So, I'm so sorry for the long wait on this next update. I really kinda lost inspiration for the story. I had started the next chapter, but could not figure out where to go with it. But all the reviews really pushed me to finish it. So I hope some of you have stuck around and are still waiting to read it. Probably not, but here's the next chapter! I really hope you like it, and pleas review because it really does help the writer to get the next part out quickly.

Also, sidenote! I've got some decisions that need to be made concerning this story! If anyone would like to help me with them, and let me talk through the ideas with you, just PM me!

Dislcaimer: I do not own Red Dawn nor any of the characters or actors.

"You shouldn't be out here," Jed stated after a moment of silence had fallen over the two.

This was awkward for him, Alice could tell. Trying to make small talk and keep things civil, it was all awkward-for both of them. Neither of them had ever been the silent-try-to-keep-the-peace type of people so whenever an argument had broken out between them it got loud and it never ended pretty. For them to be trying to keep the conversation quiet and civil was weird for both. But at the current moment, both were too exhausted to fight. All Alice could think about was her sister, and she was worried for her.

"I needed to think," Alice said quietly not bothering to look at him.

"It's not safe; you shouldn't be by yourself," Jed corrected himself, still standing behind her.

"I'm not out here alone," She stated, finally glancing up at him. "Thanks for fixing that for me."

Jed rolled his eyes as he sighed. She was always difficult, and always finding an excuse for why what she was doing was okay. She would very rarely ever admit she was wrong, and even when she did, nothing was ever fully her fault. She hated being wrong, and Jed had had to learn that he could never win against her in an argument. But that's what made her such a strong person; she always was determined and fought for what she believed in. She didn't give up; all good qualities... she just took them to the extreme.

"You should get some sleep," He finally said, deciding it wouldn't help to argue with her. So he changed the subject.

"I'm not tired. And even if I was, I wouldn't be able to sleep... too much has happened," She told him. He nodded his head in understanding.

"Rest will help; we're all exhausted. We all need some sleep."

"I can't-" She cut her sentence off when her voice broke at the thought of her sister. For the hundredth time, it seemed that day, Alice found herself forcing herself not to cry. "I can't... not with knowing Athena could be hurt."

"Look, whatever happened, it wasn't your fault," Jed told her as he sat down beside her, trying to offer comfort to her.

"You don't know that!" Alice snapped at him. Pity and sympathy was not what she wanted at the moment. She was angry with herself, and she expected everyone else to be. "I left her, Jed! How could I have done that? How could I have chosen a complete stranger over my baby sister?!"

Jed watched as her crystal blue eyes began to fill up with tears. Despite being so hard-headed and confrontational, Alice had a vulnerable quality about her that made everyone around her want to protect her, want to chase away her fears and make everything alright. And watching the blonde beauty breakdown and blame herself for something that ultimately wasn't her blame to take hurt Jed more than he thought it would. He hated seeing her upset, and he knew he cared for her more than he let on. But he was just as hard-headed as she was, and he wasn't ready to admit to her that he was apologetic for their breakup. He also hated to admit he was in the wrong. But just maybe with the invasion looming over their heads, they'd both find a peaceful compromise in all of this.

"Athena's safe," Jed told her. "You know she's strong; you know she can make it through anything. She's like you in that regard." He offered a half smile, hoping to put her a little more at ease. And she returned it with a small one of her own. "But worrying yourself sick over her isn't going to do her or you any good. You need to be at your best in order to help her if the need arises."

Alice nodded her head, knowing he was right. "I know," She said before taking a deep breath and standing up. She paused at the door and looked like she was going to say something. But what she said wasn't what she had wanted to say. "Good night."

Jed waited until he heard the sound of the door closing behind her before he held his head in his hands. What was he doing? He wasn't a leader; hell, he wasn't even a highly ranked soldier. All of this was way above his pay grade. He was part of the team that invaded other countries; America wasn't supposed to be invaded by someone else. And being the only one with military training, everyone automatically looked to him for answers; they looked to him for explanation and for help. And he couldn't offer anything to them. Feeling more frustrated now than he had when he first came out, he stood up. He kicked at the ground once before heading back inside, though not to sleep. He would stay up and keep watch, just in case the enemy came looking for them.


Voices drifted to Alice, slowly stirring her from her sleep. Had the voices not belonged to Matt and Jed, she probably would've continued sleeping. Despite telling the blonde Marine she wasn't tired last night, the moment she had left him on the porch and stepped inside she had curled up on the couch beside Toni and fallen asleep. Matt asked his brother what was wrong and the lack of response caused Alice to sit up straighter, instantly alert. Her blue eyes fell onto Jed as his shoulders sagged with the sigh that left his lips. He had a calculating look in his eyes, like he was trying to figure out what he wanted everyone to do-what they needed to do.

