Thank you all for reading this far!:D We won't be able to update because of school but I promise we will!:D Enjoy!-Kaylee

Chapter 4- Nightmares

"I told you not to say anything, but what do you do? You open your big mouth and blab!" exclaimed the man with the gun. It was strange weapon he had. It appeared to be a normal hand gun, but it was brown with and had intricate design. Though you couldn't tell what the design was because there's a claw scratch that covered the entire handle. He was standing in the shadows so he was hard to see, but he looked familiar. The woman he was talking to looked terrified. The man pulled the trigger and the women fell down to the ground, motionless.

"NOOOOOOO!" I looked around for the owner of the screaming voice, only to realize that person was me.

"Hey, what's-your-name! WAKE UP!" Karen shook me awake. "Awww is someone having a nightmare? Are you scared?" I looked around, confused. Praying it was all a dream. I groaned to myself. Everything that happened yesterday was in fact, real. Damn it!

"Yeah, I was having a nightmare, I had to live with you, oh wait that one is real…" not my best comeback, but it's early. I glanced at Kaylee. She was still sound asleep. She has mastered the art of sleeping through my restlessness, plus she takes her sleep very seriously. I looked at the wrist watch lying on the floor. It was three in the morning! I groaned and slammed my face on my pillow. I didn't give Karen the chance to speak; it was too early to deal with her. I lay wake for a couple hours, praying sleep would come and luckily I fell asleep a few hours later. I wanted to know what was going on in the dream and why it looked so familiar, but the dream didn't come back. What felt like seconds later, I was being shaken and yelled at by a voice I loathed. What did he want now?

"Alyssa get up. Alyssa get up. Alyssa get up. Alyssa get up. Alyssa get up," Hal continued like that until I grabbed my knife and lazily threw it in the general direction his voice was coming from. "Alyssa get- WHAT THE HELL!?" he yelled.

"Leave me alone or next time I won't miss and that my friend, is a promise." It was supposed to sound like a threat, but because I was sleepy it didn't, at all.

"Captains Weaver's orders, solider," he paused, "or are you not ready to be a solider?"

I groaned, "Can I have a minute to get ready? My clothes are still wet from last night." I was so tired, I feel asleep in my soaking wet clothes.

"You know, on a mission, you won't have 'a minute to get ready' and you deal with much worse than wet clothes," He smirked. What a freaking know-it-all.

"Well we aren't on a mission, nor are we under attack, smart ass. So get out, I'll fight with you later," I growled. It was too early.

"Is it too early for Alyssa to think of any comebacks?"

"YES! IT'S SEVEN IN THE MORNING!" I pushed him out-or tried to-but Karen walked in.

"Oh hey Hal! Are we still on for a scout trip this afternoon for supplies?" she put extra emphasis on that word. They both glanced at me and laughed a little.

"Actually, Hal was just leaving. I need to change, so maybe you two can go make rude comments about me somewhere else." I said all cheery like, but obviously sarcastic. Hal left and Karen went on doing whatever it is Karen does. I got dressed in my usual attire; I normally wear shorts, a tank top, and either my army jacket or my leather jacket and combat boots and a belt around my waist to hold a couple weapons. I realized Hal had had some weapons on him so grabbed my gun (an AK 47 assault rifle), slung it across my back, put my hand gun and nun chucks on either side of my belt, my pocket and Swiss army knives in my pocket and tuck my hunting knife in my boot. That's all I carried on me, not nearly as much as Kaylee. I was about to leave when I realize I didn't know what I was doing or where Kaylee was so I grabbed some extra ammo from her bag and put it in my belt.

I walked outside and immediately felt eyes on me. I found the man I saw last night. He was watching me, almost like waiting to see if I would see him and what I would do when I did. He looked so familiar, but not in a good way, like he is part of a horrible memory. I couldn't tell from where though. That is what was bothering me the most.

"CARTER!" I jumped a little. It was Weaver.

"She's tired, last nights trip was a lot to handle." I was about to say that is not why I was tired but Karen appeared from out of no were and beat me to it.

"Actually, Alyssa here didn't sleep last night because she was having a nightmare," Karen said.

"Do you need some time then? I could have Kaylee fill you in at what you miss at the meeting but I recommend that you don't skip it since it's a meeting welcoming you two to our forces."

