Hate, Envy, Loss, Love

by Mrs.Mason2

Hate was easy, Envy was natural, Loss was hard to talk about, Love was nearly impossible. Welcome To H.E.L.L. On Earth. Follow the story of two girls as their broken worlds collide with those of the Second Massachusetts Militia Regiment. A Falling Skies Fanfiction.

17. A Brave New World

I hate updating so late-_- But um...

HOLY SHIT DID YOU GUYS SEE SEASON 3 ASDFGHJKL; I CAN'T...OH MY GOD.

Alyssa and I had a premiere party with our friends we had a marathon with;D I can't wait for Sunday:3 Also, side note, Alyssa and I agreed that we won't be writing anything for the third season until it's over. We still have to finish H.E.L.L. and also we don't want to have a bunch of ideas for something and have a character needed get killed off or something. Plus, we'll have something to do for the long wait for a possible Season 4;) Haha but yeah! This is a cute chapter:) It's sort of a filler, i suppose, but that's only because Alyssa and I have been planning the next chapter for quite some time;))) Enjoy my fellow Falling Skies lovers! And, if you ever need someone to fangirl with, don't hesitate to PM us. We seriously need more Falling Skies friends.

PS We'll try to update more often but both of us have summer school until mid July but after then we will have a lot of time!:D YAY! -Kaylee

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Chapter 17-A Brave New World

Kaylee's POV

"So tell me, what the hell is in Charleston?" I asked Alyssa while setting up our new camp in Bronx, New York. It was fifty miles from the airport hanger and took us about forty-five minutes to get here. We've been in this little city for about two days and were going to keep moving along fairly soon. Honestly it was pointless to even be setting up a camp, but that was Captain Weaver's call.

"Well," she said moving a table into place with my help, "there's apparently a huge group of survivors that are running their own government or something."

"How do you know that?"

"This lady came flying in an airplane-"

"An airplane?" I raised my eyebrows disbelievingly.

"Yeah! Ask Weaver and Tom!"

"Whatever, just keep going."

"And she showed us this document stating that Charleston was the new capital of the United States and stuff and started telling us stories about what they have there and all the people."

"When was this?" We walked back to grab another table and pushed it towards the mess area.

"About four days ago," she said kinda lightly. What she meant was the day Jimmy got impaled, but of course she wanted to spare my feelings.

To be upfront, Ben and I aren't recovering well, which is why Alyssa said four days ago instead of the day of Jimmy's accident. Weaver tried to make Ben and I sit out of missions, but I wouldn't allow that. If anything, I needed to be kept as busy as possible, that way I wouldn't have as much time to think about it. I've written a few songs about all of this, which has helped a lot more than I thought it would, but it hasn't change the agonizing pain in my heart.

My black eye had faded, but I still had a darkish circle around my eye. My right side was still in pretty bad shape, but I didn't mind it. Physical pain helped me forget about the emotional pain. And apparently, Pope had left the 2nd Mass after our fight, and Anthony had gone with him to make sure nothing happened to us from Pope's end. It was weird that he just got up and left, especially with his Berserkers behind, and I felt almost bad for him. And then I remember what a dick he was about Jimmy's compass and I feel no pity towards him.

"And guess what?"

"What?" my voice asked quietly.

"Vee's there!"

"Vee's alive?!"

"Yeah! So Charleston has to exist!"

"How the fuck did Veronica get to South Carolina?" I wondered aloud. Vee had been out with a friend the night that all of this went down, so we hadn't seen her since that morning and thought she was either dead or harnessed. She was basically my little sister and I couldn't believe that she actually made it out alive. She really is a Carter.

"No damn idea, but she's alive and that's all that I care about." Alyssa continued talking and I honestly just stopped listening. I had done the maximum amount of talking I wanted to do for awhile. Weaver thought that he perceived that I was hanging in alright, but it was the exact opposite. Four years of counseling got me absolutely no where. Wasn't counseling supposed to make me feel better, or at the very least make me not want to kill myself a little less than I normally wanted to? I guess that that was my fault though, since I never attempted to make an effort to try and talk stuff out. That just wasn't me though. In almost all cases, I can't speak through words but through actions or music. That was what had kept me from shooting myself two days ago.

Music. This little acoustic guitar had been saving my life more often than not. I had my own black Fender dreadnought back at my grandparents' house, but I hadn't seen it since the last time I visited them, which was about two weeks before the attack. That guitar was almost like a family heirloom; it had been passed from my great grandparents down to my mom and then me. I never brought it to the Carter household because I was always terrified that Jay would go on one of his drunken rampages and destroy it, which was one of my worst fears. It probably was destroyed now though, but there's this small ray of hope inside of me that it somehow survived the nukes on Boston. My grandparents' apartment complex was still standing, but I never looked inside. I didn't need to know what it looked like.

Veronica used to love it when I played the piano for her or the guitar. Alyssa and Vee came with me sometimes to my grandparents' apartment and would stay the night. They had both a piano and a guitar there which I never stopped playing while I was there because that's all the time I got with the instruments before having to go back with Alyssa and Vee. That's the only thing I miss about my old life. Everything else I wanted to forget.

Ben and I have been inseparable the past forty-eight hours. Literally, we were by each other's side every single second that passed, and every single hour that dragged on. He and Hal were helping put tables together too, and I think Weaver purposefully did that because he somehow knew that if Ben and I went longer than a few minutes without being relatively near to one another we would both lose it. Neither of us knew why, but that's just how it was. The two of us would found some kind of isolated place and stay there for the night leaning on each other and keeping completely silent. Ben was just like me; words were difficult but we expressed through actions. So just a simple hug meant so much more than either of us could tell each other.

However, as of right now, I really wanted to be alone. I had been working on a new song for Jimmy, and I liked being by myself when I was working on music. He would sit inside my tent while I wrote in my small black notebook where I write everything important down in, and I didn't want to sing when he was around. At least not yet. I still hadn't gotten the strength to sing without stopping to calm myself.

So I walked off to the tent and slipped out my notebook from the bottom of my backpack. This song I had been working on had been keeping me as busy as possible. Every spare moment of time I had was spent working on this song. I was also a perfectionist (at least when it came to weaponry and music) so it was taking longer than I intended.

The moment I heard the gentle falling of rain hitting the tent, my eyes shot up from the notebook to the open flap of the tent that was flapping slightly. I could see everyone in camp was rushing to get to their tents to be shielded from the rain and see Weaver yelling at some fighters to get the important items covered before the rain got stronger. Just about everyone in this camp felt that rain was an annoyance to the cycle of things.

I, on the other hand, saw it as an opportunity.

I pushed myself to my feet as quickly as my injured ribs would allow me and tucked my notebook into the covering I had found for my guitar. My hands slipped some ammunition in my pockets in case of emergency and an extra handgun in my sneaker. The ice cold zipper of my hoodie reminded me of how cold it actually was before I shed it off of me as well as the two long sleeve shirts I had onto my cot, which left me in a tank top the color of midnight. I slung the strap of the case onto my bare shoulder and pushed the flap open and stepped outside.

The light drizzle that had started all of a few moments ago began to start coming down harder, which made it all the more better. I slowly walked forward, looking up to the dark clouds and smiling a little. Thunder shook the ground as I took my next few steps forward. The rhythm of the rain beat harder on the dirt ground and my blond hair turned to brown as the rain grew heavier. All of these little things I noticed as the water came falling from the skies, and the more things I noticed the happier my mood seemed to be.

I continued walking in the now torrential downpour until I had found a small concrete slab in the middle of outside where I could sit without getting my jeans muddy. My guitar fell to the ground softly as I sat with it, pulling out my notebook swiftly and stashing it inside the case where I could write in it if necessary without getting it soaked. The guitar slid out of the case and into my slick hands which grasped it just a bit firmer since it was now slippery.

And then I closed my eyes.

The feeling of the rain hitting my face and arms was the dominant thing I was aware of, as well as the soothing that entered the course of my soul. The numbness in my fingers made me smile as well as the prickly feeling of the rain tapping on my exposed skin. There was a very small wind out here too, which made the scent of the rain more apparent. That dark, wet scent drifted around the 2nd Mass's campsite and overruled all other smells around here with the cleanliness of the aroma.

After taking that all in, I allowed my fingers to strum what I had been working on the past few days. I didn't sing; I just played. It was difficult to do for a few moments, since I had steel strings that were wet, but my fingers adapted immediately afterwards. The guitar sounded beautiful with the rain in the background, even thought it was pouring like someone had ripped open a cloud and dumped the inside out.

My hair stuck to my neck and my bangs were plastered to the temple of my forehead while I played. The material in my jeans clung to my legs tighter the wetter they became and then logical side of my mind tugged at the artistic side. I was sitting in the middle of a rainstorm, with nothing but jeans and a tank top on.

And I didn't care in the least.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out here?!" Ben's hand shook my shoulder and caused me to open my eyes.

"I like the rain," I said looking up at him softly and then returned my gaze to the guitar.

"You need to get inside right now." He reached down to pick me up, but I grabbed his wrist and held it firmly.

"I'm not leaving." He stared down at me for a good two minutes before sitting down next to me. "You don't have to sit here with me."

"That may be true, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to sit here with you."

I turned my head when I saw him unzipping his jacket. "No."

"You're going to get pneumonia out here," he slid an arm out and offered me the other. I shook my head and turned back to my guitar. "So you want to get sick, is that right?"

"It's nice to feel something when you're empty," I said quietly.

Ben's slight bangs had fallen to his forehead and were dripping water onto his face. He gently draped his jacket arm over my shoulder and looked at me patiently until I reluctantly gave in and slid my arm through it. We were shoulder to shoulder now, with one of my arms through his jacket sleeve and his arm in the other. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer, and I started feeling so unbelievably warm as soon as his arm touched my waist.

"Dude you're really warm," I said leaning into him a little bit. Maybe I was finally getting my feeling back.

