DAY 36

The rain had returned on Caprica and was falling heavier than before. A 5 staggered through the undergrowth covered in blood with a bullet hole in his shoulder. As he walked into a clearing he stopped to catch his breath. He had not expected how hard one human would be to kill. So far Archangel had evaded him for a day, popping up every now and again to take out a centurion or to injure him further. He knew that the human was playing with him but he was still determined to kill him. He held his gun tightly and wiped the rain from his face with the other hand. As he turned around Archangel dived at him from the undergrowth and lunged his knife into 5's throat. 5 dropped his weapon and fell to his knees.

"I don't care how many of you there are, I will not stop till all of you are dead." He said before tearing the knife from 5's throat. He knelt down to watch, he grabbed the Cylon by the back of his head and watched as the life drained away from his eyes. Archangel reached over and wiped the blood off his knife on 5's shirt before turning and walking away. He moved back under the cover of the undergrowth, somewhere there were at least five centurions still searching for him. They, he thought, were next.

Skeeter came too with a sharp pain in the side of his head. As he got his bearings he realised he was laying at the bottom of a steep hill with no recollection of how he got there. It all started to slowly come back to him, they had been attacked by Cylons and he had fallen during the fight. He staggered a little as he got to his feet and had to steady himself against a tree. He picked up his bag and put it on his back before he picked up his shotgun. He put his hand to the side of his head and felt another sharp pain, as he brought his hand down he saw it was covered in blood.

"Well that's just great." He said to himself as he began to walk back up the hillside. When he reached the top he had the horrible sensation that he had no idea where he was.

"Frak." He said as he continued to walk in the direction they had been going before he fell. They had been heading towards the new camp Michaels had found. They were going to wait till Archangel returned but there had been no sign of him when the Cylons had found them.

"I'm going back." Vannick said picking up his rifle.

"Vannick I need you to stay here." Bria replied, "Skeeter knew where we were heading, he'll find us."

"What if he's injured and can't make it?" Vannick said.

"Darius, if he's not here by the morning I'll go back." Michaels said.

"We can't let anyone else get divided." Bria replied.

"Better me than Vannick." Michaels replied.

"Let's just give him a chance to catch up." Bria replied as she sat down in the large cave in their new camp.

"Did anyone actually see what happened?" Vannick asked.

"One minute he was firing at a centurion, the next time I looked up, he was gone and there were more of them appearing behind us." Ramok replied.

"He can handle himself, he'll be okay." Bria said.

"The important part is we're safe now." Mantill said.

"I swear to gods if you start again." Vannick said clearly getting irritated.

"Corporal, that's enough." Bria snapped.

"Sorry." He said sitting down.

As the wooded area Skeeter had been walking through started to thin out, he realised he had gone in the wrong direction. In front of him there were a series of shops on the outskirts of a small town. He saw a department store in front of him and headed over that way, he needed to clean himself up and find a map. As he walked into the clear, he was aware if there were any Cylons there would be nowhere for him to hide. Every time he tried to jog his whole body hurt but being out in the open for too long was too much for him. When he reached the doors they were locked shut. He walked along to a window a little further from view before smashing it. He breathed a sigh of relief when he stepped in out of the rain. He walked over to one of the drinks fridges which had been off for weeks and took out a bottle of water and finished it in one. As he finished he looked up and saw the sign for the toilets and headed into them. Once inside he saw the extent of the cut on his head, it was nowhere near as bad as he had originally feared. He wiped the blood away and then took out his first aid kit and wiped the wound clear before putting a sticking plaster over it. He stood and looked at himself in the mirror and almost didn't recognise the person looking back at him. Due to the nature of his job he usually had grease or oil from an engine all over him but he was generally always clean shaved. The beard he had grown over the last few weeks he didn't like.

"I think I'm gonna have to do something about this." He said to himself.

Archangel checked his compass, he was heading in the right direction, that was if they were still where he had left them when we went to Oasis. He assumed they would have moved on to the new camp Michaels had found for them but he had to check the old one first, just in case. The pass he had to walk across which was flanked one side by a hillside and the other by a 50ft sheer drop concerned him, but the way he had come had given him little option. He changed from walking to jogging as he wanted to get this part over with as quickly as he could. As he jogged up the pass, he heard the noise he had been dreading coming from behind him, the sound of a centurion moving quickly in his direction. He quickly changed to a sprint and found an outcrop of rocks he could hide behind. As he began to get himself into position he saw an entrance to a cave and moved inside. Inside there was a little light shining from a crack above and a nice breeze. Archangel sat by the entrance with his sidearm drawn, ready for any fight that may be coming. The Cylon was getting closer and closer and he braced himself, ready for action. Then it went straight past without even stopping. He let out a sigh of relief before cautiously going back outside. Quickly and silently he walked up the pass. Then he saw it, 50ft in front of him the Cylon had stopped and had its back to him. He took a deep breath and raised his weapon high, silently he almost tiptoed closer until he was no more than 5ft away from the robot, he pulled the trigger and blew its head clean off. As he did, gunfire erupted from below him. He quickly checked to see how many of them there were, four more centurions below all firing upwards to him. He reached into his bag and took out two home made nail bombs and lit the fuses before dropping them down below and taking cover. The explosion was loud and echoed across the landscape. The gunfire below had stopped. Archangel holstered his sidearm and took hold of his rifle again. He smiled to himself as he peered over the side and the pieces of the four Cylons were scattered across the ground. He decided not to revel in his victory for too long and got back underway, his mood lifted by his five effortless kills.

