I messed up on the timeline a bit in the last chapter, so it's gonna seem like a big time jump here, but the 3rd wave was supposed to last 12 weeks, so I'll just have this chapter be around day 100.

We decided to head back to base the day after Ben had turned on us. I stopped at a Home Depot to grab an LED coil to add to the suit, and then continued. Along the way, I added the LEDs to the exterior of the suit, which could change colors and brightness. I also grabbed a few rechargeable batteries to make fist sized decoy LEDs, which I thought would help if I got in a shootout. The LEDs should still work; an EMP was an electromagnetic pulse, which was already surrounding every live wire. An EMP is meant to disrupt those fields and cause the electronics to become damaged or destroyed by short circuiting them, but it can only affect electronics in use. All we had to do to get our power grid back up and running is replace the damaged or destroyed wires and circuit boards.

We stayed in the woods the way back, and took longer than we had on the way over. The few people we encountered were dead or ran away from us. The third day on the way back, I saw something in the sky. It looked like a metal cylinder, but the front and back were slightly thinner than the middle. I watched one for a while and was able to tell it was one of ET's ships. It could turn tighter than any car, even at Mach 2, and the acceleration rate was decades ahead of us, going from 0 to Mach 2 in seconds. Even when stopped, it would still stay airborne, and had no visible motors or engines. We had no idea what they did, but decided to stay out of sight of them. When we were almost back to the base, Sanders took me aside.

"We're going into base tomorrow, and we don't know if the aliens have taken the base. Do you know how to tell who's the enemy?" he asked.

"They have a different uniform than you?" I guessed.

He shook his head. "The enemy is the one who shoots at you. "

Day 102

Tomorrow we go into the base. If it's been taken over, we'll probably die. If not, then we're gonna need a spot to stay during the winter, and we're low on food. If we can't get in, then we'll have to find someplace else to stay.

I woke up early to finish the LED strips on the suit, and then I was ready to go. I approached the gate with Sanders while Jones stayed in a security booth to provide cover fire. There were no guards outside, so we walked right up to the door. Jones began to come towards us and Sanders pushed the talk button on the wall.

"Name and business please, " came a voice.

"This is Lieutenant Sanders, I would like to speak to Corporal Jenkins, " he responded.

A pause. The security camera overhead swiveled towards us. "Who's the man coming down the road, and the cyborg with you as well?" the voice asked.

"The cyborg is Carl, and the other man is Jones, a member of my squad. "

Another Pause, but shorter. "Corporal Jenkins is dead, we are currently awaiting orders from the next person up. "

Now it was Sanders' turn to pause. "Well, can we come in? We need shelter from the upcoming winter. "

"Do you have an ID?"

Jones had arrived at the gate. Sanders pulled a driver's license out of his pocket and held it up to the camera. The light turned green on the talk box and the gates swung open. We walked into the compound and towards the living quarters. Outside in the yard was a mound of dirt next to a hole, into which dead bodies were being thrown. I gagged at the stench as I passed. A soldier led us to a barracks with other soldiers already there. "This is your new unit. The bunks there, there, and there are open. " He looked at me. "Here, I'll put that in the scrap yard and get you a rifle, " he said, referring to my suit.

"No thank you, I'll keep it, " I said.

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. "

The rest of the unit didn't seem too happy to see us, or very happy at all. I was put in the bunk underneath Sanders against the back wall. The guy on the left wasn't very talkative, and didn't even look at me as I sat down. I took off the suit and laid it out to check for damages. While I had it off, I took a wet wipe I had grabbed from Home Depot to clean the inside of the suit. While it was drying, I did a routine check on the suit functions, finding minimal problems and the performance was good overall. Once I had it all fixed, I grabbed the mini keyboard and put on the helmet to begin hacking the satellites. After a few minutes, I realised a few people were looking at me, and not very friendly like either. I put the keyboard back and pushed the prime button for the gun.

"What?" I asked. One of them got off his bunk and walked over to me. I took off the helmet and stood to meet him, sliding my left leg into the suit as I did. Without my suit, I was just a kid, and although I was stronger than most kids my age, there was no way I could beat a soldier.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"I made it. "

"What's it do?"

"It's a combat suit, so-"

He swung while I was distracted, and I was caught completely by surprise. As soon as I got the air back in my lungs, I slowed time. He was on his way for a second punch, but I rolled out of the way and slammed my right arm into the suit and powered it on. I stood up and grabbed the glove for my left hand, but he yanked them out of my hand and hit me in the side. I staggered backwards and fell down and reached my hand inside a leg. When he came at me again, I drew the .22 out and put it on his chest, my finger on the trigger. He stopped and slowly lowered his hand.

"Nice job kid. Good to see you aren't so helpless after all, " he said. I stood up, still pointing the gun at him, not sure if this was another trick. He walked back over to his bunk and got in. I put the suit back together and set it out of the way. I looked at my watch and remembered it had been fried in the first wave. I kept it anyway, and went to sleep.

Sanders woke me up early the next morning. "Come on, the drill sergeant will be here any minute. Get up, you don't want to make him mad. " I woke up and got out of bed, still half asleep. I made my bed and checked the suit, still good. I changed and put on my suit. When the door opened on the other side of the barracks, everyone stood at either side of the aisle. Sanders had pulled me over before the door opened, so I wasn't left standing in the aisle like an idiot. The drill sergeant ordered us outside for a run, but stopped me on my way out.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked in a shout.

