Hey guys! I've been updating a lot lately, mostly because this is finished and I'm pretty happy with my progress on the next part...
To my wonderful new reviewers!
melsol: aw, thank you! This chapter is a little longer than some of the others, so I hope you like it!
Lea97: Thank you as well! I'm glad you like it (: Deni joins the group in a few more chapters... Close to the end, actually ^^; I hope you'll keep reading until then!
The next morning, Anne woke up as Tom attempted to quietly slip out of bed. Before she could speak, he raised a finger to his lips. She nodded and half-sat up, looking around the tent. Across from her bed, Hal and Maggie were snuggled together. Matt had rolled off at some point and lay on the floor half-covered by a blanket with his legs still on the bed. Jimmy was sprawled on his back with Colm on his chest and several blankets over the two of them, making just their heads visible. Ben was completely covered by a mound of blankets, only recognizable as a teenaged boy by the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his breathing. Dallon was asleep on his stomach, his arms wrapped around a bunched up blanket and his face buried in the blanket, covered by several others. Harlem had kicked off all blankets and lay with his feet over Dallon's back. Mariah and Amanda were curled into little balls on their cot, only their heads visible from under the blankets. Summer had pulled her blanket over her head and was completely invisible. Finally, Abby lay peacefully on her stomach, one arm hanging off of the cot, her blankets pulled off of her feet and up over one shoulder; her hair hung off of the edge of the cot, and her face rested on her other arm. Anne looked down at Alexis, sleeping soundly beside her, and laid back down as Tom pulled on his boots.
'It's so early,' she whispered, noting the lack of light in the tent.
'The sun's just starting to rise,' Tom replied. 'I have early patrol.'
'I didn't think you did today,' Anne said, running a hand over Lexie's hair.
'Technically, Ben does, but I don't want to wake him up,' Tom said. 'He hasn't slept this much in years.'
'I know,' Anne smiled. 'Be careful.'
'Always am,' Tom smiled down at her before leaving the tent.
At first, Anne attempted to fall back asleep, but as the sun rose, she found herself unable to drift off, so she settled for watching the peaceful scene in the tent like she had the one in the bus the morning previous. She sat up in the bed and wrote in her journal as, one by one, the other occupants began to wake up.
Hal was the first to wake up after Tom left. Anne saw him slowly and carefully disentangle himself from Maggie and slip out of bed only to trip over Jimmy's foot and nearly fall on Matt. 'Ugh,' he complained, picking Matt up and heaving him onto the bed, earning a soft chuckle from Anne. 'Is everyone else really still asleep?'
'Tom left on patrol,' Anne replied.
'I'm awake, thank you,' Jimmy grumbled.
'Yeah, you're welcome,' Hal replied, searching for his shirt. Once he had found one, he grabbed his boots, jacket, and guns and left to don them outside.
Jimmy groaned, lifting his head to look at Colm and dropping it back onto the floor with a thump. 'Great,' he grumbled.
'Are you sore?' Anne asked, peering at the two.
'Kind of,' Jimmy groaned, squirming slightly. 'It kind of hurts to lay on my spikes, but other than that not really. Anyways, I'd rather deal with that than tracking Colm down around camp.'
'What do you mean?' Anne asked.
'He sleepwalks,' Jimmy sighed. 'We found that out the hard way after we packed up. He kept climbing things or getting lost in his sleep.'
'Do you want help getting him off?' Anne laughed. 'If you want to get up, that is.'
'Nah,' Jimmy sighed. 'I got him,' he added. He pushed Colm off with one hand, catching him with the other arm. 'See?' he grinned triumphantly, laying Colm on the floor and climbing to his feet. He grabbed his things from where they had ended up the night before and went outside to gear up, like Hal.
Anne sat and watched the children for another few minutes before Dallon woke up with a start, then smacked Harlem to wake him up. Wordlessly, the two redressed before grabbing their shoes on the way outside. Surprisingly, the next to wake was Summer. She pulled on her jacket, then quietly woke up Mariah and Amanda, waiting for them to don their jackets before the trio left together, waving to Anne on their way out.
Maggie woke up next, sitting bolt upright and shivering. 'Brr,' she muttered, rubbing her arms. She looked down at Matt, sprawled beside her and frowned. 'I could have sworn I went to sleep with a different brother last night.'
Anne laughed. 'Hal woke up about ten minutes ago. Matt fell off sometime last night and Hal tripped on him, so he put him back on the bed.'
'Uh-huh,' Maggie said. 'Should I wake him up?'
'He'll have to get up sooner or later,' Anne shrugged.
With a malicious smile, Maggie poked Matt in the side with one finger and tickled him slightly. When that merely elicited a grunt and shift in position, she pounced with both hands and started tickling the young boy. Matt shrieked and began flailing around, sending blankets flying as he laughed and kicked. His shriek woke Colm and Alexis, who quickly assessed the situation and raced to join in. Their squeals and laughter soon joined Matt and Maggie's, raising the volume level in the tent by several notches.
Anne saw the mound of blankets that was Ben shift, and two bare feet poked out of the bottom. She saw an arm appear from the other side, and then motion stopped. As she watched, she saw a hand reach out and tug on the end of Abby's hair where it hung nearly to the floor. Without opening her eyes, Abby smacked him on the wrist.
'Next time you do that, I break your nose,' Abby grumbled. 'Okay?'
'Fine,' Ben sighed. He threw off his blankets and sat up, stretching languidly. He yawned and looked around. 'Where is everyone?'
'Already awake,' Anne replied with a smile.
'Crap!' Ben cried, jumping to his feet and frantically searching for his things. 'I need to go! I have patrol this morning!'
