They laid five to rest that morning by the sun’s first rays. Jax and John’s shovels echoed against the river rock as they finished digging the last and final grave. Five of the casualties were teachers and staff members who had left the hidden safe rooms in an effort to help protect their students. Neverland had no use for adults and didn’t take the same care to keep them alive. Wendy hadn’t known them as well, but their deaths still weighed heavily on her, each one a lodestone around her heart. But she would use that pain to forge a wall to protect herself and build upon her hatred for Neverland.

The other casualty was a lost boy—Fox.

It was unfair. Life. Death. It came for them all, but she struggled with the idea of it coming so soon for Fox. She bit on her thumbnail as Tink, semi-recovered from the drug-induced dart, held a formal ceremony for those who had passed.

Wendy could see that there were more than a few mounds along the embankment. She wondered how many of them were boys killed by morphlings or the Red Skulls. Was that their lot in life? To continue to battle against Neverland and be picked off one by one until there weren’t any of them left? That seemed like a horrible way to die; she would know since she’d had her share of deaths.

She wiped at the corner of her eye, and Tootles buried his head into her side, wrapping his hands around her. Michael stood tall and silent next to her. He hadn’t been taken by the Red Skulls and had kept Tootles hidden. John stood on her other side and kept giving Michael a curious look.

Tink cleared her throat. “Um, does anyone have anything they’d like to add?” She looked around hopefully at their small group.

It pained Wendy to see their numbers reduced to just a few. Jax, Tink, John, Michael, Tootles, Slightly, Ditto, and she were the only ones who had not been taken by Neverland.

Tootles wasn’t in any position to speak, and Jax was angry. He had retreated inside himself and spoke very little. Tink looked to John for help.

John cleared his throat and stepped up beside Tink. He looked around at the crying faces. “A thousand words cannot express, a thousand tears cannot digress, a thousand thoughts of you remain, for a thousand hearts your life has changed.”

“That was beautiful,” Tink whispered as she gave John’s elbow a squeeze of gratitude while the teachers continued to cover the grave with rock.

He nodded his head. “Yeah, it was out of a video game.”

Tink rubbed her eyes. “I know, and very appropriate.”

They stayed near the freshly covered mound, and Tink left a light brace on the grave. “To protect you from the darkness. And Fox . . .” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Wherever you go . . . stay away from the shadows.”

The walk back was silent, filled with fear and doubt.

As they left the woods and crested the hill, they could see the school. They were far enough away from the city that the police hadn’t noticed the raid on the school. The battle had come and left, leaving minimal impact on the world around them—other than the main building, where two huge holes remained in the roof. Contractors’ trucks had already arrived, and construction had begun on the building, but Wendy knew that they couldn’t stay.

“What do we do now?” Tootles asked, looking up to Wendy.

It was Tink who answered. “We move, to a new safe house. This location has bit the dust.”

“There’s more than one safe house?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we have backup plans for our backup plans. But we can’t stay here in case they come back. We have to load up on our necessities and head out. Then, we will make a plan. Figure out what our next move is.” Tink stopped at the front step of the school.

“I think—” Jax began, but Tink cut him off.

“You don’t get to think. You’re lucky I haven’t killed you yet, traitor. I still won’t trust you any farther than I can throw you.”

“Well, I think you will have to trust me now since I saved your necks.”

“No, you could have warned us. Told us Neverland was coming. You’ve been helping them for years. He knew just where to hit us, the weak spot in our defenses; we got hacked. How do you think he knew that? Luck? No, he had someone on the inside.”

“Yes, I fed him information, but most of it was false. Old news.”

“But still you knew he’d come.”

Jax’s face turned ugly. “They were always going to come. It was never a matter of if, but when. I bought you time. I helped Neverwood by keeping their eyes off you.”

Wendy stopped and stared at him, putting everything together. “You helped kidnap kids from my school . . . and all the other kids. You were there, in my school library. You were there the night of the car accident. It was you, on the side of the road. I saw you. My parents . . .” She trailed off, unable to speak.

He looked away, shoving his hands inside his jacket pockets. “It was never supposed to go down like that. Your parents weren’t meant to die. But they sent a morphling after you, and I thought that if I got there first—”

“You didn’t,” Wendy hissed. “And now my parents are dead, and Neverland has taken my friends.”

“Your friends are not dead,” Jax sighed and looked over at her.

“What did you say?”

“They’ve just been recruited into the D.U.S.T program, unwillingly. Their systems will either adapt to the new PX drug, or they’ll die.”

“And you didn’t adapt?”

“They tried, over and over again, but my metabolism burns the drugs out before they can take hold, and they don’t have the same effect on me.”

“What will happen to the boys?”

