A/N Well this is chapter 5...kind of short but i hope you enjoy it all the same :D...*YAWN* sorry guys but it's 2:57 a.m. where i live, so i'm going to hit the sack. i'll finish posting the rest of the chapters i owe you guys tomorrow! please till then read and REVIEW!

Edited chapter 5

My name is Tom Leighton. I'm 10 years, 9 months, and almost 4 days old.

If there is one thing Tarsus IV has in common with Earth it's the night sky. While during the day it's a bright purple, at night it's the same inky blackness broken by diamond lights. And, like Earth, Tarsus is one of the few planets that only has one moon.

That very moon was shining brightly tonight, and making it all the more difficult for J.T. and I to sneak back into the colony. What with my natural night blindness, useless eye, and clumsy feet, I often found myself stumbling into moonlight. It made me easier to spot, but at least I could see where I was going.

J.T., on the other hand, seemed relaxed yet perfectly alert. He slid into the shadows as easily as if he were one himself. If anyone could have seen him, they would have been able to tell he'd had a lot of practice sneaking around and staying out of sight.

He made me feel ashamed of my clumsiness, though he never said a word about it, just kept tugging me by the wrist and guiding me back into the shadows whenever I accidentally stumbled out. Several times I lost sight of him, panicked, and walked straight into a spotlight, but he was always there to catch me.

J.T. moved through the shadows as quickly and as soundlessly as the wind. When guards passed, they never even glanced around; unaware of our presence even though we were just a couple inches away.

It wasn't until we were looking at the front doors of the courthouse that we had any real close calls.

"Well, I guess we won't be going through the front doors," J.T. whispered, speaking for the first time since we left the cave.

I was behind him, and couldn't see what he was looking at, so I craned my neck to see over his shoulder.

That was a huge mistake. I was much shorter than him, and standing up on my tiptoes like that threw me off balance. I ended up stumbling into the moonlight.

J.T. didn't catch me in time to stop my leg and half my torso from being reveled to the ten-armed guards watching the courthouse. And of course ten guards meant 20 eyes staring in ten different directions, which meant….

"What was that?" exclaimed a particularly rough-looking guard, standing up so fast his chair slid with a bang into the dark wooden doors behind him. He cocked his phaser rifle and pointed it right where my torso had flickered in and out of sight.

J.T. moved so fast it was a literal blink and miss moment.

One moment I had been standing almost beside him, in plain sight. The next, I was pressed against the glass, chest to chest with him as he stood protectively in front of me. Breathing shallowly in my face, his sky blue eyes turned steely gray by the darkness, he stared straight at me.

"Keep your mouth shut and don't move, or you're going to get us killed," was his silent message.

I felt my own breath snag in my chest as I strained my ears to catch the noise coming from the guards.

"What was what?" Asked a bored male voice.

"I don't know what it was. It just looked like a disembodied leg and torso, over there by that old coot's bar," the man replied, his voice gruff. A second later I distinctly heard the sound of a phaser powering up.

"Seeing ghosts now, Miller?" came a sarcastic voice, this time female.

"Shut up, Franks!" Miller said, sounding irritated. "I know what I saw and it looked like someone was watching us."

"Well, if you're so sure, go over and check it out," grunted another one of the guards.

I felt J.T. tense in front of me. And I was pretty sure that if my own spine straightened out any further I was going to snap backwards.

"Stay here," J.T. whispered.

I felt fear choke me but I managed a short nod. And with that, the protective cover of J.T. slid away from me. That's when I really had to fight off the panic and the urge to follow him.

Now that I was able to see them, I tried to focus my attention on the guards instead of the fact that J.T. was nowhere in my limited sight.

"Fine, I will. But I'm taking Masters and Fields with me," grunted Miller, looking directly at the spot where I stood. His eyes squinted like he was trying to spot me again.

I felt my stiff spine turn to jelly. I knew he hadn't spotted me yet, but with 10 short strides down the courthouse stairs and across the deserted and blood covered road, the long-legged man and I would be nose to barrel.

As two other men, one with silver hair and clearly not a human and the other a black-haired, agile looking young man, stood up and turned on their own phasers, Miller started down the steps, the barrel of his rifle pointed straight at my belly.

