“Of course I am.” Hands busy, Lana selected vegetables she’d already turned into art. “Three of my children, my husband, my friends, are going to war in a matter of days.” While the anxiety leaked through, Lana continued to layer crackers she’d baked, herbed with rosemary or seasoned with garlic, with various toppings.

“I can’t hold Travis back, not this time. He’s—”

“I know that, Fallon. I’ve known this was coming since he started training for it back at the farm. What I don’t know, what I don’t understand is why you talked to your father about this, to Will, to Chuck, to everyone, it seems, but me.”

“I only talked to Dad, seriously about Arlington, last night after I’d worked on the details. I asked him not to say anything until I’d talked to—”

“Everyone else.”

“Mom.” Fallon put down the kitchen tool, turned. “I needed to talk to Travis, to Tonia about the recruits, get a sense if we could use any of them, or if any of them were ready to … move up if we lost people on this mission.”

“And still, you didn’t—”

“Wait, please.”

A bee buzzed in, hovered over the crackers. Fallon merely gave it a warning look to send it zipping away.

“I came back home after I’d talked to them, had a look for myself. I knew you had a meeting with Arlys and Katie and Fred about establishing permanent homes for the new rescues. I wanted to talk to all four of you about Arlington, but you were having a little fun. The four of you were just having a little fun, and I didn’t want to ruin it.”

Lana stopped what she was doing, turned to Fallon. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known better.”

“You looked so happy, all of you, buzzed on wine and friendship. I really wanted you to have that. I wanted some of it, too. I took it with you.”

“You did.” Lana drew her in. “I’m glad you did, and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. All this is hard and ugly, and … I thought of the four of you when I left. I thought of all you’ve done, what you faced, overcame, what you’ve made. Your circle—not quite the full one, as Rachel and Kim couldn’t be there—they’re all heroes to me.”

“One day.” Lana brushed a hand through Fallon’s hair. “One day my circle and yours are going to get buzzed on wine and friendship and talk about men and sex.”

“I hope I have some experience with the last two by then so I can add to the conversation.”

“You will. But tonight, we’ll do what we have to do.”

“Starting with food.”

Lana laughed. “Always.”

* * *

So on a sultry summer night with the younger children with sitters or older siblings, the New Hope Originals gathered on the patio. Members of the next generation gathered with them for food and drink, and talk of war.

Across the field, green with summer, cows lowed as the first stars began to blink awake. Growing fuzzy again after their shearing, sheep dotted the gently rolling hills like small clouds. In the coop chickens hummed as they bedded down.

She saw Faol Ban slide like white smoke through the trees beyond where Taibhse sat wise and silent on a branch. Over the western hills, the sun slowly simmered its way down toward the rounded peaks.

She watched their Jem and Scout romp with Eddie’s dog Hobo while old Joe, ever faithful, snoozed at his feet.

Not like her mother’s little private party that afternoon, she thought, but still a circle of friends.

“I should start by telling you I spoke with Mallick and with Thomas.”

“By radio?” Katie asked.

“No, I flashed. I wanted to speak face-to-face.”

“Did you see Duncan?”

“No, sorry. He was out on maneuvers. I laid it out for both of them, and they agree it can be done. They’ll work on tactics, logistics, do the scouting, and we’ll continue to coordinate. Not by radio or computer,” she added. “I know Chuck’s got those covered, and we’ve added shields. But if any of our communications leak, well, it all goes to hell.”

“Not insulted.” Chuck popped a fat strawberry in his mouth. He wore sandals of braided rope with soles made from strips of old tires. “They’ve got some good hackers,” he added. “I’m better, but they’ve got some good ones. I’ll keep monitoring all three bases. Can’t get much direct out of Arlington itself, but I got a clear line to the others, and it leads back. Any changes, champ, you’ll hear about it.”

“And we’ll adjust to them,” Fallon confirmed. “Right up until we strike. Will and I worked out the broad strokes, and some of the finer ones earlier. To start.”

She held up her hands, drew the power up, out as she spread her hands over the air.

The map she’d drawn appeared, standing as if pinned to a wall.

“Excellent,” Eddie said, and crunched into a cracker.

