Clint returned from work to a dead silent apartment. Marie was on the couch in the living room, still as a statue. Her eyes were bloodshot and he could hear her breathing. Zack was nowhere to be seen.

Clint cleared his throat. "Um, everything okay?"

"No."

"W-What happened?"

Marie craned her neck and shot him a deadpan stare. "Call your son," she said quietly.

"Huh?"

"Call. Him."

Clint frowned, cleared his throat again. "Teddy! Come out here. We need to talk."

Zack walked in, his head hanging low, eyes never leaving the ground, shoulders slouched. Clint noticed he had a bandage wrapped around his right hand, covering his knuckles. Clint knit his brows.

"Tell your father what you did," Marie said.

"I helped a kid from getting beaten up–"

"He knocked out three of his classmates," Marie said. "One of them almost lost his tooth. The other two had black eyes and bruises all over their faces."

Clint stared at the two of them, flabbergasted.

"They were about to beat up Arthur!" Zack cried out.

"And what did I tell you about Arthur?!" Marie yelled.

"He interfered to help me!" Zack yelled back. "What was I supposed to do? Let them hurt him when he came to help me first?!"

Marie was about to yell again when she stopped herself. "Go back to your room." She pointed at the corridor. "Go and don't come out until you are asked to. You are grounded."

Zack looked angry. And on the verge of tears. But he just glared at them both before storming away to his room. There was the sound of a door slamming and then the apartment was silent again.

Marie's ragged breathing could be heard even louder now. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head. "This was the worst idea. To come here was the worst idea possible." She whimpered.

Clint sighed and sat close to her, put a hand on her back and patted gently. "Calm down, honey."

"I can't!" Marie snapped in a strained voice, as if she was suppressing a scream. She looked at him with his wild, bloodshot eyes. "I got a call from his school today. I went and they told me the things he'd done. It's barely been a few weeks since he started school. And they've already suspended him!" Marie pulled at her own hair, frustrated. "I was gonna apply there for a teaching job. What kinda impression is it gonna have now? We were supposed to be a normal family but this–" she groaned and buried her face in her hands again.

Clint kept patting her back. "There, there."

Marie sighed unsteadily before finally calming down. "Why wouldn't he just...listen for once?" she said in a tired voice.

"Would you really blame him for standing up for someone who was getting bullied?" Clint said.

Marie grimaced and said nothing.

Clint felt his heart ache for both Zack and Marie. Germaine and Watcher had both warned them against dropping their covers even inside their house. For all anyone knew, their next door neighbor might be a snitch for the steel heads and if they managed to overhear something then it would get ugly.

And he could see the strain of that arrangement on Marie's face now. She wanted to say so much more but even in a moment like this one, they had to put their mission above them.

Clint pulled out his notepad. "It's okay, Gloria. Regardless of the school's decision to suspend him, Teddy still did the right thing." On the notepad,he wrote: We shouldn't be too harsh on Zack. Whether or not that Arthur kid's mom is a snitch.

Marie read the note and nodded after a moment. "I know, I-I'll apologize to him for yelling." She took the notepad and wrote: But Zack certainly called attention to himself with everything he did today.

Clint frowned at the note. "I'll be with you for it." Call attention?

"Maybe we can even get him some ice cream." He hit the most goals at football. His coach said, 'he was confirmed to be on the school team if it wasn't for the behavior issue and the suspension'

"Ice cream sounds good." Behavior issue? Are they gonna keep the bullies from joining the team for that reason too?

"We can head out to pick some now." I don't know, I didn't ask.

Clint sighed after reading the note. "I'll grab my wallet." Then he wrote: So, our son outshone everyone at football and stood up against some bullies and we just...grounded him for it?

Now it was Marie's turn to sigh. "I'll grab my coat and I'll head out with you." I know it is messed up! But whether he likes it or not he is still a part of the mission...

Clint frowned. The only reason we took that mission was for Zack to be able to experience some normal life. I don't think this is what "normal life" should be like for him.

Marie sank deeper into the couch with guilt. Clint put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle rub. She put her hand on his, glancing back at Zack's room. Then she turned to Clint again. "Would you get my coat for me honey?" she said as she tore the pages of their conversation from the notepad and headed into the kitchen. She ripped the pages to shreds and burnt them in a bowl, emptied the bowl into the sink and then ran the tap. The ashes disappeared into the drain.

Clint walked up to Zack's room and tried opening the door. It was locked. "Teddy, we are gonna get some ice cream. You coming along, boy?" he said.

Silence.

Marie looked at him with that same strained concern on her face. She shook her head. Clint took the hint. They let Zack sulk in his room, not nagging him any further.

They walked out of the apartment.

#

Zack was in his bed when he heard the muffled thud of their apartment door, the distant click of the lock sliding home. They'd left him alone.

He held Nick's silver coin in his hand. He thumbed it absently. Being together is what matters. It sounded so much like a ton of crap now.

If it mattered so much then they wouldn't have blown up at him like that. Mom wouldn't have blown up at him like that.

