Chapter 3 - Rachel

"Dad?"
"Hm?"

"Why does Robbie act weird sometimes?" Rachel whispered into her Dad's ear. She didn't want to wake the boy in question who was asleep stretched across the sofa.

"I think he has concussion Rach,"
"Is that bad?"
"Well, yeah. He needs to come out of it,"
"Will he Dad?"
"Yeah…yeah I'm sure he will Rachel. Want me to sing you that song?"

Rachel smiled, and began stroking the toy horse slung over her shoulder, "It's OK Dad, I'm not sleepy now. What are we going to do now though Dad?"
"What do you mean?"

"Well, now that Robbie's here. When are we going to go to Boston?"

Ray paused. He hadn't thought about that.

"We need to wait until Robbie's better then we'll go. The…the-the…um…" Ray struggled to think of a suitable name, "Tripods…seemed to have moved on,"
"OK,"
Ray went back into his own quiet meditation and Rachel returned to her toy horse. Things were quiet in the basement. The wind whipped around the enormous hole in the ceiling above them, a trickle of water ran over the lip of a concrete chunk not far off, and Robbie's breathing was heavy and relaxed.
"Hey Rachel?"
"Uh-huh?"

"If Robbie wakes up and he feels OK…do you want to set off now?"

Rachel nodded.

"You wanna see your Mom, don't you?"

Rachel was wise enough not to add: and Tim, and so simply nodded.

"Well we'll try, 'kay?"
"OK Dad,"
Half an hour later and Robbie began to stir. His bruised limbs were feeling slightly less stiff but there was still the feeling that a tiny creature was dying a horrible death inside his skull. He said up, slightly drunkenly, putting his hand to his head. He was met by Rachel and Ray staring at him.

"Hey,"
"Hey Robbie. How you feeling?"
"I've gotta headache but that's it Dad,"

"Really?"
"Yeah…well, I'm a little stiff but that's about it,"

"Wanna try walking around then, cos your sisters eager to get off,"
"Oh yeah…Boston. We're…we're still going to Boston, right?"
"Of course we're gonna, where else are we gonna go?" Ray laughed, although his words carried too much meaning and truth for his liking.

Robbie stood slowly. Rachel put her hands on his hips to help him steady. Ray hung around by his other side in case he fell.

"I got up quick enough when that thing came out the ground, Dad, I'm OK," Robbie laughed. It had been two days after Ogilvy had disappeared from his and Rachel's lives and both knew why, although they said nothing about it. Overall, Robbie had had plenty of time to rest and heal, after spending those two days and a day before doing nothing but lying on the sofa.

"You alright to walk?"

Robbie walked steadily enough forward, his feet splashing through the puddle lit by the dim light of the outside.
"Yeah. Yeah I think I'm OK,"
"Great,"

Ray, Rachel and Robbie, found themselves four hours later on a busy country road, moving with others. Some of the people around them were camping. They had broken into cars abandoned by the roadside and made their own little homes, or else constructed rickshaw tents or taken cover up in trees. In whatever way they wanted, people were making places their homes.

The three had been quiet for the past hour or so, the two kids simply following their Dad and keeping still. Rachel was holding her Dad's arm and Robbie walked just next to her. His limbs killed, his head pounded, and there was a nasty pain in his chest, but Robbie knew how much Rachel wanted to get to Boston, just like himself, and decided not to let it bother him. He carried on, baring his teeth under his lips and wincing.

A thumping noise carried itself across the valley like a ball bouncing. Ray didn't react to it so suddenly. It sounded like someone beating something rhythmically. When he finally paid attention to it he thought maybe a car had got on the wrong side of an angry refugee and he was venting his anger on it. Ray didn't think anything of it until an odd shadow fell about his feet.

And then the sound of a Tripod.

Rachel latched herself onto Ray's arm. He bent down, sweeping her up in his arms. Up on the top of the valley they occupied, a Tripod stood lit up from behind against the sun. It seemed to be inspecting the sky. It seemed…smaller. Ray thought he had been imagining things but no, he was right. This one was smaller than the others. Not small, by any means, it was still about 70ft high, but not as big as the others they had come across. By the stunned silence in the crowd on the road, everyone else was thinking the same thing. And in unison, they began to think something else.
Ray ducked slowly, moving behind the bulk of a car similar to the one they had taken from Manny's garage. He still held onto Rachel. Robbie, crouching next to him, was peering through the window of the car.

The Tripod called again. Robbie ducked.

"Is it coming?" Ray mouthed. Robbie shook his head. All around them, people were slowly moving towards cars, ducking behind any large object they could find. The trees, that had a few moments ago been alive with people scrambling to get comfortable on the branches, were now incredibly still. Robbie could see a few people steal behind the slightly dishevelled houses that lined the roads. A couple further up the road was lying flat behind a car that looked to have been chewed up and spat back out again.

