Author's Note: So. Here we are in chapter two. We're working on getting going full run with this, but we both have family vacations coming up at separate times, Ally is moving to a new apartment, all manner of things. We'll try to keep you informed and keep up with things as best we can. Thanks for your patience!

Disclaimer: As per usual, we don't own anything. Surprise surprise.

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Chapter Two: Trail of Bread Crumbs

Juan Carlos was horribly frustrated. He'd been in a meeting all morning with Ron, and other higher level skinheads, including a HORRIBLY annoying man named Jake. Jake was the only one, however, who kept trying to get Juan Carlos and his mother kicked out for being something other than white.

Juan peered over the map, pointing north. "Look, the Xenomorphs are slightly less active in the cold. Plus, there are fewer people in these states, so fewer people for the Xenomorphs to change. If we head that way, we're better off than staying here."

Jake rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "Oh, that's just GREAT. We're going to follow this nigger and his whore mother up north, where we MIGHT escape getting attacked by, oh, maybe 5 fewer monsters. How reassuring!"

"Do YOU have a better plan? Or are you just being obnoxious and idiotic for the hell of it?" Juan replied, rubbing his throbbing temples.

Jake sneered. "I don't think I need to answer to you, porch monkey. I say we find a place, fortify it, and hunker down. We'll be fine as long as we don't put ourselves out there so much."

"Are all of you this stupid?" Juan asked, looking around at the assembled skinheads. "As if we haven't seen plenty of people try to 'hunker down' as you put it. The Xenomorphs ALWAYS find a way in, or they just end up getting overrun. If we're on the move at least there's less of a chance that they'll mob us in one spot."

Grudgingly, Ron nodded. "He's got a point, Jake. I've seen plenty of supposedly secure hideouts that got taken over faster than anything. If we're on the move, it's at least something. We won't get complacent, get snuck up on. At least not as easily. And maybe we can find more people to help us out along the way. We can't afford to be like this anymore, Jake."

Snarling, Jake stalked to Ron, pushing his face up into the taller man's. "Can't afford to be like this? And what's that supposed to mean? That you don't think like we do anymore? That we aren't better than those, those, lowlifes? They're nothing compared to us! They're good for cutting wood and digging holes!"

Ron scowled, grabbing Jake by his collar. "You listen to me, you stupid shithead. I'm saying we can't afford to be so judgmental that we lose good help and good ideas. This all about survival now, and nothing else. So stow that shit, unless you actually have a decent idea in that thick skull of yours. Got it?"

Shoving Ron, Jake stomped away from the meeting, muttering darkly to himself. Ron sighed, turning back to Juan Carlos. "All right. We'll do it your way. Chart the course and we'll follow along. But do anything too stupid, and they will turn on you faster than a rabid badger."

Juan Carlos nodded and turned back to the map, trying to figure out how to avoid most of the main highways which would be cluttered and impassable. Sighing Juan sat, wondering how he was going to make any of this work at all.

Juan looked up, searching the empty blue sky for answers. "My dearest Lord. Please, be with me in this time of trial. I don't think I can do this on my own."

There was no response, but he honestly hadn't expected one. Another sigh and Juan stood, turning back to the map. He didn't have much time left.

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Julietta puttered around, getting as much as she could prepared before they travelled the next day. Looking over at Juan Carlos, she sighed. He had one of his bad headaches again. He was kneading at his temples, trying to get the pounding from his head.

She tucked a few more shirts into a pack and sat on it, buckling it tightly. She walked over to her son and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, so much like his father's. "You worry too much, my son. You try to take the world and all of its people on your shoulders, just like your father. He'd be so proud of you."

Juan Carlos smiled and patted his mother's arm. "I'm glad to hear that you think so, mother. I just can't help but worry. These men are my responsibility now. If I'm wrong about this, they will all be dead, and us as well. I just- I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened now. I'm afraid of the future, mother. Of what is going to us. To all humans. To our Earth."

Julietta sighed and stood, ruffling her son's heair. "Leave the future to God. He knows best. It will all turn out just as he plans."

Before Juan could reply, screams began echoing through the camp. Someone charged into his tent and he stood, thoroughly alarmed. "What is it?"

The man panted and gasped, horrified. "Another Mask! We can't see him! He's only gotten a few more of us, but we know that it won't stop til we're all dead!"

Juan turned to his mother. "Stay here. Stay unarmed. It won't hurt you if you're not a threat. Okay? I'm leaving now."

As Juan charged off, he heard his mother calling after. "Be safe, my Juanito! Come back to me well!"

Juan smiled as he ran into the night, hoping that his mother's prayers and well wishes would be enough to get him through yet another fight with a masked warrior. Somehow, he was skeptical that he could do it once more.

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Juan headed to where the loudest screaming was. There he found a few dead bodies, and an unshielded Mask. It was roaring and lashing out at the men, who had formed a ring around it in an attempt to contain it from the rest of the camp.

