Hey guys! Thanks so much for continuing on! W Thank you and shoutout to JDMlvr1 for being the first person to review! Your name is forever written in my book of awesome:p Hahaha and I completely agree with you;] -Kaylee
Hi guys! thanks for reading our story! hope you guys are liking it! Okay so there was a little mess up. Hal and Alyssa Carter's POVs for the ride home are supposed to be one separate chapter. So mine is in chapter two and Hals in chapter one. Just in case you got confused. it was a mistake on our part. And a special shout out to all of those who have reviewed. it means a lot! Here is chapter two! Enjoy ~Alyssa
Kaylee's POV
A man with a blond ponytail and a green cap was standing in front of the high school Hal and Ben had led us to. The man was very, very angry when the four of us approached. I assumed he must be their leader, "Weaver," since he had a military jacket with '2nd Mass' stitched on the front. A crowd had started forming, curious to see who these strangers were and what Weaver was going to do to Hal and Ben.
Weaver, noticing the crowd, said, "You four in my office. NOW."
I slid off my bike and walked it to the front doors of the school. Alyssa seemed a bit nervous, and I was too. I didn't want to cause any trouble or be a burden to these people. Another man with tall man with brown hair and a short beard gave me a soft smile once we got to the front doors. "I'll look out for your bike."
"Thanks," I said and smiled back. His eyes were kind and he gave off a fatherly vibe, so I didn't put up a fight with him. Alyssa and I were shoulder to shoulder as we followed the guys to wherever Weaver's office was. What was he going to say to us? What was going to happen?
Weaver's office was located in a history class. All of the desks were replaced with plastic chairs and the teacher's desk at the front. They must have their meetings here. Hal and Ben stood in front of the desk, so Alyssa and I copied them and stood next to each other.
I fiddled with one of the pocket knives I had in my hoodie's pocket. I was opening and closing the clasp, something I did when I was a little nervous.
Weaver slammed the door shut and stalked up to the desk. He hit the desk with his fist in anger, and then turned to Hal and Ben for an explanation. "I ask you to go out to look for food or possible fighters within two hours and you disobey my orders!"
"We checked every house for twenty miles and found nothing," Ben informed Weaver, "and since we hadn't seen any survivors, we thought we should just turn back, but then we saw them."
"Can they fight?" I liked how they were just talking about us as if we weren't in the room. I honestly don't see why Weaver made us come in here too.
"I don't know. I don't think so, but they were armed when we found them," Hal said in a low voice as if that made a difference in us hearing what he said.
Weaver finally turned to Alyssa and me and addressed us for the first time. "I'm gonna need you two to set down your weapons on this desk," he saw the bags on our backs and added, "and your bags."
I sighed and dropped my bag on the corner of the desk. Alyssa was smiling a little since she was probably dying to see the reactions on everybody's faces when I disarmed myself. Alyssa went first, putting her nunchucks, two pistols, pocketknives, and gun on the table. Weaver dumped some of her backpack contents on the desk, and her box of juice boxes came out with a thud.
I bit my lip to keep from smiling, but it was no use. I chuckled a little at Hal's expression. He just looked at Alyssa with "What the Fuck?" written all over his face.
"What?" She asked.
"Juice boxes?"
"Yeah, so?" She glared at him.
"I never pegged you for a juice box kind of girl."
"And I never pegged you for a total dou-"
"Enough," Weaver said firmly. His eyes shifted to me. "Your turn, Missy."
Missy? We were not going to get along well. I rolled my eyes at Alyssa's already grinning face.
I turned my Calico around and set it down, then my revolver and pistol, I had about three pocket knives in one pocket and two actual knives in the other one so I dropped them all down. Weaver was about to speak again, but I wasn't finished. I had a butcher knife strapped to my back, so I took the holster and put it down, then lifted my jean legs up and took the two other knives strapped to either of my legs and threw them on the counter. I unclipped my bullet belt and the ones on my shoulders and laid them on top of my guns. Weaver had an eyebrow raised at me and I just held up my first finger as I took my DMSP RFA3-3G1 Rifle from my sneaker and set that down as well. The desk was getting a little full. I lifted my tank top a little and detached the belt with many individual pouches that was constantly around my waist and set it on top of my pile.
Weaver leaned down and opened the pouches and looked at the all the knives in there, then looked at me.
I rubbed the back of my neck and looked away. Alyssa, no longer able to contain herself, busted up laughing. I looked over at Hal and Ben and they looked at me like I had two heads.
I smirked and chuckled to myself.
