The Little Scout

Chapter Seven

Tessa's POV

Tessa sat on the mad bus beside a, hopefully, sleeping man. He wasn't breathing properly so Tessa started to doubt his liveliness. "Hey, Tessa, how've you been?" Tom asked her.
"I've been fine, Mr Mason. You?"
"I've been better, but everyone has, haven't they?"
"I guess. Maybe the homeless would be glad to have this." She tried to look on the Brightside. Anything that would've distracted her.
"I bet they would. You coping okay?"
"With what?"
"Tessa, Ben's told me everything he knows about you. You don't have a family."
"I do, the 2nd Mass is my family."
"A real family, I mean."
"No, but your family has been like another one. Your boys are very special, Mr Mason."
"I know."
"I didn't know you or your boys before but you've been so welcoming and nice...none's been like that to me in a long time."
"So where are you from?"
"Near here."
"You have a strange accent, if you don't mind me saying."
"No, it's fine. My mother was British, I was born there."
"Oh, but brought up in America. Where abouts in England?"
"London." She told him. He nodded.
"You're a nice girl, I like you." Tessa laughed.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"Dr. Glass! Get everyone out now! Over the bridge!" Weaver shouted.
"I'm not abandoning the sick!" She shouted back.
"Damn it!" Weaver shouted.
"Tessa, take Matt, Lourdes go with them." Glass barked.
"What about you?" Lourdes asked.
"I'm getting this bus over the bridge. Go! Now!" Tessa grabbed Matt and ran out of the bus. Lourdes followed them over the bridge. Pounding feet echoed.
"It's a Mech!" Matt whispered furiously.
"I know, go on!" Tessa pushed them forward and they ran to safety. She reached for her gun. The bus just got over the bridge before it came after them properly.
"Dad!" Ben shouted. Tessa kept him back as Tom tried to jump over the bridge but it crashed into the water, Tom with it. "No, no!"
"Ben." He hugged her.
"Not again." He muttered.
"Tom!" Dr. Glass shouted as he was dragged out of the water.
"Dad!" The three Mason boys shouted as they ran to hug their father.

The 2nd Mass set up camp not too far from the bridge. It was somewhere quiet; somewhere no alien species could find them. Tessa helped Maggie to set up tents and then helped Lourdes with fixing up their own tent. "Jimmy!" Tessa shouted to the boy at the mouth of their tent. "Come help us!"
"What's the matter, can't do the heavy lifting?" He joked.
"Can do it better than you!" Lourdes shot back.
"You probably could." He reasoned. Jimmy helped Tessa to put the cots back in and then helped her put the sheets back on them. "Hey, who's this?" He asked, picking up a photo frame. It was smashed but you could still see the image inside; one of a little girl and an older woman with no hair.
"That's me and my Mom." She told him.
"Nice, you look...young there."
"I was twelve."
"You look older than that, but not your age now."
"What?"
"Doesn't matter, is this you're Dad?" He asked, picking up another one. Again the frame was smashed and the glass missing but the image just stuck inside.
"No, that's my brother."
"Oh, he looks..."
"They were practically identical." She smiled to herself. "They liked it that way, my brother was offered different ways to make him look totally different but he didn't want that."
"How old was he?"
"When he died?" Tessa choked back tears. "It was a month before this, he was nineteen." Jimmy nodded.
"How did you tell the difference between them?"
"Jack had brown eyes, my Dad had...green eyes. Like mine but darker."
"Your Mom had brown eyes?" Tessa nodded.
"She was really pretty. My Dad barely kept her. He used to tell me stories of when they were younger and that stupid William Red kept trying to steal her."
"But he didn't." Jimmy told her.
"No, but he tried. My Dad would tell me all the fights he got into with him, he always won." Tessa laughed.
"I can see where you got it from."
"My fighting skills?" Tessa asked. Jimmy hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else but instead just nodded. "I don't think I'm as good as he was."
"Did he used to teach you?"
"No, Jack did though."
"He taught you well."
"Not all that well, actually, he used to call me the Ugly Duckling I was so weak."
"Your not weak, Tessa."
"I was back then; I used to be terrified to hit someone. And then my Mom died and I just felt so...angry all of the time." Tessa choked back on her tears. Her head leant on Jimmy's shoulder.
"It's okay, Tessa...we've all lost people, we all know how you've felt." Tessa nodded. "I lost my parents too, and my little sister."
"What was she called?"
"Bethany, she was only nine."
"How'd she..."
"Mech shot her in the back."
"I'm sorry, Jimmy, I didn't know."
"It's okay, I've never told anyone." He stared at her.
"I won't tell anyone, don't worry." She promised. He smiled.
"I'm on Patrol tonight, I think Ben's down at the Mad Bus."
"Um, Thanks Jimmy." Tessa smiled.