The Trinity of Extinction

Oceans Apart: Part 2

                                                                                             Sword

Pentagon Fort

Ruins of Washington DC.

David 'Sword' McRaven sent Ribbon a message more than fifteen minutes ago. Still no reply. He felt bad, but he wasn't at all surprised. She was a Myrmidon Ranger now. No doubt she was going to be very busy and in constant danger. That just made him worry for her even more. He had seen men with enough muscle to wrestle a raptor come back from expeditions outside the wall in pieces.

Before he could send her another message, his tablet was taken from him.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Give it back!"

A boy; tall, blond, and stout, wearing overalls and a t-shirt stained with sweat and dirt sniggered as he held the tablet up in the air out of Sword's reach. Sword stood up. The boy's two cronies grabbed him by the arms and slammed him against the wall. Their fingers wrapped around his arms like iron vices. He couldn't move. He was too weak. Too skinny.

"Aw, who's Ribbon?" the boy asked. "Your girlfriend? God, are you so desperate you'd go after a girl who's thousands of miles away?"

"Give it back, Carl!" Sword cried out. He was shoved back against the wall with great force. The back of his head bounced off the brick wall.

Carl laughed, scrolling through his messages with Ribbon. "She likes your story? She must be as illiterate as you to call that mess a story."

"What are they saying to each other, Carl?" asked Gordon. His foul breath made Sword's face turn green. "Any love notes?"

"He's a stinking liar!" Carl said with a laugh. "He's so desperate to impress her that she's fooling him into thinking he's a Force Recon Marine. You can't be a Marine. You're not even fit to be a farmer! Let's see what I can tell her." 

He walked around mockingly with a stupid look on his face, pondering what to type to Ribbon.

"Leave her alone!" shouted Sword, desperately trying to recover his tablet. "Stop! Don't send her anything!" 

Again, he was shoved against the wall. The skinny boy with the shaved head, Mick, slapped Sword's face repeatedly.

"Dear Ribbon," Carl said in a contemptuous voice. "I think you're so hot. I wanna take you home and make some noise later on. I'm gonna bang you hard until you scream, baby."

"Don't!" cried Sword. "If you upset her, I won't ever see her again. Stop!" Tears formed in his eyes and dripped down his cheeks in seconds. "Stop!" He wailed and hiccupped.

Carl laughed and leaned forward until he was face-to-face with Sword. "Aww, is the baby gonna cry? Is the big, bad, Force Recon Marine gonna cry?"

Suddenly, Gordon and Mick screamed and let go of Sword. As he slumped to the ground, he heard sneakers quickly stamping against the pavement and the jingling of a chain. He turned his head to the right to see who was coming.

A girl was running towards them. Her midriff tank top flapped violently over her waist. The chain dangling from her baggy cargo pants smacked against her hip as if declaring her arrival. Her champagne-colored hair, which cascaded down to her back, flapped behind her like a golden mantle, giving her the appearance of a superhero coming to the rescue. Her heart-shaped face was burning bright red with fury and there was murder flashing in her eyes.

She booted Carl hard on the stomach. He grunted, flew backward, and landed on the pavement with a thud on the back of his head. A kaleidoscope of colors flashed in his eyes. He forgot where he was for a moment. His mouth hung open to let out a trial of vomit that oozed onto the ground.

The girl then turned to Gordon, who was brave enough to put up a fight with her. He held up both his fists and jabbed at her clumsily. She swung her head left and right, easily avoiding his strikes before she punched him square in the jaw with a loud crunch.

Blood squirted from his mouth. Sword heard something tapping against the ground. It was small and glimmering in the afternoon sunlight. Something small and white. Sword soon realized that the girl had punched Gordon's mouth with so much force, she knocked his tooth out. She then kicked him in the gut for good measure. Gordon whimpered pathetically as he fell to the ground holding his stomach. His eyes tightened. His head bobbed up and down as he sobbed in pain like a little child would if he fell off his bike.

"Rex! Wait! Wait!" Mick cried as the girl grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "I didn't want to do it! Honest!"

The girl didn't listen. She punched his face four times with powerful lefts and rights, blackening his eye and breaking his nose. The boy rolled around in the ground wailing like an infant. The girl then squatted over Carl and smashed her knuckles against his face over and over again until he was swollen like a rotten tomato. Blood splattered all over her shirt and the ground. 

