Chapter 3: Normal Life?

The years passed by quickly.

Alice learned a lot with Sean and it almost became a norm for someone to walk out and see them fighting for the best position in their next outing. The first time Jordan saw it, he almost got grabbed into it if it weren’t for Tarrant.

Today was the day that Tarrant turned 12. The team had lasted a bit better than most partially because of their location and their numbers. Many didn’t know about this bunker unless they had some kind of military connection.

“Tarrant! Tarrant!” A nine year old Jordan yelled into Tarrant’s bed. Jordan pulled over his stool to get into his bed and positioned it right next to Tarrant’s bed. “Tarrant?” Jordan poked at the body trying to see if he was awake. “Tarrant, come on. Get up! It’s your birthday!” Tarrant tried not to listen as it was like 7am. Finally, he gave in and grabbed Jordan’s waist and brought him under the covers.

Jordan went under with a yelp as Tarrant pulled the covers back up. “More sleep.” Jordan giggled, bringing the covers down revealing Tarrant’s red hair. “No, no, no. It’s too early. Sleep is a beautiful virtue.”

“What’s virtue?”

“A nice piece of life. Let me sleep for at least another hour.”

“B-But. I want to give you my gift before everyone else.” Tarrant opened one eye seeing the pouting boy laying next to him.

He sighed and opened the covers. “Okay, go get it.”

“Yay!” Tarrant smiled. These were the nice moments they could have before hell rained back down on them. The Tyrants had grown in numbers and nothing could be done to stop it. The rest of humanity was trying to take tests and find ways to destroy these creatures, but the closest they got was that their blood is purple and their cells multiply as fast as they die.

Tarrant knew that one day, that smile will be gone. Alice has made it the best that she could for the two. Jordan had been in a mourning state for a year, but now, everyt ime someone tries to bring it up, he diverts to a different topic. But every night, Tarrant could hear the silent sobs coming from his bed. When it would get bad, he would crawl into Jordan’s bed and sleep with him.

Lately, those days have died down, and Tarrant is trying to keep that number down every year since.

During this thought process, Tarrant failed to realize that Jordan was physically climbing down by falling out of the bed. Tarrant reached, but he missed by a few centimeters, and Jordan fell with a thud. Tears formed in Jordan’s eyes as he tried to fight them off.

Tarrant quickly got himself out of the bed and pulled Jordan into his lap. “Sorry. Sorry. I got lost in my thoughts. Are you okay?”

“I-I’m okay.”

“Don’t lie. Do we need to chop off this part of your brain?”

“N-No, but it hurts.”

“Yeah I know. You know how tall these beds are. You should have taken the steps.”

“I didn’t realize they weren’t there.”

“Oh well. What’s done is done.” Tarrant got up and brought Jordan to sit on his bed. “Where’s your present? We can open it together.” Jordan held the spot on his head where he fell and pointed with his left hand to the drawers that held his clothes and other stuff. Tarrant reached in and found a very interesting looking present. There was a lot of paper and tape with colors everywhere from some kind of markers. The last time that Alice and Sean went out, they were tasked with bringing school supplies as well so that everyone could continue their studies. Jordan held it up and Jordan nodded his head rapidly with this huge smile on his face. Tarrant took a running start and jumped onto the bed.

“Open it. Open it!” Tarrant pulled at the paper and found a cute stuffed koala that was in it. “I asked Alice to get it for me. I hope you like it. You’re always so helpful, but you love your sleep, so I got you a cute koala!” Tarrant turned and hugged Jordan close.

“I love it. Thank you, JorJor.” Jordan smiled brightly and they stayed like that until Miss Flora called everyone down.

Tarrant got off the bed first and held his hands out for Jordan. Jordan wrapped his arms around Tarrant’s neck before jumping onto the unsuspecting boy. They both almost slammed on the ground with the force, but Tarrant has a bit more balance than Jordan.

They were both left laughing as Alice and Eric passed by. “Are you two coming or should we eat the good food without you?” Eric raised an eyebrow. Jordan’s eyes shot open and he grabbed Tarrant’s hand and ran out of the room down to the first floor where everyone was waiting.

Ace looked up from where he stood with his arms crossed over his chest. “Come on you two. Sean, Miss. Flora, and myself have a special surprise ready.” When the others came down, Miss. Flora and Sean came out carrying a lot of different food.

