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.

22. Not Exactly Paradise

Heyyyyyyyy ya'll. soooooo so so sooooo so sorry it took so long to post. but school kinda got a little crazy there. i was making the switch from soccer to wrestling and i was practicing a lot and the schedule is crazy and yeah then school and ap tests and such but we finally finished and as i write this i am about half way through the next chapter! so yeah as always read and review and OH WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THE NEWEST SEASON?!

~alyssa

Uh...how ya guys doing? heh... I'M SO SORRY IT'S BEEN LEGIT EIGHTISH MONTHS SINCE WE'VE UPDATED LIEF JUST GOT SUPER CRAZY AND ASDFGHJKL but now we have a lot of time to write so we're going to be taking care of that I PROMISE. We already have a lot of stuff planned out so that way it'll be a little quicker for us to update...again, sorry about the incredibly long wait, guys. But hey, I stayed up until 12 AM editing and writing and finishing and blah so that's gotta count for something right? :D No...? Oh well. This chapter is kinda more of a filler but next chapter will be FANTASTIC. yay. Enjoy my lovelies. ERMAGERD SEASERN 4.

-Kaylee

---

Chapter 22-Not Exactly Paradise

Kaylee's POV

A lot of things crossed my mind as I passed through the underground hallway of the new capital of the United States, Charleston, South Carolina; confusion, doubt, pain, anger, and loneliness to name a few. My mind was sprouting questions left and right: Was this for real? What were the people like? How long had this place been going? Did they have a military? Or showers?

The entire 2nd Mass was ablaze with excitement and curiosity. Each and every one of us were asking questions and glancing around at the whole structure, wondering how it could've possibly survived the nukes. Porter was answering a string of endless questions by the baffled fighters and civilians as we turned down a few flights of staircases. I made a mental note to be aware of the two cameras in the corner.

Before us an escalator appeared. This whole entire structure appeared to be a mall of some sort; there was even a poster of some people modeling clothes or something. Porter led us all down the escalator, and my eyes widened a fraction at the sight before me. The hall was filled with dozens and dozens of people, perhaps reaching into the hundreds range, sitting at multiple tables with steaming food in front of them. My stomach ached at the sight of it. I couldn't even remember the last decent meal I had, let alone a hot one.

As we descended, people started glancing up at us, one by one. Adults nudged each other and pointed at us, kids stared wide eyed and full of awe, and even some teens looked impressed as we walked down the metal steps. "What the hell are they staring at?" Pope asked, annoyed. Once most of us reached the ground level, several people stood (I even saw one guy straighten his sweater) and get this.

They all started clapping.

And cheering.

I glanced around, confused as to why this was happening, but it was nice to be appreciated I suppose. It took us a lot of time and casualties to get here. My eyes locked with the striking American flag that was hanging on the middle wall, and I felt my hope flicker a little. Maybe there was hope for this cause after all.

But what did I care? There wasn't much I could really do anymore.

Porter ushered all of us into the cafeteria food line, and I tried to push back the memories of how the last time I had stood in a line like this was with Jimmy and…Ben. I outwardly winced at the thought of his name and grabbed a cold tray and set it down. I didn't say anything to the people behind the counter, only slinking to the next person after they had plopped steaming food onto my tray. Two cups of water ended up on my tray as well, and then I turned around to stare at the tables, full of strangers and few familiar faces. And just like in high school, I was the odd one out with no one to sit with.

Fortunately for my sorry self, my eyes were trained to find empty seats and happened to find an empty table towards the end of the groups of tables. Carrying my tray, I made my way over to the lonely looking slab and passed by a table occupied by Pope and the Berserkers. He waved me to take a seat, but my feet continued carrying me to the deserted table. My tray clattered on the table top and some water sloshed out of the cup, but I didn't care. Once I was seated, I started aimlessly picking at my food, digging my fingers into my fork as that empty feeling came writhing back into my stomach. My appetite had suddenly vanished and quite honestly so had my sanity. So many different conversations were buzzing all around me and so many strangers moved around and about. I observed everyone, trying to familiarize myself with as many details as I could. I saw Tom, Anne, and Matt eating with a group of strangers, Alyssa strolling off with some guy which didn't surprise me in the least, and Weaver with a dark haired girl and blue eyes. Jean? How the hell did Jean get here?

I may have been practicing my observance techniques, but none of the skills I had picked up the last two years prepared me for what happened next.

Two boys, one my age and one maybe a little older, sat down across from me, staring. I lifted my eyes from my plate of slightly touched food and then averted them downward again. Perhaps if I ignored them, they would go away or sit at the farther end of the table, like back in school. I wish that were true.

"You're from the 2nd Mass right?" one of the boys asked, pale green eyes questioning.

"Yeah," I said a little icily.

It didn't faze him. "That's so cool!" His dark brown hair fell into his eyes and he shook it from his face. "Welcome to Charleston."

"Thanks," I replied, attempting to ease back on the bitterness in my tone. Couldn't they see I wanted to be alone?

"Everything alright?" the older one next to him asked. "Aren't you thrilled to be here?"

"No."

"Do you ever speak in more than one word answers?" the younger one questioned.

"Rarely."

"Anyways," the older one looked at his younger friend with an annoyed expression, "my name's Grant." He ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair and smiled, making his brown eyes smile too.

"I'm Ethan," the other one introduced himself.

"Okay," I stated indifferently. I was not in the mood for friends. I just wanted to be alone.

"You got a name, Blue Eyes?" Ethan asked, and I almost reached across the table to slap him at the name.

"Kaylee," I stood up, grabbing my tray. "Kaylee Parker."

A look of recognition crossed Grant's face and then confusion. I turned to go and drop my plate off, but not before hearing, "Hey! Do you have a brother?"

"I did," I muttered, and kept on going before the two bothersome boys could ask me anymore questions. I just really needed to get out of here. Problem was, I had no idea where the hell I was going.

Luckily I stumbled into Weaver who took me by the shoulders and pushed me in the direction he was going. "Tector, Porter, and I are meeting with the general of the military unit. I want you with us, soldier."

My mouth curved up just the slightest, and Weaver gave me a small smile back. I was grateful for the kind gesture. Weaver still was a father figure in more ways than not. I really needed to thank him for all that he's done for me the past year and a half. Weaver wasn't nearly as appreciated as he should be.

A Charleston soldier led Tec, Porter, Weaver, and I out of the main hall and down a row of rooms until we reached the third one from the end. As we stepped inside, the first thing I noticed was the huge political map in the back of the room that had South Carolina blown up in size, along with a few other states. Connected to the map was a chalkboard that had instructions about which units were going where and doing what. In front of those was a man in a military uniform in his fifties or so behind an old desk, going through papers.

"Soldiers," Porter began, "General Bressler." The man behind the desk glanced up.

Weaver stood in line with Tec and I and raised his hand to his temple in salute. "General. Captain Daniel Weaver, Second Massachusetts. Reporting." Bressler stood up and saluted back.

"Gunnery Sergeant, Aloysius Murphy. United States Marine Corps, sir."

Then his eyes fell on to me, eyebrows rising. I saluted him. "Kaylee Parker, Second Massachusetts. Weaponry Manufacturer and Gunnery Enthusiast, sir." Bressler nodded and saluted me back. "At ease, gentlemen and madam." Weaver, Tec, Porter, and I all set our legs shoulder width apart and stood with our hands behind our backs, just like my uncle had taught me and Weaver had reinforced.

"Porter's told me a lot about your unit," Bressler began, pulling out a bottle of wine and five glasses. "Congratulations on making it through. I'd say you've earned this." He poured some of the wine, or perhaps scotch or whiskey (not really my department of expertise), and slid the glasses towards us. The men in the room gathered their glasses and drank. Bressler looked at me expectantly as if it were normal for fifteen-year-olds to drink.

"With all due respect, General," I bowed my head slightly, "I do not drink alcohol."

Bressler's eyes hardened, but he nodded. "Resisting temptations. Impressive."