"Stop!" Sword cried. Not even Carl deserved what was happening. Carl moaned in agony and sobbed, but the girl still kept assaulting him. "Rex, stop!" Sword shouted even louder. "That's enough. Leave him alone! You'll kill him!"

The girl looked at Sword. She breathed heavily like a winded triceratops. She looked back down at Carl and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt until he was face to face with her.

"I told you" – she snarled through her teeth– "that if you ever bother this kid again, you would have to deal with me. This is your last warning, boy. Next time, I won't stop. Next time, I'll kill you! I can, you know. You don't contribute to anything in this sanctuary, so nobody except those fossils you call parents will miss you. Now go home and clean yourself up."

The boys got up slowly and limped away. Gordon didn't move. He was still on the ground, bawling like a little baby. Rex fixed her hair, adjusted her beanie, then dusted herself off. She walked to Sword and held out her hand to help him up.

He swatted it away. "I didn't need your help, Rex. I could have taken them." He stood up, rubbing the back of his head, which was bleeding.

"Fine, then," Rex said, placing her hands on her hips. "Next time, you're getting your ass kicked,  I'll just watch."

Sword ignored her and picked up his tablet. The screen was cracked. "Aw, man," he whined.

Rex giggled sympathetically and ruffled Sword's hair. "Come on, honey. You know Malcolm can fix that easily at the shop."

"I don't have the money for it. I blew everything I had on this tablet."

"Why?"

Sword didn't answer and kept on walking. Rex snorted and walked after him. "It's that girl, isn't it?"

Sword replied with a grunt. He did not want to talk about her. Not with anyone. But Rex was beginning to know who she was. He supposed he could make an exception for her, although he felt he was going to regret it later.

"Ribbon and I are close friends," he said. "Even though she's thousands of miles away, it feels like she's sitting right next to me when we speak. She's so appreciative of my work, and, most of all, me. I've never had a friend who appreciated me the way she does. I want to talk to her always. I'm tired of waiting for my turn in the library's computer."

Rex shook her head as she smiled. "She's really special to you, huh?"

Sword nodded and put the tablet in his pocket. "You have no idea, Rex, Oh!" He turned and ran for a picnic table nearby. He swiped a dark brown Panama fedora off of it. "I almost forgot my hat!"

Rex laughed as he put it on and followed him. Sword marched proudly in front of her as if he were a great explorer. "She makes me feel like my writing is worth a damn. She even makes me feel like I'm worth a damn."

Rex grimaced at those words. She sadly looked at the sky and sighed, trying to come up with something to say. "Well, we're not exactly living in a time where books are needed," she said, putting her arm over his shoulder as they walked through stalks of corn of the Pentagon's courtyard. "There's lots of work to do, little guy. If you haven't noticed, we're too busy trying to stay on top of the food chain."

A loud thumping noise echoed in the air above. Sword jumped with joy. "And the only way I can do that is to join them," he said, pointing at a Black Hawk soaring over the fort. The trees and crops swayed violently and the building trembled, causing dust to sprinkle from every crevice.

"Sword," Rex groaned, bowing her head with disdain. "That's not what I meant. I mean you have to contribute to the crops here. Besides, you don't have what it takes to be a Force Recon Marine. I mean, these guys are the toughest of the tough. An elite force. You need to be a killer to have their job, wanna know why? Because they have to venture out there" —she pointed over the wall— "There are things out there that are beyond our wildest nightmares. Things that even the toughest Marine prays to never encounter. You know many of those guys don't come back, right?"

"I don't care!" Sword whined. "I want to join them. All my friends are going into the jungle. For God's sake, Ribbon is out there in the Greek Wilderness as an elite Myrmidon Ranger."

Rex nodded approvingly. "Badass. I like her already."

"Yeah. And you and Terra are going to be Force Recon Marines. I don't want to be left behind and be a farmer. I can tag along. I know a lot about dinosaurs! I've studied them since I was a kid."

Rex felt her gut tightening with each moment Sword insisted on joining the military.

