Hey! I'm really happy with the positive reactions in you guys' reviews. I actually ran outside in the rain and danced for you all :D. I hope you like chapter 4. I'm a little behind on the episodes. I just finished watching Homecoming to give you a hint of how long it takes me to write this. On with the story!

Mari's POV:

I don't see why I bother with Jimmy. He acts like a teenage girl! I love you, I don't, and I love you, now I don't. He hasn't exactly told me he loves me, but my imagination runs kinda wild with me. I should be thinking of how to save Lucy, not about fickle teenage boys. Completely oblivious to what was going on around me; I hadn't even realized the bikes just inches from hitting me. When I finally looked up Hal and Ben and a bunch of other kids I didn't recognize were staring.

"Mari, we could have run you over!" Ben said worriedly.

Hal mumbled some words, that I guessed were something along the line of 'I would have much rather let you get hit.'

I just nodded my head dejectedly and walked over to the fire set up by the Berserkers. Pope's human scumbags were sitting around taking swigs from old beer cans as the sun set.

"Mari, you should have seen me kill these Skitters today!" It was Matt. He was my favorite Mason, probably because he reminded me so much of my little sister. Weird comparison…

"Since when did you start killing roaches?" I smiled trying to relax a bit.

"You should have been out with us today! I was riding my scooter and I saw two Skitters, but pretended not to and I led them into an alley and Tector blew their heads off! The blood splattered all over me and it was awesome!" I couldn't help but laugh at him; just the way he described it.

"Nice little man!" I bumped fists with the kid and settled atop a barrel. Reaching into my coat pocket, I felt for the candy bar Anne had given me. She'd told me I needed to gain some weight back when she'd literally forced the sweet into my hands. I ripped open the wrapper and scrutinized its contents. A Milky Way! This was my favorite candy! Matt looked up and noticed what I was holding in my hands.

"No fair, how'd you get candy?" He used a little kid's biggest weapon; the pouty face.

"You want it?" He nodded his head and gave me a wide, toothy grin.

"You're gonna have to catch me!" I shouted and hopped off the barrel, jogging away. Not realizing how fast the youngest Mason was, I was shocked when he caught up with me so quickly.

He tackled, tickled, and robbed me of my candy bar. Matt quickly gulped down the chocolate and looked over at me. His eyes began to widen as his apologies began.

"Matt, what are you talking about? You didn't do anything." I told him, still laughing. He pointed down at my stomach and I touched the place of where the tree had pierced my skin.

My shirt had dampened with blood and I lifted up the cloth; horrified to see that my stitches had ripped open.

Matt shifted his weight uncomfortably as the wound continued to bleed. I rose slowly to my feet and tried to walk myself towards the med bus. Immediately, the young boy was at my side, trying to help me.

"I can get there myself." I grunted, trying to get him away. He hadn't moved and I could tell he didn't plan to. As we approached the bus, he ran forward.

"Anne, Mari's hurt!" Matt shouted as he planted his feet on the steps. Anne rushed up to me and put her arm around my shoulder, clamping her hand on my wrist.

"Mari, what did you do this time?" She asked, sounding just the way my mom would have.

"Uhh, I fell?" It came out more as more of a question and I was hoping that Anne would accept the obvious lie. I didn't want Matt feeling bad and getting a lecture from everybody for rough housing with me.

"Let's get you inside and see what I can do." Anne replied, knowing that I wasn't telling the truth. I pushed Anne off thinking I could walk myself but with every stride; it was like a knife in my stomach kept twisting and I fell to my knees in pain.

"Mari!" Matt was there first to make sure my head didn't smack the hard ground. They slowly brought me back to my feet and had Hal carry me in. I really not like being touched by somebody who had held a gun to my head earlier that same day.

"What did Ms. Berserker Barbie do this time?" Hal asked, sarcasm filling his voice.

"At least I'm not just a scout!" I taunted him. I could see the anger wash over his face.

"And at least I don't need somebody saving my sorry butt every five seconds," Hal retorted. I opened my mouth to comeback at him but Anne stopped me.

"Can you boys give me some space? If you need to know she tore her stitches open." Anne said trying to make Hal feel sorry for what he had said. She quickly closed the curtain afterwards.

"Well Mari, you're in luck. The staples haven't gone too far into the wound." Anne said reassuringly. I sighed with relief. The thought of being trapped on this bus another day was awful.

Lourdes had brought out some things that I would never know the name of and Anne got to work. She was done within a matter of minutes.

"No going on missions for at least another week or so." She told me as I practically ran off my prison.