I wanted nothing more to correct him and say it had never been a temptation, but disrespecting someone of high rank was just asking to be beaten. "Thank you, sir."

Weaver thanked Bressler for whatever alcoholic beverage it was and asked permission before advancing to the blown up map of Charleston behind Bressler's desk. Our captain informed Bressler of where we defeated aliens and some of our casualities. Quite honestly I was questioning why I was even there and truthfully it was a little boring being in this stuffy room. If I was going to be included in something militia related, it would be fighting. Meetings were always the things that sucked the most when it came to being a fighter.

"If you need our people to scout for you, just say the word," Weaver smiled at Bressler as if they were former comrades and not two soldiers who had just met.

"I appreciate the intel, Captain, but we won't be needing your scouts," Bressler said stiffly and went to sit back at his desk. What the hell?

"General, these 2nd Mass people have actionable intelligence," Porter came to our defense. I glanced at Weaver and his expression mirrored mine.

"Colonel Porter, your opinion is noted." Bressler's cold eyes stared at Porter. "You're dismissed."

Porter looked like he had something else to say, but he refrained and left the room. Why he did, I'll never know, but I did know that something was eerily wrong about this place, and I was beginning to regret setting foot in this building. Weaver, Tec, and I all sent confused and slightly angered expressions towards Bressler, who, by the minute, I was starting to dislike more and more.

"Let me lay it out for you," he began coldly, "the aliens have no reason to attack Charleston again. As far as they know, the city's been neutralized. Given that, our civilian authority has made the decision to regroup and rebuild, and until that changes we're not interested in the business of picking fights."

"The civilian leader, Manchester, he calls the shots for the military, too?" Weaver asked with an unreadable tone of voice. Out of my peripheral vision I saw Tec shifting his weight between his feet, something he did when he was pissed or nervous.

Bressler explained that basically this Manchester guy became Charleston's leader by default because he was an expert in history and what not. "So you're just going to sit here and do nothing?" I raised my eyebrows and shoved my hands in my pockets.

Just as Bressler opened his mouth, a voice shouted down the hall, "CAPTAIN WEAVER!"

Hal threw open the door exasperatedly. "Captain, you better get out here."

The little group of us walked out of that God forsaken office and was greeted with angry shouts of a very large and very pissed off 2nd Mass. Everyone, even Lourdes, was completely at rage and seemed extremely infuriated by whatever was going on. We made our way to the center of the commotion, where a man of around forty was barking out commands to the 2nd Mass.

Veronica caught my eye and waved me over to where she was standing, which was right in the middle of the room with Alyssa. The guy that Alyssa had walked off with earlier was standing next to her with his tattooed arms folded in front of him and I glanced at him. Tall, green eyes, athletic build, most likely a skater. Oh yeah, he was totally Alyssa's type. Veronica smiled an all knowing smile at me, and despite the fact that I was in an eternal melancholy mood, I smiled back at her. I felt Alyssa's gaze on me, and as I turned to meet her eyes, my small grin dropped. My attention turned to the uprising again, trying to make sense of it all.

"What the hell is going on around here?!" Weaver shouted.

"Captain, they're spreading the 2nd Mass out across a dozen different housing areas," Anne spoke solemnly. Wait, what? We were supposed to split up from the only people we've known for two whole years?

Tom, Weaver, the stupid solider initiating all of this, and Porter began arguing back and forth about this entire situation as the 2nd Mass stood back, holding our breaths in hope that we wouldn't have to split from our family. My fists were clenching and unclenching and my jaw was set. I didn't come here to be torn away from the only people I cared about. I'd gladly take all of my shit back to Boston in a heartbeat rather than stay here under these terms. Charleston didn't seem like the paradise we all dreamed it up to be anymore, but rather, a perfect portrait of one of my nightmares.

"HOLD ON! I may not like it, but the Colonel is making sense. We're here now!" Weaver proclaimed. "We're in Charleston! We're in Charleston." The entire 2nd Mass's faces turned from angry to downright pissed off.

"Tom," Anne began, trying to reason with him.

"No, Captain Weaver's right; we need to start thinking beyond the 2nd Mass now." Tom looked out at all of us, as if that would make us any less angry about this.

"Weapons on the table," the solider yelled out, motioning to the table in front of him. Give up my weapons my ass.

Alyssa looked up at me and then walked towards the table. She a few of her rusted knives down that were the back up to her back up to her back up knives and the two guns she did carry. The soldier's cold eyes glared at me, and my colder eyes stared back at his. Without moving my icy gaze away from his, I slid a handgun I never used on the table and an empty round of ammunition.

"Woah, woah, woah, missy," the solider stopped me as I moved away. "You need to place all your weapons down." I made my move to walk away again, and he made the worst mistake he could ever make by touching Kaylee Parker. I shoved him down off of me and he was either a complete weakling or utterly shocked because he fell down to his feet. An array of snickers echoed behind me.

"She did put all her weapons down," Alyssa said in a snide tone as the man stared her down and stood up slowly. "Oh, and she doesn't like being touched." I inwardly smirked.

"She can't have only one gun," he shook his head.

"Obviously she does because do you see any more weapons on her?" Alyssa and the solider examined me from head to toe. I opened my jacket for effect and the 2nd Mass began laughing quietly. To anyone, I looked like nothing but a Plain Jane girl dressed in black. In reality, there were two guns strapped to my waist on each side, four knives in each of my pockets, two sticks of C4 in holsters on my forearms, ammunition belts under my shirt, hand grenades in a convenient holder I made for them around my waist, and a handgun in my sneaker. Not to mention some secrets I can't mention to even you, dear reader.

"No," the solider said through gritted teeth.

A smirk rose on Alyssa's face. "Okay then."

"How does she only have one gun?!" the guy screamed, still confused. I could see Pope and the Berserkers literally dying because they couldn't contain their laughter.

"She hates guns. I have to force her to carry that one, and even that's a daily struggle everyday." This was exactly like the day we first met Hal and Ben. Damn that was so long ago.

"And why exactly does she hate guns?" the guy asked.

"Well for starters, she sucks at shooting. Probably couldn't hit that wall." I shrugged and nodded sadly. I heard someone totally lose it behind me. "She is more of a bomb girl. Throw the bomb and run in the opposite direction. That's kinda her thing." I gave him a thumbs-up. Man, I was really starting to hate it here.

Alyssa's POV

We followed Porter under a bunch of tunnels until we hit a working escalator. Porter went first then Tom and Anne, then Weaver, then Hal and Matt, then me and Kaylee, then Pope and the Berserkers, then everyone else. As we came down, the people all started clapping.

"What the hell are they looking at?" Pope asked, obviously still hungover from last night's drinks.

"You guys are somewhat of legends around here," Porter explained. There were tons of people but I was only looking for one in particular. I found her the same time she saw me. As soon as I saw her I pushed my way passed everyone and sprinted to her.

"VERONICA!" I screamed.

"ALYSSA!" She yelled back as we embraced in a giant bear hug. "You're alive!" she said, smiling.

"I was gonna say the same about you! Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" She looked up. "GUYS THIS IS MY SISTER, THE ONE I TOLD YOU ABOUT!" she yelled at all them. Everyone cheered as the 2nd Mass filed in. Kaylee came over and Veronica gave her a big hug, but then disappeared again, probably not wanting anything to do with me. I had to go talk to her later.

"Dude! What the fuck?! Kaylee and I thought you were dead! And do you mind explaining how exactly YOU GOT ALL THE WAY TO CHARLESTON FROM BOSTON?!" She laughed, knowing even though I was yelling I wasn't actually mad. How could I be mad? My little sister, who I thought was dead, is actually alive! I was more than happy, I was ecstatic.

"Well, it's a long story but it's nice here, the people are kind and caring. We help each other and protect each other. I stay with a really nice family who has a son named Ryan that's a year older than you, and a daughter my age named Alicia." Just then a guy walked up, a really attractive guy, with tattoos and really nice green eyes. "So you're the famous Alyssa Carter."