"Yes," she said, "but you're reading books written long ago by know-it-all scientists who were more preoccupied with finding a bigger dino than the last guy. Pompous windbags who find a piece of a bone and say: OMG! He was this big!" –she extended her arms as far as she could–"A lot of the facts in your books were just theories and kookie speculations. Those things outside the wall are the genuine article. It's one thing reading about them, but it's another to actually face one. And, Sword, you get pushed around by a fat kid and his two smelly goons. There is no way you can handle the dinosaurs out there. Especially the big ones."

"And I suppose you can?" Sword threw her arm off him. "I heard about what happened when those Compys attacked the locker room. They said you were running and screaming."

Rex laughed and placed her hands on the back of her head as she walked. "Hmm. When last I checked that was a long time ago. I wasn't as strong as I am now. And I was in the shower butt-naked. I didn't have anything to defend myself with, let alone was expecting company."

Sword laughed and scratched a mosquito bite on his elbow. "Nevertheless, Uncle Ben said you ran out there screaming like you saw a ghost."

"Now I can snap their necks," Rex bragged, smacking her fist against her hand. "Come on. Aunt Dearia said she's cooking up Terror Bird. The Marines from Rico Squad hunted a whole flock of them yesterday. It's gonna be good eating tonight."

"Sounds great," Sword said. He stopped and clamped his teeth together. He felt a horrible stinging sensation on the back of his neck. It was hot to the touch and irritated him awfully.

Rex saw his discomfort and told him to hold still. She pulled his collar back and laughed. "Nice burn you got there, Sword. Geeze, what did I tell you about covering that up?"

"Don't fuss over me," Sword urged her, shoving her hand away. "I can take care of myself."

"Sure you can, buddy. Whatever you say."

They left the cool halls of the Pentagon, which was once the central hub of the Old American Military. Now, it was a sanctuary. It filled up long ago, but that did not stop people from coming. Since they couldn't find a place to live inside the Pentagon, they chose the parking lot to settle down. Over the years, a wall of junk and rubble from ancient buildings was built around it forming a slum.

The parking lot and gardens around the Pentagon turned into a sprawling shack town made of scrap metal, plywood, bus hulls, mobile homes, and even a downed C-130 Galaxy. Sword pointed at a poster stuck to the wall by recruiters for the New Republic's military, telling all the youths of the colonies to enlist. Rex put her arm on his back and hurried him down the path into town to get home.

They passed by a little pavilion made of shipping containers fashioned into shelters. They were filled to capacity with injured people, wailing and groaning in agony. Sword could see through the curtains, and the lights inside gave him a good view of a few people being treated to some soup.

There was a woman crying outside of her shelter, desperately trying to get information on her loved ones, who did not make it to the shelter. The Marine helping was doing all he could to try and calm her. She insisted that they could have been out there still with another patrol, and begged the Marine to radio other teams to see if her family was with them. The Marine told her to sit down and relax, but she would not. She wanted to know where they were.

"They're most likely dead," said Rex.

"What happened?" Sword asked.

"The Meteors," said Rex. "I heard they got fresh new recruits from Alexandria, Fairfax, and Charlottesville. Looks like they're using their numbers to wreak havoc on the smaller communities out there."

"Who told you that?" Sword asked.

"The boys from Task Force One-One-Three told me," she answered.

"How is it that you know soldiers from the 113th Task Force?" Sword asked.

Rex pursed her lips shut, then led Sword to stop at the gun shop before going home. It was in a really rowdy part of town. The Bullet District as it was called. It was home to traveling merchants, dinosaur hunters, mercenary gangs, and lone wanderers who dropped by for a drink at the bar, which was one of Rex's favorite haunts.

The owner, Mr. John Hancock, used a broken Bradley APC as both his home and his shop. His gas-powered generator hummed in his backyard underneath his makeshift windmill. Geese, hens, and his prized pigs were all waddling about back there, scrounging for the last bits of feed his daughter tossed at them earlier that morning.

"Rex!" said John, the weapons vendor. He peered through a grated window from inside of his makeshift workshop. "How is my little sweet pea? Farm work good?"

Sword coughed. John reeked of tobacco and beer. The man's breath slithered through the metal grates and into Sword's nostrils. Rex was unphased by the smell, however. It disturbed Sword to know that Rex had hung around folk like this for so long that she could get used to such unpleasantness.