The Tripod lowered itself to look down into the valley. Ray, who had been spying through the window, dropped back again. He put his finger to his lips. Both his children nodded. Rachel sat panting against her father's chest. She'd played hide and seek with these monsters before.
The Tripod began to move, thundering down the hillside. It was the sound Ray had heard earlier. Ray pressed him and his daughter flat against the car, scared the machines height might make it easier for it to see them. The all too familiar whirr of the arms coming out of the machine broke the thundering of it's gate and then it stopped by the roadside. Ray glanced under the car. He could see one of it's huge feet planted on top of a car he swore people had been hiding in a moment before. It trumpeted into the air. It's arms whirred, stretching out. The thin blue line of fire, like a whiplash, hit the house just to the Ferrier's right.

"Stay still," Ray whispered, gripping onto his son who had wanted to shoot off at the first sign of open fire.

The Tripod waited, watching the house ignite, and began to be engulfed in flames. Ray held his breath. If the people in or behind that house made themselves known they were all done for. But what were they supposed to do when caught in a burning wreck? Ray peered under the car, and began to inch his way towards the back of the car, away from the fire. If everything broke loose, their nearest hiding place was in a car overturned on it's side.
Screams began to wail from the house. The Tripod called it's brutal sound and began to fire. Around twenty people flew form their hiding places. A handful of people in the trees dropped to the ground and ran. Ray watched horrified as the fleeing people were turned to ashes on the spot as they made their desperate rush for freedom.

"Go, go, go!" he let Rachel and took her hand. He ran, half crouched towards the next car. The flung themselves down behind the shattered roof.
"Robbie!"

Ray heard Rachel's cries but was seemingly blind. The fire had caught the summer-dried grass and was sweeping quickly over the scattering of clothes.

"Robbie?"

Rachel's face was all he could see, and she was straining back towards their former hiding place, "Robbie!"

The Tripod was beginning to spread it's fire. Ray's muscles tensed as he prepared to stand. And then the car they crouched behind was hit by the explosion of the car next to it.

Ray and Rachel flew down the bank, rolling down the grass and bumping painfully against the hard ground. They landed at the bottom, a patch of thistle scraping Rachel's cheek.

Ray hooked his arms under Rachel's legs and shoulders and stood up, running towards the next house. They needed shelter, they needed to hide.
"Robbie!"
He also needed Robbie.

Behind the house, a couple were hiding in a metal and brick coal box under the porch. They beckoned to the pair over the noise, "Come in!"
Ray pushed Rachel next to them, "Please, please just stay with her, I need to get my son!"
"Sure, sure!" they cried, yanking Rachel further into the coal box, "Quick, quick,"

Ray had no time to argue with himself over the situation. Through the fire and the heat and the smell that radiated from the very air around him, Ray squinted to see his son. Robbie was still behind their first hiding place. He was slumped against the car, eyes closed, his head leant to one side.

Ray sprinted like an Olympic athlete: close to the ground, arms moving to keep his momentum going. He scrambled up the car and threw himself down over it's lip, grabbing onto Robbie's arm.

"Robbie! Robbie wake up!"
If an alien invasion wasn't going to wake Robbie up, his shouting wasn't going to. He picked Robbie up as best he could, but found time to run was taken away from him. The world shattered around him as the tarmac flew into the air. The Tripod was on the move and it was stamping it's authority. Once again Ray found himself rolling down the bank, and coming to an awkward stop at the bottom, this time holding his eldest son.
He dragged himself to his feet. They were exposed at the bottom of the bank, at the edge of a huge field that stretched with no place to hide. He had to get back to Rachel. He couldn't stand them being split up again. Could he carry Robbie all the way? Robbie wasn't overweight but a teenage boy weighed quite a bit anyway, nevermind completely unconscious. He was a deadweight.

"Get up Robbie!" he shouted at the unconscious figure. The blood running into his son's eyes shimmered with miniscule reflects of the chaos.
"Get up Robbie! Get up now! Get up!"

Ray hit the ground next to Robbie's head. It was as if he were comatose. "Wake up!"

He crouched on all fours over his son, and tears dribbled down his chin, "Wake up Robbie! Get up! Get up for you sister! You can't do this to me Robbie, WAKE UP!"
Robbie didn't respond. Ray looked up the bank, towards the Tripod.
He groaned, a animal-like noise of disbelief.

The Tripod spread a line of fire down the bank.

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AS: Ooh, mean! Next chapter will be up soon so don't worry.

By the way I am sorry if the height of this mini-Tripod sounds off to you. I'm bad at estimating heights!