"Kaylee, I'm freezing."

"No you're not." Ben put his left hand to my cheek and I flinched. They were colder than ice. I took his left wrist and pressed it to my cheek as well, and it was just as icy as his hand was.

If Ben was freezing cold…then why did I feel like I was warm within seconds? I had an insensitivity to pain and sometimes emotions, not to warmth and coldness.

"What are you working on?" he asked and leaned his head on mine while looking down at the guitar in my hand.

"A song for Jimmy."

"Can I hear it?" Our eyes met at the same time and both of us saw straight into each other's hidden sadness. I had lowered my guard around Ben a lot more than I used to, but with him, I saw no point in keeping what I was feeling a secret from him, at least sometimes.

I nodded and placed the guitar on my knee and strummed it a little to get a little more feeing into my fingers again. "I haven't finished it yet, but it's getting there." Ben stared down at the guitar and I started playing the intro which lead into the first verse.

"Your Life dreams are shattered,
Now you're gone away.
We've cried here for hours,
And the hours turn to days.
We know you regret this,
Leaving us here,
With portraits and memories
That we've held so dear.

When I hear your name, it's not the same.
No matter what they say, I'm not okay.

And we started at zero, and went different ways.
Now we're all out here wasting away.
And if we started at zero, then how did things change?
It seems like just yesterday we were the same.

It's been three days since you left us.
So far nothing's been the same.
And my question without answer is:
Am I the one to blame?

He was such a good description of a favored future man.
He spoke well of other people, and they said the same for him.

When I hear your name, it's not the same.
No matter what they say, I'm not okay.

And we started at zero, and went different ways.
Now we're all out here wasting away.
And if we started at zero, then how did things change?
It seems like just yesterday we were the same, we were the same."

I was quiet for a few more seconds, just letting the rain slide down my face. "That's as far as I've gotten."

"What's the song's name?"

"Zero. Because the three of us started with zero relationship to each other and became the closest of people anyone could be."

"And then we went different ways…" Ben said, reciting what I had just sung.

I nodded my head "Yeah."

"It's perfect," he smiled at me in approval, and another round of warmth spread through me again.

"Thank you." The thunder clapped loudly and shook the ground even harder than before, and that's when Ben pulled me up.

"C'mon, we need to get inside. We're going to freeze to death if we don't." Ben picked up my guitar case with the instrument inside of it and we walked to Alyssa and I's tent, which was empty, of course. Alyssa must be in the Mason tent with Hal, as usual.

"I'll let you change," Ben said, setting the guitar down and stepping back out into the rain momentarily.

I grabbed a dry tank top (I swear I have at least ten of them in my backpack) from my backpack and a pair of dry jeans to swap for my soaking ones. I quickly changed into my dry clothes and put on my extra layers as well as my hoodie and then let Ben back into the tent. Ben had ran over to his tent, which was about three down from ours, and had changed in the same time that I had and ran back down. A lot of the times I kept forgetting about how fast he was, and then he would remind me on a random occasion such as now.

Ben stayed with me for as long as I was awake, and then he would wander the campgrounds alone until I woke back up again. As weird as it was to other people, he started getting the general gist of when I wake up after falling asleep, and nine times out of ten I would walk out of my tent with him waiting outside of it. Yeah, pretty much everyone thought that was really creepy and weird, but I didn't mind it at all. Walking around trying to find Ben at one in the morning when it was pitch black was creepy as creepy got, so having him there instead of me having to look around for him saved me a solid ten to fifteen minutes of paranoia.

"So do you want to tell me about what happened with that skitter back at the playground?"

Alyssa's POV

"So tell me, what the hell is in Charleston?" Kaylee asked as we set up camp in the Bronx. I was so excited we were in New York you have no idea. It wasn't NYC but it was close. I wanted to camp in Brooklyn but Weaver said no. I always loved Brooklyn. My mom was born and raised there. When she died, I promised myself I would come back for her.

"Well, apparently a huge group of survivors that are running their own government or something." It sounds crazy when you say it out loud.

"How do you know that?"

"This lady came flying in an airplane-" She gave me this look like dude you have finally gone completely insane.

"An airplane?"

"Yeah! Ask Weaver and Tom!"

"Whatever, just keep going."

"And she showed us this document stating that Charleston was the new capital of the United States and stuff and started telling us stories about what they have there and all the people."

"When was this?"

"About four days ago," I said as we continued moving tables around. It sounded stupid and unlikely but I didn't care. The lady knew my sister and that meant she was alive. That was good enough for me. "And guess what?!" I practically screamed.

"What?" she said, monotone like always.

"Vee's there!"

"Vee's alive?!" That got her attention.

"Yeah! So Charleston has to exist!" There was so little information and evidence to put so much hope on but I didn't care. I wanted to see my sister so badly. Just knowing the fact that she was safe and being fed and had a place to sleep made me happy. I thought for sure she was harnessed.

"How the fuck did Veronica get to South Carolina?"

"No damn idea but she's alive and that's all I care about. I'm so happy she's alive. Do you realize how happy she will be to see us? I can't wait. All we have to do is convince Weaver to take us there." Kaylee just walked away and I'm pretty sure she wasn't even listening to me. She walked over to our tent so I went to help Hal and Ben because as soon as Ben saw Kaylee was gone he would be too.

"Hey Alyssa," Hal smiled. Ben just looked up and slightly nodded. That's about as much of a response as you're gonna get out of him nowadays. Literally two seconds after I Ben looked at me, he looked around for Kaylee then when he couldn't find her he left. I was helping Hal unload a box when it started pouring rain. All the civilians ran around trying to find shelter and to get to their tents. I was going to do the same, but no. Weaver was running around ordering the fighters to cover the supplies and help people. I was walking over to the Med Bus when I heard crying. At first I thought I was imagining it but I looked around just in case. I saw a little boy around three hiding under a table, crying. I walked up to him and picked him up.

"Hey little guy. What's your name?"

"Devin," he said between sniffs.

"That's a cool name. My name is Alyssa. Where are your parents?" He shrugged. "You don't know?"

"No."

I heard laughter coming from behind me "He's cute." I turned around to see Hal.

"I know right. Can we keep him?"

"You sound like a five-year-old who really wants to keep the lost puppy."

"Pleasssseeeee?"

"Fine, Lets go get him some dry clothing." We walked to the back of one of the supplies trucks that had a tarp up and I found him some clean clothes so I changed him. I even got him a little beanie. I told Hal to watch him while I went and changed. The rain had started to slow. I ran to our tent and changed and came back. Kaylee wasn't there, as usual. Next Hal went to change. We sat in the back of the truck where it was dry. He was the cutest little boy. He had bright blue eyes and dark black hair and pale skin and a big smile. He sat on my lap as they three of us hung out.

"Sing?" Devin asked as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Okay. Let me think of a song.

"When the days are cold

And the cards all fold

And the saints we see

Are all made of gold

When your dreams all fail

And the ones we hail

Are the worst of all

And the blood's run stale

I want to hide the truth

I want to shelter you

But with the beast inside

There's nowhere we can hide

No matter what we breed

We still are made of greed

This is my kingdom come

This is my kingdom come

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

Don't get too close

It's dark inside

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide."

I looked at him, and he was fast asleep. I smiled. "He is so cute. I love him."

"He is really cute. He likes you. He kept looking at you and smiling. I thought I was gonna have to warn him to stay away from my woman," he joked

"You've got some competition." I laughed "Can you handle it?"

"I think so. You are really good with kids. You would make a really good mom." Suddenly my stomach hurt and I needed to leave. I didn't say anything. His smile faded. "What? Did I say anything?"

"No. Just drop it. It stopped raining. Do you want to help me find his parents?"

"Sure. Here, I'll take him from you so can hop down they I'll give him back and get out," Hal said.

"Cool." Once we were out of the back of the truck we began looking around camp. This lady walked up to us with a frantic look in her eye.

"MY SON! You found my son! Oh thank you so much!"

I smiled. "You're welcome. He is really cute." I handed him over.

"I think she found her new best friend," Hal added.

"Thank you again," she smiled and walked off. Hal wrapped his arm around me and kissed me.

"You know, maybe one day we could have a kid of our own."

"Maybe one day, but not today." He started to say something. "Or tonight."

"Okay. I still think you would be a good mom."

"I have had lots of practice, between Kaylee and my sister."

"Let's go get food."

"Sounds good to me. I like food. Food is a great thing," I said nodding.

"Yeah it is. And I think I may have seen a few juice boxes with your name on it," he smiled

"REALLY!?" He just laughed as we walked over to get dinner, his arm around me.

Kaylee's POV

"Ashley? Ah, no está aquí. Tristán, ¿Das una fiesta en tu casa?"

"Uh…yeah?"

"Español por favor."

"No." Spanish is also another class I don't really pay attention in, since it came naturally to me the way math did. I had this class with Alyssa too, and it was my only class that I had with people my age since Spanish 1 was usually taken by freshmen, even though upperclassmen took it too. I didn't really try in this class, since I really don't like speaking verbally and what not, but I really did enjoy the language. Alyssa on the other hand, not so much.

"What the hell is she saying?!" Alyssa whispered to me under her breath.

"You have the words in front of you!" I whispered back and motioned to the vocabulary sheet Alyssa had on her desk in a way that Mrs. Martinez couldn't see it. We were supposed to be speaking based off our own knowledge, but I'm pretty sure two-thirds of the class had theirs out too.

"She speaks way too fast!" We both looked at our teacher who was talking faster than most of us could ever understand, even if we were native Spanish speakers.

"Yeah but-"

"Kaylee, ¿Vas a traer decoraciones a la fiesta de Tristán?"

"I don't know," I spoke instantly, despite the fact that I knew what she was asking me. I didn't even know we had a Tristan in this class.

"En español."

