A million computer geeks were all sure they had the same original idea. Instinct told them how they had been changed. It was that sound. They took their TIVO of the game and mixed the sound into a music file and named it after some hit song. Then they uploaded it using Usenet or Bit Torrent or Emule or some other network and waited for unsuspecting geeks and teen-age music bootlegger to snag it.

The millions of geeks who were converted by the music files they downloaded instinctually knew the recording had changed them. They knew what they had to do. They passed the sound on. The computer literate came up with new songs and videos to hide the space sound in. Unwittingly, the aliens had done more than the Recording Industry Association of America ever could have hoped to do to suppress music piracy.

The computer illiterate who had a recording of the game used a different method. They phoned. First they would phone their family. Then they would phone their friends. Then many simply began calling, sometimes even calling random numbers of strangers. The lazy just turned up their car stereos and boom boxes and went stalking the unsuspecting. Eventually they all gave up when they couldn't find anybody who wasn't already improved.

- - -

They kept Molly's feet shackled and had two guards with shotguns behind her but they let her go freely between her cell and Sean's. Dr. Corey had left the night before. He popped in and out a couple of times and a nurse was there once every two or three hours throughout the night and day but most of Sean's care was now up to her.

Fortunately Sean was improving. He no longer required the feeding tube. He could sip a straw full of vitamin and mineral enriched cow blood from a plastic bag. She tried some to encourage him. She actually found it quite good, and wanted to drink the bag. Instead she had to settle for a Bandino Burger.

He was getting soiled. They cut his clothes off. She sponge bathed him. She looked at his genitals as she cleaned them. Well matched, even, symmetrical, nicely sized. He was a good specimen of a human male. Yet there was no romance in scrubbing him like this. It was strictly caring for a patient, even if he was the father of her child, no more romantic than cleaning the bodily waste out of his backside.

After she cleaned him, she put blankets on him and gave him another suck of blood. He turned his head and clenched his teeth.

"Sean, you need to eat."

"They're vampires. We're vampires."

"I'm eating a hamburger. You're sick. This is doctor prescribed medicine."

"You're an alien."

"And so are you. So are most of the people in the country right now. We lost the war. Now all I am thinking about is you. Our daughter is going to want her father. I know what it is to grow up without one, and I don't want ours to do that. Now drink, or I'll call Dr. Corey back and have him shove that tube back down your throat."

"You wouldn't."

She looked at him with a sideways glance. Of course she would.

He took a halfhearted suck.

"More. Finish it down. All of it."

"You're going to be a very stern mother."

She shoved the straw back in his face.

Hogan came to the cell door. "There's a phone call on your Blackberry for Dr. Caffrey."

"Feed your brother. Make sure he finished the whole thing in the next ten minutes or get Dr. Corey over here to force it down."

"Yes, Molly."

She handed him the bag and took the Blackberry. "Hello. Dr. Caffrey here."

It was a softly Southern accented voice she knew well. "This is Harvey Johnson, head of FEMA."

"Head of FEMA? What about David Paulison?"

"Dead. He was watching the game."

"And you …"

"Right next to him on our couch. Where are you?"

"Mercy, Arizona. Checking out a possible outbreak of aliens."

Johnson laughed. "Well there isn't much point in that right now. How soon can you be back in Washington?"

"I don't know. I'm in jail."

"In jail?"

"Our cover got blown Sunday morning and they put us in jail."

"The President wants you here, immediately."

She thought for a moment. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do. The President was ordering her to return. But she didn't want to. She wanted to stay with Sean. She wanted to quit. That job teaching in the mosque school was looking very appealing right now. She held the phone silently. Johnson must have felt her hesitation. "Dr. Caffrey, your country needs you. This is a crisis beyond anything in any of your scenarios. Ten million people died yesterday. There has been mass panic. We had panic rioting in Los Angeles and Newark. We have had looting for food in dozens of cities. The President called out the Reserve and the National Guard, but there aren't enough troops to go around and we've had some of the Guard troops go looting for food. And that's just the United States."

She knew what she had to do. She looked into the cell. "Hogan, I am being called back to Washington. You need to take care of Sean."

"A chopper will be there inside of half an hour."

She turned her attention back to Washington and her country. "You'll need to get my clothes. I'm in a prisoner's uniform."

It would be very much appreciated if I could get some reviews. I know people are reading this but nobody is commenting. I'm particularly concerned about the last 1/3 of the story. Any feedback would be very much appreciated.