"You can head inside the med bus right there and patch yourself up. We'll have a talk with Captain Weaver later about the plans for you and Austin."

"Okay, sounds good. Thanks Tom!"

Tom gave Anna a small nod along with a smile as they parted ways- him returning to Captain Weaver to discuss their options and her to the med bus. Her pace quickened as she could feel the wound beneath her sleeve throbbing.

She walked up the steps and into the well-organized bus, surprised to see that it was empty. Considering how unsafe the world really is now, she expected to see more wounded fighters or civilians, or at least even one. But instead she found herself alone, looking through all of the cabinets and drawers, continuing to be surprised at the variety of supplies they had managed to collect. She finally found exactly what she needed- rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, a few large bandages, and one long arm wrap to cover the whole thing. She set the supplies on the counter next to one of the hospital beds and took a seat on the bed, beginning her work. She roughly wiped the cut with the alcohol. On a normal day, she would never be able to do this to herself and would most likely wimp out from the stinging pain that the alcohol inflicts, but now it's no big deal. Pain came second nature in her life now so it's nothing but a bother.

In the midst of covering up the now clean wound, she heard the footsteps of someone else entering the bus. She glanced up to see one of Tom Mason's sons, Ben. He acknowledged her with a small nod, which she returned, then turned his back on her while she looked back to the wound she was tending, but only for a second. Her gaze quickly returned back to him. More specifically, it returned to the dark spikes that were lodged in his spine. It looked like they ran down his whole back, and the skin around them were like nothing she's ever seen. They looked like they would be uncomfortable, but he wasn't showing any signs of them being any trouble.

"How much longer are you going to stare at them?" Ben caught Anna off-guard as she jumped in her place, her cheeks turning a deep shade of pink.

"Oh, um, I-I didn't realize, I…"

"Save it, it's fine. You've only seen me for a matter of minutes and probably already think I'm a freak." He finally turned around and faced her, and by now she had gained her composure.

"No, not at all. I actually find them quite interesting." Curiosity caused Anna to stand up and walk towards him. "Do you mind if I take a look?"

"Um, yeah sure. Go ahead." He said, turning around and lifting up the bottom of his shirt for her to get a good view. Now he was the one to be caught off-guard, not expecting her sudden interest in what he considered to be the worst thing that's ever happened to him.

"Do they hurt?" She asked, poking away at every inch, from the scaly skin around each one to the actual spikes themselves.

"Uh, no. I actually barely even realize they're there half the time. It's only when people start staring and whispering when I walk by them that I remember…" After that unpleasant confession, he pulled his shirt down and turned to face the brunette. He noticed the significant height difference between them, though he wasn't towering over her.

"Ignore them, they just don't understand. At the end of the day, you're the one protecting them, and if they aren't grateful for that, then that's their loss."

This actually made him smile. He had never thought of it that way. He had just always assumed that they were right to judge and that he was just some walking freak show.

"Well, thank you. I don't know how you managed to understand my situation like that so quickly and help me feel better about it, but thank you. It means a lot."

"My friends did always used to tell me that I gave the best advice. It's been a while since I've been around enough people to give some, though." Anna forced a smile at the thought.

"How long have you been on your own? You know, with Austin and anyone else?" Ben asked her as they both walked over to the couch at the back of the bus and sat down beside each other.

"Since the aliens first came. I was in school when the first wave started wiping out our town. You could hear the gunfire and screaming outside through the window, but nobody bothered to look except the teacher. We were all frozen in our seats in fear. The next thing we knew, the sounds of chaos could also be heard in the hallways and the door of our room flew open. A group of your so-called 'skitters' ran in and attacked most of the kids, but a few including myself and my friend Rylan escaped out the window. When we got outside, we met up with some other kids that had escaped as well. But a Mech saw us and opened fire on us as we all tried running away. Luckily, I've always been a fast runner so I was in the front of the pack and avoided being shot and narrowly got away. Austin and Rylan obviously had lived too, along with another boy and girl, Marie and Zac, but both of them were eventually taken by the skitters. Then Rylan got killed by a crazed survivor who he tried to make contact with, leaving me and Austin alone with each other. I honestly thought that was the end right there, that there was no way two teenagers who had never fought a day in their life before all of this could live."