Masters and Fields were quick to follow, pointing their own phasers in the same direction as Miller's.

I felt my knees begin to bang into each other, and I could no longer control my breath, which came out in short, panicked, gasps. My fingernails were digging into the bricks behind me. If I didn't have so many other things on my mind, it probably would have hurt.

I pressed myself as tightly against the wall as I could. My first instinct was to run, but common sense told me that if I moved they'd only see me sooner.

As they came closer another instinct came over me, one every child knows: The instinct to cry and scream for some authority figure to come and rescue you. Only my instinct was not to call for my mom or my dad or some police officer, like most kids. No, the first person that came to my mind to start screaming for was J.T. But where was he?

"He left you here to die, kid. Face it, he doesn't care about you. You were only a distraction in case he needed to save his own skin," an evil voice chuckled darkly inside my head.

The guards were now halfway across the street and closing in fast on the spot where I stood. They were so close I could see Miller's eyes widening slowly as he started to notice my skinny frame.

"No," another voice agued with the first, "Why would he go through all the trouble to save your butt last time if he was just going to throw you to the sharks the first chance he got? You'll see, he'll save you again."

The guards had reached the sidewalk, and I knew just one more step would bring me into plain view for them to use as a target. My already wild heartbeat kicked up another notch to the point that I was sure they could hear it.

"COME ON, J.T.!" the second voice shouted in my head as I saw the guard's foot head towards the ground for that final, fatal step.

CRASH…RRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNG!

Somewhere on the other side of the block, a store's alarm system went off as its window shattered. The guards in front of me froze mid-step, spun on their heels, and took off towards the blaring alarm, as did four of the other guards who had been stationed in front of the doors.

As the guards ran around the corner and out of sight, I felt my knees go watery with relief. I would have collapsed right there, sobbing with joy that I was still alive, if the shadows hadn't been so thin. Even so, I let tears of relief slide happily down my face as my both my body and mind slowly came back under control. I still hadn't fully relaxed when suddenly J.T. appeared right next to me. My already edgy mind went blank in fear, and I jumped and swung my fist forward in a last ditch effort to protect myself from harm.

J.T. managed to catch my fist before it slammed into his nose. "Tom, it's me!" he hissed before peering cautiously at the remaining three guards.

With another wave of relief crashing over me, I yanked my fist from J.T.'s hand and threw my thin arms around his scrawny neck in a bone-crushing hug.

"Please don't leave me alone again! Please," I begged, sobbing into his shoulder, "Please, J.T., everyone else has already left me. Please, not you. Please, I can't live on my own! Please, dad, please, I need someone to take care of me while I take care of Kelsey. Dad, I know I promised that I would be strong and take care of Kelsey, but I can't take care of her alone, not without someone taking care of me too. Please don't leave me again, please," I begged in a low sob, never catching my slip on what I had called J.T.

J.T., who for a second had just stood frozen in shock, slowly wrapped his arm around me and rubbed my back in a soothing effort to calm me down.

"Shhhh, now you're all right son. I promise I won't leave you again. I promise," J.T. whispered in my ear, neither one of us taking notice of the sentiment he had used.

The moment was broken by the quickly approaching steps of the returning guards. We were unkindly slammed back into reality, where we had a mission that the lives of thousands depended on. With a growl, J.T. pulled away. "It's not safe," he whispered, and dragged me forward by my sleeve, sticking closer to the wall then he had earlier.

I nodded and wiped my eyes with my free sleeve, unable to feel ashamed of my breakdown.

"There has to be a back door," J.T. hissed, pressing us close to the wall again as the guards passed us.

It took us a few minutes to skirt around the block and to the back of the courthouse, but luckily we didn't encounter any more guards.

However, when we did reach the back we found that there was no back door. But there was one of those thin rectangular basement windows that seemed a bit longer than average.

Just long enough to fit a tall 12-year-old.

And the best part… it was open.

Through it, though, we could hear things that made our hearts clench and smell things that made our empty stomachs roll. The sound of sick coughing and young kids crying was drifting out to us, accompanied by the stench of pee and something much worse.

