(Justin's PoV)

    Lt. Jason entered with our newest mail. I watched the usual group of guys search through the pool, anxious to see if anything was for them.

    Occasionally I'd get a letter, but I would always wait until after the group dispersed to check. It was far too crowded in the beginning for my liking.

    "Justin got a package from Audrey," Clayton exclaimed. "I bet it's homework. We'll see how he likes it when he's on the receiving end," he muttered to Trevor.

    Honestly, I'd love it. I thought to myself as I made my way over to the mail stack. I hope it's the physics homework. I felt so cheated since I had to leave only a month after the second semester had started. And it was just when we were getting into the energy unit.

    Or maybe the Honors Trigonometry homework. I would definitely need to brush up on that before taking the ACT when I get back.

    Either one would have made for a stimulating birthday gift.

    I picked up the cardboard box. It was considerably smaller than my math or science textbooks, but as I eyed it, I figured my German one would fit.

    Figures. Audrey loved languages. But it was probably needed. I hadn't practiced German at all since I left Nebraska. I ripped off the tape and inside was a thick, hardcover book, but not one I had used in any of my classes. The front read "Blood of Olympus".

    "No way," I said under my breath.

    Inside the front cover was a note.

    Dear Justin,

    I hope this gets here on time. It better. I strategically planned so that this package would arrive in Guilin on exactly October 7th.

    I smiled down at the letter. That girl was always on top of things.

    Anyways, happy birthday. There was no way I was going to let you not read the final book in the series. Especially after how you couldn't stop talking about how excited you were to read this after you finished "Mark of Athena" (which was literally the day after it came out). I already finished it, but I won't give any spoilers. Happy reading! I'll write again soon.

    "Thanks Audrey," I whispered as I flipped through the pages. Since I had been drafted, I had forgotten how much I loved books. Not just textbooks, but real stories like the one in my hand. Suddenly it all came back to me. The cliffhangers. The character arcs. The plot twists. I needed to know more. I opened the book to the first page. Despite the war and the constant noise of our bedroom, I allowed myself to be sucked into the world of fantasy.

(Daniel's PoV)

"I'm so bored," Logan whined.

I cocked an eyebrow, but the rest of my expression was deadpan. "Do you wanna go explore again?"

He shrunk a little in stature.

"Holy shit!" Trevor exclaimed, pointing up. "Get down."

Luckily none of us had any athletic ability whatsoever, so our first instinct when we see a flying object was not to catch it, but rather, get as far away as possible.

Although after the grenade hit the ground, Clayton attempted to make a grab for it. In a moment of panic, I gripped his shirt collar and pulled him back down with me.

Within the next second, the grenade gave off a small explosion. I looked up to see a cloud of smoke around the area. Bits of dirt and burnt grass stuck to my uniform. There were several pieces of broken metal in front of me that likely bounced off my helmet. Clayton was next to me, coughing and sputtering. I didn't feel as bad as I should have about the red choke marks around his neck.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded breathlessly.

"I was gonna try to throw it back over," he shot back, still rubbing his neck.

"It would have killed you," I retorted.

Several other guys came frantically running in. Marcus gave a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god, you guys are alive."

"Barely," I muttered. "This genius over here nearly touched the grenade," I added, gesturing to Clayton.

"Of course he did," Justin responded.

Clayton tried to reply, but Justin just continued. "Just keep a close watch. Whoever threw that must have been pretty close to the barricade to get it that far. Even Connor and Aaron can only throw them about 30 feet."

Upon realizing we weren't dead, the other guys started to file back into their usual areas. Luckily Sgt. Blake didn't come over to yell at us, but then again, on the first day we learned that he didn't leave his spot for anything.

I sat down with my arms folded. Clayton held a similar position, but faced the opposite direction.

"No, no, no, don't be mad," Logan pleaded.

Neither of us spoke.

"Clayton, you're not dumb," he began.

"Well Justin thinks I am. And he's always right after all." Bitterness clung to his voice.

"But," Logan continued. "Who cares if you almost touched a literal grenade? The point is you were going to try to save us, so that's pretty awesome." He turned to me. "Daniel, you nearly choked Clayton, but you pulled him into safety. That was pretty badass."