"A few days later, we were on the move trying to find a new place that would be safe to spend the night at when we heard the gunfire from you guys. We followed where it was coming from and hid in the bushes while we watched you guys completely destroy that pack of skitters. We were hesitant about whether we were going to get up and join you guys because of our past run-ins with survivors, but when I saw the Overlord sneak up behind Tom, I couldn't just leave you guys hanging. We may have met some horrible people, but in the end we all are fighting the same enemy. So I instructed Austin to take the first shot to the chest to weaken it before I took the kill shot to the head."

"And it was a rather nice shot, may I add." Ben smirked. The idea of a good kill towards the aliens amused him. Anna thanked him and laughed before a silence loomed over them.

"So, you don't know where your parents are then?" He was nervous to ask this question in fear of how she'd respond to it. Luckily, she didn't freak out on him or have a meltdown; she just sighed.

"Nope. After we fled the school, I didn't bother returning back to my home. My family was smart, but they wouldn't have had the proper weapons to survive for very long. I just have to assume that my parents were killed and my sister was taken-"

"And harnessed by the aliens." Ben finished for her.

"Is that what you call it? Those things on kids' back that control them? A harness?"

"Yep."

"Does every kid that gets kidnapped by the aliens get harnessed?" She thought about all of her friends and even strangers from school that she witnessed getting taken away in the inescapable clutches of skitters.

"As far as we know, yes. If they wanted to kill a kid, they would just do it right there on the spot."

Another silence filled the air as Anna was hesitant to ask the question that immediately came into her mind, but she knew that it would be best to ask now since they're on the subject.

"That's why you have those spikes your back, right? You were harnessed at one point?"

"Yeah, but Hal and the others managed to rescue me and Dr. Glass was able to remove it safely from my back. But the technique only allows you to melt through it, which disconnects you from them but doesn't necessarily make them go away. Obviously, I wasn't as lucky as others so I'm permanently stuck with spikes that make me an official freak." Ben sighed this time.

"Ben, you're not a freak. It's not your fault you were captured. You can't be so hard on yourself." Anna placed her hand gently on his in attempts to show how sincere she was trying to be. Hearing her say that was a breath of fresh air for him, because he realized he really was being too hard on himself. He smiled at her and was just about to say thanks when footsteps interrupted their intimate moment.

"Hey Anna, Weaver wants to talk to us about the plans for us- oh sorry, I can give you guys a second…" Austin said, as he rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

Anna looked down at her hand, which was delicately placed on top of Ben's. Her cheeks flushed to a dark shade of red as she yanked her hand back and stood up, much to Ben's disappointment. His reaction actually surprised him a bit.

"No, it's fine. We were just getting to know each other." Anna collected herself and walked over to her friend.

"Ah, okay." He turned his attention towards Ben, who was still a bit flustered by the sudden interruption. "By the way, I'm Austin. I never got to properly introduce myself."

"Oh, uh, I'm Ben." He shook Austin's outstretched hand. "Anna told me nothing but good things about you. You sound like a great friend to have around throughout these kinds of situations."

"Actually, I'm her boyfriend." He corrected him. Anna was quick to jump in to the conversation at this.

"Well, not really. We haven't really made it official yet."

"Well, now it's official." Austin retorted, almost a bit forcefully, bringing about an awkward tension on the bus.

"So, um, you said that Weaver needed to talk to us?" Anna tried to cut through the silence and hoped to get out of this uncomfortable situation.

"Oh yeah, that's right. He's waiting for us, so we better get going."

"Of course. I'll talk to you later Ben?" Anna almost pleaded, hoping he wasn't too turned off after the whole stand-still that just occurred. Thankfully, he gave her a warm smile and a nod as he stuffed his hands in his jean pockets.

He watched as she exited the bus with her "boyfriend", giving one last wave back at him as she did. Leaning back against the counter, he rubbed his face with his palms. Well, that was a bit… awkward. What was up with that guy anyway, getting all up in their business like that.

And why did he feel a pang of jealously in his stomach at the idea of Anna having a boyfriend?