"Jed?" Aliced pried softly. His azure hues flickered over to her at her voice before glancing around at everyone else.

"That asshole, Pete, and his buddy took off with all the food," He explained finally to the teenagers who were slowly waking up with the three voices talking around them. "I need you guys to take anything we can use, put it in the truck and hide it in the woods," He ordered.

A few of the teens groaned a little at having to wake up so early, especially after everything they had been through the day previous. They were all exhausted and just wanted to rest. But they couldn't do that. They had to prepare themselves and get ready to take action if the need arose, and Jed was there to make sure they didn't slack off.

"You sound like you're taking off," Toni commented as she sat up and stretched, her arms above her head, before glancing at the male who hadn't spoken at her statement.

"Jed?" Alice questioned at his lack of an answer. She knew that meant he was going out, but she was hoping he would tell her he wasn't.

"Yeah, I'm gonna take Mattie and do a little scouting," He said as he avoided the azure hues of a certain blonde and instead turned to focus his attention on Toni. "See what we can learn, maybe we'll find something of use."

"Be careful," Toni told him, and the blonde male nodded his head once before nudging his brother who was still in the exact same spot on the floor where he had slept last night.

"Mattie, come with me," He instructed.

The dark head of of his little brother nodded as a grunt left his lips before he moved aside the blankets from last night and stood up. He stretched as well before clasping his hand around the rifle Jed handed him and swinging the strap over his shoulder. Alice watched the Marine who seemed intent on avoiding the gaze he could feel on him. She wondered if he was going to acknowledge her at some point before he left, but by the way his shoulders were tensed and his eyes narrowed to focus on the specks of dirt on the wooden floor?-she didn't think he would.

"What do we grab?" Julie asked quietly as she gazed up at the man who they had all silently agreed was their leader. It just made sense, he was the oldest and the one with actual training for situations like this.

"Blankets, food, ammo-anything you think can be of use," He said before glancing at Robert and Daryl who were still sitting on the floor. "Let's go; get up."

They glanced up at Jed, took in his serious expression before realizing they needed to listen to him; neither one wanted to see him pissed off. The two quickly scrambled onto their feet and began to dart around the room, collecting whatever they could. Jed watched them for a moment before turning and heading towards the door, Matt beside him. Alice bent down to fold up a blanket before a thought occurred to her. She straightened up and called out Jed's name, causing the blonde male to stop before glancing over his shoulder at her.

"What?" He asked.

"We need the keys to your truck if we're going to move it," She said as she crossed the room to stand in front of the tall male.

Jed's lips pursed before he slipped his hand into his jean pocket and produced the keychain a moment later. He hesitated a second before placing the keys gently into her open palm, his hand lingering on hers for a moment longer than necessary. Alice broke the contact and slid the keys into her pocket, her blue orbs glancing downwards at the ground as she tucked a rogue curl behind her ear. She inhaled deeply, composing herself before turning her gaze back up to meet his azure hues.

"Be careful," She told him with a half smile. "We need you here."

Jed nodded at her words and paused, like he was debating something. "You too," He told her quietly. "That prick knows where we are so keep your eyes open." He reached behind his back and held out the handgun he had taken off of Pete the night before. She glanced at it for a moment before taking it from him and slipping it in the waistband of her jeans behind her back. Then with that, he was gone and she was left staring at the vacant spot he had previously occupied.

It took Alice several seconds to snap out of whatever daze she had been in and tear her gaze away from the door Jed had just exited through. She turned towards the others in the room and began to instruct them on what to get and how to pack it to save space. She was used to packing and had become quite an expert on it with moving from Tennessee to Washington then from Washington to New York for college. Packing seemed like such a tedious task, but was a very important one that needed to be done.

"Hey, Bobby, take Daryl and Danny and go check through the small trailer outside. See if there's anything you can find in there? Like Jed said, look for blankets, ammo, food... anything you think we could possibly use. Okay?"

The three boys nodded their head to Alice before exiting the cabin and heading out to do what she said. While they scoured through the trailer, her and the others stayed in the cabin and searched through rooms and cupboards for supplies. It didn't take long for the two groups to fill the bed of Jed's truck with different necessities. Alice handed the keys over to Toni. The redhead looking at the keychain she held in her hands before glancing up at Alice, confused as to why the blonde wasn't driving the truck.

"I'm gonna stay back, do one more sweep of the house and see if there's anything we might've missed that could be useful." As she spoke she moved around to the back of the truck and grabbed a backpack out. She turned back to the group. "Someone wanna stay back with me? It'll go faster with two."

To Alice's surprise, Julie raised her hand. "I'll stay," She volunteered.

