Lyle Tasche Sorenson, Cedric Rothstein Smith
Even before the sun began its daily ascent towards the peak of the sky, Lyle Sorenson was already awake and alert. He'd been sitting quietly on one of the long tables that accomodated his plants. As the light and warmth touched his back, he glanced over his shoulder. "Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all well and happy today." he softly said, pushing off the table and onto the stained tile floors of the rooftop on which he lived. Of course, with this greeting, he referred to the plants he'd been caring for. There was no one on the roof, after all. Not anyone who could give a reply, anyway.
Lyle had no one at the moment. Lieutenant Doyle was the only person that Lyle could consider true family in Murrell's Inlet. She had willingly taken Lyle under her wing after the raid that separated him from his family. Doyle comforted Lyle and apologized for what happened to his father, and promised him that one day, she herself would help him search for his remaining family. But now, that would never happen. Lieutenant Doyle was recently lost while on patrol, at the hands of Hunters. After that, Lyle became even more withdrawn, and he almost never left the rooftop unless it was to help with the town's improvised farm or to share his harvests with the populace.
No one cared. Lyle was just a kid from outside, and what mattered was that he worked for the good of the QZ.
But Lyle did. He cared for the town. Or.. For the plants, rather. He made few connections to the town's dwellers and so, had no reason to sympathize with them. All Lyle needed to do was care for these wonderful little plants. They were all that Lieutenant Doyle had left. Lyle considered this his own way of repaying her for her kindness and unconditional love. As Lyle prepared his tools and began making arounds among the garden, Lyle wondered if Lieutenant Doyle had once had children of her own that she lost or failed to care properly for. Perhaps she was trying to make amends.
Yes. Or no. But I'll never really find the truth to that, will I?Lyle gave a soft sigh, slightly tilting the rust blue watering can in his hand to water one of his tomato plants. It was oddly the only one without any tomatoes. Grimacing, Lyle settled the can upon the table and leaned forward, bringing his face up close to the plant. "Hello little one..." he whispered. "What's the matter?.. Are you feeling under the weather?.. All alone?" Lyle smiled thinly and reached out to gently stroke the plant's leaves. "It's alright. I'm here. I'll take care of you, even if you're feeling down. I won't leave you all alone." Humming a soft tune to himself, Lyle takes the pot in his hands and moves the tomato plant to a spot where it would get the most sunlight for the morning.
Then came the announcement. It was time. Lyle walked over to the edge of the rooftop to look over Murrell's Inlet. Looking down into the streets, he could now see the townspeople leaving their dwellings to report for the scans. Lyle almost didn't want to go himself, but he needed to. He wanted to assure himself that he was clean. So before that, Lyle made sure to wipe himself down with a wet cloth and clean water, brush his teeth, and fix his hair just to be sure. As he put his clothes on, he slipped his ceramic knife into the tear in his windbreaker, pocketed his beloved bottle of isopropyl alcohol and mint gums, and readied his backpack which carried his gloves, hat, and slightly warped encyclopedia.
Before heading to the door, Lyle then remembers that he was going to farm today.. So he really needed to increase his inventory. He paused in thought, looking over the garden in front of him before abruptly moving out of place and taking some fertilizers, his watering can, a trowel, and a border fork, and subsequently placing them in order at the bottom of his bag. The rest would be at the ready at the town park-slash-farm. Lyle turns to leave for the second time, but freezes for a moment. Then, turning around, he takes the little tomato plant and heads off. There was whole day ahead of him.
"Cedric.. Cedric.. Come on, wake up. They're calling us up to the town hall." said Cedric's sister as she shook her brother out of sleep. He waved his hand weakly in response, rolling over to his side. "Yeah, yeah, just a minute."
Cedric's sister groaned, stepping away from the makeshift bed with her hands firmly on her hips. "Just a minute, huh?" she looks about the room and takes an unfinished glass of water, then dumps it over Cedric's head, bringing him to a seated position. "Get. Up!" she pointed towards the door, ready to fetch another glass in case her stubborn brother refused.
