Disclaimer – Still own nothing. And now the chapter you've all been waiting for – Hal's Rescue!
Chapter 5
If It's Not too Late
"There it is." Ben whispered, looking at the spaceship over the brushes the group was hiding behind.
"How many skitters can you see?" Tom asked, making sure his gun was locked and loaded.
"Five, no wait, seven. Yeah, definitely seven." Ben answered.
"That's it?" Tector asked, sounding a little disappointed that there weren't more he could use for target practice.
"The Overlords lost control over a lot of skitters after the power source was destroyed. And Shak did say the Volm managed to kill a good amount of skitters when they were attacked." Matt, always the optimist, reminded them.
"And, there are probably more inside." Maggie, being the realist, pointed out, looking over at the kid. Tom nodded, then looked over at Maggie and Ben as another thought occurred to him.
"You two will be able to do this right? The Overlord won't be able to get in your heads?" Tom questioned, not wanting to be distracted if they suddenly started attacking them.
"We won't let him." Ben insisted.
"Alright. Let's go."
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Hal slowly felt himself woke up. He knew it was over, as he could feel the chair under him, and the restraints around his wrists and neck. He knew he would wake up, but he had been hoping that he would again, forget what he had done under the control of the eye-worm. He was wrong, he remembered everything. Hal felt a tear slip out of his eye, and started running down his cheek.
The door opened, and the Overlord and his slave walked in. Hal hadn't even noticed they weren't in the room. This time though, the boy stayed by the door while the Overlord walked over to Hal.
"Have you decided to talk yet?" The boy repeated the question that the Overlord had been asking ever since the ambush. Hal said nothing, too tired, too sore to even raise his eyes to meet the alien's.
After a few moments of silence, the boy spoke again, "Then you are of no use to me."
Hal was barely aware of the harnessed boy coming towards him and undoing the cuffs and the leather strap. The boy grabbed at Hal's arms and pulled him to his feet. Hal's entire body was so tired and in so much pain due to the drug, that the added pain of putting pressure on his twisted ankle caused him to black out again, just as the sounds of gunfire echoed outside.
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Tom charged into the spaceship, gun blazing with his other two sons and Maggie behind him. Anthony and Tector were shooting from the bushes to make sure no skitters or harnessed kids entered the ship and surrounded them.
As Tom entered the spaceship, he found himself in a room that opened into three hallways, one on the right, one on the left, and one straight ahead. All were filled with closed doors and with many skitters who came charging towards them. They all started firing.
"Ben, do you think you could make a connection with a skitter to find out where Hal is?" Tom yelled. Ben nodded and focused on one close to him. He blocked out the gunfire and forced himself into the skitter's mind. The skitter stopped, feeling Ben inside his head. Ben tried to focus, but the alien's brain was so scattered, a perfect slave for the Overlords. Suddenly, Ben saw images. He saw Hal being dragged off a street and thrown onto a skitter's shoulder, a needle filled with a clear liquid, and an Overlord's booming voice saying, "Human is no longer of use to me."
Ben snapped back to reality and fired at leas 10 shots into the skitter in anger.
"Did you find him?" Tom asked as the rest of the team finished off the remaining skitters. Ben shook his head and added, "But I think they were going to kill him."
Tom paled at his son's words before ordering, "Split up. Ben, you go with Matt to the left, Maggie, you go right and I'll go straight. Call out if you find him."
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Tom felt like every time he had cleared a room, another room would appear. He was beginning to get frantic. He had no idea where his son was, or if he was even still alive if what Ben had said was true. At first, he had began trying to remember what the spaceship he was on before, years ago was like, but quickly discovered it was not anything like it.
What made it worse was that at the end of the dark hallway was a flight of stairs beside another door that led outside. Has he got closer though, he saw that a fish-head, two harnessed kids and a couple of skitters were just at the bottom of the ramp. Tom lifted his gun and started firing, but they were two close to the trees and escaped.
Tom took off up the stairs and found only two doors. He opened the closest one to him, and saw Hal, lying on the ground, head turned away from him.
"HE'S UP HERE!" Tom screamed as he ran into the room and knelt by his son's side. Maggie, Ben, and Matt burst through the door. Maggie came by Hal's head and lifted it onto her lap.
"Hal, Hal wake up." Maggie pleaded, his head on her lap, her fingers running through his hair while Tom placed his fingers on Hal's neck, trying to take his pulse.
"His pulse is weak, but it's there." Tom said after minute then turned to his youngest, "Matt, go tell Anthony and Tec where we are and to bring a stretcher."
"But -" Matt protested, then Ben cut him off, "Come on, I'll go with you." Ben pulled Matt up and led him through the door.
As soon as Ben and Matt were gone, Tome started looking for any injuries. The small cuts on the left side of his forehead and the dried blood on the left sleeve on his jacket were the most obvious, but as Tom began looking his son over, he found cuts and bruises on Hal's wrists, signs of being restrained. As he pushed Hal's jacket sleeve back, he found many cuts, probably all from the glass in the car he was in when they crashed.
The fear of his son being seriously injured was slowly dissipating when he heard Maggie's slightly panicked voice call out for him. Tom looked up to see that Maggie had pushed away the jacket's collar away from Hal's neck, exposing small bruises and scraps on Hal's neck in a perfect line.
"Why would they restrain his neck?" Tom wondered out loud, fear for his son coming back in full force. Tom's eyes met Maggie's, it was clear she had no idea either, but was just as panicked as he was.
Soon Ben and Matt reappeared with Tector and Anthony, who was carrying a stretcher that had been kept in the back of the truck they brought. Together, the slid Hal's unconscious body onto it, lifted him up and carried him to safety.
Author's Note – YAY, Hal's safe again! For now, that is. Please review, I would love to know your guys' thoughts. Chapter 6 will hopefully be up soon. Tomorrow is a pretty free day for me, so it might be sooner than you think. Next chapter, will be with Anne trying to figure out what the Overlord did while everyone worries. See you soon!
