Epilogue Pt.2

Rick got arrested and taken to the local jail. Thanks to video evidence, courtesy of a camera he had set up in his shop, the bastard didn’t stand a chance. He probably shouted “assault!” thinking the camera footage would make it look like I was the aggressor, but no matter how much he tried to play it up in the courts, they ruled my kick as self defense. What did he honestly think was going to happen?

So, when he got put behind bars, his business went into the hands of the mayor of the territory here and was auctioned off. It was all mine after that. Dinner tasted so good once that mess was all wrapped up.

Unfortunately, we were still missing Sadie from the table. She was in an on and off coma alongside Yuri’s brother. Both were giving good signs though, so it seemed like they were going to wake up any day now.

In the meantime, it was just the five of us celebrating our victory. I busted out the good stuff for this one.

“Sis, you know you shouldn’t drink,” Aaron frowned.

“19 is plenty old enough for booze, if that’s what you're worried about,” not that I hadn’t drank for fun long before.

I poured a glass of wine for me, Yuri and Ben. The pipsqueaks weren’t getting a drop of anything but sparkling grape juice.

But Aaron shook his head. “No. You told me dad was an alcoholic before the war, and grandpa too. I’m worried it might run in our genes.”

Darn kid had a good idea… But I wanted to drink, like any other normal teenager.

“Addiction can blow me,” I took a sip of the wine, immediately spitting it out away from the table. “Oh my god…” I coughed, making sure not a drop of that sour tasting liquid remained on my tongue. “People drink this stuff for pleasure? It’s worse than cough syrup.”

Ben didn’t have a problem with it. In fact, Yuri let him have his drink too after watching me spit it all out.

“Imagine that feeling, but every day.” Aaron cracked up while taking a sip of his bubbly juice. “That’s how it feels to take my meds.”

Olga graciously lifted up the big bottle of grape juice and poured it out for me into a new glass, but put a bit too much and caused it to spill over a little. She got an ‘A’ for effort.

“This tastes better anyways,” I put my glass forward and awaited the others to do the same. “Let’s have a cheer for a job well done!”

Everyone tapped cups and we took a sip all at once.

“Congratulations, mum!” I heard a voice come from my jacket pocket. “Can I toast as well?”

“Oh…” I pulled out a flip phone with a camera and aimed it at the table. “Everyone, say hello to the new and improved Moukia.”

“Hi Moukia,” everyone said, including Olga.

After the fun times at the lake and hospital, we took that cockpit piece from the colossus bot back home with us and stashed it out back. Yuri managed to crack into the control console and get the AI core of Moukia out. With his tech magic, he downloaded him to this phone.

To give the former toy mouse his wish, I made everyone tap glasses again, this time also adding the edge of the phone into the collision.

I didn’t feel blissful very often, but seeing these guys here felt nice, like I’d made a little family, and it was only going to get bigger. They were never going to hear me say that out loud. As far as they were concerned, they were my little servants, working hard for whatever table scraps I was willing to grill up for them.

They were good people that I didn’t deserve, but my incentives were enough to buy their loyalty, I guess. Or maybe they actually liked me and wanted to stick around… Yeah right!

***

Periodically through the night I liked to check up on Aaron. It was a weird thing I did since he was a baby, just to make sure he was still breathing. He had an incident one time and it freaked me out when he turned blue… I never forgot that.

He wasn’t in bed though. I looked all over but couldn’t find him.

A sudden hint of inspiration caused me to look outside, and sure enough he was sitting in front of the shop window gazing up at the night sky.

“Why are you up?” I carefully closed the door so I didn’t disturb Yuri or Olga, who were sleeping on the shop floor.

“You scared me,” he breathed out. “I hope you don’t mind, but I… I sometimes sneak out to stargaze a little bit.”

“How many times do I have to tell you not to go out without telling me?”

“Sis, would I be your brother if I followed the rules all of the time?” he raised a brow with a cocky smile.

I was a terrible influence to children, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t his big sister.

“Do as I say, not as I’d do,” I couldn’t believe I was pulling that old line. What was I, a stick? “At least wear a coat.” I took off my camo jacket and wrapped it around him. “And just wake me up, okay? If you fell over out here I wouldn't find you until morning.”

“I know,” he said, silently staring off into space for a few moments. “You know, when it's this quiet and the stars are out, the world doesn't seem that bad.”

I leaned back against the window and let out a laugh. “That’s because you don’t see what it's like out there outside the territory,” I waved my hand slowly across the horizon. “It’s a real pain. A constant fight for survival. Not something I want you to ever have to deal with.”

“Maybe the world will get back to normal someday soon?” he asked, looking like he was ready to doze off. I held onto his shoulder and started dragging him back inside.

“What do you know about normal? This is normal for you. Besides, if the years before the war ended up like this, I’d rather not go back to them. Let’s just keep marching forward, trying to make things better than they were before. At least for us, yeah?”

“Sounds good to me, sis.”

So far the future was looking better already. All I really wanted though was to get Aaron feeling healthy like any normal kid. Doc said he was making great progress on a new type of treatment, so that goal was within my grasp. And for once, money wasn’t going to be an issue.

“Maybe things aren’t so bad…” I smiled.