"Alright, alright. Damn it." Cedric raised his hands in surrender, grudgingly rolling out of bed. "Just let me get changed."
His sister nods. "You'd better change. If I come back here and you're back in bed the next thing I'll throw over you is the artichoke soup from last night." she points the glass threateningly at Cedric before stepping out of the room.
A few minutes later, Cedric comes downstairs. His sister was just on the way up herself, believing he'd gone back in bed. Cedric gives her a questioning look, and she nods to him. "Good." she says, turning back the way she came. Downstairs, breakfast was ready, but Cedric had no more time. His mum tells him to eat quickly as they make ready for today's scans. Once finished, the Smiths quickly depart. Outside they join a number of people heading out as well. Some people were still obviously sleepy, while others were obviously morning people. Cedric related more to the former.
As they walked, Cedric saw someone familiar. It was Fairfax. The boy had a backpack and some plant in his hands. "Hey mom, I'm just going to go see Fairfax over there." Cedric says, and his mom replies with a curt nod as they hurry to the town hall. Veering away, Cedric does his best to weave through the moving crowd towards Lyle. His sister follows a bit later, not willing to be left out. She also secretly wanted to hear what Lyle had to say about this morning.
"Fairfax!" calls Cedric, dodging a man and his wife. Lyle stops in his tracks and turns to Cedric, his sister in tow. "Good morning." he says monotonously, holding the pot protectively to his side. Cedric nods, unsure as to how he should reply. "Yeah. Good morning." he says a little awkwardly. Jerking his head to the side, Cedric begins walking alongside Lyle, who seems far too distracted with his tomato plant to raise any conversation, so Cedric starts. "So.. Heading to the farm after scans?" he asks. Lyle replies with a nod. It takes a few minutes before he gives a verbal reply. "This plant needs me."
Cedric grins a little, turning to his sister, who wedges her elbow into him in annoyance. "That's a tomato plant, isn't it?" she asks Lyle, suddenly changing moods. Lyle looks up momentarily, before the plant takes his attention once again.
"Yes. Yes it is. It's feeling very upset. It needs me to care for it." Lyle says, stroking the tomato plant's leaves. Cedric almost failed at keeping in his laugh. He just felt it was ridiculous that this kid really thought that the plants talked to him.
Cedric's sister chuckles sweetly. "I'm sure you'll do a great job, Fairfax."
Hearing this, Cedric sniggers a little himself. He makes two lips out of his hands and brings them together, consequently getting another elbow to his left side. The second one hurt even more. Mouthing insults at his sister, he rubs at his side, not noticing as Lyle walks further ahead once the town hall is in sight. The siblings hurry after him, their parents not far behind.
At town hall, people were segregated into lines, as was usual. Lyle tagged along after a particularly short line, and Cedric and his sister got permission from their parents before following the young blondie. Lyle seemed to have forgotten about the potted plant in his hands as he walked up to the desk and was asked for his name. "Fairfax." he said slowly, staring at the plant. The soldier who'd asked him gave the boy a weird look before waving him away and calling the Smith sibs forward. Once all three kids were done, they waited at the side for Cedric's parents. Lyle didn't want to stay for very long, but since the Smiths were on farm duty today, he guessed it was fine to wait for them.
While the scans progressed however, there seemed to be some isolated pockets of chaos amongst the crowd. Someone had apparently been identified as infected, and it immediately got Lyle's attention.
Another one, huh? he thought absentmindedly whilst stroking the leaves of his dear plant. Cedric just shook his head. "Crazy bastards coming in here, putting us all in danger." he remarks, getting a scoff from his sister. Naturally, she felt sorry for the guy as he was dragged off in tears. He would probably be put down. Then a little bit after that, another guy seemed to break down. Maybe he was infected, too? But it didn't seem so as some soldiers came up to him to try and calm him down.
At that point Lyle had lost interest and had taken a spot near a row of long, comfy chairs. Cedric and his sister followed quietly. They were getting tired of standing up, anyway. While his sister searched through the crowd for their parents, Cedric scooted up next to Lyle. "So.. What's wrong with the plant? Is it dying?"
