Smoking Power

Epilogue

I walk over to the edge of the balcony, looking out across the homestead's smaller buildings and grounds. Above me, the sun is beginning to sink below the horizon, signalling the end of the day. I smile into the warm summery breeze. Not to hot, not too cold. It's just right. Just like everything else here.

I sigh and think back to the day of the hogmer invasion here. It's been a year since then. A year since coming across the hogmer invasion, a year since meeting some of our closest friends and allies, Charles, Clarence and Clark, a year since dealing with Gareth.

I won't lie, no one's been the same since then. Dr Woodruff and Paul our leader, as well as everyone else here, act different. Sometimes I see them looking over their shoulders as if expecting to see a hogmer. Two people died back then. One middle aged lady and one elderly man. We've got a small community here, and once someone passes away, we all miss them.

There are happy times now too though. I guess now that we've realised what it's like to not feel safe and at home, we realise how good it is just to be living. Just to be around our friends and walking through these walls. I still remember the day that we all came here. Clark was still rusty with using the lavapick but managed to herd all the hogmers up and out of our way.

Charles, Clark, Clarence and his batch of hogmers as well as all the rest of them, all moved back to Vertango. Since Gareth's death, the hogmers have been much less aggressive. They're more of an empty shell now. Clark gets them to do charity work like building shelters and resources for those in need, like hogmers were originally made to do.

Clarence has started up an, Always Be Nice, centre which is mandatory for all the hogmers. It teaches them things like why you don't kill people and how to always be ready to help people. It helps them a tiny bit, especially with another hogmer teaching them it, but not really. Hogmers will always be hogmers. Sure Clarence's batch turned out a little differently but that's because Gareth let them go. These hogmers will have more of Gareth in them then any of the others.

I look down over the lush green grass and park benches to see Declan and Amber messing around. I laugh when Declan manages to crash into the only pole for a few hundred of metres, only for Amber to crack up and trip into a bush. The three of us still go out to help in places such as kidnapped people or dealing with terrorists. It's been tough at times but never as tough as the spiral of activity we caused when we went to Iraq. And besides we're a team, teams always beat the grouchy bad guys. Movies taught me that.

I find myself smiling as I watch the final orange glow of sun slip away. This is home. This is where I belong, where I live, where I learn, where I eat, where I sleep and where so many of my memories were made. I may of lost the homestead for a few weeks, but now that I'm back I'm not leaving any time soon.

No matter what, nobody can fully take someone's home from them. Somehow, someway, they'll find their way back. At least that's what I—what we did. Our home got taken but we came back and with a bite. This is where I belong, forever and always.

This is my home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

Alright, so the epilogue came a bit quicker then I was expecting it to, double update people's!! So, this is it. It seems so weird to think that I've finally finished writing this book. It took a while but it's finally done!

Like I said in the last chapter, if any of you don't understand anything that happened or are a bit confused about some things, then please write it in the comments or send me a private text or simply ask me on my works page, and I'll be happy to answer it for you.

This is my first book that I've written so yes, I'll be writing more. Please check out my page often for when I do post my next one or just follow me to save time ;) Also, I would like to give a shoutout to jetcar7 and una4661

Finally, I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone that's read, voted, commented and supported me through the writing of this book. It means a lot to me and I really appreciate it. If you haven't already, then please vote or comment for any of my chapters but what really means a lot to me is that you've read up to here. Thanks a lot you guys!