A/N: You guys have really made my week. I love it when I open up my email and I have all these lovely reviews from you guys! Thank you SO much! Sorry it took me so long to post this. My beta is kinda slow sometimes…lol. Anyways, here's the latest chapter. The song in this chapter is called 'Cells' by The Servant. I just thought it sounded good for the scene, and the lyrics play an important message in the story too, so pay attention! In case if you've never heard it before, it's the trailer song from the movie 'Sin City'. So, I was listening to it over and over while I wrote so I decided to add it in, tehehe...hope you like!

JessykaSimmons: Thanks for the advice. I did my best. Hope you like it.

Jamamaimie05: Yeah, I'm excited about that part too. Have you seen the movie? I guess people who just read the book would get this story. Thanks for reviewing!

Dawnie-7: Thanks again for reviewing. I just kinda put myself in the characters' position, and I always think about tragic stuff in the present day to sort of, fuel my writing anger, if you will. Boy, if those aliens really did come down to Earth and started zapping people, I'd be upset too, lol.

Live2sk8: Thanks for the review! You're story's awesome too! Update again soon.

Tess: I'm actually surprised at how long this new chappie is. I hope you like it! Thanks for the reviews. I'm glad you like the story!

Vickitori: Thanks for the review. Alex is kinda blending in right now, but that's because she wants too- she's kinda shy and quiet, but that should all soon change- as a War of the Worlds will change people.

Sorceress Damia: Lol, does your uncle look like Don Vito? That'd be funny. Yeah, I love Viva La Bam. Phil is so cute! Have you seen him on Celebrity Fit Club? He's like, the sweetest guy. Anyway, yeah, I thought Justin did an amazing job as a teenager. People are so stupid! Did you know he actually has a little sister that he really likes? I think that's so cute! Lol, I'm a blushing fan girl and I'm crazy. Besides, I think Robbie has an awesomely cool personality. He's a stubborn, feisty teen, but at the same time, a sweetheart who cares about his sister and others.

Vagrant Candy: Thanks for your reviews here and at The Mask and the Mirror. They're both greatly appreciated. I will go into further detail about what happens to all our characters throughout the story and I'll describe some 'interesting' events that you didn't see in the movie, lol. So, I hope you'll enjoy that!

Chapter Three: A Pocket of Pleasures

"On the city's skin the move on mass, like a rash on the back of a manky cat." –"Cells" by Servant.

Ray couldn't help but sigh. He felt guilty. Guilty about so many things. As if his experiences with his children were bad enough; if they all lived through this, he knew this would always remain the freshest memory of a weekend spent at Dad's house in their memory… and in his.

"Take care of our kids," Mary Ann had said to him with a sweet grin before she walked away from him again. And Ray planned to- if it was in his hands.

He had so many regrets. He had always wanted to be their father, but never felt that he deserved them. As much as he hated Tim, he knew the kids were lucky to have a father figure around, since he hardly was.

Tim was rich, Tim was powerful, and Tim stole Mary Ann's heart. Ray was not rich. Ray was not powerful, but he and Mary Ann had loved each other once, and had at that time wanted to start a family. Now she was pregnant again, and adding to her family, without Ray.

Ray glanced in the rear view mirror at all three children in the back. He wished with all his heart things could have turned out differently. The Red Sox would have one less fan, he thought to himself with a faint grin.

But what could he possibly offer them- his children? His family and loved ones? He didn't have money, and wasn't successful, and he knew his family would be better off without him. I made that choice long ago, he reminded himself with remorse. It was for the best. But was it really? He felt as if he didn't know his own offspring, and knowing that is what pained him the most.

"Is everyone okay?" Ray asked.

"Yeah," said Alex, breathlessly.

"Me too," said Robbie. "Rachel?"

"Yeah."

Robbie glanced down at his sister who was resting her head on his left arm. Rachel drew in a slow, deep breath, and Robbie could tell she was trying to relax.

Rachel stirred uncomfortably in her sleep. Was she dreaming? Robbie wondered if he should wake her. What if she was having a nightmare? He thought about it, and then chose not to disturb her. At least she was sleeping; and Robbie knew that was a gift in itself.

He turned to his right and glanced at Alex, who was looking solemnly out the side window. He could see her hollow reflection in the glass, and frowned, wondering if she was thinking about her own family.

"Hey, Alex." She turned around to face him, black eyeliner smeared on the bottom lid of her eye; her soft cheeks stained with dried tears.

"Hey," she mimicked.

"I'm…sorry," Robbie muttered, thoughtfully. "About, your…" he tried to find the right words and hesitated from speaking more than once. "Your family."

Alex didn't respond for a moment, just thinking about what Robbie had said. "Thanks." She glanced upwards at Ray. "Well," she sighed softly. "It was just my step-mom, Audrey, and my dad…I think he's okay."