"Going for a run, " I said.

"You call me sir, got it? Now, let's try again. What do think your doing?" he asked in his perpetual shouting voice.

"Going for a run, sir, " I answered.

"With that hunk of junk? No you're not. Go inside and put it down, and I'll have someone come by to scrap it later. "

"No. "

"What did you just say?"

"I said, 'No'. "

He swung his hand at me, but I blocked it. His hand hit the steel shell with the palm of his hand, and the vibrations told me all I needed to know. I ejected both capacitors and stabbed them into him, he spasmed for less than a second, then fell down. The soldiers from the barracks were facing the other direction, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I got in trouble. The steel shell was spring supported, which allowed me to block bullets with little effort. He had hit the steel with way more force than any human could, which meant he was an ET. I ran over to Sanders and Jones.

"We gotta go, the drill sergeant was one of them. Who knows who else we can't trust. "

"Okay, first chance we get, we'll leave, " Sanders said. The first people in the run were reaching a turn in the track and could see the drill sergeant lying on the ground, beginning to stir. The first one ran over to help him up. "Was that you?" Sanders asked, slowing to a stop.

"Yeah. "

"Then let's go. Jones and I have to get our kits from the barracks, can you get out on your own?"

"Yeah. "

"We'll meet you, um, at the school. Find a high school to wait at, and we'll find you. "

I nodded and ran to the gate. Before on the track, I hadn't been using the spring boots, but I did now. At the fence, I used a quick burst from the boots to propel me over the barbed wire and to the other side. I heard what sounded like a wasps nest and looked up and saw a helicopter fly to the base. I kept running until I found an old Wendy's to hide in while I downloaded a map of the area from the StarLink satellite. Once I had that, I headed to the nearest high school, called Dobbyns Bennet. I got there fifteen minutes later and entered through a broken window, leaving one of the decoy LEDs on the ground next to the window. I left it turned off, but it would tell Sanders I had been here.

I walked through the corridors into a classroom and sat down and waited. Thirty minutes later, I heard somebody enter through the window I had used. I turned on the thermal camera to try to see through the wall, but it was too well insulated. I primed the guns and waited next to the door. When they had passed, I cracked the door open to see who it was. It was the drill sergeant and two soldiers, pointing guns at Sanders and Jones. Sanders was holding the decoy LED with one hand, and had blood on his head. Jones seemed mostly unharmed, but was definitely badly bruised. I snuck out into the hall behind them and the drill sergeant turned around and fired at me. I hadn't made any sounds that I had even heard, which only made me more sure he wasn't human.

I blocked the bullet on my right arm and fired with my left, aimed for his chest. He got off one more shot before the bullet hit him, which I blocked again on my right arm. The bullet I had fired hit a bullet proof vest, and he stumbled back. I fired again, this time aiming for the head. I hit, and he died. The other two soldiers had turned to face me and fired. I sidestepped them both and fired with both guns, and hit them both. They died. The whole thing took about ten seconds, and Sanders and Jones were fine.

Sanders turned to see the three people lying dead on the floor. "Thanks, but we better get out of here. The rest of the unit is outside, we're surrounded, " he said as he grabbed a gun from the fallen soldiers.

I primed a rocket. "Where's an open spot in the line?"

"Follow me. " He led us to a window looking out over a football field. A line of soldiers was stretched across, all looking at the school. They couldn't see us because of the glare on the glass. "We can't charge them, we have to let them come to us. Jones, find a spot high up. Carl, let's bottleneck them in this walkway. "

I looked where he was pointing. "Good idea. I'll grab some tables for cover and to keep them at a distance. " We worked quickly, fortifying the walkway. I set some tables on their side, and in front of it I set desks randomly spaced to slow their advance. I had taken the tops off the desks so they couldn't be knocked over and used as cover.

We heard them coming before they arrived, and I could tell they weren't happy about the drill sergeant. As soon as they rounded the corner, me and Sanders opened fire. The first four troops were taken by surprise and were killed before they could retaliate. The others behind took cover around the corners or in doorways, firing whenever they could. Once the soldiers had taken cover, Jones began firing, turning previously safe locations into deadly areas. I was careful with my ammo and only fired when I knew I could get a hit. I'd start running low soon if I wasn't careful.

After two minutes, the attacking soldiers charged. There were still about thirty alive, and they were all angry. I primed and fired a rocket, which spiraled forward, bounced off a wall, and landed in the middle of the walkway without exploding. The soldiers kept charging, and when one of them stepped on the rocket's pressure sensor, it exploded. The explosion deafened everyone in the hallway, and threw the soldiers back, most of them limp. The ones still alive were badly injured and began to limp or crawl away.

Sanders said something, but my ears were still ringing. He repeated it, but I shook my head since I couldn't hear him. He reloaded his weapons from the fallen troops, then grabbed all the extra ammunition he could carry. I followed his lead, grabbing all the .22 and .30 cartridges I could find. Jones joined us a few moments later and did the same. Once we had all the ammunition we needed, we left the school.