It was just an hour past noon, but it was easy to mistake it as night due to the grey haze looming over the snow-covered ruined cityscape outside the encampment. The bitter, biting cold made us shiver as we left the blistering warmth of the Lunch Tent. Steam clouds blew out of our mouths every time we took a breath. My crew loaded up in an armored truck. Jarvis, Vance, and Roberts elected to sit in the back, and I was the designated driver while Sage was riding shotgun. Sage was rubbing his hands in quick succession. Breath quivering as he puffed hot air into the palms of his hands. 

 

As soon as I ignited the engine to the truck, I immediately flipped the heater to full blast. Thankfully after a couple minutes, the cabin was a comfortable temperature and Sage stopped quivering in his seat. His large spectacles covering his eyes got fogged up and he rubbed them with his shirt. He told me the first stop was Reed's house.

 

"Search parties already did a sweep around that area," Sage told me. "But I want to check one more time given that it's been two days and I'm wondering if he might've gone back."

 

"Seems like a shot in the dark." I said staring out into the blackened streets of Caldera right in front of me. 

 

Sage was insistent, but I could tell from his expression that he was unsure as I was. "He has a lot of memorabilia there and I feel like at some point he'd go back to collect it. He's got a lot of Legends and Lore stuff kept in his garage."

 

I desperately tried not to laugh. There was gallows comedy in what Sage said there, but passion is reason enough to do a pilfer of your own ruined house even if that passion might be a bit childish. Thankfully Sage wasn't offended when a smile cracked on my face.

 

"I know, it sounds a little far fetched." Sage said, noting the smile. "But it's not uncommon for people experiencing trauma to fall back to possessions that give them comfort."

 

I nodded. Valid point. Goddamn I felt like an asshole in that moment, but it was good Sage didn't take any offense. At least I didn't think he did. He didn't display any kind of expression that I could construe as offense, but then again, maybe he was just that reticent. A man in a blue winter coat banged on the side of my truck. He stood beside making eye contact with me and Sage and gave us the thumbs up. With that, we drove off leaving behind the city of white tarp tents to a city of charred, snowy streets littered with burnt, wrecked cars and skeletal remains of what used to be tall edifices. Some tumbled over leaving messes of concrete and glass making certain roads impassable. Fortunately, Sage knew Caldera Bay like the back of his hand. Turn right up ahead, take a left at the next intersection. Now keep going straight.

 

Sometimes we would see skeletal remains of the denizens of Caldera Bay. Bones sticking out of the snow and there were blackened skulls of dinosaurs making their final rest half buried in the snowy streets. Our truck would run over them, and I could hear the bones cracking underneath the tires which were far more audible than the black ice on the roads. It wasn't helped that the entire city was cascaded by a thick, dark grey sky that had just barely enough light to illuminate the city. In the distance, I could see skeletal buildings leaving me a haunted image of what the final days were like. The showers of fiery rock plummeting from the sky raining hellfire on the poor citizens trying to find shelter. The hot cloud pouring through incinerating everyone who stood in it and melting their bodies down to the bone alive. Being locked up in a storm shelter alone and starving because they didn't pack enough food to last them for two weeks despite the early warnings. That's assuming the storm shelter was strong enough to endure a hot cloud which it probably wasn't. And if you somehow survived all of that, you probably froze to death in the wasteland trying to find some sign of civilization still standing. Lots of images were pouring through my head as I drove past the charred remains of what used to be a bustling city filled with innocent people who probably did nothing to deserve the hellscape they received from the asteroid blast. I could feel my stomach churning. The same feeling I'd get from eating a bad meal. 

 

Then I thought about those poor recent graduates we had to find. Thinking about how they could be out in the burnt ruins freezing to death alone. Parents are dead. Nobody there to give them warmth, give them shelter, give them food, nothing. They're just dying alone in the burnt skeletal remains of what used to be a house bereft of any form of hope. Crying out for anyone, anywhere to save them. Assuming they even have the will to live to begin with. Reed was said to show signs of irreparable mental trauma. Who the hell knows what his next move could be. Maybe he'd take his own life. Maybe those graduates took their own lives when they saw everything, they lived for destroyed. No home, no hope, no parents, nothing. Gone. 

 

To take my mind off the haunting imagery, I decided to gossip a bit with Sage asking him why exactly Naomi thought hiring a mediocre chef from the veteran's center in South Pangea was a good idea. He told me that Fang, one of Caldera's leading organizers, wanted to go with the cheapest options possible. Stefano was a willing and eager volunteer so Naomi thought, why not? Sage, having heard over the phone from Vance that he was a chef with a sketchy background and history, offered Naomi catering or, hell, he would handle the kitchen line himself. Naomi protested the idea saying that there would be too many refugees coming in for poor old Sage to handle. Sadly, for Sage, despite his different catering proposals, some were dirt cheap mind you, at least according to Sage, he was forced to contend with Stefano. Fortunately, Stefano had this idea called 'Lazy Man's Lasagna' which, while baffled Sage in terms of the name, was a lucrative idea to mass produce a meal that, while didn't taste all that great, could fill up the bellies of many refugees en masse. That led to another problem, however, the carnivores. Carnivores, as I mentioned before, can't process carbohydrates. That's why Vance was pissed off when all the cafeteria in the veteran's center was serving bagels and brand cereals. So, Sage had to contend with making a simple dish that, while again sounding baffling on paper, was still passable enough that it could satisfy the carnivores as well. Thus, Stefano created the grilled chicken parm. Unfortunately, under pressure, Stefano liked to cut corners so that's how I ended up with a burnt, raw chicken as my chicken parm. Fortunately, Vance's was thoroughly cooked through, but the skin was darkened and distracting. Not even the carb free tomato sauce that Stefano was using could mask the charred flavor. 

