April Fools’ Day came and went without pranks. No one dared joke about the troops all being gone, or anything along those lines, since that was clearly what we all were wishing for.
Easter passed a few days later, and the snow cleared out pretty well the next week. We were actually worried the roads would completely clear and the troops would come in before mid-April, but they didn’t—in either case—and we did get snow again. I usually hate it when it snows in May. I celebrated it this year.
A couple warm days after the first, and all the snow was suddenly gone in the valley. The elk began their slow but steady transition up the mountain. As went the prey, so went the predators. The plows came through, and the troops poured in. We needed to be making our own preparations to move.
The first few weeks of May were pretty tense. Leaving the cave for anything more than a bathroom break wasn’t an option, considering the amount of traffic around and over us. The drones were back out in force. We didn’t know how long they would keep this up, but we felt pretty confident they would do so until there was absolutely no resistance.
A construction crew was sent in to check out and rebuild the entry to our road. We kept a close eye on their progress. Tension was peaking again. We had to get to Hawaii as soon as possible, because as every day passed the enemy was likely to be focusing more and more of their presence on the last remaining piece of the puzzle. Eventually there would be no way to get there. It would normally go without saying we had to be there before that day came, but to double emphasize that point, I’m saying it anyway.
We’d come to know each other pretty well throughout the past five months. That tends to happen when there are fourteen of you trapped in a cave barely larger than the size of your average living room. Given the tight quarters, Tara and I didn’t want to serve as a constant reminder to Jenna of Cameron’s absence, so we cooled things off a bit physically, which was probably for the best. Extenuating circumstances are known to cause some pretty volatile relationships. We wanted to do this right, so if we survived we could take the relationship somewhere. We sat and talked for hours every day, and we still slept beside each other, but there was no more hand holding and very little kissing, even in private. We didn’t want to be disrespectful to anyone. We’d come to know nearly everything about each other. She was more than I ever dreamed I’d find…again.
When Tara wasn’t with me, she was with Reagan. They’d spent hundreds of hours in conversation as well, and I could tell how much Tara’s personal experiences were helping Reagan battle her own emotional demons. Reagan turned twenty-five in February, and she said it was the most friends she’d ever had at a birthday party. Daughter of the vice president had to have been some kind of life. And clearly not all positive.
Jenna had been spending a lot of time with Blake. There was nothing romantic there—yet—but Blake was there when Cameron died, and Jenna knew how much Cameron thought of him. For her, it was probably best there was no room for romance either.
Blake, Isaac and Sam were learning how to shoot a bow from Hayley, and Danny was giving them all lessons on knife throwing. Everyone was making time indoors as productive as possible, but it wasn’t all peachy and perfect. Isaac was driving Danny crazy. He was a quick enough learner, but largely uninterested in anything military. Sam was constantly on his brother to pay more attention and to participate more. If there was any friction in the cave it was Danny and Sam’s frustration with Isaac, but Hayley and Blake were great peacekeepers. They constantly tried to make the learning more fun for Isaac, and to keep Sam and Danny’s intensity away from him. Their intervention definitely helped. Still, I knew it was bothering Danny, even more than it was Sam. Danny was looking for people he could count on when he needed them. He didn’t think he had that in Isaac.
Dad always kept a watchful eye on all matters in the cave. He’d intervened on Isaac’s behalf a few times, and talked Danny down a few times, but mostly he stayed out of it. All things considered, he and Mom were still doing pretty well. They’d always been avid outdoor people, which seemed to help them adjust to the cave after awhile. Mom either made or helped make our meals every day, and Dad was always playing with Emily and Abbey or talking strategy with Danny.
I could tell that helped Danny, as those were conversations he’d always had with Cameron. Dad knew his stuff, and Danny trusted him. I’m sure it was good for both of them. And speaking of good for Danny, that girl, Kate, she was a definite keeper. She’d absolutely been his rock. She’d been there for him every way he needed her to be. Her soft-spoken nature and persistent love was perfect for Danny.
He did his best to push her off for most of December, but you could tell—on Christmas Eve no less—he finally realized she wasn’t going anywhere, and that was the first time I saw him put his arm around her since we’d left Minnesota. They’d spent a lot of time together, just the two of them, talking, laughing, and even occasionally holding hands.
It was good for him to be able to relax now. He wasn’t going to be able to keep that guard down for long, as we’d be on the move again soon, but while he could, it provided yet another example of how we all managed to make lemonade out of the lemon groves we’d been given. I guess you could say, in a few ways, I was honestly thankful we’d been stuck in this cave. This hole in the mountain, in the middle of the country, was a welcome eye in this crazy storm. For a while at least, it sure beat being outside on the run, trying to outsmart the African captain and a million other madmen.
We all were wondering where Eddie was at this point. Was he ahead of us? Behind us? Alive? Dead? I looked at the map on our makeshift dining table and followed the route we’d traced down to Mexico: over Trail Ridge Road down to Grand Lake and Granby, then down to Buena Vista and on to Montrose. We’d then cut through Telluride, Colorado, and directly west to the Colorado River in southeast Utah. We’d try to stay off the high-traffic open roads where the drones would always be circling and try to maintain mountain or canyon cover whenever possible. It was genuinely our only hope for survival.
I looked from the map on the table to the whiteboard, where a number of things had been tracked all winter. It was completely covered with notes now. Originally, we’d had the date scrawled in huge numbers and letters across the middle. Now, the date had been reduced to a small number in the upper corner. May 18. Danny’s birthday. He was twenty-one today. Mom made a cinnamon rice cake for him. It was pretty good, but probably not the way Danny had intended to spend this day. He should have been off in the Middle East somewhere looking for terrorists in caves rather than hiding from them in one. He should have been somewhere with Cameron.
Oh well, what can you do? We didn’t have any gifts for him, but he had one for Blake. In a roundabout way he’d heard the story of Blake shooting the elk to save him and Cameron. Danny wanted to show his appreciation for everything Blake had come to mean to us. He gave Blake Cameron’s Kevlar military uniform Mom had patched up and Cameron’s R11. It was a pretty cool gesture, and I could tell Blake was honored. All in all, it was at least a semi-happy birthday for my Danny. He deserved more, but I was glad he at least got to have this.
In a matter of days we’d be leaving this cave behind. I looked around at my friends and family laughing, talking, shooting arrows, and playing cards. Once again, I felt a twinge of sadness about leaving and imagined others were feeling the same. I smiled and wondered if we’d ever be back. What if this cave were famous someday? Like Anne Frank’s house. I envisioned tourists lining up to look inside and laughed aloud. Hayley asked what was so funny. “Nothing.” I said, clearing my throat and glancing in her direction. It wasn’t really funny. It was a ridiculous thought. “Nothing,” I repeated, although she wasn’t listening anymore. I shook my head and looked back down at the map. What still lay ahead of us wasn’t humorous at all. Our current security was a fading illusion. Life was about to get real again.