Robbie didn't say anything, just listened to the girl. "He left on another business trip two nights ago and wasn't going to be home until Thursday." Alex lowered her gaze. "I guess he's not coming home so soon anymore."

"Where did he go?" Robbie inquired, thoughtfully.

"Rhode Island, I think," Alex responded, quietly. "I'm not sure; he goes to so many places…it's hard top keep track."

"I bet he's worried about you," Robbie offered.

"You think people know what happened already?"

Robbie reflected on the news broadcast he'd seen earlier and cocked his head slightly when he answered. "Yeah, they probably do." He dug his hands deep into his pants' pockets and chewed softly at his bottom lip, which reminded him… "You hungry?" he asked casually.

Alex simply nodded, placing a hand on her cheek and resting her elbow on her knee. "I guess."

"I have some chocolate if you want it," Robbie offered, unzipping his grey jacket and reaching inside his inner pocket. When his hand came out again, he held half a Milky Way chocolate bar, still packaged in the wrinkled wrapper.

Alex chuckled and released her hand from her cheek. "How long has that been in there?"

Robbie smiled a little. "Just since this morning," he promised. "I ate half of it for dinner."

Alex looked up at Robbie with suspicious eyes, but took the candy bar gratefully. "Nice dinner. You sure you don't want it?" she asked.

"I'm not really that hungry."

"Thanks," Alex said softly, taking a bite from the bar. The sweet, milky chocolate had never tasted so moist and silky in her mouth and she savored every morsel.

"I don't know- chocolate usually makes me feel better," Robbie offered when he saw that Alex was enjoying it.

Alex chuckled softly. "I thought that was a girl thing."

Alex turned back to the window, nibbling silently on the chocolate bar. She couldn't keep her thoughts from Audrey. She could still visualize it all happening: the tripod rising from the earth, taking its first steps, blasting rays of light like a death machine. She could see Audrey's face, or what she thought would have been her step-mother's face just before she died.

What does it feel like? She wondered. She wondered if dying hurt, or if Audrey even had time to realize what was happening to her while she died. Alex could only hope that Audrey hadn't felt any pain, and had died quickly.

Robbie could see from watching Alex in the window again that her thoughts were turning back to remorse. "Is it good?" he asked.

Alex was grateful for the end of silence, but it took her a moment to collect her thoughts and realize he was talking about the chocolate. She swallowed the bite in her mouth and said, "Yes, thanks," she nodded. "Red Sox fan?" she questioned, glancing up at Robbie's cap.

"Yeah," Robbie said, with a faint grin. "My mom's team."

"Cool."

"You?" Robbie inquired, sensing that Alex wanted to talk.

"Oh, uh," Alex picked at her brain for an answer. Truth be told, she preferred tennis to baseball. She tried to think of a team. Her dad watched baseball… "Cardinals…St. Louis," she finally said, nodding. "My dad's team."

"Yeah, they're pretty good," Robbie said quietly, and then added with a hint of mockery, "but the Red Sox are better."

Both he and Alex smiled, and probably for the first time in hours actually felt the smiles were well earned. "Well, to each his own," Alex said, grinning.

"Yeah," Robbie agreed, thinking of his dad and remembering the little game they played hours ago. It had not gone well.

"Baseball season's over," Robbie said when Ray dropped a baseball mitt in his lap as he lay in his cramped bed.

Robbie glanced down fleetingly at the glove in his hand and frowned, then looked back up at his dad and got out of bed, following his father to the small plot of dying grass and weeds that was Ray's backyard.

The air was bitter cold and an icy wind began to blow. Robbie was thankful Tim had bought a nice warm jacket for him for his seventeenth birthday- the one was wearing now. Robbie put his Red Sox cap on with a silent pride, tipping the rim low to shade his eyes.

"Red Sox?" Ray inquired, but Robbie ignored him.

While Robbie stayed nearer to the house, Ray positioned himself at the other end of the yard, near the fence, and Rachel was sitting at a little wiry table on the patio playing with a pair of toy horses.

Robbie carefully pulled on the baseball glove and stood his ground, waiting for Ray to make a pitch.

"Your mom says you've got a report due on Monday," Ray reminded his son as he tossed the ball to his son.

"I'm almost finished," Robbie retorted, catching the ball in the glove and pitching it back at Ray. "Just gotta type it up."

"Yeah," Ray chuckled. "Bullshit."

"What would you know, Ray?" Robbie inquired.

"Well," Ray tossed the ball again to Robbie, who caught it. "Between me and my brother, we know everything," Ray answered, flashing his son a grin.

"What's the capital of Australia?" Rachel asked, looking at her father.

He glanced down at her and answered, barely catching the ball that Robbie cast at him. "That's one my brother knows." He threw the ball.

Robbie caught it and threw it back instantly with a slight grunt. "That's only funny the first ten times you say it."

