{Hola my lovely readers! I have a BIG shout out to make! This chapter was written mostly by HunterGirl53, so give her a big round of applause! She is awesome! If you are wondering why she wrote the majority of this chapter, it is because I am lame and I couldn't remember what anyone said in this episode so yeah. She did and wrote this awesomeness, so read it and review for the both of us! Pope and Sky & Daph are meeting soon! Exciting eh?
{I do not own Falling Skies or any of it's characters, though however if Connor Jessup is availible...}
{I do own Skylar Raine Grant and Daphne Nicole Grant, along with my original ideas. If you would like to use them in a story please feel free to PM me and I will gladly let you as long as you credit me for their creation. HunterGirl53 is being creditted for the creation and plot of the majority of this chapter. I only tweaked it a wee bit. So make sure to thank her in your reviews}
The story continues...
[Skylar's POV]
Within an hour every kid was packed up and ready to leave. The firearm escorts were ready and waiting with Terry. Something about him was off and having to travel with him was unnerving. Ben was sitting on the low wall near the entrance, looking at a picture of him, his brothers, and his dad and his mom.
"Is that Six Flags?" Hal asked.
Ben smiled.
"Yeah, I had it on me the day the Skitters got me, I forgot I even had it. You remember that day?" Ben asked.
"How can I not, you and Matt puked on me." Hal recalled, both brothers started laughing, I on the other hand, I was holding in a fit of hysterics, just imagining the scenario was enough to do that to anyone.
"At least dad didn't puke on you." Ben smiled fondly at the memory.
"I don't know he was looking a little green after the Super Sonic." Hal, laughed.
Ben handed Hal the photo and asked him to hang on to it until Hal came back for him and Matt. I spotted Daphne,
"Hey Daffy Taffy, you all set?", she nodded in response.
Once everyone said their good byes to their kids we set out. I walked with Ben and Matt while Daphne walked with Jimmy, after hours of walking,we reached the turn in the road and Terry had us turn right. Daphne and I glanced at each other, both of us thinking the same thing, 'Something isn't right here.'. I couldn't shake the feeling that the extra weapons I stashed in my pack will come in handy. Daphne stashed extras as well, we were both on edge about this whole arrived at this huge wooden ranch house. Everyone was watching us as we walked towards it. I felt nervous, this set off a whole bunch of red flags.
"Alright, good work, we'll do the tour tomorrow." Terry said.
*Later the same day*
I stood on the sidelines watching the soccer game. So far 2nd Mass was losing. Jimmy had the ball, and was close to the goal,
"Jimmy, I'm open." Ben called, but to ultimate surprise (please note the sarcasm) Jimmy ignored him.
"Yo Jimmy! Ben's OPEN!" I shouted. Jimmy ignored me as well.
I growled to myself as I watched that play out. Ben looked a little put out, a player from the other team stole the ball and scored a point for her team.
"Come on guys we can take'em." Hal said with enthusiasm, that hardly went down when Matt said he was hardly trying. I snuck up behind Matt and then ruffled his hair,
"Well what were you doing munchkin?" I asked, laughing.
He swatted my hand away from his hair, laughing. In the end the 2nd Mass lost. I walked into the kitchen and see dinner being cooked, the daughter of the landowner was making soup. I tasted the soup and turned to her, and said
"Add a pinch of salt, and word of advice, don't boil asparagus. It ruins it.". She nodded and continued to cook, but I also noticed she was making goo-goo eyes at Hal and as usual he doesn't notice. It was kinda nice that he didn't.
At dinner everyone was chattering, when Terry came in everything sorta became awkward. Like talking to walls awkward.
"What's the matter Rick not hungry?" He asked, Rick only gave him a blank stare.
Rick was acting very strange. He was sitting with his back as straight as a bored and his gaze was fixed on Ben and Daphne. I stared at Rick intensly, trying to figure what was going through his head.
"You know, when your father and I were stationed together he would not stop talking about you." Terry said to Rick, once again only getting a blank state once again. Mike smiled and said to Rick,
"Mostly good things.". Rick looked forward and said
"What good things would that be? How I was always sick? How I could hardly catch my breath?", then he looked at Ben and Daphne, " How can you eat their food?" He asked before pushing his plate away.
