The Fort

When Evan learns about C.J.’s predicament, he feels that he has been a bad friend for not noticing the problem himself. “We failed our friend, but not anymore,” Evan thinks. “We’ve got to rescue him, whether he wants to be rescued or not” (149).

At 10 o’clock, the group, minus Mitchell, goes to the fort to see if C.J. is there. Mitchell is connected on FaceTime and obsesses during the entire journey through the dark woods. When they arrive and confront their friend about his injuries, C.J. denies that Marcus is responsible, so the group offers to walk C.J. back home. He continues his bluff until they approach his house, and then he breaks down. C.J. pleads with the boys not to reveal his secret. “No cops! Marcus—I don’t know what he’d do to my mom if he thought she called the police” (150). C.J. insists on protecting his mother at all costs.

C.J. receives sympathy and understanding from his friends as they walk him back to the fort. He thinks, “The guys can’t fix my life, but they’re here. I’ve still got my problems, but I’m not alone with them anymore” (154). For the next several days, C.J. gets a chance to take showers and eat hot meals at the homes of his friends. They sneak his laundry in with theirs so he will have clean clothes for school.

One night at about 11 o’clock, C.J. is heading back to the fort when he sees Jaeger and Luke parked near a trailhead. They have staked out the woods, hoping to catch one of the boys on their way to their secret hideout. Even though C.J. tries to back away quietly, the other two spot him, and a frantic chase ensues through the woods. C.J. manages to lose Jaeger and Luke and sneaks back into the fort. Still upset, he tries unsuccessfully to fall asleep: “When I finally lie down on the couch, I’m wide-awake and still shaking. How much longer am I going to be able to live like this?” (163).

Mitchell finally returns to school because his mother no longer believes that he’s sick. He continues to obsess about being caught by Jaeger and Luke. He learns from Ricky and Evan that C.J. was nearly caught. All the boys are now worried because their stalkers are getting close to finding their hideout.

C.J. continues to receive multiple daily calls and texts from his mother, begging him to come home. Marcus does the same until C.J. blocks his stepfather’s number. One day, during lunch break, C.J. sees his mother standing at the door of the cafeteria. He goes to speak to her, assuming she wants him to return, but she’s come for another reason: “‘I came to tell you you’re right. We both need to get away from’—she won’t say the name—‘him’” (171). Then, C.J. notices the bruises on his mother’s face. Evelyn says that she needs time to plan their escape. Once Marcus knows, he will come looking for them. C.J. gets the idea of taking her to the bunker so she can call help lines and start making arrangements. The rest of the boys agree to this plan.

Evelyn is astonished when she enters the bunker. C.J. thinks, “I have to give her credit, though. She’s tough. She doesn’t waste much energy on regrets. It took her a long time to leave Marcus, but now she’s in this with both feet” (174). His mother spends the next several hours trying to contact relatives who might offer refuge. C.J. has mixed emotions about their attempt to escape and realizes it won’t be easy. “There’s so much to be hopeful about,” he thinks. “And so much to be afraid of” (174).

Ricky and the rest of the boys are eager for their school day to end so they can go to the fort to help C.J. and his mother. As they set out, they see Jaeger and Luke parked nearby in the Mustang. Ricky tells Evan and Mitchell to create a distraction while he stuffs mud into the tailpipe of Jaeger’s car. When it stalls out, the boys make a run for it. Once they arrive at the bunker, C.J. blocks the entrance: “‘We want to help,’ Evan offers. ‘This is private,’ C.J. insists. His mother stands up. ‘Nothing’s private anymore. C.J., let them in’” (178).

Evan is quick to understand C.J.’s discomfort because he experienced a similar sense of humiliation when his drug-addicted parents abandoned their children, and everyone in town knew it. He manages to convey this feeling to C.J., who recognizes the similarity and feels comforted by his friend’s understanding of his plight:

On the surface, this Marcus business is completely different from what happened with my parents. But to be a kid twisting in the wind—suffering the consequences yet powerless to change the outcome—yeah, I can relate to that (180).

As Jason and Janelle make their way to the fort, they get intercepted in the woods by Jaeger and Luke. When Janelle threatens to call her father, Jaeger backs off. However, Jason advises that they can’t go directly to the fort until the thugs leave.

Content Warning: The next chapter describes and incident of domestic violence.