 

"I mean, I don't think either one of you are right or wrong in this case." I said looking ahead at the charred streets I was driving down. "It makes sense why Naomi probably felt like Stefano was the best choice in this regard. Not to mention there's better places where donations and government funding can be allocated."

 

"I know," Sage nodded, "It's just that both of us wanted to provide quality home cooked meals for the refugees. After what they've been through, that's the most we can offer them in terms of comfort."

 

"I mean they kind of did even if the food isn't quite up to, you know, restaurant quality."

 

"Yeah," Sage chuckled. "But again, like I mentioned back in the Lunch Tent, I've got more cooks coming in. South Pangea had some caterers from a pretty cheap pizzeria who wanted to come in and make a kind donation. That was nice of them."

 

I immediately knew who he was talking about. There was only one restaurant that had brands both in Caldera Bay and South Pangea. "Was it Dino 'Moes'? I asked.

 

Sage nodded with a toothy smile. "Yep. The owner, Moe, actually called me up asking me if I still had room for some of his freshly cooked pizzas in the kitchen line. I told him, and I quote, fuck yes."

 

"That's good, but how does a guy like you have connections to someone who's that well established? He had his chain restaurants all over Pangea."

 

"My dad, actually," Sage said. "My dad was, and still is, the reason why I wanted to be a baker when I grew up. He actually had personally known Moe back before his chain grew into what it was before the impact."

 

"Damn, good to have connections like that. Takes a load off your shoulders." I said.

 

"It does. That's why I'm able to come and help you guys search for Naser and all the rest. We'll be having a lot of pizza later on tonight. Hopefully the refugees like it." Sage said.

 

"Where's your dad now?" I asked.

 

"He passed away." Sage frowned. "Late-stage kidney failure just as I was starting high school."

 

My eyebrows shot up when he said that. I told him I was sorry to hear that, and he nodded. 

 

"I dropped out when I turned sixteen years old because Moe, the guy who owned the Dino 'Moes' chain like I mentioned, offered me a job at one of his restaurants. The caveat was that I would have to move to South Pangea." 

 

Sage sighed. "Feeling like I had no choice because it was either a group home or this, I chose South Pangea. All of my friends abandoned me then and there. Nobody bothered to call as soon as I made that decision. Reed just told me he wasn't allowed to contact me because if he did, his parents would ground him. He told the same thing to Fang when everyone found out Fang was fraternizing with a human."

 

"Sounds like Reed was an asshole." I said still focusing on the road ahead, not really making eye contact.

 

I turned my gaze and saw Sage biting his lip. "Honestly," he said. "He didn't really know what to think about the human and dinosaur conflict. He didn't want to think about it. He'd rather just escape in his role playing games and write fantasy with his friends, but his parents were very strict and extremely anti-human. They cornered him and his only real option was to just cut everyone who opposed his parents off. He hated it with a passion, but he felt like he had no real say in the matter."

 

"What the fuck was their problem with humans anyway? Why did the dinosaurs hate us that much?" I asked.

 

"It's long, ancient history. Or rather it's like seventy years back or so, but humans basically controlled almost every facet of dinosaur civilization. Despite humans being a super minority in dinosaur civilization, they controlled the majority of the economy. This, unfortunately, led to a cascade of effects. Soon, everything became monetized. If you just wanted a drink of water, you had to pay a toll."

 

Sage continued after letting out a long, drawn-out sigh. "Not every human was like this. There were actually a grand majority of humans who were oppressed by these monetarists back in the day just as much as dinosaurs, but because humans always somehow navigated dinosaur society much better, they became a target."

 

I nodded. "And they chased us down into caves where we'd live behind giant walls and if we took one step outside them, we were either detained or shot."

 

"Yep," Sage said. "I think it's bullshit and blatant hypocrisy on their part because we did the exact same thing humans did, but the difference is its dinosaurs calling the shots." He sighed. "Skin or scales, it's all the same. It's why I vehemently opposed the apartheid back in the day even though I got a lot of shit from my peers and constant bullying from Naser." 

 

"So why do you want to rescue him, then?" I slouched on one hand as I continued driving.

 

"Out of respect for Fang. She lost her parents in the asteroid impact, and I don't want her to lose the only family she has." 

 

I shrugged, "Makes sense, I guess." I gestured one hand out in front of me pointing out the charred remains of Caldera Bay for Sage. "How are you holding up now that... this happened?"

