(Landon's PoV)

    Day five into our involuntary hunger strike: Tristan was nice enough to share some of his care package with me, but even his supply was starting to run low. Late that evening, Holly came in with four MREs, nearly tripping over herself in the middle of the room.

    "I know, I know," Kent beamed. "The effects of my looks are almost intoxicating." He laughed as he high-fived Felix.

    "Yeah, cuz your face makes me wanna puke my guts out," she retorted, but quickly winced and put her hand to her head.

    "What's wrong?" I asked.

    "Nothing," she responded irritably, still clutching her forehead. "Just shut up and eat your food," she ordered before heading back to her room.

    "What's up with Holly?" I wondered out loud. Gavin and Tristan both shrugged, but didn't give it much thought beyond that. I, however, couldn't get my mind off her. I absentmindedly took a cracker from the communal MREs and pondered to myself. She seemed so out of it.

    I put the cracker in my mouth and then it hit me: Holly hadn't been eating.

I mean, none of us had really been eating much, but I doubted Holly had eaten anything in the past five days. She'd never shared any of the MRE ration and no one ever sent her anything--plus she was way too proud to ask for anything from us.

I finished the cracker in another bite as I made my way over to Tristan's care package. "Hey dude," I asked him, aside. "Can I have something from here?"

    "We just ate," he reminded me.

    "Please," I begged. "It's really important."

    He smirked. "All right, fine, but don't take any of the Oreos."

    "Will do," I replied. I dug around the cardboard box, but there wasn't a whole lot left. I eventually settled on a bag of Doritos. I wouldn't be very filling, but it would have to do.

    I walked over to the infirmary. "What do you want?" she asked as soon as I was within her line of vision.

    "Holly you haven't been eating," I said matter-of-factly.

    She rubbed her eyes. "And? That's not really great detective work when the whole base is low on food."

    "That doesn't mean you have to literally starve yourself." I held out the bag of Doritos. "Here, take this."

    Holly tried rolling her eyes, but I think that just made her more dizzy. "Landon, don't be stupid. I don't need that. People can go for weeks without eating anything."

    "That doesn't mean you should."

    "I'll be fine," she asserted.

    Growing more frustrated with her, I immediately turned to my last resort argument. "Holly," I began. "If you don't eat something, you are most likely going to faint, and when you do, Sgt. Blake will never let you live that down."

    She glared at me for several seconds then snatched the bag of chips out of my hand. "Fine," she muttered.

    It was sort of cute watching her pretend she didn't absolutely love the taste of Doritos. Come to think of it, she probably hadn't eaten anything besides MREs in over a year.

    "Hey Landon," she said before I made it through the doorway. She paused for a moment. "Thanks," she replied without taking her eyes off the ground.

    I smirked at her before exiting. "Anything to help."

(Daniel's PoV)

    After we came in from fighting, we were relieved to hear that this week's MRE shipment was, in fact, delivered. As Holly handed out individual packets to us, Michael asked, "Did you figure out why they never came in last week?"

    Holly shrugged. "A new guy delivers them each week. He didn't have a clue about the missing shipment."

    "Let's just be happy we're set for this week," Marcus beamed before digging in. He tried to hide his look of disgust after placing a bite of what was possibly beef in his mouth.

    Holly rolled her eyes. "I'll go get your mail while you guys eat." She picked up the last MRE and walked out.

    I carefully sampled the weird beef entree too. It tasted nothing like beef.

    Trevor laughed. "You know, one would think that these MREs would taste great after eating next to nothing for the past week." He then sighed. "But unfortunately that's not the case and these are probably the only things in existence that make school lunches seem edible."

    We were grateful enough to muscle down our shitty beef dish, but not grateful enough to not complain about it.

    A little while later, Holly entered with mail. "I've got letters for Gavin, Logan, Jean-Paul, and Daniel."

    "Yes! It's from Alisha." Logan held the envelope close to his chest.

    My head started to pound upon seeing that mine was from Joy, but it seemed to skip a beat at the fact that her handwriting appeared shakier than normal. I apprehensively opened it as I headed back to my bed.

Dear Daniel,

    I'm such a mess. I can't believe this happened and I can't believe I was stupid enough to not know. Bradley's been cheating on me. He's been seeing some other girl for two months now. Two whole months! I just don't know what to do. I thought I was so in love with him. I don't even know what to think. Why would he do this to me? And the other girl knew the entire time and still went out with him. I feel so stupid. I wanna be mad at him, but I feel like it's my fault for believing he ever actually really liked me in the first place. I just can't stop crying. I wish you were here. I could really use someone to talk to.

                                        --Joy

    Several of the letters appeared smudged, likely due to tear drops. I could feel my blood boiling. How could he hurt her like that? Through my anger, I began crumpling up the letter unconsciously.

    "Whoa," Logan noticed. "What's up?"