C.J. and his friends wait tensely as Evelyn repeatedly tries to find a shelter that will take them. C.J. thinks, “Having your deepest secret ripped open for the whole world to see is awful, but now I’m kind of glad it happened. Once you get over the horror and embarrassment, it’s a huge relief” (185).

Suddenly, the hatch door is flung open, and Marcus enters the bunker. C.J. forgot to disable the location function on his mother’s phone, and his stepfather could track her. At first, Marcus plays the sympathetic spouse and father. When that routine doesn’t work, his rage begins to surface: “His eyes narrow with fury, and he seems to grow until he fills every corner of the fort, trapping us at his mercy. My friends have never seen this version of Marcus, but Mom sure has” (187). Marcus strikes his wife, sending her flying, and then turns on C.J.

Jason and Janelle circle back to the fort half an hour later. They’re surprised to see the hatch door open. As they approach, they’re ambushed by Jaeger and Luke. In the struggle that follows, Janelle’s phone is flung into the brush so she can’t summon help. Luke and Jaeger then enter the fort. Jason warns Janelle to run home as he follows the others downstairs.

Jaeger begins to threaten the boys until Marcus intervenes and grabs Jaeger by the throat. The teen then stabs him in the stomach, and Marcus falls unconscious. Afterward, Jaeger turns on the rest of the group, demanding to know where the cash is hidden. They show him the silverware, but he thinks the blackened utensils are worthless. He turns on Evan, about to stab him, when Luke jumps in to save his brother, dashing the knife from Jaeger’s hand. The other boys pile on and wrestle Jaeger to the floor.

At that moment, several policemen enter, led by Janelle’s father. Apparently, she called for help while the others were fighting. Police and paramedics take Jaeger and Marcus away, and everyone else is ushered out of the bunker. Jason thinks, “I wish I’d lingered down in the fort just a few minutes longer. You know, to look around and imprint it on my memory. Because I’m suddenly overcome with the feeling that none of us are ever going to see it again” (194).

As life settles back to normal in Canaan, Evan recounts the aftermath of the confrontation. Jaeger has been arrested for assaulting Evan, but he wasn’t charged for his attack on Marcus because it was self-defense. With Jaeger out of the picture, Luke returns to his normal behavior and reestablishes his bond with his younger brother. Marcus is in the hospital but the court has issued a restraining order so he can never bother Evelyn or C.J. again. The Sciuttos move into an apartment outside of town near Jason’s father’s place, so now Jason will have a friend close by when he has to stay with his dad. The bunker’s existence is the talk of the town, and the boys have become celebrities because they discovered it.

Evan’s grandmother hosts a spaghetti dinner for the boys and their families so that all the adults can hear the details of what the fort contained. As they eat, everyone compliments Grandma Donnelly on her spaghetti sauce. She says the secret ingredients are the herbs from Dr. Breckinridge’s garden. Mitchell spits out his food, and the boys explain that he’s been watering the plants. The adults laugh off his concern about being arrested for public urination. Grandma Donnelly says that the herbs were washed thoroughly before being sold. When Mitchell’s mother questions why he would do such a thing, he says that it was revenge for Dr. Breckinridge dropping him as a patient. Mrs. Worth informs him that she canceled the therapy sessions when she couldn’t pay for them. The doctor wasn’t responsible.

Mitchell concludes the story by relating what happened to the fort. The town council salvaged what it could, and then the bunker was filled with dirt, and the entrance sealed. All the boys are depressed, but they won’t try to find a substitute. “Janelle tells us we should look for another fort,” Mitchell explains. “Not even Jason thinks that’s a good idea. There can only ever be one fort” (203).

Mrs. Worth forces Mitchell to call on Dr. Breckinridge to apologize for his late-night watering activities. The doctor invites Mitchell to continue their therapy sessions. Mitchell can work off the fee by tending the garden and using real water to hydrate the plants.

A few days later, the boys make an excursion to the town dump at one o’clock in the morning. Anything the council couldn’t salvage from the fort got dumped here. This is the boys’ last chance to say goodbye to their special refuge. They find broken records and videotapes and remember the good times they shared in the bunker. Jason is amazed to find his family’s cactus on top of the lid of the fort’s chemical toilet. The plant is in bloom, which only happens one night out of each year.

Ricky tries to calculate the mathematical probability that the boys would be around to witness this phenomenon, but Mitchell has a simpler answer: “‘It has nothing to do with math,’ I assure him. ‘We came here to say goodbye to the fort. This is the fort saying goodbye to us.’ For once, nobody laughs at me” (207).