"Use your brain, dumbass," that annoying as hell voice called to me across class. Can you take a guess? This is the one class I hated simply because I was breathing the same air as AJ Rivera.

The whole class was silent and staring at me, awaiting a response. I looked at his murky green eyes from three rows over and stared at him so intently that I saw fear cross his eyes for a moment. "I will when you will."

Everyone up roared with laughter and "oh"'s while Mrs. Martinez stood in front of my row and crossed her arms at me. "Get out of my class."

I frowned and gave her a confused look. "What?" Had I misunderstood her?

"You heard me. Get out of my class and go see Mr. Villanueva. Now."

Silence. I threw my arms out. "Why?"

"That was a harsh comment to your classmate, and the fact that you never answer questions is becoming childish," she replied with her thick Hispanic accent. She stared at me with her cold black eyes until I opened my mouth again.

"Did you seriously not hear him call me a dumbass five seconds ago?" I raised my eyebrows expectantly. How the fuck did he always get the free pass in this class?

"GET OUT!" Mrs. Martinez shouted at me and I shook my head. I stood up, threw my binder in my backpack, and then slung it over my shoulder. But just before I went out the door, I thought of something. Eh, I was already going to the principal's office. Might as well make it for a good reason.

So I got right into her face and said, "No, no voy a traer decoraciones a la fiesta de Tristán. La clase de español es stupida y tú eres una maestra aburrida." And then I went out with all of the students who understood me laughing loudly.

"Hey, you alright?"

I blinked once and then my eyes rescanned the current scene in front of me. Hal, Ben, and I were at an old factory on a scouting mission. Where's Alyssa? Weaver thought that it would be a great idea to switch up our partners, at least for a few if not more missions since all of us trusted who we were paired with. So Alyssa was out with Tector, Boon, and Matt who had persuaded Tom into letting him be a messenger to start proving his capability of being a fighter. Weaver didn't want Ben and me to be separated just yet, so both of us were put with Hal, since I hadn't been with him on a two person mission since we were at the school and Ben hadn't been on a mission with him since the day they found us.

So here we were. The three of us had taken our bikes down to this factory that has been on super tight guard by mechs, all day and all night. Ben and I had been silent this whole time and Hal was trying to coax a few words out of us, even though he knew that we just wanted to be left alone.

I nodded at Hal's question then looked back at the patrolling mechs, trying to think of a logical explanation as to what could be so important that the skitters needed to keep this factory so heavily protected.

"See that steam?" Hal looked back over to the building as did Ben and I. "And the lights on? Building's got power." Sure enough, puffs of steam were coming out pipes on the rooftop and some concealed lights were on inside. Hal glanced at Ben and I who were still fixated on the building and then he went back to the little political map he carried with him. "Well, what ever they're up to in there, it's none of our concern." He started scribbling something down on the map. The eldest Mason said something that I had tuned out, and then louder he said, "You two have been quiet lately."

"Got nothing to say," Ben replied, not looking at his brother.

"You both eat with only each other, barely sleep, won't talk to anyone else. It's like your both two different people," his eyes went from both me to Ben.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ben glanced at Hal and then back at the factory.

"We all miss Jimmy," Hal said, eyes lingering in mine perhaps longer than Ben's. "But you both gotta find a way to put that behind you guys." Ben and I both gave Hal a deserved glare, and that's when we heard our bike engines rev up and all three of us whirled around to see three people riding off on our bikes.

"HEY!" Hal yelled, and even tried to run and throw a rock at them. I just stood in the spot where our bikes were and ran a hand through my bangs and messy hair. Just what we needed.

"Can you believe that? Where the hell did they come from?" Brief silence. "We're not going back to camp without those bikes." Hal ran over to get his bag and just as he was coming back, Ben closed his eyes and knit his eyebrows together slightly, as if concentrating.

"What're you doing?" Hal asked, aggravation clearly present in his tone.

"Trying something," Ben put his hand out and forced Hal to stop. Ben took a few more seconds, then opened his eyes and smiled the smallest bit. "They're headed east."

"How do you know?" Hal frowned skeptically at his younger sibling.

Ben smirked. "I can hear their engines."

Watching Ben finding the people steal our bikes was kind of like watching a dog following a scent it catches. Every few moments, he would stop and close his eyes, then start running and Hal and I would run after him. And since he didn't want to lose the sound of their engines, Ben was running pretty damn fast, even for me. So Hal and I were busting our asses off and sprinting after Ben as he tracked the thieves.

After what felt like forever of running and changing direction, Ben stopped in front of this old warehouse that was actually really close to the factory that we were just at. The three of us pulled our gun of choice to the front of us and slowly walked forward with our guns pointed at the entrance to the warehouse. They had a really shitty guard system, since no one was outside in the two alley ways or at the front door, and not to mention you could hear kids yelling from several yards away.

Kids. And by the sound of it, a lot of them. Hal motioned for Ben to go the other way in, while he and I would walk in the front entrance to try and negotiate. But knowing Hal, he probably was going to seriously screw this up and get us both killed by these kids.

"Let me do the talking, alright?" I whispered to him as we approached the open door quietly.

"No way!" He shook his head.

"Look, I know a thing or two about living without adults okay? Let me talk to them."

"How do you know there are no adults in there?"

I gave him a look. "Adults ruin everything for kids, so why would they have them around?" We got to the entrance, to the point where I could see in but none of the fifteen or so kids bothered to look out at the two strangers invading their home. I knocked on the doorframe and within three seconds, Hal and I had fifteen or more guns pointing at us.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Hal said raising his hands.

I on the other hand, stood still and started straight into the conversation. "I just want to talk about the bikes."

A Hispanic boy, most likely around sixteen or seventeen who I assumed was their leader, stepped forward with his gun pointed at me from across the room. "Fifteen to one? There's nothing to talk about."

He spoke a familiar Spanish term to me that my Spanish teacher often yelled at me and that was "Get the hell out."

"I'd back off if I were you," I said, hands in my pocket, completely nonchalant about this.

"Yeah?" the boy cocked his head and raised his eyebrows at me.

Ben's Heckler and Koch clicked into place from above. "Yeah."

"Now if you don't stand down in five seconds, you die." Hal lowered his arms. "One," he started.

"Two," Hal said louder. The boy and a girl around his age started speaking quickly in Spanish.

"Three."

"Diego," the girl lowered her weapon and put a hand on the Hispanic boy's shoulder to make him stop.

"Four," Hal's voice got louder, and that's when the boy, apparently named Diego, yelled to his group to stand down.

"Put your guns down, all of you. Put your guns on the ground." While the fifteen kids set down their guns, I got a better look at the two leaders. There was Diego, and then there was the girl, who was extremely pale and had a pair of familiar blue eyes that I couldn't put my finger on. I had definitely seen them somewhere before.

Hal and I walked face to face to the two leaders and I heard Ben's footsteps behind us. "Diego, is that your name?" Hal got straight into his face and was being the annoying douche bag he occasionally could be. "Well I'm Hal, and that's my brother, Ben."

"Hal also has a problem of realizing when he's being an asshole or not, so I apologize for that," I said bluntly and pretty much all the kids in the room laughed, apart from the girl. I ignored Hal's glare.

"Just take the bikes and go," she said, trying to be tough but in reality sounded terrified.

I stayed in my place and Hal went to Ben to get his gun. Hal took in the kids that surrounded the room and then asked the question I already knew the answer to, "Is it just you guys here? No adults?"

"We don't need them," a young boy around Matt's age told us.

"Adults get us killed," another boy stated.

"We lookout for each other," the girl spoke. Her voice was still shaky.

I glanced around at the kids, who ranged from nine or ten to fifteen or sixteen. "Our people are camped out not far from here. We might be able to spare some extra bike parts, the very least food and water."

"You all look like you could use a good meal," Hal looked around. "No offense."

"Say yes," the girl murmured to Diego.

"Hillary, Shawn, Julen, and Rob come with us to check it out. The rest of you, hold down the fort," Diego yelled out to his crew. "We'll be back as soon as possible." The kids picked up their weapons again and Diego looked me in the eyes. "Thanks."

Diego and his gang got onto their own bikes that were meant to seat two or three people and Hal, Ben, and I got on ours. It took us about ten minutes to get back to our new campsite with the rest of them behind us, and when we did, a crowd of civilians were waiting for us. The civilians always want to be in the know of everything, especially when strangers arrive without them knowing.

"Who do we have here?" Weaver asked us once we pulled to a stop.

"Found them in a warehouse, half starved, no adults," Hal said sitting up straight on his bike. "Figured we could help him out."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girl hop off the bike she was on with Diego and pushing past people to get to the front of the crowd where Weaver, Tom, Hal, Ben, and I were at. What the hell?

But as soon as she and Weaver's eyes met, it all clicked for me.

This girl was Weaver's oldest daughter, Jean. They had the exact same set of eyes, which was why they seemed so familiar to me.

"Jean?" Weaver asked in disbelief.

"Dad." She threw her arms around her father as did Weaver.

"Jeanie?!" Weaver looked at his daughter again and then pulled her back in for another hug. Ben and I both looked at each other and then smiled.

Weaver and Jean went into Weaver's tent away for privacy purposes and eventually the crowd dispersed. Ben, Hal, and I walked our bikes to the "parking lot" we had stationed here and when we got there Alyssa was waiting for us. Hal put his kickstand down and ran over to Alyssa, whom he hadn't seen for five or six hours, and kissed her.

Ben and I glanced at each other awkwardly for a few moments and then moved away from our bikes. "He seriously can't go more than a few hours without seeing her," Ben whispered to me as we walked a little more ways away from where Alyssa and Hal were practically making out. I swear I nearly puked.

"It's kind of starting to worry me," I said softly back. Zach was just like this with Alyssa. He always had to see her every minute he could and pushed the PDA to the absolute max he could. "I need to talk to her about it." Ben nodded, understanding. I had told Ben about Zach, not a lot of details but general things about how much he hurt Alyssa and how I was getting uneasy seeing Hal and Alyssa like that.