“Tonia and I worked on it. Target bases in red, ours in blue. I’ll have more detailed maps after the targets are scouted.”

“What’s the green?” Flynn asked. No sandals for him, Fallon noted, but sturdy boots he likely made himself.

“Locations where we can potentially relocate the rescues. We’re about at capacity in New Hope, considering housing, supplies, medical. And we need to start establishing bases farther south, west, north. Colin, you and Dad need to pull out some of our experienced troops, ask for volunteers to relocate. We’ll also need the town council to talk to skilled, experienced people—what we can spare—to help with that. Tonia and I will speak to some of the rescues, and Hannah, Rachel, Jonah need to work out who we can spare with medical experience, and if we can spare any supplies. If we can’t, we’ll scavenge as we go.”

She turned back to the map. “The group in Utah taken by the PWs had settled in Nebraska—farming community, and from what we’ve gathered, poor security and defense. We can get them back to Nebraska, but we’ll establish a base.”

“It’s a long way,” Rachel chimed in. She held a glass of wine, but had yet to drink. At her feet sat a small medical kit the doctor carried everywhere.

“We can rotate volunteers, but we need a solid contingent to build and secure not just a community, but a base, one that can defend itself against PWs, Raiders, and the government forces still hunting magickals. We need the same in South Carolina. There’s a forest here.” She gestured to the map. “And access to the ocean. We can set up to mine salt.”

“Roads have to be cleared.” Arlys paused in her note taking, frowned at the map.

“And repaired,” Poe added. “Likely bridges, too. You need water, power, sewer or septic—your basics.”

“Fuel,” Kim put in, “lumber, tools.”

“We transport what we can, scavenge. We build. There should be plenty of game in both locations, and it’s good farmland in the west. We’d clear for farmland, if necessary, in the south. We plan for this, or taking the targets, getting people out … we’ve got nowhere to put them safely. And we need to start adding locations. Once we have these bases, they can scout, scavenge, rescue where we haven’t.”

“You’re talking about doing a lot in a really short time.” Will adjusted the cap Fallon knew his daughter had made in crafting class. Across the forest green it read LAWMAN in precisely embroidered white.

“I know. The new bases would be rudimentary, initially, but we’d claim our ground, then build. Just the way you, all of you, did right here. We need more like you. We have to find more like you, more people like my father, like Thomas, Troy, and others my family and I found on the way here. You don’t know Thomas or Troy or those others yet, but they built communities, societies, and they’ll fight to protect them because, like you, they know survival comes first, but it isn’t enough.”

“We don’t know the world you knew.” Tonia got to her feet. “We only know it through books, DVDs, what you tell us. We were babies, or not even born in those first years where every day was life-and-death, when everything you knew was gone. But we know this world, what it takes to live in it.”

“We’ve seen what you’ve done.” Now Travis got to his feet. “At the farm, Dad, the cooperative, the village back home. Here in New Hope, and all the places we found people fighting to build a life. Here we are sitting together, feeling safe on a really nice night with Eddie’s farm over there and the barracks over there. You can’t have one,” he said, gesturing toward the farm, “without the other,” and to the barracks.

“Like Tonia said,” he continued, “we know this world and what it takes to live in it, because you gave it to us, you fought for it, built it, and taught us how to live in it. But the world goes beyond the farm back home, New Hope, and the places from here to there. If we don’t take it for the light, they’ll take it for the dark.”

“They’re right.” Hannah let out a sigh. “Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if New Hope was the world. If this was all there was. Our homes, our neighbors, working at the clinic, learning to be a doctor, spending time with friends, music in the gardens on a night like this. Then I remember another night like this in the gardens. I remember when someone I thought was a friend tore through our home. I think of Denzel and Carlee and everyone she killed. I think of what we do, Rachel, Jonah, in the clinic after a mission. You taught me what to do.

“I don’t have magick like Fallon, Tonia, Travis. I’m not a soldier like Colin. But I know what to do, and what needs to be done, because you all taught me.”

“Basically,” Colin said after a pause, “we’re saying it’s time we kicked some ass.”

That got a laugh, reluctant in some corners, but a laugh.

“You’re not wrong,” Fallon told him. “Ass kicking’s on the list. So’s rescuing, training, staking claims, building, expanding.”