"No, I'm fine just thinking about something."

"Let's go then." We started walking and Tom joined us along the way. The man was following us and staring at me. He had a gun hidden in his pocket, and after all this time with Kaylee, I could see it clearly, but no one else seemed to notice. As we were walking, Weaver motioned for a few people to come with us. They all look like they were part of the fighters. However, the man didn't. I could tell he was just a regular citizen of the 2nd Mass. We entered Weavers office and I saw Kaylee sitting next to Ben. That's new. I went to sit next to her only to realize that seat was taken by Karen. Kaylee looked at me and rolled her eyes. Hal sat next to Karen so I sat next to Ben. I wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

"Listen up. I wanna make this meeting short and sweet. We have two new fighters with us, courtesy of Ben and Hal." Weaver waved his hand up, wanting us to stand. "This is Alyssa Carter and Kaylee Parker." Kaylee waved. I did as well, and then we both sat down. "They'll be joining our forces, so give them a hand when they need it. Dismissed."

Kaylee and I walked out together. Hal, Karen and Ben were talking in front of us. I was totally not eavesdropping, Karen is just a really bad whisperer or just so clueless she didn't notice us right behind her.

"I really don't get why we had to go to that meeting. I mean we already know them, and-"

"Weaver said every fighter had to attend, and plus they don't know everyone else yet," Ben interrupted her.

"I know but, still they slept in my classroom and I had to scout with the tall one-"

"Kaylee." Ben corrected her. He must not like her much either.

"Whatever, and Hal had to scout with Alyssa. That must have really sucked."

"And I had to ride home with her on my bike," Hal pointed out. Karen didn't look happy about that. "But I did get a little laugh last night." They looked at him expectantly. "Why are you staring at me?"

"What did you do?" Karen asked.

"Well I went up ahead and was just planning on scaring her when she caught up, but we were up by that big lake and she was standing on the edge so when I tried to scare her she stumbled back and fell in the lake." Karen started laughing. "And that's not even the best part. Apparently big bad Alyssa can't swim so I had to jump in there and save her sorry ass."

I started to reach down to my boot were I kept my hunting knife when Kaylee grabbed my hand "Don't."

Hal, Ben and Karen turned around. "Look Alyssa needs her younger friend to help her out, because she doesn't have enough self control," Hal said, just daring me to fight him.

"Yep, I do lack self control, which is why you should be thankful Kaylee stopped me because I wouldn't have a second thought about killing you."

"Awww is someone still a little tired from her lack of sleep over a silly little nightmare?"

I glared at her. "You know what Karen? I don't care that you hate me, frankly I could care less. But before you start to judge me and make fun of me, try walking a mile in my shoes."

That made her shut up. Thank God.

"We're gonna get going," Kaylee didn't wait for a response from anybody, but she turned to Ben. "I'll see you at the shooting range later." She pulled me forward. Once we were far out of ear shot, Kaylee stopped me. "You had the dream again?"

"Yeah, but this time I saw two people, there was a man too. But I couldn't see him all that well, and he has a gun. He killed the woman."

Kaylee just nodded. "Last night I met the 2nd Mass's doctor, Dr. Glass, and this morning I went to talk to her again. She was telling me about how they do this art therapy with some of the kids so they can get their feelings out and express themselves. You should go see her and try it out."

"Let's go." I don't know why, but I can't help but feel that this man I keep seeing is related to the dream. I just don't know how or why. I have been having the same nightmare since I was ten years old. It was always dark and there was a woman. She would always get killed, but I couldn't tell who or what killed her, sometimes I would just see her dead body or hear a girl screaming. I sure hope this doctor can help me out.

Kaylee's POV

The second my eyes opened in the morning, reality struck my mind, only much quicker this time. Alyssa and I weren't at her house anymore, and we were no longer alone. That made me feel way better about pushing Alyssa to come here. Personally, I wasn't expecting there to be this many people here; I was guessing around one hundred plus people tops. And they actually had fighters! I think I was most excited about talking to people who actually understood what I was saying about weapons and explosives. I tried telling Alyssa the differences between some guns, but she threw a juice box at me and left the room after five minutes. After that, I stopped trying.