Ray caught the baseball and threw it at his son with a heavy force. Robbie gritted his teeth as the ball hit his hand hard.

"Well, anyway, we don't send you school so you can just flunk out."

"You don't pay for it," Robbie said coldly. "Tim does."

Ray tossed the ball even harder the next chance he got. After Robbie caught it, he shook his hand that itched with the pain and grimaced as he tossed it back.

"That's only half of what's in me," Ray said, grinning slightly.

"Why do you have to be such a bastard, Ray?" Robbie questioned.

"Why do you have to be such an ass?"

This time, when Ray pitched the ball, Robbie didn't catch it. Instead, he dropped his hand at the last moment and let the ball sail right into the window behind him.

Robbie stood still for a moment, watching Ray's reaction as his father stared with a frustrated expression at the broken window. Robbie turned around to face his masterpiece then glanced back at Ray one last time before trudging back inside the house.

"That's not how you're going to get through to him," Rachel piped up, stroking the tail of one of her plastic horses. Ray glared at her, and made his way, slowly back inside. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to bed," Ray answered, tired. "I have to work for a living you know."

While this memory caressed Robbie's mind, Alex was to trying to relax and failing the attempt miserably. Part of her hated the silence that followed as Robbie took out a white mini iPod and plugged the headphones in his ears, and part of Alex couldn't find the energy to speak. Her head felt as if it was about to burst, and her tongue felt swollen in her throat.

Alex glanced at Robbie while he started pressing buttons and finding the right music he wished to hear, or at least distract his mind for at least the moment. Out of the corner of his eye, Robbie noticed Alex's fleeting glance. She had quickly turned back to the window and was silent, so Robbie let her be.

It was the second time she looked that Robbie took the headphones from his ears. "You wanna listen?"

Alex, who had been about to turn back to the window, froze. "Um, sure."

Robbie handed the iPod to Alex and she carefully took it. "Have you ever used one?" he asked.

"No," Alex answered, putting the headphones in her ears.

"Robbie leaned closer and took the iPod in hand. "Press this button to chose what song you want," he suggested. "And scroll down with this button…" Alex listened patiently as Robbie gave her the instructions.

She saw a list of songs come up on the iPod's dull grey screen. There were different song labels like Rock, Pop, Jazz, and several others. "Here," Robbie handed Alex the iPod again. "You choose whatever."

"Okay, thanks," Alex said, her voice timid. Let's see… Alex thought as she scrolled through the song list under the 'Rock' category.

She stopped scrolling when she reached a certain song title and clicked the tiny round button on the side of the iPod. The soothing melody of drums and the stringing of an electric guitar hummed in her ears. Alex started bobbing her head casually to the song "Cells" by Servant.

As she offered her mind to the beat of the music, she tried to rid her thoughts of Audrey, the tripods, and of her father. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the seat, continually, and still very slightly, bobbing her head with the rhythm of the song.

"It'll all click when the mortgage clears. All our fears will disappear…" Alex could see Audrey standing there, back to her, looking up in awe at the foreign machine that towered above her. "Now you go to bed; I'm staying here…"

I wish you were here, Audrey, thought Alex, with a pained expression. She tried to push the thought out of her mind. Relax, she told herself. Just breathe.

She tried to picture better times; times when she was happy. Coursing through the remnants of her memory, she picked out the happiest of memories: The first was her father retuning from a two week long business trip- or at least that's what he had said he'd been gone for…Alex was never sure…

"They annoy me, those who employ me. They could destroy me, they should enjoy me…"

The wheels of the van rolled smoothly along the long stretch of highway as Ray kept his eyes on the road. There were fewer people on the road here; some bicyclists, and little more. Ray wondered if the nearer they got to Mary Ann's house, there would be working vehicles.

"The sun goes up and the sun goes down. I drag myself into the town…" Alex opened her eyes suddenly, the visions of her past turning yet again to the tripod. "All I do I wanna do with you." She glanced fleetingly at Robbie who was staring aimlessly out the window on Rachel's side.

"Everyday I'm at my desk; at my desk I'm like the rest. All I do I wanna do with you…" Alex quickly turned her head when she realized she was staring.

The image of Ray's home being crushed by the bridge fleetingly entered Alex's mind. "On the city's skin they move on mass…" She remembered feeling sorry for the mass of confused and homeless travelers that flocked like a river of people in the streets they crossed. "Like a rash on the back of a manky cat."

Rachel stirred again in her sleep and slowly her eyelids flipped open. She picked herself up and looked out the window, and then up at Robbie. "Hey, Rach," he greeted warmly.

She blinked at him sleepily. "Hey," she muttered, resting her head back on his shoulder and closing her eyes again.

"The sun goes up and the sun goes down…" Robbie sighed as his sister fell again to into a light sleep. "I drag myself into the town."