"I-I thought you said she didn't like weapons," Hal stuttered staring at the pile.
"I lied," Alyssa said simply.
"What do you do in your free time?" Ben asked in bewilderment.
"This," my hands extended over the pile.
"How many weapons do you have with you, Missy?"
I was going to stab him if he kept calling me that. "43 not including grenades, C4, dismembered guns, titanium bullets, and about several back up knives."
"Damn, girl," Weaver said. "Where's the rest of it?" I pointed to my backpack.
Weaver dumped everything onto the table to the point where you couldn't see any of Alyssa's things. If I was diligent with my ammunition, it would last about three or four years.
"Where'd you get all this?"
"I made it."
"All of it?" I bit my lip and nodded.
Weaver didn't know what to say, which was surprising for a leader. The room was uncomfortably quite.
"I can fight, too."
Weaver looked skeptically at me. "Can you?"
"Do you think I'd have all of this if I couldn't?"
That seemed to catch Weaver off guard. "You killed any of them skitters and mechs?"
I frowned. "What?"
"The aliens. We call the ones that have six legs skitters and the robot ones mechs," Ben clarified.
"Yeah I have. Plenty of skitters and a dozen of mechs," I said testing the new words. They seemed to fit the aliens.
"How'd you kill the mechs?" Weaver asked.
"Depends. C4, grenades, mainly bullets."
"We've tried bullets before and they failed," Weaver raised an eyebrow.
"Did you ever think to use the mechs' metal as bullets? It cut's right through them," I replied matter-of-factly.
Man, I really hate talking.
"How old are you, soldier?"
Now that, I liked. "Fourteen."
"No way," Hal said, "I thought you were older than me!"
I shook my head. Everyone mistook me for older due to my height and maturity. I was five foot ten and had always been the responsible one, whether it was my brother and I or Alyssa and me.
"You're a year older than our youngest fighter, so I'll consider you a possible fighting arm. What about you?" Weaver asked Alyssa.
"I'm a better fist fighter but I can shoot a gun well enough and I'm skilled with nunchucks."
Weaver nodded. "Alright then. Welcome to the Second Massachusetts. I'm Captain Dan Weaver."
"Alyssa Carter."
"Kaylee Parker," I said shaking his hand.
"Pleasure to meet you two. Ben, take Kaylee to the shooting range and then report back to me on her fighting ability," Weaver ordered.
Greaatttt. More awkward silences.
"Take your best weapon. We'll move you guys into a room and drop your stuff there."
I nodded and grabbed my Calico off the desk and slipped a few knives into my pocket when Weaver looked away briefly. Alyssa saw me and rolled her eyes. I nudged her and walked over to an awaiting Ben.
When he turned a corner, I noticed he had spikes sticking out of his back. The hell?
A few passerbyers glanced at Ben as we walked by, but Ben didn't seem to notice. Must be a usual thing for him.
"You're staring at my spikes," he said without making eye contact with me.
No point in lying. "Yeah. Do they hurt?" I wondered.
"No not really. Most of the time I forget they're even there, until I lean against a wall or get dressed, or until people stare at me oddly when I pass by."
"Did you have one of those things on your back?" I asked. I had seen a group of kids when Alyssa and I were getting food one day who had these glowing bug-like things attached to their backs. They seemed to be under control or something. Whatever it was, it scared the hell out of me.
"A harness? Yeah, I did. My friend and I were taken by the skitters when the invasion happened and they harnessed us. My dad and Hal came and rescued me a few weeks ago."
"That must've really sucked, working for the aliens and not being able to act on your free will."
"It did. But now it's off of me and I can think for myself again."
Ben held open the door to the back of the school where there were a few trees and bushes. There was a ton of bullet holes in the trees and the bushes leaves were practically missing since there was thousands of holes through all of them. I saw some cardboard cut outs of people and little holes of where knives had struck.
I tightened my gloves and slid out my Calico. This was going to be easy.
"So basically, just aim for a tree and try to shoot in the middle. Same with the leaves."
"Simple enough," I murmured. I added a few spare bullets into my gun, loaded, and glanced at a nearby tree, and shot. The bullet went through the exact middle of the tree within three seconds. I reloaded again, to show that it wasn't just a lucky shot. I locked onto a bush leaf that was hole-free and shot without even aiming. Center of the leaf. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my longest knife. I walked to the cut out and decided that I would just aim for the heart. Since guns and explosives were my specialty, I took a few more seconds to aim and with a swift motion, threw the knife straight into the chest of the cut out.
"Do I need to do it again?" I asked.