"Excuse me?" Ben asked, looking startled. Daphne looked at him with an icy glare and retorted,
"For your information Rick I would never go back to them in a million years. Not after what they did. To me or Sky." She got up along with Ben and I. Awkward silence ensued, while the three of us headed upstairs. I heard Mike start apologizing to Clayton about our behavior. I scoffed.
"Daph, be on gaurd, This whole place is sketchy. "I said in a whisper, she nodded in agreement and said,
"Got it Sky, I got that feeling as soon as we arrived, do you think it has to do with Skitters?", I shrugged, everyone was upstairs 20 minutes later, Daphne had already passed out. Like a friggin' starfish. One by one everyone fell asleep, Hal, Mike, and I were the only ones awake. Mike began talking to Hal about how Rick was before the invasion. About how Rick used to make him laugh. It made my heart hurt hearing that. Because of the Skitters, Rick will never be the same. Will Daphne? Mike then said that we had to leave.
"Why what's going on?"I asked as I geared up to leave.
"Terry made a deal with the Skitters.", I didn't listen to the rest if what he had to say. I shook Daphne awake,
"What's wrong Sky?" She asked,already on high alert.
"Wake your lazy butt up, Terry has made a deal with the Skitters we've got to go." She started shaking awake the others. Once everyone was awake we snuck down the stairs. Malorie, I'll call her that for now since I didn't bother to learn her name, was in the kitchen.
"Hal? What are doing?"
. "Clayton made a deal with the Skitters, tell me you didn't know about this." Hal looked about ready to blow a head gasket. She looked at him teary eyed and said
"I was gonna talk to them about you, fix it so that you could stay." Hal shook his head and signaled us to start heading down the stairs. I sent her a glare as I passed her, it stopped her screaming enough for her to gasp and visually shudder.
"They'll never let you leave. Dad! Dad, their leaving!" Malorie shouted.
Mike stopped Hal from going after her and followed us. Mike went out the door first, gun at the ready.
"Go, go." He whispered. We all started running, Ben, Daphne, and I were the last to get going when Terry and his men started shooting at us. Hal picked up Matt who was ready to fall over in exhaustion. Rick and Mike were behind a car, Mike was shooting back in retaliation. I grabbed a few extra clips of ammo and tossed them to Mike, who caught them without looking. Hal went back to get Rick, he handed Matt to me and the rest of us kept running. My only thought was to get as far away as possible, Hal and Rick caught up to the group as we entered the woods.
"Sky, Ben, run ahead and see if the road is clear." Hal said,
"How far?" I asked handing Matt to him. He told us to go one mile, doing as he asked we spotted an abandoned house. When we went back we told him what we found, he wanted to keep going,
"Hal, Matt looks like he's about ready to pass out, we need to rest." I told him.
After a few minutes of arguing he agreed.
"The kids are upstairs and asleep." Lourdes said as she walked down the stairs.
I walked into the sitting room and went over to Daphne.
"Hey why don't you go get some sleep?"I asked while patting her long brown hair. She stared at me for a second with a look that said 'Don't do anything stupid while I'm asleep.' before nodding and went upstairs. I walked over to Ben and plopped down beside him.
"Hey Ben, how are you holding up?" I asked. He smiled,
"I'm good but you know you never truly get over being shot at.". His smile faded as that sentence ended, he touched the spikes on the back of his neck, they seemed to be bugging him.
"Nah, it's something that will stick with you for life, but even though you can't take away the memory, or replace it, you can always create happier memories to send it to the back of your mind. That's what I do." I said with a small smile and patted him on his shoulder.
"Aren't you wise?" Hal smirked. I stuck my tongue out at him childishly.
"Coming from someone who poked a 8 month old birthday cake not 5 minutes ago." I retorted with a sly grin. Hal rolled his eyes.
Lourdes went over to the piano,
"You play?" Hal and I asked in unison, well that was awkward.
"Yeah but it's been years." She picked up the sheet music,
"This was one of my favorites.". She began to play 'In King David's City'. I sat beside her. She gave me a questioning look and I just smiled. I began to play along with her. We ended up playing 'Listen to the Rain' by Evanesence, and I was singing very quietly along with our playing.
"You play too?" Hal asked. I nodded.
"I have ever since I was little, it was an escape of reality I guess." I answered.
