Chapter 7: Reasoning

The next morning was as usual or as usual as it could get. Tarrant got up quietly trying not to wake anyone up. That dream. That dream kept walking around in Tarrant’s conscience. He couldn’t shake that that dream was something important.

Tarrant opened the door to the practice room and found Sean already in there stretching and getting ready to change places with Stephanie. “Hey Tarrant. What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on.” Sean sighed, sitting down on one of the benches. He pat the seat next to him and didn’t look away from Tarrant until he sat down. “Come tell me what’s going on. You can’t lie to anyone in this compound. Well, you could probably lie to Ace, but that’s besides the point.” Tarrant sat down right as Sean wrapped an arm around Tarrant’s shoulders. “Tell Uncle Sean what happened.”

“It’s nothing. I’m telling you.”

“Yes, and I’m a hippo with wings holding a boba cup breathing fire.”

“Where did that come from?”

“Stephanie’s influence might be getting a little too much now.” He mumbled under his breath. Sean rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously. “It was my dream last night. It was a very interesting concept. Anyway, what was your dream like?”

“Just a dreamless sleep.”

“That scream last night doesn’t say that.”

Tarrant got up rapidly and stood in front of Sean with a shocked look. “You heard me scream?!”

Sean put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up so that he was face to fact with Tarrant. “Nope.” Tarrant backed up a little. Sean puffed out his chest and glared at Tarrant’s crystal blue eyes with his own deep brown ones. “You just proved me right.” Sean poked Tarrant’s chest hard enough so that he fell back onto the bench behind him.

Sean got onto one knee and brought Tarrant’s face to face him. “What do you want to prove, Sean? That I can lie? That I can’t lie to any of you? Or how about how everything that we knew is going to shit and there’s nothing I can do about it!” Tarrant threw the staff that was near him towards the door and started to seethe.

Sean sighed and pulled Tarrant down onto the bench. “That’s not what I meant, Tarrant. You’re holding things from us. Do you want to talk about it? Please talk to us. We have become your family, we all want to help you.”

“Then help me get Jordan back.”

“We can’t do that. Ace is doing what’s best.” Tarrant groaned and got up. “But if you show him that it would be better to be in the same room, you could go back.” Sean said in a higher pitched tone. He started to whistle as he grabbed a spear and threw it at Tarrant. Tarrant quickly turned around and grabbed it right before the tip hit the hard metal door. “For now, focus on me. Let’s get to talking, shall we?” Sean used his foot to pick up the spear from the floor and lunged at Tarrant.

“What the fuck, Sean?! I wasn’t ready!” Tarrant dogged another lunge while Sean just gave him this little smirk.

“When in the world is anything fair in war? You need to have your guard up about anything, so I suggest you learn how to multitask.” Sean lunged at him again and started asking questions. “So, what happened in this dream?”

“Nothing bad happened.” Sean drop kicked Tarrant.

“That was a lie. Again.” Tarrant rolled over to the side before Sean jabbed him in the head. “Was it bad?”

“Yes!” Tarrant yelled, lunging at Sean. Sean easily dogged the throw and took the spear in his hands swinging the kid around to the other side of the room.

“Good. Now, tell me what happened.” Tarrant explained everything as he tried to dodge and jab at every one of Sean’s attacks.

By the end of the conversation, Sean had Tarrant pinned down by the waist. He was sitting on him, and held the dull blade up to his neck. Tarrant was covered in sweat, bruises and cuts everywhere. Each of them represented when he could not focus on the battle at hand and talk. Tarrant could only remember a couple of things, but every time Sean went into a certain position, Tarrant could remember something.

“Good. This is what I meant, Tarrant. You need to learn how to think while on the battlefield, and this dream that you had is clouding your judgement. It shows that you need to fix this before you can ever fully come back out with us.”

“Wait, I came out already? Papa said I’m not allowed out until I turned 15.” Sean’s face paled a little. He pushed himself off of Tarrant and threw the spear at the rack. It landed into the spot perfectly.

“We’re done for now. Go take a shower and eat. I shall do the same. If you want more info, I suggest you try to remember the full extent of your dream.” Sean walked out of the training room and rested against the cool metal wall outside.

“You’re not going to be able to suppress those memories forever, Ace. I suggest you tell him the truth.” Sean looked over to see the familiar, older redhead standing next to him. “I’m suspecting you heard everything?” Ace nodded solemnly. “Ace, you need to introduce him to E sooner or later. If this is what I think it is, then he needs to know everything.”

