Surface R: Reunion

Part 04.2

::TREY::

"No."

"But Trey—"

"No."

"But just think of the possibilities—"

"Rhys, he said no. No one's asking, but I say no, too."

"Trey, Meeko, I fear you're being too hasty in your judgments of the situation. After all—"

"They've got guns, dude. Guns. No."

Our technology expert sighed. "I still think the potential usefulness of the vehicles outweighs the dangers—"

"And I think that I'm not going to let you go and get killed for a piece of metal, you're more important than that." Meeko cuts him off. "We've made it so far alive without them, anyway."

Rhys looks at me as if he thinks he has more chance of changing my mind. I shook my head. "No. And that's final."

"... Fine." Rhys sighed.

The group watching visibly relaxes. They hate it when we argue, and they know we don't need arguments, particularly in a time like this. Nina and Thomas are watching concerned from the sidelines. They aren't used to this.

"Is everything ready?" I asked the rest of the group.

"We just need to finish blocking off the entrances. We'll block the last one once we're leaving for real, Cody's not back yet—"

"I'm here!" Cody announces as he appears, Sean it tow.

I nodded. "Great, we'll be leaving as soon as Jonah, Leon and the rest of the scouts get back. And one more thing," I duck into the crowd and pull Thomas and Mitchell up beside me. "Batch Eight's leader and Second-in-Command. Regardless, they're still new here. I know you've seen the rest of them already and figured they're staying. Just like with batch Seven's newbies, look out for them like you would any other. Be patient with them. Remember they don't have years of the surface life yet, so we're gonna have to train them. But for the mean time, they'll help in other stuff."

"Like what?"

The faintly skeptical question comes from the would-be Leader, Bryce. Dillan nudges him.

"Tom has already proven he's more than qualified to be Head cook, and with some more ingredients we can make, he can bake things we haven't tasted in a while. Rhys is already having his assistants help him research how to make flour and other ingredients we need." I pointed out. "and given enough time, I'm sure both he and Mitchell will be able to face combat."

Corrin backs me up. "Doctor Roland, obviously, will be working with me, and he's knowledge on various treatments is more than helpful. But regardless of their current usefulness or maybe even lack of it, the point is we're going to watch out for them."

"Just like they've watched over us when we were new, Bryce." Dillan said pointedly.

"What about S—" Someone starts but is elbowed by another.

I looked worriedly at Cody. From the tightness of his expression, they haven't resolved this yet. And they're running out of time.