Tomorrow, When the War Began Chapter 6 Summary

  • First stop is Ellie's place… which is eerily empty.
  • All of the dogs except for one are dead, which is terrible and freaky.
  • Another weird thing is that the phone is dead, so Ellie can't use it to call her parents.
  • The friends gather in a circle of chaos, confusion, and fear. What should they do?
  • Finding an old radio, they try to get some information, but all they hear is static.
  • Frightened beyond belief, they pile back into the Rover and book it to Homer's house.
  • As they pull up to Homer's house, Ellie lays on the horn, hoping his parents will be home—but there is no movement.
  • Lee stops her from making more noise. He seems really serious about it, too, though Ellie is afraid to ask why.
  • While hunting for family inside, Ellie sees Lee hide their car under a tree.
  • Ellie and Robyn realize things have officially gotten scary. Gulp.
  • The milk cow is in pain from a full bag, and they all pitch in to take care of chores and such.
  • As a last ditch effort, they try the firefighting radio; Ellie desperately argues that their families must all be out fighting fires they saw on their way home.
  • On the radio, though, nothing comes in but static.
  • Considering putting out a call for help, Homer asks for opinions, and the leaders all agree that could be dangerous if something dangerous is indeed happening.
  • Instead, the group will go house by house to see if their families are all gone.
  • Everyone wants to rush off immediately, but Robyn warns them not to act without thinking—things look bleak.
  • Ellie flips her lid… again. Then each kid loses it, yelling, crying, and generally freaking out.
  • Fi is about to eat her hand she's so nervous, but good ol' Homer cracks a joke about it and sends them all into a hysterical fit.
  • Trying to rally the troops, Lee tells them to listen to logical Robyn.
  • Breaking it down for everyone, Robyn lays out that it seems quite likely something terrible is going on—after all, there's no power, no phones, nothing on the radio, fires are all around, the town's empty, and a fleet of jets flew overhead during the night.
  • Ellie chimes in that the jets had no lights, prompting Fi to totally blow her top.
  • Fi struggles to list all the alternative scenarios she can think of—stuff like food poisoning from the fair—but someone shoots each of her ideas down.
  • Lee calms everyone down and they all cry while he tells them that they may very well be at war.