Lyle looked up at Cedric. "I sure hope not. I'm going to make sure it gets better."
Cedric just nodded. The kid sure was awkward, but he seemed cool, even with all the weird stuff he often said and did. Cedric decided to push a tad further. "How are you going to do that?" he asks Lyle.
The boy takes a pause. He sniffles, then shrugs. "I'm not sure yet. But from this moment forward... I'll be keeping a close eye on it. I won't let it out of my sight."
Again, Cedric nods, unable to keep himself from grinning. He forced himself into a mindset that would understand Lyle's condition, if ever he had one. The boy was probably autistic or something, or was a bit of a psycho. Either way, he was cool.
Feeling otherwise fine, Cedric leaned back, head rested against his palms. He, his sister, and Lyle were unaware that Hunters had encroached into the QZ and were ready for a slaughter. The three youths were luckily at the side, unlikely to be under immediate fire. But when it began, chaos overtook them. Lyle jolted out of his seat and hoisted himself over to the other side of the sofa about a minute after the first explosion went off. Cedric pull his sister back as gunfire commenced and tore through the hapless crowds of townspeople.
Screams filled the air amidst the gunfire and Cedric kept his sister's head down while she called for their parents, who unfortunately were shot down by the Hunters who had taken up positions upon the balcony. When Cedric found an interval as the Hunters receded behind cover to reload, he roughly grabbed his sister and nudged her towards the back of the Town Hall. They only narrowly escaped gunfire as Cedric pushed a window open and hoisted his sister over it. Fortunately, the Hunters were by then just preparing to flank the soldiers. Cedric jumped out and shouted at his sister to run.
Meanwhile, Lyle remained behind the chair. He remained frozen, holding the pot up close. "Shh, shh." he muttered, "It's alright. They won't shoot you. I won't let them." In his blind panic, Lyle made for the front door. The Hunters were fortunately nowhere in sight, and he ran with his head down along the sides of the building before scrambling off into the hedges outside the town hall's vicinity. There he remained until the gunshots went off once again. As the Hunters were distracted with their enemies, Lyle saw people running away, and he thought it was best to follow them.
Cedric's sister staggered as they reached the inner streets, falling to her knees in distress. Cedric tried to get her up, but she would only go a few steps. "I.. I saw them go down, Cedric. I saw them go down." she sobbed, taking handfuls of her brother's shirt in grief. A little later, Lyle comes down the street, noticing them. Cedric suddenly remembered. He'd left Fairfax at the town hall earlier, in an effort to protect his sister. He was glad that the boy was safe, but he also hoped he wasn't all to angry that he'd been abandoned, but Lyle seemed not to notice.
"Is she hurt?" he asked, glancing back down the street as the gunfight at the town hall dragged on. Cedric shook his head in reply, and Lyle nods. "Good. Now, quickly, we need to get as far away from the town hall as possible. I imagine they'll come after us once they're finished." Cedric was a little stunned. That was the first time Lyle said so much in one sentence, but he couldn't waste any more time. Bringing his sister up to her feet, they ran along with a few other terrified survivors to the hospital. Hopefully they were safe there. When they arrived, Cedric began to pillage as many supplies as he could, stuffing them in his pockets, in his sister's book bag, and he passed some to Fairfax as well.
"Come on." he tells the boy, who incredibly still has the tomato plant in his hands. "Let's find somewhere safe." Nodding, Lyle follows, assisting Cedric in bringing his sister along to the classrooms, where Cedric finds a bag and places the stuff he needs inside of them. They needed to be well equipped for the situation.
While Cedric comforted his sister, Lyle leaned against a wall and slid down. He wiped a tear from his eye and continued shushing the plant. "We're going to be fine." he said repeatedly to himself and to the tomato plant. He was calm, but the fact that so many people had lost their lives in that short span of time was something he could not withhold from his mind. He wanted to cry, but didn't. He sniffled a few times, felt lightheaded, but that was about it. They were gone from this world. They could not be saved. What mattered was them. They who were living, and yet to find their own deaths. Lyle moved behind a table with the young Smiths, shutting his eyes and letting the fear and shock pass.