Chapter 7: In The Woods

The next three days were spent setting up the Boston camp. A successful scouting trip had uncovered a nearby army base that the 2nd Mass had quickly cleaned out for supplies. While all of the weapons and most of the vehicles were gone from the base, plenty of beds, blankets and camouflage netting remained. There was also a large selection of canned food and bags of rice and pasta. Enough to last the 2nd Mass for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, before they needed to go searching again. The scouts had packed up three old army vans with the supplies and driven them all back to the new campsite.

That morning, while a group of the 2nd Mass organized the food and began setting up beds, Casey spent her time looking for a place to call her own. She had been ousted from the medic bus when three soldiers came in wounded after their van blew a tyre and smashed into a ditch. Anne said their injuries weren't life threatening, but all extra space in the bus had been crammed with some more gurneys for the new patients. Even Grace had finally been able to leave and now shared a tent with all three of her brothers. So, Casey and Etta needed a new place to stay. And Casey didn't fancy adding a newborn to the Mason group, so she didn't ask to join them. Besides, she preferred having her own space.

As she wandered with Etta, Casey was mulling over where she should relocate herself. Keep to the outskirts of the camp so Etta's cries didn't bother anyone? Or keep closer inside near Anne in case Etta got sick? Still considering her options, Casey headed past the sentry tower towards the path through the woods. The path was getting more defined every day as more boots and wheels trudged through. It was the direction the 2nd Mass had driven through the day they found this place, and now the scouts and fighters used it as a thoroughfare.

The woods themselves were dense like a children's fairytale. Trees with thick trunks and dark green leaves seemed to be crammed together way too tight. Good camouflaging for the camp, but even looking at it Casey felt lost. Instead, she just drifted along the manmade path simply enjoying the vast array of space before her. It was nice not to see a huge group of people milling around, talking, laughing, and shouting at each other. It was relaxing to just to walk with no one around to bump into.

Casey had always been independent. Only child to Thea and Mike Taylor, Casey had lived alone since she moved out of home at twenty-two. She just felt content by herself, a trait all three Taylors shared. Weekends were often spent in three corners of the home. Thea painting her watercolours out on the front deck, Mike watching old football games getting tips for his college team, and Casey reading in her room. The Three Taylors liked their silence.

Of course, now Casey also had Etta to contend with. But Etta seemed to enjoy the solitude as well. At least, she was enjoying the walk along the path by the 2nd Mass campsite. Casey was sure the baby would voice her dissatisfaction if she felt otherwise.

Casey was so caught up in her happiness at being alone that it took her a second to identify the little huddles of fur she spotted on the ground just off to her right. Three rabbits clumped together chewing grass. They seemed so out of place that Casey almost laughed. The 2nd Mass generally scared off wildlife when they blazed into a town. Squatting down to her haunches to get a better look at the animals, Casey noted two were brown and one was black but they were all very chubby. If they noticed they were being watched, they weren't bothered. Eyes hovering over their rotund bellies, Casey couldn't help but think they would make for a good meal, and wondered if she could sneak away to alert someone of the nearby food without scaring the rabbits off.

"Etta, check it out. Rabbits." Casey whispered and tried to manoeuvre the baby so she could see the rabbits, but Etta didn't seem too keen on focusing on anything but her pacifier. "Y'know, last time I saw one of these I hit it with my car. Not intentionally. It just ran out on the road in front of me. Surely that's gotta be some sort of shock-induced stupidity that makes it run towards the loud, roaring, metal thing on wheels. Man, I was so freaked out that I'd see it all smushed under my wheel, so I drove straight to my mother's house and had her deal with it."

Then, just like a silent alarm had gone off, the rabbits abruptly scattered into the shrubs. Casey hadn't heard anything, but the way the animals dashed off made her nervous. Like they had sensed something that she couldn't. Slowly, Casey got to her feet and started backing away. Even though she could still hear the hum of voices from the camp, she suddenly felt like she was miles away from anyone.

To her left, Casey heard twigs cracked under the weight of footsteps. Etta made a whiny noise. Casey folded her blanket in around her tighter to try and muffle the noise. No sound of skitter grunts or thudding Mech footsteps; but there was something there. Casey stood frozen, staring at where she had heard the twig crack, and watched as a pale face with stunning green eyes peered around a tree trunk.

The girl was a redhead, about Ben's age, very thin, and her milk-white face was decorated with green and yellow scales. Skitter skin. Her harness was visible just underneath her loosened braid. She wore muddied jeans and a purple winter coat that seemed a size or two too small.

"Stop, don't come any closer." Casey told her, though she had no idea how she was going to pose any sort of a threat if the skitter girl ran at her.

But she didn't run at her. She just stood behind that tree looking lost. "Is that your baby?" She asked Casey softly. Her voice sounded scratchy, like she had a cold. "She's so small."

"Step back, kid," Crazy Lee strode in from behind Casey with her shotgun poised to fire at the girl. "Been waiting for a chance to test this gun."