"Yeah, one more time."
I walked back to the tree and started loading again.
"Where did you learn to shoot like that?" Ben questioned, completely astonished at my performance.
"My uncle was in the army and as a kid, I loved watching him blow stuff up and shoot things, so he taught me how to build my own guns and explosives and to shoot them. Guess I just picked up on it fast and it's stuck with me ever since."
"Were you going to be in the military, too?"
"Well," I grunted as I got a nasty kick from the Calico, signaling that it needs to be adjusted, "that was the plan, if my career of choice failed, which was exceedingly likely."
"What was that?" How many questions was he going to ask me in one day?
"That's a story for another day," I said blasting a leaf to smithereens.
"What about your family? Wouldn't they miss you too much to let you go?"
Ben hit a soft spot in my heart. I refused to talk to anyone about them, even Alyssa. Pain was the only emotion I seemed to feel anymore, so I tried to hold onto that as best as I could.
"You talk a lot," I remarked as I threw another knife into the cut out's head.
Ben smiled at that. "And you are the hardest person to figure out in the history of the world."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Alyssa's POV
The man standing there looked pissed. I guessed this is the man they called "Weaver". When Ben and Hal saw him they looked scared. Wimps, he's not that scary looking, just mad. I have dealt with worse, what with my dad being drunk all the time; I didn't get my fighting skills by taking classes that's for sure.
The man simply said "You four in my office. NOW!"
There was a man out there who promised to look after our bikes. Kaylee trusted him and she has a good judge of character, so I decided to trust him as well. I was kinda nervous going in there though. Don't know why, I just was. I can usually tell when something is not going to go in my favor and I just had a feeling something awful was going to happen.
The man seemed like he was a caring guy. That was something I was not used to. He glanced at Hal, then me, then the girl. He looked at Hal again then tilted his head as if waiting for an answer. Hal just shook his head and said "Noooooo…" the man nodded. He must be there dad.
Weaver's "office" was a history classroom that was rearranged so they could hold meetings and such.
I was hoping they made us show them our weapons. The look on their faces is going to be priceless! The four of us lined up in front of the desk. Weaver slammed the door and turned to the boys
"I ask you to go out to look for food or possible fighters within two hours and you disobey my orders!" He was pissed. This is fun, dinner and a show…minus dinner.
"We checked every house for twenty miles and found nothing," Ben said to him, "and since we hadn't seen any survivors, we thought we should just turn back, but then we saw them."
"Can they fight?"
They had better say yes, because if they don't, I won't mind demonstrating my skills, using then as dummies!
"I don't know. I don't think so, but they were armed when we found them," Hal said. WHAT?! Boys have too much pride. He is just mad I disarmed him. With nunchucks.
Weaver then turned to us. "I'm gonna need you two to set down your weapons on this desk," YES! "and your bags." This is going to be good!
Kaylee and I put are bags down and I couldn't help but smile. I went first. I put down my handgun, AK 47, two pocket knives, one reel knife from my boot, and my nunchucks. Then I dumped out my bag.
Kaylee started to laugh a bit at everyone's faces. Yeah, wait 'til they see what Kaylee has in her bag.
"What?" I asked.
"Juice boxes?" Hal wondered.
"Yeah, so what?" I glared. They got a problem with it, they can take it up with me.
"I never pegged you for a juice box kind of girl."
"And I never pegged you for a total douc-"
"Enough," Weaver said, and turned to Kaylee. "Your turn, Missy."
Missy? I think I like that, even better than Kayls. I'll have to use that.
Kaylee started to unload all the weapons she had on her. Weaver kept trying to say something since he kept thinking she was done, but Kaylee kept unloading and unloading. I didn't even see my stuff anymore.
Weaver, Hal, and Ben just stood their gaping at her with the stupidest looks on their faces. Couldn't help it. I started busting up laughing.
"I-I thought you said she didn't like weapons," Hal stuttered.
"I lied," was my reply.
"What do you do in your free time?" Ben questioned, still in shock.
"This," was her answer, pointing to the pile.
"How many weapons do you have with you, Missy?"
Kaylee hates that name, I can tell. I definitely have to start calling her that. "43 not including grenades, C4, dismembered guns, titanium bullets, and about several back up knives."
"Damn, girl," Weaver said. "Where's the rest of it?"
Kaylee pointed at her backpack and Weaver dumped all of it on the table.
"Where'd you get all this?"
"I made it."
"All of it?"
Kaylee nodded. "I can fight, too."
Weaver looked at her. "Can you?"
