Disclaimer + Warning – I still own nothing. I highly recommended having some tissues and a pillow to squeeze as you read this story. This chapter is very Hal angst, and is pretty long, warning you now. But other than, please enjoy.

Chapter 4

A Living Nightmare

When the pain washed away, Hal slowly opened his eyes, and jumped in surprise. He was no longer in the room with the Overlord and the harnessed kid. He was outside, in what looked like a park. There were people everywhere, some walking on the paths, some sitting on benches talking, and there were some kids playing baseball. There was absolutely no sign of an alien apocalypse. It looked almost, no exactly like the park in Boston him, and his family would go to sometimes.

Suddenly, small kid on a bike came riding past him at full speed. Hal was about to yell at the kid to watch where he was going, when he recognized the bike. It was his, it was his bike from when he was younger. And the helmet the kid was wearing, it was his as well, so was the jacket that the kid was wearing.

"Hal, be careful!" Hal almost stopped breathing. That voice, was one he'd know anywhere. Hal slowly turned around, and there she was, sitting on a picnic blanket, with a little boy right beside her, who he recognized as Matt, when he was about four years old. On the other side of her, was his Dad, sitting with Ben, who would've been about seven or eight, and who appeared to be reading a kid's book.

"Hal!" His Mom yelled again. For a minute, Hal thought she was talking to him, but then the kid who was riding the bike yelled back, "I'll be careful!"

It made some sense, if Matt was only four years old, and Ben was seven, then Hal, would've been around 12, which was as old as the kid on the bike looked, and it would explain why the jacket, helmet and bike looked exactly like his when he was a kid, because they were his.

Hal knew that whatever was going on, it had to do with whatever was in the needle the harnessed boy had injected into him. He was probably hallucinating, thinking about a time where everything was good and he was happy, where there was no war. Hal was fine with thinking that, until he saw a runner who was wearing headphones, take a turn on the path, and Hal realized he had remembered this day.

"Stop!" He cried out, but nobody heard him, and nobody appeared to see him. He was left watching as the runner ran out right in front of 12-year-old him, who turned the bike sharply and fell off and banged his arm on a large boulder by the tree line. Hal screamed at the same time little him screamed, as Hal felt what he remembered feeling that day, the bone his arm snap.

Hal could see the bone in his own arm pushing up against his skin. Dark spots started to clog his vision as he heard a voice ask, "What is the weapon? Where are they going to attack.?"

Hal opened his eyes, and found himself still in the room, still trapped in the chair, his arm not broken, and the Overlord and the harnessed boy were still present, the boy back by the chair and the Overlord standing in front of his hostage.

"That was but a taste of what I can do. If you wish for it to stop, tell me about the weapon, and where the Volm are planning to attack." The Overlord informed him, using the harnessed kid's voice

"Screw you." Hal spat out. The Overlord, probably didn't understand the actually meaning of the words, but knew that Hal's answer was a 'no'. So the Overlord stood back as his slave came over with the needle again, and jabbed it into Hal's neck. Hal tried his hardest not to scream, but unfortunately, failed.

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"So they'll keep him alive?" Ben asked, hoping that Cochise would say yes. When they realized something had gone wrong, Weaver ordered the 2nd Mass to get unsettled while the entire Mason family, Maggie and himself went into the building that was going to be their main 'office' for the time they would be here, with Cochise who had explained what happened.

"It is very likely. They know of the weapon, they found it, but I do not believe they know exactly what it is, or what it is planned on being used for." Cochise answered.

"We have to go get him." Matt insisted.

"But how? We don't know where he is." Maggie pointed out.

"When the power source on your moon was destroyed, the Espheni lost many resources, their mechs, their ability to control the skitters over great distance, their space ships. However, if their ships where on the ground when the source was destroyed, they would have sustained no damaged, and could in fact still be used if they managed to find another power source." Cochise informed the group.

"Like a generator. Which would mean they would probably still stay close to any ships that are still working." Weaver added and Cochise nodded in agreement.

"Again though, we don't know if there are any spaceships around here, or if they would even use it." Anne broke in.

"If the Overlord can get access to a spaceship, and use it, trust me they will. They will be able to protect it better, and with enough power, can fly away." Cochise claimed before saying, "And actually, one of our ships was tasked with finding any Espheni ships still in use. And, we made a map of their location."

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As Hal felt the pain of the cold needle shoved right into his neck, he wondered what he would be he would be seeing this time. If the drug was bringing him back to moments in his life where he was injured, there was a lot to choose from. After all, lacrosse could be a very violent game at times.

When the turning and twirling in his mind stopped, and the pain disappeared, Hal opened his eyes, and found himself in his house, back in Boston. It only took one glance to figure out that it was after the aliens invaded. The door to the basement opened, and out came past Tom and past Hal, Hal decided to nickname them. It was the only way to not get confused.

Past Hal and past Tom were talking very quietly, well arguing very quietly. Then past Tom handed past Hal a rifle, then left through the front door, while past Hal stood and watched for a few moments, before heading back downstairs.

Suddenly, the sun shining in the sky, was gone. It was now night. Hal watched past Hal come back out of the basement, looking around very cautiously. Hal was wondering what exactly was going on, when he heard the fence door in the backyard open. Past Hal held up the rifle, ready to fire at anything that moves, as he slowly opened the door to the backyard. Hal caught a glimpse of what was outside and that was all he needed as the onslaught of past Hal's emotions washed over him.

