AN - The character of Grace Mason of course belongs to Jem, and you can read Grace on it Jem's fic, Heartbeat Away From Death. Story ID: /10691430/

Chapter 23: Other Acts Of Courage

"I made you a soldier? Then you should have killed me when you had the chance."

Casey watched from the side of the road as Anthony and Pope steered their bikes towards the blazing red sunset. Etta screamed in Casey's arms, her face blotchy and tears sliding down her face. But Casey couldn't hear her. She couldn't hear anything. The sunset suddenly pulsed and intensified so violently that Casey had to avert her eyes, and then she realised it wasn't a sunset at all. It was fire. The landscape was ablaze. Whatever city had once stood there had been flattened and set alight. Beamers were soaring around in the sky, blasting the ground with fireballs. Mechs stomped around unaffected by the flames. And Anthony and Pope were driving blindly right into the wall of fire. Casey screamed their names again and again. They seemed oblivious, and her cries were soundless. She watched Pope and Anthony speed straight into the horizon and disappear as the flames enveloped their bodies.

Casey woke with a jolt like she'd been shaken. She was wide awake. Her breath was coming in fast and ragged, her skin prickled and her heart raced. It took her a second to remind herself where she was. Richmond. The 2nd Mass was in Richmond now. They'd left the caravan park a week and a half ago. Jeanne was gone; she and Diego had taken Jonny and the rest of the kids and bailed in the middle of the night. Her abrupt departure shattered Weaver, who the very next morning packed up the 2nd Mass and got them back on the road.

Richmond was nice enough. Weaver said it was a good place for them to resupply. They had more space than they had at the caravan park, but it was too close to the city for Casey's liking. But she supposed she'd better get used to it, they were heading to Charleston after all. And Charleston was supposed to be an up and running community.

But something about this place had Casey anxious. Casey hadn't slept calmly since they arrived, and this morning was no different. Casey steadied her breathing and rolled onto her back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lee was sitting on her bed tying her bandana around her wild brown curls.

Lee gave Casey a nod good morning. "You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," Casey cleared her throat and sat up in her bed. She checked that Etta was still asleep in the basket beside her.

"You were all twitchy for a second," Lee said with a half a smile. Not teasing, just light concern. "Nightmare?"

"Yeah," Casey sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She had a tight feeling in her stomach that wouldn't settle. Weird, she'd never dreamed about Pope before. Or Anthony, for that matter.

"I told you not to take that fourth shot of tequila," Lee fixed her bandana in a knot. "It messes with your head. "Boon has an iron liver."

"I handled it," Casey rubbed her temple where she sensed the makings of a quality hangover settling in. She had most certainly not handled that tequila well. But after yesterday's successful supply run with the Berserkers, they'd all had a celebratory drink. Casey hadn't intended to go shot for shot with Boon, but that's what ended up happening until they emptied the tequila bottled tied at four shots apiece. Casey didn't remember much after that, she just remembered sleeping. "God, I didn't even feel the buzz," Casey tucked up her knees and rested her heavy head on top of them. "Just went straight to sleep. How boring."

Lee stepped into her boots and tightened up the laces. "You just gotta find the right drink," she said. "That kind that makes you warm and tingly all over and-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

An earthquake-like shudder rumbled underfoot. Casey felt it roll through her bones. Etta began to scream. Casey yanked on her boots, scooped Etta out of her basket and tailed Lee out of the tent. The 2nd Mass has instantly turned into a hive of panic. People were running around calling out names or just screaming. Casey's eyes darted around camp looking for who was attacking them. But she didn't hear Mech footsteps, or hear Beamers ripping through the sky, and there were no skitters stampeding through the camp.

Casey exchanged a bemused look with Lee. "What the hell is going on?"

"Come on," Lee nudged Casey's shoulder as she broke into a jog.

Casey tightened her grip on Etta and followed Lee through the frantic crowd. From the direction Lee was headed, Casey knew they were headed for Weaver's tent. But they didn't even make it that far. As Lee and Casey jogged past the medbus, Weaver, Tom, Maggie and Hal came out of Weaver's tent along with Matt who was desperately trying to keep up alongside his father.

"Cap?" Lee greeted Weaver as she and Casey melded into the group. "What's the deal?"

"Sentries spotted Mech fire about one click out," Weaver told her. "More than that, we don't know." Weaver's limp kept catching Casey's eye; he'd been limping slightly ever since the harness bug had bitten into his calf at the skitter factory. Anne had him on antibiotics, but judging by the way he was favouring one leg, the pills were losing the battle.

"Are they headed our way?" Casey asked.