"Farming sucks," Rex answered. "Thankfully, I won't have to do that for too long. What can I get for these?" 

She dug into her pockets and pulled out four polymer magazines made from a legendary gun and accessories manufacturer. 

"I found these while I was looking for scrap with Terra this morning. We saw bones sticking out of the grass as we passed by the embassy suites. Get this, the bones belonged to an employee of a top-tier PMC."

"What would they have been doing here?" Sword asked.

John snorted mucus up his nose. "To help with the evacuation of course," he replied. "The military was so tied up with the Gate Crisis that they couldn't assist the civilians. So, the government had no choice but to hire PMCs to lend a hand. They left behind some pretty sweet loot."

He looked at the treasures Rex found. "Well, I'll be." He tipped his trucker hat off his forehead and sniffed. "Magpul. Been a while since I got my hands on their merchandise. Now, these are hard to come by. How many of them are you willing to part with?"

Rex shrugged. "You can have three of them. I just need one for Clementine."

John nodded. "Three of these top-of-the-line accessories will grant you a week's worth of ammo. Sound fair?"

Rex shrugged again. "Sure. And if I promise a hundred dollar bill by Friday, can I also get that ACOG, too?"

John ran a finger under his rugged chin. He looked over his shoulder toward a shelf where the scope and other rifle accessories were piled up. "You better not be joshing me, kid. I promised some merc from Baker Company he could have it if he coughed up a hundred bucks. If you can come up with the money by Wednesday, the scope is yours."

"You got a rifle, Rex?" Sword asked.

"I sure did," Rex replied, taking the boxes of 5.56. "I won an M16 from a hotshot mercenary at the Drunken Raptor last week in a dart game. He didn't stand a chance."

"Good luck in Force Recon, Rex," John said, taking the empty magazines. "If you become a legend out there, be sure to drop by every once in a while. And don't forget to find me any useful scrap while you're patrolling and stuff. This place was loaded with security detail back in the day. You never know what kind of goodies you can find in the DC ruins."

The two turned and left. Rex was quite content with her trade, but Sword felt as though his body had iced over. He didn't know whether to be angry or upset. He wanted to yell. He even felt the need to punch Rex. He breathed in through his nose, but it became a loud, wet, snort. 

"You mean, you're already preparing to go?" he asked.

"I sure am." Rex pocketed the ammo and waved goodbye to John. "I finished my training last week."

Sword stopped dead in his tracks and stamped his foot on the ground impatiently. "You already enlisted!" He shouted. "But I thought we were a team!" He suddenly yelled in anger. Rex turned and shushed him. He kicked a garbage bin until he hurt himself and let out a scream of agony.

"David!" Rex said, trying to calm him down. "David." She put her hands on his shoulders, but he pushed her away and kicked a garbage can, knocking all the contents on the ground. "HEY!" Rex shouted. "David! Calm down, will you? Come on."

Sword looked at her, his face was bright red. Tears flowed down his cheeks. "I thought you were my friend! We were supposed to join the Marines together! You promised!"

Rex looked around awkwardly, hoping no one saw him. She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Calm down! Calm down! David, look at me! Look at me!"

Sword hissed, trying his best not to cry. "You said we were going to go together! You promised!" He smashed his fist against her collarbone. "You promised!"

"We?" Rex said. She blew a bang off her face with a puff of air from the corner of her mouth. "No, David. There is no we. How many times do I have to tell you? You don't have what it takes to join the military. You run and hide from compys and bambiraptors for goodness sake. You can't even stand up for yourself against bullies. Do you have any idea what's out there? What kind of beasts roam that jungle? There are no-go zones set up by the Marines because they are places too dangerous even for them. You can't even hurt a fly. You can't even serve as a security guard let alone become a member of Force Recon."

"I want to be a Marine!" Sword demanded. "Forget Force Recon, then. Those guys are Special Forces. Even I know they're too tough for me. I'll settle for being a Marine."

Rex placed both hands on his shoulders. "No, you can't! This isn't a job for you!"

"I turned eighteen yesterday! I'm old enough to join! I want to join! I want to join!"

Rex let go of his shoulders and stood straight up, crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you eighteen or eight?" 

