That next morning came far too early.

There is never enough sleep after stress and adreneline shocks like the day before. We had done what needed to be done but frankly everyone, Holder included, were walking zombies. Sonya was the only one who seemed to be full of fire and brimstone and to tell you the truth she was starting to like the biblical fire a bit to much for my taste.

It was truly strange to lead a man around on a leash and then sit and have a morning coffee with him. But that’s what I did, I had to make sure he was fully out of his previous world and stuck deep into ours. I decided that Shock and Awe was the way to go; overwhelming exposure to technical and engineering might. I’d show him everything and if he did eventually run to tell stories they’d all call him delusional.

I started with throwing him on the shitter in the camper. I pulled him through the camper so fast he didn’t get a chance to get a good look at it, then I put him in the small toilet room and told him to shit there. He manage to shit on command which very much impressed me, there must have been quite a load built up inside of that poor guy. Pushing the button that flushed the toilet actually made him take a stumbling step backwards, his shit disappeared and the room was clean again.

The shower was even more fun, I made the water decently hot and told him to strip and get in; you woulda thought the Easter Bunny had just given him a blow job when you saw the look of delight on his face. I let him enjoy his first shower in peace and smoked a cigarette while I reflected on how I had zero understanding of his or Amos’s views on reality, I was the outsider here and I needed their help.

So we ended up sitting in chairs at the camp fire having a coffee while we watched Matilda make us breakfast and Michelle and Amos took care of the morning chores.

We drank that coffee together while I tried to organize my thoughts. I needed to break this young man down and pull him away from his old world and then build him up again in ours. It was either that or put a bullet in his head while he slept. Frankly, the bullet option didn’t really appeal to me but it would have been a hell of a lot easier.

Shock and Awe combined with plenty of hard work seemed to be my only option; we had to push him until everything from before seemed like a distant memory to him and then bring him into his new manhood. This was really not something I had asked for or was looking forward to. Truth be told it was just supposed to be me with a few dogs and horses breaking in our new Wyoming home on this day of my life.

Stolen novel; please report.

Breakfast came and it was a feast, still no eggs but we had everything else Matilda could think of, truly a delight. I made Holder sit on the ground with the dogs while he ate, the rest of us luxuriated at the table or in chairs listening to Amos tell his story as the recital of the day. Amos as speaker had THE egg with his breakfast and he made sure we all got to watch him eat every yolky bite. Fucking teenagers.

Amos told it well that day, it simply sounded like he was recounting everything that had happened to him so far, he didn’t include any fantastical side stories either. Holder was very absorbed in the story and fascinated by some of the little details Amos threw in. Sonya almost blew it but a sharp elbow from Matilda forced her to keep her silence; Sonya was turning into a problem. It might be time to turn her out of the camper and into the reality the rest of us faced; I really wasn’t looking forward to hearing that constant whine.

I had slowly begun using the Miller’s eating protocols and everyone waited until I said, “That was a delightful breakfast Matilda”, before the after breakfast discussion began in earnest. Michelle surprised me by telling Holder to getup and clear the plates, verbally guiding him through collecting and cleaning the plates and then the cooking utensils. Matilda simply had another cup of her tea and smiled while she worked on another of her projects, Esther mimicked her. Sonya smoldered on in her own world of personal misery.

Amos surprised me by pulling out the drone for me and carefully setting the base station up. We went through the pre-flight checks together and I quizzed him as we went, he knew more of the answers then I expected. Young folk learn fast.

He sat close to me and watched my every move as I ran a manual scouting mission around the perimeter, he even saw a few things that I missed. I showed him how I recorded each and every run and while he still couldn’t read my logs he understood the idea. I called the drone home and supervised him as he swapped out the batteries and then we launched one of my preplanned survey flights, we sat and supervised the flight together.

Michelle was handling Holder for me; she had him hand washing all the clothes we had taken off his old compatriats. It was pretty miserable stuff and in pretty bad shape but I was sure Matilda would make something out of it for him. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t new to this meaning that at least the women in his family at least tried during his upbringing. Once he had it all decently cleaned and hung to dry I took back over again.

I gave him my woodsmans axe and Amos brought a hatchet as we went out to harvest saplings for fence posts, roof poles and anything else we’d need them for. I was simply going to stand guard and give orders, Brin was going to help me.

For once the morning went as planned.