Disclaimer: I do not own Falling skies or any of the characters, even if I wish I do. All rights belong to TNT.

Author Notes: Oh... is this... a cliff hanger? I shouldn't have done one now. :P I start school tomorrow (BLERGH) and my writing time will be cut down by... a lot... so either I have to modify my schedule or I somehow manage to pull through. Not sure which. If you don't see the next chapter up on Friday night, Eastern time, expect it on Saturday! I'm not a morning person... I go to bed at one in the morning and usually don't wake up till 10. School destroys my internal clock. :c

HAL POV

We walked straight into an ambush. Somewhat.

It was more like a battlefield between two sides. Skitter versus skitter, mech versus mech. We dropped down out of sight around the perimeter of their field before something saw us and went to attack us. We saw the animals. They were racing around, attacking anything in sight, not seeming to care which side they were on. They simple hit, tore, killed. There was no control, as we had learned. Whatever happened to them during the mutation process made them extremely aggressive, angry, and of course deadly. Wolves, birds, bears and all kinds of things that I couldn't even name because they were so mutated. There was some enormous turtle-like creature, lumbering around with a long, bulbous tail that looked like it could smash someone into little bitty pieces without much trouble. There was an eagle – grown larger than one should ever be in its life – with scales growing on its back and neck and talons sharper than knives. There was something that must have been a bobcat at some point... standing on its back legs with dark russet fur and amber-red eyes. It had some kind of foreign object growing out of its back around the harness. I wondered just how long the poor thing had been harnessed to be mutating so much – but it seemed all the animals were accelerating through the 'process'. Trying to remember what these animals used to be, I had a hard time believing that a harness could do all of this. It wasn't even right. I tried to wrap my head around why anyone would even want to do this. It all seemed wrong. Taking innocent creatures like these and destroying their lives – because he doubted that animals, unlike humans, would ever be able to get the harnesses of – seemed worse than some of the other things they had done... except for harnessing Ben, which was, to me, the worst thing of all.

And there was blood. So much blood. It ran in thick streams around the clearing, mixing with the bodies of skitters, animals, and the shattered remains of broken mechs. From where I was now I could not tell who were the rebels and who were not. All I really knew was that we had to get away. But the fire was now coming down the side of the mountain, spreading rapidly toward our position. We would be forced to cross the battlefield, unless we could find another way through. But there was no telling how far the fire would be burning, or if it would ever stop. It was not "real" fire. It did burn everything to a crisp but was unaffected by the wind or snow and water of the region. It should have stopped by now. But the thin green film around it continued on, so we all knew it wasn't a natural event.

Someone dragged me backwards and to my feet, and I instinctively flinched and spun around, only to see that it was Ben, and most of our people were moving away, searching along the perimeter of the field for an opening that wouldn't harm us. Aching, I limped after them, trying not to look back at the dying mess that was the battle.

I tried not to feel anything towards the skitters – mostly the rebels – but it was becoming difficult. Before we knew they were harnessed, we simply assumed they were the big bosses purposely trying to destroy us. And then we found out that they were nothing more than harnessed... well, we don't exactly know what they were before they were harnessed. But they had their own thoughts. They were slaves, just like the human children who had been harnessed. Didn't that make them... similar to humans? Basically humans themselves who looked different. Which made them more than just 'bugs'. I could only wonder what they looked like before they had been harnessed. I had heard from one of the 'rebel skitters' that they had been a peaceful species. Not anymore. Though I did wonder what classified as a 'peaceful species'. It could mean that they didn't fight with other 'planets'. Whatever the case, the number of bodies on the ground made me sick to my stomach, because all I could see were people.

"Look out!" Someone shouted, just as a long, low whistle rang overheard and everything exploded in a bright red burst. I hit the ground, half from instinct, and half from the shock wave that knocked into my chest. I stared up at the giant crater that had been blown into the side of the mountain with dazed surprise. It looked like a mech had spotted us. Then I looked down. A human leg was all that remained at the very edge of the blast area, and I had to swallow convulsively. I don't know who that was but I hoped to hell it wasn't Dad or Ben or Maggie – or anyone I knew. Which also happened to be a cruel thought in itself because... it was still human.

As human as the dead could be.

"Move!" Ben hissed in my ear, and I immediately jumped back just in time to avoid getting blown up as well. I was blinded once again by the explosion, and half deafened as well. I crawled awkwardly away, pulling my injured leg along trying to avoid bending the knee as much as possible. My head bumped into something solid. I looked up.

Steel and metal. Laser-like beams woke through the air, pointing right at me, and I completely froze. Shit. This was it, wasn't it? I looked behind me. We were completely surrounded by mechs – civilians and all – and most of us had gathered up in the middle in a kind of protective knot; they didn't seem to realize that a single missile could dispatch them all with no difficulty. There was Ben, his spikes glowing in front of a skitter, and my dad was grabbing Matt and pulling him back as he tried to run towards him. Death as all they had left.

I shut my eyes as time slowed and prepared for the final gunfire.