LEOPOLD HAD TRANSITIONED the blown-out bottom section of his home as a kind of workshop to deconstruct the clickers. His workspace wasn’t large or extravagant, but it would do. One of the walls in the house was crumbling due to the damage it had taken when the clickers came into his own city. It was a reminder of what had happened, of what he had not been able to stop when the people of his city opened their own gates unprepared.

It was late as Jerrick rolled in the last clicker with the rest of the men who were helping. He stayed behind, maneuvering the clicker just outside the blown-out far wall that opened up to the outside city like a second door.

“That’s the final one.” Jerrick sighed. He was drenched in sweat, his short dark hair matted to his head. “What are you going to do with all of them?”

“Well, I’m going to teach you how to dismantle their weapons and construct blasters from them. Then I’m going to figure out how to replicate Rhun’s shields and armor,” Leopold said as if this were the most obvious answer.

“Oh, of course.” Jerrick shook his head as he entered the house. He sidled up next to Leopold. “Well, if we’re going to work through the night, some light might be nice.”

Leopold looked up from his work on a clicker in the center of the open room. It had been his family room once when he had lived there with his son. To make room for his work now, he had cleared everything else besides a large worktable, his tools, and a painting.

“Light, right.” Leopold ran through a box of mismatched goods to produce a pair of candles and a small lantern. “That’s why I was squinting.”

Leopold lit the candles and his lantern with a small box of matches. He placed them on the long wooden worktable.

Need to stay sane for a little longer; there’s so much to do. Right, Jack? Leopold said to himself as he looked at the painting in the corner of the room. We’re going to set things straight, my son. I promise you I’m going to set things straight.

“Is that someone you knew?” Jerrick asked as he noticed Leopold looking at the picture of the boy. “Your son?”

Leopold nodded as memories came to mind of his little boy. Memories of the way he would asked to be picked up, not so much to be held but so he could get a better vantage point of what there was to see in his incredible new world. Of how he wanted Leopold to lie down next to him when he slept and how he loved to eat his pickles.

The old man allowed his eyes to see once again the boy in the painting. He was slender with brown hair and dark eyes. A playful grin was placed on his face as if he held the special smile just for the painting. Leopold knew better. He was always smiling.

“It is.” Leopold smiled at the painting as if his son could see him smiling back from somewhere beyond. “Jack was killed when the clickers broke down the gates. He evaporated in my very arms. My boy, my baby boy, what did they do to my baby boy?”

Leopold shook away the thought as the first wave of tears hit his eyes. He refused to break down. Things needed to be done.

“I’m sorry,” Jerrick said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

“Me too, but there’s nothing we can do about that.” Leopold motioned to Jerrick to watch him as he worked. “What we can do is save the rest of the people in this god forsaken experiment. “Now watch closely. I’m going to show you how to remove the weapons that come out on either side of the clickers.”

Leopold slowly demonstrated for Jerrick how the clickers’ weapons that opened from slots on either side of their cubed bodies could be removed with the power supply intact. He showed him how the crude trigger could be placed on the bottom of the new blaster and how to watch for any sparks or the smell of burning, both indicators that the blue power supply was not stable.

Jerrick was a quick learner, much faster than Leopold could hope. It was soon clear the reason Leopold felt drawn to the young man. He had a heart for technology and he would have been the same age as Jack if his son were still living.

“You sure you were one of those mystical educators in your city and not a scientist or technician?” Leopold asked as he watched Jerrick remove one of the weapons from a clicker by himself. “You learn quickly.”

“It’s physical educator.” Jerrick grinned, holding the first blaster he had removed by himself from a downed clicker. “My father worked in construction in our city. He taught me things like welding and electronics when I was small.”

“Very good. Well, one down and about another forty to go.” Leopold waved at the mound of black cubes stocked outside of his house. “Have fun.”