“I don’t want him to remember. He was getting too close, and I can’t lose another family member.”

“Then I suggest you stop hiding the truth from your own son and tell him what to avoid. If he doesn’t know what to avoid, what’s to say that he will avoid it?” Sean’s eyes darted towards the right to see a small mop of red hair right behind Ace through the door. Sean sighed and looked back to Ace. “He has the same opportunity as all of us. Tell. Him. The. Truth. Before. He. Loses. It.” Sean used his pointer finger and poked Ace in the chest with each word in the last sentence. “Also, I would suggest rethinking your decision on the room arrangements. It seems that Tarrant isn’t the only one who is suffering from it.” Sean pointed to a short figure who came out of a door. It was Jordan. He looked really tired, but his eyes kept wandering everywhere. He didn’t see the two men speaking around the curved corner. Sean left with a smirk to his room to take a shower leaving Ace there to ponder everything.

8am finally rolled around and everyone had come down to eat, everyone but Jordan. It was the same case for lunch. That’s when everyone started to worry, especially Ace and Sean who had seen him leave his room around seven.

“Where is Jordan?” Stephanie asked when lunch ended. Everyone except Ace looked at Tarrant for any word on his whereabouts.

“I don’t know.” Tarrant didn’t look up from his bowl of soup using his bangs to cover his eyes. “How could I? I’m not allowed to be near him anymore.” He tried to keep his glare down from his father’s view, but he couldn’t hide anything from his own father.

Ace clenched his fist trying to keep his anger down. “Tarrant, I never said that.”

“You pretty much did.” Ace sighed and got up from the table.

“Come to my office, now.” Ace didn’t leave room for a no. Ace leaned against his desk, pushed his glasses up his bridge, and looked at his son. “Look, I can tell now that I probably fucked up a little on this decision, but it was for your own good.”

“Then tell me why Jordan is nowhere to be found.”

“That is an aftereffect. Look, I need to talk to you about something else.”

“What would that be?” Tarrant crossed his arms over his chest and crossed a leg over the other. “There’s not much to talk about.”

“Yes, there is. I know I haven’t been the best parent during this, but I’m trying as best as I can. Sean tells me that you have been having these dreams.”

Tarrant tensed up hearing that. “Yes, I heard you guys. Sean told me I should at least let you in on everything.”

“Why are you listening in on my conversations?”

“Because I wanted to make sure you’re safe. Tarrant, how much of that dream do you remember?”

“Enough.”

“Okay, then what was the glow that you saw?”

“I-I don’t know.” Ace nodded. He put a hand on Tarrant’s shoulder giving him a pleading look.

“Tarrant, I can’t tell you what happened just yet, but please understand that if you remember what the glow is, I want you to tell me what it is. That thing is very dangerous. When you were younger, you were lured out of your bed constantly by what you said was a voice and a glowing light. That is dangerous, so please don’t follow it for my sake.”

Tarrant sighed. He could hear the desperation in his voice. He was really scared about it. He knew he couldn’t bring up this E right now. “Fine. I will.”

“Thank you, Tarrant.” Ace sighed and walked behind his desk pulling out an old file. Go get him.”

“What?” Tarrant looked at Ace confused.

“Tarrant, go find him.” Tarrant looked up shocked at what just came out of Ace’s mouth, but nodded and left the office to go find Jordan. After a couple of minutes, Tarrant walked into his and Jordan’s room. The beds were empty and it was dead silent. Way too silent for Tarrant’s taste. Tarrant sighed and pulled the chairs out from under the desks but nothing was there. He finally turned to a panel in the wall. He remembered Jordan found it a while back. It was loose and could fit a small child in it if they squeezed enough.

He pulled the panel back to reveal Jordan sitting there sniffling. He had a tight grip on the teddy bear and was playing with the arms of it trying to will his tears away.

“JorJor?”

“Tarrant?” The small boy turned around with stars in his eyes seeing the familiar redhead standing before him.

“Hey.” Tarrant rubbed at the back of his head trying to get his rapid beating heart to calm down. “Where have you been? You need to eat.”

“I thought you left. I w-woke up and y-you weren’t h-here.” Tarrant sighed trying to get the idea of hugging Jordan out of his brain, but he couldn’t. Jordan opened his arms waiting for a hug and Tarrant fell into them holding the boy tightly to him.

“I’m so sorry I left you. It wasn’t my choice.”

