Inside a black van, three people were minding their own business. Esther was checking on her phone while Hakeem was grooving with his music and Jason staring out through the window. He was deep in thought as he remembered the conversation he had with Neil.

--

Inside an office room, Jason sat in front of Neil as both were staring at each other. A rather short silence between them yet it felt like ages went by. Neil’s eyes strayed away as he lost the unofficial staring match with a slight sigh escaping his lips.

“Have you read the report?” Neil asked as he stood up walking over to the other side of the office.

“No,” Jason said as he watched Neil opened a hidden fridge and pouring himself a drink.

Neil sat back down as he chugged everything down his throat. Again, this military official let out another sigh.

“We were wrong,” said Neil.

Jason didn’t say a word as he just watched the action of this man.

“We knew our intelligence has its loopholes but we didn’t think we would fuck up this bad,” said Neil.

Jason maintained his silence.

“Nonetheless, the soldiers that survived had all been awakened,” said Neil.

“Sixty-nine new Awakened in the military, it’s still not enough but we have to start somewhere,” said Neil as he flipped through the documents once more.

“But I’ve got to hand it to you, the upper bracket of new Awakened is all from your squad, especially this Amelia Tremblay,” said Neil as he took a quick glance at Jason.

“First thing first, I apologize. I didn’t know about the rescue mission, my men are investigating the Major as we speak,” said Neil.

Rather than saying something, Jason kept his lips sealed. He didn’t mind it much since he had been paid and seeing the major in big trouble seemed to be an icing to the cake. Jason’s gut feeling was wary about that Major.

Neil kept his eyes at Jason. He heard about the payment and thought this man would defend the Major yet Jason surprised him once more and acted as if everything was natural.

“and about Amelia, she told me everything. I’m rather impressed seeing how effective it was sending you with the squad, one mission alone and she’s already at level nine even beating out Miss Portsmouth. It’s a shame really if Staff Sergeant Dan is still alive, he would have been the aspiring top two along with Amelia,” said Neil as he poured another glass for himself and took another sip.

“But something concerns me, the last UC you fought,” said Neil as he one-shot his drink.

“Amelia told me it tried to communicate,” the gaze in Neil’s eyes changed drastically. “Is this true?”

So many things were circling inside Neil’s head as this new information was literally groundbreaking. If communication was possible then it opened up a whole new possibility in this disastrous situation.

“Does trying to kill me sounds like communicating to you?” Jason said.

“I heard you almost die,” said Neil as if it was a taunt.

“Almost,” Jason replied. “So much for a city with weak monsters,” said Jason as he gave Neil the eye.

“Let’s get back to the main topic here, did that humanoid UC really communicate with you?” Neil asked once more.

“He did. But like any foreign language out there, it sounds gibberish,” said Jason.

But the word used by Jason caught Neil’s interest.

“He?” Neil said.

“Trumbo Wanderfoot, a halfling classify as a named monster,” Jason answered.

Neil stared at Jason with his eyes wide open. He then shook his head side to side.

“A halfling?” Neil asked. “Like from Tolkien's work?”

“Hmm, if you ask me, Trumbo is like fifty percent of becoming Gollum. He’s definitely not like those friendly halflings from the movies,” said Jason with a straight face.

Neil shook his head again and again.

“Do you think we can establish communication?” Neil asked.

Jason’s eyes narrowed down.

“Is there a reason we should? Just to clear things up, you do know we’re being invaded,” said Jason.

A fact that both of them couldn’t refuse.

“You’re right,” said Neil as he took something out from his drawer and casually threw it on the desk.

“This is the new report about our current status,” said Neil.

Jason flipped through a couple of pages and the crease on his forehead turned tighter with each page. Most of it was maps of Canada and the highlighted color of most of it worried him.

“Are you sure?” Jason asked.

“We map out the area using our satellite and since these UC could only appear as a blur in our picture, we can easily map the affected area. At least their jamming capability did help us in a way,” said Neil as he gave a helpless laugh at the end.

The man poured another drink in his glass.

“Want to go easy on that? Aren’t you still working?” said Jason.

“Canada is losing almost 35% of our territory to the UC and we can’t do anything about it other than to flee,” Neil replied while ignoring Jason’s question. He took a sip and look out through the window of his office.

“We don’t have many options here Mr.Park, and if establishing communication is one way of delaying the inevitable, I’ll gladly do it until we find another way, or…” his voice trailed off as he turned to Jason.

“are you going to do something about it?”

--

“Jason, we’re here,” Esther’s voice brought Jason back to the present away from his muddle thoughts.

“See you later,” Esther said to Hakeem as she got off the van.

Jason was about to exit the van but Hakeem stopped him.

“Dude, you okay?” Hakeem asked.

“I’m fine,” said Jason.

“Ease up man, you did a pretty good job,” said Hakeem as he patted Jason’s shoulder a few times.

A smile crept up on Jason’s face.

“Thanks, man,” he said as he left the van and walked through the front yard.