Juan charged in with his gun drawn, as a man went flying by. Ducking down, Juan let a shot fly, blasting into the being's torso. It roared and charged him, powering past the other men trying to stop it, dead set on getting to Juan.

Snarling, Juan dodged to side, rolling, then stood and jumped on the Mask's back. It reached around, trying to grab him off. Fortunately, Juan Carlos provided enough of a distraction to the Mask for other men to run in and start firing.

As the men shot at the Mask, Juan realized that, despite the bulk of the creature he was clinging to, the bullets would tear through and hit him. Not that the idiots would miss him, but Juan couldn't stand the thought of the hicks killing him. Plus, his mother would never forgive him.

Juan pulled out a knife and, as he leapt from the monster's back, jammed it into where he guessed the spine to be. It roared again and spun, kicking him into a nearby tree. He felt some of his ribs crack. Coughing, he watched as the spray of bullets finally took down the Mask.

Just like the Mask before, this one went for its wrist, growling as the florescent blood spewed from its various wounds. Juan stood with a wince, and charged the beast as it was typing. With a few quick stabs, the beast was down. Panting and coughing, Juan stumbled back and fell to the ground, his breath coming in sharp, painful gasps.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he forced himself to stand back up, shoving the pain from his mind. Showing weakness now would be the end of him. Looking around, he took stock of how many had died. Fortunately, it wasn't as many as last time. This Mask clearly hadn't been as skilled as its predecessor the day before.

"I think we should move on. Get everything together. We can't wait for the morning anymore." Juan said, as he turned to locate his mother. Stopping, he looked back and glared at the men who were still just staring at him. "Well? Would you prefer to stay here and wait for some Xenomorphs to come? That noise would have attracted them."

This got the men moving. They jumped and scattered, calling out to each other and trying to figure out what to bring.

Sighing, Juan went to his mother, who was trying to get their tent down and packed. She cursed violently at the contraption, kicking it, which brought it down on top of her. She squealed in surprise and crawled her way out from under it, muttering to herself in Spanish.

"Nunca me gustó tiendas de campaña. No me gusta acampar. ¿Por qué Dios me hace sufrir tanto? ¿Por qué tengo que hacer frente a este artilugio diabólico?"

Juan smiled, and reached out his hand. "Are you all right, mama? Did the 'devilish contraption' cause you much trouble?"

Scowling, Julietta accepted the help up. "I do not appreciate your mockery, Juanito. Children must respect their elders! Especially their mothers!"

Juan hugged her, lifting her off her feet. "I respect you, mama. It's just too much fun to tease you, though."

Julietta huffed and Juan set her down, turning to deal with the tent. Within minutes it was down and packed, and Juan shouldered as much as he could, giving his mother only a few light bags to carry.

He found the other leaders quickly, and rechecked the maps, before moving out as a unit. The sun was still a few hours away yet, and Juan Carlos hoped there would be nothing too bad waiting for them in the dark. He kept the safety of his gun off, just in case.

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The days and weeks passed as the group travelled, and they ran into more of the Masks. They were attacked three more times on their way north. Each time, the Masks had the same rash, wild behavior as the second attacker.

Along the road, they found scattered groups of disoriented human survivors that Juan allowed to join. Most of them were men, alone or in groups. Only once had they run into some women. Unfortunately, one of the three girls had been attacked by a face hugger, which exploded out of her in the middle of the camp.

The young creature was dispatched quickly, but then the group was forced to kill the other women. If one had been impregnated by the monsters, then the others were likely to have been as well. They couldn't risk having any of the women as potential embryo hosts. This disappointed many of the men and caused some dissension in the ranks.

Julietta was growing more and more furious with all the other men in the camp. She hated their disregard for life, courtesy, and anything resembling reason. When she wasn't arguing with one or another of the skin heads, she was puttering around angrily, muttering darkly under her breath in Spanish.

The third attack by a Mask caused a huge amount of trouble, and it had taken Juan far too much time to get everyone into a cohesive unit again. The attack came upon a small group of scouts. Juan had been training the men to handle the Masks without him, and the scouting group had done well, according to what Juan had gotten over the walkie talkies.

Until the monster typed something into its wrist and blew itself up. The only positives to THAT escapade were that Juan confirmed the need to always, always, ALWAYS stop the Masks from doing ANYTHING with their wrist computers, and that the scouts had disobeyed orders and wandered far enough away that the blast hadn't affected the camp too much.

There were two more attacks after this, and the new primary goal of fighting a Mask was to stop it from doing anything to its wrist computer. A few of the men were a bit overzealous about this, taking to hacking off the monster's arm as son as they were within reach, instead of trying to shoot it.

The alien attacks by Xenos petered off as the Masks attacked more, and the group was worried that soon they would run into the massive hordes of the aliens that the radio had mentioned before all communication went out.

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Juan sighed as he watched the flames dancing in front of him. Some scouts had discovered the potential of a small horde of Xenos nearby, and he had to plan on how to either avoid them or battle them without losing too many of his people.

