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was a reason she never took him hunting. Game would hear Josh coming for a mile. When he finally made it to her position he was red-faced and sweating. She just stared at him with her eyebrows raised until he got his breath back. He threw himself down on the forest floor and put his head in his hands.
    “I can’t do this anymore , Alex! It’s been three days and all we’ve done is sit around and argue and mourn. Who knows what’s happening to our families. We have to do something!”
    Alex looked down at him and dropped the grass she had been chewing on.
    “Yes. Let’s go back to the others. I have some ideas.”
    Josh’s head came up and he looked at her with hope. “Finally!”
    They made their way back to the campsite where the others were all stewing in their misery.
    Alex looked at them all and huffed out a breath of frustration.
    “Ok ay, that’s enough. Get over here, everyone!”
    When they were all standing around the picnic table, Alex made eye contact with them all before beginning.
    “Listen, I’m scared too but sitting around being depressed isn’t going to help our families. I know we all feel helpless right now but I want you all to remember something. We got out of a city on fire. We found transportation home when nothing worked. We took down a group of thugs and rescued children. We made it through two countries against all odds. The reason we did all that? We didn’t give up! Come on, guys! We made it home and our families need our help! I am not going to give up now, are you?”
    Dara scrubbed at her head with her hands before replying.
    “It’s not that we are giving up, Alex. It’s just…what do we do?” she asked in a defeated tone.
    Alex squared her shoulders. “Well , the first thing we have to do is get out of here. Sitting here hiding isn’t going to get us any closer to freeing our town. We need information. We need to map out the town and find out where everyone is. We need to scout and we need to watch the bad guys to see if we can figure out any patterns in their schedule. When do they rotate the guards? Where are they based? We can’t make a plan until we have more information and we can’t get that information sitting out here in the woods. So, let’s start there!”
    Quinn was nodding his head thoughtfully before turning and going to the camper. He came back with paper and pencils and tape. When he dropped them onto the table , he looked at the others.
    “Alex is right. We need info. So let’s tape this paper up into a big sheet and start drawing out the town. Tomorrow we should split up into groups and start scouting around. It will take a few days but we should have all we need to know to put a plan together. I think today we should scout out the RV resort north of town and see if we can scavenge some more supplies.”
    A spark was starting to spread through the group and Josh fanned it. With a trademark Josh grin, he asked,
    “So , can we go all Red Dawn on their asses?”
    Alex had to laugh .
    “Not yet , Josh. We don’t want to tip our hand, but once we know their schedule and where everyone is then yes, we will go gorilla on them!”
    Josh pumped his fist in the air and whooped while doing his funky dance.
    “The Maple Leaf Mafia is back in business!”
    The re were smiles for the first time in three days as the group gathered around the table and got to work. They all had different knowledge of the town and surrounding areas and took turns filling in the map. They marked different approaches and places they could hide while spying on the areas they were interested in. Alex, Quinn and Josh knew all of the trails they could take in the forest close to their homes and Dara and Cooper gave details of shortcuts through town. They spent the next hour and a half working together until they had the map fleshed out to all of their satisfaction.
    Alex sat back and sighed happily. It felt good to finally be doing something. She felt her belly rumble and for the first