They actually brought out a lot of the stops. Powdered eggs, bacon, and homemade bread. There were also strawberries, Tarrant’s favorite fruit.

“Be glad we found these. It took a while to find them. Apparently, there was a farm on the outskirts near the southern border, so we went to pick a few.” Sean stated, smirking as he placed the big bowl of strawberries in the center. Everyone sang happy birthday while Jordan had Tarrant’s hand in his shaking it up and down in excitement.

After they ate, Ace gathered all of the others gifts around a place on the couch. Jordan came over and sat down next to Tarrant as he opened his presents. Everything was great for what it was worth. Some were food, others were clothes because he outgrew a lot of stuff recently.

“Thanks everybody.”

“No problem, kiddo.” Ace gave Tarrant a small hug and had everyone get back to work until dinner when everyone would have time again.

Eric and Miss. Flora taught the kids most of the stuff they could. It was easier now that they had books, but they would have to go do their own stuff, so Tarrant went to learn how to at least handle a baton with Sean while Jordan sneaked off. The moment Alice wasn’t looking, he ran to the strategy room. Stephanie stood above the lit up table with an entire blueprint of the land surrounding the area.

“Hey Stephanie.” Stephanie turned around smirking.

“Does Alice know that you’re here?” Jordan shook his head. “Well, come on.” Stephanie kicked a stool next to the table and made room for him. “Do you remember what I asked of you last time?”

“Yes. Why did this plan fail?” Jordan pulled at one of the many sheets of paper and pulled one over. “This plan failed because we did not expect the Tyrants to gain a sense of smell through their evolution. We also didn’t test on what we knew far enough. There were many holes in it, and we headed in head first.”

“Good. Okay, so this is our next plan. Do you see any holes?” Stephanie didn’t let any of this be easy whatsoever. Kids see things differently, though, so it was a lot better for her to have a fresh pair of eyes.

“Um, has Eric checked from the watchtower?”

“He’s only seen movement near the north end and no where near the south.”

“We need to find the repellent. Remember, if they smell us, they can hurt us.” Jordan looked away from the blueprints trying to not remember anything. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. We’ve all felt this. We all lost someone in this.” Stephanie pulled out a picture of herself and another girl. “You remember Aurora Yu?”

“The girl you said you were with right?”

“Yeah. I’ve lost her. Ace lost his wife, Tarrant lost his mother. Miss. Flora lost her husband, Sean lost his brother and sister, and Eric lost his best friend. Don’t apologize for your grief.”

“B-But it should be gone by now.”

“No it shouldn’t. They were your family, and like I’ve said before, you will always grieve over them, but one day that grief will turn into becoming memories of the good and the bad. If you need a minute, go to the bathroom. If not, then go clean your face and help me out with the next plan.”

Jordan nodded and ran to the bathroom. He clutched the bear in his arms and looked down at it. “Everything will be okay, right?” The door opened and a familiar redhead came in.

“One day, everything will become better. That’s what we’re fighting for.” Tarrant hugged Jordan to him. “We will survive this. Both of us will.”

“I hope.” Jordan gave Tarrant a curt smile before walking back to work with Stephanie.

7pm finally hit, and Ace called everyone down again. “Everyone! We’ve got another surprise!” Jordan and Stephanie were the first to come into the living room. By the time everyone was there, Miss. Flora and Sean had brought in this cute looking cake.

When Tarrant came down his eyes lit up. “Is that a cake?”

“Yep. Sean snagged a little sugar and eggs for me when they went out.” Sean gave a big pearly smile at the rest of the family.

“Thank you guys.” Tarrant awkwardly hugged everyone before sitting down with Jordan. He had a jacket on even though it was almost summer.

“Why are you wearing that? It’s so hot here.”

Tarrant smirked and pulled out the stuffed koala. “This is for when I have to go on missions soon. I need it to smell like me and be warm for when you go to bed.” Jordan blushed and hit at Tarrant.

“No one needs to know about the animals!”

“They already know. We’re all family here.” Jordan laughed as they were served cake by Ace. Ace came over to Miss. Flora and crossed his arms over his chest shaking his head.

“You’re going to have to deal with this one day.”

“Yeah. One day. Not now. I’ll tell my son one day that what he’s feeling is endearment, but I’ll wait. I just want him to experience happiness before he’s thrusted into this world completely.” Miss. Flora patted him on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile before leaving to concoct one of Eric’s new experiments in the sectioned area of the kitchen.