“Please don’t do it again.” Jordan pleaded. Tarrant pulled Jordan out of the small panel and kicked it back into place. Tarrant moved to sit on the bed bringing Jordan to sit with him. This position might have caused a stir in Ace if he saw it. Somewhere in his office, Ace sneezed.

“I can’t make that promise.” Jordan pulled away looking up at Tarrant teary eyed.

“Why not?! We’ve lived together for seven years. What’s changed so suddenly that you now have to live with Eric? Everyone just goes away. My parents, Alice, and now you.” Jordan glanced down and played with the arms of his teddy bear again with a forlorn face. Tarrant pulled him back and hugged him.

“It’s adult problems. You’ll understand one day. I’m sorry, JorJor. This is out of my power.”

“No! I want to understand now! Did something change? Do you hate me now?” Tarrant’s eyes widened. He shook his head aggressively left and right. He sighed and was about to say something so he could leave, but he heard the small tapping sound spelling out SOS. It wasn’t used for ‘save our souls’, it was a term to ‘shut up immediately’. Tarrant quickly wrapped his arms around Jordan’s body tighter, shoving Jordan’s head into his chest.. He held up the shush symbol before running to the back of the room and crouching behind the wall between them and the bookshelf that held their school supplies. The door closed and the bolt went into place as Tarrant kept Jordan’s silent cries muffled into his t-shirt.

Everything seemed to slow down as loud thumps could be heard from above them. Each thump made Jordan flinch that much harder. “Calm down. It’s going to be okay.” Jordan slid a little further down as Tarrant took a seat on the floor. Jordan placed his head on Tarrant’s heart and listened to the calm thump trying to listen to only that.

The thumping finally stopped making Jordan breathe a sigh of relief until a loud roar resounded throughout the entire compound. Jordan cowered into Tarrant as Tarrant stretched his arm to reach the end of his bed. Right under his bed laid a rifle. He finally curled his fingers around the barrel and pulled it out holding it over Jordan’s body using it to protect him. Ace put it in there when Tarrant turned fourteen saying it was for protection. That was around the same time that he started learning how to use it from Eric. Yes, it had a silencer on it.

He barricaded themselves with the body of it and had it ready to shoot. They stayed like that for over an hour.

Tarrant heard the telltale tap of FINE. He softly and slowly pulled Jordan and himself up and pulled Jordan into his arms again. Jordan went full koala on Tarrant and stayed clung to his side as the base tried to recollect themselves.

A few minutes passed when Ace came rushing into the room. He slammed the door open. He had this look of pure freight as his eyes darted in every direction until he saw Tarrant and Jordan coming out from behind the bookshelf.

“Tarrant! Tarrant! Jordan! Are you two alright?!” Ace’s blue eyes met the same pair of blue eyes that belonged to his son along with Jordan who had koala-ed himself onto Tarrant’s side. He was peeking out a little, but you could barely see his eyes.

“We’re fine, dad.” Ace sighed looking at Tarrant’s glaring eyes. “Did they leave?”

“Yes, but we found a break in the bunker’s ladder system. We need you to come and help hold up the new panel. We need to reinforce it, too.” Tarrant nodded, but he looked down to see Jordan still holding onto him. “I’ll take him to Miss. Flora for a few. Go help the others.” Jordan had a hard time letting go, but the moment Ace said he could go to Miss. Flora until Tarrant came back, he made a break for the door hoping the time would pass by faster.

“Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to separate you two.” Ace sighed. “I just don’t want you to make rash decisions in your lapses as you grow. Jordan needs time as well as you did. Now that you know your feelings, let him make those as well.” Tarrant nodded. “We will discuss these dreams you have after you’re done outside. For now, I will let you stay with Jordan so long as nothing rash happens until he turns at least fifteen or sixteen.”

“I know. Thanks Papa.” Tarrant gave him a genuine small smile before leaving to help Eric, Stephanie, Alice, and Sean.

That night, Ace stood behind his desk with his hand over his mouth. He was pacing around with the same phone he had to use a few years back on his desk.

What he didn’t realize was his son was doing the same thing right outside his door, trying to muster the courage to bring up one topic that seemed to hang low in everyone’s minds.

Tarrant finally opened the door making Ace jump a little. “Oh my god, Tarrant. Don’t scare me like that. I could’ve killed you.” Tarrant raised an eyebrow as Ace pointed to the button on his desk he was very close to pressing.

Tarrant waved that off and decided to get straight to the point. “Who is E, Papa.”