"Famous?"

"Yeah. Your sister likes to talk about you. And from what I hear you seem pretty cool. I'm Ryan. My family took in your sister when she showed up. She has told us a lot about you."

"Whatever she said, it's probably not true," I smiled, nervous as to what exactly my sister said.

"Well one thing is true, you really are that short." I shot my sister a look and she stifled a laugh.

"Has she said anything else?"

"Well she said you're loud and funny and you always have a boyfriend, so I should have no problem getting with you." My sister is always trying to play match maker with her friend's older siblings though it usually doesn't work.

"I also said you have a jerky boyfriend." True. "And his name is Zack." Not true. "And that I liked him better." Probably will be true.

"I also heard you skate?" Ryan asked. He looked like a skater boy.

"It's one of my many talents," I smiled, turning on my flirty voice. If Hal was gonna be a jerk, than this was okay.

"Well I'd like to learn about your other talents," he replied with a smirk.

"You know I'm pretty busy, but I think I could make time for you," I winked. I should use this time to go talk to Kaylee, but I mean if you saw this guy you would totally want to go hang out with him.

I giggled a little. "How about I take you on a tour of Charleston?"

I glanced behind me at Hal, who by now saw me and Ryan and was shooting daggers at Ryan. "Sure, I'd love to." I paused. "One second. Hey Veronica, see that little boy over there," I pointed to Matt, "That's Matt, go tell him you're my sister. I think you two will be good friends. And I promise we'll hang out tonight at dinner and I will introduce you to everyone."

"Okay," she smiled and ran over to talk to Matt.

"You know, your sister really loves you," Ryan commented.

"Yeah, we have been through a lot, her, my best friend Kaylee, and I. So, about that tour?" I asked, maybe flirting with him a little.

"Let's go," he smiled and we started walking around a little bit, away from the crowd, and more importantly, away from Hal, who was just staring at Ryan with so much loathing in his eyes. He met my eyes and I looked away. So he wants to call me a slut, I'll show him just how much of one I can be. He showed me the kitchen/mess hall, hospital, and a bunch of other stuff. "This is the weapons room."

"Wait you keep all your weapons in one room? Do citizens get some? What about the fighters?"

"No, no one does, unless you can magically convince Manchester to let you leave for some crazy reason."

"So how do you guys go on scouts?"

"We don't."

"Like ever? That's new. We were always on scouts with the 2nd Mass. This place is going to be hard to adjust to." Kaylee was going to fucking hate it.

"Yeah, but that's what you got me here. I'll gladly help you with anything. All you gotta do is ask," he smiled at me.

"I'll have to take you up on that sometime," I smiled back.

"Sweet." I laughed. "Come on, I'll finish showing you around." He motioned for me to follow so I did. "And this is part of the housing unit." It was a row of small cubical like rooms. "Third door on the right, that's my place." He winked at me then started walking over into his 'house'. When I walked in, he was laying on his bed. "Join me?"

"Ha, you're funny. No." I laughed and went and sat on the edge off the bed.

"Wow. I'm not used to being turned down, though a pretty girl like you probably has her choice of guys."

"Damn straight I do. What makes you so special?" I poked him.

"Well I did help take care of your little sister," he pointed out.

"True, that does earn you some bonus points." He was about to respond when a little buzzer went off. I kinda panicked just a little and yanked my knife out of my boot. "What was that?"

He laughed. "Calm down its just the bell signaling dinner." I put my knife away.

"Sorry, still in constantly-alert-and-fighting-for-my-life mode," I said, a little embarrassed. He stood up and motioned for me to follow him.

We walked into the dining hall and got in line for dinner. Right behind us was Hal and Lourdes, of fucking course. I just kept talking to Ryan the whole time, hoping Hal would hear. I think Lourdes knew because she just kept looking at me and Hal.

When we were almost out of line, Lourdes finally said something. "Hey Alyssa, who's your friend?"

"This is Ryan, Ryan this is Lourdes," I said. She looked over at Hal who suddenly seemed very interested in the vegetable choices available for tonight's meal.

"Nice to meet you, Ryan," she said, a little less perky.

"Same," he nodded. And we were about to walk away when Hal just had to fucking pipe up. He could keep his mouth shut for more than like five seconds and he just had to go a start problems.

"And I'm Hal," he said, looking up and shaking hands with Ryan. Hal was a couple inches taller than Ryan but they both equally intimidating, staring each other down. You could, like, see the awkward in the air. After what felt like hours, the boys broke apart and Ryan and I headed off to a table and were soon joined by my sister and Matt. I looked around but didn't see Kaylee anywhere. Tom and Anne were talking with some man, Pope and his gang were sitting down. I didn't see Tector with them and I couldn't see Weaver anywhere.

"Hey, Matt, I see you met my sister."

"Yeah, they have a bunch of kids here and a school and it's awesome!"

"You are definitely a Mason. I don't think I have ever met someone more into school and learning then Ben and your dad."

"Matt told me you and his brother were dating," Veronica added and I nodded "So your dating someone who likes school?"

"No she's dating my other brother Hal. Ben is the one who ran away. Hal hates school, just like Alyssa," Matt explained.

"Oooohhhhh okay." She said. "So you said we could catch up more over dinner, and its dinner time"

"Oooooh story time," Ryan said. "I want to hear some of your stories from the 2nd Mass."

"Matt, will you help me tell some storied?" he nodded. "Okay what story first?"

"How about the first time you and Kaylee came to the 2nd Mass?"

"Oh good lord."

"My two brothers went on this scout one day and came back and they had Alyssa and her friend Kaylee. I liked them and Ben thought they were cool. Ben reallllllyyyyyy liked Kaylee a lot. I think they liked us," he looked at me.

"Well I liked you all, except Hal, and Kaylee…well…is Kaylee so I guess it's okay because she is still here."

"Yeah and it was really funny because Hal and Alyssa used to fight all the time about everything and if they weren't in some argument Hal's girlfriend and Alyssa were in some argument and that's when I decided I liked Alyssa because she didn't like Karen but everyone else did, except me and Ben. But then I don't even know what happened and one night we were in a really big fight with the aliens and everyone was shooting at the aliens and," By know Matt is really into his story, using big hand gestures and all, and some people, including Hal were staring at us, "I stepped out from hiding to try and run to my dad and Hal and Alyssa were just standing there kissing and then they both ran to battle and I was really confused. From then on they seemed to always be kissing." Ryan was laughing at Matt who was just going on and on with his stories.

"The best is when Alyssa found out Kaylee was dating Ben and-"

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up. Kaylee has a boyfriend?!" Veronica yelled.

"That's what I said when I found out someone actually agreed to date my brother. But yeah she had been in the hospital and she like wobbled around and yelled at Kaylee and Ben. Everyone thought it was funny because Kaylee is so tall and Alyssa's not." Matt and I went on with stories, and then we listened to stories from Ryan and my sister while we finished eating.

A man in an army uniform came in and called for everyone's attention, "2nd Mass, if you will follow me, we have your housing ready." We all got up and followed him to a hallway with a table. "You will all unload you weapons on this table and we will assign you your housing unit number and job. The housing is based on your job. Weapons will be distributed to you when necessary."

"Hold up." The army man looked at me. "Are you telling me we don't get to keep our weapons and we don't get to stay together?"

"That's right." That's when all hell broke loose. Tom and Anne came in and pushed their way to the front of the circle, across from me, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. Hal quickly explained and then went to go get Weaver while Tom tried to calm everyone down. Tom and Sergeant Asshole were arguing when Hal came back followed by Tector, Porter, and Kaylee. Tom explained the situation and Veronica motioned for Kaylee to come over. She stood next to me and looked at Ryan, eyeing him up and down. Veronica smiled at her and she smiled (a very rare sight), but when she saw me looking her smiled dropped and continued to stare forward, silently observing the scene before us.