“Neverland will put them in harvesting pods. If they’re strong, they will survive.”

“Then, they still have a chance.” Her brain was working as she tried to process the facts so that she could formulate a plan. “What about Peter? How did they alter him so quickly?” Wendy fumed.

“Well, did he recently pan?” Jax asked.

Her voice lowered, “Yes, I think so. A morphling in the woods took him down, and then Hook took him—I didn’t know if he was dead, but he must have died. He must have panned. It’s the only explanation.”

Tink waved her hands in the air, her voice rising with excitement. “That explains it. His mind is in a vulnerable state. It’s just like Hook to try and play Peter against us, but they must have had help.”

Slightly rubbed his eyes, which were still red and puffy from the funeral. “It was Curly. I think I saw him steal files from Dr. Mee’s place when we went to get her. Also, he wasn’t on-site when the skirmish occurred. I checked his band. It was turned off.”

“But why would he betray you like that?” Wendy asked before sneaking a side glance at Jax, wondering the same thing.

Slightly shrugged his shoulders, his gaze meeting hers, then settling on Jax. “Why would anyone after what Neverland did to us?”

“But they have Peter. We need to do something,” Wendy said, pounding her fist into her palm.

“Yes.” Jax flung his hand in the air. “They have others as well. Are you going to save them because it’s the right thing to do, or is it only because they have your boyfriend that you’re interested?”

“What is wrong with you?” Wendy snapped. “You have no feelings whatsoever.”

“You’re wrong; I feel too much.” Jax let out a slow breath and turned his back, walking away from the school and back into the woods.

Tink gave her a sad look. “Let him go.” She gave Wendy’s shoulders a squeeze. “I need to get my computers and pack. You should too.”

The group skirted around the debris and scattered. Ditto disappeared into the medical wing with Slightly. Tink went up to the control room. Even Tootles helped out and ran to the kitchen and began to pack up food.

In the living room, Wendy sat down on the couch and looked around at the pool table and video game system. It was one of the few places that had remained untouched after the attack. John sat on the edge of the pool table and crossed his arms.

“What do we do now?” John asked. “It’s not like we have a family to go back to.”

“I don’t know,” Wendy answered. “I guess we go with them.”

“What about me?” Michael asked, his hands clasping and unclasping nervously in front of him. He was so quiet and had hung back so far from the group that Wendy had forgotten he was there.

John laughed. “Well, you’re our brother, you’d come with us.” Michael looked confused, but John didn’t miss a beat. “Wendy is my sister in name but yours by blood. I see no reason why I can’t be your brother in name.”

“Are you sure?” Wendy asked.

“It’s what Mom and Dad would have wanted,” John answered. “You know them—if they had known you had a brother, they would have stopped at nothing to bring him into the family as well. I’d make sure of it. We just have one thing stopping us at the moment, and that is—”

“Neverland,” Wendy sighed and leaned back into the chair.

“You mean it?” Michael looked up at John. “That you’d want me as your brother too?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Because you don’t know all the horrible things I’ve done.” Michael’s head hung low as he scuffed his foot across the floor. “I wouldn’t want me as a brother.”

“Well, it’s not like you murdered someone?” John laughed. Wendy fake-coughed to get his attention. “Oh, I see.” John cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Of course that doesn’t matter,” Wendy said, flashing Michael a smile.

An awkward silence filled the air between the trio, and she looked to John for help. He looked around the room for inspiration, and his eyes lit up at the sight of the game console.

“Have you ever played Warfare 8?” John asked.

Michael shook his head “no”.

“What about Tanknation?” Michael shook his head again.

“I don’t think he played many games in . . . that place,” Wendy said softly.

The laughter died from John’s eyes when he realized his mistake. But he forced a smile to his lips. “Then, I’ve got a lot to teach you, small fry.” He flicked his hand across Michael’s hair.

Michael batted his hand away, and John dodged and came back around to bop him on the head.

“Hey, you!” Michael laughed and tentatively took a step forward, unsure what to do. John ran around the couch and bopped him on the shoulder. “Come and get me. If you can beat me up to the control room, I’ll let you pick the first video game when we get somewhere safe.”

John waved him off to give him a head start.

Michael grinned and took him up on the challenge, his running awkward at first but gaining confidence with each stride, until both disappeared out the door.

Tootles giggled and gave Wendy a wink before teleporting out of the room. She could only guess his sudden disappearance meant that he was going to beat both of them.

She sat in the empty room and tried to imagine it filled with all the boys. She could almost hear Fox bickering over the game controllers with Ditto. Tink yelling at them to keep it down. Her favorite room, once filled with so much laughter and life, felt dead.

She didn’t want to be there.