Alyssa's wristwatch read 5:45. I was the only one up right now and I was already bored, so I decided to just get up and leave. I wrapped my pouch around my waste and started tying my sneakers. I slid my military jacket on and filled the pockets with knives, ammunition, and hand guns. I put my PP-2000's holster around my neck and stuck my other gun in my shoe. I tugged down on my pant leg and tucked some C4 in my pocket.

I began wandering down the halls again, letting my feet carry me wherever they wanted. There were few people that were actually awake, Weaver being among them.

"You're up early," Weaver commented as I approached him.

I shrugged. "I have all the sleep I need. Is there anything I can do to help out right now?"

Weaver took a second to think about it. "Not that I know of. Dr. Glass might need some help though. Why don't you go ask her?"

"Alright, Captain."

As I started walking to the 2nd Mass's "infirmary" (only it was actually a chemistry lab), Weaver called out to me. "We're having a meeting to welcome you two officially to our forces. Be in my office at seven." I raised my arm and gave him a thumbs-up. The lab was a few doors down the left of the hall I was in now, so I was at Dr. Glass's in no time at all.

There was a group of kids in the room, about six or seven of them, and they were all drawing on a small table under the eye of Dr. Glass. I walked over to Dr. Glass quietly and looked at the kids' drawings. Some drew the aliens destroying homes, some drew people dying, and some drew their families. These poor kids…

"What's going on?" I whispered.

"Art therapy. It can help kids or teens express their feelings in a non-violent way or help them with what has happened." I nodded and continued to watch as the children talked a little amongst themselves. They seemed so peaceful on the outside, but considering their gruesome drawings, they must be tormented on the inside.

"Do you need any assistance with anything? Weaver sent me over."

"Not at the moment. Unless you want to talk to some of them and help them color," Dr. Glass said pointing to the kids.

"Sure, I'd love to." Alright, I'm going to be upfront with you: I absolutely adore little kids. I've never admitted that to anyone, not even Alyssa. She had a little sister before the invasion, and I was jealous. I was the youngest in my family and I always wanted a younger sibling.

"Really?" Dr. Glass asked skeptically.

"Just because I'm a fighter doesn't mean I don't love hanging out with kids," I said smiling. I walked to the table and sat between a boy with curly brown hair and a girl with tan skin. The boy was drawing a dead woman with some skitters behind her while the girl was drawing mechs blasting Boston.

"Did you say you were a fighter?" The boy asked me, eyes still glued to his paper.

"That's right."

"Then you probably know Hal and Ben, huh?"

This boy didn't know the half of it. "Yeah I do. Are they your friends?"

"No, they're my older brothers."

There was another Mason boy? You've got to be kidding me. Although he did look like a replica of his brothers, he looked nothing like Tom, so I assumed he took after his mother.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Matt. What's yours?" Matt looked up at me for the first time. He had the cutest smile in the world.

"Kaylee. It's nice to meet you, Matt. And don't tell your brothers, but so far, you're my favorite Mason." I winked at him and he laughed.

"I promise."

"No, no, no. You gotta pinky promise. That is the most official promise of all promises." I held out my pinky and Matt's smile got even bigger. We wrapped pinkies and laughed together. This kid is too cute.

"So tell me about yourself, Matt."

"Umm, well I really want to be a fighter like Hal and Ben, but my dad won't let me just yet. I like drawing and going to school. And I love my family," he said picking up his colored pencil and coloring the background of his picture.

He wants to be a fighter? I love this kid already. "How old are you?"

"I turned nine a couple of weeks ago."

"And you want to be a fighter this young? You're really brave."

Matt grinned at the compliment. I would kill to have him as my little brother. Dr. Glass was smiling at me. She was a really pretty lady, but exhaustion had creased around her eyes, making her appear older then she was.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is your picture about?" He was almost done, he just needed to color in the skitters.

"It's my mom, when we found her. She went out to get food and never came back, so my dad went looking for her, and…" Matt trailed off. He didn't deserve a life like this; he deserved to be at a regular school, playing on a playground and not having a care in the world.

I don't care if I met him five minutes ago; I was giving this boy a hug. Matt put his head on my shoulder and hugged me back. He sniffled a little, but refused to cry. He was strong, and I could sense that he would be an excellent fighter when the time came, just like the rest of the Masons.