"Calm down! Nothing has been decided yet!" Tom yelled to the 2nd Mass.

"Damn it, I am ordering you to stand down and-" the army dude yelled, he was really starting to piss me off.

"I will take your orders Sergeant, but I won't let you split these people up or disarm them without a reason!" Tom fought back.

"Damn it! What the hell is going on around here?" Weaver asked, joining the conversation.

"Captain, they're spreading the 2nd Mass out across a dozen different housing areas," Anne explained.

"This is not a damn resort." Oh really now? I thought we were getting ready for the fucking Disney cruise. "YOU WILL GO WHERE YOU ARE TOLD!" The army dude (who by now I decided doesn't have a name and will forever be army dude, because well I don't like him) yelled.

"At ease Sergeant Clemons," Porter intervened. About damn time.

"Jim?" Tom and Weaver looked to Porter. We were all waiting for him to tell army dude the back the fuck off, and if he didn't I would. "These people have had each others backs for months." Just one big happy family.

"I understand that, but you have got to understand, it's accumulative. Down here we store all the weapons in a central area and then we issue them according to mission. We are just trying to fit your people in where they belong. Now that said, you tell me no way, I'll back your position." Oh thank God.

Tom looked at Weaver and they had one of their silent conversations, which by the way are really fucking annoying, and the 2nd Mass started to get angry again

"HOLD ON! I may not like it, but the Colonel is making sense. We are here now! We're in Charleston!" he told the people. "We are in Charleston," he finished, still out loud but more directed towards Tom. The people did not look happy about this, but they knew Weaver and Tom were doing what they felt was best for the 2nd Mass. I looked around and saw angry faces. We all wanted to stay together like the one big twisted, dysfunctional family we were.

"Tom," Anne stepped forward, one last useless attempt to change their minds.

"No. Captain Weaver's right. We need to start thinking beyond the 2nd Mass now." When he said that, I slowly reached into my boot, pulled out my knife, slid it into my sister's hand and mouthed "Hide it." She nodded understandingly and disappeared into the crowd. Knowing my sister, she probably had some stuff she wasn't supposed to have and had some place to hide it all and I didn't want some random person distributing that knife. I wanted it safely hidden away.

I looked up at Kaylee and headed to the table and she followed me. We purposely stood in front of the army dude. I placed my two guns and some old knives down on the table and moved aside for Kaylee. She placed a one round of ammo and an old hand gun down.

"Woah, woah, woah, missy. You need to place all your weapons down." The army dude said and grabbed Kaylee's arm. She yanked her arm back so fast he fell down on his knees.

"She did put all her weapons down." He glared at me as he stood up and wiped off his uniform. "Oh, and she doesn't like being touched."

"She can't have only one gun," he argued.

"Obviously she does because do you see any more weapons on her?" We both turned to survey Kaylee. To anyone who didn't know her, she looked like a very pissed but harmless teenager. If you did know her she looked like hell in a human being, she looked dangerous and we all knew she had at least ten more guns on her plus God knows how many knives, rounds of ammo, C4 and what ever else Kaylee Parker had created during her last sleepless night.

"No," he growled.

"Okay then," I smirked.

"How does she only have one gun?" he practically yelled, getting angrier by the moment. I could see everyone watching us. Tom and Weaver just shook their heads, Ryan looked confused, the Berserkers where using every ounce of will power they had not to bust up laughing at how much bullshit this all was, Hal was smiling a little, remembering the first day we met, when Kaylee and I pulled this little stunt on him and Ben. I winced a little, thinking of Ben, little baby Ben off saving the world.

"She hates guns. I have to force her to carry that one, and even that's a daily struggle everyday."

"And why exactly does she hate guns?"

"Well for starters, she sucks at shooting. Probably couldn't hit that wall." I motioned to the wall about 30 feet away. "She's more of a bomb girl. Throw the bomb and run in the opposite direction. That's kinda her thing." People were actually laughing now. I turned around and left because I don't think I could have made it much longer; I was trying not to laugh. Just the look on his face was priceless.

Kaylee went in the opposite direction and I was gonna try and catch up to her, but I got called away by Veronica.

"Alyssa! I have an idea!"

"What is your idea?"

"You could ask Sergeant Clemons if you could room with me and Ryan's family!"

"Yeah that would be sick! Then we could really get to know each other," Ryan winked at me. "It would be fun because there is one other family, and they are totally snooty and stuck up and your sister messes with them all the time. It would be hilarious watching both you two mess with them."

"YEAHH!" Veronica cheered. I was about to respond when Hal walked up, looking pissed as ever.

"Can we talk?"

"No." I didn't even look at him.

"Why?"

"Because in case you didn't notice, I'm a little busy planning my new housing arrangements."

"Come on, Alyssa. Don't be stupid."

"You know what? Why don't you go find your newest little toy and get her to room with you? I bet you could find some real whores here," I snapped and walked away.

Kaylee's POV

"Take your room assignment and get out of here," the man snarled at me and shoved a key in my hand with a crumpled piece of paper. I squinted to read the scrawl that was surprisingly harder to read than my own then set off to find the room after I picked up my duffel bag and backpack that was with the 2nd Mass's luggage on the floor and slung them over my shoulders.

Room 816 was on the other side of the entire building, right across from the bathrooms. It was right against the corner of a gray wall with an even grayer door. The doorknob was rusty, and as I pushed the key through the lock, an uncomfortable grinding sound resulted, and the hinges squeaked as the door opened. The light was already on and a girl was standing in front of a floor length mirror, staring at her reflection. Instantly, I recognized how very different we were: her brown hair was clean and combed neatly in place, fingers clean and nails an even length, clothing completely blood free with no tears, and hazel eyes shining as if they never knew sorrow.

I looked across the room in another mirror at my scraggly and mangled mess of hair, blood stained jeans, blackened fingers, and blood shot eyes. This was really going to suck.

"Hey!" the girl turned and grinned. "My name's Brittany."

"Kaylee," I replied and put my backpack and duffel on the unoccupied twin bed on the left side of the room.

"It's like, really nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about the 2nd Mass."

"Are you from California?" I asked, wanting to stab myself at her accent.

"Yeah! How'd you know?" Her eyes widened.

I unzipped my duffel bag and started unpacking some personal items. "Your accent's really strong."

"I have an accent?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah," I cringed slightly at how awful her voice was. I knew that not everyone from California talked like a valley girl, but she was over the top.

"Well, where are you from?"

"Boston."

"Baw-sten," she laughed.

My God, I couldn't handle this. I couldn't help but severely dislike her, and seeing an old Taylor Swift poster by her bed nearly made me vomit. She was an exact replica of the girls back at my school (minus the California accent) and right off the bat she made my skin crawl. The only thing that prevented me from brutally hating her was the fact that somehow, in some crazy effed up way, she was standing before me, unscathed from an alien invasion.

She settled on to the edge of her bed, which was covered in pink bedspread, and watched me unpack my stuff. "So what's the 2nd Mass been like?"

I ignored her. This girl knew nothing of pain, knew nothing of difficulties, and judging by the way she was perfectly poised with even fingernails and not a trace of dirt or blood on her, she knew nothing of endless combat. How could I relate to her? Survive was all I knew the past two years. How on earth was I supposed to connect with someone who knew nothing of hardship or loss? I couldn't. I wouldn't.

"Hello? Look, if you don't want to talk just-"

"You guys got a washing machine here?"

Her hazel eyes flicked over at me. "End of the hall, fourth door on the left. And if you're looking for the showers they're in the bathrooms."
"Thanks," I muttered, dragging my laundry and toiletries with me.

Behind that fourth door were a dinky washer and dryer in front of gray walls that matched the rest of the buildings. A flickering light bulb dangled down from the ceiling and casted my shadow upon the front wall. Even my shadow looked heavy and gloomy.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I tossed my clothes in the washer. My gloves were in desperate need of a cleansing as well, so I slid them off and tossed them in too. I added the necessary amount of detergent and as I reached for the start button, I jumped at my own hand. It was dirt black, even my palm. And then that scar. That God awful scar that made me cringe every time I saw it. It looked worse too.

