Dear Diary,

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I didn't understand that as a kid. Now? I think I'm starting to get it. I'm in a whole different world, but moms are still moms, kids are still kids, food's still food, and work, no matter how weird, is still boring.

So, after working all day yesterday to get the Volunteers mostly spread out, I was ready to collapse at the end of the day. Not so much from physical exhaustion, although I'd pushed myself there. Definitely not from that whole strained Mana thing either, oddly enough, although I think that took its toll on my Endurance as well. Mainly? I'd just spent the day playing cheerleader. Telling people the decisions they'd already more or less made, about shit they knew way better than me, were the right ones. If I really didn't get it, I'd ask them to explain themselves, and they'd usually make the decisions themselves at that point anyhow. Once in a while I needed to clarify our goals or shit like that, but for the most part? Just throwing myself at the work as another slightly less prone to frostbite warm body, then agreeing with whatever the Sergeants said.

I still enjoyed the nice bed the farmstead owner insisted I use. Saffron, Marie, and Isnomi all showed up for dinner. If dinner wasn't nearly the mass quantities I'd come to expect at the Academy, nor the quality I expected what with centuries old Maids doing the cooking, I definitely got the idea that the stuff was made with love. They'd even gone all out with the presentation, cutting veggies into fanciful shapes, sculpting the mashed yams similarly. Hell, even the steaks had neat grill marks on them; not just the stripes you'd expect from a barbeque grill, but, like, neat little shapes seared into them, like hearts or diamonds.

No idea how they did it, and I certainly wasn't one to pass up a free meal. I also wasn't going to be That Bitch and ask for waffles instead. At the end of the meal, on our way up to bed, I stopped by the kitchen to thank the women who'd made the food. Isnomi took off and visited each of the infants dangling in little papoose rigs. I watched for a bit, then looked at Marie and asked, "can you bring her up when she's done? I'm kinda beat."

At her nod, Saffron and I made our way to the master suite up on the third floor. If my arm over Saffron's shoulder was at least as much me leaning on her a little to keep upright as it was pulling her to my side for the intimacy, she didn't say anything. She just leaned into my side and purred contentedly. I might have, too, although I'd emptied the tank to do much more than that. Some light canoodling once we got to the bedroom and shed most of our respective attire. A lot of that we did for each other, because she had about as much juice left in the tank as I did.

"Council getting stupid?"

She shrugged. "About what you'd expect. I wasn't exactly perfectly on point while I watched over you, so Ophelia took advantage a little bit. Not too much, mind you, just enough that General Lancaster felt he needed to push back, which led to him taking advantage a little himself. Today I had to bring them both back to heel. Without actually offending either of them, of course."

"Feel free to use me as a big stick. I really don't want to wind up a villain, but if it takes me playing the bogeyman with the Council to get shit done, to drag the Cities kicking and screaming to a place where kids live to see adulthood? Paint me green and call me She-Hulk." That wound up with me trying to explain the entire MCU while mentally exhausted to Saffron, who was equally exhausted. Midway through, we looked at each other, laughed, and went back to canoodling until Marie and the menace made it to the bedroom. If the goodnight kisses Marie got from Saffron and I were a little longer and a lot more mouth-to-mouth than the ones Isnomi got, she's the one who wanted to be a Big Girl, she can put her Big Girl panties on and suck it up.

More rocks and moss in Mimic dreams. Slowly rooching over the big rocky area toward that meadow. Really slowly, and trying to make sure she didn't drag her bits out of the lake, either.

In the morning the family stayed for breakfast at my insistence. Good waffles are good. After we finished eating, hugs and kisses were had by all. Hell, Isnomi walked over to Lancaster, held her arms up, and when he picked her up, glomped onto him and said, "hab a gud day!" before dropping back down and scampering back to Marie. A moment later, they were gone.

"I did not expect that." Larry had the weirdest look on his face.

I sighed, "yeah, sorry, she has a mind of her own and an impish streak a mile wide. I'd have warned you, but I had no idea she'd do that."

He shook his head. "Like mother like daughter, eh? Don't worry about it. It's odd and unexpected. Not bad." He took a moment to straighten his uniform, then looked back to me. "So, Commander, what's on the schedule today?"

I thought about it for a tick, then said, "we're going to make sure our Sergeants know what to do here, then leave them in charge while we go touch base with Fred and Linus, update them on the new plan, then set them to gathering their troops, leaving one unit behind then moving southward; they'll head eastward from there. Then we'll check in at Lancaster House, just to make sure everyone there is doing okay, then the two of us head west to catch up with Angel and Bill."

