Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

My channel was completely silent.

I tried multiple times to contact Hale, checking over and over that the radio was functional and on the correct frequency. It was dead. No Hale. No AIs.

I reported this to the others. They at last decided to give Wash a shot at contacting Command just in case the problem was just with my radio. We crowded around him—this time, I stood behind him, placing my hands on his shoulders—but he had the same response that I did. Complete stillness.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Donut said. "Nothing at all? That sucks!"

"Now we don't have any means of communication with anyone," I commented worriedly. "We can't turn on our own radios because the AIs might invade us, and now the connection to Command doesn't work either!"

The Reds and Blues were silent, and, for the first time ever, I felt completely helpless.

"Well," Wash said. "Let's see what Eleven and I have back at the ship. We'll start planning out our own strategy, because there is no way in hell we are going to get surprised like that again."

When we reached our ship—parked not too far away from Blue base—my heart sank. The AIs had attacked it as well, and its AI detector had suffered the same fate that Sheila's had. I had no idea whether the ship would fly or not, but we decided not to test it out for fear of causing further damage.

Worse news came with the supplies we had left in the ship. The AIs had managed to use the ship's power to destroy much of the weaponry we had brought with us. We salvaged as much as possible amid cursing, but we knew one thing for sure: the AIs were trying to make us as weak as possible.

Back at Blue base, we sorted through the rest of our weapons as Sarge and Simmons tried fixing whatever was broken—which, unfortunately, was much of what we had. We all tried to help, but not much could be done. Our supplies were degraded, I estimated, by more than seventy percent. I doubted Sarge and Simmons could fix the rest of everything we had. There was just too much damage.

"God damn it," Church muttered to me as we both tried to fix one of the AI storage units. It had almost been ripped in half. "They're definitely on to us. They're making us weak and they don't want to be tracked. But why are we a target?"

"It's because of you, I'm sure," I said. "They want you. But… I don't get why they didn't just try to capture you or something. What are they waiting for?"

Church shrugged. "I'm completely lost."

That night, I appealed to Sarge to do the impossible.

"Sarge…" I said slowly after dinner. He had complained thoroughly about having to stay for the meal, so I knew that this suggestion would be murder for him.

"What do ya want, missy?" he asked gruffly, sitting moodily in the corner of the kitchen with his shotgun as Donut and Caboose played a board game nearby. The others were watching a football game in the living room. Only Sarge had given any indication that he wanted to leave the base, and I knew why.

The other Reds were nervous. They didn't want to be alone on the other side of the canyon in case the AIs decided to go for them next. In their book, they didn't want to stand alone against the pieces of rogue technology and the Blues. That was just too much. They wanted to survive this mess.

"Well," I continued slowly. "Why… why don't you all spend the night here?"

Sarge glared at me. "Eleven! We spend enough time with these Blue bastards already! How could you even suggest such a thing?"

"Sarge, this is a completely different situation!" I protested. "The AIs are the enemy right now! You know that if the AIs decide to attack you over at Red base, you'll need help from me and Wash and the Blues. You can't face them alone. Why put yourself in that situation? If we don't work together, then we might as well admit defeat right now." I crossed my arms at him. "You want to do that? Surrender?"

Sarge's competitive nature took over, and he suddenly seemed torn by the decision. "I—well—of course not!" he huffed. "But, mark my words, Eleven, when this is through, those Blues are dead!"

I stopped myself from chuckling. Of course…

"Got it, Sarge," I said to him, keeping my face serious. "They're dead."

I popped my head into the other room where the boys were watching television.

"Reds, you're spending the night," I said to them. To my surprise, none of them complained. The Reds and Blues both looked pretty relieved.

"So… we're helping each other again," Simmons commented.

"That's pretty ironic…" muttered Grif.

"No it's not!" Wash retorted. "It would only be ironic if—"

Caboose's voice cut in as he called out from the kitchen. "I think it would be ironic if we were all made out of—"

"Guys!" I snapped. "Hello? We need to figure out where everyone's sleeping tonight, so can you all get up off your asses and help me get the extra blankets?"

"Where are we going to sleep?" Donut asked, walking in from the kitchen.

I shrugged. "Wherever you want, really. The couches here could probably hold two, maybe three of you. Then one of you can take my room. I don't really care about sleeping on the floor."

The Reds helped me collect the extra blankets hiding in the closet. We set them out on the couches in the living room, and Grif, Simmons, and Sarge claimed the available space. I insisted that Donut take my room. I wouldn't mind sleeping on the ground.

"You could always stay in my room," Tucker said in a low voice, nudging me playfully. I rolled my eyes.

"Tonight's not your lucky night, dude," I replied.

Donut only acquiesced to sleeping in my room if he could take the floor. He even turned in early just to make sure that I couldn't steal the ground first. When I realized I just couldn't argue with him, I made sure to give him the fluffiest blanket I could find.

"I'll be there in a bit," I told him as he trotted down the hallway.

Once the Reds were comfortably settled in, everyone else decided to get a good night's rest, and we left them alone. The Blues and Wash disappeared to their respective bedrooms, but Tucker lagged behind. I raised an eyebrow as he approached me before I went into my own room.

"You know," he said quietly with a mischievous smile. "I was serious before. You really could spend the night with me…"

"No. I don't think so."

"Come on," he said, sidling closer. "I'm going to be pretty lonely…"

I snorted. "You sleep by yourself every night. Why is tonight any different?"

"You know you want to give Donut his own space," Tucker insisted. "Come on, Ells."

"No," I said, smiling but firm. "Tucker. That wouldn't be professional. You know that."

Tucker sighed. "I figured you'd say that. But… if you ever don't give a shit about being professional, you know where to find me." He winked. "Besides, you weren't really caring about professionalism back in the forest…"

I smirked. "Yeah, my fault."

He smiled. "So… do you think that you could at least forget about your professionalism for… for just the next five seconds?"

I sighed in resignation. This was a bad idea, but... we were alone. "…Fine."

Before I could change my mind, Tucker leaned in and kissed me zealously. I was too nervous about someone seeing it that I pulled away probably before five seconds were up, and Tucker was left kissing the air.

"Professionalism…" he muttered good-naturedly. "It'll be the death of me."

"Good night, Tucker," I laughed, pushing him in the direction of his room. "See you tomorrow."

He smiled at me and disappeared down the hallway. I chuckled under my breath again and was just about quietly enter my own room when something down the hall caught my eye.

The doorway just down the hall was open and the light was on inside. I saw a figure's shadow moving in the light of the room. Then, I heard a frustrated growl and the door slammed shut.

Wash.

He had heard my entire encounter with Tucker.