"No sign yet, but we don't want to get caught with our pants down." Weaver stopped and turned to face the group. "I want all units on advanced defensive perimeter. Tom, get your Berserkers up on point and recon the situation."

"Okay." Tom agreed. "Question?"

Weaver nodded but strode on ahead. "Make it quick."

Tom kept in step with Weaver with the group trailing behind. "Somebody's getting hit, and they're getting hit hard. If that's another resistance group, we should send another unit to assist." Weaver looked sceptical. "We'd want them to do the same for us."

Weaver stopped and looked from Tom to Lee and finally settled on Casey. "Fine," He agreed. "Take your Berserkers. I'll go with Hal, Grace and their unit. We'll flank the area and meet you there. We'll suss it out, but we're not doing anything to jeopardize the position of the 2nd Mass."

Tom nodded. "Understood." As the group dispersed, Tom turned to Casey, Lee and Tector. "Grab the others, we move out in 10."

Tector and Lee took off, but as Casey moved to follow them Tom pulled her back. "Hey, have you seen Ben at all today?" he asked her.

Casey shook her head. Tom, Hal and Matt were the first Masons she'd seen that morning. "He's missing?"

"No, no," Tom said quickly. "He'll turn up." Tom looked from Etta over to his youngest son who was still hovering around his hip. "Matt, you up for guarding the med bus?"

Matt's eyes widened and he stood straighter. "Yeah."

"Stand your post. Keep Dr. Glass and Etta safe." Tom said. "I'll leave a gun with Anne, when you set Etta in there with her I'll tell her to give the gun to you. Do you understand?"

Matt nodded. "Okay."

While Tom took a rifle to the med bus, Casey loaded Etta into Matt's arms. The baby's tiny mouth stretched in an oversized yawn. Casey had the feeling that as the atmosphere around camp calmed, the baby might just fall back to sleep. "Her baby bag is in my tent with her basket and everything. She needs to be fed; do you know how to fix her formula?"

"Yeh," Matt organised Etta in his arms. "One spoonful in the bottle then add water and shake it up."

"Right, good man," Casey scuffled her hand through his curly hair.

Tom came out of the medbus and clapped his hand on his son's back. "If Ben shows up tell him I said to stay put."

"Yes sir—Dad." Matt turned and hurried off with Etta.

"We're giving him a gun and a baby," Casey said to Tom as they jogged towards the bikes. "Are we dumb or just really dumb?"

"Gun's not loaded," Tom muttered as they ran. "I gave Anne the bullets." He smiled at her. "Don't worry, they'll be fine."

Casey sat squashed between Lyle and Tom as Lyle drove the Berserkers towards the hotzone. Tector, Lee and Boon were riding in the back of the truck. Casey had a rifle in her lap - her own rifle. A gift, of sorts, from Tom. He'd given it to her as they'd all piled into the truck to leave the camp for the city. The rifle was the same make and model as Boon's, so Casey vaguely knew her way around it. It was an older weapon, Tom said, but reliable.

"We'll ditch the car a few blocks from the hotzone," Tom was saying. "Go forwards on foot."

"You really think it could be another group?" Casey noticed him give her a sidelong look. "I'm not arguing with you," she said quickly. She didn't want him to think she was starting with him again. The drama wouldn't mesh well with her hangover which was already starting to make her car sick. "I really wanna know what you think."

"There's a chance it's another resistance group," Tom said. "We've always thought there are more people like us out here. That's what Charleston is supposed to be, right? Maybe this is another group on their way there."

Casey nodded to herself. It made sense. In fact, it was kind of weird they weren't seeing more people the closer they got to Charleston. "Did you find Ben?"

Tom paused a moment. "No." He became very focused on the street passing by his window. "But I'm sure he's back at camp with Matt. I'm sure."

Lyle parked the truck about a four blocks from the spot in the city where the explosions had gone off. The group piled out of the car and followed Tom's lead. The Professor led the Berserkers through the alleys towards the battleground. The city was silent. The fight or resistance or whatever had been going on had apparently ended, but the buildings were blackened with smoke damage and the smell of a recent firefight permeated through the air.

Casey jogged in step with Lee behind Tom. The smoke intensified so much Casey found it hard to breathe. She pulled her shirt up over her nose as she ran. It was difficult with her rifle, it was much bulkier than her revolver. But she was determined to get used to it. A rifle was way more useful than a revolver; especially out in the field.

Tom took cover behind a scorched station wagon with the Berserkers filing behind him. Casey was tucked between Lee and Tector, and she watched Tom slowly rise to his feet as he looked over the front of the station wagon. He had his rifle ready, but as Casey watched him stand, Tom lowered his gun. Confused by his sudden drop in intensity, Casey cautiously rose to her feet beside him. What she saw made her lower her own weapon.

