Squads in full gear hurtled either in or out of camp, as they ran drills with extra gusto and without complaining. With Jess and Emma on a mission to find us a rescue, we needed to do everything we could to stay alive till then.

Including getting Jackson and myself to lie to everyone and tell them Jess' departure had been planned. Telling them she'd gone rogue could result in some of them doing the same, and that wouldn't help us survive. 

Jackson had taken his sister's departure just as hard as I had, if not more. Or maybe because he'd had no one to hold him till the chaos passed, it had seemed worse. Poor Kellen, unfortunately, had taken the brunt of both our freak outs. I could only imagine how bruised the poor boy was under the layers of warm clothes. But Jess was being stronger than any of us had given her credit for, and she was doing it for all of us, so we sucked up our fears and dove into our duties.

-.-

Kellen was across the clearing, working on fixing a blind that had somehow been knocked down this morning. The news of Jess' departure had energized people, so there was more activity than normal down on the ground, and I had to hold a shushing finger up to silence people several times as I neared Kellen.

"Tank, can you pass me the thingy?" He held two evergreen panels together with one hand, his other hand waiting outstretched for the wire that would attach them.

Clearly he'd been working hard enough to break a sweat, because his jacket was discarded beside him on a pile of rocks. He hadn't even noticed it was me and not Thomas―who he was now apparently calling Tank―standing over him.

"Tank! The thingy!" He waved his arm behind him urgently. It was a little silly of me, given that he was trying to get things done. I leaned down, and made the most rabbity noise I could think of.

"Whahaaa! What the heck?!" He jumped up so fast, he overturned the tool bucket beside him.

"Wha-? Wha-? Why-?" His inability to form words made the spiders-in-his-clothes shimmy he was doing even more comical. I doubled over, laughing so hard everything was blurring. Beside me, Tank had dropped to the ground, shaking with silent, tearful laughter.

"Cole?" Kellen stood there looking so confused it sobered me quickly.

"Aww, Kels!" I grinned as I hugged him, "Sorry, but that was just... aha... oh, you're too cute!"

"I swear, Cole! I shouldn't even talk to you for that," he grumbled with a reluctant smile as he picked up the panels he'd dropped.

"What?" I asked innocently, "I can't have a little fun? Who said we have to be all work all the time?"

"You did, actually. Remember two days ago? 'No time for fun, lots of things to get done.' Your words." He eyed me with a smirk; I had said it, to avoid being the potato in their pass the potato game.

"Aye aye, Captain. All work!" I saluted him, forcing a serious look onto my face. "Jacks took off already to help the Hunters. Where am I needed?"

"Hadley's got the list."

I spun around, scanned the area for Hadley and headed in her direction.

"Cole! Sorry, you don't have to leave." He called after me, " You can help here!"

"Nah. We've got a meeting later, so all the things before 5."

"You got it, Boss!"

-.-

"Where're we at, Hads?" I called as I swung down from the upper level like Tarzan. I'd remind everyone tomorrow; be quiet and aware, but for now, I was willing to be rambunctious as well.

Hadley set down the sack of rocks she'd been lugging, and waved down one of the crew she'd been working with. "Make sure those drag marks are cleared and all tracks are covered."

She plunked herself on the bag and looked over a list as I approached. I liked this Hadley, she was fresh faced and cared a lot less about appearance than she had at school. She was also organized and worked hard, a far cry from the frivolous bimbo she let everyone think she was. 

"Kellen's doing room checks and Jackson should be back soon from digging new latrines." She folded the list back into her pocket.

"Ew."

She glanced up at me with a sideways smile; that particular task always fell to one of them. Not that laundry was any better; the smells were a whole new level of rank. Worse than eau-de-boys-locker-room. "Only two more things left."

I knew one was our constant everyday job, perimeter checks, which required all of us. "Can we get the other one done without the boys?"

"That won't happen―I don't touch fish. You guys need to help prep it for cooking when it gets here."

As she returned to the task of distributing heated rocks and collecting all the now cold rocks, I traipsed over to one of the fires and sat with two other juniors girls. A piece of paper was quickly hidden from me, but not before I saw it.

Seriously? This was getting out of hand; didn't they have anything better to do? I rolled my eyes at them, giggling while they ran away to pass the hijINKs update to someone else.

