Past and Future: Part 6

For everyone except Mark, it has been a long, confidence-tearing, day. The kid assistants led them to their bunker (Max seemed quite happy to get rid of Matt and Tarret just seemed chipper). The bunker was heavily armored, a very tight space, had one cracked mirror, and five small cots with threadbare blankets.

"Um...it's quite...tiny...?" Edd inquired

"Trust me, this is really big compared to the other soldier bunkers." Max corrected.

"The one me and Max share is half this size." Tarret, who normally looked chipper, now wore a long face. "Only kids invovled in the military in one way or another get that luxury. The ones in the Safey Houses hardly ever get to see their families. And plus, a bunker this big will hold ten people."

"So you all better be *censored* gratefull." Max spat.

Jon, as per usual, cowarded away behind Mark at Max's sudden outburst.

"Aw, c'mon." Tarret accused Max, "For one, they're new recruits, and two, how are you the mad one when I work under the one who spits acid?"

Max just shrugged and began to walk away with Tarret

"I really don't know, Tarret. How are you the chipper one after you went through a lot worse than me?"

"Hey, someone's gotta be happy in this world of gloom."

They rounded the corner and was soon out of earshot. The Pasts just stood there for a while, then closed the door, where, upon the sudden darkness, a dim light flickered in the lefthand corner.

It was a sad, tense silence as everyone claimed their bed and washed in a small bucket of water that was hidden from first glance.

Unfortunately, one doesn't really work well under really sad, tence silences.

"Can we talk about something?!" Matt blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Well, what CAN we talk about?" Tom said tiredly, obviously glad something came up.

Mark seemed suprised, "Are you kidding me?" He paused at slipping into his used nightwear, "There's so much we can talk about! After such an eventfull day, we could stay up all night talking about it if we wanted to."

"Yes," Edd inquired, "but do we really want to talk about it?"

"I sure don't..." Jon quivered

"Then I guess the responsibility of saying your side of the story rests on me." Tom slurred, he sounded really tired and wanted nothing more than to just sleep.

Mark looked up, "I guess...I'll start then." He paused, thinking on where he should start.

"What does he do?" Matt asked quickly

"He works with ill-fated children. As you might probably know, the Yassi assigns limb-risking jobs to children, and once they lost a limb, they're no longer useful and are tossed out into the street, bleeding and dying. His forces gather them up, try to revive them as much as they can and for those that make it, he gives them mechanical limbs that seem like they never lost anything."

It was silent for a moment,

"There are some very sad stories in the bunch," Mark went on, "but the one that really left an impression on me was a 12-year-old with three fingers on one hand and no arm on the other, who was carrying a seven-year-old girl who literally had no arms and no legs. His story was that she risked her life by hitting the guard that cut off his arm, and it cost her all her limbs, and they even raped her, all so he could escape. Of course he wouldn't allow that, and so he lost his fingers. My future self tried to save her, but she died...right there in the room. The boy's agonized cries were too much for me. I had to leave the room."

The room had an air of astonishment about it.

"Th-the children nicknamed him White Leader, and it stuck..." Mark added, almost randomly.

Tom was now obviously wide awake (well, at least that wide-eyed awakeness where your eyes and body are tired, but your brain isn't)

"I...think that pretty much..." Jon started, "blows all our dealings out of the water."

"I can't agree unless I hear the rest of all the stories." Mark inquired.

"M..." Edd started, and seeing that no one was stopping him, "My future counterpart is Green Leader, the head of the military. He keeps the peace between the soldiers."

"What else?" Matt asked, "Did anything...y'know...happen?"

"Well, yeah. This Buford guy seemed to cause some distress in the kitchens, and we had to go settle everything down."

The mention of Buford set Tom and Jon on edge.

Edd chuckled without humor, "He was a big guy, but he clearly had some mental disease. It still took...me...not long to tackle him to the ground and have someone escort him somewhere. And then there was a ginger-haired girl that kept following him around, crying her eyes out. Could Buford be her brother or--"

"Boyfriend..." Jon and Tom interupted at the same time

"How do you kn--?"

"Just..." Tom put his hands up, "go on."

"Aaaanyway, a few times he had to leave me to the company of his little monkey, Omri. He, and many of the other soldiers, kept inquiring how much I looked like Green Leader. Many times one of the older soldiers poked or pinched at me. I kept telling them to stop, but one actually managed to tear off a bit of my hood." Edd held up his hood, and there was a large chunk missing. "Omri told me no one had seen such clean and soft cloth. Heck, he snuggled with my arm more times than I can count."

"How old is he?"

"Eight,"

"Huh, seems to be the normal age for little monkeys, then." Matt put in, with a little more venom then he anticipated.

"You have something against them, or something?" Mark asked

"Well, my future counterpart's little monkey is Max, and he's a sour little lad. He kept yelling at me just 'cause I got a glimpse at my looks."

"Well, you do know that you can't look at yourself all the time and not be expected to keep up with the task at hand, Matt," Tom putt emphasis on his name at the end.

"Yes, but it was a pipe wrench, and he hit the same spot over and over again. Look," Matt pulled back his hair, and there was a huge, swollen welt right where the part ended.

Everyone winced and pulled back.

"Well, my future counterpart's job is hosting what they all call the 'calvary'. Don't know why, really, there are nothing but really big, souped-up Humvees (which they either call Humvees or Humvaks). It's nothing more than a tank squad, really. Anyways, I'm apparently Violet Sergent..." Matt finished

There was a small moment of silence, Tom finding the words to tell two sides of the same story. Then, Jon broke the silence.

"Well, Me and Tom's counterparts are both called 'Blue Alpha', or just 'Alpha', just Blue Alpha 1 and Blue Alpha 2. My counterpart's Alpha 1. and yes, they're in charge of the air force..."

"Yeah..." Tom said groggily, "Jon's little monkey is Tarret, and mine is Kit. She's older than normal, but my counterpart put in the idea of having small kids on the task force, and she was the first."

"Her boyfriend's that Buford guy. She's the girl that was crying over him in the kitchens, Edd," Jon informed the eager-to-hear Edd

"Well..." Tom went on, "The first question Tarret asks us is our names. I thought it would be a bad subject to harp on, but Jon here yells our our names anyway." Tom sits upright "'I'm Jon, and this is Tom'" He says in an over-the-top Jon voice ("Hey! I do not sound like that!")

Tom slouched back down, silly time over, and continues, "Tarret just accepts them, and continues to show us around. I, on one hand, just wants to let it slide, nothing to really fear over. You," He points an accusing finger, "on the other hand, asks him why he doesn't find our names familiar somehow."

"What does he say?" Mark asks

"'No.Why, should they be?'"

"Seems like no one knows their names, then." Matt inquires

"Well, no one seemed to find my name weird either, just how closely I resembled Green Leader," Edd put in

"Yeah...I guess it's better that way," Jon clucked

After that, there was nothing more to say, other than "Good night," and to go to sleep.