Without even thinking, I slammed my knuckles into the machine as hard as I possibly could and collapsed to the floor. I hated myself for doing that. I hated myself for never having the chance to apologize. I hated myself for how much of a monster I became after that. I hated the way people looked at me for it. I hated myself for all the things I've screwed up. I hated myself for never chasing after my brother. I hated myself for never going to look for Ash. I hated myself for letting Jimmy die. I hated myself for shutting people out. I hated myself for being such a ruthless idiot. I hated myself for letting Ben walk away when clearly, I should've asked him to stay.

I just really, really hated myself.

My burning knuckles forced me back into right know and made me realize that I may have punched the washer too hard. But I didn't let it bother me. I tilted my head as I examined my first three knuckles swell slowly, and each one bruising simultaneously. I glanced at my right arm. Then, leisurely, my left hand slid up the sleeve of my jacket. I felt for my knife in my left pocket and clicked the switch to make the blade come out. I admired the way it gleamed in the dim light and how it sent speckles of white against the walls. I twirled the knife around until it pointed down at the skin of my forearm. And gradually, the knife seared my skin, and it slowly moved up from my wrist to my elbow. Blood bubbled up from the seam of the slash, and as slowly as it was drawn, began dribbling down the sides of my arm.

Then the light bulb went out.

---

Man, let me tell you, that thing burned like a bitch when I got into Charleston's showers the next day. I was trying unbelievably hard not to swear at how painful that was.

The only thing about Charleston I liked was their hot showers. I probably spent an hour and a half just scrubbing my whole body. Not to mention trying to comb out my hair which had me cursing at every stroke of my brush. Eventually I just gave up and threw my brush back into my bag and headed to my room. Never had I felt cleaner in the last two years than I did now. My fingers were the color they were supposed to be, dried blood gone, and not a trace of dirt on me.

As I was heading back to my room, Weaver bumped into me. "Parker! I've-is that what color your skin is?"

I rolled my eyes.

He smiled. "Head down to the artillery room in five for training."

"What kind of training?"

"Weaponry training. Now get moving." Weaver headed back down the hall.

"Captain?" I called out. He turned and raised his eyebrows at me. "Where's the artillery room?"

"I'm surprised you of all people haven't found it yet," he let out a chuckle.

"No need," I grinned back slightly.

Weaver laughed. "It's in the basement. Go to the stairs we took when we came in and take the set going down. Hustle, Parker."

"Yes, sir." Weaponry training? Me of all people needed to go train? Whatever. I needed to take a break from my mind for awhile anyway.

I hurried back to my room to dump my duffel bag on my bed then ran through the halls. I relied on the map in my head to guide me through each twist and turn it took me to get out of the housing area that I was assigned to and towards the stairs. Had I slowed down my pace, or bothered to glance around, I would've noticed something out of the ordinary, or rather, someone out of the ordinary.

As I climbed down the stairs, my eyes were opened to the entire parking garage filled with tables with people putting guns together and an entire caged off area with artillery locked behind it. There were so many different things going on, I wasn't really sure what to look at first. Luckily, Weaver was down there already and he motioned me over to the tables where people were with guns.

"You ready to train?" he asked me with a hand on my shoulder.

"What am I doing?"

"You're gonna be assembling guns with the rest of the unit," Weaver stated, sweeping his hand in the direction of the men who were struggling to put their gun pieces in the right place.

I raised my eyebrows and glanced from Weaver, to the men, and then back to Weaver. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No, ma'am. I am not."

My arms crossed. "You're serious?"

"Do we have an issue, solider?" Weaver's eyebrows creased and his lips turned down.

"Captain Weaver, I did this when I was eleven years old."

"And you can keep doing it until your fingers bleed. Now get to it, missy."

I rolled my eyes at the name and trudged over to an empty table that had ten different guns that needed to be assembled. Fortunately, I was next to Hal and didn't have to stand next to a dumbass or whatever.

"Weaver got you down here too?"

"Yup," I said and took note of each gun piece. I knew each of these gun types and when they were made just by looking and feeling them.

"If you can do all of these in five minutes, I'll get you another guitar," Hal smirked.

My hands flew across each piece and assembled gun after gun in at least twenty seconds or less, depending on my familiarity of each model. I ended up finishing in two minutes and three seconds. Hal finished his last one shortly after.

"Done and done," Hal called out to all the soldiers who barely finished their first two. "We're gonna go get a sandwich while you guys catch up."
"They'll be here all night," I said not that quietly.

"Hal, Kaylee. Lock it up and get over here," Weaver's voice called out to us.

"Shit," Hal muttered. The two of us dragged our feet over to our Captain, waiting for the verbal lashing he was about to give us.

"What are you two doing?" he questioned and pulled us aside so we were out of earshot.

"Captain, this is ridiculous," I stated, folding my arms again. "These men don't even know how to put a gun together. How are they supposed to know how to shoot one?"

"We're barely here and you're popping off," Weaver shook his head at me.

"What are we doing, Captain?" Hal asked softly. "They have target practice; closed door drills while those things are still out there."

"That's the point," Weaver continued. "Porter tells me most of these boys have never fired a shot in combat."

"And that's something that's supposed to make us feel better?" I looked at him.

"Hell no," Weaver rose his voice towards me.

"How the hell are they supposed to protect their citizens if they never go out and actually try to?"

"Cool it, Parker," Weaver shouted. He took a breath and tried to calm himself down. "Chances are, you two are gonna be leading some of them into battle. They're gonna be scared as hell, but both of you got to teach them how to conquer that fear. And the only way either of you will do that is if you earn their respect. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir," we said in unison.

"Hal, I want you to tear that weapon down until you see it in your dreams." Hal nodded and went off to his table to dissemble the guns and then put them back together again. At least I wasn't alone in my growing hate for Charleston.

"As for you Parker, you need to watch your attitude. Bressler has no tolerance for any disrespect, and it certainly won't be coming from one of my soldiers."

I sighed. "Look, Captain, the last day has been rough. This place isn't exactly my cup of tea."

Weaver's stance relaxed and his eyes softened. "I know it hasn't been easy on you the last few days since he left. I know you want to fight your way out of this mess, but you need to take this situation as an opportunity for some downtime. You really need to be getting more rest, Kaylee. You're making me worried."

I smiled. "So he does have a heart."

Weaver shook his head at my comment. "Back to work, solider."

Hal's POV

Alyssa brushed past my shoulder as she walked away, and when she looked at me well if looks could kill, I'd be screwed. It was a look I'd never seen on her face. It was pure loathing and she showed no emotion. Her face was completely straight, but her eyes had so much anger in them, it made me shudder a little bit. It was a look that said, "Leave me the fuck alone or I will murder you in your sleep."

"Who are you?" A miniature Alyssa asked me, she even sounded like Alyssa, bitchy attitude and all.

"I'm Alyssa's boyfriend, who are you?" I asked.

"I'm her sister and from the looks of it, you're not going to be her boyfriend much longer." She snapped back sounding like Alyssa. They were the same size and everything, and if I hadn't seen Alyssa walk away a few seconds ago, I wouldn't be 100% convinced the little one in front of me wasn't my girlfriend.

"So you're the Veronica I have heard so much about. I'm Hal. I'm the reason your sister is here right now." I smirked. If it weren't for me and Ben, I winced, Kaylee and Alyssa would have never met the 2nd Mass. Hell, they probably wouldn't have made it this long period. They would have killed each other.

"That's great. Why does she hate you?" Damn this girl is all business.

"She doesn't hate me, it's more like a-"

"No. She hates you. I know my sister better than anyone, even Kaylee, and the look on her face when she saw you, that's her hate face." She paused. "No that's her I-fucking-hate-this-persons-guts-and want-to-slowly-and-painfully-murder-them face. It's the only face worse than her hate face. She saves that face for our dad." The little one glared at me. Great, now I'm in the same boat as her dad. Just fucking great. I moved my attention to the other guy standing there. He'd introduced himself as Ryan earlier.