This was the first time and last time I think I had ever seen J.T. look so physically distraught over something. Not just his eyes, his entire face showed the sadness he felt for the way these people were being treated.

"Kodos, you sick S.O.B., you had better hope you never come face to face with me," J.T. growled, his blue eyes harsh. I was sure his expression would scare the socks off even Kodos.

"Come on, Tom," J.T. whispered, peering around in the room. "There are no guards in there. You slide in first, that way if any guards come patrolling around here you'll be out of the way of the shots."

I nodded and lay down on my stomach, feet facing the window, then slowly shimmied my way through it, sucking in on instinct before realizing there was really no need to.

My feet hit the floor before my head was even pulled all the way through. I turned my head and pulled it through, but my ears got stuck. I let out quite a yelp; scared I would be stuck like this for a long time, when I head a small snicker. Unable to turn my head i settled for glaring at the window frame instead of J.T.

I felt rather than saw J.T. bend down.

The next second, bony fingers pushed my ears flat against my skull and pushed. My head popped out of the window so quickly I didn't have time to catch my balance, and I stumbled in tripping over something and landed flat on my backside.

"Tom, you okay?" J.T.'s concerned voice floated to me as I stood up, rubbing my sore bottom.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." My sentence trailed away as I caught sight of what I had tripped over.

In front of me, staring at the wall, curled up in a fetal position, was an old woman with wiry gray hair that looked as though it had been pulled from its roots. Tear tracks led from her once beautiful hazel eyes to the point of her chin to form a puddle on the floor.

My breath snagged in shock.

"Miss Norwick?" I asked, my voice quivering.

No, it couldn't be… but if her grandmother was here, that meant they must have…. Her.

"Miss Norwick? Miss Norwick is…. Is Martha here? Miss Norwick, is your granddaughter here?" I asked desperately, shaking her shoulder.

As though waking slowly from a trance, Miss Norwick finally pulled her gaze from the wall and turned it on me. Her eyes didn't light up with recognition as I had hoped.

"Who… who are you?" Miss Norwick asked, her voice slow and crackly…defeated. So very unlike her usual feisty tone.

"It's me, Tom Leighton, Miss Norwick. Where's Martha, is she here?" I asked, my voice shaking in desperate hope that she would say no.

"Martha…Martha who?" asked Miss Norwick, her voice clueless and hazy.

In a fit of pent up frustration, fear, and grief, I grabbed the old woman by the shoulder and shook her as hard as I possibly could.

"MARTHA! MARTHA NORWICK! YOUR GRANDAUGHTER, MISS NORWICK, IS SHE HERE? IS MARTHA HERE?" I screamed before remembering that there where guards everywhere.

The older women flinched and scurried backwards, but for the first time since I had set eyes on her tonight something ignited behind that gaze.

"Martha," Miss Norwick whispered slowly.

"Yes, Martha….Yes, is she here?" I whispered back, fear constricting my throat.

"Martha, oh my poor dear, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I should have done more to stop them from taking you…. Oh I'm so sorry, my poor baby girl, my poor granddaughter, what horrors you must be going through," Miss Norwick sobbed, putting her head in between her knees and yanking on her hair till it came out in fistfuls.

"MARTHA! MARTHA! OH MY POOR SWEET MARTHA! FILTHY ANIMALS, TAKING MY POOR POOR MARTHA! MARTHA! MARTHA! MARTHA!," She wailed, shooting around to claw at the wall like a dog trying to dig under a fence.

I did nothing to stop her. My insides had turned to ice and everything around me disappeared.

"Oh good Lord please no. Please good Lord, don't let it be true. Please don't let her be here, please don't let her be…." I prayed, feeling like curling up into a fetal position on the urine-covered floor myself.

However, the sound of J.T. stumbling in from the window brought me back to Tarsus IV, something I was really beginning to hate.

"Tom, what happened? Are you okay?" J.T. asked, concern coloring his voice and reminding me of the reason we were here in the first place. Steeling myself against the pain for now, I stood.

"No," I answered honestly.

It was scary to hear how hollow and dead my voice was getting.

J.T. took a step back, apparently surprised at my tone.

"Let's get everyone out of here." I growled.