"Do you think I'd have all of this if I couldn't?"
"You killed any of them skitters and mechs?"
"What?" Kaylee asked. What the hell?
"The aliens. We call the ones that have six legs skitters and the mechanical ones mechs," Ben said. Oh okay.
"Yeah I have. Plenty of skitters and a dozen of mechs," Kaylee said, which was true. She spent many nights trying to find a way to kill the mechs, because regular bullets don't work.
"How'd you kill the mechs?" Weaver asked.
"Depends. C4, grenades, mainly bullets."
"We've tried bullets before and they failed."
"Did you ever think to use the mechs' metal as bullets? It cut's right through them," Kaylee told them. So that's what she uses.
"How old are you, soldier?" Kaylee liked that, I could tell.
"Fourteen."
"No way," Hal said, "I thought you were older than me!"
Everyone always thought Kaylee was the older one, probably because she might be slightly more mature than me and have better control of her actions and emotions, plus she's at least eight inches taller than I am. I cannot control my emotions or keep a straight face. If I'm mad, you know it.
"You're a year older than our youngest fighter, so I'll consider you a possible fighting arm. What about you?" Weaver asked me.
"I'm a better fist fighter but I can shoot a gun well enough and I'm skilled with nunchucks."
Weaver nodded. "Alright then. Welcome to the 2nd Massachusetts. I'm Captain Dan Weaver."
"Alyssa Carter." I felt like I was in the military, just like my brother. People always said I would follow in his footsteps.
"Kaylee Parker."
"Pleasure to meet you two. Ben, take Kaylee to the shooting range and then report back to me on her fighting ability," Weaver ordered. "Take your best weapon. We'll move you guys into a room and drop your stuff there."
Kaylee nodded and grabbed one of her guns of the desk and slipped a few knives into her pocket as soon as Weaver's eyes left the desk. I saw this and rolled my eyes. She can't live without her weapons. When they left, Weaver turned to Hal, so I grabbed my knife from the desk and stuck it back in my boot.
Ben and Kaylee left. Damn it! Now I'm alone here with Hal. Oh joy!
"How old are you?" Weaver asked me.
"Fifteen, almost sixteen."
Hal started laughing "But your sooooooo short, you're like a midget!" he said in between laughs. That's it! I hate when people talk about my height. I grabbed my knife, kicked Hal somewhere no guy wants to be kicked, and when he doubled over, pulled his arms behind his back and held the knife to his throat. I had to stand on my tip toes, but I managed.
"Take. It. Back," I threatened.
"Or what?" he asked. Hal grabbed the knife out of my hand and flipped me over him and on the ground. I popped back up and ducked under the punch he threw my way. I placed a perfect kick to his head and he stumbled for a second. He was about to attack me again when Weaver interrupted us.
"ENOUGH!" He yelled for the third time today. He sighed. "Did you take any self-defense classes?" I shook my head. We never had money for stuff like that. As we walked back to his desk, I grabbed my brother's dog tags that always hung around my neck. Weaver saw this and asked, "Whose were they?"
"My brother's."
"Can I?" I took them off and handed them to him. "Karekin Carter. He was in the Navy? That's where you must get it from. I have never seen a girl your age fight like that with no lessons." This was the most talking I did about my brother, and I don't like to talk about him, even before the attack.
"That's a weird name," Hal commented
"It's the boy version of my mom's name, Karen. She loved that name." My mom said Karen meant pure and clean, and she wanted to name me that but my dad wouldn't let her. My mom was pure and clean until the day she died.
"If you never took classes and you didn't learn from your brother, how'd you learn to fight?" Weaver asked.
"When you grow up with the type of life I had, you learn to defend yourself."
"Oh, come on. All of us here have had the worst kind of life in the world, so stop pitying yourself-" Hal started to say but I cut him off.
"If the invasion is the worst thing that's ever happened to me then I have had a pretty good life, and if I were you I would shut up about your so-called hard life. You still have your family! Kaylee is all I have and I'm all she has." I could feel the anger boiling inside me. I loathed it when people tried to understand me or speak for me when they hardly knew me or my story.
"I don't have my mom."
"Well I don't have my mom either; she was shot and killed right before my own eyes when I was ten years old. My brother left when I was twelve to go to the Navy and I never saw him again. My dad didn't die until the attack but it would have been better for both of us if he had been dead. And you wanna know how I learned to fight? My dad was always drunk and wanted to fight with everyone, even his own daughter. I had to figure out had to defend myself some how. " I said, pushing up the sleeves of my jacket to reveal scars on my arms.
