Jimmy sat on the pathway directly adjacent to the entrance of the home cavern.

Much like an ancient Greek statue, he had his hand curled below his chin, thinking.

The beauties of the grasslands looked like a blur to him, as he didn't bother to pay attention to it.

His train of thoughts had three wagons. One wagon was dedicated to the aliens, the bunker, and the potential bomb that might blow them off of the mountainside.

The second wagon, dotted with an equal amount of malice as the prior, was focused on the enemy, and his recent plan regarding the enemy. He was hoping that it would work.

The third wagon was philosophical, hence the unintentional stance.

'What will I do after the war is over?' He thought, 'Unless I willingly choose to put myself in danger by going to the underworld, life will be very boring. What am I supposed to do for fifty-sixty years? Fuck everyday, and make a hundred kids?'

Jimmy then chuckled, 'What an odd thing to complain about. The unwashed asses back in my University would kill to have four girlfriends.'

Having a midlife crisis at the beginning of one's adult life was unheard of, and yet it happened. The burden an intelligent mind would carry in a world like this, was unspoken. Boredom, it was hard to battle.

Anyway, minutes later, he saw a couple of QTs flying over. His eyes could barely comprehend their shape, as they flew quite fast, but he wasn't nervous, he didn't have to hold his breath, because he knew that an 'air strike' had a zero-percent chance of failing.

Everything else after the air strike was up for contemplation.

"How did it go?" He asked, after he heard the QT rider walking towards him, and then he turned around. "How many deaths, Anna?"

"Plenty," She sighed, and sat down near him, looking over to the grasslands, "At least fifty deaths, I think, but it doesn't matter."

"Oh?" He knitted his eyebrows together.

"Those bitch asses were smart enough to run away," She smiled, "They're heading towards the forest… so, your idea worked."

"Nice!" He sighed in relief, "I was almost sure it was going to fail, but I guess it's horrifying to be hit by a flying, severed head."

"It is," She nodded, "It didn't even take a minute for them to dip."

"Good," He smiled.

…

Over the following week, the pressure of time that pushed Jimmy towards insanity as he tried to handle the first wave of enemies, dissipated.

The flow of time itself was no longer a threat to him.

The bunker was gone, yes, and so was the technology that was stashed within the bunker. But he didn't need it to end the war.

Sure he only had a syringe, a pair of boots, and a bunch of chargeless plasma guns to remember the bunker by, which he found quite infuriating, really, but at a moment of necessity, he figured out a tactic that worked.

His strategy, which was to max out psychological warfare, or horror, at this point, by attacking the enemy with rocks and severed heads of men and women, was quite effective.

Every brigade, regardless of their size, was scared straight. The tens of deaths of their comrades, paired with the horrifying, decaying, severed heads, was enough to force them to retreat. Flee.

Jimmy ended the war in one week, and he was treasured for it. The tribe saw him as a Chief foremost, and a hero too.

They could continue their way of life, and judging from the intel that the QT riders provided over the week, neither of the enemies returned to the grasslands. Be it those who fled back in the forest, tail of the mountain, or the edge, neither of them had the courage to step foot in the grasslands.

Whatever convinced them that attacking the grasslands was a good idea, was not enough to get them back there. Fear, if maxed out, was a good deterrent even for stupid cavemen.

Whenever a tribe member praised him, Jimmy said, "We killed too many men and women to count, and we must live with that burden for the rest of our lives. Our enemies were stupid, they attacked us first, but thankfully, they backed away, and we didn't have to kill the rest of them. Trust me when I say that killing fifteen hundred is a little bit better than killing three thousand. If there were no humans left in the west hills, who the fuck knows what other monster slips into our lands?"

No one expected such wise words from a young man, but they were not surprised. Jimmy has proven himself time and time again that he was a prodigy, a mind beyond his time, and the tribe was aware of it, either consciously, or subconsciously.

They learned to love him even more as he spent the next couple of weeks healing people for good, getting rid of their wounds, brain atrophies, and even parasitic worms, the latter of which he achieved by increasing the white blood count within their immune system.

When he introduced them to meat preservation, with the use of salt, they loved him even more.

The people were healthy, well-fed, and didn't have to hunt as much now as winter creeped around the corner.

Other than that, dino jerky turned out to be a delicacy! It required a lot more chewing than people were used to, but after he fixed some of their toothaches by simply regenerating their decaying teeth, everyone in the tribe was able to enjoy the delicacies, and a sweet life overall.

The people were happy, healthy, and well-fed. He caught up with a lot of tasks that he had put aside when he didn't have time.

The QT riders did not report any dangers over the past three weeks. The enemy did not dare to attack them for the second time, and even if they did, he was sure that airstrikes would destroy them far before they got to his tribe. The war was over, and peace was restored across the grasslands.

Now, after all this time, all there was left to do was check on Jones, his 'twin brother' in the underworld, and check on his progress.

He wanted to go there earlier, to make sure that the shapeshifters weren't wiped out, but he prioritized his tribe, and their general well being. Since a bomb didn't go off, a bomb left behind by the aliens, he was glad that he did prioritize his tribe.

However, he was hoping that the shapeshifters weren't wiped out already. It would be a sad day if they were.