 

"Now that the dust has settled?" Sage said. "Honestly, compared to others, I'm pretty optimistic. I think society needs a hard reset at some point and I think this is a golden opportunity. A time to start anew. Without that bullshit apartheid."

 

"There are humans who still want to live underground away from dinosaur society, what do you think of them?" I asked.

 

"I think it's mainly out of fear or jealousy." Sage said with a nod. "I think deep down they want to take a deep breath of fresh air, but they're afraid of us and fear breeds hate." Sage's eyebrows raised. "How about you?"

 

I shrugged. I never really gave much thought to the conflict. I just did what I was told by society to do and to do it without question. The dinosaur and human conflict just felt irrelevant. Sure, it felt good to help, but I was helping societies that actively loathed me and wanted me gone. It felt a little strange, to say the least, but I guess there comes a time when you have to forgive your enemies even if those same enemies are blinded by the paranoia of becoming a slave to an economy, they have no power over.

 

"Meh, I'm indifferent. I don't know what to think." I said.

 

"Fair enough, you were a truck driver back when you were in the military, right?" Sage asked.

 

"Right," I nodded. "Vance and Jarvis were foot soldiers. We go pretty far back." 

 

"What made you guys want to volunteer?" Sage asked.

 

"Vance had nothing better to do. Living off a military pension gets boring after a while and he didn't feel like getting a job, so he decided to put himself to work here. Jarvis--" I paused. I realized Jarvis never told me why he decided to volunteer for the Pretty Heroes Foundation. "I actually don't know why Jarvis volunteered. He never told me."

 

"And I take it Ms. Roberts heard about her missing students and decided she had to jump in?" 

 

"Yes and, to an extent, no." I said with a frown. "She plans on running for council in South Pangea and she's--"

 

"Looking to garner optics." Sage said, cutting me off. "That makes sense. Heard Fang was a vehement supporter of her."

 

"She still is." I said watching the burnt and collapsed buildings passing by. "Ms. Roberts was actually Fang's homeroom teacher back in the day. So, they have a pretty far back history."

 

"I heard she tried running for office in Caldera Bay, but that never went through." Sage said.

 

"Yeah, she fell short of a pretty thick margin in the polls unfortunately." I smiled. "She actually wanted to open the borders of her province for humans, but the general public turned her down."

 

Sage turned his gaze towards me, and his magenta reptilian eyes met mine. For a man who has seen so much shit, it was astounding they looked as innocent as they did in that moment. He asked, "how about you? Why did you decide to volunteer?"

 

I paused for a moment when he asked this. I hadn't given it that much thought as to why I volunteered to help out with the foundation's relief efforts in Caldera Bay. Was I just looking for adventure? Did I just get tired of living under a constant roof? Was I just looking to see the outside world? I honestly didn't know. I didn't have a straight answer for Sage which was surprising given that I eagerly volunteered to help out when the opportunity was presented at the veteran's center. Maybe I was like Vance in a sense that I was just bored living off of pensions and having nothing to do but exercise and watching reruns on television. 

 

In the end I just said this. "I guess I was looking for adventure, that's why. I honestly have no idea why I wanted to volunteer in the first place. I always had a fear of dinosaurs outside of South Pangea, but for some reason I volunteered anyway."

 

Sage should've looked absolutely baffled in that moment, but he had a look of understanding for some reason. I didn't know what was going through his head at the time, but he just nodded. 

 

"Nothing wrong with a little adventure now and then." Sage said with a smile. "Maybe deep down in your heart you wanted reconciliation."

 

I just shrugged, "Maybe. I don't know." I smiled jokingly. "But I'll think about it. I'm sure there's a motive buried out here somewhere."

 

The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. Just constant directions from Sage after the long straight road came to a ruined suburb just outside of city limits. What used to be brick houses were now burnt piles of rubble with only a vague shape of what used to be. Most hauntingly of all, however, were the backyards. Some had swing sets, slides, and playsets that signified better days when a child's innocence wasn't broken by the fire that rained down on their home. This time, however, I wasn't feeling a pit in my stomach; I was quiet, and my expression was plastered with a blank stare as my eyes scanned the ruined scenery around me. 

 

"Stop here." Sage said gesturing to the side of the empty street my truck was driving down. "Reed's house is a bit of a walk from here."

 

"Why are we stopping here then?" I asked, quirking a brow.

 

Sage sighed. "If Reed sees this armored truck approaching him, he's going to book it." He gestured to the surrounding ruins of the suburb. "He'll easily out maneuver through the houses. I'll explain more when we get there."

 

I nodded, hopping out of the truck and landing on the black ice on the road below making an audible crunch as my boots made contact. I slammed the door shut and banged on the cargo hold of the truck where my team was sitting. The backdoor opened and the first one out was Vance who gave his long white locks a shake before running both hands through them. 

 

"About bloody time." Vance said, blowing a large puff of steam out from his nostrils. "Thought that ride would go on for bloody ages."

 

"Well, it will be bloody ages on the way back, don't forget about that Vance." Jarvis said, hopping out of the back and stretching his arms out. 

 

Roberts, the lavender Ceratosaurus with the white bob cut, stepped out slowly and carefully. "Honestly I was tired of listening to you guys talk about nothing but girls."