"You're going to be an amazing fighter when the time's right, Matt," I said into his ear, "and I promise you that everything will get better. Maybe not soon, but it will. I swear it."

Matt nodded, signaling he heard me. He hugged me for a few more seconds, until he pulled away suddenly. "Can I draw you?!"

I chuckled. "Absolutely."

Matt got another paper from Dr. Glass and started sketching right away. In the meantime, I tried talking to the little girl on my right, but she was extremely shy, so I left her be. She reminded me of how I was when I was little. I never wanted to talk to anyone when I was young since I was the shyest kid you'd ever meet. I'm not so much shy now, I just choose not to talk.

Matt looked up and down from his paper as he outlined my hair and face. He was very detailed in his drawing; he colored the red in my hair, used blue and grey on my eyes, and even drew the silver piercing I had on the helix of my ear correctly.

"Now hold up your gun," Matt instructed me. I laughed at how much he sounded like a professional artist. But, I did as he told me to, and I held my PP-2000 up. He drew it down and colored it all black, just like all of my clothes. He searched my attire for anything that wasn't black, but found nothing. "Why do you wear all black?"

"It camouflages me when we go fighting at night and it keeps me warmer in the daytime." There were a few other reasons why, but I didn't want to make him sad again.

"That's smart. Oh, here you go." Matt set the paper in my gloved hand. It looked exactly like me, not a detail out of place.

"I'll put this up by my cot when I go to sleep tonight."

"Really?!"

"Really," I smiled. "But I gotta get going. Captain Weaver wants all the fighters to meet in his office in a few minutes. I'll see you at lunch though!"

"Alright. Bye, Kaylee!" Matt gave me a huge hug.

"Bye, Matt. Make sure to keep my secret, okay?"

Matt laughed. "Okay!"

I stood up and walked over to a stunned Dr. Glass. "How- but you're a….what?"

I shrugged. "I really love little kids. Just tell me if you ever need help again and I'll be here."

It actually felt like I was back at high school again. Being surrounded by the lockers, classrooms, and even the still stapled posters nearly fooled my mind. I was reflecting on the past, something I did much too often, until I rounded the corner and saw civilians of the 2nd Mass walking the halls. I sighed and shook the memories from my head. It's not like I wanted to remember them anyways.

Once I set foot in Weaver's office, I nearly walked back out. The one person in the classroom, of all people in the 2nd Mass? Ben freaking Mason. The one person I really did not want to deal with right now.

"Kaylee!" He said smiling, waved me to sit in the back next to him. What, were we friends now? I walked to the front row and sat down in the middle. I took out one of my knives and began opening and closing it to pass the time. Ben apparently did not get my completely strong hint that I was not going to sit down by him, since he walked up and sat next to me. Damn him.

I didn't say anything to him, only moving to open and close my knife. I wanted to get up and move, but he would most likely follow me and I wasn't that rude…most of the time.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Ben sighed. "I'm a pretty lousy fighter, and I know everyone knows that. My dad and Hal never have time to help me improve, since they're out almost everyday with the rest of the others. And since you're skilled in the weapons area, I was wondering if you could teach me."

I finally looked over at him. "Let me see your gun."

He slid it out of his holster and handed it to me. It was a Heckler and Koch 636, one of the many guns that I owned, only the two Heckler and Koches I had were in way better condition. This thing was beat up, dented, scratched, it had a jammed trigger, and the barrel was starting to crack. He had a lot to learn.

"First off, you're weapon has to be the crappiest I've ever seen of its kind. This trigger could freeze while you were in battle and you'd be screwed after that. The barrel is cracking, and if you get a big enough kick, it'll break to pieces. A fighter is only as good as their weapon, so that's one reason why you aren't doing too well. I haven't seen you shoot before, but before I even help you out with that, you have got to get a better gun." I gave him back his poor excuse for a defense mechanism while he stared at me, awestruck I analyzed a problem that quickly. Guns are what I love most, so you gotta give me credit.

"Weaver won't let us exchange weapons, though. We don't have enough for everyone to pick what they like."

"I have the exact same gun in my room right now, except it would survive if I dropped it on the floor."