'Tom went,' Anne replied. 'He didn't want to wake you up. You've been sleeping better than normal the past few nights.'
'I know,' Ben agreed. 'I haven't had any nightmares.'
'It's the connection,' Abby said, propping herself up on her elbows and looking up at Ben. 'When you connect with someone, it does a lot of things. We found out that after we connected and packed up, we stopped having nightmares about being with the skitters. We think it's because we don't feel alone anymore.' She shrugged. 'I don't know what does it, I'm just glad it does. But it doesn't work if you're too far from the person or people you connected with.'
'Weird,' Ben said, finding his socks and shirt under Mariah and Amanda's cot.
'Is there anything we got from them that isn't weird?' Abby laughed, sitting up. She knelt on her cot and leaned over to grab her overshirt, shorts, and socks from under her cot.
Ben paused at the comment. 'Good point,' he agreed. He got dressed, dodging the tickle fight on his way outside.
'Good morning, by the way, Anne,' Abby smiled as she headed out, now fully dressed.
'Good morning,' Anne replied with a smile.
'Morning,' Jimmy yawned, looking up at Ben as he joined them around the fire circle. Hal had rekindled the flame from the night before, and was now cooking oatmeal over the small flame.
'Oatmeal?' Ben sighed, sitting down next to Jimmy.
'You betcha,' Hal laughed. 'What else?'
'True,' Ben nodded.
Abby hopped out of the tent and padded over to the fire, barefoot. She plopped down next to Jimmy and started pulling on her socks. She shivered, 'It's freezing!'
'Sun just rose,' Hal replied. 'It'll take a little while to warm up yet.'
Abby sighed and pulled her jacket on over her heavy shirt before shoving her feet into her brown boots.
'What is with you and those boots?' Hal asked. 'They're not very practical.'
'Don't I know it,' Abby grumbled. 'They were what I was wearing when I was taken, and I haven't been able to find anything else that fits.'
'How do you run in those?' Ben chimed in, peering at her around Jimmy.
'With difficulty,' Abby rolled her eyes. 'There are holes in the bottom, and the heels are all messed up. On the bright side, they don't give me blisters.'
'That is a plus,' Hal laughed, stirring the oatmeal. 'Done. Ben, can you grab those cups?'
'Yeah,' Ben stood up and grabbed several tin cups that were sitting, along with a canteen of water and the bag of oatmeal, across the fire from Hal and took the cups over to his brother. 'Here.'
'Thanks,' Hal said. He took one cup and spooned oatmeal into it, then passed it to Abby and repeated the motions.
'Where is everyone?' Abby asked, looking around as she passed the first cup to Jimmy.
'Dallon and Harlem went on patrol,' Hal replied. 'They're keeping an eye on the skitter camp. Dad's on patrol for Weaver. I don't know where those girls went, though.'
Abby sighed. 'They're always wandering off. They know enough not to leave the camp though, so they should be fine.'
'Morning!' Maggie called, exiting the tent and herding Alexis, Matt, and Colm in front of her. 'Is breakfast ready?'
'You bet,' Hal grinned. 'Grab some of those cups.'
Maggie picked up four of the tin cups, handing one each to the children. 'Go on, Hal will give you some oatmeal.'
The three filed over to Hal as Ben stepped around him to sit down next to Abby. Hal filled up each of their cups and they sat down around the circle. 'Anne, do you want some oatmeal?' Hal called towards the tent.
Anne didn't reply, but a few moments later she appeared in the doorway of the tent and made her way to the campfire. 'Hm, it was warmer inside,' she laughed. She accepted a cup-full of oatmeal from Hal and sat down between him and Ben. 'Thank you.'
'Yep,' Hal nodded, spooning out some oatmeal for himself and sitting down.
'It's pretty chilly,' Maggie observed, breaking the breakfast silence. 'But I guess this is just the start of winter, huh?'
'It's going to get a whole lot colder,' Anne nodded. 'I hope we can find somewhere sheltered to hole up.'
'I think Dad and Weaver are still planning to head for Charleston,' Hal said. 'If we can make it there, we don't need to find somewhere up here.'
'True,' Maggie agreed. 'But we don't know if we'll make it there. Definitely need to find more fuel first.'
'Hey, you guys have been around here for a while, haven't you?' Ben asked, turning to Jimmy and Abby.
'Yeah,' Jimmy nodded. 'Why?'
'Have you seen anywhere that looked like it might not be completely ransacked for fuel?' Ben asked.
'Not sure,' Jimmy replied.
'Hey, what about that one town where we found all the food?' Abby suggested.
'Yeah, maybe,' Jimmy agreed. 'We found this one town that was mostly destroyed, but hadn't been completely cleaned out. There was a gas station. We could check it out, at least.'
'How far is it?' Hal asked.
'Probably around fifty miles south-ish,' Jimmy replied. 'It's been a while since we passed through there.'
'That's about two and a half hours driving,' Hal said. 'I'll talk to Weaver; see if he'll let us go check it out.'
'We can help get there if he clears it,' Jimmy said. 'Abby would be best; she has the best sense of direction.'
'I'll let Weaver know,' Hal nodded. 'Thanks.'
Running tally of other fandom references: 3. So far. And there's one I'm not sure made it into the version I published... Anyways, if you catch a reference, let me know and I'll give you a shout-out! =D yay!
Okay, classes start again tomorrow, so I don't know how much I'll be updating... Once I upload the tenth chapter, I don't plan to update again until I've written at least ten for the sequel. Right now, I'm halfway through the fourth, so it shouldn't take me too long *is denying the amount of German and BritLit homework she has*
KBYE! EWOK OUT!