"I don't like her, she doesn't like me, so can we go and move on with this little meeting?" Hal asked Weaver.
"No. Soldiers need to learn to trust one another in the battlefield and the way you two act with each other is completely unacceptable. As much as the both of you don't like it, you need to spend time together so you can build a stable relationship. I'm adding Kaylee and Alyssa to your group with Ben and Karen. " There was a Karen here? "She and Kaylee are going to be in your group and you can switch off who has two people and who has three." He turned to me "We have scout groups of four here, two people take one way and two people head in the opposite direction. It gets things done quicker."
"Whatever. She can go with Ben and Kaylee and me and Karen will be the other group." Works for me, Ben doesn't seem that bad. "No. I want it to be Ben, Karen, and Kaylee, then you and Alyssa. You guys need to learn to fight with each other, not at each other. Now take Alyssa and bring her to Karen's room. They will bunk with her until we can find them a separate room. I'll have Jimmy go inform Ben and Kaylee of the change in plans." And with that, we left. As we were leaving an eerie looking man walked in. He was tall with dark hair and had brown eyes, even though that's all I saw, I felt certain I had seen him before, like he was part of a memory that I wanted to forget. He looked at me for a second and I could tell he recognized me because a sort of terror flickered across his face, but it was gone so quickly I couldn't tell if it was real or I imagined it.
Hal's POV
"How old are you?" Weaver asked her.
"Fifteen, almost sixteen."
WHAT!? I started laughing. "But your sooooooo short, you're like a midget!" I said. That pissed her off. Score one for Hal! She took out a knife and kicked me and when I bent over in pain she grabbed me, pinned my arms behind my back, and put the knife to my throat.
"Take. It. Back" she spat.
"Or what?" I challenged. I grabbed the knife out of my hand and flipped her over my shoulder and pinned her on the ground. I popped back up and ducked under the punch I threw at her face. She placed a perfect kick to my head and I stumbled for a second. I was planning on strangling her when Weaver interrupted us.
"ENOUGH!" Weaver was really irritated with us, and I could tell that his irritation would only get worse. "Did you take self-defense classes?" She shook her head. She fiddled with the dog tags she had on. "Whose were they?"
"My brother's."
"Can?" I took them of and handed them to him. "Karekin Carter. He was in the Navy? That's where you must get it from. I have never seen a girl your age fight like that with no lessons."
"That's a weird name." I said.
"It's the boy version of my mom's name, Karen. She loved that name." Her mom's name is Karen? Small world…
"So if you never had lessons and you didn't learn from your brother, how'd you learn to fight?" Weaver asked.
"When you grow up with the type of life I had, you learn to defend yourself."
How naïve could she get? Did she really think we didn't have hard lives as well? My family has sacrificed so much and we had to grow up way too fast. "Oh, come on. All of us here have had the worst kind of life in the world, so stop pitying yourself-" then she cut me off! AGAIN! What is with that?
"If the invasion is the worst thing that's ever happened to me then I have had a pretty good life, and if I were you I would shut up about your so-called hard life. You still have your family! Kaylee is all I have and I'm all she has!" She yelled.
"I don't have my mom," was all I said
"Well I don't have my mom either; she was shot and killed right in front of my own eyes when I was ten years old. My brother left when I was twelve to go to the Navy and I never saw him again. My dad didn't die until the attack but it would have been better for both of us if he had been dead. And you wanna know how I learned to fight? My dad was always drunk and wanted to fight with everyone, even his own daughter. I had to figure out had to defend myself some how. " She said showing us scars on her arms. Oh my God, her dad abused her.
"I don't like her, she doesn't like me, so can we go and move on with this little meeting?" I asked, praying he said yes.
"No. Soldiers need to learn to trust one another in the battlefield and the way you two act with each other is completely unacceptable. As much as the both of you don't like it, you need to spend time together so you can build a stable relationship. I'm adding Kaylee and Alyssa to your group with Ben and Karen. " He turned to her to explain "We have scout groups of four here, two people take one way and two people head in the opposite direction. It gets things done quicker"
"Whatever. She can go with Ben and Kaylee and me and Karen will be the other group." I said. "No. I want it to be Ben, Karen, and Kaylee, then you and Alyssa. You guys need to learn to fight with each other, not at each other. Now take Alyssa and bring her to Karen's room. They will bunk with her until we can find them a separate room. I'll have Jimmy go inform Ben and Kaylee of the change in plans." GREAT! I just had to let Ben talk me into letting them come.