They’ve worked hard to get the place in working order, he found the company nice. Especially when he doesn’t have to talk to them. Some of them took out some paper and pens and just wrote in it and looks up at him, it was strange behavior at first but he ignored it and continued on with his days.

“Click Click Click, Click.”

“• • — •” They got excited for him repeating it back.

“Click Click, Click.”

“• — •” are they trying to spell something? They continued until they got to the last one.

“• • — •     • — •     • •     •     — •” They got frustrated with themselves.

“• • — •     • — •     • •     •     — •     — • •” They got excited as if they broke his code. He looked around wondering what was going on.

“• • • •     • •”

“• — —      •     • •     • — •     — • •     — — —” he walked away from them and went about his own business. He came across them again and they were still practicing it. He tossed them his book and went to lock up for the night.

“Whoa! Is this, wait Clicks! This is your- are you sure?” They’ve taken to calling him Clicks since he never gave them a real name to go by not even now he gave them no name.

“• — — •     • — •     • —     — • — •     —     • •     — • — •     • / • — • •     • •     — • —     • / • • / — • •     • •     — • •” He went to his room and relaxed, listening to the small sounds. It felt nice to listen to them, if he could record this he would. He would listen to it so he won’t feel lonely. So that this place doesn’t feel empty when they leave after the place is finished.

He walked out the next morning and looked around, he seen that not everyone was eating. He pulled Dustin aside and asked about it.

“We’re low on food, we’ll have to leave soon. Sorry Clicks,” he looked at him as if he was crazy. Are they a swarm of bugs? Eat everything and leave. Shaking his head he wrote out that he would help them gather supplies, but he has a list that he needs for the lookout tower. It is the last thing that needs to go up. “Alright, so how do we go about this?”

They walked to the office above his room and there he started to plan of what to do and what they would expect. 

He created a gathering team and gave each of them a role to play. He would go out and scout then come back and show them a safe area where they could scavenge for what they need.

“This could work Clicks,” Dustin said as he looked at it more and added a few of his ideas for future runs. “We’ll call them Errand runs.”

“Running Errands?” he asked breaking his silence, he forgot how raspy his voice was and nearly scared himself by how deep it was now. Under use could have also played a part in it.

“You could talk?” Dustin asked surprised.

“Yes, I’d rather not talk much. So might want to keep this to yourself,” he said still trying to get used to his own voice.

“So what do we need?” Dustin asked, he wrote down what he needs and passed it to Dustin. He quickly drew out a plan for his lookout point and an escape route for him to use if he was ever stuck up there. “I like the way you think kid. If this escape route were to work properly we’ll need platforms so that the zip line doesn’t sag when we get to the middle. I think one of my guys did some chainsaw work before this happened so we can clear out a place.”

“I’ve had some practice with power tools,” he continued the sentence in his thoughts as he drew out the plan, ‘but if we want to keep this place we’ll need generators underground. So we’ll have to dig and fence it off.’

“Yeah that would work, Having power would be a game changer, batteries are awesome but sometimes we don’t want fire burnt beans.” Dustin laughed and from there they planned their next move for the warehouse.

They sent a year with each other and luckily Clicks found a voice recorder sooner rather than later, he started hoarding the AAA batteries and spent a few days with the group listening to them talk about random things from their old lives. He went to each person and recorded them talking for a day and soon had a large collection of SD cards in his little red box. He noticed that some of them were celebrating birthdays and he would join in for a few moments and went off to do some work.

It wasn’t until the harsh winter was over that they started asking him about his own birthday. He only shook his head and ran away from them quickly when they brought it up and soon just ran away or disappeared when they called out to him.

“Clicks!” He was walking towards the entrance and quickly turned around but was grabbed, “Hold on, it’s important. What do we do about scratches?”

He looked back in alarm and looked for someone that could be injured and went to them and looked their wound over. He brought them to his room and started bandaging them up, it was only a scrape from landing on the road wrong. He sent them out of his room after giving them a piece of candy.

He went up to Dustin’s office and started asking about medical knowledge. From there they started a whole new system that would give everyone basic knowledge on how to heal their cuts and scrapes.

One day Clicks wanted to go out for a quick run before the bell sounded. One of them got the bell to work and put it on as clock work. He ran the streets to get a scope of the town and his friends. He stopped when he noticed a light flickering in one of the windows. He made his way towards the strange house and seen that people were in the house. He looked at the gathered friends and seen that their only focus was only the house.

He looked around and seen one of the houses open and went in, he searched for something that could make noise and found shoes that lit up and a small back of bells. He put what he could on the shoes and his pants and walked out, he tried his hardest to remember what song would work but just figured that something very simple was in order.

‘~Twinkle twinkle little star,~’ He shook his feet and tried his best to remember the dance moves he always did. It worked his friends turned to him and started walking to him. He moved away and started running towards the tree line, his friends followed him and he lead them around until they were scattered in the forest and he was back in town. He took the bells off and went to the house to see the group that was trapped in the house take care of the stragglers.

He walked up to them and waved a little weary of their choice of weapons.

“Hey, thanks. We’re here because we need a place to stay,” he looked the group over and wondered if Dustin would be alright with him bring home strays. He’s also not sure if they would like a bunch of black strays. “I’m a Doctor, if you have anyone injured and have the right equipment I can patch them up.”

He nodded and thought some more, then concluded that Dustin would just have to deal with his new hobby of picking up strays. He motioned for them to follow him and they went to the warehouse. The group introduced themselves to the rest and he brought the Doctor to Dustin.

Knocking on the door they entered and he sat down on a desk and watched the two talking about the arrangement of their stay. “Clicks do you have any objections?”

“Nah, they are decent fighters. Doc, just give us a list of what you need and we’ll set up an office for you here. We’ll also need you to teach some of your skills to our group before you leave.”

“You could talk?” Doc said shocked, “Ah, if you won’t mind we would like to stay, I’m Dr. Dan Murphy.”

“It would help us to have a certified doctor handy,” Dustin was saying it as if he was in charge of the whole group.

“If your group has no problems with us as well.”

“I have no objections, if you want to keep him then by all means. I’ll just bring the strays in,” he got off the desk, “Oh, Doc. Best keep my secret.”

He walked down the stairs to see how his strays fair with the new strays he brought in and it seems like there was some tension among them.

“• — —     • • • •     • —     — / • • • •     • —     • — — •     • — — •     •     — •     •     — • •”

“They’re here to steal our rations, Clicks!”

“• — • •     •     • —     • • • —     •” he pointed to the entrance staring straight at the trouble maker.

“What? Are you kicking us out?” he nodded and took out a knife in case they decide to make a mess. They looked down and then sat in their spot, pinching the bridge of his nose he put the knife away and motioned for his new strays to follow him. He brought them to his room and sat them down, it looked like Dr. Murphy had a family. A lovely woman who kept two children beside her and one teenager staring at him as if he would gut them right then and there. He took out his paper and wrote on it “Dr. Murphy wants to stay, would that be ok with you?”

“If it’s what he wants-”

“Mom! You can’t be serious.”

“We agreed to stay together, if this is what he wants then we can make it work.” Clicks shook a finger nodding and gave her a thumbs up.

“Dustin will talk with everyone and sort it out. I’ll stand beside you, I’d rather have people I trust and I trust you.”

“Thank you.”

“Tsk, like we’ll trust your word.”

“I like him, protects his family no matter what.” Clicks got up and took out his rations and gave them to them and left.