Thomas awoke to a new and glorious day. He felt inspired by the stargazing that they had done the previous night, and he now had the beginnings of a plan formed in his mind regarding his place in this new world. Funnily enough, Sara’s parting remarks of “Ill omens in the winds” had helped galvanize his resolve. If the spooky swamp witch, the ruler of a powerful army of mutant gators was making ominous remarks, perhaps some preparation for the future was in order.

So he had made a list, a very abstract one that just outlined the situation and could be built off of, and as he started prepping the bar to begin cooking a grand breakfast, the first since his lapse into depression, he added his first addition to the list.

“Where did you get these?” he asked the three Rakus standing before him, two holding a large crate with five beach ball sized eggs within.

Thomas was led to a large building on the outskirts of the growing settlement and shown the answer. A massive structure compared to the people that had built it, thick heavy beams of wood and double layers of chain link fencing, salvaged and patched with metal chains or plates. A hissing, screeching sound could be heard from within preceding the waddling form of a Drunga as it entered the fenced in section next to the building and began pecking at a bowl of scraps.

“We catch them young, raise them and get eggs. Much easier and safer than trying to steal from nests” the Rakus leading him said, gesturing to the building as Thomas just stood there nodding along, reliving his first few experiences with the mutant geese.

The Rakus took that as approval to continue his explanation, “We caught a big mama asleep on a nest, brought her and nest here to the coop and let her keep the smaller eggs.” he said with a grin, “figured small eggs make small Drugna. After awhile of giving food, she not attack as much and let us take bigger eggs”

Thomas shook his head and reassessed his friends people, “When did you start doing this?” he asked.

The Rakus thought about it, “about one moon ago, first set of babies hatch not long after we move her here.” before leading Thomas around to a slightly smaller enclosure attached to the side where several smaller, fluffier versions of the monstrous goose were pecking at the ground around a few Rakus in thick looking clothing were spreading a mix of vegetable and meat scraps.

“Have your people done this before, taming the animals like this I mean?” Thomas asked as he studied the scene before him, impressed at how quickly they appeared to adapt to their new situation living above ground. He really needed to sit down with Delvik and learn more about his people and added another line to the list of things to do.

The Rakus just shook his head side to side, “Not in our tribe, not much space in the burrow for this, but up here” he said gesturing to the open area that was steadily being expanded with each ruined building being dismantled, “up here we can do new things. Lab Rats give us this idea from their research, say to try ‘animal husbandry’ to make more food”

“Lab Rats?” Thomas asked before he was led by a laughing Rakus back towards the bunker

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Their names were Tevik, Langor and Igtel, and they had lab coats that they had made themselves from what appeared to have once been bed sheets. They had apparently been inspired by the bunker, the revelations of the past and apparently Thomas himself, and had chosen to become their tribes research and development team. The three of them had taken over an unused meeting room, moved in some workstations and monitors and had figured out how to get network access to the devices. Thomas suspected Alice may have provided some assistance, as she appeared on one of the wall mounted monitors shortly after Thomas arrived at the Lab Rats base of operation. There was even a carved and painted piece of wood over the door that read “Research and Development”.

Thomas looked around the room as the three hastily set aside whatever they had been working on to rush over to Thomas. The room was divided into three sections, each with a workstation and multiple dry erase boards covered in what appeared to be the Rakus written language with the odd English words scattered about. All three looked young as far as he could tell, they were all smaller than Delvik, and had no obvious signs of age that he had seen on some of the older ones he knew like Indral and his friends.

As they gathered before him, Thomas focused his attention on them and nearly froze at the looks of apprehension and their fear filled body language. It took him a moment to process what he was looking at and felt sick, they were afraid of him, and then it hit him. They had done all this without him knowing, probably intentionally and were likely afraid that he was here to shut them down.

Taking a knee to bring him down to their level, Thomas smiled his friendliest smile, “You guys look awesome, tell me about what you've been doing?”

It took some time, but he eventually got the story out of them. Once they got over the fear of him shutting down their “Lab”, they were eager and excited to explain what they had been working on.

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Tevik was researching and studying construction methods, not just from Thomas’s time, but all the way back to the ancient times using books and old media recovered from the on base school. He was the one responsible for teaching the construction crews both how to take down and put together a building.