"Jesus!" Casey jumped. She hadn't even heard Lee approach. "Did you follow me?"

"Sentry saw you leave," Lee shrugged. "Thought you might be going to ditch the baby."

"How nice." Casey deadpanned.

"Please don't shoot me," The girl pleaded with Lee. "I'm just hungry."

"Bull, you're harnessed," Lee said keeping her gun aimed. "You a spy? Telling your bug bosses where we are?"

"No, neither." The girl said. "My name's Abigail. Something happened to my harness. I can't hear them anymore. They ignore me." Abigail turned and lifted up her braid to show off her harness.

Casey had seen way too many harnessed children in her time, but she had never seen a harness like the one attached to the back of Abigail's neck. It was grey. There was no light pulsing through it. It looked as frail as ash, like simply touching it would cause it to disintegrate.

Casey shared a look with Lee, who began lowering her gun. "We've got to take her back," Lee said to Casey. "She could be lying. Can't let her run off now that she knows where we are."

Clearly Abigail wasn't like the other harnessed children, but that didn't mean she was trustworthy. Ben might be able to help, he could hear the skitters, maybe he could tell if she was lying. Then if she was, Weaver could deal with it. Casey's mother wasn't around to help her out if Abigail ran under the wheel of the car.

"Please don't kill me." Abigail begged.

"We won't," Casey said. "But we can't let you go," She thought a moment, and figured enticing the girl would be the safest option. "We have food. And a doctor who can check out your harness. Maybe get it off you." Casey didn't have a clue if Anne would have any luck detaching the harness in its strange state, but the easier they got Abigail to come with them the better.

Lee gestured with her gun for Abigail to walk forwards. "Let's go, then."

Etta stirred on the walk back, and was righteously screeching by the time they arrived in the centre of the 2nd Mass. "Captain Weaver!" Casey called out as soon as she saw their leader. Jostling Etta in her arms didn't seem to slay her screams.

Weaver turned, took one look at Abigail, and ordered his troops to surround her. "Casey, what the hell is this?" Weaver asked as Hal, Maggie, Dai and Anthony circled around Abigail. The girl was looking fearfully between all of them, not sure who, if anyone, she could trust.

"I found her," Casey proceeded to tell Weaver, over Etta's cries, how she'd stumbled upon the girl. "Something's up with her harness."

"She sure doesn't act like a harnessed kid." Lee added as the rest of the Berserkers came in to watch the events unfold.

Ben arrived beside his older brother, eyes narrowing on Abigail. His young face was a mix of surprise and confusion. "I can't hear her," Ben frowned. "She's not connected to them."

Abigail stared at Ben and pointed out his spikes. "You were harnessed, too? How did you get it off? Everyone I know died trying to remove it."

"Take her to Anne," Weaver ordered. "I want eyes on her at all times."

"You collecting kids, now?" Pope asked as he watched the huddle of fighters follow Abigail towards the medic bus.

Casey shrugged. Etta was still crying. "I'm delightful."

Night fell, rabbit stew was on the menu, and Casey still didn't have a tent to sleep in. Etta seemed perfectly content sleeping in her carrier around Casey's neck so Casey didn't dare take it off. Instead she went to the medic bus to see if Anne would give her an extra night's refuge.

Two of the soldiers who had been injured in their car accident had been discharged from Anne's care, so she agreed to give Casey the back seat of the bus for the night. Anne set Etta's basket on the floor by the backseat and helped Casey lower the carrier into it with Etta still sleeping within.

Abigail was sleeping, too. She now occupied Grace's former gurney. After three bowls of rabbit stew and two full water bottles, she had fallen right to sleep on her stomach while Anne was inspecting her harness. She'd been asleep for four solid hours.

"Verdict?" Casey whispered, nodding at Abigail as Anne rearranged a blanket over the girls bony shoulders.

Anne shook her head, unsure. "Ben sat with her for two hours, said he didn't even get a flicker of a connection. And her harness is unlike any one I've ever seen before," Anne tossed Casey's a latex glove. "Touch it."

Though the harness looked delicate as tissue, it was hard as rock under Casey's gloved fingertips. "Can you remove it?"

Anne shook her head, no. "The harness attaches along the spine, and since hers is calcified, I suspect that it will have hardened right to the bone. So to remove it, I would have to chip it off her spine. And the chances of doing that without killing her, let alone paralysing her, without the right tools, medications and doctors, are less than zero."

"How do you think she got this way?"

"Well," Anne looked thoughtful. "I think that she's an genetic error. Something went wrong in her harnessing process and so the transformation didn't complete. She's an anomaly, sitting between being harnessed and being human. The aliens have no use for her, and she has no one to go back to. She's in limbo."

Casey tossed her used latex glove into a bucket at Anne's feet. "So, what do we do now?"

Anne gave her a wistful smile. "I have no idea."

"Anne, we can't keep her here but we can't let her go, either. Ben talked about the bond he had with the skitters when he was still harnessed," Casey reminded Anne. "What if Abigail still feels that, despite not being telepathically connected to them? What if she runs back to the skitters and tells them where we are so they accept her again?"