It seemed like all the adults were just full of lies they told their kids to get them to shut up. Zack blamed himself for believing their bullshit, for putting up with them. Even Nick had been no different. Just full of sweet, sweet lies and a cheerful smile to cover up for all the bullshit that he kept flinging at everyone.

Zack looked out the window. The trees were indeed green on this side of Ardvenia, just like what Dad had said. He'd faintly remembered seeing them green when he was in kindergarten. Early in the morning, he even saw the birds on the wires. And there were cars and there were people going places.

Yet everything felt as empty as the sectors here. There were other kids but they were all awful. There were other adults but Zack wasn't supposed to open up to anyone. Everyone was either a snitch or an exploit.

You had to follow a script and stick to the character. Be someone you weren't, be a part of the group so the steel heads won't arrest you. Act out a story that wasn't even written by you. This is what his parents had said normal life would be like. They'd also said he would like it here. Another lie.

And they made him lie along with them.

Teddy Chambers was who he became to the world. He'd finally taken off the gas mask only to become someone else. If this is what it meant to be normal, then Zack hated it already. He'd rather be back in the sectors, sleep on an empty stomach and be forever afraid of getting ambushed by the infected than be whoever this boy named Teddy was supposed to be.

Zack sat alone in the quiet empty house looking out the window, still fingering Nick's silver coin in his hand. The streets were almost empty. Some politician guy was coming to the square a block away from their building tomorrow. It was meant to be important. He'd seen the billboards, seen the increased number of steel heads patrolling the streets, heard his parents talk about it in whispers and notes.

From up in his room, the city actually looked like a sector. Maybe not as desolate, yet still very deserted. Yet just as lonely. Apparently, this was supposed to be normal.

#

Marie didn't say anything on their way to the convenience store. Neither did Clint. They walked with their heads down and they stuck close together.

They passed two steel heads patrolling. There was the feeling of walking through that gale of poison gas again. Before the feeling passed too.

Marie finally broke the silence. "I'm being too harsh on him again, aren't I?" she said.

Clint kept his eyes on the ground. "No one is blaming you for being careful."

"Sometimes I wonder if I'm really just being careful." They passed a storefront advertisement. The secret to a better family is your brand of toilet paper, the slogan read. She chuckled dryly. "I remember when I was in high school. I used to look at the way my friends' parents used to treat them. The war hadn't begun yet. It was still just the initial tension. But most of them had already withdrawn their kids from school. They wouldn't even let us hang out and go somewhere, some were so paranoid they moved states and went to live by the coastline. I always thought if I ever become a mother I would never stop my kids from having a life." They arrived at the convenience store. The automatic entrance doors slid open with a sigh. "That was a time when I actually believed I could pull it off."

Clint just listened to her patiently. He watched her saunter down the packaged food aisle, almost hovering like a ghost as she browsed the shelves. He caught up to her. "That was before the war," he said in a quiet whisper so that no one would overhear. "No one can claim to be exactly the same they were ten years ago."

"I still wish I could've been better prepared." They arrived at the line of freezers. There were only three different flavors of ice cream to choose from. "All I do is yell at him. Or get mad at you. I wish I knew a better way of dealing with this thing than just buying some ice cream."

Clint sighed. Marie picked up two tubs from the freezer--butterscotch and chocolate.

"Why didn't they teach this in schools? How to be a better parent? How to actually love your child?" She frowned.

"Something like love isn't taught. Love is different for everyone."

Marie scoffed. "Sounds like one those excuses we give to avoid actually dealing with a problem." She turned around and started on her way back to the cashier's counter, the tubs of ice cream under her arm.

"Ma--Gloria!" he snapped louder than he'd intended. Even Marie winced a bit. He stepped close to her and dropped his voice to a whisper again. "If you really wanna solve something then why don't you just talk? Just talk to the boy. Let him speak. Let him be himself."

Marie looked up at him, eyes wide with hope. "Will that work?" she said. "You think he'll actually be honest with me."

"He'll be honest if you are honest," Clint said.

#

Zack was still in his bed when the house phone rang. He ignored it. The phone stopped ringing after a while. Then it rang again.

Zack groaned and got off the bed. He went out to the living room and answered the call. "What?"

"Oh, um...c-can I speak to Teddy Chambers?"

Zack recognized the voice right away. He gripped the receiver tighter.

"P-Please let Teddy know A-Arthur called. I-I really wanted to apologize for what happened today. I-I just really wanted to help him but–"

"What do you want from me?" Zack said in a cold, cold voice.

"O-Oh, it's you, Teddy."

"What the fuck do you want from me?! Why wouldn't you listen?! I told you to leave me alone! What part of 'leave me alone' didn't you get?! Just leave me alone! I fucking fought for you, got my knuckles bleeding, got suspended from school and now I'm grounded and not allowed to go anywhere until my mom feels like it! What is it that'll get you to leave me alone?! What more do you want?!"

"T-Teddy I'm sorry, I didn't mean–"

"Shut up!" Zack screamed and slammed the receiver down.

(to be continued...)