Ben looked at the spikes on the back if Ricks neck and once again looked bothered. He got up and walked over to Hal. I didn't listen in until I heard Hal say
,"He's going to the high school and staying there.". I stopped playing instantly and got up from my seat and walked over to them. I felt Jimmy practically glaring a hole into my back.
"Jimmy." I warned, glaring at him with equal malice. I turned back to face Hal and Ben. I crossed my arms and put my signature 'I hate the world' face on.
"Then I will go with him. Don't bother arguing Hal, it is pointless, I'm going whether you want me to or not. I told your dad I would come with him to keep you all safe and that's what I'm doing."For extra measure I recrossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. Haldidn't argue but handed Ben his coat and sighed.
"Math geek." Hal said patting Ben on the shoulder.
Ben smiled and said back,"Dumb jock."
"Follow the high way and stay off the main road as much as possible, if you hear anyone or anything, just run." Hal said. I groaned.
"I can't beat it up?" I asked with a pouty face. Hal shook his head and chuckled. Hal then set us on our way.
We ran, halfway to the split in the road, Ben stopped and veered to to the right, he went to the small stream to get some water before we heard Clayton's voice. We hid behind a bush, Ben and I looked through the brush, I could have sworn I saw Ben blush just a little bit at our close proximity. Clayton began barking orders to his men, and he was heading towards the house.
"Come on we have to get to the school." I whispered to Ben. As much as I wanted to beat Clayton to a pulp,we had to keep moving.
We were close to the school when we saw Tom and Dai on motorcyles stopped in the middle of the road.
"Dad!" Ben shouted.
"Where's Hal?", this time I answered.
"With the other kids, Clayton's coming right for them.".
"Everything was fine, then Mike said we had to leave and they started shooting at us." Ben said,
"Who, Clayton?" Tom asked, Ben nodded.
"I think Mikes dead." Ben added, Tom nodded.
"Alright Dai will get you two back to the high school but first you have to tell me everything." Tom said. We both gave a solemn nod and began our story.
[Daphne's POV]
I shot straight up from where I was sleeping. Lourdes had just walked in with a pained and worried expression.
"What's going on?" I asked. She began to wake the kids up.
"Clayton, he's close by." Lourdes replied quietly. I nodded and got up. I helped Lourdes get the kids to a safe spot. I then got beside Hal and drew my small .44 Caliber pistol. "Good morning." Clayton called from the front yard.
I rolled my eyes and crouched next to Hal at the window with a gun at the ready while everyone hid in the back of the house.
"Come on out Hal, no one wants anyone to see anyone get hurt here." Clayton called.
I rolled my eyes and called out
"Cut the pleasantries you creep!".
"We know about your deal with the Skitters. You need us all alive." Hal called.
I stopped listening, until he called people dying "collateral damage."
. "Oh, hell no."Hal muttered and I then shouted "GO TO HELL!"
Firing at him and his men. I made use of the telekinesis, it was weak granted, and draining, but better than nothing. My irises turned a deep purple color as I stopped the bullets midway and mad them fall harmlessly to the ground. We stopped and I had Hal duck lower. The man who was about to shoot Hal all of a sudden dropped dead. The one thought I could catch was "Pope".
"Get your damn head down kid." he shouted at me. His voice was somewhat rough and I could tell he was some distance away.
Me being me I couldn't help but say "Sure thing dad, but you better watch your own back." I couldn't help but grin as Hal gave me a weird look. So did Jimmy... What is so bad about this Pope guy anyways? I quickly read his mind one name went through his head.
'Tom Mason.'
I smirked to myself, Sky and Ben must have sent the Calvary. I read Tom's mind. Besides thinking of the kids safety, he was planning something, what I wouldn't know. It was so jumbled up and hard to unscramble, so I stopped trying to.
{Haha! Left ya on a cliffhanger! Kinda! HunterGirl53 is a great writer isn't she? Hopefully, she will agree to do Daphne's POV for the rest of the story, because I really like how she got Daphne's character so perfectly. So PLEASE review for HunterGirl53's hardwork and for my lameness of tweaking. Next chapter will be up super soon, like tomorrow maybe. So Review, send some love, and be awesome. AND THANK HunterGirl53 or I will find you!}
