Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

said Peter, now more in control of his emotions. He almost looked hurt, in a way.
    I moved closer to him and put my hand on his upper arm, trying to get him to look at me. “You okay?”
    He put a big, fake smile on his face and said brightly, “Yep! Let’s get this show on the road.” He looked over at the grenade case. “Are we bringing those or not?”
    I looked at Kowi. “Want to discuss this real quick?”
    He shrugged. “Sure. We just thought it’d be a good idea to have a little more firepower.”
    “I just worry we’ll need it later, if they ever come here,” I said.
    Kowi nodded. “Yeah, but what if we need some firepower there? You wanted a distraction. It seems like the easiest way to make one that will be hard to ignore.”
    “Let’s just take a couple, how’s that?”
    “Sounds fair. I agree with you. I don’t like the idea of being out here and so vulnerable. I mean, what the hell. They could roll in with tanks someday.” He was smiling but what he said wasn’t funny at all.
    “Yes. They could.” I fixed him with a hard stare, which erased the humor from his face.
    “You know, sometimes you scare the crap out of me, Bryn Mathis.”
    I tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “Yeah, well, sometimes I scare myself.”
    “I think it is a good compromising,” said Bodo, breaking the freaky mood that had started to develop. “Who iss going to carry da grenades?”
    Kowi answered, “Trip and Paci. They’re in charge of creating the distraction.”
    I shrugged. “Fine with me. Just be sure they have padding around them. I think they can go off if they’re tossed around too much, even with the pins still inside.”
    “None of us know for sure, so we’ll just be extra careful.”
    “In the movies they always throw them a special way. I think that’s to keep them from blowing up in your hand,” said Peter.
    “Please be sure to show Paci and Trip the technique,” said Kowi, before motioning to everyone to start walking to the boats. Three canoes were bringing us and our backpacks to the dock where we left the bodies of William and Rachel, the former kid owners of a canoe and boat rental place.
    There were too many people to gather around the boat launch, so they lined the path leading the way. We gave out high fives to almost everyone and a few hugs to others. Peter seemed to have made friends with most of the girls from both tribes.
    I noticed a few people crying, and it did nothing to help my nervousness. When I got to the boat and saw that Celia had gotten there first, and was waiting for us to get in, I felt sick to my stomach. It wasn’t because of her injury - it was because I didn’t want to let her down. We were going after the people who had taken something very precious from her. A limb, yes, but it was more than that. She’d lost some of her faith in the decentness of humans that day those animals had taken her arm. I felt like today, it was our job to restore it somehow; and I wasn’t sure we were up to the task.
    Trip and I were the last ones to get in. We both stood in front of Celia, Kowi and Coli just a couple feet behind her.
    “Hey,” she said quietly.
    “Hey,” I responded. Trip just nodded.
    “I just wanted to wish you luck.” Her eyes filled with tears but she blinked rapidly to make them go away.
    “Thanks. We’re going to do our best,” I said. I probably should have said something more poetic or quotable, but I was in a panic. I couldn’t promise her anything, much as I wanted to.
    “I know you will. I wanted to tell you too that if you aren’t able to do everything you want, it’s going to be okay. For me. I’m going to be okay.” A tear escaped her eye.
    I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder, just above her bandages. “I know you are. I absolutely know that.”
    She continued, raising her chin a little. “But it would be a lot easier and a lot faster if you killed those bastards for me and brought those poor kids back here.”
    Tears came to my eyes too now, a couple of them slipping past my defenses to drip down my cheeks. I gave her a weak smile. “Consider it done.” It was the best I could do for promises, and it made me want to panic and run the other direction, away from all these kids who were counting on me to make things right, away from this swamp with its false sense of security making everyone believe they couldn’t be touched by the ugliness, and away from even the two boys I now loved - because