Alice nodded her head, still taken aback by her forwardness. The curly haired brunette seemed glued to her brother's side since Pete had brought them up here, and rightfully so. They had watched their father be shot; life-and-death situations drew families closer together. She hadn't expected Julie to offer her services, but when she did she fully expected her brother to make an attempt at talking her out of it-which he did. But she didn't listen. After a small sibling argument ensued, Greg finally realized Julie was going to stay regardless of what he said. So he stopped all attempts at getting her to stay with him.

"We'll stay here, do one quick walk through. We'll be finished in ten minutes tops," She informed the group.

Toni nodded her head before getting into the driver side of the truck and waited for Daryl and Danny to get in through the passenger side. Once Robert and Greg had hopped into the bed of the truck, she started up the ignition and drove away. Alice waited for a few moments, wanting to make sure the truck was still able to be driven before she led the way back into the cabin, Julie closely behind her. For the first few minutes, both girls were silent as they searched through separate parts of the same room. Finally, Alice glanced over her shoulder at Julie before speaking.

"So, where are you and your brother from?" Alice asked, trying to make small talk.

"San Diego," Julie replied politely.

"So what were you doing in Spokane?" The blonde glanced at the younger girl with a smile as she opened up a drawer only to find it already searched through and nothing of value there. She closed it with a sigh before turning to face Julie.

"We were just stopping through... on our way to Canada," Julie told her. "We were taking a family vacation. We always went somewhere out of the country," She added with a light laugh after the words. "My dad would take out a globe, spin it around and point his finger. Wherever it landed, we attempted to go-at least someplace close."

"And Canada was picked?" Alice asked, smiling.

"Canada was picked," Julie confirmed as she followed after the blonde who had moved down the hall into one of the bedrooms.

"So, who's older? You or Greg?"

"He is. By two minutes," Julie answered before laughing. "And he never lets me forget it either."

"Twins?" Alice asked, a little surprised by that answer as well as she glanced back at the girl. "Check under the bed, sometimes Jed's dad hid guns there."

Julie nodded as she knelt down to look. "Yeah, twins," She said, smiling and Alice could tell she was loosening up a bit.

"I have a little sister, Athena. She's six years younger than me. Being older is kinda important to siblings, makes you feel like you've got power," Alice explained to her as she stood on her tiptoes to search through the top shelf of the closet. "So, what grade are you two in?"

"We're Juniors," Julie told her. "Senior year's coming up... Greg wants to be a mechanic or go to school for engineering. Me? I wanna be an actress."

Alice smiled at her once she was flat-footed again. "I bet you'll make it in Hollywood."

"Where's your sister?"

"She-we were separated," Alice said quietly, her gaze immediately going towards the floor. Julie took that as her cue to change the subject, but Alice continued, her eyes still glued to the wood below her feet. "I'm gonna get her back, and everything's going to be okay again. My dad, Jed's dad... they'll be here soon. And they'll know what to do. We'll make it out of this."

The last part was directed as words of encouragement to Julie as well. It didn't take a psychic to figure out exactly how the younger teens were feeling. It was hard not to feel like all hope was lost and they'd eventually end up dying. But Alice knew better, she had been raised to believe failure wasn't an option. She trusted her father and Tom to make it through-just like they always did-to come up with a plan of action and make everything all right. Because that's what fathers did, right? They chased away their kids fears, protected them and made everything okay. She had to believe there was a way out of this because if not... She shook her head, not allowing herself to dwell on thoughts. Everything would be okay.

The two talked some more with the girls getting closer, and Alice beginning to feel a little protective of the girl who was only a year older than her little sister. By the time they reached the kitchen, all they managed to find was some flashlights, a few batteries to go along with them, a pair of binoculars and a hunting knife. Alice dropped each one into the backpack she had brought with her before opening up a cupboard, only to freeze at the sound of a vehicle approaching the cabin-a large vehicle.

"What's that?" Julie asked, panic entering her voice.

Alice didn't answer, instead she quietly closed the cupboard and tiptoed over towards the window in the front room. Julie followed a short distance, but stayed put in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. She watched as Alice placed her back against the wall before slowly moving aside one of the lace curtains hanging over the window. The blonde cursed as she let it fall back into place before she quickly made her way over to Julie. Before she could explain what she had seen, loud voices from outside reached their ears-foreign voices. Julie's brown eyes went wide as she realized the cabin had been discovered. She started to speak, but Alice clamped a hand down over her mouth before hurried words could leave her lips. The blonde shook her head before slowly removing her hand. Julie stayed quiet, but her eyes were still large.

"We're going out the back," Alice instructed as she grabbed the girl's hand in her own.

