My feet pound the earth below me; I'm kicking the soil into the air with the toe of my shoes, not intentionally. My arms are aching; I don't remember her being so heavy, I don't know how long I've been running; just that it's been ages. My feet hurt. My body is tingling with pain but it can't, in any way, amount to the pain the load in my arms is facing. The wound won't stop bleeding, the wound in her shoulder, it soaks my clothing and is staining my arms. This is my fault. He told me to keep her safe. I turned away, just for a second; just to take a quick pee in the bushes. Then she screamed.

Her scream is currently echoing through my head. It's bouncing off the trees around us. The scene is replaying in my head. The monster on top of her, attempting to knock her out so it could drag her away. I remember what I did. How I just picked up the branch beside me and attacked it. The monster's screech is piercing my eardrums.

I'm out of breath. I can't stop. I need to find her shelter, somewhere safe and clean; I need to find people to help her. I need people who can save her. The chances of my casually stumbling across people like that are extremely slim, if I'm truthful.

I can hardly see, it's dark but I can't remember it getting dark, I'm running into things now. It's just tree after tree, I think I'm lost. I look at her for a second. She's unconscious, I can just see her chest rising so she's still breathing, and I'm worried about the wound in her shoulder. She's limp in my arms, she's lost so much blood, I need to find someone.

I see something in the distance, a little light through the trees. I speed up a little. I'm closer to the light. I can hear people talking. I hear a woman laugh. I accidently step on a twig and it crumbles under my shoe. "Hey! Who's there?!" One of the people with the torch call. "Are you human?"

I stay behind the tree. "Yes!" I call back. "You have to help me! Please!"

"Where are you?" This time the voice is manlier. "Come out where we can see you! Are you armed?"

"No." I cautiously step forward toward the torch light. "It's my sister."

"What happened?" The man asks. There are three of them. A man, a boy my age, and a woman. The man looks old enough to be my Dad; he has salt and pepper hair and is quite tall. The woman is average height and blonde and looks a lot older than me. The boy looks my age, he is quite small but lanky, he looks a little like the man.

"There isn't time! She's dying!" I shout at them.

"Dad, c'mon, we have to get them back to camp! Anne can help them." The boy tells them.

"Ben. We aren't letting them back to camp without knowing who they are, they could be spies." The woman shouts at him.

"I don't have those spikes and neither does she. I'll explain everything, please, just help her."

The man nods to the boy and the boy take her from me. "C'mon." He tells me. He takes a torch out of his belt and hands it to me. I follow him to the trucks.

It's been a while since I've been in a car. I sit with the windows down in the back with my sister on my knee. The boy sits beside me and helps me to put pressure on the wound. "What's her name?" He asks.

"Alex." I tell him and smile. I chose her name. My parents were unsure about what to all her and so allowed me to name her.

"And yours?"

"Lauren." I tell him and apply more pressure to her shoulder.

"What happened, Lauren? What happened to Alex?"

"One of those things attacked her, I turned away for a second and it just came out of nowhere."

"How did you get it off her? The Skitter."

"I hit it over the head..."

The boy smiled at me.

"Ben. We're here." The man up front tells him. 'Ben' nods and helps me get Alex out of the back seat.

We carry her through the littered 'camp'. Tents and sleeping bags and fires and cars are strewn all over in no particular order. Ben leads us to a grey truck. "Anne!" Ben shouts as he hurries up the stairs.

"What happened?!" The woman asks us as we lay Alex onto the make-shift bed.

"She got attack by a Skitter." Ben replies. "Her name's Alex."

"I need more than that! Blood group, any allergies to medication? The wound is pretty deep and she's lost a lot of blood."

"Will she be okay?" I blurt out.

Anne bites her lip and grabs a medicine rack full of steel tools. "We'll see."

"Her blood group is O-Positive and she isn't allergic to anything but Gluten." I tell her.

Anne looks up and nods. "Ben take her outside, this isn't going to be pretty."

Ben nods, there's so much nodding here, it's like being back at one of my Dad's poker games, and drags me outside. He sits me on one of the chairs outside and then slouches in the white plastic chair beside me. "So Lauren, have you and your sister got a last name?"

"Bloomfield." I tell him. "Do you think she's going to be okay?"

"Anne has dealt with patients with conditions worse than Alex's...I'm sure she'll be alright." Ben assures me. "Where are your parents Lauren?"

I look down. "My Mum is dead and I have no idea what happened to my Dad." I lean back and sigh. "I swear to god if she dies..."

"She'll be okay, calm down." Ben nudges me a little.

"Where are we?" I take in the smell of burning rubber and gun powder.

"We're at 2nd Mass' camp. It isn't much but it's safe." He smiles.

"You sound like your trying to sell me it." I joke. I stifle a hard laugh and place my head in my hands. "Oh my god." She sighs.

"You look like you haven't slept in days." Ben says. I shrug. "You should get some sleep."