As had become my habit whenever I had a quiet moment to myself, I carefully removed Eddie's and Jess' letters from my pocket. I couldn't bring myself to even look at Jess' and stuffed it away quickly; I was a little mad at her. I gently unfolded Eddie's and smoothed it out on my thigh. His writing made me smile, and I ran my fingers over the thin choppy backwards leaning letters.

Stay strong, he'd written and every time I read the words, I assured him and myself that I was trying. It made me miss him terribly; his lopsided grin, his constant teasing, that spark in his eyes, our conversations, his support.

I thought of him locked up in the academy, alone with no one to be scared with. No one to squeeze his hand, or reinforce his decision to stay, no one to tell him he could do it, no one to have his back. It made me want to ball up the letter and go running back for him again.

But then I scanned the words he'd written as postscript; stay there and keep morale up, and take care of Becca for me.

I was too important to people here. With a deep breath, I folded sad Nicole into the letter and replaced it in my pocket; she'd have to wait to come out another time. 

It got easier to sideline my melancholy, when Kellen arrived minutes later. Given the slightly warmer temperature of the day, his jacket hung open, scarf nowhere to be seen, and gloves stuffed in his pockets.

"Gah! I hate doing the room checks! Everyone's got so many problems that aren't even problems! Would it kill them to figure out ways to deal with it themselves? Who cares if Thomas Weber snores? If it's such a problem, move to another blind! Do you know, I spent 30 minutes solving an issue of who gets to boink when? So stupid!"

I laughed as I tossed some twigs into the fire, knowing exactly which group of people he meant. "Yeah, I had to deal with them yesterday. Jacks or Hads will have to tomorrow and the day after."

"Well, I guess it wasn't all stupid..." I could see reality coming, despite me not wanting it.

"Charlie Sung and Megan Crewes' anxiety meds are running low. God, I hope Eddie or Jess comes through soon."

I decided not to worry, because if it were that low, Kellen would have been in full blown panic mode. And I knew I had a lock box full of spare medications in my half of our blind, but I chose to keep silent about it; if anyone knew there was a pharmacy in my room, I could imagine things going bad quickly.

"They will." I said and flicked Kellen's ear for something to do. When he only twitched, still frowning at the checklist in his hand, I did it again. I smirked when he swatted my hand away and did it yet again, harder this time.

"Stop that!" he leaned away as I reached out once more. With a grin I'm sure made me look maniacal, I shuffled closer and continued my barrage.

Soon, we were running circles around the fire, laughing as we waged all out war on each other. Something whizzed past my ear and I turned to look back, only to be hit in the face by a pine cone. He'd thrown a pine cone at me. He chuckled at my surprise and tossed another one, and then doubled over in laughter as I stood there stunned after it hit my forehead.

Bad idea Kellen! Letting your guard down in front of the enemy. I jumped, latching my arms around him so he couldn't shake me off and tickled. And tickled and tickled and tickled.

"Stahp... can't... breathe.... Damn!.... have.... to .... p... p.... PISS!!!!!"

"That's nice to know." Jackson's voice startled both of us and we looked up to see him peering at us in amusement.

Beside him, Hadley eyed Kellen, laying in the dirt under me, with confused shock. All around, I could see people giving us the same unsure look. Just great, I thought, seeing just how many toothy smiles we were getting. Damn hijINKs!

"What's happening?" Hadley whispered to Jackson. "Is he broken? This is not normal."

Kellen didn't respond to her, running out of camp the second I let him up; I guess he really did need to pee.

"Nah. It is." Jackson grinned. "You just never got to see it."

"And she did?" Hadley sounded skeptical.

"Well, she-"

"Is standing right here!" 

"So you are!" Jackson bopped my nose and curled his arm around my neck.

"But seriously, what was that?" Hadley repeated more to herself than us, and I chose to ignore it.

Jackson tipped his head to me, lowering his voice so she wouldn't hear, "You guys weren't lying last night, were you? I don't have to kill anyone, do I?"

"And who would you kill?" I snorted a laugh.

"Him of course!" Jackson scoffed and then grinned. "No one touches my sisters."

My eyes teared up and my heart swelled with a smile at his words; his sister! Still, I scowled and elbowed him. "Whatever, Jacks!" 

As Kellen rejoined us and we headed for the outskirts of camp, I didn't remove myself from under Jackson's arm.

What was your favorite Nicole/Kellen interaction in this chapter?

Or, did you prefer the sibling-like love between Jacks and Nicole?