The ground was littered with burnt skitter corpses and charred Mechs. It looked like a fireball had blasted through the street. Even the sidewalk was marked with car wrecks crackling in flames. The acrid smell of metal and cooked flesh filled Casey's nostrils and reminded of her dream of Pope and Anthony speeding into the fiery horizon.

Tom crept out from behind the station wagon and led Casey and the others through the maze of alien corpses. Casey had never seen so many dead skitters in one place out of the hands of human intervention. And to create this much destruction, Casey's group or Weaver's group or anyone from the 2nd Mass would have seen somebody around.

"What the hell happened here?" Tector said as he hopped over a blackened Mech.

Boons brow bunched together as he stared at a small pile of dead skitters. "These some messed up aliens."

"What do you think, Boss?" Lee asked Tom. "Hit and run attack?"

"We ever do one this good?" Tector asked.

Tom slowly shook his head and surveyed the damage. "Nope."

A short whistle cut through the air and drew Casey's attention up ahead. Through the haze of hot steam and smoke Casey saw Weaver's figure at the other end of the street. Hal and Grace stepped out of the alley, then Maggie and Dai, and then the rest of their team flanked in from all sides. They didn't have their weapons drawn. They were alert, but there was no urgency in their movements. They seemed as confused by the situation as Casey and her group.

The groups merged and Weaver took the lead. "No skitters, no resistance," Weaver's eyes kept darting around like he was expecting an ambush. "It's like a ghost town out here. Let's investigate this mess and check for humans. See if there's anything we can salvage."

Casey knelt down beside a smoking Mech. There was a big hole in its side that went straight through. It reminded Casey of when she'd seen a Mech fire a hole through a car, the blast had literally gone through one side and come out the other. But that would mean a Mech had shot this Mech, and Casey hadn't ever heard of them engaging in friendly fire.

"This one looks like a Mech hit it," Casey said aloud. Weaver hovered over her shoulder and made a grunting noise in agreement.

"This one, too," Tom said from up ahead. He was inspecting two other Mechs with holes blasted into their sides. "These all look like they're Mech hits."

"There are no shell casings anywhere." Maggie added.

"No humans involved in this at all, it looks like," Dai said.

"So these bastards are shooting each other now?" Weaver mumbled.

Casey's raised her eyebrows. Seemed like she and Tom weren't the only ones having problems with insubordination.

Tom scratched at his chin. "That'd be different."

"DAD!" Hal's voice bellowed.

He was behind Casey. She turned and shoved Boon towards Hal and the pair broke into a run. Everyone gathered around Hal and Grace; they were trying to shift a large skitter corpse off of something. Then Casey saw what they saw. There was a human body underneath two skitter corpses. Hal and Grace shoved off the first skitter. Casey could only just see the back of the person's shirt, and through the fabric she saw a line of small blue lights. Harness spikes. Casey had only seen it once before: when Ben touched the harness tank at the skitter factory.

"Ben?" Tom sank to his knees, shoved the skitter aside and turned over the body

It wasn't Ben. It took Casey a moment to recognise the boy's coffee-coloured skin and frizzing black mane of hair. Rick. The teenage boy who'd been harnessed and rescued with Ben.

Weaver's sharp eyes narrowed. "What in the hell is he doing out here?"

The next four hours flew by. Back at the camp while Anne was working on Rick, the Masons were still in search of Ben. He hadn't shown up while Casey and the others had been searching the hotzone. Then Rick suddenly woke up, asked for Ben and said he was hurt. Most of the scouts were on orders to ransack nearby pharmacies since Anne was critically low on supplies, so Tom traded Hal Lee and Tector for Dai since he was a better tracker; and the Berserkers plus Dai and Weaver went out with Rick to find Ben.

Casey didn't know a whole lot about Rick. What she knew was basically just 2nd Mass gossip. Rick had been rescued with Ben, and Anne had managed to remove his harness. But he hadn't recovered the same way Ben had. He boasted loyalty to the aliens, believing them to be superior to humans. And he didn't waver in his belief. Then one day, he was just gone. It was right after Tom got on the alien ship. Everything was as mess of confusion back then. Casey hadn't even realised Rick was gone until he'd been missing for a couple of days.

