Chapter 4 - Change
We based on the roof of a near-by building. There were a whole load of kids here. About two dozen give or take.
"Ben's on the roof" Tom said and passed me the binoculars. I felt my heart go strange when I saw him. At least he was alive. I passed them over to Anthony then.
"Looks like they're scavaging scrap metal" Hal suggested.
"That's exactly what they're doing" Tom replied.
"They flew here in spaceships and turn kids into slaves just to collect old toasters and coper wire?" Margaret asked.
"What do they want it for?" I added.
"Don't know" Tom crouched down against the small wall "But it's gotta be for something"
"How many you wanna grab?" Anthony asked.
"As many as we can get" he loaded up his gun.
"Okay then. Let's see what we're up against..." Anthony looked down "Two mechs ... one skitter"
"Five of them, six of us" Tom got his gun ready.
"Pretty good odds" I added.
"Okay we got one shot at this-" Anthony started but never got a chance to finish as Karen accidentally knocked over a loose piece of tiling. We all hid but knew it was no mech started firing signaling they knew we were here. We ran for it. As much as we didn't want to we didn't have a choice this time.
Eventually we reached back to the school. I started to feel sick. I ran over to the drain and threw up.
"I'm so sorry, Kristen" Karen seemed so upset.
I chuckled "not your fault" I sat on the floor.
"This is too much stress for a 14 year old to be going through" Tom felt my head.
"I'm fine. Everyone gets sick" I could feel the cold sweat dripping off my forehead.
"Are you sure?" Dai asked.
"Yeah, positive" I got back up and followed them inside.
Tom was like ambushed by parents of missing kids asking if they'd seen any.
"Hey, hey. Give them some space" Mike shouted "Everyone has missing kids. Even me with my Rick. Perhaps you could all put pictures up on the board and I promise every soldier will have a look before and after every patrol"
Everyone rushed to put their pictures up.
"Thanks" Tom smiled.
"No problem" Mike replied.
I went to find Jimmy as Tom walked off talking to Mike and Anne.
I searched the whole school. Where the hell is he? I searched almsot everywhere in the building...
I saw a bunch of soldiers coming out of one room. Perhaps he was in there. I creeped in quietly. Porter, Weaver and Tom were there talking.
"We succesfully took the harness off three kids, but, they died shortly later" Porter said. They obviously hadn't noticed me "A doctor has a theory ... we just need a child to try it on"
Tom sighed "Ben"
I gasped. No! They'd kill him! I'd rather leave him harnessed than see him die at 14! I ran out after they finally noticed me and Tom was about to come after me but Weaver stopped him. I felt physicly sick. I calmed myself down. Breathe. He'd be fine. He had to be. I walked into Jimmy.
"There you are" I smiled pushing that thought to the back of my head.
"Hey. You been looking for me or something?" he smiled back.
"Yeah, thought you could cheer me up a bit"
"Nice to know you only bother with me when you need me for something" Jimmy smirked.
I laughed "You know you're my best friend"
"Until your boyfriend gets back" he tilted his head.
"He's my boyfriend, it's different" I pushed my hair behind my ear.
"Yeah, course" he said sarcastically.
"I think I might do a bit of target practice. Fancy tagging along?" I gestured to the door.
"Yeah sure. I'm bored" Jimmy shrugged.
We practiced with bow and arrows. Used to be one of my hobbys, archery. First time I ever did archery was with my old best friend Abbie. Oh my God. I'd forgotten my friends. I dropped the bow and sat on the floor. Half of my friends were missing the other half harnessed. Abbie, Caitlin, Sally, Ella, Eli, Caleb, Kean and ... Ben. I'd lost all of them.
"You okay" Jimmy asked.
"Yeah, just felt like a bit of a rest" I lied.
"C'mon. Let's go inside" Jimmy held out his hand and I took it so he could help me up.
We went back inside and walked into Tom "We're going back tonight. You feeling up to it?"