"I don't know," Anne sighed and leant back against the side of the bus. "I don't know what we do with her. Tom would know." She chewed her lower lip for a couple of moments. "Tom would tell us that Ben was harnessed, and now he's okay. That this girl hasn't threatened us, so we shouldn't attack her just because she was unfortunate enough to have been harnessed."

Though it did sound like something Tom Mason would say, Casey didn't want to be the one to relay that to Weaver. Not that Casey thought the Captain would order her to be executed or something, but it was unlikely Weaver would be as rational as Anne. Casey told the doctor as much.

"I'll talk to him," Anne said. "He'll at least agree we can't put her back out there now that she knows where we are. And I guess that's a start."

Lourdes boarded the medic bus to help Anne with the patients, so Casey headed to the backseat and curled up next to Etta's basket. Despite the bustling footsteps and groans of patients, Casey managed to fall asleep.

By midday the following day, Casey finally had her tent. Maggie helped her put it together while Matt watched over Etta in the medic bus. Casey was determined to get her build her tent with as little help as possible, but her wrist was being particularly sensitive that morning which made almost every movement send daggers of pain through her arm. Unsurprisingly, Maggie was quick to takeover.

"Thanks," Casey said to Maggie as she took the hammer from her broken hand and drove the tent peg deep into the ground with two solid thwacks. "I always hated camping."

"It's fun without tents," Maggie said as she hammered the final peg in place. "Sleeping out under the stars is pretty damn great. Course, it was a lot more fun before Beamers started flying through the sky and giant alien landmarks popped up over the city."

"You into camping?"

"Kind of," Maggie said. "When I was younger, I sorta went here, there and everywhere for awhile. Had no money, so I slept wherever I could. I've also slept in a tree. That was actually better than the ground. You just gotta find the right tree or," She slapped her hands together in a sharp clap. "Broken bones," She grinned and nodded at Casey's wrist. "But you already have that covered."

"True," Casey gave her an unimpressed look and tossed a blanket onto her camping bed. "And at least I don't have to sleep on the ground,"

"Hey, nice digs!" Lee shouted as she passed by the tent with Boon at her side.

Casey gave her canvas home a once over glance. "Yeah, gimme a day to get settled and I'll have you over for dinner."

"Pope's still bitching about a rematch," Boon added, stopping to light up a cigarette. "Yeah, you gotta teach me your tricks, lady," A puff of smoke curled out of Boon's mouth as he spoke. "Or just gimme a front row seat next time you kick his ass."

Casey waved them away and knelt down to sweep some pebbles out of her tent.

"What's that about?" Maggie asked, nodding after Boon and Lee.

"I smoked Pope at poker," Casey grinned, remembering how shocked Pope had looked when she'd laid down her cards. "Now he's PMS-ing and wants a rematch."

"You hanging with the Berserkers?" Maggie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I hang with everyone." Casey pointed out. "Berserkers, doctors, Masons, you. I did it when I was a kid, too. My father used to tell me I would be a great outside linebacker."

Maggie's brow furrowed. "That's defence in football, right?"

Casey nodded. "An outside linebacker covers short passes and rushes in from the sides," she said. "My Dad said that's what I would "short pass" people. Not really sure what that means, just that my mother didn't like him saying it."

"So, you're into football?"

Casey shook her head. "Not even a little. My dad was a coach of a college team. Thirty-five years."

"Did he see the invasion?"

"Nope, died ten years ago. Massive heart attack. Just keeled over at the table one morning." Casey didn't mind talking about her father's death. She missed the hell out of that grumpy old man, but she was able to remember him fondly without bursting into tears. "We sort of expected it. He smoked two packs a day, ate like crap and rarely slept more than four hours."

"He sounds awesome," Maggie said with a grin.

For a few moments, the pair silently finished clearing rocks out of the tent and making sure everything was secure. Casey was going to ask Maggie if she wanted to be her roommate, but Maggie had something of her own she wanted to share. "Don't get too close to those guys." Maggie said so quietly that only Casey could hear her.

"Why?" Casey knew Maggie had been with Pope's gang before they had found the 2nd Mass, but she also knew that Tector, Lyle, Lee and Boon had become Berserkers after Pope's arrival. They weren't part of his original gang. "You think they're gonna kill me or something?"

"Just..." Maggie didn't seem to know what else to say. "Just be careful around them. Especially with that baby." She gave Casey a smile, bumped a fist against her shoulder and then headed off.

Casey heaved a huge breath and looked inside her tent. Berserkers, Masons, Maggie, Weaver, it seemed like whoever she was chatting with seemed to have one issue or another with everyone else. But she didn't really care about what that issue was. They were all 2nd Mass. Hell, they were all regular people. And a group of regular people would always have issues with each other. What Casey hoped to gain by having her voice all over the place, with Grace, Maggie, Lee, Anne, was some form of peaceful everyday existence at the camp for herself.

Well, and now for Etta, too.