And now he was back, and leading Casey and her friends through the city on an apparent rescue mission. The whole scenario felt wrong. As much as she chided herself, Casey couldn't trust Rick. It was the harness that made him loyal to the skitters, he hadn't wanted to do what they made him do. But it had still been done, and now he was leading them to God knew where. The last Casey knew, Rick's loyalty was with the aliens. Following him blindly into nowhere seemed like a foolish idea to her.

They were walking the streets a few blocks from where they had found Rick. Rick was out in front with Weaver and Tom close behind. The group kept a loose oval formation with Casey, Dai, Lyle and Boon rounding the rear. Everyone seemed on edge, holding their rifles extra tight and reacting to every cast of a shadow and leaf disturbed by the breeze. Then suddenly Rick just stopped still. His body went rigid and the spikes on his back lit up.

"He's near." Rick said.

Tom lowered his gun slightly and turned to Rick. "Ben?"

"Yes," Rick said. "Ben's here, too."

"What do you mean?" Tom asked. "Ben's with somebody else?"

And then Rick took off running. "This way!"

Rick led the group through a darkened alley. Casey kept in step with Dai and jogged behind Tom and Weaver. The alley directed them through to a cemented area behind a building. Rick made his way to the back of the area and stopped before a set of closed weathered double doors. Casey and the others jogged up behind Rick as he knelt down to the ground and dipped his fingers in a small pool of blood leading through the doors.

"That's skitter blood," Weaver muttered to Tom. Then he turned to the group. "Keep your guard up; all of you."

Rick yanked open the double doors and lead the group into what appeared to be a small underground parking lot. Even in the sudden dim light, Casey again caught sight of Weaver pushing off more on his right leg than his left. But she didn't dare ask him about it. Although he could have been missing that whole leg and still maintained he was in tip-top shape. Weaver was a tough man to talk down.

The parking lot was more confining than Casey expected it to be. If she reached up, she could touch the ceiling. Not that she dared let go of her rifle. She'd never shot it in the dark before, and even though there was still faded light bathing the room from the unwashed windows against the wall, Casey was still unsure of herself. And she didn't have Lee at her side to reassure her. To distract herself, Casey tried to take note of everything around her. There were pipes attached to the roof leading in all directions and a strong smell of damp circled the air. The ground was solid cement and thick pillars stood every few feet. It was a gloomy place to be, but it sure didn't seem like the kind of place skitters would be waiting to ambush them.

Tom stood a couple of steps in front of everyone else as he followed behind Rick. "Ben?" He ventured. "It's Dad, are you hurt?"

"Dad?" Ben's voice echoed out from behind one of the pillars. The boy sounded strained. "Just-just go away!"

Rick stepped forwards. "Ben. It's me, Rick. I brought them here."

"Why would you do that?" Ben sounded desperate.

"Because he needs their help." Rick explained. "And if he doesn't get it; he'll die and everything that he worked for will be lost."

Ben appeared out from behind a pillar; gun drawn. "I won't let you hurt him!"

Casey aimed her gun at Ben as did everyone else – even Tom. As Ben flicked his gun around to each of them in turn, Casey noticed his spikes were glowing. Ben's face was wrought with anxiety, he seemed completely scattered and on the verge of tears.

"Hurt who, Ben?" Tom asked his son.

A wet chattering noise emitted from behind the pillar where Ben had appeared, and then a skitter edged out into view. A skitter with a badly infected eye wound. Casey almost pulled back on her trigger in surprise. Turns out they were being ambushed after all.

Tom lurched forwards and stabbed his gun through the air in front of the skitter. "No! It's not possible!" He yelled.

"No!" Ben moved in between his father and the skitter. "NO!"

"Lower your weapon, Professor." Rick warned.

"I know this skitter!" Tom cried. "He was on the ship with me; he tried to kill me!"

The skitter made a pained sort of grunting noise, and then Rick's head dropped forwards. "I saved you, Professor." Rick said. "I saved you from death. You know this to be true."

"The hell?" Boon swapped his rifle from pointing at the skitter to Rick.

Casey's body went rigid; the skitter was using Rick was a mouthpiece. They were still connected.

"We must talk." Rick directed at Tom. "It is urgent you understand. So put down your weapon."

"Dad, if we don't help him he's dead." Ben's eyes were wet with tears. It was as though he was talking about a person whom he cared deeply for. "He's dead."

"I know it is difficult to understand," Skitter Rick continued. "But we are fighting the same enemy. Anger. Hate. These I feel, too. Until we defeat the overlords, we cannot hope to-

"Stop!" Tom roared at the skitter, he didn't even look at Rick. "Stop talking!"

"Many lives have been sacrificed, Tom Mason," Rick continued. "Many more will."

And then both the red-eyed skitter and Rick collapsed.

xxx