"You'd let me borrow it?"

"You can have it."

"Why are you helping me out? I thought I'd have to persuade you to."

"Because if I say no, your death will be on my conscious. And I have two of them anyways."

"Can you start teaching me how to shoot today, then?"

I nodded. "I'm telling you now, it's not going to be easy to pick up. It takes a fair amount of time to learn how to properly aim and shoot a gun. You're going to have to be patient with yourself."

"Thanks."

Luckily, fighters began pouring into the room, so I wouldn't have to keep talking. My day was starting to go downhill as it was, and talking wasn't going to make it better. And of all the seats in the room, the bitch sits next to me. Alyssa was behind her and sat next to Ben. She raised her eyebrow at me and looked at me then Ben. I closed my eyes and shook my head. Hell no. Hell no.

Once everyone was settled, Weaver took his spot at the front of the room and put his hands on either side of the desk. "Listen up. I wanna make this meeting short and sweet. We have two new fighters with us, courtesy of Ben and Hal." Weaver waved his hand towards us, so I stood on my feet. "This is Alyssa Carter and Kaylee Parker." I gave a small wave to everyone and sat back down. I hated having attention brought to myself, whether it was on the battlefield or in a classroom. "They'll be joining our forces, so give them a hand when they need it. Dismissed."

Alyssa and I walked out of Weaver's office with Hal, Karen, and Ben in front of us. Karen was talking about us to the brothers, and I don't think she was even bothering to speak softly.

"I really don't get why we had to go to that meeting. I mean we already know them, and-"

"Weaver said every fighter had to attend, and plus they don't know everyone else yet." Ben pointed out.

"I know but, still they slept in my classroom and I had to scout with the tall one-"

"Kaylee." Ben corrected her. At least he cares about knowing my name.

"Whatever, and Hal had to scout with Alyssa. That must have really sucked."

"And I had to ride home with her on my bike," Hal joined in. Karen gave him a pissed off look. "But I did get a little laugh last night." They looked at him, waiting for Hal to continue. "Why are you staring at me?"

"What did you do?" Karen asked.

"I went up ahead and was just planning on scaring her when she caught up, but we were up by that big lake and she was standing on the edge so when I tried to scare her she stumbled back and fell in the lake." Karen started laughing. "And that's not even the best part. Apparently big bad Alyssa can't swim so I had to jump in there and save her sorry ass."

In the corner of my eye, I saw Alyssa reaching into her boot, going for her knife that I knew she kept in there. "Don't," I said and grabbed her arm. She let go of the knife, but her hand balled into a fist, twitching slightly.

Hal, Ben and Karen turned around. "Look Alyssa needs her younger friend to help her out, because she doesn't have enough self control," Hal said, taunting Alyssa's anger.

"Yep, I do lack self control, which is why you should be thankful Kaylee stopped me because I wouldn't have a second thought about killing you."

"Awww is someone still a little tired from her lack of sleep over a silly little nightmare?"

Alyssa's nightmare? Must've slept through it again. Alyssa gave Karen a cold look. "You know what Karen? I don't care that you hate me, frankly I could care less. But before you start to judge me and make fun of me, try walking a mile in my shoes."

Karen was taken aback, probably thinking she would get a sarcastic comeback but instead received a serious one.

"We're gonna get going," I said to prevent any more threats to be dropped. I wasn't in the mood for anymore Karen drama, so I didn't let them give me a response. "I'll see you at the shooting range," I told Ben, then dragged Alyssa away. I pulled her from any unwanted ears and asked, "You had the dream again?"

"Yeah, but this time I saw two people, there was a man too. But I couldn't see him all that well, and he has a gun. He killed the woman."

Alyssa's been having the same nightmare since she was ten and a half, but we could never figure it out or why she kept having it. I went back to my morning with Matt and thought of an idea. "Last night I met the 2nd Mass's doctor, Dr. Glass, and this morning I went to talk to her again. She was telling me about how they do this art therapy with some of the kids so they can get their feelings out and express themselves. You should go see her and try it out."

Alyssa nodded. "Let's go."

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Hope you guys like it so far! The next chapter may take a bit because it's hard to write and something biiiiggggg is going to happen! o.0-Alyssa