Disclaimer – Still own nothing.

Five months later…

"All, blow it up Matt." Tom said through the walkie talkie, looking at the abandoned warehouse that was crawling with skitters from behind his spot in the trees.

"You got it Dad." Matt's voice replied. A few seconds later, Tom watched the building exploded.

Tom, and the soldiers who were with him made their way out of hiding, and started shooting at all the skitters running away. Luckily, most of them were still in the building, so it didn't take long to finish them off.

Once the skitters were dead, Tom found Matt and Ben by the trucks helping other soldiers bring in the harnessed kids found in the area.

"Nice job boys." Tom said, looking at the faces of the Espheni slaves.

"Don't bother. We already checked. Hal's not here." Ben informed him, knowing exactly what his Dad was doing. Tom took a frustrated breath, trying to keep calm when all he really wanted to find a skitter that was still alive and strangle it with his bare hands.

"Let's get out of here then. Still a lot more places we can check." Tom told them, and turned around before Ben could point out that they had already checked most of the places where the Espheni had made their bases in the area.

Tom climbed into the passenger seat of one of the trucks while Weaver sat down behind the wheel.

"You okay?" Weaver asked, looking at his friend with concern.

"Five months. It's been five months, and no sign of him." Tom said dejectedly. Weaver put his hand Tom's shoulder in a sign of comfort.

"We'll find him Tom." Weaver encouraged, before putting both of his hands on the wheel. He started the truck, waited until everyone else was packed in, and they headed back to Charleston.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

Hal ran through the forest. Away from the burning building he had come from, away from the skitters, and away from Karen. He hoped she was in the building when it blew up. Maybe she was dead. He hoped so.

With his vision as blurry as it was, he was surprised at how far he was getting, and that he hadn't tripped on anything. He kept running, even though every step hurt. Even breathing hurt. Hal didn't think there was any part of his body that wasn't in some sort of pain. He kept moving though. He refused to be recaptured. There was no way he was going back.

Unfortunately, the pounding in his head, and his blurred vision got worse, and he fell to the hard ground. Hal just laid there for a few moments, waiting to get his senses back before he pushed himself up, only to fall back down.

Hal looked at his wrists. They were covered in dried, and fresh blood, running from the cuts he had gotten trying to escape. Hal brought his hand to the back oh his head, by his left ear where there was a cut that was also bleeding. He pushed against it, and let out a cry of pain.

Okay, not doing that again. Got to get up, got to keep moving.

Hal tried to get back up again, and managed to sit, but not to her feet. Spying a fallen tree, he dragged himself over to it, and leaned against the wooden log. Staying awake became too hard, and Hal let the darkness that he had taken refuge in many times in his period of captivity, come over him once again.

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

Tom entered the armory to find Maggie who was going through the weapons. For the last couple of weeks, Tom and Weaver decided to take her off any attacks and missions that they were going on. She had been doing everything she could to help them find Hal, but it all came to head when she collapsed from exhaustion three weeks ago.

Maggie immediately heard Tom enter the room, and dropped everything to confront him.

"Did you guys find him?" She asked, her face filled with hope. Regrettably, he shook his head.

"No, we didn't."

"It's been five months. Where on Earth could he be?" Maggie wondered, walking away from Tom to hide the tears that were starting to build up.

"He might not be on the planet at all. Karen might be keeping him on a spaceship, or maybe even on the other side of the world. We have no way of knowing." Tom pointed out.

"He could be dead, for all we know." Maggie replied. The Mason father went over to her, turned her around so he could look at her, and caught the tears she was trying to hide.

"As messed up, as insane, as cold as Karen is, you and I both know, she wouldn't kill him. She had many opportunities kill him, but she didn't. We will find him." Tom tried to get her to believe.

"Before he left, he asked me if I knew that he loved me. I said yes, but I never said it back. Why didn't I tell him?" Maggie questioned, looking down at the floor.

"He knows. He knows that you love him. Don't give up hope. We will find him, and we will get him home."

FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS

Cochise and his Volm comrades continued their way through the trees. They had just successfully burned down an Espheni outpost in small town in a state that the humans called New Jersey. They were currently making sure no Espheni had escaped, when Cochise noticed something on one of the bushes.

The Volm bent down to get a closer look at the shrubbery. It was red, glistened in the light, and looked wet. Cochise touched it, and brought it to his nose. He smelled it, and knew instantly what it was. It was human blood, and it was fresh.

A few more questions remained. Was the person who was bleeding harnessed? Where was the person? Was the victim still alive?

Cochise stood back up, and looked around for any other signs of the person. He quickly found a path of broken branches, and more drops of blood that went North. Cochise signaled the other Volm soldiers to come with him, and he followed the path.

The path ended not much farther then when Cochise picked it up. The dirt and mud looked as though someone had been lying in it. There were small pools of blood, and hand prints. Then, Cochise saw a hand laying limply on the ground.

The alien immediately moved to see who it was, only to get a shock. There, sitting against a fallen log, bleeding from various spots on his body, was Hal Mason.

"Hal Mason?" Cochise called out, coming to sit beside the eldest Mason child. He put his hand on Hal's shoulder, and shook it gently, but Hal didn't move. He put his head down by the young man's face, and heard his breathing.

"Chichauk?" Cochise turned at the sound of Shak-Chic's voice calling for him.

"He is alive. We must get him to Charleston."