Consequently, he also had discovered a love for western movies and as such, was reflected in the building techniques he had passed on to the construction crews. He could even defend his decision by pointing out that they don't have a lot of fancy, processed materials to build with, just logs and scraps of buildings that they break down.

Igtel was their resident specialist on the natural world. He was taken with agriculture, animal husbandry and horticulture. He was fueled by the desire for delicious food and drink and had sought out every resource he could get his paws on. Apparently in his youth he had found an old cookbook with pictures and now, with the resources of the bunker and a tribe now living on the surface, was pursuing the dream of making and eating every single recipe. He happily informed Thomas that he was teaching the scouts the types of plants they need to be looking out for so they can gather seeds for the spring planting and was already working with the gathers of the tribe to begin laying out fields and gardens, some of which were already had plants beginning to grow.

Langor had gone a different direction in her research compared to the other two. She was also closest to Thomas regarding chosen profession, a defense contractor. Langor loved weapons, from blades and spears to bows of all kinds. She had been digging deep into the base's databases and technical manuals on weapons systems, and was practically begging Thomas to let her assist him when he built another iron Rakus suit by the end. She was also well aware of their technical limitations and proudly showed him a prototype crossbow she had been working on.

Overall Thomas was impressed by them and let them know that. It greatly eased his mind that there were others who were so driven for knowledge, regardless of reason, to the point that they would form a research group. It eased his mind, knowing that should anything happen to him, that there were others already there to keep the torch of knowledge burning.

Thomas offered advice to each, and of course gave the group his official stamp of approval. He also asked that they keep him in the loop on their progress, partly to be able to help if they hit a wall and partly to be in the know in case they started working on something actually dangerous. He also told Alice to provide them whatever help she could, and to meet with him later to discuss setting up a school for the younger Rakus.

Alice smiled on her monitor and cheerfully informed him that a school was already setup and had been for weeks now.

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Thomas found himself again playing catch up to the rest of the world and the people around him. It was humbling to discover that he wasn't a central focus that everything else around the base revolved. It was also rather relieving, like he had been trying to hold up a great weight and several other sets of hands were suddenly there to help to ease the burden.

He also found himself down in the third sub-basement of the bunker in a hallway filled with colorful drawings on the walls, even the cleaning bots hadn't been spared and were painted with the bright designs that only children and madmen could come up with.

Delvik had joined Thomas after spending the morning tracking him down, and was quickly filled in on what Thomas had found. Some of it was news to Delvik, he had known about the new fields and attempts at domesticating some of the mutated fauna, but the Lab Rats and the school were new.

Alice, chipper of voice and all smiles, wearing a colorful dress in her digital form proudly showed off the three rooms that had been setup for the younger Rakus. She had roughly divided them into three age groups and had built a teaching syllabus that encouraged the groups to work together to teach themselves using material she could provide. She did admit that without more instructors, what she could do was limited, especially with her not being able to leave the confines of the bunker proper, and immediately followed that with an obvious hint at having Thomas construct her a physical body that could be used to leave the bunker.

Both Delvik and Thomas discussed her lessons, which she admitted were rather basic. Colors and painting, physical fitness, basic math and language, but she had plans to expand the lessons in the future with a focus on teaching the children to seek knowledge and skills.

Thomas again was impressed at the initiative taken. He didn't miss her subtle request for a physical body, nor did he immediately dismiss it outright, but he would have to do some planning, and told her as much. He also agreed that there needed to be more teachers and a quick discussion between Alice and Delvik had the beginnings of a plan to bring in older Rakus to pass down their knowledge and possibly even find a few to become full time teachers with Alice assisting.

It was barely noon, and while his list no longer looked anything like it had when he first drafted it, he was satisfied in the way it was looking. Then his stomach growled loudly, and he realized that he had been so caught up in these meetings, he had skipped breakfast.

With thoughts of food, Thomas and Delvik began walking towards the stairs to take them back to the upper levels, the alarm began blaring, wiping all thoughts of food from their minds as they raced for the command center to find out what was happening

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In the room with the older children, the digital display that Alice was inhabiting currently flickered, her colorful dress dissolving into a stark military uniform as the older children formed up in neat rows before her.

“Two gold stars to the team that can accurately report the cause of this alarm while remaining unseen. Remain safe and uninvolved children.” she said as the older children began breaking out their paint kits and dark clothing.