Katrina was leaning up against one of the trees around the little area they'd decided to stay in. She had tried to help get everything set up, but Jed refused.
"What about our families, huh? What about them?" Danny asked. Katrina couldn't see, but she thought he was nearly crying. She wasn't going to blame him. She didn't know how she wasn't bawling.
"We gotta stay up here and hide awhile," Robert replied reassuringly. It didn't seem to help.
"I just wanna go home. I don't wanna hide. If I hide, they'll never find me," Danny retorted. This actually made Katrina a bit angry. He's so stupid, ridiculously stupid, she thought. Wouldn't your parents want you to be safe, Danny? Wouldn't they rather have you up here, away from the war, than down there with them, basically asking to be killed? That last part was incorrect, but she didn't think anything of it. She watched carefully as Jed held up the radio they brought. There was no way they could use it now.
"Check this out. It stopped a bullet that would've hit somebody," He set it down again and went off to do something else. Robert held up his headphones.
"I got these!" He exclaimed. Katrina smiled softly, though no one saw her. She was going to politely tell him that they wouldn't work, but Daryl had to run his mouth.
"Yeah, those'll do us a lot of good! We've got no radio! I mean, how long do you think we can survive up here on olives and Rice Krispies?" He asked sassily. Katrina raised her eyebrows in an annoyed fashion. This was just getting her even angrier. Her thoughts made her miss whatever Aardvark said to him.
"As Calumet student body president I... I forward the motion that we give ourselves up," Daryl almost sounded ashamed. Katrina widened her eyes and raised her eyebrows. What hell was he thinking!?
"I-I second the motion," Danny jumped up. Of course he'd go along with it. Anything to get his sorry ass back home, Katrina thought. She didn't know why she was being so rude, but she decided that she honestly didn't care.
"We-we can't stay here. We need stuff and-…" Danny was cut off by the loud snapping of a stick against Jed's knee.
"Sit down, Danny," Jed instructed, but he didn't even look up at them. "You're not goin' anywhere, it's too dangerous to go into town," he shook his head then looked up at them all.
"I say we vote on it," Daryl took one step closer to Jed. He couldn't get much closer; there was a small fire between them. Katrina swallowed and watched with narrowed eyes.
"No." Jed replied simply.
"This isn't the big game, Mr. Quarterback. He can go wherever he wants," Daryl replied, shaking his head. That was it for Katrina. She ran up to him, slapped him across them face, and then shoved him onto the ground. For a guy, he's pretty weak, she thought.
"None of us are going back there, alright? Like Jed said, it's too dangerous! Do you wanna die?" Katrina asked. She was yelling and everyone was looking at her. Her voice echoed. The only noise was Daryl standing back up.
"Huh? Yeah, I didn't think so. So you can just hush up," she finished with a deep breath in. Everyone was stunned. They didn't think that any girl, especially the shy Katrina Fletcher, would ever do something like that.
Daryl made some smart comment which she couldn't understand, but obviously Jed did. He stood up angrily and then Daryl threw some can of something at him. He was stupid. They began to go at it, until Daryl was pushed onto the ground again. Katrina hid her laughter. Jed threw a bag of stuff at the student body president.
"Here, if you wanna leave so bad. Haul-ass, take your shit!" Jed exclaimed, then he seemed to calm down a little bit. Everyone else just stood around and watched with tension surrounding them all.
"That goes for the rest of ya," he began again. Katrina glanced at Danny. "I'm with Katrina. It is World War III down there. People are bein' killed," he informed them, as if they didn't already know that. But nobody snickered or anything like that. And then he said the one thing that everyone was terrified of hearing:
"Those could be Russians." Katrina gulped, her fear suddenly coming back to her. Everyone else was very quiet.
"But Jed," Danny whined. Katrina discreetly rolled her eyes. "What about your family?"
Jed looked like he had to think about it for a minute. "I don't know… But I'm alive and I'm stayin' here," he said as he stood up. "My family would want me to stay alive. Your family would want you to stay alive." Katrina nodded. That was the only reason that she planned on staying up in the mountains with all of these boys. Well, at least she had her best friend through all of this.
"You're just a bunch of scared kids," Jed finished and looked down and away from the group of… well, scared kids.
"What do you think you are?" Danny asked. Katrina couldn't believe him. He couldn't be content with staying quiet?
"I don't know… Alone I guess," Jed shrugged a bit in reply.
"No. You're not alone," Katrina said, walking her from her spot near a tree to Jed. Matt nodded and followed. He put his hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Hey bud…" Jed turned around at the voice of his brother. "What do you say?" he questioned. Jed smiled and pulled Matt in for a hug. Katrina grinned softly at them. Then, Robert slowly walked over to them. Danny made some typed of noise.
"I'm with you," he said. Katrina smiled at him and he smiled back. Jed let go of his younger brother and nodded. Danny, Daryl, and Aardvark were left.
"Now the rest of you get goin'," Jed said with a look on his face. It was a look that showed that he knew none of the boys were going back into town. They were all too scared. Not that anyone was blaming them. Nobody moved.
"Alright. But if you stay, you're gonna do as I say, okay?" Jed made it sound like a question, though it wasn't one. The boys nodded.
"So come on over here and get warm," Jed finished. He looked over at Daryl as everyone else began to walk to the fire. "Daryl," he said. Daryl kept his head down and walked sheepishly closer to the fire. He stuck his arm out and Jed shook his hand with a slight smirk on his face. Daryl apologized, then Jed did the same. He proceeded to tell everyone how he and Matt knew how to hunt and fish, so they could have food.
"We can stay up here for a long, long time," Jed finished. Matt nodded as everybody looked around at each other.
"How long, Jed?" Robert asked in a scared tone of voice. A plane whooshed above them and they all looked up to the sky, though a bunch of tree branches were blocking there view. Jed looked back down at everyone, turned his head in Robert's direction.
"Until we don't hear that no more."
