"Not a babysitter," Leon corrects. "A bodyguard, if you will. The people of Cottonwood are slow to trust newcomers. I've already had six people come to me demanding that I throw the three of you out because they suspect you're with the Widows. Four of them suggested we shoot you pubically." That must have been Ethan's crew from the weapons shed... 

"Danielle's word will be enough to deter them from taking matters into their own hands," he continues. I open my mouth to argue, but he holds up a hand, silencing me. "Now, I believe that you have quite a bit of work on your plate, so I suggest you find people to help you. I'll let the guards know what's going on in the meantime." 

Why is it that every time an authority figure like Leon comes around, I just want to twist their head off their shoulders?

Dani steers me out of the office, Josh, Felix, and Octavia following after, but Dani stops when Leon calls out for her again, "Oh, and Dani? Let Allison know that she has one day to prep and hold a funeral."

"Yes, sir," Dani replies stiffly, closing the doors as she leads us back out of the office.

Well, that could have gone a lot better, in my opinion. Staying to help the people of Cottonwood wasn't exactly in my plan, but I can't just leave these people to their own devices. Some of them might be assholes, but they're just a bunch of families trying to make it in this crazy world, just like my siblings and me.

We step back outside of the big house, Dani sighing. "Alright, you heard him. Josh, go find Matt and Jocelynn and start working on those traps. Get some others to help you out; it'll make production go faster." 

Josh nods, splitting off from us back towards the mess hall, and Octavia looks over at Dani. 

"Soo," Octavia drawls with a sly grin on her face. "You're gonna be our bodyguard, huh?" 

Dani glances down at Octavia, obviously not amused. "Evidently. I'm just here to make sure that Ethan and his guys don't actually try to shoot you while you're here," Dani grumbles. 

"Yeah," I say slowly. "I would prefer to keep myself as bullet-free as I can be, thanks. But to be honest, we can take care of ourselves." 

Dani shrugs. "I know that, but it's not me you have to convince. Now come on, we have a lot of work to do. Let's go find Sparrow and get to work on that gate." 

I'm honestly surprised that Dani has this much faith in my plan. Maybe she got hit in the head last night and had a lapse of judgment? 

Who knows. The fact that my siblings and I are staying a bit longer is both a comfort and heavily anxiety-inducing. Once again, we find ourselves surrounded by a group of jumpy strangers under attack by bandits. 

I wonder how long it'll take for this place to fall to ruin because of it.

Why, hello, intrusive thought.

The four of us make our way to the front gates where a couple of people are stationed, keeping watch over the forest, and I recognize them as the campers from last night who were ready to gun me down. They notice me approaching and pause what they're doing, eyeing my siblings and me. For a moment, I'm convinced that they're about to pull a gun and shoot, but instead, I'm surprised to see that they give me a nod in greeting and a small wave, not even paying Dani any attention.

I guess my siblings and I really proved ourselves last night...

"Dani," the gruffer of the men greets as we get closer - Ethan if I remember right. Now that I can see his face in the daylight, I can see that he's a much older man than I thought he was. Perhaps in his sixties, with shaggy salt-and-peppered hair and a 5 o'clock shadow that seems to have lost its sense of time.

"Morning, Ethan," Dani replies, her voice even. "You see Sparrow around here? He was supposed to be on watch this morning." 

Ethan looks over at my siblings and me, a nervous glint in his eye, before returning his attention to Dani. "Yeah, he was heading towards the river to water the horses." 

"Thanks. When you get the chance, you and your guys will help us rebuild and reinforce the front gate," Dani informs him. 

His eyes narrow, and he crosses his arms, clearly unhappy. "And why would we do that? Ain't we leaving soon?"

"The plan changed," Dani tells him, not backing down. "Leon wants us to rebuild the gates and set traps in the woods." 

Ethan glares down at me, and I resist the urge to stick out my tongue at him. "This their doing?" He grunts, jabbing his chin in my direction. 