Past Tom, laying his dead wife on the ground in the back yard. All the disbelief, shock, pain and grief hit him harder than a ton of bricks, and Hal fell to his knees, uncontrollable sobs wracking his body as he realized he had just relived his mother's death again, and everything went dark.

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"This is a huge risk Tom." Weaver commented as Tom finished telling him his plan. Weaver and Tom were now the only ones in the main building, which reminded Weaver of a warehouse.

"I know, but it's a risk I'm willing to take." Tom told his friend.

"Tom, you are betting that Cochise is right, that the Overlord is actually holed up in his big a** spaceship and isn't prepared for any kind of attack because the ship wouldn't have enough power, leaving him and Hal unprotected and you are just going to walk in, kill the fish head, get Hal out and nothing will go wrong." Weaver clarified.

"Yes, and if something goes wrong, I'll improvise."

"Oh, I can think of 100 ways this plan could go wrong."

"That's why he's not going alone." Tom and Weaver looked up to see Ben, Matt and Maggie standing by the door each with a gun in hand.

"We're coming with you." Maggie's voice left no room for argument. Tom was about to protest when they were joined by Anthony and Tector.

"As are we."

"Tec, you're still injured-" Tom started, but was cut off by the sniper, saying, "I'm fine. I should've been there with Hal anyways. You're not going without me." Tom knew how Tector was feeling. He and Hal had bonded a lot during their time in the ghettos, and if Tector wasn't hurt during the Espheni attack, he would have been on the mission with Hal and Cochise.

Tom knew there was nothing he could say to convince that it wasn't his fault that the convoy was attacked or that Hal was taken. But with Matt...

"I'm going and you can't stop me." Matt told him, when he caught his father staring at him, knowing what the man was thinking.

Tom knew Matt would fight him tooth and nail on this, and even if he locked Matt up in a room somewhere, Matt would just break down the door and follow them.

"Alright, but we have to be careful, and keep a cool head. This rescue is going to be dangerous enough, we don't want to take any unneeded risks."

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Hal opened his eyes again as soon as he returned to consciousness, he was back in the room and in the chair. He was grateful to feel no tears in his eyes or on his cheeks. Any crying he did, he did in the dream and not in real life. The Overlord moved from the dark corner of the room and came over to him again.

"As you have probably discovered, the drug you have been receiving causes the deepest parts of your subconscious to come to life in a dream, causing you to feel any and every emotion and physical pain you felt when the events actually happened. I ask you again, to stop putting yourself through pain, and just answer my questions." The fish-head requested through his slave who was again standing by the table, which probably had the needle and drug, while the alien bent down again to look right into Hal's eyes.

The minute the alien was close enough, Hal spat right into his face. The Overlord, stoop up to his full height and said, "Alright then. If you feel that strongly about it, I suppose you will be strong enough to handle a triple dose."

Hal watched the harnessed boy fill the needle all the way, and come towards him. Hal screamed in pain as the needle went into his neck again, the drug feeling like fire in his veins, and just like before, his vision darkened and was gone.

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Hal woke this time, to find himself in what he remembered as a hospital room in Charleston. Hal turned around and found his past self lying flat out on a hospital bed. It was the same bed, in the same room Hal had woken up to find that he was paralyzed from the neck down.

Suddenly, past Hal, sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Hal felt himself start to panic, he had no memory of this. Past Hal stood up off the bed and went over to the sink at the other end of the room. He turned on the lamp then looked closely at the mirror. Hal watched in horror as he saw and felt the bug crawl out of his eye and enter his ear.

Then the room was gone, replaced with a bedroom that was in Charleston, but it wasn't his and Maggie's, or his father's and Anne's, or Matt's or Ben's. That was when past Hal came in, slightly shaking, and breathing very deeply. Past Hal turned to the mirror, and past Hal's reflection changed.

Hal put his hands over his ears, trying to block out the words that the bugged him was saying but it was no use. The words seemed to pass right through his hands.

The scene changed again, this time to the courtyard outside of the main building. Hal saw past Tom talking with Marina as past Hal came up from behind them and slammed the butt of his handgun against her head before turning it on past Tom.

Hal again lifted his hands over his ears and closed his eyes, trying to block out the memory, but it was still no use. The memory kept playing as through his eyelids were nothing more than a screen to project a movie onto. He watched helplessly as past him pulled a gun on his father, kick him in the knee, his father trying to reach him, knowing his son was still there. Matt and Maggie coming into the room, also trying to reach him.

When he pulled the gun on himself and pulled the trigger Hal hoped he would wake up from this nightmare, because of the pain of the bullet, like he did with his broken arm and his mother's death, but instead the scene changed again. Past Hal was lying on stretcher, strapped down with hospital restraints, and Lourdes was holding something over his face. Thousands of tiny, black bugs burst forth and crawled onto his face and into his eyes, ears and nose.

Hal screamed at the same time past Hal did, feeling the bugs invade his body, attacking every muscle, everywhere the bugs went they attacked. Hal screamed, despite his voice growing hoarse as his sight finally turned black.

Author's Note – Wow, that was difficult to write. Now don't worry, the next chapter will be more light, and probably make you happy as Hal will finally be rescued, and I will take a little break from torturing him. If you have any comments, please review. Chapter 5 will be up in probably another day or so, depending on how my schedule goes.