The sun was starting to rise and I was surprised to see Matt sitting on the back off the med bus. "Sup little man?" I asked as I sat next to him.

He lifted his head and turned towards me followed by a hug. I flinched a little and Matt thought he was hurting me.

"Sorry," he mumbled, pulling away.

"If I can handle that tree, I think I can manage a nine year old boy." I smiled and rustled his hair.

"Mari, you missed a lot while you were in there," he told me somberly, his dark eyes wide with concern. "One of those people on the bikes was Weaver's daughter." I gave him a studied his face for a moment, then decided he was telling the truth.

"Well Skitter Killer, you better go get some sleep." He looked slightly relieved as he hopped off the bumper and headed to the Mason family tent.

I definitely needed sleep too if I planned on being a hero and all. Walking back to my tent, I kicked a couple of lose pebbled and did my best not to wake Anne and Lourdes as I pushed the flap back and entered.

They were trying to squeeze as much sleep as they could into little amounts of time. My time in the med bus had shown me how much work they actually did.

Finally lying down in my cot felt really good after the exhausting events of the last 24 hours. Sleep found me quickly and this time my dream was different.

"Mawi, hurry up," shouted my little sister as we ran across the meadow about four miles out from our house.

"Avery I think we've gone far enough." I heaved and stopped, slouching over trying to catch my breath. She came to a halt as well, turned around, and crossed her arms. Her dirty blonde hair shone like caramel in the morning sun.

"Mawi, come on!" She yelled and dashed off again. I started to jog off after her.

"You're going to get your Sunday dress all dirty." I protested as we made our way into the trees.

"We have a washer!" her voice was becoming muffled as she ventured deeper into the green. When she stopped, I was finally able to catch up to her. How'd my four year old sister get so far ahead of me? She seemed to be staring at something and I couldn't help but follow her gaze.

In front of us was a pond. Mossy rocks lay about and little minnows swarmed around the murky waters.

"It's beautiful," my little said as she took off her shoes. A twig soon snapped and I jumped.

"Avery I think we better get going," I said a little frightened as to what might be in the woods.

"Don't worry it's just him." She replied as if I'm supposed to know who 'him' was.

"Who," I asked formally creeped out.

"The octopus," she said smiling.

"Uh, let's just go." I grabbed her shoes and carried her out of the forest.

I was awoken by the sound of people coughing. "Oh good Mari, you're awake" said Anne as she handed me some fresh stream washed sheets. "Can you pass these out to the soldiers?" She asked me thinking I would want to spend time with Jimmy. I just nodded my head.

As I made my way over to the tent, I noticed some kids playing soccer and remembered how just before the invasion I had been picked for the varsity team at school. When the ball was rolled towards me, I hit it with the tip of my toe bringing it up to my knee. Instinct kicked in as I started juggling the ball on my thighs. I brought the ball back down to my feet and passed it back to Maggie. A few looks of surprise were thrown my way when I continued toward the tents but I kept walking, ignoring them.

Most of the tents held fighters in various stages of readying themselves for the day. I didn't really care about anybody's privacy, unless they were changing. Stripping old sheets and gathering up the old blankets leaving crisp new ones, I made my rounds.

As I came to Jimmy's tent, I paused. He's probably at some meeting, I told myself and moved aside the flap to find a shirtless 14 year old.

"Uh, blanket?" I asked as if this were a normal occasion. He blushed as he looked up, still fumbling with his belt buckle.

"Hey Mari," he said as he slowly took the blanket.

"I'm not going to slap you. I want to know where everybody's going." An embarrassed smile spread across my face as he quickly put on a ratty blue t-shirt.

"Weaver assigned a meeting for the best soldiers." Jimmy said as he grabbed his compass.

"I guess that means I'm going." Shrugging my shoulders, I started to turn around but I caught a glimpse of his crystal blue eyes and knew he was questioning my place at Weaver's meeting. I ignored him and walked out of the tent, trying to shake the image of Jimmy Boland, shirtless, from my mind.

I came into Weaver's tent just before he was about to begin. The attention was drawn towards me a little bit as I entered and Weaver cleared his throat. His usual brusque spiel began and I went into my own little world taking bits and pieces of what they were saying in.

The only two words that really stuck with me were: harness facility.

"I'm in!" I shouted as I snapped out of it.

"Barbie, I don't think that's smart." It was Tector. Firstly, he was the only one with that southern drawl and secondly, only Berserkers call me Barbie.

"Well, Anne said I could go on missions again," I protested. I was glad Hal hadn't heard her tell me I couldn't go out. Nobody seemed to object so I was all set.