"No," Dani growls back. "It's mine. Now I'd appreciate it if you'd listen to orders for once instead of arguing with me all damn day about it. Gather up the tools we'll be needing; we start when we come back with Sparrow." 

Ethan glowers down at Dani before he finally scoffs, backing up a step. "Yeah, yeah, we'll get your damn tools," he grumbles. 

Satisfied, Dani nods and leads us away from him, but not before I can hear Ethan mutter, "Damn lap dog..." under his breath. 

There's no way Dani didn't hear him, either, and judging by the dark look in her eyes, I'd say it struck a nerve, too. 

"That asshole," Octavia mutters, hardly bothering to be quiet as we walk away from him and the five other men twice our size. "He didn't even apologize for nearly blowing your head off last night, Cassy." 

"I don't really care about that," I grumble. "I understand where his distrust is coming from, believe me, but his attitude could use a little rearranging." 

"His face could use a little rearranging..." Octavia growls, glancing over her shoulder back at the older man. 

"Hey now," Dani speaks up. "You're not going to go around antagonizing anyone else, are you?"

"Anyone else?" I ask. "Who have we antagonized?" 

Dani glances back at me, an eyebrow raised, and I roll my eyes. 

"Oh, so sorry, your majesty, I'll be more careful with your delicate feelings in the future," I taunt, unable to hide my smirk. 

Dani rolls her eyes and tries to hide a grin, but I can see it in the twitch of the corners of her lips that she's not doing a good job of it. At least she knows I'm only joking this time, so I'll count it as a win for now.

The river at the back of the camp isn't too far from the greenhouses, and off to one side, I can see a large older cabin that looks like it's been converted into a barn. From the busted-out windows, I can see the heads of horses inside, braying and nickering, and I'm pretty sure I can spot a cow or two inside as well. Chickens roam free in the front of the makeshift barn, and to the side is a small pigpen with a few pigs inside. 

"Whoa," Felix breathes as we get closer. "Where'd you get all the farm animals?"

"There was a farm a few miles south of us we took them from when we first started this place," Dani says. "The property caught fire, but we helped the owners get the animals to safety. Butch and Carla technically own these guys." 

I think I remember a Butch being mentioned yesterday when we first met Leon; I'm pretty sure he's where the deer got taken to be skinned and cooked.

Stepping out of the makeshift barn is Sparrow, carrying two buckets on a long, thick stick slung over his shoulders and grunting with effort. He shuts the barn door and nearly stumbles, hissing something in a language I don't understand, but when he glances up and sees us coming, his face brightens. 

"Oh, hey guys!" Sparrow exclaims, straightening up and setting the buckets aside. "What's going on? I thought you were leaving this morning?"

"We changed our minds," I chuckle at him. "I figured that the least we could do to repay the camp for feeding us and giving us lodging would be to help fix you guys up before we head out."

Sparrow gives a goodhearted laugh at that. "You might end up sticking around for a good long while in that case; there's always something around here that needs fixing!"

Dani groans. "Great, what broke this time?"

"What, besides the front door and half our cabins?" Sparrow asks. "The barn is in rough shape, for one. Bessie kicked a hole in the wall yesterday when the raid happened. Poor girl got spooked by all the noise of the attack."

"That's to be expected," Dani sighs. "Which side? We might as well get it taken care of before we head for the gate." 

Sparrow tilts his head at her, confused. "Uh, what are we doing at the gate?"

"We're going to fix it," I tell him, grinning. 

He blinks. "Why?" 

"So the Widow's find it harder to get in the next time they attack?" 

"Uh-huh. I feel like I'm missing a lot of context right now." 

Dani and I both heave a sigh and fill him in on the plan, and, to my surprise, he's all on board with it. 

"It's about time we start fighting those assholes back!" Sparrow grins. "Kick their dicks in the dirt, I say!" 

