Bodo stopped talking to Winky when he sensed me moving away and looked at me sideways. A frown passed over his lips before he reached behind me, put his arm around my hips, and pulled me over until I was nearly stuck to his side. “You stay by Bodo,” he said. “I don’t want dat Paci guy getting any ideas.” He looked up and glared in Paci’s general direction.

Paci just raised an eyebrow and smirked.

I looked at Bodo. “Ideas about what?”

“About who’ss gonna be Mr. Bryn.”

I couldn’t help but smile at his goofiness. I glanced over at Winky a second later to see her grinning too. Reaching down, I picked up my plate, my appetite fully restored.

***

Peter came walking into the hut as Trip began his speech. He sat down next to me and picked at the food on my plate as we listened. I tried not to think about the snake while I chewed my mystery meat.

“We’re all here to talk about our plans to go to find the animals who hurt Celia and who have some other people there being held as … prisoners.” Trip looked around at the group of us sitting in front of him, slowly, as if taking our measure. “This is going to be dangerous and could result in injuries or maybe worse. No one has to go if they don’t want to.” His voice went harsh. “So if you’re not interested, take your food and go.”

Everyone there had to know from his tone that if they left, Trip was going to mark them forever as cowards in his mind. I was glad when Kowi walked over to stand next to him and add his two cents.

“No one who backs out is going to be thought less of. You all have your own things going on, and we understand if you can’t take the risk.”

Trip glared out at the group but said nothing.

No one got up and left.

I scanned the group, trying to read their body language and determine if anyone was having second thoughts. I didn’t want people who weren’t totally dedicated to go; they could turn tail and run, or freeze up at the worst possible time, jeopardizing us all. I saw only stoic faces and an occasional frown, but nothing that looked like fear. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or worried about that.

I made a split-second decision and stood, going over to join Trip and Coli. “Sorry guys, but I had a thought and wanted to just say it out loud.” I looked at the two chiefs for permission to speak and they both nodded.

I turned to face the group in front of us. “I know you all love Celia and want to do the right thing by her … revenge and all. And I totally get that. But I just want to be sure you know exactly what we’re doing here before you agree to go.”

“Are you trying to talk us out of it?” asked Fohi.

“No. But I can’t afford - we can’t afford - to have someone watching our backs who takes off running or freezes up at a bad time. It could cause someone to get killed.”

Fohi scoffed loudly at me. “Please. Like any of us would run.” He looked around at his friends nearby, and they all nodded, puffing out their chests.

I shook my head. “No, I’m not calling anyone here a coward. I’m just saying that some of the things we’re going to see and do will be shocking. You’re going to be asked to hurt or kill other kids, and none of us knows how we’re going to react to that. It’s fight or flight, you know? … Like an instinct you can’t control sometimes.”

“Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not flying. I’m fighting,” said Fohi, nodding his head firmly.

I put my hands on my hips. He wasn’t getting it, and it was frustrating. “Fine. So when you walk into a room and you got ten canners sitting down to a dinner of human arms and legs with guns at their sides, you’re going to be ready to crash the party?”

“Yeah.”

“And when it’s just you and one of your friends standing there, with three times as many canners pointing guns at you -and you have an escape route - you’re not going to take it?”

“No.”

“Well then, you’re stupid.” I let it go at that and waited for the outcry. It came about a half second later.

“What the hell? That’s not stupid! That’s loyalty!” insisted Fohi.

“You’re saying we should abandon each other?” yelled someone else in the crowd.

There was a lot of grumbling and people were gesturing angrily. I glanced over at Trip and his eyebrows were raised, but he said nothing. Kowi looked at me questioningly.

I held up my hands for quiet. Most of them calmed down enough to listen, but Fohi was practically foaming at the mouth with indignation.

“Let me explain. If you are outnumbered and outgunned, you have to get away to fight another way or another day. Otherwise, you’re just going to be full of bullet holes and dead. You have to be willing to leave someone behind if it means winning the fight. That’s what I’m talking about here. Difficult choices.”

“That’s bullshit,” said Fohi. “The military never left anyone behind. At least, that was their motto.”

“We aren’t the military. We’re survivalists who sometimes have to make decisions about tough sacrifices. We’re not going after these guys for revenge or to assert our power over them. We’re going after them because eventually, they’re going to come after us. And those kids they have might need us, but our primary reason for going in there is our own survival. I’m sorry to sound so cold-blooded, but that’s how I see it.”

“She’s right,” said Trip loudly, taking a step forward, not looking at me.

Everyone quieted down and listened.

“Like she said, if you’re outnumbered and outgunned, and you have to choose between escaping and dying, choose escape. We can’t afford to lose any one of you if we can help it.”

“But what about the brother or sister they leave behind?” asked Fohi, only slightly calmed down.

Trip shrugged. “Tough luck. Try not to get yourself into that situation and you won’t have to worry about it.”