It occurred to me that I had never used that much strength in my life before. Clayton must have had the same thought because he laughed as he rubbed his neck. "Yeah, who knew Daniel had that much force."

"But we should all be happy that we survived," Logan went on. "I mean, that was like a mini bomb."

I looked down to see that I wasn't even bleeding, none of us were. Aside from dirt and ash, we were unscathed. Logan wrapped Clayton, Trevor, and I in a hug. "So no fighting. Let's be friends and yay for not dying." He squeezed us tighter.

Since Trevor was about a head taller than the rest of us, his face wasn't pressed against several dirty army jackets, which allowed him to make comments easier. "Well I'm just shocked cuz that stupid elementary school tornado drill position actually came in useful for once."

(Aaron's PoV)

    I felt like my entire insides were collapsing. My head throbbed as my vision grew blurry. "Connor, where is he?" The words could barely escape from my throat.

    Connor scanned the whole area. "I don't know, I thought he was right beside you."

    "I did too," I replied, my voice in a frantic haze. I tried thinking back to the conversation Connor and I were having earlier. I didn't remember Sean trying to get my attention. My stomach grew tighter.

    Where could he have gone?

    Connor scooped up an assortment of leaves, twigs, and stones. "Don't worry, we're gonna go look for him. I'll drop these in a pattern so we don't get lost ourselves."

    There were so many directions to go, but the two of us refused to split up.

    "Just think of it this way," Connor pointed out. "He's probably safe at least. I'm sure we would have noticed if something bad happened to him."

    I tried to agree, but my head hurt too much to nod. As we kept walking, I noticed that our surroundings looked almost exactly the same, no matter where we went. It would've been so easy to get lost here.

    My thoughts raced back to the dead boy we found a few months ago. He had obviously been attacked. Whoever killed him could still be out here.

    My brain tormented me for hours. The temperature began to drop as the sun started to set. "We've still got some time before we have to go in," Connor rationalized.

    The sky had already gone a shade of light purple. I tried not to imagine how terrified Sean would be if he was stuck out here alone at night. That is, if he was still alive.

    After another hour or so passed, my pulse quickened even more. It was like we had been running in circles. My breathing was getting shorter, and that wasn't only due to exhaustion.

    "We're gonna find him," Connor told me. "No matter--what the hell?" A small, ferret-like animal crawled past his foot.

    "No wait, come back," an all too familiar voice came from behind the trees. Sean ran into us while trying to chase after the rodent thing. He looked up at us, completely unfazed. "Hi."

    "Have you been here the whole time?" I asked, struggling to form the words.

    He shrugged. "Kind of. I saw an animal and it was the first one I had seen since being here, and I didn't want to lose it. I thought we could keep it as a pet, so I thought I'd go search for it for a bit."

    "A bit?" Connor raised an eyebrow. "Sean, it's been hours."

    Sean's expression fell. "Hours?" He looked up to suddenly notice the sky was no longer light blue. "I thought it had only been like 15 minutes."

    "We've been looking for you this whole time," I told him. "We were so scared."

    Sean bit his lip, unsure of how to respond. "I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to play with an animal." He gave a few shallow breaths. "I didn't mean to scare you guys. Please don't be mad, you're my best friends."

    Connor and I exchanged glances after looking at Sean. Out of all the emotions we'd experienced today, anger wasn't one of them.

    I pulled the little guy in for a hug. "Don't worry, we're not mad at you. We're just so relieved that you're safe."

(Landon's PoV)

    "What are you doing?" I asked slowly as I watched Holly grab two pieces of her hair and attempt to knot them together. She sighed in frustration. Whatever she was trying to do, it wasn't working.

    "I'm trying to braid it," she admitted. "I want it out of my face--stop laughing!"

    "But you're so bad at it," I replied, stifling a smile.

    She folded her arms and huffed. "Like you could do any better."

    "Actually I could," I said, stepping in. "I have sisters. I know way more about hair than I ever wanted to. Let me do it for you."

    She chewed on her lip, debating whether or not to trust me.