"Yeah course" I smiled.
Tom smiled broadly "Ben would be proud of you"
I laughed "Thanks"
"I'll come get you later"
"Yeah sure" I nodded and Tom left.
A woman came up to me and Jimmy almost straight after "Are you soldiers doing anything?"
"Umm, not at the moment, why?" Jimmy replied.
"I know it's not your job and it probably seems stupid but, would you mind helping out with the younger ones? Like I said, I know it's not your job, but Matt, personally asked for you" she gestured to me.
I felt kinda touched "Sure, why not. I don't do babies, though"
She laughed "Don't worry, just todlers. Thank you for this"
We went into the hall. Matt was sat on a bench on his own. He looked so depressed. Poor kid. Must be taking it worse than me.
"Hey, you okay?" I went over to him.
He just hugged me. I laughed a bit surprise.
"I miss Ben" he said.
"Me too, Matt. Me too" I gently smoothed the top of his head "We'll get him back. I promise"
I never knew Matt loved Ben this much. I mean sure he was his brother but he adored him. I'd always seen Matt and Ben together and noticed how much he idolised him. Everyone could see that.
Matt looked up at me and smiled. We both sat down on the bench.
"Ben told me about you before you were dating" Matt said.
My eyes widened and my heart skipped "Really? What- What did he say?"
Matt laughed lightly "he said you were the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen"
My heart melted "You're lying"
"Nope. I almost threw up though" Matt scrunched his nose.
I laughed "You look like him"
Matt smiled "My mom and dad always say that"
"Just proves it even more" I got up "C'mon let's go have some fun. Think we both need it"
We just messed about with the other kids and Jimmy told them soldier stories before they fell asleep. Most of the crap he came up with made me laugh. Trying to make himself seem big. I sat at Matt's side until he drifted off to sleep and then Tom came for me.
"We're leaving" he said.
"Okay" I whispered "See you later, Jimmy"
"Yeah sure" he waved me off.
We all looked at the pictures of the missing kids before we left. There were so many.
We waited until daylight to attack. Hal and Karen were in a near-by building waiting for the explosion which would signal that they had Ben. Tom and Mike were behind cover scouting to find him. Dai and I were around the corner. I had to look out for the explosion to signal Dai to bring the truck around.
We were there a while. Perhaps he was on the roof again. But eventually he had to come down so we'd wait all day if we had to.
The explosion interupted my thoughts. I jumped in the truck and Dai spun around the corner. We both got out. Mike was carrying a kid but it wasn't Ben. It must have been Rick, his son. Hal and Karen were no where to be seen.
"I'm going back for Ben" Tom turned back.
I saw a mech appear on the roof "Tom watch out!"
It tried to shoot him and the car behind us blew up throwing Tom into the air and knocking him out as he hit the floor. Dai dragged him into the truck as the mech was on our tail.
"We can't just leave Hal and Karen!" I protested.
"Mike grab her" Dai shouted.
I kicked and screamed as he picked me up "Let me go! I won't leave them!"
Dai drove away as fast as he could and we went underground to wait for it to pass. I sat there in silence next to an unconsious Tom and wiped the blood off his forhead. How could they just leave them?
Tom woke up he was still bleeding. He looked around. "Wh-Where's Hal ... and Karen?" he mumbled.
"We had to leave them behind, Tom, there was a mech on our tail we had no choice" Dai said.
"I'm going to find them" Tom got up.
"Tom, take this. It's all we've got but it'll work" Dai handed him a shotgun.
"Tom, wait" I got up "I didn't want to leave-"
"I know, Kristen. It's okay" he smiled.
"Here" I handed him the wetened cloth I used to clean up his head.
"Thanks. Go back to the school with Dai and Mike. They need you" he sighed.
I nodded. Is it wierd that Tom was becoming like my father? Especially since I was seeing Ben...
Tom left and so did we. We made our way back to the school and Dai and Mike rushed Rick to surgery with Anne and the new doc.