So, me being the awkward freak that I am, I walked up to the still kissing couple and put my hand on Alyssa's shoulder to pull her away. "I really need to talk to you."

"Could you not wait?" She frowned at me as I continued to pull her along, far enough away from Hal's hearing range.

"I waited for five minutes." Alyssa socked me in the arm and her face got all red, which made me smirk.

"It was not five minutes. What do you want, Parker?"

I sighed, looking at Hal and Ben talking and then back at her. "Don't you think you should take it a little…slower with Hal?"

"We are taking it slow," she folded her arms and looked at me expectantly.

"Slow enough though? I hate to say it, but Hal's a lot like Zach," I said quieter.

"Hal is nothing like him," Alyssa said forcibly and her eyebrows creased into a tight frown.

"Really? Because I remember Zach always needing to be around you and always needing to shove his tongue down your throat whenever you two were in public," I said flatly. Better to cut to the chase than beat around the bush. Alyssa stayed quiet. "Look, I'm not saying they're the same person, because they definitely aren't. Zach was a total douche that didn't treat you like you deserve and Hal's the opposite. And I'm not telling you to do anything, because I know you won't do it anyway. I just don't want to see you get hurt like that again. I really don't want to see what happened with you and Zach happen to you and Hal, okay?"

Alyssa's face got really hard. "It won't happen because Hal is nothing like Zach. Zach was an asshole who just wanted sex. Hal and I haven't done it yet. Now when my relationship with Hal becomes your business I'll let you know. Until then, butt out."

"I never said your relationship was my business, because frankly it's not and I honestly don't give a rat's ass about what you two do. I'm just concerned because according to Ben and Matt, Hal was the Zach of his school, and I don't want to see you break again." I turned abruptly and left.

Ben was waiting for me when I walked back over to the bikes. Hal had walked over to Alyssa and they went off to God knows where and Ben and I walked for a little while. "So how'd it go?"

"Can't really say," I said scanning camp. I think it was this new fighter thing that I had programmed into my head or something. I keep doing 180s of camp or wherever I'm at all the time. Weaver told me that knowing every small detail of your surroundings can make the difference between living and dying. "She's never been one for listening to my advice unless she asks for it herself."

"Relax," Ben said smiling and shaking my shoulder a little. "You tell me that I worry too much about everything and now you can't stop about Alyssa."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up."

"It's about time you get a taste of your own medicine, Kaylee Parker."

I gave him a weird look. "Whatever, Benjamin Mason."

Ben winced at his full name. "Ugh, don't call me that."

"If it makes you cringe then I'll have to start calling you that more often."

He rolled his eyes. "You seriously piss me off sometimes."

"Yet you call me your best friend," I smiled cheesily at him and he laughed. Ben and I stopped walking at Alyssa and I's tent. He pulled me into his arms and held me tightly and I reciprocated his grip.

Standing here hugging Ben made me think of how incredibly lucky I was to have him in my life, and how I probably wouldn't have made it if he wasn't here for me throughout all of this. I don't know, he gets me. He understands my flaws and things that piss me off, and he makes me work through them and makes me step out of my comfort zone. He understands that he doesn't have to talk to me to comfort me or talk to me so things don't get awkward, and more importantly he knows when he's overstepping his boundaries.

And then there are all of those times that I feel warm around him. When he held my hand at Jimmy's funeral, every time he looked my directly in the eyes, that day in the rain, and right now, as well as plenty of other times when he hugged me this tightly. I still hadn't figured out what this meant, and honestly I don't think I ever would. It made no sense to me whatsoever, and the more I had spent trying to figure out what the hell it meant, the more confused I got. Usually I would ask Alyssa, because I finally got over knowing how stupid it would sound out loud, but each time that I tried to start explaining, I couldn't think of how to start it.

Ben pulled away from me a little and stared down at my eyes for a moment before kissing my right cheek softly.

And I swear I had a heart attack in that moment. "What was that?" I looked up at him, with a smile on my face that I didn't even realize was there until his eyes lit up at it.

He smirked at me and shrugged. "Night." And then he walked off.

What. The. Fuck.

I went into the tent and sat on my cot, staring into space. My cold fingers skimmed my cheek, which was totally warm, and when I thought about what had just happened started making my heart beat faster and made me feel sick. My God, what the fuck was happening? There seriously is no logical explanation for this.

"It kinda feels like someone poured hot coffee inside your body," Alyssa had told me one day when I asked her what it was like being with someone. "And every time you're with them you're happier than you've ever been before and you don't know why, but you just are."

"Why's your face all red?" I looked up and saw that Alyssa had apparently entered the tent.

"It's hot in here, that's all," I said softly and took off my hoodie and getting into my flannel pants.

She stood there standing and frowning at me for thirty seconds before getting into her pajamas too. "It's like thirty degrees in here."

I shrugged. "Maybe I'm getting the cold that's going around." I slid under the fleece blanket I had on my cot, turned away from Alyssa, and turned off the lantern we had. I laid there for at least twenty minutes wide-eyed and unmoving, hearing her words run laps in my mind.

"And every time you're with them you're happier than you've ever been before and you don't know why, but you just are."

Alyssa's POV

So Weaver decides the fighters need to learn to trust each other and get to know other people than just our normal partners. That means Hal and I are separated. But because Kaylee and Ben can't go even minutes without each other, they get to stay together. So it's Hal, Ben, and Kaylee (I'm still trying to figure out how that was a good idea) and then I got stuck with Tector and Boon and then Matt is our messenger. Weaver decided I needed to learn to rely on my gun more so I was stuck with them. Tector has a great aim and Boon is pretty good. I asked why I couldn't just learn from Kaylee but Kaylee, being the great friend she is, said, and I quote, "If you wanted to learn from me, you would've learned over the past two years I've tried to teach you. I feel bad for Tector and Boon." I slapped her then got in trouble so I just went with it. It wasn't fun let me tell you that.

Tector and Boon were making me go through target practice, teaching me about guns and how they work and how to shoot.

"So Tector, how do you know so much about guns?" I asked. He acts like he doesn't know much or have any experience with guns but he is too good. He has too much precision and focus. He is so clean cut when he shoots. Just the way he acts with a gun and how comfortable he is with one, he obviously has prior experience.

"I picked up a few things here and there, my dad used to hunt," he said quickly.

"Bullshit." I looked at him.

"It's true," he argued.

"Don't fucking lie to me. Now tell me what branch. I know you weren't with the army. I'm gonna say either Marine Corps or Navy, not a seal but still in the Navy maybe? Which one?" He just kinda stared at me. "It's the Marines right?"

"I was a Gunnery Sergeant. How did you know?"

"You act like a soldier. You act like my brother; he was in the Marines and died in action. Where did you serve?" It made me sad to talk about my brother.

"I served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Oh my brother served in Iraq for a year. Maybe you knew him?" I took off his dog tags from around my neck and tossed them to Tector. He looked at them then his face went blank. He looked like he saw a ghost. "Tector? Are you okay?"

"I knew your brother. He served under me. I was with him the night he died. He was a good kid. You know what his last words were? 'Tell Alyssa and Veronica it'll all be okay.' I was at his side as he died. We were ambushed. The first two were shot and killed instantly, but he made it until backup arrived and we got him on a helicopter. He died on the ride to the base. Looks like now I get to fulfill his last wishes."

"Thanks. Now let's go hunt some skitters."

"Yeah!" Matt, Boon and Tector all cheered.

"Look, there are some skitters now," I pointed out a skitter walking around, it was alone.

"Okay here is the plan, Mason and Carter are going to get the skitters attention and lead it back here, then Boon and I will take it out, see how many you can get to follow you okay? Boon and I aren't supposed to leave our post, so we'll have to bring the skitter to us."

"See? Solider. You don't disobey orders or break rules."

He just laughed. "Old habits die hard."

"Now what I'm wondering is how in the hell do you get along with Pope? The solider and the convict. Not a likely set of friends."

"Shut up and go get us some skitters to kill".

Matt and I road off on some scoters we found at a house. I could see the skitter out of the corner of my eye. It started to follow us so we road into an ally way that was blocked off. It was a dead end. We just stood there waiting for Boon and Tector. I stepped in front of Matt and shielded him with my body. Where were they and why weren't they shooting?! There was another skitter that had been sleeping in the ally way. We had woken it up and they way it was sitting I don't think Boon and Tector could have hit it. I grabbed the knives from my boot and held them up. Just then the skitter closet to us head blew off. "Shoot Boon!" I heard Tector yell.

"It's not in aim! I could hit the kids!" Boon yelled back. The skitter was advancing on us and quickly. I threw both my knives at it and killed it. Tector and Boon started cheering. Matt and I were covered in blood. "What was that? 27 and 28?"

"28 and 29!" Tector corrected "Tick, tick,"

"Boom!" They fist bumped.

"So how was it?"

"Pretty cool," I smiled.

Matt looked paler than a ghost and scared shitless "THAT. WAS. AWESOME!" He yelled. Well okay then. We all started cheering and headed back to camp. Matt and I went to clean up then we joined the rest of the Berserkers around the camp fire.

"Alright, alright check it out." Boon started beat boxing. "Yo! Our home boy, Matt, Went down the alley and was like 'Oh snap! We gonna put the skitters in the trap!' Make 'em feel like they gon' mad then we hit 'em in the back with the tick tick boom and those skitters went splat!"

Boon offered Matt and me a beer. I accepted and Matt was about to when Tom walked up. "Hey, hey!"

"Yo what gives, Mason?" Boon asked.

"He's nine years old. Beer? Use your head." Tom said then looked at me "Really?" I nodded.

"The little man is just on cup holder duty. We're celebratin,'" Boon said. Boon is so stupid sometimes.

"Two more kills this morning, Boss," Tector announced.

"Really?" Tom asked.