J.T. just nodded and turned around to face the giant room filled with close to 4,000 people. No one had even glanced over to see why two boys had climbed through the window into this hell hole.

"Excuse me everyone, we're here to help. We're going to break you out of here," J.T. called.

Some people glanced up in interest, others just snorted and curled further into themselves, and still others didn't even respond.

"Alright, so does anyone know if there's someone watching the door, or when the guard switch is?" J.T. asked.

For a moment it looked as if no one would answer. Then, slowly, someone pushed himself to his feet. He was a tall dark skinned man, with graying black hair and fatherly brown eyes.

"My name's Chris Baker, and to answer your questions: Yes, there's a guard on the door leading out of here, and they don't leave until another guard has fully taken over the shift. There's never a moment to escape and I think you're nuts for trying. I suggest climbing out the window you climbed in through and saving your own hides while you still can." The man's stern voice left no room for disagreement, and yet J.T. ignored it.

"With all due respect Mr. Baker, we came here to rescue you, and I'll be damned if I let Tom come here risking his neck for no reason at all." J.T.'s stern tone matched Mr. Baker's step for step. For a while the two of them just stood there staring at each other, in the silent communication only J.T. was able to create.

Then finally, after an eternity of nothing but the frantic muttering of Miss Norwick, Mr. Baker stepped back, almost hidden behind the shadows of the wide rectangular room.

"You got guts, kid," Mr. Baker said, a grudging respect echoing in his voice."What the hey. I'm good for anything that gets us the heck out of here."

J.T. smiled and gave a polite nod.

"Good choice," J.T. whispered, his own voice respectful.

"All right everyone; these two boys are here to rescue us. I want everyone, women and children first, to line up at the window," Mr. Baker addressed the now slowly gathering crowd.

There was some excited muttering, but most people just stared silently at us, their ears not daring to believe what they had just heard. Then, slowly, a little child, at the most only 8 years old, walked over and tried to pull himself through the low window.

That seemed to break the spell, as a couple of men rushed forward to start helping the shorter kids through the window. The rest of the people gathered in a long line that must have wrapped around the room three times. Children were only a small percentage of the people in the room; there might have been about 90 or so. The women were next, and then the men. I felt my breath catch.

"J.T., there's so many of them. How are we going to sneak away from here with so many people following us?" I breathed, feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of our mission.

I never got a reply. I turned around just in time to see J.T. squeeze through the window and turn around to pull little ones up. I let out a sigh and moved to help push the kids through.

It took at least 30 minutes before we had even managed to get down to the last five kids, and by now panic was swimming at the corner of my brain. We had been here way too long and guards were sure to come by soon. There was just no way we could stay here and save everyone without the risk of being found.

And I was right.

No sooner had I pushed the last kid out to J.T. then there was a loud bang and yell.

"WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?" yelled a voice I recognized as Miller's.

In slow motion, I turned to see the guards standing with phasers pointed at random people in the crowd. I heard them fire, the sound like a cannon blast in the dead silent room.

And then it was like stepping through cool water back into the square. People were running. Some moved foolishly towards the guards in a desperate attempt to overwhelm them. People were screaming and dying. It was a horror nobody deserved to see once in their life, let alone twice.

I barely felt Mr. Baker grab me and shove me through the window, or J.T. grabbing desperately at the collar of my shirt trying to yank me through.

"Come on, Tom, move!" J.T.'s yell snapped me out of my daze just as my feet popped out of the hole and I was once again in the midnight blackness.

"RUN, EVERYBODY! FOLLOW ME!" J.T. yelled over the screams from the basement.

In a blind panic everyone, myself included, stampeded after J.T. to a part of the town that soon disappeared into forest. But with so many panicked screaming and crying kids only following the person next to them it was by no means an easy escape.

As I heard the guards running and yelling after us, as well as the distinct sound of phasers charging I just knew….This was the end. J.T. had been wrong. This had been a huge mistake that was about to cause over 80 deaths, mine included.

….So why was I still following him towards the forest instead of dodging into some random building where I had a better chance of surviving? As we hit the tree lining and the first blast fired, I got my answer….

End chapter 5