    "Come on," I smirked at her. "You're gonna rip your hair out if you try to do it on your own."

    "Fine," she reluctantly agreed. She sat down and I walked up behind her. My fingers got caught as I tried to run them through her hair.

    "Do you own a brush?" I asked.

    "There's probably one somewhere." She glanced around the room. "I never thought to look."

    "Nevermind, I think I can get it with my fingers," I said as I separated knots. "But first things first, a braid uses three pieces of hair not two."

    "Does it matter?" she asked.

    "Yeah," I responded. "Like a lot. That's pretty much what a braid is. This is why I'm doing it for you."

    "I could've figured it out on my own," she said stubbornly.

    "Sure," I replied. I brushed one of the front pieces out of her eyes and she gripped my right hand, focusing in on my scar.

    "Oh my God. Did this happen here? Why didn't you tell me?"

    "No, no," I said quickly. "That happened like 10 years ago."

    She wouldn't let go of my hand. "And it left this kind of mark? What happened?"

    I wriggled my hand free from her grasp. "It's nothing."

    "That's not nothing," she told me.

    "I got it from saving puppies and children from a burning building," I said, beaming with fake pride.

    She cocked an eyebrow. "Landon, seriously?"

    "It's no big deal," I brushed it off. "It's stupid, really."

    Her voice went softer than I had ever heard it before. "I promise I won't make fun of you. No matter how 'stupid' it seems...please?"

    "Just keep your head forward so I can keep braiding while I talk," I directed. My entire mouth felt dry and my words kept getting stuck in my throat. "Let's just say, back at home, I was like a doll for my sisters. They liked to dress me up and put makeup on me and stuff...normal sister things-"

    "And where does physical injury come into play-"

    "Now I'm definitely not saying that it's the worst thing ever...there's so much more they could do..." I absentmindedly put each piece of hair over the previous one as I spoke. "But one time they were putting my hair in these things called hot rollers. I didn't realize what they were at the time. I thought I could just take them out and I ended up wrapping my hand around one-"

    She tried to turn to me. "That's awful."

    "Head front," I reminded her. "But it was mostly my fault."

    "It's common sense that you don't put burning objects anywhere near a seven year old." She paused for a moment. "Are they always that mean to you?"

    I nearly dropped her hair, flustered by the question. "My sisters aren't mean per se...they just tease me and stuff...I'm sure tons of people have it way worse."

    "And?" she questioned. "That doesn't make it any better. Look at the scar on your right hand. You obviously weren't able to get it treated at the time."

    The immense feelings of vulnerability caused me to stammer out, "It's fine."

    Holly pressed further with questions but I had no idea how to respond. She almost never made a big deal out of anything. Was one decade old scar really gonna be the thing that got her worried? There was no reason for this.

    I quickly finished braiding the ends together and used one of the rubber bands from her desk to hold it together. "There."

    "Landon," she continued.

    "It's totally fine," I repeated. "I gotta go get ready to fight."

    I couldn't remember if she said anything as I bolted out of there. I didn't know how to handle it when she was the one who wanted to talk.

(Will's PoV)

I kept going back to outside the hospital room whenever I closed my eyes.

My mom grabbed my shoulders and spun me towards her. She took out a cigarette and lit it.

"You can't have that in here," I stammered.

"Oh yeah," she challenged. "And who's watching me?" She stuck the cigarette in between her lips and released a cloud of smoke. Any hope I had of replying was brought on by a coughing fit.

"But let's cut to it," she continued. "Look what you did to her."

"I didn't mean to," I mustered out. "I didn't want this-"

"Of course you did. Although I can't blame you. That mouthy brat had it coming." She looked me straight in the eyes. "But it seems like you've finally done something worthwhile. Who knows? Maybe you did inherit some brains."

"No, I didn't know-"

"Face it kid," she snarled. "You know deep down you meant to do it. You wanted her dead, and you wish you had succeeded." She exhaled, releasing more smoke. "You're not as sweet and innocent as you may think. But who knew you had it in you? You almost murdered someone--a blood relative I might add. And that, child, is a whole new level of evil."

I was startled awake by the sound of gunshots outside.

