Disclaimer: I don't own the 'The Hills Have Eyes'. It's the property of Wes Craven. I own Charlotte though! *Hugs Charlotte plushie*

Charlotte scratched at her arm as she tried to remember how to solve for 'Y' before solving for 'X'. It was normally only a bit hot in the classroom but the air conditioner was broken and Charlotte was in a sweater that was a bit thick. She only wore it when she went outside at night to meet Lizard in the mines. She was safe with him, she knew it. They were only on rare occasions bothered and that was mostly by Pluto because all the hills dwellers had their own territory and that was respected by all of them. Several people turned to her and tried to guess what, if anything, was under that huge dark green sweater. Normally Charlotte would have loved the attention, she was a but of a geek to tell the true, but now she just wanted them all to stop staring and go back to thinking she was weird. There was a rumor going around that her father killed her mother and buried her in the desert after her mother was caught having an affair with a trucker. Charlotte always told them it wasn't true and that they should go shove off but a lot of people still believed it. Actually most of the town but it was small town of just four hundred people. The bell rang and she handed her test in and met her friend Rita Nelly at the door.

"Her Char', what's up?"

"Nothin'. Just way too hot."

"Why the hell are ya wearin' that sweater? It's almost eighty five out! In the shade!"

"Long story."

"We both got a free period right now."

"Well, it's personal."

"Personal as in the where abouts of your long lost mother or personal as in you're pregnant and using the sweater to hide you're baby bulge?"

"Rita!"

"Well I'm just puttin' ideas out there. Jeez, you don't gotta bite my head off!"

"Sorry, it's just well-uhh..." said Charlotte. No one knew about the hill dwellers and she knew enough not to tell anyone.

"Spit it out!" said Rita becoming impatient with one of her few friends. She and Charlotte had known each other since kindergarten asnd even then Charlotte had been very secrative about something and Rita was getting more and more curious as the years went by.

"There's this uhh....family that's uhh, camping int he desert and me and their son we uhh..."

"Charlotte, no way! You did the deed?"

"No! We made out, there's a difference."

"Oh, I know." said Rite in aknowing voice

"You'll take anything with a 'Y' chromosome, won't ya?"

"You know I would. Speaking of biology can I borrow your book?"

"What happened to yours?"

"It mighta, sorta, fallen out of the bus window."

"Fine but I want it back after school and you can borrow it on one condition."

"Name it."

"Cover for me tonight."

"Whaddaya mean by 'cover' for you? For after school? The night? Or you gonna run away to look for your mother again?"

"Just for a few hours tonight."

"Fine, but if we get caught I'm blaming you."

"Fine, whatever." said Charlotte as the beel rang. She planned to spend her after school hours with Lizard in the test village. No one in the test village would ever burt her because she was Jeb's daughter and the man couldn't leave but nothing could stop him from blowing his brains out. As the day progressed Charlotte thought more and more of her plan. She have to time it perfectly and get her dad to think that she was at Rita's house. She called from a phone at school and Jeb let her go happy that she wasn't spending too much time with the hills dwellers.

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Lizard had fallen asleep staring at the clock just waiting for Charlotte to come back from school. He didn't really get the concept of school, what could be learned in the building that Charlotte described that couldn't learned their way; through trial and error and apprenticeship. All the while when he was asleep Pluto had made him into a ramp for his cars. He didn't understand why his brother had fallen asleep or why he wanted to see gas mans daughter but then again he didn't really understand much about anything. What he lacked in smarts he made up for in size and he knew it. He concluded that the bigger you were the dumber you were and the smaller you were the smarted you were. He had come this resolution in one of his extremely rare moments of thought.

"That's it Char'. Little lower would ya?" muttered Lizard in his sleep as he reached for something that wasn't there. This confused Pluto for a bit but he shrugged it off, lots of stuff confused him. Big Brain had told him many times not to think too hard about stuff because he might hurt himself and he listened, he didn't want to get hurt.

"Pluto, copy. Pluto, you there?" said a cracked voice over the walkie-talkie. Pluto clumsily picked it up, it was Jupiter.

"Pa-pa?" asked Pluto

"Yeah, I need you down by the crater, there's people here."

"Buh Big Ma-Ma seh-"

"Do what I say boy, they ain't gonna be hear forever and I'm gonna need help takin' 'em back home. Don't bring Lizard along, he too weak ta carry and he whines too much."

"OK pa-pa." said Pluto as he prepared to leave for the crater. He felt worried about leaving his brother but he had to obey his papa

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Charlotte got off the bus a bit more than a mile from her house and began the treck through the desert. She put her sweater on top of her head to ward off sunburn. The walk didn't bother her too much, she had been doing miles of walking ever since she was young. She made her way through the desert a bit worried because she didn't quite know their boundary lines for territory. She grew more and more distressed as she heard a whisper. She knew that it wasn't Goggle because he mostly stayed by the gas station and she ran and hid under a cliff..

"Thought I seen somethin'."

"You ain't seen nothing Mars, now c'mon. We gotta get there before Jupiter gets Pluto and they get the people."

"I guess you right, Chameleon. We get going afore Pluto gets there. He really dumb but rally strong." and with that the two men left not noticing Charlotte shaking in fear. She was going to have to be more careful and went a bit more slowly to the test village. When she came upon the sign she let out a sigh of relief and made her way to his house. She had been there a couple of times before and hoped that he did something about that rotting flesh smell or the dust. She knocked on his door for a moment and waited. After waiting for a few moments she wondered if je was home or even if she had the right house. Lizard had told her that some of the houses were abondoned. She knocked a bit louder and then decided to try another house. She was a bit worried but knew that none of the test village people would hurt her, she wasn't worried about them, it was the others that she was worried about. She considered herself a pretty brave person but even she had her limits. She walked over to the next house and knocked. She waited a moment until a person that sounded like he or she was really out of breath told her that it was open. She waited a moment, she was scared.

"Are you still there? Either come in or go away!" Charlotte against her better judgment opened the door and stepped in. She wa ssurprised by how clean it was and almost mistaked the test dummies for people

"Who are you? If it's you Big Mama I want my dinner!" said the voice. Charlotte went through the dining room and was greeted with a straling site. She almost didn' believe what she was seeing as she looked at Big Brain's hugfe, deofrmed cranium. She stuttered a bit annd ran out of the house. Big Brain was confused as to the idenity of this gril who had come, stared at him, and ran away. She wasn't prey, he was sure of that. Well, not completely. He had his doubts about making their watcher a child. Lizard would have made a better watcher in his opinion but he showed a lot of skill as a fighter. He wheeled himself over to the door and shut it. He could still get around on the ground floor of his house if he tried hard enough. He radioed Cyst to see about the girl that had made her way into the test village on his gaurd. It seemed to Big Brain that no one in his family could follow directions.

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Charlotte ran and ran until she ran into a house. She didn't even knock or care who was in it, she was just to freaked out by what she saw. Maybe this was why both her father and Lizard had tried to keep her out of the test village. She looked around the house and coughed as she breathed in a layer of dust. She looked around at the toys on the floor and the chairs flipped over and some of them broken. She walked a bit less barvely until she saw a sight that she was beyond happy to see. She walked up to his sleeping form and once again traced the scars on his jawline until she got to his malformed jaw and cleft lip. She gently pushed her lips to his and he woke up with a dumb smile on his face and his sunburned face an even deeper red.

"Hey Charlotte." was all he could say.

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Please forgive the lateness of my update. Please review!