“Which is exactly why we’re here right now,” said Kowi. “Let’s get down to business with the planning of this trip.” He looked at me. “Bryn, do you have anything to share that you found in George’s journals?”

“Yeah. I think so. But we really need Celia to help with this part. She’s the only one who knows what the place looks like.”

“No. I have this. Celia helped me with it,” said Trip, pulling out a folded up piece of thick paper. It looked like handmade stuff, kind of lumpy and stiff - a little bit like the toilet paper in the outhouse, but bigger.

“What is it?” I said, moving closer. I found my answer as soon as I drew near. It was a map of the canner compound. “Nice,” I said, nodding my head in appreciation. “This is good stuff.” I pointed to a dark black mark near what looked like a wall. “What’s that?”

“That’s a door of some sort.”

“Oh, yeah. She mentioned some kind of door she couldn’t get through.”

Kowi joined us, looking over Trip’s shoulder.

“I figured during our recon we’d need to check out and kind of get ready any possible entry and exit points. Like break locks or whatever,” I said.

Trip walked over to one of the posts that held up the hut, securing the map to it with something he pulled out of his boot. “Come on over here, you guys. Take a look. We need to get some input on the best way to get in here and do our recon.”

Everyone got up and moved closer. Soon there was a crowd around the map.

“What’s that?” asked Paci, pointing.

“That’s some kind of tree she said is climbable.”

“Where?” asked someone from the back. “I can’t tell what you’re talking about.”

Kowi motioned to Coli and said, “Hand Trip one of those thin branches so he can point to stuff, would ya?”

She turned and did as he asked, the crowd passing the stick until it reached Trip’s hands.

“Here,” he said, pointing to the star-shaped thing on the left side of the map. “That’s the tree that Cee used to get out. And that is where they’re keeping the other kids.” He pointed around at the various places he was talking about, tapping the map each time. “This is the front door. It’s on the east side of the building as you can see. It faces the ocean pretty much.”

“The sound of the ocean could mask some of our noises if it’s close enough,” I said mostly to myself. I looked at Trip. “Where exactly is the ocean in relation to this place?”

“Right across the street,” said Trip.

Sweet. I was going to hope for a rough day at sea, then. Noisy waves means we can make a little noise ourselves and maybe get in and out without being heard.

Kowi took over. “Okay, so our plan is to just watch them for the first day. Get a feel for their comings and goings, their routines. Find and open all the entrances and exits, and figure out the best way to get those kids out of there.”

“But if we open the doors, they’ll know we’re there. How are we going to surprise them if we announce ourselves ahead of time like that?” asked Winky.

Peter moved to stand next to me, joining in with his answer. “You have to do it in a non-noticable way if you can. Just make sure the door will open when the time comes. If they notice an unlocked door or whatever, maybe they’ll just assume someone was stupid and left it that way by accident.”

“Yeah,” agreed Paci. “I mean, who unlocks a door and then doesn’t go in?”

“Crazy Meeks and Creeks, that’s who,” I said, grinning.

“You got that right,” said Fohi, his arms crossed over his chest, a proud smile back on his face. I could almost picture him in yellow and black, wings on his back. Bee was the perfect name for him - fuzzy and cute-looking on the outside but able to deliver a painful sting when pissed off. I hoped the canners, if they even saw us at all, would underestimate him like I had.

“Bryn, I hope George had some ideas about where we should do this stuff from and how, with details. I have no experience in this,” admitted Kowi.

“He did mention some things. We need to find cover. We need to camouflage ourselves as much as possible. That might mean hiding or it could mean standing out, looking like others who live around the canners. I mean, we don’t know if the streets are deserted or if people are out walking around.”

“I think we can assume no one walks around there since they’re flesh eaters,” said Coli sarcastically.

“Maybe,” I shrugged. I didn’t feel comfortable assuming anything at this point.

“Let’s plan on being camouflaged in the invisible way. Seems like that might be a good default option since we have no idea what their neighborhood is like. We can hide from the canners and any kids in the nearby area who might tip them off about us.”

I nodded. It sounded as good as plan as any. It was more than a little unsettling to think that local kids might sell us out to the canners for points with them or something. That made our enemy base a lot broader.

Trip’s map included some other features outside the walls of the canner house.

“What’s that other stuff around the edges of the map?” I asked.

Trip pointed to the west side of the house. “This stuff here is a high hedge wall. It’s all overgrown now, so plenty of spots to hide in.”

“They have dogs, though,” said Coli. “Anyone getting close to that wall is going to make them bark.”

“I might have an idea for that,” said Peter, his meek voice barely coming through the crowd of people.

“What?” asked Trip.

“Buster.”

My eyes widened. I couldn’t imagine he was suggesting we use Buster as bait, but it sure seemed like that’s what he was saying.