The Mercury Wars: The Clearing

Chapter 11 - Clara

"Alright, who had two months?" Carter yells from the campfire when Connor and Link return from the stream. "Come on? Levi? It was you right?"

"Shut the hell up boy," Levi groans as he glances up from beside the twins.

It has become a more regular occurrence to see him with them since the wolf attack. Connor would be doing something around camp and glance up to see them talking. Or he'd get up in the night to check that the huts were safe and free of predators to see him leaving their hut, or them leaving his. It was nice that in amongst the horror, he had started to come out of his solitude around someone at last.

"I can believe you placed a bet on us, Carter," Connor laughs, his hand still firmly clasping Links. "But I doubt for a second that Levi got involved in your need to always be a winner."

"Oh you'd be surprised," Carter argued back defensively, but his smirk held a hidden meaning that only confirmed he and Levi were now closer. "But one thing that isn't a surprise, is what we see before us. Thank the lord you two got your act together. It was more depressing than watching a puppy get abandoned."

The group fall into an easy conversation as Connor begins preparing breakfast for everyone. The discussion turned to where the next location of eyesight was going to be when Benny emerged from his hut just as Connor wrapped an arm around Link's waist and pulled him closer to his side.

"Grandad, leave it," Carter warns. But the older man is paying no attention to him as he stomps towards Link and twists his features in disgust.

"This won't end well," he says to Link directly. "It's a dangerous game to play."

With that, he continues past them and out of camp. Silence falls across everyone and Link looks like he has seen a ghost. On instinct, Connor goes to wrap him in a hug, but Link just puts a hand to his chest and shakes his head.

"I'm gonna go get my stuff and bring them back to the hut," he sighs as he pulls away without any other word.

Connor goes to follow him but Carter slings a sympathetic arm around his shoulder.

"Come on mate," He says quietly. "Let the boy breathe for a moment. Besides, I still have yet to eat whatever excuse you cook up as breakfast."

It's mostly silent as they eat, Connor watching every move that Link makes back and forth across the camp. Struggling with his bed, but before Connor can get up to help, Carter has leapt up and done it.

Link smiles a thank you to the boy, but it stings the way he can smile at Carter and not at Connor. He just lowers his head and tries not to watch anymore.

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The next few days get easier. The twins head back out on eyesight, Benny doesn't interact with Link which helps the boy to relax, and Henry finally leaves the hut to spend all day outside.

Connor helps Clara out by taking care of Henry. It gives her a break and a chance to get some time by herself, which she seems appreciative of.

But she isn't the same anymore.

The once happy and caring person has been replaced by a broken and paranoid woman. She always checks where Henry is and if he is ok. She doesn't hug anyone else anymore. She spends a lot of her time sitting by Marcus' grave in silence.

Connor misses the way it used to be. He doesn't know life before the apocalypse, so this is the first big change in his world that he knows of. He misses how it was all new and enticing to him. How even when he was cautious of it, he was still exploring. He now feels like he has had to grow up suddenly and start taking more responsibility for things.