Frequency of the Heart

Chapter 1

Patience. A simple word but a hard lesson. Patience was something that Abagail had struggled with her whole life. Her number one instinct has always been to run in guns blazing. Even before the invasion she had a way of finding herself in hot water. Before the invasion her struggle with patience would get her into detention or worse case scenario she would find herself in a fist fight. Now, everything was different. Her lack of patience could cost lives and even with the stakes being so high she still had to fight the urge to jump down from the tree where she sat.

She had been there for hours, sitting and waiting. Before the sun came up she and four others from her resistance group had scurried up the trees near the work camp. They had been staking out the site for a week now. Watching and waiting as the skitter daily brought the harnessed kids to work on what looked to be mining operation. This was the first group of harnessed kids their resistance had come across in months. The invaders had moved onto other ways of controlling the population and slowly the resistance saw less and less harnessed kids. But something about this place was important enough for the invaders to keep the harnessed kids working. So naturally it was something the leaders of her resistance wanted to keep an eye on. But all Abagail wanted to do was jump down and kill the skitter and mech and save those poor kids. After all most of them were only a few years younger then her.

At 16, Abagail was more adult then child but somehow she felt a connection with the kids. Just over a year and a half ago, she had been one of those kids. Harnessed and working in conditions that should in theory kill them. That was before her family had found her, before she had any idea what had happened to the earth. Abagail had been at cheerleading camp in Boston when the invasion started. She was one of the first children taken and harnessed. Honestly, she didnt remember most of it. When she tried to think of that day she only got emotions; fear, confusion and anger. Their doctor back at camp said it was probly a mental block, her body trying to protect her from her own memories.

Abagail whipped her head around as she heard a second mech approaching. She searched the tree ahead of her across the road. She met the concerned eyes of her eldest brother, Nathan. There shouldn't be a secondary Mech. There has been one for the past week, why now? Behind the mech marched another group of kids, there had to be at least 30 more harnessed kids. Abagail's eyes widened and she searched for her brother again. She saw him crouched in his tree with his sniper pointed but he was looking at her giving her the signal to wait and watch. The exact thing Abagail didnt want to do! But she knew rash behaivor would get their team killed so she watched anxiously as the mech marched the kids through the passage and into the work camp. The skitter in charge looked frantic as it tried to connect with all the extra kids and tell them their jobs. Abagail had never seen a skitter in charge of so many children at once and she could tell that it was taking its toll on the skitter.

The Mech stood guard and that's how they stayed till the sun went down. Abagail twitched in her tree; her legs were numb, her patience gone and she really had to pee. She was relieved that the sun was going down because that meant the camp would be cleared out and she would be able to get down and return home to give her report and to pee. She looked over at her brother and he was doing the same dance. They had been there well over 13 hours. That's the longest time they had ever had to stand watch on a site. They waited for the skitter, mechs and kids to move on. But they didnt. The moon was now well in the sky and the skitter had all the kids pile ontop of each other and get ready to sleep. They had never stayed before! How were they supposed to get down?

Abagails brother gave her the sign for stay and he slowly climbed down the tree. Abagail pulled out her handgun and got ready to cover him. This wasn't going to end well, there was no way Nathan was gonna get past the two mech without being seen. She wanted to yell at him for being an idiot and stop him but she knew better. Any sound at all and her brother would be dead. Nathan's feet hit the ground and he creeped slowly towards the woods where the communication unit had been hidden. He made it almost out of earshot when Abagail heard a snap and rustle of leaves. She looked to her left and down the road just less then a mile she saw Catlynn laying on the floor bleeding. She was covered with leaves and the tree branch she had been sitting on all day had managed to stab her through the thigh when she hit the ground.