"Yeah," I confirmed.

"Dad! It was SO awesome! I led two skitters all by myself into Tector's field-" Matt started.

"What do you mean 'led'? He was just supposed to be a runner." Tom asked. No one sad anything. "Report back to camp if you saw any activity."

"We saw an opportunity," Boon shrugged "Seized the initiative."

Tom was pissed now. "You used my son as skitter bait?!"

"Tom, Matt was safe. I was with him and was ready to kill them if they missed. Matt was fine, I was shielding him so he was protected from any weapons-whether it be accidental friendly fire or the aliens."

"We were boxed in, man. It was fish in a barrel!" Boon exclaimed.

"Dad, dad i-it's not a big-" Matt tried.

"MATTHEW!" Matt stopped talking. He just glared at his dad.

"I'm not that irresponsible that I would put Matt's life at risk. I know how to protect someone like that." I used to do it all the time with my sister.

"Look, Tec and I have killed more skitters than anybody else!" Boon needs to shut up or we will all end up in way more trouble than we are already in.

"Shut up, Boon! Man's right; we screwed up."

"No we didn't! A screw-up was if we'd missed!"

"What if you'd missed?"

"Our job is not to miss." Boon wasn't going to let this go.

Tom pushed Boon. "Hey, you're twenty years old. You were selling cell phones a year ago. WHAT IF YOU HAD MISSED?"

"We don't mi -" I'd had enough of him.

"BOON!" I yelled. "Shut up!"

"My orders were clear. Man an observation post. NOT PAINT A TARGET ON MY NINE-YEAR-OLD'S BACK!" He looked at Tector "You can take the barrel rifle and give it to the second team. You're off sniper duty. And you can both go join the sanitation crew until further notice. Dismissed!" He looked at Matt "You're gonna sit out the next couple missions, Matt."

"Great. You ruined EVERYTHING." And he ran off.

He looked at "Now you." He was giving me this look, it made me feel so guilty. It's a look only a parent can use. "You're smarter than that Alyssa. You're lucky I'm not putting you on sanitation like them. We can't afford to lose more fighters. What were you thinking?"

"I know it wasn't smart. It was really stupid. They were so set on it, the only thing I could do was go with Matt. I didn't want to leave. God knows what they would have done if I left. I tried to get Matt to go back and have just me be the bait but he was having none of it. I also really wanted to kill a few skitters."

"Next time, be smart."

"I will." I said just as Weaver came up to talk to Tom. As I walked back to camp

Hal, Ben, and Kaylee showed up but they had a bunch of others with them. Hal walked up to me. "Hey, who are they?"

"Some survivors we found. They needed help."

"Cool." I wasn't really interested. I was just glad I was back with Hal. He leaned in and kissed me. I didn't want to stop kissing Hal but Kaylee had other ideas. She walked over and grabbed my shoulder and pulled us apart. Remind me to kill her.

"I really need to talk to you," she said. I fucking hate her right now.

"Could you not wait?" I asked as she pulled me away from Hal.

"I waited for five minutes." I punched her.

"It wasn't five minutes. Now what do you want, Parker?"

She sighed. "Don't you think you should take it a little…slower with Hal?" Where did this come from?

"We are taking it slow."

"Slow enough though? I hate to say it, but Hal's a lot like Zach," She did not just say that.

"Hal is nothing like him," I said.

"Really? Because I remember Zach always needing to be around you and always needing to shove his tongue down your throat whenever you two were in public." God way to be a bitch about it. "Look, I'm not saying they're the same person, because they definitely aren't. Zach was a total douche that didn't treat you like you deserve and Hal's the opposite. And I'm not telling you to do anything, because I know you won't do it anyway. I just don't want to see you get hurt like that again. I really don't want to see what happened with you and Zach happens to you and Hal, okay?"

"It won't happen because Hal is nothing like Zach. Zack was an asshole who just wanted sex. Hal and I haven't done it yet. Now when my relationship with Hal becomes your business I'll let you know. Until then, butt out."

"I never said your relationship was my business, because frankly it's not and I honestly don't give a rat's ass about what you two do. I'm just concerned because according to Ben and Matt, Hal was the Zach of his school, and I don't want to see you break again."

She then walked away. She's crazy! Zach is nothing like Hal. Hal saw me walk away from Kaylee so he came over to me. "Hey what was that about?"

"Kaylee is being paranoid. I don't really know. Nothing important."

"Okay." We just walked around camp for a little. He took me to meet the people they found. Then we walked around some more until I started to yawn. Hal walked me to my tent then went to go talk to Ben about something.

"Why's your face all red?" That was the first thing I noticed when I saw Kaylee sitting in our tent…

"It's hot in here, that's all," she said.

I put on my pajamas and gave her a look. "It's like thirty degrees in here."

"Maybe I'm getting the cold that's going around." Then she turned around on her cot and put the light out. I stood there deciding whether I should interrogate Kaylee or Ben. I decided Ben because Kaylee wasn't going to say anything. I threw some shoes and a hoodie over my tank top and ran outside to find Ben. He was talking with Hal.

"What that hell did you do to Kaylee?"

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything."

"Don't fucking lie to me. Her face was all red and when I asked her why she said it was because she was hot. It's fucking thirty degrees outside. She's not hot."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit. Tell me."

"I honestly don't know. I kissed her on the cheek but other than that-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa hold up. You kissed her?"

"Nice job," Hal said. I forgot he was standing there.

"Finally!" I smiled and gave him a high five.

"Now I see why she didn't tell you. I'm going to go sleep." He started to walk away and Hal followed him so I walked back to our tent.

I tried to sleep but I couldn't. Kaylee's words kept coming back to me. Slow enough though? I hate to say it, but Hal's a lot like Zach. How are they alike? They both play sports, but other than that, well they were both popular and always had a girlfriend. Nothing else though. Well except that they both like to show PDA. Oh my God they are alike. Kinda. I sat up for another hour thinking about that before I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I planned on talking to Hal. "Hey Alyssa." He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. He tried to kiss me but I dodged it.

"I need to talk to you," I said.

"Am I in trouble?"

"No. I just want to talk."

"Okay, shoot."

"So I was thinking maybe we should slow down a little bit. You know? Like calm down a little. I'm not saying break up. Don't get me wrong. Just a little less PDA. Kaylee brought up a something yesterday and it got me thinking. I've rushed things before and they have ended up badly. Very badly."

"Okay."

"You're not mad are you?"

"No just a little confused as to where this came from but okay. If you want to we can." I smiled. "Now I gotta go. My dad wants to talk about something with me. I don't know what. I'll catch you later." He leaned down and I thought he was going to kiss me, but he didn't. He hugged me. I smiled.

Kaylee's POV

"How does that feel?" Dr. Glass asked poking the set of ribs that I re-broke when I got into that fight with Pope.

"Like if you continue to poke them I might scream some very vulgar words," I said glancing at the few kids in the Med Bus that were here to see Anne.

"And now?" Anne looked up at me as she touched my other ribs that broke during the night the bridge blew up.

"Same," I groaned as the pain sent my stomach into knots.

"They're not healing right." She set whatever the hell she was poking me with on the counter and crossed her arms at me. "What exactly have you been doing since you woke up?"

"Fighting," I answered.

"You're supposed to be taking it easy, Kaylee! Your ribs aren't going to heal if you push them the way you have been. I might have to do surgery on you again and I can't do that with the supplies we have," Anne mumbled the last part and continued talking to herself about how low on medical supplies the 2nd Mass was.

"Whoa, wait. Surgery, again?" I folded my arms and frowned.

"I told you to take it easy," Anne said in her doctor voice and then shook her head. "After I took out all of the bullets and fixed those holes, I had to cut open your side and put pins between the broken pieces to the ribs still in place."

Excuse me while I go vomit my insides out.

"You broke them that badly. A few you broke in three or four places. And the amount of work you've been doing on them is no where near the amount they can handle. That's why they've been hurting so badly."

When I woke up at two, I walked myself to the Med Bus because my ribs were throbbing painfully and I felt really sick. So that was the problem with my ribs, and I was about to find out if I was sick or not.

Anne took my temperature with some super high-tech thermometer thing. Her eyebrows rose. "That's it. You're on medical rest until I say so." She showed me my temperature reading. 102 degrees.

Fuck.

"Anne-"

"I don't want to hear it, Kaylee. You need a break. Ben?" She called once she opened the curtain all the way. Ben stood up and looked expectantly from me to her.

"Don't let her anywhere near Weaver's tent and make sure she gets rest. Okay?" Anne instructed him and then took her next patient in." I irritably pushed my bangs out of my face and walked off the Med Bus into the cold night. Fever or not, I was freezing.

"What happened?" Ben asked concerned.

"Apparently my ribs aren't healing right and she's probably going to have to do surgery on them again. And I have a 102 fever which I somehow got overnight," I crossed my arms again, but instead of doing it because I was aggravated, I was trying to warm up my body.

"You told me you were fine!" Ben whisper-yelled at me (it's two in the morning, remember?)

"I thought I was!"

"Why are you shaking?" Ben stared at my shivering arms. I had just walked out in a thin long sleeve shirt and my jeans but that wasn't cutting it for me.

"I'm freezing," I said quietly, trying to avoid looking him directly in the eyes. He was mad at me since I had somewhat lied to him saying that I was fine when I had actually been in a lot of pain the last few days. "Can we just walk around or something?"

"Whatever," Ben said irritated at me. We began walking down the road camp had been stationed on all throughout the entire road, and a few seconds passed when Ben put his arm around me.

"What're you doing?"

"Keeping your dumbass warm," he replied and put his extra jacket around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him.

"What about my fever? Isn't this making it worse?" I asked. Honestly this felt fantastic, since my body felt super warms and my arms heated up instantly. I was just trying to make an excuse to get him to let me go.