Sword gasped in shock. Rex bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything more. It wasn't right to question Sword's maturity or lack thereof, but she had to hit him with the truth. 

"Look at you!" she said. "You're throwing a tantrum like a little baby! This is not proper behavior from a Marine. You can't be a Marine."

"I'll show you," Sword said turning around and marching back home. He stopped. He didn't know which way was home. All the buildings, tarps, tents, and shacks looked the same. He was too proud to admit it, but he could not find the way home without her.

Rex smiled. She saw that as her cue to lead him back home. She put her hand on his shoulder, or tried to anyway; he shoved it off. Sword's face was creased in a nasty scowl. He felt so betrayed by Rex for what she did. For as long as he could remember, she always talked about joining the Marines together.

They were going to be partners, seeing the world from above in the new Black Hawks that were supposedly coming. They would be a dynamic duo like the legendary Red and Tex, two soldiers from hundreds of years ago who made a name for themselves bringing down a pestersome pack of teratophoneus and protecting the fort from an army of bandit raiders all by themselves in a nighttime offensive.

Rex and Sword: Dinosaur Hunters. That's what they were supposed to be. Now, it was just Rex. Or Rex and Terra. Sword balled his fists at the thought of that. Rex started hanging out with him more, now that Sword was working on the crops.

Rex tried speaking to him. "Now you're mad at me?"

Sword said nothing.

"So, it's going to be like that, huh?"

He still kept on walking, not caring that she was sorry for what she had done.

"Listen!" Rex said. "STOP!" she shouted when Sword pressed on without her. He did. "Look at me," Rex commanded. Sword didn't. "Look at me!"

He turned.

"You had ten years to prove you could be a Marine, David. That's a long time. I asked you to go running with me every morning at dawn before we did our chores. You didn't. You chose to sit in your room and play with your toys. I asked you to join me at the range in the Bullet District. You didn't because you were too scared of the gun. Time and time again, Terra and I invited you to come with us as we scavenged for supplies. You didn't. It took a long time, but we finally got the money to get our gear. You can't even afford a pistol clip. I asked you to exercise with me, but no! You sat on your ass all day writing that story and staying in touch with that girl, who is also a soldier."

"She's not just some girl," Sword muttered. "She's my friend."

"And how long do you think that relationship is going to last? Do you think a Greek Myrmidon Ranger is going to have the time to read your story any longer? Don't get upset if you start hearing less and less from her. She has jobs to do."

Sword ground his teeth. His toes curled in his sneakers and his heart felt like it was being jabbed by a thousand needles.

"You still think and act like a kid. You take no responsibility for yourself. You don't want to work hard. You always take the easy route in life. Well, congratulations. Instead of becoming a Marine, you're planting corn and growing onions. Becoming a Republic Marine takes lots of hard work, and you did nothing. You have no one to blame but yourself for this, Sword. So stop with your temper tantrums. And don't you dare take it out on me. I offered you help, and you refused to take it."

Rex took a deep breath. She c****d her hip to the right and placed her hand on it, while scratching her forehead, looking for the right thing to say. "Look, buddy, you may not believe me right now. Especially not when you're so angry at me. But I love you. I don't want you to get hurt.

Sword was quiet. He said nothing, then, he sniffed sadly. "Yeah, right. Sure. Whatever."

Rex kept her distance but made sure he didn't stray too far from her view. The bully, Carl, had a lot of friends, and after what she had done to him, they were most likely planning their revenge. Rex and Sword finally left the hustle and bustle of the town and arrived at their farm perched smack-dab in the corner of the wall. It was a modest abode made from a school bus, a few wooden shacks, and the front of a metro bus.

They kept chickens, geese, and a few hogs. They also grew potatoes so their Aunt Dearia could use them to make a batch of her famous kettle-cooked chips. In fact, she was making a batch in the pot as the two friends arrived. She waved at them and wiped beads of sweat off her brow. Rex beamed seeing her aunt's face. It was puffy and cherry-colored, giving her the appearance of an angel. And her smile was so friendly, bringing warmth and calm to whoever saw it.

"So, how was work?" she asked, stirring the potatoes.

"It was all right," Sword replied. He held up a tiny pouch full of pennies and quarters. "Here's my pay for the week."