Abagail snapped her head back as she heard the mech spin up and start to move. Without a second thought Abagail aimed her gun and shot the mech twice in hydraulic on its left arm. She saw it sputter oil and fall dead to its side. As she readjusted and got ready to shoot again she heard gunfire from across the lane. Jason had jumped down from his tree and ran to his girlfriend laying on the floor. Abagail shot again at the mech and hit its second arm but this time it didnt go dead. As she reset she heard the second mech let off its gun towards the road. As it walked it the spray of bullets got closer to her friends holding their ground on their road. Jason managed to shoot out the arm of the second mech but they both were heading towards the couple. Abagail Shot at the first mech again and this time the shot hit its target. The Mech's arm gave off a small explosion that knocked the mech to the ground. As it writhed on the floor, Abagail shifted her sights to the secondary Mech. It was passed her now. It was closing in on Jason and Catlynn with its back to Abagail. There was no way for her to shoot at her normal soft spot.

Abagail jumped down from the tree, when she landed her ankle gave out and she fell. Struggling to shake her legs awake she shot heard shots coming from the woods her brother had earlier snuck out of. She looked up from the ground to see her brother Nathan running through the woods shooting a large cut off shot gun. Abagail gave a sigh of relief as she recognized the gun she had nicknamed "The Traitor". It was one of 15 guns they had been able to make and retrofit to shoot bullets made out of the downed Mechs.

Pins and needles ran through her legs as Abagail tried to get back up on her feet. She finally hoisted herself back up, only to be knocked down again from behind. She felt long arms of the Skitter trying to pin her down as she struggled against it. She could feel the spikes in the back of her neck trying to activate. The skitter was trying to get in. But Abagail had learned how to close off her mind to the skitters. She closed her eyes as she was pinned to the ground and tried to fight the skitter. Physically it was winning but she wouldn't let it win mentally; never again.

Abagail heard a loud bang of a mech hitting the ground. And seconds later the skitter that had her pinned was backing away writhing in pain. Not sure what was happening she grasped for her gun. Grabbing her gun in one final sweep of her arm she shot the skitter right in the head. It fell to the ground and Abagail looked up in confusion. Before she could put together what had happened she felt strong hands on her shoulders.

"Abby, are you okay?" It was her brother, Nathan. She looked at him with confusion across her face.

"What happened Nate? That Skitter should have killed me! Then it just grabbed it head and started screaming. Did you do something?"

"I have no idea" her brother answered. "The Mech just turned off before i ever got to it. One second it was firing the and the next, it just shut down. I shot it just for good measure but i didn't take it down. That other Mech you shot down is turned off too."

Abagail followed her brothers gaze and the he was right. The mech that had been trying to get up was lying on the floor completely shut off. Nathan helped Abagail to her feet as they heard a car screeching around the curve in the road. Abagail watched quietly as Doc Hill ran up to Catlynn and started assessing her. As Abagail watched the doctor and Jason lift Catlynn into the medical vehicle she heard a deep voice through the fog of concern.

"I thought you said you needed help Nate. Looks like you guys did just fine without us."

Abagail looked up to see her father standing just a few feet in front of them. Even though it had been two years since the invasion, her dad still wore his army uniform daily and carried himself in the military manner she had become accustomed to her whole life.

"Just like you dad. Missing all the fun." Nathan quipped as he gave their father a small playful punch.

Abagails' head felt so strange. She barely heard the bantering going on. Something felt off. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Abby? You Okay?" it was her dad.

"I don't know. I mean I'm not hurt. I'm just. Fuzzy"

"Fuzzy? Did you hit your head?"

"No, well i don't think so. I just have this weird feeling. Almost like, a silence. It's so loud"

She could tell she wasn't making any sense but Abagail didn't know how else to explain it. Her gaze crossed over to the harnessed kids and she got a sense of what was going on.

Because their faces looked the same as she felt.

"The communications are down."

"what? Abby your getting all creepy on us" her brother said with a hint of concern in his voice.

"The Invader's Communications. They are down. I don't hear anything. No Skitters, no mechs. Nothing. It's like my receiver in my spikes are broken. Except i think all of theirs are too" she finished by pointing towards the kids.