Brothers and Trials

Surviving the Odds

It had been two months since they had started living in the HQ, and much to Kowalski's surprise, they were doing just fine. Every Monday through Friday, the boys would go down to the market place and work for Granny Acorn while she taught them the basics that they'd be learning in school. On Saturdays, they all went to the Martial Arts Dojo that was run by an old military soldier named Buck Rockgut.

The three oldest had been enrolled in his classes before Johnson and Manfredi had died, and were advancing quickly through the ranks. After finding out what had happened, Buck tracked the four boys down to the market during one of their work hours and gave them a deal. They keep going to learn at his Dojo for self-defense lessons, and in return, they help him with teaching the younger classes. Skipper took on the deal so long as he got Private into a class as well. Buck had agreed to that with no trouble, much to the surprise of Kowalski.

On Sundays, the boys went with Granny Acorn to the nearby church that their parents had brought them too as children. After they were done with that, they would go and do their own things in the HQ.

Kowalski would work with the chemistry set that they had found in one of the rooms of the HQ. Rico was exploring the different rooms of the HQ, checking out where all the tunnels went to and what they would mean to the four boys. Skipper would practice his stealth on his brothers, mainly to watch them and see that they were being safe. He was surprised when he found Private was practicing his martial arts one time and even more so when he found the boy was trying to make a slingshot another time. This was their simple existence, and they didn't mind it at all, or at least, if they did, they didn't bother each other about it. They were hard workers, they were survivors, and they were brothers, but they were on their own. Even Kowalski had to admit that they were beating the odds for their age. They were the Andrews platoon after all.