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked.

"Who the fuck are you?" Ryan asked.

"I asked you first."

"Well I asked you second."

I glared at him.

"I'm the new boyfriend here to replace you," he smirked and it took everything in me not to fucking punch this fucking douche bag and wipe that stupid ass fucking smirk of his fucking face. Fuck.

"Don't hold your breath." I growled and walked away. Not really knowing where I was going. I was so mad right now, mad at that dude, pissed off at Alyssa and most of all hating myself. My vision was starting to get blurry and I needed to hit something, I glanced back at Ryan, or someone, fast. Before I knew it, I was running and then spiriting. I ran around looking for anywhere to go and blow off steam when I realized I had no clue where anything is in this place. Probably no shooting range, or anything like that. Everything here was indoor. This place was beginning to feel very claustrophobic and I hated it.

So with no shooting range, I needed something else to blow off steam. Who in the 2nd Mass is best at being angry, controlling it and finding ways to let it out? I thought for a moment when I saw a blur of black walk by, in the corner of the room. Kaylee. But then I really saw her. Her clothes were messy and wrinkled, she had bags under her eyes, you could only see half her face, the other was covered in matted hair, I could count at least five different gun on her, but I wasn't stupid, she I knew she had at least five or six more, at least. She was looking down and walking with a quick pace, her whole face was emotionless and her body looked robotic. Her eyes were angry and broken. You couldn't see the color in her eyes, the bangs shadow of the bangs made them look black. She looked like death and hell had a child. On second thought, maybe I should leave Kaylee alone or she will end up taking her anger out on me. Kaylee yanked open a door, rushed inside and slammed the door shut. I looked up and realized I was in part of the housing unit. I noticed my door on the right.

I quickly walked away to my room, or the room I shared with Matt. When I walked in, Matt was sitting in a circle of the floor with four other little boys about his age and Alyssa's little sister.

"Who are they?" I snapped at Matt.

"There my friends Hal," Matt practically sang. "Charleston is great! They have a school, like we used to, and tons of kids my age to play with!"

"That's great," I replied bitterly. "Why are they here?"

"We're playing spoons," Veronica piped up. Now asked you, so shut the fuck up little kid.

"Taking after your sister are you? Hanging out with all the guys," I smirked. "You're a little young don't you think?"

"HAL! Leave her alone! She's my friend; you don't need to pick on her!" Matt yelled.

"All of you. Out. Now." I spat.

Veronica hugged him. "It's okay Matt. We can go play at my house." Then the little girl looked at me. "We can play with Alyssa and Ryan." I clenched my fists.

"Sorry guys. My brother is an asshole. We'll go play and Veronica's house." Then they all gathered their stuff and left without another word. I picked up the nearest object (a pen) and flung it as hard as I could. It hit the wall and shattered, inking spilling out on the wall.

Kaylee's POV

I spent the rest of my day demonstrating how to swiftly reload, shoot, and assemble guns to the Charleston army members who were clueless. Let me tell you, that was so freaking frustrating. I'm pretty sure that training kids would be way easier and way more effective than training these bozos. One of them asked me how to take the safety off of his gun. THE SAFETY. How much of an idiot can this unit be? These people of Charleston better be real damn afraid if they're put in a situation where they need soldiers to defend them, because these good-for-nothing dumbasses wouldn't survive fifteen minutes out in the real world. And what was pissing me off the most was that Weaver of all people was getting on my ass about how I needed to cool my attitude because I wouldn't want to disrespect General Bressler. I was starting to think that he was a good-for-nothing dumbass as well since his soldiers knew squat.

So you could imagine how enthralled I was to be able to leave, even though I'd rather endure another day of this than spend any amount of time in the same room as Brittany. She tried to convince me to paint my nails last night. Paint. My. Nails. Kaylee Parker does not paint her nails. Kaylee Parker also does not do anything along the lines of what her girly roommate tried to make her do the previous night, such as hair braiding, wardrobe fixing ("Oh Em Gee, Kaylee. Do you own anything that isn't black?"), and you could imagine the plethora of things she tried. If she tried on more damn thing, I was going to shoot her nail polish to pieces.

CRACK!

What the hell? I turned around to look at the dark parking structure I had wandered back to so I could retrieve a forgotten gun. What was that?

"We got five minutes before the centuries come. Hurry up!" Crazy Lee's voice carried over to the stairwell I was on. Lyle, Lee, and Pope were trying to steal some artillery. It hasn't even been three days and they're already breaking and entering and stealing crap that doesn't belong to them.

"What the hell do you guys think you're doing?!" I shouted, grabbing Craze and forcing her into the room with Lyle and Pope as I aimed my gun into her back.

"I swear I didn't hear anything. Kid is stealth."

Lyle swung his old weapon on his shoulder and just stared at me. "Put it back, Lyle." He swiftly dropped it to the ground and joined Pope and Craze in the corner.

"What are you doing, kid? You're turning your back on us?!" Pope asked angrily.

"As much as this place blows, you guys can't come here and steal their artillery," I stated firmly, glancing to each pair of eyes. "I can make you guys these guns. Hell, I have most of these guns in my duffel bag right now. So lock it up, head out, and I'll get you guys the stuff you need."

Unexpectedly, each light turned on in the structure and someone shouted, "NOBODY MOVE." I whirled around, gun in hand and froze at the sight of two soldiers blocking us in. This looked really, really bad on my end.

I took my carbine and set it down on the table beside me and put my hands up. "Don't shoot."

"I said don't move," an older man snarled at me and pointed his handgun at my face. The other guy moved in on-

The other guy was Tector. Tector.

"Tec?" I asked bewildered.

"I SAID DON'T MOVE," the soldier shouted in my face and poked my neck with the nose of his gun.

"I've been standing in this exact spot the entire time," I stared at him.

The soldier's ears reddened in anger and he clicked his gun into place. "One more world, little lady."

"My knees are shaking," I muttered sarcastically. The man was about to hit me with the barrel, however, Lyle decided to move and Tector shot him for it in the arm.

Tector shot one of his own.

"Lyle!" Craze shouted and dropped to the floor with him. She turned to Tec, loathing swarming her voice, "you shot him!"

The next thing I knew, I was being "escorted" to Charleston's prison.

I stood there for hours, one hand propped above my head gripping the metal crossings, and the other inside my hoodie pocket. My feet ached from how long I had been standing and staring at the stairs, waiting. Waiting for liberation, waiting for eternal banishment from Manchester, waiting for anything. I hated not being in control of a situation.

"Might as well take a seat, kid," Pope said from two cells away from mine. "Prince Charming ain't coming."

"Shut up, Pope," I hissed, not realizing the iciness in my tone.

"So you know who she is? A man's voice floated down from the top of the stairs. Two people rounded the corner: a solider, and surprise surprise.

"Hey, Kayls," Alyssa greeted me with a smile that made me want to rip her teeth out. She turned back to the idiotic solider I realized to be Sergeant Clemmons. "I guess you could say Kaylee and I have been in situations similar to this.

"You guys have been to jail?" Pope asked incredulously. Was he actually surprised?

"I for one have never been to jail," Alyssa interjected, "though recent events have proven I don't know Kaylee as well as I thought so I cannot speak for her."

"Oh really?" Pope's astonishment turned to sarcasm.

"What?" she asked. "I have never been to jail. Girl Scout's honor."
"Okay, enough talking," Clemmons said and opened the empty cell next to mine and she walked in.

"So," Alyssa spoke to me, "how have you been?"

My fingers gripped the gate walls tighter.

"Still the same Kaylee I see. That's nice. I'm doing well thanks for asking. You know, I think everyone always knew we would end up in jail together. Just thought it would be for something cooler than disturbing the peace. What did you get locked up for?"

