CHAPTER 28

Mike Donovan is dreaming.

It's one of those dreams. You know the type. They make you sweat like you were in a sauna, even if it's actually quite cool where you are. It's one of those dreams where your heart is doing its best to mimic a Lars Ulrich double bass drum part, back when Metallica's material went a hundred miles an hour, and you wish you could just wake up to leave the dream behind.

But he can't.

Instead he just moans in his sleep, watching the scene play out before his mind's eye.

He's in a hallway bathed in white fluorescent light, a Visitor sidearm in his right hand. His back is pressed hard to the wall, and he is watching a group of people dressed in fine evening wear rush past him into an inactive elevator shaft. A ladder to the roof of the hospital is set up inside, and one by one everybody is taking turns going up.

Is this a memory, or is it something his mind had conjured up?

This is our getaway, Donovan thinks to himself, recognizing this as the time when he and his fellow rebels were escaping from the lobby of the Los Angeles Medical Center.

This was just a couple of weeks ago.

As the last few rebels ran past him, he hears the voice of a man on the verge of panic. "C'mon, c'mon, hurry up, will ya?" says this man to the rebels going into the elevator shaft and up the ladder. Donovan looks at him and recognizes him right away. Fred King.

Donovan looks up towards a petite blonde woman dressed in an elegant white evening gown. Like him, she has a Visitor sidearm in her right hand, but she also has a Heckler and Koch VP9 pistol in her left. She has taken position just inside a set of double doors the separated the Intensive Care Unit from the hallway.

Julie.

"Let's go!" he calls out to her, even as he moves toward the elevator shaft.

But he hesitates when he sees from a corner of his eyes flashes of red and black and hears the thunder of rushing boots coming down the hall outside where Julie is. His eyes go wide.

Shock Troopers!

Donovan watches as she presses herself against the wall, getting a little bit of cover behind one of the doors, and starts firing her Visitor weapon at the alien soldiers rushing towards them.

"Shut it!" she screams.

"Come on!" Fred says.

"Julie! Let's go!" Donovan yells.

"Shut it!" Julie screams again.

Donovan grabs King by the shoulders, tosses him into the elevator shaft, and shuts the twin doors. He then rushes to a corner where two hallways meet, then, like Julie, fires toward the Visitor Shock Troopers massing outside the ICU.

Sparks and small tongues of flames lick out at Donovan as the alien soldiers' own volleys missed him by inches. "Julie!"

He looks up and sees the desperation and terror in her eyes as she looks back at him. "Go on! I'll cover you!" she screams at him.

Donovan lets loose a flurry of shots into the hallway, laying down some measure of suppressing fire. "There's no way I'm leaving you! Come on!"

Julie breaks from her cover, but as soon as she starts to run towards Donovan she gets hit.

"NO!" Donovan yells in horror as he watches her collapse onto the floor. He rushes toward her, but everything goes dark when he takes a hit himself.

"Julie –" he says weakly before unconsciousness takes him completely.

When Donovan opens his eyes again it takes him a moment to recognize that he is on the Mother Ship, inside a small holding cell. He is on his back, lying on a thin cushion, when he notices a couple of people standing over him.

The first one he sees is a Visitor soldier, whose weapon is pointed squarely at his face. Donovan looks past the weapon's muzzle into the soldier's face, except he cannot see it because of the black battle mask hiding the soldier's features.

Just behind the soldier stands Diana. She has a small smile on her lips. "How good of you to rejoin the living, Mr. Donovan," she says. Donovan just glowers at her as he starts to sit up.

"You and Miss Parrish have given us a lot of trouble," she says. "Your interference at the medical center, in particular, was quite audacious, and it might have endangered my people's mission." Diana's smile grows. "However, despite all the inconvenience you and Miss Parrish have caused, we were still able to capture the two of you."

Donovan looks around. "Where is Julie? Is she okay?"

"Ah," Diana says. "So eager to see your friend. How touching." She walks to the door, which opens at her approach.
"Come on in."

Donovan's eyes widen when he sees Julie, dressed in a Visitor uniform, walk in. He sighs with relief. "I thought they'd killed you."

Julie looks at him, then at Diana. She stays silent.

"Are you alright?" Donovan asks Julie, but she doesn't react. She just continues to look at Diana, her face expressionless. Donovan looks at Diana. "What's wrong with her? What did you do to her?"

Diana's smile gets even bigger, then looks at Julie. "Ms. Parrish is – how shall I say – much better now, compared to how she was the last time you saw her." She turns to look at Donovan. "Do you have feelings for her, Mr. Donovan?"

Donovan looks at Julie, then back at Diana, but doesn't say a word.

"Your silence speaks volumes," Diana says. "She is a very beautiful creature, Mr. Donovan. I can certainly understand why you might have strong feelings for her." She waves a hand at Julie. "But did you know her beauty is more than just skin-deep?"

Diana nods slightly, and Julie reaches out a hand to her face. Her fingers dig into the side of her face, then pulls at the skin.

Donovan is horrified to see green-black scales reveal themselves beneath the skin Julie tears off from her own face. "It can't be –" he says. "It can't be!"

Julie finishes tearing off a section of her face, then fixes her gaze at Donovan.

He tries to look at her, but when he sees her left eye – not the usual blue-grey, but a red eyeball, yellow iris, and a vertical black pupil – he has to suppress an urge to vomit at the sight.

Donovan lunges at the soldier, grabs at his weapon, and somehow is able to wrest it away from the Visitor. He fires and hits the soldier, then swings the rifle towards Diana. But he doesn't fire.

Because Julie is pointing a Visitor sidearm at him.

Donovan notices she is holding the weapon with her left hand. He blinks, scarcely believing what he's seeing. But he keeps his weapon trained on Diana, who continues to give him her mocking smile.

"There is no reason to be confused, Mr. Donovan," Diana says, reaching out to touch Julie's shoulder. "Miss Parrish belongs to us; she is one of us now."

"No –" Donovan says, shaking his head. "Snap out of it, Julie. Snap out of it!"

"She is one of us now," Diana repeats, "and she will do whatever I tell her. Won't you, Julie?"

Donovan remains transfixed at Julie, who remains absolutely quiet and hasn't moved. She hasn't even changed her facial expression, her blank eyes staring unblinkingly at Donovan.

"Good-bye, Mr. Donovan," Diana says. "Kill him."

Donovan lets out a yell as he moves the Visitor rifle in his hands and his finger pulls on the trigger.

"NO!"

Donovan sat up on his cot, his breaths coming in hard and heavy quick succession. He blinked, and he didn't understand why everything was dark.

"Hey," said a voice in the darkness. "You alright, man?"

Donovan looked toward the source of the sound. "Elias," he said, "sorry I woke you up."

Elias Taylor sat up, and Donovan saw him run a hand through his hair. "You alright, man?" Elias asked again.

"Yeah," Donovan said, then sighed. "Just had another nightmare."

"About Sean? Or about Julie?"

Donovan grabbed his pillow and rubbed it against his chest and forehead, soaking up the sweat that had built up. He gathered his thoughts before answering Elias. "I wish I hadn't agreed with that plan Tyler, Martin, and I thought up."

Elias remained quiet for several long moments, then said, "It takes a hard man to come up with a hard plan. But it might be for Julie's own good, you know."

Donovan lay back down. "Do you really believe that?"

And when Elias didn't say anything, Donovan got his answer.