Skeeter felt much better as he looked at himself clean shaven in the mirror. The razor he had taken from the shop had done a great job and he had already put it into his pack. He walked back out into the shop and it didn't take him long to find a map of the area. He took it to the junk food section of the shop, placed it out onto a counter and began to eat a chocolate bar as he found his bearings. He now knew where he was and it didn't take him long to see where he had gone wrong and where he needed to be. He knew it would only take him a few hours to meet up with the others, but decided that he was going to take the opportunity to sleep on one of the beds he had seen earlier for a couple of hours before he moved on. As a kid this would have been one of his dreams come true, to be left alone in a big store, able to take whatever he wanted and to his surprise some of the enjoyment he had imagined as a child was there right now, all it was missing was his best friends. The time alone had given him an opportunity to think about the last month and he realised it was the first time he had done so properly. Since Danny's death he had slipped into auto pilot. He hadn't even really mourned his friend, that was something he intended to do when this was all over. The introduction of Vannick to the group had helped to keep his spirits up, they had so much in common. They loved Pyramid, they had talked for hours on end about the one on one game they intended on having when they were rescued. Vannick also had the same taste in music and movies so they had always had plenty to talk about. He couldn't remember the last time he had spent so much time with Mark, it had been at least ten years. As much as he loved being with his best friend he wasn't the same man any more. Skeeter had seen the destruction he was capable of and how easy it was for him to commit such amounts of violence in the blink of an eye and as much as he was grateful for it, as it kept them alive, it saddened him at the same time. He had also seen another side to him with Grace that he had never witnessed before, Skeeter knew without even being told how much his friend loved Grace and how it had destroyed a little piece of him when she had died. Now there was Bria, he didn't know what to make of her. She was a soldier but she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He tried hard not to think about her, there was too much in his past that made him fear getting close to anyone. He took his wallet out of his back pocket and took out a photograph and smiled. The blonde woman in the picture had been called Alice and he had loved her more than anyone in his life and she had been taken away from him. He tried not to think about it more than anything else that had ever happened to him. His behaviour after had spiralled out of control so fast. Had it not been for Mark, well he knew he would have been dead a long time now. Which was why he needed to be there for his friend now more than ever, he knew what his friend was going through and like Mark had been there for him, he would be there for his best friend.

He put the picture back into his wallet and picked up another of the chocolate bars, he had already stuffed the space he had left in there full of more cigarettes and chocolate. He took his things over to the bed department and laid them all out on the bed next to him in case he needed to make a quick escape. He set the alarm on his watch for two hours time, just a quick nap and then he would be back on his way.

Vannick stood at the entrance to the cave looking in at all the people. Bria and Michaels sat talking to each other while Mantill sat listening to Ramok read one of the sacred scrolls he had brought with him. He had never held any stock in the scrolls himself but he understood how it brought comfort to people at times like this, when the world felt like it was ending. Vannick had already noticed that Ramok was quite a man. He was one of the most peaceful people he had ever met, always spoke in calm but reassuring tones. Although he was a man who wasn't in charge he was excellent at keeping the peace. Mike sat by himself tinkering with some electronic equipment. Vannick went over and sat by him.

"Working on anything interesting?" he asked.

Mike looked up before turning his attention back to his work.

"Everything I work on is interesting Corporal." Mike said coldly.

Vannick chuckled to himself.

"If you must know I'm trying to build an EMP grenade." Mike replied.

"That sounds like it'll be useful."

"Of course it will be useful, however there are drawbacks." Mike replied.

"Drawbacks to dropping Cylons without ever firing a shot?"

Mike sighed to himself and rubbed his eyes, "What does an EMP DO Corporal?"

"It shorts out anything electronic." Vannick replied.

"That is a very crude way of putting it but essentially you are correct, so if you use this to "drop" Cylons as you put it, every piece of electronic equipment will short out." He waved the motion detector as he said it. "I am making this for any last ditch attempt we may need to stop a large amount of Cylons, if all looks doomed."