 

"So, spectacles." Vance said, glancing at Sage. "What's the game plan here? Where's Reed's house?"

 

Sage began letting out a large puff of steam from his mouth. "We parked a little way away, but I'll explain why. I want Reed to think Roberts and I came here alone." He looked at Jarvis and Vance. "You guys and you Derrick, are going to sneak around the back of his house. He has a backdoor to his garage you can sneak through without him seeing you." He frowned. "You guys were given zip ties for the sole purpose of apprehending him if needed." He put a lot of emphasis on the 'if needed' part. "If you absolutely have to, you have permission to apprehend him."

 

"Meh, I'll kick his arse if he tries something funny with me." Vance said, smiling wickedly. 

 

Sage had a look of shock when Vance said this, and I gave Sage a pat on the shoulder. "That shouldn't be necessary." He said. "Reed's completely harmless. He'd never hurt anyone."

 

"And you're certain Reed fellow will be at his house when we get there?" Jarvis asked.

 

"Like I told Derrick, he has a lot of memorabilia of Legends and Lore stuff. He'd have to come by and collect it at some point. It was still there when my search party first arrived, so I'm giving it one more check to see if Reed's there." 

 

"This seems like a shot in the dark." Vance said.

 

"It is, but it's the closest we have to a lead. If the memorabilia is gone, then I'll know Reed's still alive." Sage said, glancing around hoping that Jarvis and Vance would be swayed.

 

"Let's just head on." Ms. Roberts gestured for the team to walk with her. "The longer we keep wasting time, the more danger we're putting my students in. Let's go."

 

Driving through the streets of Caldera Bay was haunting enough, but walking through it and smelling the smokey, cold air of what remained of it made it all the more potent. Roberts hadn't said much as we were walking our way to Reed's house and her expression was plastered with what looked like a grim one. One of remorse and regret despite her otherwise warm aura she gave off when we sat down to eat in the Lunch Tent back at the relief center. 

 

"Is everything alright?" I popped the question to Roberts as we were walking down the street. Ice crunching beneath our boots.

 

Roberts seemed to snap herself out of her reverie once she heard my voice. Her amber colored eyes met mine and she smiled. Though her eyes seemed to betray it with sadness.

 

"I'm fine," Roberts said. "I was just thinking."

 

"About what?" I asked.

 

"About what I told my students back in the day. About eight months before the looming asteroid made its way here." Roberts said.

 

"What'd you tell them?" 

 

She sighed and shook her head. "That the days will fly by fast and you'll wish you had more time to prepare. In context, I was talking about their senior year. Looking back in retrospect, I probably should've been more lenient given that they really didn't have that many days ahead of them."

 

I shrugged. Nobody really knew when or where the asteroid was even going to land. There was always a paranoia down in South Pangea that it was going to land right on top of us, but it turned out we were the luckiest of the bunch; the asteroid landed in the far north in Bright Coast. Everything there was obliterated in an instant and the rest had to deal with the shifting of the plate tectonics or the sulfur cloud. South Pangea and, to an extent, North Pangea didn't have to worry about this. We just sealed off our airways from the outside world and we ran off of our oxygen reserves that were perfectly sustainable because we had arcadia groves growing underground. 

 

The dinosaurs on the surface, however, weren't so lucky. Your only safe haven was the military shelters and those weren't built for the purposes of extended stays. You could maybe try your luck with bomb shelters or storm shelters, but I hope you packed a good amount of food and water down below because you were going to have to hold out for two weeks max while the sulfur cloud loomed. That's assuming the ventilation didn't pump that sulfur in your shelter and suffocate you. That's probably the worst way to die in this disaster. The best way, the luckiest way in my opinion, was disintegration through direct impact because that happens in seconds. In Caldera Bay, it was frying to death in the streets.

 

"There was no way anyone would've known." I nodded towards Roberts.

 

"I agree." She said, "Still, retrospection haunts me in a way because I think of all those people who were my former students--" She cuts herself off looking around at the rubble that used to be houses. "And I just get to thinking how they all died. How they would've better spent their time with their families rather than at school with me scolding them for not doing their assignments." 

 

I chuckled at that last part. "I should've had someone like you in my high school."

 

"Really?" She smiled warmly. "Let me guess, you flunked out, didn't you? Irresponsible little rascal you."

 

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I passed, but not enough to get into any good colleges. That's why I joined the military as a truck driver."

 

"Seen a lot of combat?" She asked.

 

"Not me, but Jarvis and Vance had. I just drove supplies between encampments."

 

I decided to change the subject over to Reed. Sage built a decent profile of him back in the truck, but I wanted to gauge how Roberts felt given that he was a former student of hers.

 

"Tell me more about Reed. What was he like in your classroom?" I asked.

 

Roberts began with a loud exhale from her mouth. "Well, Reed was, in my experience, a very isolated boy." She frowned. "He never really talked to people outside of his clique that he hung out with and played games with. He was very into fantasy and role playing games from what Naomi told me and whenever we had creative writing assignments, he'd always write fantasy." 