"I'm fine and, anyways, where would I sleep?"

"Just here." Ben tells me.

Through all my protesting and arguing with Ben, I eventually fall asleep. I don't even remember falling asleep but when I woke up, I woke up in a cot. I shoot up and register my surroundings. I'm in a canvas tent and there are other cots around me. The cots are all vacant. I hear someone walk in and I quickly turn over and shut my eyes. I search around with my hand and find a lose pole from the cot. Hoping it won't pull the cot from beneath me, I ease it out. I hear the footsteps coming closer to me and I finally feel warm breath on my face.

I clutch my pole and smack it against the intruders face in one simple movement. I scramble to my stance, ready to fight back. I look down to see Ben lying on the ground, clutching his cheek. "OW!" He shouts in pain. "What was that for?!"

"I thought you were coming to kill me! You shouldn't just walk into a tent without knocking!"

Ben sits up and rubs his cheek. "I thought you were asleep!" He protested. "Jesus. I came in to ask if you wanted breakfast, god."

I drop the pole. "How was I supposed to know that?!"

"I was about to wake you!"

"Well I wasn't sleeping!"

"No shit." Ben replies. He gains his stance. "You want any breakfast?"

I shrug. "How's Alex?"

"Anne won't say. She's still..."

I look down, blinking back tears. I can't cry in front of him. I hardly know this Ben guy, I hardly know Anne. Why did I think this was a good idea? These people could be trying to hurt her; I don't even know what 'Anne' is doing in that stupid truck. Alex could be dead. I don't even remember getting in this tent, they could've drugged me. I don't even know where I am. I pick up the pole.

"I want answers." I tell him.

"What?"

"Where am I?! I want to see my sister. I don't know what you've done to her!"

"Lauren...what's...?" I swing the pole and he ducks. "Lauren!" He shouts.

"I don't even know who you are! I want answers or I swear I will kill you!" I swing the pole again and almost lose my balance.

"My name is Ben Mason...you know me, Lauren. Dr Glass is looking after your sister, Lauren; everything's going to be just fine. Drop the pole..."

"Not until I see my sister!" I scream.

"You're not seeing your sister unless you drop that damn pole and step away from my son, young lady." I turn to see the man from last night. He's armed with a gun. "We can negotiate but not like this. I want your hands where I can see them. Now!" He barks.

I back away from Ben. I drop the pole and put my hands in the air. "Good." The man tells me. "I'm Tom Mason and you're needed down with Captain Weaver."

"I'm not going anywhere until I see my sister." I cross my arms against my chest. "I mean it, Old Man."

"We just need to talk to you, ask you a few questions."

"I am not moving unless I see my baby sister."

"This isn't up for negotiation, you are coming with me. Whether it's of your own will or not." Tom shrugs his shoulders and nods to Ben. Ben seizes me from behind and I kick back, trying to loosen his grip.

I fail in the end and try screaming but nobody takes any notice, they just carry on with their everyday tasks. They all treat this like its normal. Where the hell am I? Ben and his father drag me to a big marquee tent near the edge of their cosy little 'camp' madhouse. A tall muscular man sits at a big desk with his feet propped up on the wood surface. "You let me go right now if you want children." I warn Ben. He drops me and stands beside me.

"What's your name?" The man asks me.

"What's it to you?" I throw back.

"The difference between a Skitter invasion and just a British school girl stealing our extra food. That is what it means to me. What is your name?"

I have to give the old man some respect, he is pretty sassy. "Lauren."

"Lauren what? Do I need you to fill out a survey?"

"Lauren Bloomfield, fifteen years old, originally from London, I like long walks on the beach and dogs. Anything else?"

"You've got balls, kid. Why are you here?"

"My sister was attacked by an alien...this is the only place I could find refuge."

"Where is your sister now?" He asks me.

"She's with Anne, Weaver." Tom informs him.

"They won't let me see her." I tell him.

The man ignores me and carries on talking to Tom. "How is she?"

"Anne says she's doing everything she can but nothing seems to be working. All she can do is pump blood into her and even then we're running out of that. She's stable but only just, we don't have the equipment to find out if there's anything Skitter in her." Tom explains.

"How long do you think Anne will need?"

Tom shrugs. "She says all the time she has; we need more people to help her, Weaver."

"We need to know if we'll be keeping her and her elder sister for long." Weaver turns to me. "What can you do?"

"Nice of you to include me in the convosation." I mutter.

"She's good at combat." Ben tells him. "Resourceful. Hit me with a pole from her cot this morning, Sir."

"How would you like to become a soldier, Miss Bloomfield?"

"No." I tell him. "I refuse to, I want to be here, I need to see her and I need to be here for her."

"How about we put you on night patrol? Of the med bus?" Weaver suggests.

I shrug.

"We'll try it out, if you don't like it then you get kitchen duty."

I nod.