"Fair enough, you carry on with that Mike." Vannick replied, feeling stupid.

"You know if the Cylons had waited just two more weeks it would be, doctor." He said coldly.

"How very inconsiderate of them." Vannick replied sarcastically.

"Exactly Corporal." Mike said, missing the sarcasm entirely.

As Vannick stood up he saw Bria and Michaels laughing at what they had just heard.

"Some people are far too intelligent for their own good." Vannick said as he sat down.

"You feeling any better now?" Michaels asked.

"A little, I'm just concerned. I've been with those guys for a long time, they quite literally saved my life."

"Skeeter told us what had happened." Bria said.

"Yeah it was insane. Wish I could have put my CO down myself for what he did, but at least Grace did it." Vannick replied taking a swig out of his water bottle.

"She meant a lot to all of not just Archangel didn't she?" Bria asked.

Vannick nodded, "Like I said we've been together a long time. It would be the same now if anything happened to any of you guys, well most of you guys anyway." He said flashing Mantill a glance.

Skeeter awoke with a startle, there had been a noise. As he rubbed his eyes he heard a smash. He sat up like a rocket. He dived off the bed in between the two beds and grabbed his shotgun. He dare not move when he heard that sound they all dreaded. There was a Cylon in here with him, at least he hoped it was just one. He tried to hear where it was. It was moving fast throughout the shop. He wanted to move, to take a look to see where it was, but that would be the quickest way to get his head blown off. It was in the room, he could hear it clearly now. The slicing noise of it's legs as it walked. The noise of it's red eye as it moved from side to side and then the noise of it's guns being moved into the firing position. It didn't know he was here, how could it have known he was here? His bag! Frak, he had picked up his shotgun, but his bag was still on the bed. Had it seen it? Was it just being cautious? He slowly pumped a shell into the chamber of his weapon, he wasn't going out without a fight. He wasn't sure in the split second they saw each other whether or not it was as startled as he was to see it looking down on him. But the one thing he did know was he fired first and hit the robot in the chest and head. He stood up and grabbed his bag from next to the fallen centurion and fired another shot into it just to be sure. He quickly put two more shells into the barrel, he wasn't going to get caught short, there was hardly ever just one of them. He quickly moved back towards the doorway that led to where he had entered the shop. As he moved into the next room he saw a second centurion and fired on instinct before it had even seen him, this shot however only clipped the centurion. Skeeter fired again and again at the metal monster till it stopped moving before once again reloading his weapon. No matter how scary this always was, there was a rush that came with fighting the Cylons that he had never experienced with anything else. He didn't wait to see if there were any more, he ran towards the smashed window where he had come in. As he moved back outside the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to come out. No sign of any Cylons, this was good. He knew which direction he was going in now and headed that way as fast as he could. When he got back into the cover of trees, he lit his customary victory cigarette. He had started to come up with little rituals for things, the little things that made it easier to get through the day.

When Archangel reached the old camp he could tell before he got there, everyone had gone. There were signs there had been a firefight, empty shell casings from handguns, rifles and Centurions. He looked around and saw there was no blood anywhere, that was a good sign. No blood meant everyone had got away. As he walked away, he saw a fallen toaster which made him smile, looking by the entry holes Skeeter had taken it out with his trusty shotgun. He began to run, the sun drying the rain off him.

Nearly an hour later and Archangel was walking, he wasn't far now and he was relieved there had been no further signs of any Cylons. Then he heard movement up ahead. Well done, he thought to himself, jinxing myself again. He smiled when he saw Skeeter appear in front of him. Both men walked forward and hugged each other.

"You have no idea how fraking good it is to see you." Skeeter said.

"I think I do. Where are the others?" Archangel asked.

"We got separated during the firefight. I lost my footing and fell hitting my head." He said pointing to his forehead. "I had no idea where I was when I came too, I found a department store of all things a couple of hours south and found myself a map, got myself a shave as well."

"They must have gone ahead to the new camp." Archangel replied.

"Hey before we move on got a present for you." Skeeter said reaching into his bag, he pulled out a chocolate bar and handed it to his friend. Both men laughed, "Don't ever say I don't give you anything."

"Thank you. I was beginning to think I'd never get to eat another one of these again."

Both men began to walk.

"Did you get home?" Skeeter asked.

Archangel nodded his head, "Yeah I did. They had left me a letter, I think they're dead. They were saying goodbye." Archangel replied quietly.

"I'm so sorry." Skeeter said.

"I came to terms with them being dead a long time ago. I got myself cleaned up and took some photos. And then ran into one of those skin jobs and some toasters."