 

"I see," I said, nodding. I then asked a question that was kind of making me feel a little nervous asking. It was one that was a little harrowing given the mental state Reed was described as having. "How was he fairing when he heard the news about the asteroid?"

 

Ms. Roberts sighed, shaking her head. "Not good. Reed was always a very well-behaved student. Always had good grades and always turned his assignments in on time." She frowned. "When the asteroid reared its ugly head, however, things began to spiral for him. He was starting to fall behind in his assignments, he wasn't talking much at all, and he always looked really nervous when he was sitting in my classroom. He also looked really triggered when someone brought up the asteroid in class. It was like he didn't want to think about it at all."

 

"I take it your efforts to console him failed?" I asked.

 

Roberts nodded grimly, "I'd sit him down after class and talk to him. I'd talk to him much differently than I usually did with other students in that usually I was pretty stern, but here, I was more empathetic and compassionate. I told him that the impact hasn't been confirmed yet and the likelihood of one was slim. Which was true at the time, but there was still that possibility and Reed was frightened of it."

 

She sighed, "Well, fast forward a couple months later and impact was announced to be imminent. Reed just lost it." I could see a tear escape from Roberts' eye. She didn't seem like the crying sort, so this probably hit really close to home for her. "He lost his friends, and he was about to lose his life. He hugged me one time and," She sniffed. "He told me he didn't want to die. I just said, 'I know'. Nobody wants to."

 

"Sounds like it really broke you up seeing Reed like this." I commented.

 

"It did." She nodded. "Lot of my students were broken up about it, but it hurt the most to see Reed, who was probably the friendliest, and most misunderstood, student I ever taught just break down. Just emotionally lose it all with the knowledge that he was probably going to die."

 

I nodded. Hearing about this made me feel really sorry for Reed. I could picture myself sitting inside that classroom counting down the days before my end finally came or the very fabric of civilization frayed around me. Watching all the events unfold would definitely be traumatizing. I was still a little vague on the details of his relationship with Fang and the rest of his friends though.

 

"Tell me more about his relationship with Fang. Sage told me back in the truck that Reed broke off Fang's friendship when he--" I cut myself off. I forgot this was solely Reed's parents' fault. "His parents found out that Fang was dating a human and preaching anti-apartheid rhetoric."

 

"It wasn't just Fang." Roberts said. "Naomi was really mad at Reed for breaking Fang off like that. She called him a coward and told him to basically stay away from her." She sighed. "I tried talking to Naomi about it and told her that this was Reed's parents who were doing this, but she just said that Reed should've manned up."

 

I suddenly turned blunt in my next statement. "What a bitch."

 

Roberts bit her lip after I said that. It was purely impulse that I said this, but I really felt this way. Naomi basically made an introverted boy make a choice he didn't want to make; his friends or his family. 

 

"Naomi wants to do the right thing. You know this." Roberts said. Her voice surprisingly didn't harbor any ill will towards my statement. "She wanted Fang to feel supported for her decisions and her beliefs. When everyone else in her clique refused to associate with her, Naomi felt like Fang was alone. Fang herself felt pretty alone too."

 

Roberts continued. Blowing hot steam out her nostrils. "It's a tough situation to be in for both parties." Her bright yellow eyes eclipsed mine. "You're human yourself and you probably wanted the apartheid to end just as well. Picture yourself in Naomi's situation. Imagine yourself being alone in your beliefs."

 

I shrugged and pictured in my mind what that was like. Sure, I probably would've felt alone and angry if I were Naomi, but it wasn't Reed's fault. His parents were assholes who threatened to punish you if you so much as glanced in Fang's direction. Why the fuck would you begrudge him if you knew he doesn't really have a choice? To me, Naomi still sounded like a bitch. A short sighted one who basically destroyed an introverted kid's social life because of a situation he had no control over.

 

"Whatever," I said shrugging with a sigh. "I can kind of see where Naomi's coming from in this situation. 

 

"Alright, we're here." Sage said, cutting off our conversation. We all stopped dead in our tracks as Sage raised a hand to gesture us to stop. 

 

The house that Sage gestured at was one of the few that still had an intact roof. Granted the side of the house was caved in and crumbled with the exterior blackened by the sulfur, but what I assumed to be the garage seemed intact. Sage was not lying when he mentioned the garage. It honestly surprised me.

 

"Roberts, can I have you scout ahead with me? If Reed's in his garage, I need you to talk to him. He probably trusts you, given you were his homeroom teacher." Sage said.

 

"Absolutely," Roberts said, walking beside him. She turned her head towards me, Vance, and Jarvis. "You guys go to the back, we'll let you know if you're needed."

 

Jarvis gestured for Vance and I to follow him to the back of the garage. We made our way there slowly so as to not draw any attention. While we snuck our way there, we listened out for Sage or Roberts. Nothing yet. Vance listened in on the wooden backdoor of the garage and he shook his head. Nothing. Jarvis glanced off from the wall out into the streets where Roberts and Sage were moving. Nothing on his end either. 