    "Bradley's been cheating on Joy," I said through gritted teeth. I couldn't fathom what anyone could get out of breaking Joy's heart. She was the sweetest person ever.

    "See, we told you he was shitty," Clayton said.

    "I hate him," I muttered. I had never been able to say that before. That was when he was only a problem for me. I hated him for hurting Joy. I don't think I'd ever hated anyone before this moment.

    I smoothed the letter out and re-read it over and over again. I wanted to reply, but I didn't know what to say. Most of all, I just wished I was able to physically be there for Joy. At this point, I didn't care whether or not she'd ever like me back. I just wanted her to be okay.

(Matteo's PoV)

    My heart raced as soon as I saw my letter from Emmy. I quickly tore it open and began to read.

Dear Matteo,

    Something amazing happened. It's so relieving, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, do you know Gavin Stauffer?

    I couldn't help myself from cocking an eyebrow in confusion. Sure, I knew Gavin, I mean at least vaguely, but the question was, how did she know him.

    I mean, of course you know him. After all, he's in your platoon. But I met his friend, Trixie. She's super sweet. And she wants to start an online group video chat for all the girls who know people in the 63rd platoon. It'll be so nice to have someone to talk to about all this war stuff. (Not that I don't love talking to you. Honestly, hearing from you is like the highlight of my entire month). I know I haven't heard back from you yet since I last wrote, but this was just too exciting not to tell you right away. Anyway, I miss you so much and I can't wait to hear from you again.

                                        Love,

                                            Emmy

    She hadn't gotten my latest message. She had no idea about Will. I was glad she was excited about something, but my heart ached at the fact that I could no longer share the good news with my bunkmate.

    In an attempt to distract myself, I went over to talk to Gavin. It was a little awkward since I didn't think I had said much of anything to him personally. Come to think of it, I didn't really talk to anyone besides Will and occasionally the choir boys.

    "Hey Gavin," I tried not to sound too out of place. "I think my girlfriend met yours."

    From behind him, I could hear Tristan and Landon snickering.

    "What?" I asked.

    Gavin attempted to ignore them. "Yeah, Trixie was telling me about that in the note I got yesterday...and also she's not my girlfriend."

    "He just wishes she was," Tristan chimed in.

    I could feel my face growing hot. Emmy had just said friend. Why did I assume? "Oh shit, sorry," I mumbled.

    He waved the other guys off. "It's okay. But I'm glad the girls got in touch. I hope it makes things a little easier on them."

    "Same here," I said before heading back to my bunk. I sat on my bed in silence for a moment before a thought occurred to me. I wonder if they'll get in touch with Will's sister? I know he would say she'd be happy he was gone, but I didn't buy that. I imagined she was going through hell right now. I went over to grab my paper and pencil so I could tell Emmy to make sure to get in touch with Rose Atteleigh.

(Will's PoV)

I followed Rose to her room, pleading every step of the way. "Rose, I'm sorry. I swear."

"No, you're not." She wouldn't even look back.

"Please talk to me," I begged.

She stopped dead in her tracks. "We have nothing to say." Her voice was ice cold.

I reached out my hand and she gasped slightly, clenching her water bottle even tighter. Her fear turned to anger again. "Go away Will! I hate you!" She slammed her door shut, leaving me alone on the other side.

"I didn't mean to, I swear," I called out. "Please, I'm sorry." I could feel myself shaken. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Dude!"

I opened my eyes to see Brady above me. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"Yeah, we got that," Parker pointed out. "You probably said it about a dozen times already."

Christian stepped in between them to get to me. "Will, are you okay?" he asked. "You were talking in your sleep."

"I do that a lot," I replied, embarrassed. And then the horror hit. I felt as if all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. I struggled for both air and words as my body trembled. 

"Will. Will," Christian said in concern. He pushed his way through the other guys to sit next to me. "It's okay, I'm here. Tell me what's going on."

"I talk in my sleep," I mustered out.

"Yeah, so--"

"No, what if the guards find out."

He furrowed his eyebrows.

I tried explaining, tripping over my words. "You can hold conversations with me while I'm asleep. I completely lose my filter." Tears made it simultaneously easier and harder to talk. "What if I give away information?"

Christian stroked my hair to the side. "Hey, hey. You said it yourself, you don't know much."

"But maybe I subconsciously know things." I panicked. "Like the location of the base. I don't remember the coordinates or address, but I've seen it before on letters. What if it's embedded in my memory?"

"Shh, it's gonna be okay," Christian said softly. "I doubt the guards are gonna find out. They hardly ever come in here at night."

"I could get all those guys killed if I give away anything," I sobbed.

"But you're not," Christian grabbed my wrists and made eye contact with me. "We're not gonna let them find out. Okay?"

I nodded weakly.

He wrapped his arms around me and whispered, "I can't let them hurt you anymore. You're too nice."

My mind flashed back to my dream, and my stomach tied itself into knots, knowing his statement was incredibly false.