"Let's start with fixing the gates first, shall we?" Dani suggests, gesturing for Sparrow to follow us to the back of the makeshift barn to grab some material. "We can worry about kicking ass once we're sure we can survive until then." 

Sparrow shrugs, still grinning.

Inside the barn, the Cottonwood campers have built individual pens for the horses they have, which, admittedly, isn't as many as I would have thought. Dani makes sure to stay just outside of the barn, opting to drag one of the smaller trailers around with Felix's help so that Sparrow and I can hitch a horse to it. 

"Here, we can use Maybell," Sparrow says, gesturing to a sleek black horse that hoofs at the dirt. "She's the strongest of the four we have; I'm sure she'll enjoy getting to stretch her legs with some real work." 

I pat Maybell's neck, and she tosses her large head, her silky mane flowing about. I laugh, glad that at least the horse seems to be excited to do some manual labor. Sparrow and I coax Maybell out of the barn and towards the trailer Dani dragged over, though I notice that Dani is nowhere to be seen. 

"Where'd she go?" I ask, glancing around. My siblings look around as well, confused. 

"She was right outside," Felix offers, scratching his head.

Sparrow rolls his eyes, gesturing with his chin towards the front gate where I can make out the shape of Dani talking with Ethan's crew again. "Despite her hardass attitude, homegirl isn't a fan of horses," Sparrow huffs. 

"Really?" I chuckle. "I would have pegged her as the kind of girl who would love going on rides."

"It's the flannel, isn't it?" 

"It's definitely the flannel."

We share a laugh as we hitch Maybell to the trailer and start loading in pieces of wood and sheet metal from the barn. Sparrow grabs a massive bucket of nails and screws, along with a couple of hammers and, to my surprise, a few cordless drills.

"How do you keep those things charged?" Octavia asks, amazed. 

"We have a generator giving the camp enough juice to keep stuff like this going," Sparrow notes. "It's also how we have running water and working toilets, though unfortunately, no one but us is around to clean that mess up."

"Hey, at least you have working toilets," I note. "We've had to make do with digging holes for four years."

"Yikes, imagine getting caught with your pants down though," Sparrow laughs as he cringes, and I resist the urge to slap his arm - I'm pretty sure we're not that friendly with one another yet, but I manage a disgusted grin as my sibling's gag at the idea. "Anyway," Sparrow chuckles, tossing the last of the four-by-fours into the trailer. "We should get this to the gate so Dani doesn't yell at us. She's already on edge as it is." 

I nod, leading Maybell with the makeshift trailer all the way to the front of the camp, where Dani waits with Ethan, his crew, and the damaged gate. 

Ethan gives Sparrow and me a once over, not impressed. "Took you long enough," he grunts as I stop Maybell. 

"Chin up, old man," Sparrow grins. "You have all the time in the world, gramps!"

Ethan's lip rolls up in anger, but Dani puts herself between the two, a stern look on her face that seems to be enough to stop both men. "We're here to get shit done, got it?" Dani demands, and they both nod. "Today, we're focusing our efforts on the gate. The sooner we get that fixed, the sooner we'll be able to put our guards to rest."

"What about the traps?" Sparrow asks. 

"Josh and Jocelynn are working on those right now. We'll help out once we know the camp is secure," I note, and Dani nods in agreement, Ethan glaring daggers at me. 

"How do we know we can trust these people?" Ethan growls. 

Dani glares right back at Ethan, daring him to make a move. "Because Leon says we can trust them," she answers. "And I back his decision. If you have a problem with Leon's choice, you can take it up with him." 

Ethan glowers at Dani for a long moment, and I worry that he'll try to start a fight with her, but after a moment, he shakes his head, turns to the trailer, and hauls out a long two-by-four. 

"Putting damn kids in charge," Ethan grumbles, prompting the rest of his 'friends' to grab some wood after him. 

Dani heaves a sigh, rubbing the back of her neck. "Well, it could be worse..." she grumbles to herself.