Dearia was disheartened when she saw the meager amount of coin Sword brought. It wasn't enough money to replace the pot for her chips. She smiled nonetheless and congratulated Sword for his earnings.

Rex dug deep into the pocket of her trousers and then tossed Aunt Dearia a thick bag full of dollars and a few silver dollars for the loot she found while scavenging with Terra. Dearia was very pleased to see that. It wasn't enough to fix the pot, but Rex earned enough to bring her closer to her goal while earning a little something for themselves. She clapped and opened the gate to let her children in.

"Hurry and wash up for supper, kids," she said. "Your Uncle Ben bought some terror bird meat from the market. We're going to have pollo la brasa tonight."

"Sweet!" Sword said, dashing into the house.

Rex chuckled as Sword dashed up the steps. "By the way, General Powers would like another bag of those chips for the next meeting, Aunt Dearia. He can't get enough of them."

"Oh, he can't, huh? Well, then, be sure to give him a bag before you go to work tomorrow."

"Come on, Rex!" Sword called from the door. His belly ached from the smell of the giant carnivorous bird's meat roasting in the kitchen, which was built on the back end of a minivan. 

Their uncle was hard at work, chopping the herbs and adding them to the meat, slowly turning over the fire. He was whistling a tune as he searched the cabinets for some salt to add to the potato fries. He heard his kids coming up the steps of the school bus and turned to see them.

"David, Penny. Welcome back."

Rex groaned, slapping her palm on her forehead. "Man, we've been through this a hundred times. I don't want to be called that anymore."

Uncle Ben leaned against the counters. "Sure, sure, you Scavengers and your silly street nicknames. You're Rex nowadays, right?"

"Uh...yeah. I told you a dozen times. Besides, I hate the name Penny. It makes me sound so fruity."

"Cute is the word I'm looking for," her uncle chuckled. He laughed when he saw the scowl on her face. "It sure suited you back in the day. I remember little you running around the fields looking for wildflowers to add to your room. You had those adorable little pigtails flapping around as you walked."

"It was my idea to have her wear those," Aunt Dearia said, coming up the steps with a bowl of kettle-cooked chips just for them. "Oh, you should have seen the look on Terra's face when he saw her prancing under the tree."

Uncle Ben grinned, revealing a large gap in his teeth. "Yeah?"

Aunt Dearia scooted by her kids and set the bowl of freshly cooked chips on the table. "Oh, yes," she said. "He came running to me asking me if our Penny was an angel who fell from heaven to cure the earth of the dinosaurs."

Sword and Uncle Ben laughed at that as Rex smacked her palm over her eyes and groaned, wishing that were not true.

"Oh, you're going to make me sick," Rex murmured. "David, pick up that hammer and hit me as hard as you can. Come on. Don't hold back."

"Hey, I'm not David. I have a nickname, too. I go by Sword now."

Uncle Ben chuckled, finding Sword's words to be nothing more than playful as though they came out of a child wishing to be one of the grownups.

"Oh, I'll bet you are 'Sword'. But don't you have to be in the military to earn one of those nicknames?"

"Yeah, well, I will be soon. Rex and I are going together."

Rex shook her head at her Uncle, waving her hands around frantically. "I said no such thing. What did I just tell you, David? You can't join the Republic Military."

Sword had that look in his eye. "Why not? I'm old enough!"

"Not yet you're not, darling," Rex stated, trying to be sweet to him. If Sword's emotions were pushed any further, he would start making tantrums again, yelling at everyone, and ruining their night. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you, me, and Terra do some compy hunting tomorrow. I promise you can use Clementine if you're careful."

Sword's face went from red to the sweet shade of caramel that Rex loved to see. His frown then curved into a smile. "You promise?"

"I promise," Rex said, leaning towards him and kissing his cheek.

"Sit down and eat, kids," Aunt Dearia said before she removed the meat rotating over the camping stove. She started cutting up equal portions of meat and placed them into white bowls. 

Everyone sat down. Sword picked up his spoon impatiently. He was ready to eat, but Aunt Dearia smacked his hand.

"Ouch!"

"We say grace first," his aunt said sternly.

