that moves afterwards, alright then. Then finally you have to do all this on the centre of the gravity of the enemy.

Fi asked where the enemy's centre of gravity was.

"Cavendish." Ryan replied.

Cavendish, a little flat town not very big about 20,000 people nothing amazing about it. But it had a massive transport system because it wasn't far from the big ports and because if you were coming from the coast to the south you would have to bypass Cavendish and that was a big thing considering that Stratton's greater area was something like 100,000 people. It was huge!

Anyways Cavendish was supposed to be a really nice quiet town, but I was already thinking of things we could do to make it a little less quiet and a little less peaceful.

So finally after a few hours of Ryan ranting and raving about the whole guerrilla project the big question came. Ellie said yes and then went to check on the children.

For me the question was an easy one, I wanted to do something even though inside me I hated to think about more of this kind of stuff. But at the same time I didn't want to look like a coward if we ever got liberated. And I don't know if I could live with myself if I decided that I wouldn't do anything to try and save my country from the invaders.

So in the end my answer was yes, not that big of a shock for anyone in the group.

When Ellie came back she had changed her mind she was out of the whole situation unless Ryan took the kids with him. This wasn't so hot with Ryan let me tell you.

Ryan suggested that they wait a day and then they surrender to the enemy, but that wouldn't work. I couldn't picture Gavin simply strolling up to the nearest checkpoint and raising his hands up and saying, "All right you got me, Homer, Ellie, Lee, Fi and Kevin are long gone and they are the ones you're looking for." No it just wouldn't happen and I knew that I was going to have to point this out.

Then Ellie said that it would be hard enough to get them into the chopper let alone get them to surrender and I backed and was ready to change my vote in order to get the others to stop sitting around looking stunned and do something.

Ryan wouldn't let that happen he wasn't going to baby-sit little children in a chopper obviously. That really pissed me off, I mean he was asking a lot from us already and now he couldn't find it in his heart to take four kids on a chopper for half an hour, Jesus Christ get real Ryan you're wasting your breathe and energy trying to get us to back out now.

Finally though after Ellie closed her mouth crossed her arms and put her hip out in her sexy way, sorry couldn't help that, Ryan realised that there wasn't anyway out of it.

He tried to protest that they'd be in almost as much danger on the helicopter as with us but me and Ellie weren't taking that shit.

Finally he just said "Colonel Finley's going to kill me."

We had him! We had him, the little monkeys would be on their way to New Zealand that night and they'd be safe and we would be a little bit more threatening to the enemy.

I watched them get some admiration from Ellie and then trot over in searching chocolate and some Iced Vo-Vos. I gave Jack a pat on the head and he showed me his picture of a big guy with a little guy on his shoulders and said to me.

"The big guy is you Homer and the little guy is me."

I smiled and just about cried, I just about cried. I realised then how much I loved that kid how much I loved all of them I that I never wanted to part with them I never wanted to say good-bye to them I wanted to keep telling Casey and Natalie bedtime stories after Ellie had tucked them in and told them on of hers. I wanted to still teach them how to aggravate the girls and teach them about the bush and run around with them and tickle them and be kind to them and teach them math with my bad math teaching skills. All of those things I wanted to keep being Big Daddy Homer, but I realised that now I didn't have a choice anymore. I couldn't be Big Daddy Homer and Rambo Homer.

I had to chose and I knew right now that I had to be Rambo Homer that I had to try and help win this war by doing my little tiny part and I knew that if I had to chose between parting with them and having them being taken by the enemy and maybe killed or beaten. Or sending them off to safety and freedom until the end of this war then I would chose to send them away. Maybe someday I would see them again, maybe someday they would be the leader of our nation of a big sports star on an actress in America, that was Casey's dream and by God I wanted to help her with that dream, but when I thought about the danger and the death and the destruction that we were going to go through and inflict I knew that for once I had only one choice and I knew that for once it was going to rip me apart and hurt me in ways that I had always said never would.

And funnily for the first time in my life I didn't care what people thought about my feelings. I loved those kids.