 

Despite this being a low-risk job, there was still that twinge in the back of my neck. The palpable tension. But why though? Why did everything feel so tense at that moment? What was there to be afraid of? Reed wouldn't harm a fly. At least that's what Sage told us. Would he though? Was Reed even in the garage? Why couldn't we just burst through the door and tackle Reed if he was there? Wouldn't that be more conducive? 

 

My mind was racing with questions and my heartrate was starting to pick up. I was a truck driver, not a fucking cop. My job wasn't to apprehend people, my job was to drive deliveries between camps. I'm not supposed to be pointing guns or tying people's hands behind their backs. Was I though? Was I even qualified to perform such a task? No, that was Vance's job. That was Jarvis' job. Of course. There's no way in hell someone like me could take down a full-sized man and cuff him up if he happened to show any resistance. Reed wasn't dangerous. He wouldn't do anything drastic.

 

"Reed?" I heard Sage's voice calling in the distance. Shit, Reed was in fact in the garage. Vance was gesturing for us to wait. Why wait? He's right there. Fucking take him. Bust down that door.

 

"Reed? What are you doing with that gun?" I heard Sage's voice ask. Fuck me; Reed had a gun. What was he doing with it? Was he pointing it at Sage? Was he about to kill him?

 

"Reed," Sage's voice called again. "Put the gun down, let's talk this through, okay?" 

 

What the fuck was Sage talking about? Was he in danger? Was Sage staring down the barrel of a gun right now? Was Reed about to pull the trigger? My heart rate jumped to about 70 miles per hour. Jarvis took note that I was starting to panic, and he put his hand on my shoulder and glanced right in my eyes.

 

"What the fuck are we waiting for?" I whispered. "Bust the fucking door down."

 

"Not yet." Vance whispered, shushing me afterwards. His thick bushy blue tail swinging rhythmically.

 

"Reed," I heard Ms. Roberts' voice call this time. "Reed, it's okay. We're here to help, you don't have to do this."

 

What the fuck did they mean by 'you don't have to do this'? What the fuck was going on?

 

"I don't have much to live for now." I heard a soft, young, and masculine voice muffled by the walls of the garage. Was that Reed's? "Everything's gone. All my stuff's burnt to a crisp, see?"

 

"Reed, taking your life is not going to fix anything." I heard Roberts call. 

 

Wait, take his own life? Then it dawned on me. Everything just clicked and a part of me wished it hadn't; Reed was holding a gun to his head. He was about to kill himself. I looked to Vance with a panicked expression, and he just gestured for me to wait. 

 

"Reed, your parents wanted you to live. That's why they sent you to the shelter." Roberts said. I could hear her voice getting closer. "Reed, taking your own life is not going to fix anything. You hear me? What is Naomi going to think? What are your friends going to think when you're dead? Do you think your parents want this?" 

 

"Naomi fucking hates me. You heard what she said about me. Remember, back then? Told me I was a fucking coward?" I heard the muffled voice yell from behind the door. "There's nothing left to live for. Look around, everyone's fucking dead."

 

"Okay," Vance says looking directly at Jarvis and me. "I'm going to open the door very slowly. We're going to charge in. I want you two to tackle Reed to the ground and I'll grab the gun and disarm him. Are we clear?"

 

"This is way out of my fucking paygrade." I said. My voice was trembling.

 

"Get used to it." Vance said, giving me a stern look. "It's going to get even worse from here considering what we're up against. You'll be fine."

 

Slowly, as Sage and Roberts were pleading Reed to put down the gun, Vance opened the door out towards him. Not even a squeak escaped the latches or the spirals. The loud conversation made for excellent cover. He gestured for Jarvis to hold open the door as Vance slowly made his way in. Vance gestured for me to follow him, again, very slowly and very quietly. My legs were like gelatin as I silently stepped into the garage making out a pale red velociraptor with a crimson, feathered tail. He was wearing an orange parka with baggy black jeans. Then I saw it right in his left hand; the rusted gun pointed directly at his temple.

 

I didn't have much time to process the image as Vance immediately charged the velociraptor and grabbed the gun from his hand. What came after was Jarvis and I rushing Reed and tackling him to the ground. I was on top putting Reed in a sleeper hold shoving all of my body weight on top of him while Jarvis tried to knock him to the floor going for his legs.

 

"Get your fucking hands off me!" Reed screamed.

 

The next moment I felt a searing pain in my forearm. It felt like jagged daggers sinking down into my flesh and I could feel warm blood staining my sleeve. Reed had bitten my arm. I screamed out in pain letting out an audible 'fuck' as I released my grasp. Jarvis followed up tackling Reed to the ground with all his strength. Vance released the magazine from the pistol and pulled the slider out rendering it completely useless. Then there was me; I was sitting in the back of the garage gripping my lacerated arm while blood started to spill and stain my sleeve a crimson red. 

 

Vance grabbed Reed's arms and binded them up in zip ties and Jarvis got up and did the same with his ankles. What soon followed was the sounds of sobbing emanating from Reed as he squirmed beneath Vance and Jarvis who had him pinned to the concrete floor beneath him. 

 

"What's going on today, mate?" I heard Vance shout. "Looking to off yourself? After all your family did for you?"

 

"Vance, stop!" I heard Sage's voice say. "You're not helping."