Sword had a scowl on his face as he rubbed his hand. "Grace?" he said, almost in a shout.

Dearia turned to face him and jerked her finger at him. "Don't you raise your voice at me, young man."

"Stop antagonizing him!" Rex spoke urgently.

Uncle Ben sulked in his seat, smacking the table with his fist. "Oh, for goodness sake, can't we just eat in peace for once?"

Rex punched her uncle on the shoulder to shut him up and looked back at Sword. "Sword, calm down, okay. Who's my big soldier? You're my big soldier. Remember, soldiers, don't cry."

"Soldiers don't believe in God either!" Sword snapped.

"What did you say?" Dearia shouted, standing up to look down at Sword with all her authority. Her weight caused the bus to tremble.

Rex grabbed Sword by the hand. "Stop it! You're going to get in trouble!"

"He is already is in trouble!" yelled Uncle Ben. "I can't take this anymore. All we do is fight, fight, fight! We can never have a moment's peace around here because of him!"

Sword looked around and shut his mouth. The disappointed faces around him made him feel guilty. He swallowed and said: "How can you believe in someone who lets things like this happen? Our world was messed up even before the dinosaurs came back."

"That's exactly why they've come back," Aunt Dearia said, crossing her arms. "You don't think the return of these beasts was judgment for the sins of the old word? Prehistoric monsters just don't come back from extinction. Do you think those monsters coming back from out of nowhere is natural, boy? It was the work of the devil. We turned from God, and now look where we are."

Sword said nothing. He looked at Rex, who was gazing out the window, too frustrated to even look at him.

Uncle Ben leaned forward to speak to Sword. "Your Aunt's right. There was nothing natural about what happened to our planet, Dave. This was the work of God. He sent those three Lamps down from heaven and punished us because our forefathers were too corrupted and too stupid and too weak to make the world better. And so long as people like you exist, this world will never get better."

Sword gritted his teeth and smashed his fists on the table before he scooted out of the booth and into his room. He slammed the door shut.

"You can starve!" Aunt Dearia shouted at him from the door. "You're not getting any supper tonight. Or ever! Until you learn to appreciate and respect the one who died for your sins."

Sword didn't pay any mind to them. He sat on his moth-eaten mattress and stared at the walls. "I wasn't hungry anyway," he muttered softly.

He reached under his bed and excavated a tin box containing his favorite things. Inside he kept his collection of green army men, a few trading cards, a pair of panties he stole from Rex, and a bunch of candy bars, cupcakes, stale gummy worms, and other treats he got from inside the Pentagon. He unwrapped a chocolate bar and bit into it.

He heard the door of the bus being opened. Uncle Ben let out a friendly laugh, drowning out the deep voice of a young man. Then he heard Rex happily greeting someone. "Hey," she said warmly. Sword knew who it was that came into their home. Terra. He got up from the bed and peered through one of the gaps of his metal door. Yup, there was no mistaking that face. That angelic, punchable face. Terra shook hands with Uncle Ben, who was asking him about how his patrol went.

"Patrol?" Sword thought.

"Not bad for my second week," he said, raising his chin up as if to show off the strands of hair that hung over his forehead like a bang. "We were helping Mr. Martin bring his goods to the National Mall when all of a sudden this big dinosaur charges out of the garage and blocked our way."

"Goodness!" cried Aunt Dearia. "What was it?"

"I'm not sure. He had two long horns on his head and another small one on the nose. I'd say it was a triceratops, but it wasn't. The shield was too big."

"Must have been torosaurus," mumbled Sword, leaning back from the hole.

Lucky. He ran into a torosaurus. Or perhaps it was a chasmosaurus or a pentraceratops. Either way, it must have made for an exciting adventure. He looked through the hole again. What he saw made his blood boil. Terra, in all his arrogance, put his arm behind Rex, reeled her in, and placed a hand on her hip, exposed by her midriff top.

Terra held her closer. "Anyways, I was wondering if I could take your girl out of the fort tonight and hang out in the Red Room. The group and I are going to celebrate making it past that thing and delivering Mr. Martin's goods to the mall. He paid a lot for the job." He held out a thick wad of paper currency.

"Well, well," said Uncle Ben. "Impressive payout, young man."