As he was dealing with Ron and a few other leaders, Julietta was sewing up some clothes, lips pursed in a frown as she listened to other men talking about her and the other women. They had recently rescued a family of three, a father and two daughters, and three other women from a ravaged farmhouse, and the men were overly interested in the five young girls.

One looked over at Julietta with a smirk on his tattooed face. "So, Spanish lady. How did you happen to have Joo Ann over there? One of your customers a bit too careless?"

Scowling darkly, Julietta began praying quietly to herself, asking God for patience to deal with the ungodly men she was surrounded by.

She began saying the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary's after more insults. It was the only way she wouldn't say something she would regret. The men grew bored mocking her, as they couldn't get a rise out of her.

Sighing, one of the men stood and began wandering off. He waved to his friends over his shoulder, smiling. "All right, guys, you have fun teasing the immigrant. I, however, am going to go enjoy one of the ladies that we helped rescue last week. I'm thinking about that curvy brunette. She has some great assets, if you ignore the fact she can't cook worth a damn."

He walked off and the other men laughed. Julietta crumpled the shirt in her hands and stood abruptly, marching over to where Juan was busy conferring with others. She stood next to him and he looked at her, smiling. "Yes, mother? Can this wait? We're still working on our plans for tomorrow."

"No, this cannot wait, Juan Carlos. I must speak with you now. It is very important."

Juan saw the glint in her eyes and sighed. He turned to the men and nodded. "Give me a few minutes, please. I'll be right back."

Juan led his mother off to the side as the other leaders rolled their eyes and continued their debates. Looking down at Julietta, Juan quirked his eyebrow. "What is it, mama?"

Placing her hands on her hips, Julietta frowned. "Juan Carlos. I cannot STAND what those men are doing to the girls. This is completely against the Lord's wishes! They're not even married! This is no better than prostitution!"

He rubbed his temples, wishing he could have avoided this argument. "Mother. Please. We have to keep the men happy. If we don't, they will turn on us and we will die. Sometimes, we have to do things we don't like to continue living."

"At least keep the men from hurting them! They have bruises! Cuts! They're terrified!"

Juan shook his head. "I just don't think they're going to listen. I barely control them as it is. You know they only need the tiniest of excuses to turn against me. It's a miracle I keep them away from you, mama."

Nothing but cold fury was on her face. "Juan Carlos Fernando Onobanjo. You WILL find some way to keep them a LITTLE bit more safe, or I will deal with the problem myself, in ways that will not please you. Am I understood?"

Juan sighed, knowing that arguing was useless. "I will try to figure out something, mama. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know. I will talk with the others after we get through the battle tomorrow. I promise."

Juliette nodded sharply. "This is fine. If we all die tomorrow, it will not matter anyway. Good night."

Turning on her heel, she vanished towards their tent, intent on praying to try and relieve her fury. Juan frowned, trying to figure out how he could possibly pull this off. Walking back towards the mini conference, Juan scowled, thinking on his mother's demands.

"Even battling the horde tomorrow will be infinitely easier than trying to get these men to change their ways. Why do I always suffer these ridiculously impossible tasks?"

Suddenly, he turned his head sharply, peering into the shadows of the forest. He could have sworn he'd seen… something. He wasn't sure what, exactly. But there had definitely been some movement.

Watching for a few more minutes. He eventually relaxed, shrugging. Perhaps it had just been an animal, or a tree moving, or his imagination. Probably nothing to worry about at this point.

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Khos'ta watched from the shadows, impressed that the Ooman male had noticed him, even if it was only for a moment. He had, personally, watched this male kill several young bloods that had been stupid enough to go after him, and could only assume that he was the one that had killed the other, more advanced, warrior as well.

The Elder in charge of the region had sent him to look into what was killing so many warriors in an area that was not overly infested with the Kainde Amedha, and Khos'ta had been surprised to discover that a band of Oomans were responsible. But after watching them for some time, he had figured out that their leader was the one to watch out for. His orders were simply to figure out what was going on, and, now that he'd discovered the source, he wasn't sure what was expected of him. He eventually decided that this situation would be worth watching for awhile.

Perhaps more young bloods would come to try and challenge the ooman? Khos'ta sat back on his heels, thinking. He could see how many came, and then send them on their way, after some reprimanding.

Grumbling, he crossed his arms. They hadn't come here to hunt the Oomans. They were here to save the creatures, and losing young bloods on this was wasteful and foolish. Not that he expected any better from young bloods. They were always stupid. Too ready to fight, and not willing enough to actually think on what they were doing.

With a grunt, Khos'ta settled in to watch for the night. Tomorrow would be interesting. He wondered whether the ooman group would actually survive the Kainde Amedha coming for them.

Rolling his shoulders, he leaned against the tree, staring down as the camp fell into slumber, wondering if this ooman would be worth not killing for a little while longer.