 

Sage immediately ran up to me. "You alright?" 

 

I nodded. My movements were swift. "Yeah. Old bugger here made a meal of me." 

 

Reed, thankfully, didn't pull out a chunk out of my arm, but he pierced the flesh deep enough that it was bleeding profusely. It stung like hell too. The audible sobs from the velociraptor were muffled as Vance zip tied his muzzle too. Likely because of the bite Reed gave me. Nobody wanted to get bitten it seemed.

 

"Reed, I need you to calm down for me, alright?" Ms. Roberts said, kneeling down before the bound and gagged velociraptor. "We're here to help. We're not going to hurt you, okay?"

 

"There's a med kit in the back of the truck." Vance said, nodding towards me. "We'll get that patched up and sorted.

 

"Kind of botched the job there." I said, shaking my head staring down at the bite mark on my arm.

 

"Meh, you were a redundancy." Vance said, patting my shoulder with a smile. "Better to have too many men than too little, aye?"

 

"Motherfucker, mate." Jarvis said, panting and shaking the sweat from his jacket. "And here I was thinking we were just serving up hot meals for some poor refugees at a camp. Never thought I'd ever tackle someone to the ground like that."

 

"Aye," Vance said, nodding. He was panting and sweating almost as hard as Jarvis. "Let's carry him back to the truck. Jarvis, grab his feet." 

 

The group hauled the sobbing and squirming Reed off to the truck. Roberts was doing her best to console him and calm him down but was unsuccessful. I, on the other hand, was gripping my lacerated arm tightly and staring at the garage walls before me; burnt posters of Legends and Lore and pictures of what looked like crudely drawn fantasy characters drawn as dinosaurs. The drawings looked like they were drawn by a child. They were also blackened, but still discernible at a cursory glance. 

 

Sage patted me on the shoulder, "You coming?"

 

I nodded, "Yeah, I was just lost in thought, that's all." 

 

Sage chuckled looking at the same pictures that I was looking at. "We drew those when we were kids. Some of them are actually from back in the day during our senior year."

 

Sage walked over and gestured to a picture of what looked like Sage crudely drawn in the same peach and violet colors. This time, he was wearing what looked like a druid's outfit decorated in leaves and lavender petals. On his backside holstered was a wooden staff that looked like it was made of natural bark. Of course, this was my imagination filling in the blanks; the actual picture was poorly drawn with the proportions of Sage's anatomy being too large in some areas and too small in others. 

 

"Must've been better times." I said smiling.

 

"They were, but let's get out of here. We need to get your arm fixed." Sage said, making his way out with me following behind.

 

---

 

Dabs of hydrogen peroxide and bandages wrapped around my bare arm and my wound was officially dressed. My arm still hurt every time I tried to move it, but it was manageable. It didn't hurt enough to consider it debilitated, but it was still going to be an inconvenience going forward. I didn't realize Reed had such a deep bite. Then again, he was a carnivore and carnivores are notorious for having dagger-like teeth, but I was expecting a modicum of hesitation. I guess if you're in a scary situation like that, you'd probably do whatever you can.

 

Speaking of Reed, he was sitting inside the van next to Roberts still bound up with zip ties from earlier. He calmed down enough that we took the gag off of him, but he was still trembling like an earthquake and his face was practically soaked in tears. Poor guy. 

 

I wasn't proud of this next part, but I had to get confirmation from the man himself given what Roberts told me about Naomi. It was probably the wrong time and place to ask it, but I blurted out, "I want to confirm what you said earlier, did you say Naomi still hates you?"

 

Reed nodded. Thankfully his emotions didn't escalate, but his expression was in deep somber. "She told me I was a coward. She was right." Tears started to fall from his violet eyes.

 

Roberts softly rubbed the side of his arm, shushing him. Not in a stern or forceful way, but in a soft and soothing way to keep his emotions in check. "Reed, it's not your fault. You didn't have a choice. Remember?"

 

Vance, sitting across from him, said, "Tell you what mate, offing yourself ain't the right way of going about it." 

 

"I know it wasn't," Reed said, nodding and sniffling. "But I didn't want to live anymore. Everything's gone."

 

"You're damn right about that, Reed." Vance said, leaning forward. "But think about what you're giving up. Think about your parents who fought to keep you safe in that shelter. Think about them, do you want to just give all that away?"

 

Reed suddenly started sobbing again. Softly this time. Not violently like before where he struggled to breathe. Roberts gently shushed him again giving his shoulder a soft rub. 

 

Jarvis was sitting in the back corner. His eyes were downcast, and he wasn't saying a word. Not sure what was going through his head at the time. He was a person who was very tough to read the majority of the time. I still hadn't asked him why he decided to volunteer either.

 

Sage finally arrived at the truck. He was carrying a box of what looked like books in a cardboard box. They looked pretty blackened from the sulfur and soot, but they still had legible printing from what I could see on the surface. 

 

"This is all Reed's stuff." Sage said, loading it up in the back with a nod. "We'll make sure you'll feel right at home, Reed. You're going to get the help that you need, alright?" Sage said. He climbed into the back of the truck and sat right next to Reed. 

