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with the plan. The eastern colony will be underwater in less than a week.” His hazel eyes darted to me.
    A week? He might as well as said forever. Ray needs us now!
    As if guessing the direction of my thoughts, Officer Reynolds added, “And if any member of the island decides to get brave and try to rescue him on their own before then, they will find themselves without the support of the community.”
    The rescue plans already forming in my head shattered as if hit with a hammer. Without the support of the community, his words reverberated in my mind. I can’t do this alone. I need their help. This was bigger than me. I would just have to bite my tongue and do it their way.
    For good measure, I looked him back in the eye and said, “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
    The sky was darkening. People filed out of the Post and back to the security of their homes. I didn’t want to answer any more questions, so I slipped out the back. A thick covering of clouds veiled the stars and moon, leaving the world below in nearly perfect blackness. It was broken here and there by the occasional campfire. I followed the path back to my tent by memory rather than sight, a zombie in the night. After zipping the door shut tight behind me, I flopped down onto my cot, and the tears finally came out. I wish Nathan was back . I needed my brother then. He’d understand more than anyone how I felt . Ray was everything to that kid. He was more than just a friend, or an older brother. But Nathan wasn’t expected back until the end of this week.
    How will I tell Nathan about Ray?
    “Ray,” I whispered, remembering the touch of his lips on mine. “Please be alive.”At last, we were going to launch our attack upon the scarb colony. If that is where the scarb took him, we were going to rescue him. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too late.
     

Chapter Five
    Troop Three
     
     
    “But you can fix it, right?” I asked Travis, the red-headed mechanic, the next morning. After splashing water on my puffy eyes to try and hide my cry the night before, I practically dragged Travis out of his hovel so we could get a good start on the fire trucks. The sooner the trucks were done, the sooner we could get to the eastern mountains, attack the colony, and search for Ray.
    Travis rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, smudging it with a line of black grease. “I would really like to replace the alternators on this one if I could—they’re on the verge of going—but we’ll just have to make do with what you brought. These things are so ancient,” he motioned to the three diesels, “I’m amazed they run at all.”
    “They run because you make them,” I said with a smile of encouragement.
    “I’m just glad Grim had enough sense not to run them with old fuel,” Travis said. Grim Rodgers was the old backwoods country man who’d found the fire trucks on his land.
    “I can’t wait to blast that colony with several hundred thousand gallons of water,” I muttered.
    Travis grunted his agreement then slid under one of the diesels. “They kill each other, too, you know.”He said from under the engine. “My whole family was wiped out when one queen got all bothered by a younger one encroaching on her territory. You should’ve seen it. It was like all hell had broken loose.”
    “Either way, it sucks for humans.”
    Travis grunted his agreement as he turned a bolt.
    I picked up one of the loose hoses on the side of the fire truck. “How much water is it going to take to flood the colony and kill them all?
    “Those handheld hoses can pump out two hundred gallons a minute. Times that by three working trucks, and that’s a good start. Hand me that wrench.”I did. “The problem is, the trucks can only hold five hundred gallons each. Without a hydrant to connect to, they’ll run out of water in less than four minutes. But if we can get the hoses hooked up to the lake just east of the colony, we should be able to flood the colony.
    “I sure wish your