He sucked in a lungful of air, then blew it out, as if setting himself to confront something. "Sounds like a full day. Shall we be about it then?"

I nodded to him. "Lead the way,"

It took us less than ten minutes to find the two Sergeants we'd brought with us and explain things to them. They'd been with us when we started setting things up, so they knew what they needed to do. If they looked a little shocked at us putting the two of them in charge, they didn't argue about it. Once we'd finished, I reached out a hand to Larry. He took it kinda like that whole Carl Weathers, Arnie Schwarzenegger hand clasp from the Predator meme. Only with, y'know, way less testosterone and way smaller biceps. I stepped us to the farm to the east of Lancaster House, where we spent about a quarter of an hour tracking down Fred, who was at the northernmost point they'd extended their line to, then another ten minutes collecting Linus, who was at the southernmost point. On the way we gathered up all the troops they'd deposited. I heard some quiet grumbling, but more along the lines of 'make up your damn mind' than 'why are we listening to these kids again?'

To try and make sure all of them had the right idea, once we'd gathered them all, I hopped up on a big old boulder alongside the road and addressed them. "Okay, new plan. The only reason people are gonna be heading cross country is if they're from Calverton or being chased by Calverton. With that in mind, we'll be stationing one unit at each farmstead along the east, west, and north sides of our quarantine zone. For those of you at farmsteads, your job will be to keep anyone from un-cleared farms, who might be carrying the plague even if they don't realize it, from travelling past you. We'll try to get some Clergy or other Healers to those of you at the edges of our quarantine zone, but until then if you see someone from outside the zone, just make sure they have food and shelter and send a runner to Lancaster House. We'll get someone to you as quick as we can."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I took a deep breath, making sure I saw at least a few nodding heads, and nobody Veteran or above looking lost. "For the rest of you, you'll be manning the east-west anti-Calverton line, which is starting one day south of Lancaster House; we'll push that further when we can. You'll be set up within sight of each other, but otherwise as far as terrain permits. Your job, if you see an advancing Calverton army, is to light off a signal fire, then back away, gathering at the farmsteads, then pulling yourselves and any non-combatants back until we can meet them with the bulk of our troops all at once. At least to start, you'll be travelling on cleared roads and they won't, so you should be able to break contact and back away before they catch you."

I looked around the collected Volunteers, then at Fred and Linus. Linus looked a little lost, but Fred just nodded his understanding. "Okay, you all know what you have to do, if you hit any snags or have any questions, Cadets Jonopolous and Carruthers will sort them out. Everybody clear on what you have to do?"

They all nodded and muttered out, "yes, Ma'am."

I smiled, cupped a hand behind my ear, and shouted, "you sure about that?"

This time they sounded a lot more confident. Louder, anyhow. "Yes, Ma'am!"

I nodded and said, "then I'll let y'all get to it."

As the collected troops sorted themselves out into something approaching a column, I hopped down, walked over to Fred and Linus, and quietly said, "you guys get all that?"

Fred said, "I got it, Commander Diaz." He could have sounded like a smartass, but he smiled when he said it.

For his part, Carruthers just kinda nodded, although he still had that perpetually lost look on his face. I looked him in the eye and said, "if you have any questions, ask 'em now, because Larry and I will be leaving in a minute."

He just shrugged and said, "sorry, Diaz. I can't really think of anything other than, 'can you repeat that all again?', which would just be stupid."

I laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Extra short version. We're forming a line to the south and putting one unit of Volunteers at each farmstead on the perimeter otherwise. If you've got any questions after we're gone, I'm sure Fred will be able to answer them, right Fred?"

"You got it, Commander."

"Okay then." I reached out, grabbed Larry's shoulder, and stepped us back to Lancaster House.

We arrived in the fourth floor boy's club, since I figured that would be empty at the moment. I was right. It took us a bit to find any of the Cadets, because I got caught with a sudden case of stupid. After going to their rooms and checking the dining room, because it would be lunch soon, I looked to Larry with a 'where is everybody' shrug. He turned to the nearest butler-esque dude and said, "Donnie, where are the Cadets?"

Butler-lite Donnie replied instantly. "Cadet Obol is in the Map Room, while Master Lancaster and Cadet Aetos are working with Volunteers to clear snow from the walls, milord."

Larry looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, Donnie. Good thinking, Larry. Let's go pay Bonnie a visit."