"It's twenty degrees outside." He glanced down at my eyes then looked forward again. "Besides, I can just get you a wet cloth or something to help cool you down a little." His hand went up and down my right arm to help warm me up faster. That sick feeling I got in my stomach came back, except this time it was a lot worse than it was earlier.

I realized that we were going to this place that we found and went to whenever we didn't have a mission or sometimes at night. It was a small, small park that only had a hedge and two trees, but Ben and I thought it was a great place to talk about whatever we wanted to without being bothered.

Ben lightly put both of his arms around my side and helped me sit down, despite my curses at him to just stay standing. He wrapped his jacket around me tighter and held me as close to him as he physically could to try and keep me as warm as he could. I collapsed my head onto his shoulder and shut my eyes. I was feeling hot and cold at the same time, my head started hammering, my ribs were throbbing, and I all around just felt like absolute shit. "If death had a feeling I'm pretty sure this would be it," I groaned and tried to think of something to soothe my awful headache.

Ben pressed the back of his hand against my forehead. "You're seriously burning up."

"Don't move your hand," I grabbed his hand just as he was about to move it away. His hand was freezing and it felt amazing against my forehead.

"How did you get this sick in one night?" He chuckled at my refusal to allow him to move his hand.

"You don't want to know," I muttered and gritted my teeth at the unbearable ringing in my head.

Ben kept his arm around me and began tracing shapes on the right temple of my forehead. I don't know what the hell he was doing, but whatever it was, it was making my headache calm down a little bit. The more I focused on Ben's shapes, the more the pain lessened in my head. His touch was so light that it gave me chills that weirdly cooled me down. It's like he knew exactly how to make me feel better.

"Why are you so perfect?" I asked randomly.

Ben laughed. "How bad does your head hurt?"

"I'm being serious. How is it that you know exactly how I work and think?"

"I don't know how you think. I mean, there's still a huge part of your life that I don't know about," his voice was as soft as the gentle touch that was skimming my cheek.

"Ask me anything you want to know."

Ben was quiet while he thought of something. He took such a long time that I was about to fall asleep when his voice yanked me out of sleep. "You never told me how your parents died."

Of course, going right in for the kill. "They were incinerated. Next question?"

"You gotta give me more than that," his voice dropped to a barely audible tone.

"Drunk driver hit them, engine caught on fire, door lock was jammed, they were incinerated."

"How old were you again?"

"Barely eleven."

His grip tightened. "How did you cope?"

"I didn't," I said earnestly. "But I did make excuses of what I thought was coping."

I pushed up the sleeve of my shirt and his jacket to my forearm. "Remember when I said we grew up in two totally separate environments?"

"Yeah, and?" I finally opened my eyes and saw him sending me a confused look. "What am I looking at?"

"Look closer."

He took my arm and stared at it and when his eyes widened a little, I felt like I was going to be sick all over again. Ben pushed up my sleeve a little farther and then looked over at me. "You…"

"Did heroin? Yeah, I did. And let me tell you it was the best damn thing I did to cope. Definitely wasn't the smartest or even a remotely okay decision, but it made the pain go away and that's all I cared about."

Ben was still trying to process the two things that I just told him, which were actually the two things I never spoke about. "Alyssa doesn't know," I said quiet again.

"You did that when you were eleven?" Ben's voice was on the borderline of freaked out and angry.

I shook my head. "Thirteen. I stopped a few months into high school."

"Did you get help?"

"No. I quit on my own, and I've been straightedge since."
"What made you quit?"

I sighed. "I realized that drugs weren't gonna solve my problems; they were simply helping me run away from them. And plus I had to be clean for cross country and track."

Ben chuckled at the last part and then became serious again. "You're the strongest person I've ever met, you know that?"

"I actually can't really carry anything above fifty pounds."

He laughed again. "I mean emotionally strong. You've gone through that kind of loss, heroin addiction, near death experiences, and basically hell and back. How do you do it?"

I looked out at the abandoned buildings and the trees blowing in the cold breeze. "Sometimes I try to look at the positive side of things. For the past four years I've wondered what good could have possibly come out of my parents' dying. But the other day I realized that if they hadn't died, then I would have moved to our new house and farther away from Alyssa. A few weeks before you and Hal found us, I went back to the new house and it was completely and totally obliterated."

Ben looked down at me and I continued staring forward. "I would've been ash. I would've never come to the 2nd Mass, I wouldn't have been a fighter, I wouldn't have met Weaver, Anne, Tom, Jimmy, Hal, or you," I met his eyes then. "I wouldn't be with you, right here and right now, and I would never have known you. And this life, here at the 2nd Mass and with you, is better than any other life I could have gotten had my parents survived. I wouldn't change it for the world."

Ben pulled me in for a hug and I hugged back tighter. "You're the best thing I've got right now, Ben," I said quietly, and I instantly wished I could shove those words back into my mouth the moment I said them.

"And you're the best thing I've got right now, Kaylee. I can't picture my life without you in it." And then he kissed my forehead softly and I swear I almost threw up from how much it sent my stomach into knots.

This was getting very, very bad.

Alyssa's POV

The next morning Hal, Kaylee, and Diego where going over plans and stuff, mapping out places not to go on our drive to Charleston. I was playing a game of soccer with some of the kids. Matt and I were killing them. It was really fun.

"You guys wanna see something cool?" I asked. They all nodded. "Watch this." and I put the ball down on the ground and lined it up. I launched the ball in the air and it hit Hal perfectly in the back of the head. All the kids started laughing but Matt laughed the hardest. I jogged over to where they were and grabbed the ball. Hal looked at me. "My bad," I said and I jogged away. He said something but I didn't hear; I was too busy laughing. We continued playing soccer for a little bit longer until Diego call his kids back. He said it all in Spanish. I didn't understand one word of it. Almost two years of trying to use my one year of Spanish and all I can say is food, water, bathroom, and sleep. Everyone loaded up on their bikes and Hal and I hopped in the front of a truck with Kaylee, Ben, and two other kids in the back. When we got there you could tell something had happened. There was fire and smoke and the place was destroyed.

"Somebody ripped up our place," Jean said. Thank you Captain Fucking Obvious. There were no kids in sight. Ben found a bloody jacket and Diego said it was one of the kids.

"Somebody help!" a cry came from another room. Everyone ran over to the noise. It was a kid, maybe eleven years old. He was crying his eyes out.

"Johnny, are you alright?" Diego asked him.

"The chinchas. They took everybody." Holy fuck.

"Hey buddy, how long ago was this?" Hal asked him.

"I don't know," he said in between cries.

"They're gonna be harnessed," Ben said. This is not good. We all raced to the cars and drove back to camp as fast as humanly possible. One good thing about the attack: no speed limits. We all jumped out and ran into Weaver's tent and Hal started to explain what happened then we worked on a rescue plan.

"That factory right here, that's where we've seen a lot of harnessed kids." Diego pointed to the map.

"And that's the building we saw on the scouting unit yesterday," Hal stated. "That building has power."

"And mechs guarding it," Ben added.

"Maybe they turned the factory into a harnessing facility," Kaylee said.

"That explains the security," I said.

"Okay. Ben, what do you remember about the place you were harnessed?" Weaver asked Ben.

"Um, not much, just…fragments."

"Anything you can remember would be helpful," Tom asked. We really needed whatever information Ben had.

"First they kept us in a holding room." I could tell Ben didn't like talking about it.

"How long?" Diego asked.

"I don't know."

"What else?" Tom continued to pick his brain.

"Then they took us to a harnessing chamber."

"What was the distance between the holding room and the harness chamber?" Weaver questioned. Who the hell knows that?

"I-I'm sorry, I don't remember," Ben shook his head and I could tell he was done talking about it.

"Alright, look, we're wasting time. We know they're in there in there, let's go," Diego said, ready to go.

"Not so fast, we need a plan. Improvising gets people killed."

"Yeah? While you're sitting around making plans they're harnessing our friends."

"I'm not gonna put people's lives at risk so that you can go off half-cocked."

"Fine," Diego muttered. "Stay here with your maps. I'm going in."

"I said no." Weaver didn't yell, he said it quietly, but firm. That made it like five times scarier.

"I don't take orders from anyone especially a man who couldn't save his own family." What an asshole! I guess Weaver felt the same way because he reached over and grabbed Diego by the shoulder.

"HEY! You listen to me boy! You do not talk to me about my family, you here me?"

"STOP!" Jean yelled and she stepped between them.

"I told you he hasn't changed," Diego said as he walked away. Yeah, he is definitely a total asshole.

"Jeanie, I am sorry-"

"If you were sorry you'd try to be different. You wouldn't be the same angry control freak. This is exactly why Mom kicked you out." What a bitch. How is she related to Weaver? They are nothing a like.

"Jeanie!" Weaver yelled after her. He came back inside and was pissed. "Grab your weapons and gear up! We move out in five!"

I left the tent and was by Kaylee and Dai. Dai hopped in the front of the truck with Tom and Kaylee got in the back with Ben. I walked over to Hal. "Have you seen Matt?" Hal asked .

"No why?"

"I can't find him." He continued to look. "Matt!" Hal yelled out looking around. Ben and I stood up in the back to see what exactly Weaver was staring at and Hal approached him.

"What's wrong?" Tom asked from inside the truck that had just pulled up.

"I can't find Matt," Hal said. "He's not in our tent or in the mess tent. I don't know where he is."

"He's gone," Weaver told us. "Jean too. All the bikes are gone."

"They went without us," Tom said disbelievingly.

"C'mon!" Weaver yelled and we were off and driving again. We drove at easily 100 mile per hour, if not more. I nearly fell out of the back of the truck at least three times and I am about 99% positive I'm going to have at least two or three nice sized bruises from when my side slammed into the side of the truck every fucking time we turned. When we pulled up, the truck hadn't even come to a full stop yet and we were all jumping out ready to go. Tom pointed out Matt's baseball hat laying in the mud right by the door. We got the right place at least.