 

I climbed out and started heading for the main cabin of the truck to drive back to the relief center. Vance followed behind me. He was taking a shotgun in Sage's place. Fortunately, I had a decent memory of how to get back, so Sage's directions were unnecessary in this situation. 

 

I climbed in the driver's seat and buckled my seatbelt. Vance did the same thing in the passenger side and let out a deep, dramatic sigh as he reclined in his seat glancing his bright yellow eyes right into mine.

 

"Quite an adventure back there, eh?" Vance said.

 

"Tell me about it." I said flatly starting up the truck and setting the heater to full blast.

 

"You feeling alright there, lass?" Vance asked.

 

"I'm fine." I said pulling out from the burnt-up suburb and heading towards the relief center about twenty minutes away. "Got tired of Reed's blubbering?

 

Vance closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm not equipped to handle that kind of thing. Besides, Sage seems to have it sorted."

 

I nodded. "Poor guy."

 

"Just ain't right that he put a gun up to his head like that." Vance said slouching over on one hand. "Especially considering the sacrifice his parents made to keep him alive."

 

I made no eye contact with him as I was driving. My jaw was as rigid as a horseshoe. "Did you have to lay it in thick?"

 

Vance gave me an irritated expression when I said this. "Coddling Isn't going to change any minds. Sometimes you have to give someone a blunt reality check about what they're doing."

 

"We're talking about a troubled kid who basically got black balled by all his friends when he didn't stand up with them against the apartheid."

 

Vance just shrugged. "What can you do? Sometimes you have to make some sacrifices to stand up for what's right." He leaned forward in his seat. "And what's right in this case is apartheid opposition."

 

"His fucking parents threatened to punish him if he spoke out." I said, shaking my head.

 

"So?" Vance said. "Pangean society disowned my parents when they were poor and starving trying to survive in their province's struggling economy. The humans gave us a chance to start anew. Gave me an opportunity to join the military."

 

"You make it sound so fucking easy Vance. You always do." I sighed. 

 

"It isn't easy." Vance said. "But sometimes you have to make some personal sacrifices to do what's right."

 

"Naomi, Fang, Reed's best friends turned on him when he complied with his parents." I glared at Vance. "His friends abandoned him when he was forced to make a choice."

 

"As they should. He's a fucking coward for not standing with his friends." Vance looked me right in the eyes. "You're human yourself. Didn't you want the apartheid to end? Didn't you want a taste of fresh air?"

 

"Well, who the fuck are you to say what's right, Vance?" I said, raising my voice. 

 

"I say what's right because I'm the one who stood out in the frontlines gunning down Pangeans who wanted humans dead. You don't get to raise your fucking voice at me when you couldn't take down that scrawny little boy in that garage."

 

"Fuck you, Vance!" I growled gripping the steering wheel with both hands. Vance said nothing and just glared at me with his golden eyes. Finally, after what felt like a few minutes of silence I just blurted out, "I'm sorry."

 

Vance nodded. "It's been a really tense day today. You're probably really overwhelmed with emotions right now and that's okay." He placed a hand on my shoulder. "It's your first rodeo, so you're going to experience these things. I will say this though," He frowned. "Sometimes you'll have to make tough decisions and sacrifices to ensure that what's right is done. I'll admit I don't know much about Reed or what his life was like back in high school, but I'd know that if my friends opposed the apartheid, I'd be right there with them, to hell with what my parents say."

 

-----

 

It was a long twenty minutes, but we finally arrived back at the relief center. I parked the truck backwards into the city of tents right in front of the medical tent. I hopped out of the driver side of the truck and banged on the cargo hold letting them know that I've come to a full stop. Jarvis, Roberts, and Sage stepped out of the truck. Jarvis and Roberts were holding Reed who was still bound up by the zip ties and they carried him into the medical tent. 

 

Naomi came rushing towards the truck with a shocked look on her face. I called her before I pulled in letting her know that my team found Reed. Sage stayed behind patting me on the shoulder and giving me a smile of thanks. 

 

"What the hell is going on?" Naomi said, watching as Reed was carried into the medical tent while bound. "Why is he tied up like that?"

 

Vance got out of the passenger side of the truck and headed past Naomi straight towards the Lunch Tent. Sage frowned and reluctantly said, "Reed tried to commit suicide." 

 

"Reed tried to do what?" Naomi said. Her jaw was agape after she said that, and her hand covered her mouth. "He tried to--"

 

"I'm surprised you care given that you broke off with him a while back." I said glaring at Naomi.

 

Naomi didn't say anything when I said this. Granted I wasn't proud of saying it, but it felt like it had to be said. Some accountability needed to be made given that she was at least in some small part responsible for Reed's mental state. She gave me a burning scowl that eventually got drowned in a flood of emotions as streams of tears poured like faucets from her eyes. She walked off into the medical tent not saying a word and beginning to sob violently. 

 

"Was that really something that needed to be said, Derrick?" Sage asked giving me a look like I said the most fucked up thing in this situation.

 

"I don't know." I said with a frown. "She didn't say I was wrong though."

 

"Well, yeah, but that was a different fucking time then. Times are different now." Sage sighed.