A Mexican guy started talking and Weaver grabbed him. A girl stepped in between them and I guessed she was his daughter Matt
was talking about.

They stormed out and the meeting was at an end. Weaver asked to talk to Tom privately.

I walked out behind Matt and followed him over to the bikes. Weaver's daughter and Diego ; or whatever his name was, jumped onto the bikes. They're little kid squad was following their lead.

"Hey, there's an extra bike. Barbie is it? And Skitter Killer." He pointed towards me and Matt.

"It's Mari," I corrected. "And yet again, I'm in." As I fist pumped the air, Matt handed me a .44 magnum and an AK-47.

"I guess you're riding with me little man." I said as I climbed onto the dirt bike.

"No! Men are supposed to ride with the girl holding on to them," he corrected.

"Wow, and who taught you this? Let me guess Hal? Besides I don't even think your feet can't touch the ground!" smirking because I knew I'd won, I extended a hand to the kid. He grabbed it and swung up behind me.

The drive ended up being tougher than I expected. Matt almost went flying off when I took a turn to sharp and I could tell that he was already feeling a little nervous. When we arrived my heart lurched in my chest as my excitement mounted. Somewhere deep down, I had a bad feeling about this; leaving without Weaver and Tom, but I ignored it.

"We're here" I whispered to Matt behind my shoulder as I put down the kickstand and helped Matt get off.

"Guys get down, robot" Diego said making hand gestures.

"Matt there's a Mech over there," I pointed from behind the bike. I knew we weren't well hidden so I dragged him over to some beaten down cars. One of their group must have shot because the rhythmic footsteps were getting closer. I saw the beam and knew I had to take Jimmy's advice. I stood up and shot.
5 hours ago

"Matt get back!" I shouted hoping that if anybody survived it would be him. Instead of following my order he decided to show the Mech that there was more than one of us back there. We were no match for the machine and before I knew it I was pushing Matt to the ground and felt the blast.

"Mari!" was the last thing I heard.

"Get it off me," an unfamiliar boy's voice shrieked. I tried to lift my head, but it was being held in place by something. The area was dark, and the only light radiated an eerie orange glow.

"Anybody else there" I shouted feeling alone.

"Mari?" Matt shouted in response. Relief washed over me at the sound of his voice.

"Matt, umm I can't tell you to stay calm. I'm not even calm right now! I'M FREAKING OUT!" I started squirming around trying to get free of my bonds. All attempts were futile and the feeling of dread crept up on me. We were all going to be harnessed.
"Mari, am I going to be harnessed?" I could hear Matt's voice squeak at the least word. I was about to respond when Red Eye came around the corner with a harnessed girl.

"Hi Mari," spoke the robotic voice of my best friend.

"Lucy," I murmured under my breath.

"Mari Kline you don't have to be scared, they just want to ask you some questions." It was terrifying to hear Lucy sound so…so controlled.

"Mari, what's going on over there," Matt shouted. I couldn't respond to him. How could I?

"Not unless you set him free." I spoke trying to make the most of the situation.

"We need the boy." Lucy replied for the Skitter.

"Then I guess I'm not going to be answering any questions." I retorted smugly. A loud shot came from behind me and the Skitter ran off leaving Lucy fall to the floor. I heard all of their voices; Tom, Weaver, Ben, Hal, and Jimmy of course.

"Jimmy!" I shouted. My body relaxed in its binds as my rescuer approached.

"Mari, what were you thinking? Did you really want that thing on your back?" Jimmy said his tone just a little over a whisper.

"I was thinking I could save Lucy. Thanks for coming, though." I smiled and thought I saw him blush.

"If you weren't an idiot I wouldn't have to," he smiled as he tried to cut through the restraints.

"Hey, if I'm such an idiot why am I worth saving?"

"Because I'm even more of one than you," he finished with my bond and I couldn't help but smile. Turning to look at the rest of the group, I rubbed my chaffed wrists. And then I remembered Lucy. I quickly dropped to the ground and pulled her head onto my lap.

"Jimmy, help me get her up." I tugged on his leg.

"Tom, I got Lucy!" I shouted. Half dragging her towards the group, I handed her over to Hal. That was when Ben opened up on the fish tank in the back of the warehouse. I was already out the door when I heard more gunfire. I was determined to get back to the 2nd Mass with or without my rescuers.

As always special thanks to Whisper Maw! Check out her stories I Am a Fighter and The 2nd Generation. Please review, they mean the world to me. I'll try and update a little faster. It would help if I had a little motivation!