"Half for you," Terra said, giving him the money. "I found some disks that General Powers is obsessed with uncovering. He paid a bundle for them."

Uncle Ben looked like he was about to cry as he counted the amount of money he had in his hand. "I can't accept this, Terra."

Terra backed away and held out his hands. "And I can't accept you not taking it. We're running on hard times right now. Money is low and so is food." He leaned forward so he could whisper something to Uncle Ben. "Just between us, there's a merchant caravan coming with loads of fresh goods and top-of-the-line supplies. And the new Black Hawks the General ordered. They're going to be here at nine in the morning. Head for the Market District as soon as you can so you can beat the crowd. That money should get you enough food to last through the winter. And lemme tell ya, it's coming fast."

"Bless your soul, Terra," said Aunt Dearia, eyes twinkling with admiration.

Terra bowed his head. "I'm just doing what I can to help."

Sword shook his head, his face creasing with disgust. "Pfft, yeah right," he whispered. "If Aunt Dearia and Uncle Ben didn't have a total hottie like Rex, he wouldn't even be paying us a visit."

Sword supposed that even Terra knew that, and that he wasn't helping out from the bottom of his heart. He just wanted to sweet-talk Ben and Dearia, and buy them out so they would let him spend more time with Rex.

"Where's David?" Terra asked. Rex elbowed him in the gut and pointed towards Sword's room. "Uh, I mean Sword? I have a few photographs for him of the dinosaur we saw. I'm sure he'd love it." He fumbled through the pockets of his faux jacket. "And I bought some cards for that game he likes to play." He opened his jacket, looking through the internal pockets. "If I can just find them."

Aunt Dearia crossed her arms and shook her head. "He's been sent to his room for being a bastard. You don't have to bother with those gifts."

Terra seemed disappointed. "Aw, I insist. Can I go see him?"

He went to the door but Uncle Ben held out his arm to halt his advance. "No, no. Don't bother with him now. You two kids go and have some fun."

Terra found the envelope containing his gifts and set it on the side table by the door. "I'll leave these here for them, then. Please see that he gets them."

"Why?" asked Aunt Dearia.

Terra shrugged, then smiled. "I love the kid. He's not so bad. He'll be a fine soldier one day if he can get his act together."

Rex wrapped her arms around his waist and beamed at him. "You're so sweet. I'm sure he'd appreciate that."

Sword stuck out his tongue and put his finger in his mouth making ill-sounding noises. Rex picked up the envelope and headed towards Sword's door. Sword fell on his butt and backed away. The envelope slid under the crack.

Uncle Ben let out a hearty chuckle. "I envy your parents. They're lucky to have a hard-working son like you. Not to mention thick-skinned. If Sword ran into that dinosaur, I tell you, he would have run back to the fort screaming like a baby."

Rex glared at him and bared her teeth. "Uncle BEN!"

"Won't you care for some terror bird soup?" asked Aunt Dearia, pointing to the table.

Terra shook his head as he smiled. "No thank you, Dearia. I've had enough of the stuff already, but I appreciate it, though."

He and Rex went out the door after saying goodbye and disappeared into the night.

"Figures," Sword sighed. He looked out the window.

Outside of the wall was the leisure town of Maddox, a small community made out of some buildings where merchants and important people for the Republic would stop to eat quality food, rest in comfortable beds, and find leisure in bars and clubs on the top floors. In fact, Sword could see colorful lights of one of the town's nightclubs flashing on the top floor of what was once called the Fashion Center. It was a place where all the youths of Pentagon Fort and other neighboring settlements went to have fun.

Needless to say, Sword wasn't allowed to go. Even if he was, he would never. It would mean he would have to leave the walls of the fort and venture outside. He hated to admit it, but he wasn't brave enough to go out there. Even though he wanted to be a Marine and fight dinosaurs and bandits with Rex, the thought of venturing out there in the jungle was just terrifying.

In the night, he heard strange howling, predatory screeching, and cries of agony as something was hunted and eaten in the darkness. Since it was Friday night, he heard something else out there. Laughing. Cheering. Joyous hooting. Yup. It was the sound of the other kids his age going to Maddox for drinking, dancing, and fun.

For Sword, those sounds filled him with a feeling worse than fear. The feeling of being left out.