The guys were in a frantic mess to grab their own weapons. I nearly fell off the top bunk.

"Guys! Christopher's outside!" Daniel exclaimed. "What if he got hit?"

We all rushed outside, followed by Holly, Sgt. Blake, and Lt. Jason.

"I see you're all prepared," Sgt. Blake muttered. Of all the guys that had managed to grab their guns, about half of them were holding them the wrong way (Matteo included, who scoffed as soon as Sgt. Blake changed his focus).

To our surprise, Christopher was standing at his post, completely unharmed.

"Where did the shots come from?" Holly questioned.

"Me," he responded. After getting several confused glances, he continued. "There were some enemy soldiers getting close to base--at least, I think they were enemies since I couldn't understand what they were saying. But they were getting kind of close so I fired a few warning shots. I think I might have scared them off. They went that way." He pointed in a slightly leftward direction.

Sgt. Blake's gaze followed Christopher's hand. "Guerillas," he sighed.

Sean giggled. "But everybody knows gorillas don't live in China, they live in Africa!"

Aaron put his hand on his shoulder. "No...he means like...soldiers who are enemies but don't fight for their official army."

"And only certain species of gorillas live in Africa," Justin added.

Holly sighed in exasperation. "Will someone say anything relevant?" She turned to Christopher. "How many did you see?"

"Three," he replied. "But there may be more nearby."

"It's likely," Sgt. Blake admitted. "And it's not a group you'll want to face alone." He looked at the digital watch on his wrist." "It's a little after 0300. No point in going back to sleep."

"Oh God, no," Clayton muttered under his breath. Me, Matteo, Logan, and probably half of our platoon shared the same worried expression.

"Suit up boys," Sgt. Blake ordered. "We're starting early today."

(Gavin's PoV)

    "Boys," we heard Sgt. Blake yell.

    "What did we do again?" I whispered to Tristan as we attempted to fall in line. He shrugged in response.

    "At ease," Sgt. Blake told us once he entered our room.

    We shared looks of confusion. He never wanted us to relax.

    "I have just been informed that there has been a bombing in Eastern Nebraska," he began.

    I could feel my stomach twist into knots. What if Trixie got hurt?

    "What city was it?"

    "How many were there?"

    "What kind of bombs?"

    Sgt. Blake cut everyone's questions off. "I don't know many specific details. I just figured you all should know since you're from there."

    "I'm from Washington D.C.," Ned interjected.

    "Since most of you are from there," he finished irritably. And for once in his life, he looked almost awkward. "And whoever is supposed to be on guard tonight, consider yourself relieved from your duty. I'll take over."

    "Just that?" I questioned once he was out of earshot. I half expected him to come back in and punish us for worrying or being on the verge of tears.

"Maybe it's a trick," Clayton suggested.

"Yeah, he's always super strict about guard duty," Matteo added, folding his arms.

"Aw, cut him some slack guys," Lt. Jason told us. "He just knows exactly how you guys feel. His girlfriend died in the original bombing of St. Louis."

I'm pretty sure all of our mouths fell open.

"He had a girlfriend?" Sean exclaimed. Aaron gently nudged him.

"Yeah, this was back when I first joined the army and he was the head of my squadron," Lt. Jason explained. "What's really sad is he didn't find out about her death until a few weeks after it happened. But he was really upset about it all. I'm pretty sure he cried a-" he stopped mid sentence. "Don't tell him I told you that."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Landon assured.

Daniel spoke up. His voice was shaking. "Was this one as bad as the St. Louis bombing?"

"I don't know guys," he replied. "I'm sorry. It's gotta be rough. But if any of you want to talk or need some cheering up, I'll be in my office."

"I sniffled and my breathing grew thin. "Why would anybody choose to bomb Nebraska? What's so special about Nebraska?"

"Well it's an important source for agriculture," Justin commented. "There's also Offutt Air Force Base." He sighed. "For once in my life, I hate logic."

Holly must have felt relieved cuz after that it got really quiet. None of us wanted to say the unthinkable so we all retreated to our beds for isolation. Most of us started writing letters, despite knowing that we wouldn't get a reply for weeks--if one was coming back at all.