I didn't reply.

"Right," she said as if she forgot something and remembered. Fifteen year long silent treatment still going strong. What are you guys here for?"

Pope's voice answered, "Well, we were planning on grabbing some weapons and ditching paradise but little miss sneaky over here pulled a gun on us to stop us but before anyone could react, Sergeant Stick-Up-His-Ass got us all. Tector is with them now. He shot Lyle."

"Oh," Alyssa responded. "Well at least you guys got nabbed for something kinda cool. I got in trouble for yelling at Hal. Like if that's all it takes to get in trouble around here, we are gonna have some problems."

An uncomfortable silence settled around us, one of those where it was so quiet, you could hear the silence in the air. The only sound that I could make out was the sound of Alyssa's knife scraping against things. The sound was distracting from the silence, and it only made me want to get out of this box sooner. Not being able to wander than the span of ten feet was driving me insane, and totally made me feel even more claustrophobic than I already was.

"Kaylee?" Alyssa's voice called out to me.

I tensed.

"I would like to explain myself and defend some of the things I said in a certain conversation on a med bus. First of all-"

And that's right about the point I stopped listening. She went on about how much of her life she's sacrificed for me. I could feel her staring at me as she talked more and more, like she always did. Always talked and never listened to me. And if you tried to make her listen, she had a comeback for everything you tried to talk with her about. So as she was talking, I didn't hear her words, but rather the messages held underneath: My life has always been harder than yours; I sacrificed so much to take care of you; You dug yourself into your own hole; I'm older than you so I've clearly endured more than you; You never move on from what's apart of your past; You never bothered to see how I was doing. My fists closed tighter around the metal and my arms tensed even more like they always did when I had to contain my anger.

Control your anger, stay calm, think over your temper, imagine how your actions might affect others, don't act out irrationally. That's what they always said. Counselors, therapists, doctors, each telling me the same damn thing.

Well I was done.

I was done with holding back what I thought.

Alyssa's voice came to a stop. I turned around slowly to face her on the other side of the gate. "You know what?" I asked quietly. "I never did those exercises you made for me. I never paid attention at those appointments. The only reason I kept that stupid journal was so that you would think I did. I never heard you talking to me on those walks to school, even though my headphones weren't even playing music half of the time. And you know why I never talked to you? Because EVERY time I talk to you about something, you find some way to make it about yourself. You always have to one-up me about everything and never-"

"I do not!" she countered. "I have always listened to whatever-"

And then I lost it.

I really fucking lost it.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed. I slammed my hands against her side of the cell and she flinched. She's heard me yell once before. "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I AM SICK OF YOU TRYING TO MAKE MY LIFE SEEM EASY. I HATE HOW YOU JUST CAN'T LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING! I HATE HOW IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU!" I kicked the cell wall over and over again and shouted and yelled. When I finally quit attacking the wall, Alyssa just stood back, stunned into silence (and probably certain that I had lost my mother fucking mind, which I had). But I wasn't done; my anger was out and now I was bitter. "And guess what?" I asked, not caring anymore. "You wasted your damn time trying to convince the school to keep me running, because half of the time I ditched practice to go get high with Ash."

Alyssa's eyes widened a fraction.

"Guess you were too busy screwing around with Zach to notice all the fucking holes in my arms," I spat at her.

"You are way fucking out of line, Kaylee," Alyssa said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah? Maybe I am. But it felt damn good to finally say that." And then I turned my back and stood in the corner of my cell, as far away as I could get from her. I'm pretty sure she had sworn at me or maybe refuted my statements again, but by then, I was done listening. My mind was black again, and so was my heart.

Alyssa's POV

Ryan and I were sitting in his room when Matt, Veronica and a few other kids there age ran in.

"Hey guys what's up?" Ryan asked.

"I thought you were all gonna hang out at Matt's?"

"Hal was being on asshole," Matt said, completely nonchalant, while he set up the game.

"What else is new?" I just laughed.

"Hal is on his man period." My sister stated and Ryan laughed.

Matt and I looked up and replied at the same time "It's always his time of month." We all laughed.

"What are you guys playing?" Ryan asked.

"Spoons," Veronica said and looked at me.

"OOHHH I WANNA PLAY! I'm bomb at spoons. It's my favorite. Ryan come play!"

"Fine."

"Ryan hates this game." Alicia, his little sister, piped up. "He sucks at it." She had tan skin and really curly short hair and she looked athletic and she loved to talk and laugh. I liked her.

"Do not!"

"DO TOO."

"DO NOT!"

"Children!" I yelled, laughing as Alicia stuck her tong out at Ryan. We played spoons for another few hours until all the kids went home. Then just Ryan, Alicia, Veronica, and I were left. We played spoons and a few other card games. Just then the door opened.

"Oh look, they found another one." A family of three walked in. The little girl looked at Veronica and Alicia and rolled her eyes then went and laid down.

"Who are you?" The mom asked, staring me down.

"Alyssa Carter, I'm Veronica's big sister and the newest addition to the apartment."

"That's just what we need: another Carter. As if one wasn't bad enough." This bitch better watch her mouth.

I shot up. "Excuse me? Is there a problem?"

"Why yes, there is. My wife and daughter are forced to live with these three hooligans and we don't need one more!" The dad said.

Ryan jumped up as well. "Well if you guys weren't so stuck up we wouldn't have a problem!" He looked at me "There a bunch of uppity rich New Yorkers who seem to forget we don't live in that world anymore and they are regular citizens like you and me and they don't get personal help and chefs and maids and all that."

The angry couple was about to respond when the little girl sat up from her bed. "Could you all stop talking?! I'm trying to sleep!" She said in a whiney voice

"Yes dear," the mom replied, "you guys had better keep it down; my daughter needs her beauty sleep."

"No amount of beauty sleep is gonna fix that face," Alicia smirked.

"Yeah. She has a permanent pout on her face. A plastic surgeon could help that," Veronica added.

"THAT IS IT! I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU TWO AND YOUR PUNK ATTITUDES! YOU-"

"LAY OFF THEM!" Ryan yelled.

The door burst open and the army dude from earlier walked in. He saw me and glared. "Is there a problem here?"

Ryan, Alicia, Veronica, and I all said no when the parents said yes.

"My daughter is trying to sleep and these hooligans were running around yelling and screaming and now poor Molly can't sleep." Molly got out of bed and walked over and held her mom's hand.

"Yeah," she said in the most fake innocent voice I had ever heard. "They were yelling and screaming and they never let me play with them. Uncle C, please make them stop." Then to make it worse, she batted her eyelashes.

"OH MY GOD THAT IS SUCH A LOAD OF BULL SHIT!" I yelled.

"You are pushing my limits, Missy. You have barely been here twelve hours and you're already in trouble. Now because you're new here and because I am nice, I'm gonna let you off with a warning. Next time, you won't be so lucky. Now I want all of you in bed asleep in five minutes or it's extra shifts in the kitchen for you four." With that he left and on his way out, he turned out the light. We all scrambled to get in bed and fell asleep. What an eventful day.

---

The morning proved to be an even more eventful day. I was awaked by the hands of three little children. "Alyssaaaaaaaa get uuuuuuuuuup," Veronica complained. I grabbed my pillow and threw it at her but she ducked so it hit Matt instead.

"Ow! Jeeze Alyssa!" Matt laughed. "I mean I know I look like Hal but if you could hold on to that anger for about five more seconds we will probably see him in the cafeteria."

"Shut up, smart ass. See mentioning Hal makes me so not want to get out of bed."

"Oh come on, Alyssa. They're serving the house special of oatmeal this morning."

"Yuck," Veronica said.

"Well then they serve the house special every morning," Alicia added.

"Yeah they need a new house special," Veronica said.

"Okay, okay. Give me a minute." I rolled out of bed as they waited outside. I slipped on a tee shirt, some shorts, and my boots and ran a brush through my hair. I grabbed some knives and a piece of gum for later and headed outside. "Let's go get some oatmeal."