That dropped his eyebrow right quick. When we got down to the Map Room, Bonnie knelt near the middle, right where Lancaster House was pictured. She had piles and lines of things around her. When I got close enough, I saw that she had a whole pile of uncooked yams arranged around Lancaster house, with three apples sitting right on the image of the House itself. Looking around, I saw a pile of yams to the east, as well as two yams and apples each to the north, south, and west.

"One yam per unit?" I asked as I approached. She jumped a little, because she'd been focused on carefully arranging the yams around the House.

When she caught her breath, she stood and said, "yes, Commander. I know it's far from perfect, but it's something to let us visualize the situation."

"No, no, I think it's a fantastic idea. What about you, Larry?"

He smiled, stepped forward, and reached out to help Bonnie over the utter non-barrier of a line of yams on the floor. "I think it's brilliant. I'm supposing you're wondering about the numbers at the other farmsteads?"

She nodded shyly. "Yeah, kinda."

"Okay, I'm gonna go fetch Lachlan and Raven. Larry, can you fill her in on the updated plan? I'll enhance Raven's cluefulness. Same with Lachlan, as much as I can, anyhow, on the walk back here for lunch."

Larry looked at me, a weird half-smile on his face. "As you wish, Commander." He turned to Bonnie, and from that moment I might as well not have existed as far as the two of them were concerned. I jogged out to the main hall, then out the doors to the courtyard, which had been cleared down to the stone, with sand spread over the few remaining icy patches. From where I stood I could see the beginnings of the fortifications; they looked to start a few hundred feet away on the far side of the road. It took me a few minutes to spot Lachlan and Raven's red coats.

Of course they'd gone opposite directions. I stepped to Raven, said, "sorry, gentlemen, I need to borrow your leader for lunch," then stepped with her to Lachlan. "Hey, Lachlan? Need you to walk with me for a bit."

He turned to us, more than a little startled to see us just there behind him, but rallied quickly. "Okay, Commander. Lead on."

I explained the new plan as we walked back to the House. The only question came from Lachlan, and he surprised me a little when it was a good one. "Should we keep our units here, or send them forward to fill out the line?"

I chewed on that as we walked across the courtyard. When we got to the doors I stopped, turned to the other two and said, "for now, keep them here. Once you've got the fortifications cleared, sort out the minimum you'd need to man them along all fronts, then send everyone beyond that south to extend our picket line."

Lachlan and Raven nodded. Then she shot me a crooked grin and said, "is there a reason you explained this walking back here, when we could have been inside where it's warm already?"

"Yeah, I kinda figured Larry could fill Bonnie in while we walked back."

She got a really pensive look on her face. Not angry or anything. Just kind of, I dunno, sad maybe? Maybe she envied her cousin or something. So long as she didn't make a big deal out of it, I'd let the three of them sort it out amongst themselves.

Lunch was lunch. Without too many other Cadets or any Lancaster cousins to throw shade, Larry seated Bonnie to his left and helped her cut up her food. He didn't quite spoon feed her, but I could tell he kinda wanted to. Again, not my lookout, other than maybe trying to give them a few minutes here and there where we could spare it.

Unfortunately, after lunch? We had no more minutes to spare. I grabbed Larry, double checked that the three we were leaving behind knew the plan, and we headed west at a jog. Once we'd passed the fortifications, Larry said, "I can go faster than this, Commander."

I shrugged. "Just remember we're gonna keep going until we hit that next farmstead, but you set the pace. I can keep up with whatever you set."

He rolled his eyes and said, "I'm well aware, Commander." Then he kicked into a cross country run, maybe half again as fast as we'd been going. With the roads mostly clear, we didn't have to slow down until dusk. Right about then Saffron thought to me, are you somewhere we can join you, Goof?

I shook my head. Nope. About three quarters of the way along one of the farmstead roads. Probably won't get there until after dinner, and then we've got to hit the rack and be ready to do more talking and running tomorrow.

Her longing sigh filled my head. I understand, beloved Goof. Be careful. Do try not to injure yourself; the children of other farmsteads will not be helped by you killing yourself at one.

Yeah, I get that. This is just a simple long distance run, though. No stupid amount of healing required.

Good to know. Good night, Goof.

Tell Marie and the menace good night for me. Love you, Kitten.

I love you too, Goof.

And then she was gone.

We got to the western farmstead nearly an hour after dinner finished up. Fortunately, the sentries knew Larry on sight. Unfortunately, all that remained edible were some field rations.

Not even good ones from Drivers. Just straight up hard crackers and jerky. I resisted the temptation to roust somebody to cook me something fresh, but damn it was hard.

Still, food is food. Better than some of the crap I'd had to choke down back in Camden.