"I'm guessing you had some fun then on the way back here?" Skeeter replied with a chuckle.

Archangel let out a laugh, "Well I did frak with the skin job for over a day before putting him out of his misery. As sick as this sounds I enjoyed it. I took out all the aggression and rage I've been feeling since Grace was killed, on him."

"I wouldn't have liked to have been him." Skeeter said.

"Let's just say at the end, I didn't make it as quick as I could have."

"Nothing less than they deserve." Skeeter replied.

DAY 37

Vannick awoke early the next morning, he hadn't slept well all night. Everyone except for Michaels was fast asleep. Michaels held up a cup of coffee and signalled Vannick over to him. The sun was out the day after a rain storm and it was always nice and refreshing.

"Sleep well?" Michaels asked.

"Not really." Vannick replied, "You?"

"What sleep I had before I took over on watch was good sleep. Then again I've slept in far worse places than caves in my time."

"It must have been an interesting life you've lead." Vannick replied.

"I have to admit it's quite liberating, walking the continents of the colonies. Learning all about nature and how to survive in the wild. Other than the Cylons and the daily anti rad injections this isn't any different for me, except that it's a larger group. What about you, you're a colonial marine, you must have had your share of interesting days." Michaels replied.

Vannick laughed, "I've not been what you would call a model marine. I used to be assigned to the Atlantia, the same ship Archangel is from. Then I had a disagreement with my Lieutenant."

"If you don't mind me asking what happened?"

"Well it got to the point where enough words had been exchanged and we ended up fighting. He ended up in sickbay for a week and I ended up getting busted down to Corporal and sent to the most pointless post they could find for me. I'm lucky it could have been a court-martial. But the old man had seen the whole thing and stepped up for me. I was sent to Caprica and reassigned to Sagittaron and that's where I was when this all happened." Vannick answered.

"Well I for one am glad you were there when it all happened. You're a good man Darius and I know I feel a lot better knowing you're around."

"Thanks, that means more than you know." Vannick replied, taking a sip from his coffee.

"I'm going to give Skeeter another hour or so before I go out looking for him." Michaels said.

As he finished speaking Mike's motion tracker started to beep. They looked down on it and saw two blips appearing. Michaels picked it up.

"They're green." He said.

"Humans or skin jobs." Vannick said.

"They're coming in through the rocks." Michaels said pointing ahead.

"Go wake the others." Vannick said as he moved ahead behind one of the rocks for cover.

Michaels quickly ran into the cave.

"Everyone wake up, we've got contacts heading this way." Michaels said loudly.

Within moments everyone was up, Bria came out with Michaels, sidearm in hand.

"How close?" she asked.

"Very, we should see them any second now." Vannick replied.

All three of them took up positions, weapons ready. Moments later they all relaxed as they heard a laugh they all recognised. Seconds after that Skeeter and Archangel appeared in front of them.

"Morning guys." Archangel said with a smile.

"It's so good to see you guys." Vannick said as he greeted both men.

"What happened to you?" Bria asked.

"I fell during the firefight and hit my head, I was out cold for about an hour before I realised I had no clue where I was." Skeeter said.

The others appeared out of the cave, everyone except the doctor seemed pleased to see them.

"Did you find any sign of your parents?" Ramok asked.

Archangel sighed, "They're gone."

"So all that for nothing." Mantill said, "You're a selfish son of a bitch."

"Good to see you too doc." Archangel replied.

"You can't just go running off whenever you feel like it." He yelled.

"Hey leave it, please." Bria said.

"I'm sick of you telling me what to do. All of you." Mantill snapped.

Archangel stepped forward to face Mantill, "I don't know what your problem is but I, no, we need you to get over yourself. I or any of you are free to come and go as you please. I had to go see if my parents were still alive. If you have a problem with me and how things are done here, please feel free to leave. I'd love to see how far you get on your own."

Mantill took a swing and hit Archangel on the chin. Archangel barely moved under the force of the punch.

"I'll give you that one for free but I want your attitude to stop now." He took a step closer so they were face to face, "If you ever hit me again I will break every bone in your hand, do you understand me?" Archangel growled quietly.

Mantill nodded his head, he looked terrified.

"Play nice with the group or you could wake up one morning and find that we're all gone." he said.

Mantill turned and walked back into the cave. Everyone was silent as Archangel turned back around and put his bag on the floor.

"My first EMP grenade is ready!" Mike said in an attempt to cut the tension.

Archangel patted him on the shoulder which made him flinch a little.

"Good work Mike, you've done great work." He said.

Archangel sat down and sighed.

"I'm sorry I just left without telling you first. I had to go see if I could find them. I won't do that to you guys again, I promise." Archangel said to the others.