She glanced over her shoulder at the door before pulling Julie after her towards a room down the hall. It was the master bedroom of the cabin and a large, sliding glass door had been built into it. Quietly as she could, she pushed the door open before popping her head out to look around. It all seemed clear-for the moment at least. She stepped outside before motioning Julie after her. Once the brown haired girl was beside her, she closed the door once more. She turned around to face the forest before her. She couldn't see any foreign invaders, but that didn't mean they weren't there. Alice took a deep breath before glancing at Julie.

"We're gonna make a run for it. Straight into the trees. We'll double back around in a large circle, so we can avoid being spotted, okay?" Julie nodded her head to the instructions Alice gave her, but the blonde could definitely tell she was terrified. So was Alice.

"You sure about this?" Julie asked.

"Yeah," Alice stated, though inside she wasn't sure of anything. "On the count of three. One, two, three!"

As soon as the last word left her lips, she took off towards the trees ahead of her. Alice only stopped to catch her breath once she was sure they were far enough away. She allowed Julie to rest for a few minutes while she calculated their next plan. Hopefully they'd run into the others with Jed and Matt soon. But she couldn't count on luck being on her side, it hadn't been so far. Once she was sure Julie had rested for long enough, the two began to walk at a brisk pace through the trees. Alice froze and held her arm out for Julie to stop as well when twigs snapping underneath someone's foot could be heard.

The blonde pulled out the gun Jed had given her and turned in the direction of the sound, the Glock aimed straight ahead and readied to be fired. She relaxed immensely when she realized it was Jed standing in front of her, arms raised up in a peaceful gesture. Alice closed her eyes to steady the rapidly beating heart in her chest. When she reopened them she could see the entire group standing behind him. Greg raced forward and hugged his sister, relieved to see she was okay. The blonde turned away from the family reunion to look at the Marine before her.

"They found the cabin-"

"I know," Jed informed her. "They told us." He motioned with his head towards Danny. "Come on, we need to find out what they're going to do with the place."

"We're gonna stake out the place," Robert said as he and Daryl exchanged a grin. It was like something straight out of a video game they had played.

"Oh, and next time you intend to shoot at something, you might wanna make sure the safety's off," Jed stated as he passed by Alice, a smirk on his lips.

The blonde whirled around to face him and glared at the back of his head. She glanced down at the gun in her hand only to realize the safety had been on. Stupid, she told herself. She knew how to fire a gun, her father had taught her. She rolled her eyes as she tried to let Jed's comment go over smoothly, but to no avail. With her blood boiling, the girl moved quickly to catch up with him.

"I know how to shoot a gun," She stated in a dark voice, as if she felt the need to prove herself to Jed-which she didn't.

"Yeah, the safety on was going to do a lot of damage," Jed commented cockily.

Alice stopped in her tracks and glared at the man as he continued to move. Even after all those years, he still knew how to get under her skin like no other. She pursed her lips as she slid the gun back behind her back before she continued walking with the rest of the group. They walked quite a distance away from the cabin, but Alice could still see the Koreans clearly through the leaves. They were milling around the house, trying to find something inside the cabin-obviously they were expecting the teens to still be inside.

Jed led them towards an area that was completely covered in brush before he instructed everyone to kneel down and stay low. As everyone did as he requested, Alice pulled out a pair of binoculars before handing them off to Matt who began to use them to get a closer look. Jed laid down on his stomach with his rifle ready before taking a look through the scope. He gritted his teeth at what he saw.

"Son of a bitch, it's Pete."

"He sold us out?" Alice asked, surprise entering her voice. "Because you took away his gun?" She scoffed at how childish it was, like a sibling feud. Except, instead of telling mother about it and having the other sibling sit in time out, someone could have seriously been injured because of Pete's selfish antics. She couldn't believe he was honestly going to the enemy all because of last night's small scuffle.

"Looks like," Jed said, an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Shit... Daryl, that's your dad," Matt said quietly after he had taken another look through the binoculars. Mayor Jenkins had just been brought out of one of the vehicles. While she didn't have a close up view of what was happening, Alice could still see the soldiers and other people pretty clearly.

"What? Lemme see!" He reached for the binoculars Matt was holding, but the younger Eckert wasn't quite ready to give them up. "Lemme-!"

"Shh, quiet!" Jed shushed the two boys. Matt finally handed over the binoculars to keep Daryl quiet, but not before he watched the Koreans pull out another citizen of Spokane, one Matt and Jed knew and one Alice loved just as much as the brothers.

"Jesus Christ." Matt's voice took on a scared, panicked tone as he felt tears prick his eyes. Alice gasped, a hand flying up to cover her mouth.

Standing just behind Daryl's father, with his hand held tightly over his side where a red stain could be seen, was Tom Eckert.