Disclaimer: I own but Nicole and the aliens. Calvin and Hobbes and, very technically, the outcome of the plot all belong to Bill Watterson. Complain to him.

* ** *

"Alright Calvin, I know something is up."

Calvin's eyes traced bout the room in a sly yet conspicuous manner, as if done by Homer Simpson trying to hide his blunders on the workforce from his employer Mr. Burns.

"Nothing, Nicole. Just drop it."

Nicole frowned and bent over Calvin's bed. "Nothing eh? Is this nothing?" She reached into the dark void and pulled out a burlap sack that was stuffed with old food from lunches served over the past three weeks.

"Oh, that…never mind, Nikki." Calvin started to leave the tent when Nicole blocked his exit. "Are you planning to run? Are you that stupid?" Calvin sneered slightly and made an attempt to push Nicole aside, albeit not meaning to, because deep inside he had feelings for her, he knew, but was surprised to find her grabbing his wrists and staring into his eyes.

"Calvin…"

He groaned. "Alright…can you keep a secret?" Nicole took a quick outside the tent, making sure that no mech-suits were strolling by, and then nodded.

* ** *

It had all started after Calvin's midnight visitation from Hobbes. Calvin had tried to form a plan in his head for the next two days and when he decided it was impossible to make an escape, thank o' ye gods of faith.

Calvin was placed onto recycling duty, just in time for the annual mech-suit scrap too. As past skirmishes with the aliens had left them bitter toward Calvin, he was to work on this grueling task by himself.

The first day, under the guard of two mech-suits, Calvin took his first broken suit into the immense heap of broken metal and, with the appropriate tools, began to grind down instrument boards, metal, and weapons. As the pit was too big to contain the current suit, Calvin had to drag it toward the back of the pit, which was marked by the barrier wall of the camp. It was only three feet of steel, and, after making sure nobody was watching, Calvin began to dig. By the time he was done, it was big enough for Calvin to place his butt in tightly. Calvin took a sheet of metal and covered the hole as well as different odds and ends to make the sheet less conspicuous.

Over the next few weeks the hole got larger and larger and began to slope in an L to under the wall. By the second week Calvin could hide himself eight feet into the hole, which was just over the halfway limit of his proposed tunnel.

In addition to the hole, Calvin began to stock food for his big escape to the hill. It was roughly two and a half miles away, piece of cake, but several of the large mech-suits still patrolled the area, and Calvin would take it as slow as he needed to.

That was why, while grinding down the worn out suits, he would disassemble, say, the wrist plasma cannon into the barrel, firing compartments, and over three feet of brightly colored cable. He hid this and at times worked the weapon into a gun-like frame, the perfect weapon. A large fraction of the power of the plasma cannon the large mech-suits in the palm of your hand.

Now, in the third week, the hole was about fifteen minutes from its completion. Calvin was ready to make a break for it for the Hill, where Hobbes had told him to go. And by Lord he was going to make it, he knew.

* ** *

Nicole nodded as Calvin closed his story. "So…your going to make it for that hill we can see at night? With the lights?"

Calvin nodded, looking into Nicole's eyes. "You know…its only about two and a half miles to the hill…that food would be more than enough. And I've set aside three weapons: one for me and two for other people, but it looks like you're the only one so far. That is…if you want to help me."

Nicole's eyes fell to the floor, obviously thinking. Calvin nodded and began to collect his burlap sack. "You're leaving now?" Calvin nodded. "It's either now or never, Nicole. Will you help me?"

"…yes."

* ** *

"Will it be alright if Nicole helps me today, fellas?" The mech-suits stared at Calvin, who was balancing the upper torso of a worn out suit while Nicole supported at the bottom. The inside of the suit was hollowed out and the burlap sack was stashed inside.

"Alright, I suppose this once, 'earth boy.' Just make sure she does a good job."

Calvin and Nicole brought the suit to the back of the pit and dumped it, taking the bag. Calvin strolled over to the deteriorated leg of a suit and pulled from it three guns he had constructed over the past weeks. They looked, truthfully, more like harmless paintball guns than lethal ray-guns, but the first alien to say otherwise was going to be scraping more than blue-yellow paint of his hood.

Calvin pushed the bag into the hole and crawled in, then allowed Nicole to follow. Following the L bend, Calvin went from vertical to horizontal for five feet, then arced up to half vertical again. Calvin took from the sack his spoon from lunch and began to pull away at dirt, just ripping the clods out along with small rocks and roots.

Fifteen minutes later, Calvin found sunlight again. "We're out Nikki!" he exclaimed, pushing himself onto the fresh grass, something they didn't have in the camp. How he had missed it so, and the trees that surrounded the camp were something of a comfort as well.

Nicole poked her head and looked up at the barrier. The guard tower was nowhere in visible sight, but still Calvin could see fear in her eyes. "No, this is as far as I go Calvin. I'm sorry, I just can't go."

"B-but we have to! I know what I have to do, mostly, and I need your help!" Nicole shook her head. "I'm sorry Calvin. If you make it, we'll be appreciative, whatever it is your doing, here at camp. If you don't…well…"

Nicole leaned out of the hole and kissed Calvin softly on the cheek.

"Goodbye Calvin." and with that she disappeared underground.

* ** *

The first mile into the forest wasn't bad. Here and there he would find long ago blasted areas where the trees still smelt of burnt flesh. On several occasions he would find the bones of the victims of this area, and in one clearing where the evergreens were thick, the two-year silhouette of the victim was still outlined in the blackened needles.

Of course, it didn't take the guards long to realize that Calvin had gone missing. He knew this as soon as he heard the first tree crash three hundred yards behind him. "Human! Come out with your limbs where we can see them!"

With that, Calvin was away.

* ** *

Calvin ran for a half mile before the mech-suits caught up with him. He never knew they were tailing him until a bright green flash and a whistle meant that they had fired their plasma cannon. A green lance of light flared past Calvin and seared a tree off of its base.

Calvin turned and ran harder.

The mech-suits began to rain fire harder on Calvin. Thanks to the trees, Calvin, who should have been vaporized if this had been a clearing, remained running. He twisted and, with his homemade gun, pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Calvin cursed and threw the gun away and took out the second, hoping this was the working one and not the one he had left with Nicole. He twisted and pulled the trigger

…and the left arm of a mech-suit lopped off. The two guards looked at each other before a second hit knocked the suit out of the sky. The second suit hesitated long enough to get several blows to the chest.

Calvin turned and ran harder before replacement guards would arrive.

* ** *

Five minutes later, Calvin came to his destination.

It was large, for the hill had once been a ski lodge, but the top half of the largest hill had been lopped off and leveled for the building that sat atop of it. It was a rectangular building, about eleven hundred feet by two hundred feet. Only two stories tall though, and before was lined a landing strip lined with bright lights, the ones that Calvin could see at night.

Inside that building was the answers he needed, the answers to freeing the human race again.

From behind him came a crashing noise. Calvin turned to find a mech-suit, plasma cannon raised. "Don't move human."