I stand in the shadows swathing the house of my friend and comrade. I say house and not home because home is the place where we all come together and this is not it. Still, it's his place, and no damn attacker is going to get inside.

I move silently through the house. The darkness hides me; just another shadow moving from darkness to darkness. I make my way to the great bay window that is simultaneously one of the house's best features and its single defensive weakness.

I sink down onto the soft cushion padding the wide sill, and my hand falls naturally to the small cubby under the seat. I smile when my fingers brush the butt of a gun. I pull it out. It's fully loaded, which is good because I wasn't planning anything like this when I left my house, and I didn't bring my gun. Careless of me, I know. A little more searching gets me two extra clips, also filled.

The night passes slowly when all you can do is wait. And I'm alone. I don't even have anyone here to slap me if I start to fall asleep. Still, I've done harder things on less sleep. This is just tedious.

Finally, movement. A car pulls up the road that runs past this little house to the command center up on the little bluff. The same command center Don's been at all night, leaving his car in the garage. The car pulls into the driveway, and all I can think is 'show time'.

The car stopped about fifty feet from the house. I thumbed the safety off of my gun. The drivers' door opened, slowly enough to be quiet, but not like they were expecting anyone to see them. I edged the gun through the broken glass from a thrown baseball that Don had never gotten around to fixing. It came in handy now; I didn't have to break the window to shoot.

The first bullet clipped the edge of the door, and the person hid behind it. He didn't shoot back, and I wondered why, but it didn't matter. If they were anyone who was supposed to be here, they would have identified by now. The beginning of what would eventually be the sunrise gave me enough light to see clearly. Every time the person started to move from behind the door, either back towards the car or to come out, I sent another bullet their way. Seeing as how they weren't shooting back at me, I was content to keep them contained behind the door.

I could see two more people moving towards the car, just tickling the edge of my peripheral vision, but it was ok. I knew them, knew the way they moved, what they were. They grabbed the man still covering behind the door, and one turned with a jovial grin and waved me out. I smiled back as I set the safety on the gun and tucked it into the back of my pants, just in case. Good old Tommy. He could be serious when it was necessary, but he was such an easygoing guy that things somehow just seemed more cheerful when he was around.

I exited the house quickly and followed Tommy along the road leading out into the desert, wondering where Dave had disappeared to with our prisoner, but I didn't ask. It didn't really matter. Tommy jumped into a small, sand-colored school bus. I followed, stepping up onto the first stair so I could see in.

"Where you boys goin'?" Don grinned at me.

"Wanna come?" he asked instead of answering. I shrug.

"Sure, why not?" I move into the bus to sit down with the guys as the driver pulls out across the sands….