Finally Found You - (Ben Mason Love Story)

Part 10

A couple minutes later, Matt and Ben leave and I jump up to talk to Hal.

            “Hal, please tell me you heard all of that too.” I whisper to him.

            “Yeah I did. And can you believe he did that many pushups? I mean come on; he shouldn’t have been able to do that many. He’s been acting a little—“

            “Different?” I cut him off.

            “Yeah. Maybe we should tell dad.” Hal says sitting up.

            “No it’s not that big of a deal to tell dad. But I do think we should tell someone.” I think for a moment and stand up. “Come on, get up.” I say.

            “Where to?” Hal asks.

            “Just follow me and you’ll find out.” I grab my jacket and we start our way towards the infirmary. We find Anne finishing up with a patient and walk in.

            “Our turn?” Hal asks sarcastically.

            “Yeah, were you waiting out there?” Anne asks.

            “Yeah you got a sec?” I ask.

            “Just, you’re alright? You aren’t sick are you guys?” Anne asks us.

            “No no we’re fine it’s just uh…” Hal trails off.

            “You can think of me as your doctor if you want. Anything you guys say stays between us.” Anne tells us. I look at Hal and he shrugs his shoulders.

            “Well, it’s Ben. Something’s up with him.” Hal says.

            “Yeah like we know what all he’s been through and everything but it’s not that. It’s like; he’s just not acting like himself.” I say.

            “Like how?” Anne asks.

            “He just did a hundred pushups without breaking a sweat. I mean he’d have been lucky to hit ten before the attack.” Hal says.

            “We don’t know what they had him doing all those months.” Anne says.

            “Oh we know, it’s just hard to explain it if you didn’t know him before.” I say to her.

            “He was umm, my bratty little brother, you know.” Hal says.

            “And he was my geeky best friend that was twice as smart as both of us. And now, he’s like—“I start to say.

            “A grown up?” Anne says.

            “No,” I pause, thinking of the right words to say. “A different kid.”

            After talking a little more to Anne, we decide to split our ways. I walk to Uncle Scotts’ room since I haven’t really seen him much. After a while of talking and helping Scott with his radio and inventions, I decide to head to the gym with everyone else. I walk over to Hal, Ben and Tom to talk when we hear Clayton and someone else arguing.

            “I can only tell you what’s worked for us. I don’t have kids so I can’t even pretend to understand how you feel.” Clayton says.

            “Especially now when you’ve got all these people thinking our kids are the enemy.” The other man says.

            “No you see, you’ve got them thinking that. I’m trying to get them to think about the safety of their kids instead of their own comfort. This is a temporary measure folks.” Clayton says.

            “Until what? We’re attacked? Then what Terry?” Mike says.

            “You think the Skitters are just gonna give us a pass?” The other man yells.

            “I never said that!” Clayton yells back.

            “Whoa whoa whoa, hey hey, what’s going on?” Tom says going up to them. Hal, Ben and I move up towards the guys fighting.

            “I know that a lot of you have lost your children. Okay and don’t think that my heart doesn’t break for you. But please imagine that you still have your child, would you let anyone take them away from you?” The other man says to the crowd surrounding them.

            “That hasn’t been decided yet. Everyone here wants the same thing; our kids to be safe.” Tom says in his defense.

            “They’ll never be safe, safe is over! We could die any day and if that day comes, I’m going to be by my daughters’ side.” The man says.

“I don’t want anybody to die. This is about what it’s going to take to survive.” Tom says to him.

“Yeah? Well I swear to God if anybody tries to take my little girl,” The man starts to pull out his gun but Tom stops him.

            “Hey, don’t you forget who the enemy is. Everyone here has had to make hard choices just to make it this far. And we’re going to make more. But if we fall apart now and we start turning on each other, then it doesn’t matter when the attack comes because we’ve already lost.” Tom says.

“And who’s going to decide what we do if they attack? Weaver?”  The guy asks.

“No I will.” Tom ends the argument just as we hear firing from outside.

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