"Alyssa, Dai, Tector, you go in the back, we'll go in the front," Tom said and we were off. Dai was in the front then me and Tector was in the back. We walked slowly and carefully, listening for any sounds we would give us a hint as to where they were being held. After walking through quite a few doors and turning back around a lot we found a room with a bunch of kids. There was no skitter in sight. This must have been the holding room Ben mentioned.

In the room we found Diego and a few kids but not Matt or Jean. I seriously hope they're okay. I don't really like Jean and it's mostly Matt I'm worried about, Jean just a little bit. I remember that night months ago when Hal, Weaver, Tom and I went out scouting. It was the first time Hal and I ever actually had a civilized conversation. That night Weaver lost it. Almost didn't come back to the 2nd Mass with us. He thought Jean was dead and it was his fault. I hoped for his sake she is okay. I would hate to see him like that now. The 2nd Mass needs him now more than ever.

A child's scream ran through the air. "We have to help them. I'm going to help them." Diego stood up and tried to leave but I pushed him down.

"Oh no you don't. You had your shot and look what happened." Diego push me out of the way and walked passed but Tector stopped him.

"Why don't you leave this up to the experts?" Tector said Diego tried to resist but Tector interrupted him. "We have a team heading in now to rescue them." He spoke with a sense of finality in his voice. Diego didn't try and argue. He knew the conversation was over. It was the first time I had ever heard Tector speak like that. He sounded like a soldier. It was weird.

"Let's go, if the skitters don't know we are here by now, they will soon," I said, as if to prove my point the unmistakable screech of skitters came; they were heading our way. We hurried and untied the kids and we rushed out of the room. We had to be really quiet and it took us twice as long to get out of there. When we got out, the others were already there. As soon as we hopped in the truck we left. Somehow Diego and Weaver got stuck next to each other. Neither of them were very happy about that. It was kinda amusing to watch.

We pulled into camp about thirty minutes later. I knew Hal had century duty with Ben so I headed over to our tent. Someone came up behind me and wrapped there hands around me. "Hey Alyssa."

"What's up? Don't you have century duty with Ben?"

"Yeah but that doesn't start for another five minutes. Plus Ben doesn't look too interested in duty. He is busy with other things." Hal motioned to where Ben and Kaylee were standing. "I wish he would either grow a pair and make a move or learn to cover up his feelings a little better. He is horrible at it." I laughed.

"Yeah well lucky for him, Kaylee sucks at realizing when people care about her. She has no clue Ben likes her. Plus its kinda fun to watch him try and Kaylee be so oblivious."

"Kinda funny? It's hilarious." I bent my head back and looked at him. He leaned down and kissed me. Then he jogged off to go meet Ben and headed over to our tent. I fell asleep almost instantly.

Kaylee's POV

When morning came, I was back in camp with Hal and Diego. Hal wanted me with him when we got some intel from Diego since he knew that I would ask questions that he wouldn't have even thought of to ask and vice versa. Personally the intel wasn't the only thing I cared about; I really wanted to get to talk to Diego. The 2nd Mass never ran into survivors and meeting new people was something that was becoming lost to this world. Plus, it never hurts to have some allies later on in this war.

Behind the three of us was a soccer game going on. Alyssa was playing with a group of Diego's gang and a group of the 2nd Mass kids and was teaching them how soccer works. As a fighter, I spent 99 percent of my time fighting or doing missions and the other one percent I spent with Ben, so I was never really bored. As a civilian, and especially as a kid, I couldn't even imagine how bored they get if they don't have a job to do or something to keep them active.

"How far along the east coast have you been?" I asked Diego and Hal got out his map to write stuff down.

"Not far. The farthest I've been is Philadelphia and that was a few months back when I was looking for my family. The roads are clear up to that point, but that could've changed." Hal scribbled that note down in the margin of his map. "Did you spot the factory on Renoir and High Street?"

"Yeah, we saw that one," Hal replied.

"That's where you stole our bikes," I smirked at him and Diego laughed.

"Lots of battles bots there. Kids with those parasites on their backs and chinchas too."

"Chinchas?" Hal and I both asked at the same time and looked at Diego.

"The big bugs," he clarified. I guess everyone had their own terms for the aliens. Battle Bots and Chinchas.

"Ah, we call 'em skitters," Hal said smiling and writing the info down on the map.

"Oh-" Just then Alyssa kicked the soccer ball she was playing with at Hal's head. He whirled around to see who it was.

"My bad," Alyssa said calmly and kicked the ball away and laughed.

Hal grinned and shook his head. "I'm gonna get you back."

"Like hell you will," I said laughing.

"Are you always this sarcastic or is it just with me?" Hal asked and shook his head at me again.

"Is that your girlfriend?" Diego asked and motioned towards Alyssa.

"Yeah," Hal smiled wider and kept writing stuff down.

"He's got it pretty bad," I told Diego and he laughed.

Before Hal could come up with some kind of comeback, Tom walked by. "Hey, Tom!" I called so Hal wouldn't kill me. "Diego just gave us some great intel on our way down to Charleston."

"Good," he said nodding.

"What's in Charleston, anyway?" he asked the three of us.

"Rumors of survivors organizing a pretty substantial force against the invasion. Your group's welcome to join us, if you want."

"We'll think about it," Diego said, seeming relatively interested in coming along with us.

"Truck's ready if you want to start loading your supplies," Tom told him. "Jamil scrounged up some bike parts you might be able to fix yours with. Sorry we can't give you more but we're pretty thin as it is."

"It's more than alright," Diego said gratefully. He got up and yelled 'let's go kids' in Spanish and the rest I couldn't understand since he spoke it too fast, but all of his group got it and ran to the truck we had filled up to help take back. Ben gave me a hand up and we took things from other fighters to help load up the supplies on the bed of the truck. Two of Diego's kids hopped in the back with us and then we were on our way back to the warehouse.

The four of us were silent the whole ride there, me being exhausted and still getting over feeling like crap. Ben was thinking about something deeply and the other two kids were probably awkward around strangers. I didn't bother trying to make a conversation because that would just make it even more awkward and plus I really just wanted some silence for awhile.

It was dark out when we arrived back at the warehouse, and we were greeted by fires all around it. Ben helped me out of the truck and all of us cautiously entered the warehouse. It was eerie in here without light coming in and I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach that you get when you're watching a scary movie and you know something's about to jump out at you.

"Somebody ripped up our place," Jean said borderline upset and scared.

We all had our gun lights on and were scanning the room to see if anyone was still around to explain what had happened. Ben found a bloody jacket that Diego recognized and the rest of us came up short. Something had happened to the rest of the kids.

"Somebody help!" a cry came from a room conjoining with the main one. Everyone ran into the room to see an eleven-year-old kid crying against the wall.

"Johnny, are you alright?" Diego asked him.

"The chinchas," he sobbed and turned away from our bright gun lights. "They took everybody." Shit.

"Hey buddy, how long ago was this?" Hal leaned down towards him thinking that the poor kid would know the answer at a time like this.

"I don't know," he let out another sob and it practically broke my heart to see this kid so upset. I looked at Ben and read his thoughts from how somber his eyes looked.

"They're gonna be harnessed."

The ride back to camp was the fastest ride I've ever experienced in my life. It took us about twenty minutes to get to the warehouse from camp and we drove there in eight. I spent the entire ride talking to Johnny to try and calm him down and it worked. The moment we pulled to a stop, every single one of us jumped out and ran into Weaver's tent. We let Hal explain the situation because we knew he'd do best and then we all started devising a rescue plan.

"That factory right here," Diego pointed to it on Weaver's blown up map of the east coast, "that's where we've seen a lot of harnessed kids."

"And that's the building we saw on the scouting unit yesterday," Hal stated. "That building has power."

"And mechs guarding it," Ben added.

"Maybe they turned the factory into a harnessing facility," I pointed out and a few heads nodded in agreement.

"That explains the security," Alyssa said and Tom nodded at that.

"Okay. Ben, what do you remember about the place you were

harnessed?" Weaver asked and I'm positive I was the only one in the room who saw him tense. I knew what he had told me and it was the worst thing I've ever heard and I knew why he hated talking about it to others.

"Um, not much, just…fragments."

"Anything you can remember would be helpful," Tom encouraged and

Ben thought about it.

"First they kept us in a holding room," he said with an edge in his voice that I had never heard before.

"How long?" Diego asked.

"I don't know."

"What else?" Tom wondered.

"Then they took us to a harnessing chamber."

"What was the distance between the holding room and the harness chamber?" Weaver questioned.

Ben took in a breath of air and shook his head. "I-I'm sorry, I don't remember."

"Alright, look, we're wasting time. We know they're in there in there, let's go," Diego piped up and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Not so fast," Weaver sent a hard look his way. "We need a plan. Improvising gets people killed."

"Yeah? While you're sitting around making plans they're harnessing our friends." He's going to seriously regret talking to Weaver like that.

"I'm not gonna put people's lives at risk so that you can go off half-cocked."

"Fine," Diego muttered. "Stay here with your maps. I'm going in."

"I said no," Weaver stated firmly.

"I don't take orders from anyone especially a man who couldn't save his own family," Diego said harshly and I swear everyone flinched when Weaver grabbed his shoulder from across the table.

"HEY!" he shouted in Diego's face, "you listen to me boy, you do not talk to me about my family, you here me?"

"STOP!" Jean screamed and pulled her dad and Diego apart.

"I told you he hasn't changed," Diego said and walked out of the tent.

"Jeanie, I am sorry-"

"If you were sorry you'd try to be different. You wouldn't be the same angry control freak. This is exactly why Mom kicked you out." And then she stormed out of the tent too.

"Jeanie!" Weaver called after her and the rest of us awkwardly stood there, not knowing what to do or say. Weaver just walked out of the tent and yelled, "Grab your weapons and gear up! We move out in five!"