The black van left and in front of him, his parents were hugging his sister tightly with tears falling down from his mother’s eyes. He stopped on his track as he soaked in this sight for a while.

The lives of those close to me…

The love that he felt to these people in front of him only intensified as he remembered the highlighted part of the map of Canada. His teary mother called out to him as Jason too joined in with the family hug.

Ignoring the annoying plea from Esther, he embraced this feeling once more as it reminded of him the reason for him to continue to fight on.

--

Lying down on his bed, Jason was staring at the ceiling. Both he and Esther got an earful of nagging from their mother as she didn’t expect their new work to be that long.

Rather than telling their mother, they were going for a camping trip that didn’t make any sense considering their current situation, both he and Esther told a white lie that they were working together with the military for a special project that involved innovating their current technology.

They were skeptical at first considering how they didn’t get why the military wanted Jason of all people but didn’t question about Esther at all. It pricked Jason’s heart a bit but he let it slide since they were his parents after all.

In the end, his parents were happy about him having a job here in their hometown and amid this invasion situation, their son did a pretty good job.

A light smile surfaced while thinking about his mother’s smile. Then Dan’s death resurfaced within his mind shooing away all those good thoughts. He couldn’t help but frown.

He knew he was the one at fault. If he didn’t underestimate the monsters roaming Thunder Bay City then Dan’s death could have been prevented. His fist was clenched tightly to the point of shivering, then he remembered something.

He jumped out of his bed and opened up the computer. He checked his bank account and saw the seven digits lining up. A number that didn’t make any sense to him but now was possible through that blackm- business deal he made with the young woman’s father.

Yet rather than being elated his expression was dead serious as he had something in mind. With nothing to lose, he changed his clothes and went out of his room.

While passing through the corridor he passed by Esther’s room. He stopped as he saw a slight gap on the door. He peeked through and saw his sister sleeping on the bed even when the sun was still up.

It made sense for her to sleep after going through such a rough night and a horrible morning. To be frank, Jason should have sleep considering how he didn’t sleep a wink throughout the night. But he couldn’t at the moment, not right now. Not when he had something in mind.

Jason went out as he took the pink MPV and drove away.

It was late in the evening and as the sun was about to set, he arrived at his destination. His eyes glanced at the nameplate of the building, Osborn Metalwork.

He got out and went inside the building as most people were coming out as they just finished their wor for the day but then he stumbled a familiar face.

“Hey, you’re that guy right?” a man called out to Jason.

Jason took a look at this guy and although he looked familiar, Jason still didn’t remember his name.

“It’s Mateo,” said Mateo. “I work at Gondor Smithy.” Mateo tried to make Jason remembered him but judging from Jason’s clueless expression it didn’t seem to work.

“Oh good, I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” said Jason as he dragged Mateo inside much to the latter reluctance.

“I just got off from wo-” Mateo couldn’t even finish his words as he was dragged back into his workplace.

He tried to resist but no matter what he did, he couldn’t move an inch away from Jason’s grip. Mateo himself was quite confident about his physical prowess considering how physically demanding that was involved in his work. To add things up, Mateo was even a bit bigger than Jason.

What came next, him seated across Jason. Mateo was having a confusing time as he stared at this Asian man who was looking around.

“Sir, the smithy is close. Whatever you had in mind can we-” Mateo turned silent as the sudden strong gaze from Jason caught him off guard.

Mateo suddenly felt intimidated by this man and without knowing, his body was already drenched in sweat. He cursed himself for having to work today of all day, he didn’t understand why of all people, he was the one to meet with such a weirdo. Then Jason smiled and the intimidation pressure went away. Mateo’s breath was ragged as he tried to catch his breath.

“You okay there?” Jason asked.

Mateo nodded vigorously and at this point onwards he noted to himself to mind his words to this strange Asian man.

“Mateo is it?” Jason asked Mateo his name once more.

Mateo nodded with both of his hands placed politely on his knees with his back straight.

“Yes sir,” Mateo answered.

“Do you know how to make a sword?” Jason asked.

“Eh?” Mateo stared at Jason as he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

“The axes I made were pretty good but I’m the kind of guy who likes sword better, so do you know how to make one?” that strong gaze returned once more as it was directed straight to Mateo.

The man was shivering in his boots and he didn’t know whether to say yes or not. Surprisingly he knew how to make a sword but answering ‘yes’ might not be the best option for him since he had prior experience with this man but saying ‘no’ probably wasn’t a good idea also since Mateo was getting a bad vibe from Jason.

Mateo was a sensitive guy, in a different kind of way. Sensitive in terms of detecting the supernatural and rather than seeing ghost lingering around Jason, he smelled a strong odor of blood coming from Jason.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Jason’s words snapped him back but not a word escaped his mouth as Mateo still didn’t know what to answer.

But as Mateo’s mind was blank, a sudden enlightenment hit him. In that instant, he answered the question.

“Yes! I can make a sword!”