Alex blinked away stinging tears. "All I wanna do I wanna do with you. I dress myself like a charcoal sketch. My eyes are brown and my hair's a mess…."

Alex combed her side bangs back with her fingers, sighing softly. She turned to face the window and watched the blue sky up above. It looked so peaceful. "All I do I wanna do with you. All I wanna do I wanna do with you. The sun goes up."

Ray's face was a clear picture in her mind. He looked frantic, pale, and his hair was dripping with water. He had said that they were to leave his house in sixty seconds…Alex remembered.

"The cells I am at the moment will soon die."

I don't wanna die, Alex told herself, shutting her watering eyes tightly.

"But I will be here. Oh, I'll still be here," the words echoed into her throbbing ears. "The sun goes up…" the thought of a rising sun in a world of darkness gave Alex a little hope. But then again, they were just lyrics. "Everyday, everyday, everyday…"

As the song came to an end, Alex sat up, took the headphones from her ears, and rubbed her puffy red eyes. "Here," she said, handing the iPod back to Robbie.

Robbie turned to face her. "You done?"

"Yeah," Alex muttered, unobtrusively. "Thanks for letting me listen though. I just don't wanna waste the batteries."

"Ok, cool," Robbie replied. He turned the iPod off and put it back in his pocket.

The sky was growing darker, and Robbie figured it would be nightfall by the time they reached his mother and Tim's house. He couldn't wait to see them, to make certain they were alright.

The further the highway stretched behind them, the more frequent the sight of cars became. "Guess nothing happened here," Robbie remarked.

He let out a small yawn, wishing he could fall asleep like his little sister. Alex looked down at Rachel as she slept. "She really looks up to you," she noted.

"Yeah," Robbie agreed. Sometimes I'm all she has.

"I had a brother once," Alex confided. "He was killed in a car crash eight years ago. I barely knew him."

"Sorry," Robbie told her.

"Well, I was like nine…and he had been away at college for three years, so I didn't see much of him anyway, really."

Robbie didn't want to think of what it would be like to lose a sibling. He glanced quickly down at Rachel, who stirred quietly beside him, nestling her cheek further into his arm.

"Do you play any sports?" Robbie finally asked, trying to ease the tension that he could still feel building in the solemn feeling van.

"Umm, I play tennis, actually," Alex said.

"Baseball," Robbie said of himself with a nod.

"You on the varsity team at your school?" Alex inquired.

"No, I go to a private school…no sports. I play with my friends though. Sometimes, during summer, my friends and I form our own little teams and get together and play at the park, but I never have gotten around to playing on an actual team for…years."

"Well that sounds like fun," Alex offered.

"Yeah, it is."

"My friend and I play tennis with teams sometimes at the courts, and we call ourselves the 'Dolphin Fins,'" Alex said, smiling.

"The Dolphin Fins?" Robbie grinned slightly.

"Yeah…well, Tiger Claws was already taken by the other team, and we felt we had to… one-up them." Alex and Robbie locked eyes a moment, and then Robbie glanced downward.

"Our teams don't really have names," he informed Alex.

"It's probably for the best," began Alex. "Especially if you're as creative as us."

Robbie grinned faintly. "I don't think I know anyone who could come up with a name quite like the Dolphin Fins," he teased. Closing his eyes, he rested his head on the back of the seat. "I can't wait to be home."

Alex dropped her smile and said nothing- she no longer had a home. Just this thought made her feel weak in the stomach and she took a final bite of the Milky Way bar, grateful she had an opportunity to eat something. When there was no response, Robbie opened his eyes and sat up again.

Alex and Robbie both looked out the window several minutes later. They were in a small residential area, surrounded by fine looking homes on either side. Each two to three level house was bordered by a freshly manicured lawn and a green canvas boasting brightly decorative flowers and water fountains, reminding Alex of a gorgeous painting.

"Wow," Alex whispered. "You live here?"

"Yep," Robbie stated. "It's pretty cool."

Blinking her eyes wearily, Rachel sat up and yawned. She had been awakening and had heard part of the conversation and was too excited to be home to keep her eyes closed a moment longer.

"Are we home?" were the first words to come out of her mouth.

"Yeah, Rae; we're here," answered Robbie, grateful that his neighborhood had not yet been destroyed and his house incinerated. He smiled casually as the van carefully pulled into a slightly slanted driveway.

The car slowly rolled to a stop in front of a giant multilevel home, and Rachel sat up, her face beaming and her eyes widening. Nearly everyone in the car's spirits and hearts rose, except Ray's.

A/N: So, what did you think? I'm so giddy! The next chappie will have more action, tehehe…I promise… Please review! Thanks so much. And in case you were wondering, Rae and Rach are Rachel's nicknames…but you probably figured that out already.

-Modesty