I was walking with Dai and Alyssa and trying to slow my stride down in order for Ben to catch up, but Tom pulled him aside and said something that I noticed pissed off Ben. When he hopped into the back of the truck with me, I just turned away from him and looked out. If I asked him he'd just get more aggravated and I respected his privacy.

"Matt!" Hal yelled out looking for his youngest brother. Dai, who was driving, pulled the truck up all the way up to where Captain Weaver was standing. Ben and I stood up in the back to see what exactly Weaver was staring at and Hal approached him.

"What's wrong?" Tom asked from inside the truck.

"I can't find Matt," Hal said. "He's not in our tent or in the mess tent. I don't know where he is."

"He's gone," Weaver spoke. "Jean too. All the bikes are gone."

"They went without us," Tom said disbelievingly.

"C'mon!" Weaver motioned stiffly to get into the truck and Alyssa and Hal joined us in the back. I just hoped for the safety of Matt that we got there in time. Ben would find some kind of way to blame himself for this if Matt got harnessed and honestly I might too. Matt was the younger sibling I had always wanted, and to lose that would make me lose apart of myself too.

We drove at least one hundred miles an hour, if not faster. If we still had speed limits, Dai would have gone to prison for how fast he was going. He screeched to a stop and all of us, Dai, Tom, Weaver, Hal, Alyssa, Ben, and me, got out of the car so fast and took cover just in case the patrolling mechs heard the screech of the car. We waited a few moments, and then moved forward to scope out the front of the factory to see if we could find a way in.

Weaver and Tom pointed out that Matt's hat was right by the entrance and my heart dropped a little. Oh shit. "Alyssa, Dai, Tector you go in the back, we'll go in the front."

Hal, Ben, Tom, Weaver and I started sprinting around the corner. Hal covered our backs as we went inside and then he shut the door closed behind us. I turned my gun lights on as did the rest of the guys and we scanned the room. I had no idea where we were at because it just looked like a random room to me. The only thing that made this different from a regular factory was the screams I could hear coming from another room.

And let me tell you those screams would be something I would never, ever forget the sound of.

Ben started running. "Follow me." The screams were getting louder and Ben turned this way and that down the factory hallways trying to find the actual harnessing chamber before it was too late. He shoved open the door and there was a harness, live and everything, crawling on Matt's back.

"HEY!" Tom yelled. I shot the skitter that was in the room in the head a few times and Tom grabbed the harness off Matt's back. Weaver and I aimed and fired at it until it was blown to pieces and then we heard the shrill sound of air being released from a pipe and a harness coming down the chute to its next victim, Jean.

"JEAN!"

"DADDY!" Weaver ran over to where Jean was tied down and shot the harness and began getting her out of the binds that held her down to the table.

I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye and that was Ben slowly making his way over to the giant tank in the corner that had all of the living harnesses swimming in it.

"Ben," I said so only he could hear me, but he ignored me and kept walking towards it. He touched his hand to the glass and moments later a harness swam up to it and stopped right in front of his hand through the glass.

Then his spikes lit up and the harness hit against the glass next to his hand.

Ben stepped back quickly and threw up his gun and held down the trigger. The glass shattered and the water came pouring out along with twenty harnesses. I whipped my Calico back to my front and started shooting harnesses left and right and anywhere I saw something moving. From the screeching the harnesses made when they were shot and the actual gun shots themselves, I probably lost about ten percent of my hearing in five minutes. I took a few deep breaths to slow my heart rate down and lowered my gun back down. Poor Matt had his hands pressed against his ears and his eyes shut and Jean looked all around terrified. How was she frightened so easily when her father served in the military?

I heard a thud and turned around to see Weaver on the floor with a harness on his leg. I was about to run over and stab the thing but Jean ripped it off of him and Weaver hit it with his gun. It's about damn time Jean stopped being such a girl.

I looked over at Ben who was still frozen in place, eyes filled with anger and terror. I remember all the way back to my very first mission with the 2nd Mass, with Ben and Karen, and how Ben's spikes lit up then too. Except he doesn't remember that; I asked him if he remembered that mission and he told me a little but not distinctly and I know when Ben's lying. So he was basically experiencing this for the first time. "Ben?" I said softly, watching everyone start leaving the room. Skitter reinforcements were bound to show up at any moment.

He stood in his place still, so I grabbed his hand and tugged on it a little. "C'mon, we gotta get out of here before backup arrives."

Ben nodded and he looked like he was out of it, but by the way his hand was crushing mine he was completely alert right now. I had no idea what was going on in his head, but it was something really, really bad since I've never seen Ben so freaked about anything. Apart from the day that skitter made his spikes glow and Ben heard it talking to him. And when Ben told me what it had said, I thought it was bullshit.

"That's what it told me. I mean, if it weren't true, why would the skitter even bother to let you and I live?" he stared down at me with his eyebrows raised. He had a point.

"It's really hard to believe though. A skitter rebellion? And that was the leader of it?"

"I'll take you to meet him someday, when I know you'll be safe. I need you on my side more than anything, especially since they'll listen to me if I have an ally on my side."

Maybe the skitter had told him something he didn't want to mention to me and that's why he was freaking out twice as much as I normally expected of him. Or maybe he felt the same way he did when he actually had a harness and felt tormented again. Whatever the reason, I was a little freaked out too. How was this going to affect everyone else? Hal would be a total ass about it, as expected, Matt would freak out and think something would happen to his older brother, Tom would want to try and fix it, and Weaver might even make him leave the 2nd Mass if it came down to that. Not to mention the crusty skin on his neck was spreading. It wasn't even remotely noticeable when I first met him, and now I could spot it from a distance. I had no idea how that was affecting him or what it could do, but I was worried about Ben. Really, really worried.

I was about to head to my tent to try and get some sleep, at least an hour, but Ben stopped me. "Will you come with me on century duty? I could really use the company."

I nodded. "Sure. Just let me get my guitar and I'll be right there." Ben headed off for the West Post, which was where the entrance of camp was near and had a roof that was perfect for watching both the road and the skies. I hadn't had a watch in a long while, and I bet that Ben specifically asked Weaver for something to do tonight since he needed to keep his mind occupied. And he might want to talk about it or something otherwise he would've wanted to be alone.

I quickly grabbed my guitar by the case strap and slung it over my shoulder, and then I headed over to the West Post. I jogged up the stairs and was about to step out when I heard Hal talking to Ben.

"C'mon, Ben. In the harnessing facility, I saw your spikes glow."

There was a pause from Ben's end. "You're mistaken."

"Really? Is that how you're gonna play this? You're just gonna lie about it? Hope it goes away instead of getting worse?" I'm seriously going to punch him very, very hard very, very soon.

"Yes," Ben let out an angry sigh. "That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Who here is gonna understand glowing spikes? Half of these people still think I killed Jimmy. You can rat me out, if you want, but I am not signing my own death warrant."

"And I am your brother," Hal said trying to calm him down. "And all I'm trying to do is help." And what a fabulous job you're doing Hal.

"I know," he said softly, "but you need to back off."

I backed down the stairs quickly and when Hal entered the stairway I acted as if I were just coming up. "Hey," I nodded at him and kept walking up.

"How do you do it?" Hal asked just as I was about to set foot on the rooftop.

"What?"

"Get him to open up to you? He doesn't even talk to me anymore."

"It's not something that you can go straight into, Hal. You have to slowly dip your foot in the water before taking the dive," I said and turned around to enter the fighters' post. I set my guitar down next to Ben and sat next to him on the edge of the roof.

"You heard all of that," Ben stated and continued gazing over camp.

"Most, not all. Just enough to know your brother's concerned about you and you keep brushing him off every time he tries to talk to you." I unzipped the case covering and slid out my guitar and propped it on my lap. I played some chords and random notes to warm up my fingers.

"He thinks he's my dad still. And he thinks that he's in charge of everything I do," he said and looked at my fingers playing by themselves as I looked him in the eyes. I remembered this song my mom had taught me, when I first started learning how to play guitar, and suddenly my fingers were playing the soft chords that filled all of camp. I hadn't heard this song since I was at least six or seven, and it made me somewhat happy inside to play it again. It was almost like reliving a moment from my past.

"Clair de Lune," Ben said calmly, recognizing the tune. The music was already making him calm down. I nodded and continued playing the song and people from the ground would look up and smile at me and I would smile down at them too. I didn't think so many people would be familiar with Debussy's work.

Once I had finished the last note, I did a shuffle in my head of the songs I knew and was about to play a new one when Ben put his hand on the neck of the guitar and lowered it. I looked up at him expectantly and he just had his eyes on the guitar and wouldn't meet mine. "What's up?" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair and then just looked back at the sky. "Is it bothering you? I mean I'll stop-"

"No," he shook his head, "it's not that. Keep playing."

I set my guitar back in its case and then stared at Ben. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know."

"Did you…hear something?" I asked quietly.

Ben looked at me, confusion and vulnerability in his eyes. "I don't know," he said hopelessly.

I put my hands behind his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. He held me back tighter than ever and put his face down on my shoulder. He was shaking from fear and confusion, and I just wished I could take some of that away. It was ripping my insides apart to see Ben like this. I put my arms around his neck and held him as close as I could. He didn't even flinch when my hand accidentally brushed against one of the spikes he had and he just sat there holding me as tight as I was holding him.

I rested my head on his shoulders and looked straight up into the starry sky. "Thank you," I mouthed to whatever was out there, "Thank you for him."

---

Wasn't that just adorable:3 Haha so let me know how I'm doing in the whole Benlee department...I could really use some feedback. Until we update next,

Keep The Resistance Strong and Falling Skies On. (Oh yeah! I don't know about you guys, but I'm not loving this Denny chick. AT ALL.)

-Kaylee Parker

Alyssa refused to reply to my test messages so therefore she has no author's note. :3

Song Credits:

Zero-Hawk Nelson

Demons-Imagine Dragons