Ryan, Matt, Veronica, Alicia, and I headed down to the mess hall, got our oatmeal and juice, and sat down.

"Alyssa, where's Kaylee?" Veronica asked randomly. I swallowed hard; I hadn't talk to her since the incident on the bus.

"Who's Kaylee?" Alicia and Ryan both asked.

"She's Alyssa's friend. My older brothers found them together. They caused a lot of problems in the 2nd Mass. Kaylee was-is dating my other brother."

"Yeah. She's…around here. I don't know where," I said.

"Okay. I want to see her. I want to talk to her." Veronica smiled and I didn't have the heart to tell her Kaylee probably didn't want to talk to her.

"We'll find her after lunch."

"Wait there's another one of you?" Ryan asked Matt. "Damn how many of you are there?"

"Only three," Matt replied.

"But don't worry. Ben's cool, not a douche like Hal." Speak of the devil. As soon as I said that, Hal walked by and shot the worst look at Ryan. I rested my hand on his hand.

"Whore," Hal whispered under his breath.

"Beat it Hal." I glared at him.

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, DUDE?" Ryan jumped up.

"MY PROBLEM IS YOU," Hal shot back. This was not going to end well.

"WHAT? MAD YOUR GIRLFRIEND WOULD RATHER SLEEP IN MY ROOM?" Hal turned to me.

"You WHAT?" You could see the steam coming from his face. By now everyone was staring.

"That was the room I was assigned. My sister is in there, and even if she wasn't, what's it to you? I mean I thought you made it pretty clear we were done THE FIRST TIME YOU CALLED ME A WHORE."

"Well it's true. You're a damn whore. Maybe your father was right about you." Veronica stood up but Matt held her back while Alicia covered her mouth. I could hear muffled curse words coming from her way.

"HOW. DARE. YOU. YOU FILTHY LITTLE FUCKING ASSHOLE! YOU ARE A JEALOUS LITTLE COWARD WHO NEEDS TO GROW THE FUCK UP AND REALIZE WHEN HE CALLS HIS GIRLFRIEND A WHORE, THE RELATIONSHIP IS DONE. SO WHEN SHE TALKS TO OTHER GUYS HE CANNOT GET MAD. IN FACT YOU CAN'T EVEN GET MAD IF WE WERE DATING BECAUSE IM NOT YOUR PROPERTY AND I TALK TO WHOM I WANT GOD DAMMIT. JUST BECAUSE HAL ISN'T GETTING HIS WAY DOESN'T MEAN ITS OKAY TO THROW A TANTRUM, YOU WHINY UNGRATEFULL SELFISH CONCEDED STUCKUP LITTLER FUCKER YOU-" I had a whole list of words but was cut off my Sergeant Clemons barging in.

"What is all this yelling?" He zeroed in on me. "You. That's it. I'm done with you. Let's go."

Clemons held my hands behind my back and marched me out of the cafeteria. Everyone stared open mouthed, shocked by my little outburst. I held my head high, staring at the door. It wasn't like this was my first time being escorted out of a public eating area (usually it was school cafeterias). As soon as the door shut behind us, people started yelling again. Clemons sighed and I laughed.

"It's good to know not everyone in this place has a stick up their ass, just you." I stated. I could hear Tom yelling in the back ground. I'm pretty sure I could hear Ryan and maybe Veronica. Oh boy if he thought I was bad. "You know if I were you I'd be thanking me right now. I just prevented a really big fight that was bound to happen one way or another. And now that you're taking me away, the fight is raging on right now. Probably a little more of a violent fight between the two guys."

"If I were you I would shut your mouth." His grip on my arm tightened and I squirmed around. I don't think I would ever be comfortable with men holding my arms. "Can't handle it?"

"I'm pretty sure I have felt more pain in the last six months than you have ever felt in your whole sorry life, Sergeant. It's not a matter of whether I can handle it." I spat "Now I want you to use your brain and think real hard what could have possibly happened to a teenage girl to make her uncomfortable around men?" He didn't say anything. "That's what I thought."

By now he had led me to a door that lead down a bunch of stairs to the basement AKA jail. "You can be right across the cell from the other little girl from the 2nd Mass." Other little girl-oh. Kaylee.

"Now I'm not sure I'd call her little, especially when she is within earshot because she will fuck you up."

"So you know who she is?" We rounded the turn on the last set of stairs so I could see Kaylee behind the chain link fence. In the next cell was Pope and some of his guys. Tector and Lyle were missing.

"Hey Kayls." I smiled at her then looked back to Clemons. "I guess you could say Kaylee and I have been in situations similar to this."

"You guys have been to jail?" Pope asked.

"I for one have never been to jail, though recent events have proven I don't know Kaylee as well as I thought so I cannot speak for her."

"Oh really?" Pope looked at me like he didn't believe me.

"What? I have never been to jail." I held up my hand. "Girl Scouts honor."

"Okay enough talking," Clemons opened the cell next to Kaylee's. "Get in there." He lifted his hand to push my but stopped himself. Once the cell was locked up again he left.

"So," I looked at Kaylee through the gate. "How have you been?" No response. "Still the same Kaylee I see. That's nice. I'm doing well, thanks for asking." I went and sat down on the floor, pulled my knife out of my boot and started etching designs on the wall. "You know, I think everyone always knew we would end up in jail together. Just though it would be for something a little cooler than disturbing the peace. What did you get locked up for?" I asked her. No response, "Right. Fifteen year long silent treatment still going strong." I looked back to Pope. "What are you guys here for?"

"Well we," he motioned to the two behind him, "were planning on grabbing some weapons and ditching paradise but little Miss Sneaky over here pulled a gun on us to stop us but before anyone could react, Sergeant Stick-Up-His-Ass got us all. Tector is with them now. He shot Lyle."

"Oh. Well at least you guys got nabbed for something kinda cool. I got in trouble for yelling at Hal. Like if that's all it takes to get in trouble around here, we are gonna have some problems." I continued to carve a design into the wall. No one said anything. for a really long time. I'm not sure how long I sat there. I just kinda watched Kaylee. She stood there, staring at the door, not moving at all.

"Kaylee?" She didn't say anything but I saw her tense. "I would like to explain myself and defend some of the things I may have said in a certain conversation on a Med Bus. First of all I do care about you. Second of all, yes at the moment I was a little wrapped up in Hal drama okay because sometimes it's Hal that keeps me distracted from thoughts of what's going on like that fact that we were so close to this place that may or may not be real and may or may not be the location of my little sister. Next what I said about Ben calling you those things. We all know after your parents died you weren't exactly Miss Sunshine, okay? We also know that in high school I wasn't Miss Purity. Now imagine you're telling Ben about you're lowest moment and he were to call you emo and say you have depression. It's like no shit Sherlock I never noticed. How would you feel? Because that's what had just happened to me. And I think we all know you could never live with AJ. Now who do you think spent hours on the phone with the school, persuading them to let you attend so you could run, because at the continuation school they don't have a track team? I was always looking up different exercises for you to do. But you know it was pretty hard when you refused to talk. Remember every day when we walked to school? You probably don't because you had your head phones on but I was always talking to you, trying to get you to engage in a conversation. You want to know why I never pushed you? Because the one thing every doctor, every school counselor and website said was not to push the patient because that might make things worse. Remember your little journal? That wasn't the school's idea. It was something that helped me when my mom died or I got into a fight with my dad."

I paused to take a breath. "And since we are on the topic of dead parents, you forget that my mom died when I was nine years old and the first time I ever talked to anyone about it was the day I talked to Anne when we first got here. And if we are keeping score, that's three years longer than it took you. Now both your parents died a sucky ass death but at least you didn't live your life knowing your dad was such a fucking coward he had your mother killed instead of him because he was in dept. Now let's talk about Cory. Okay at least you saw him, you knew he was alive and had friends and was doing well okay. Because I didn't get that luxury. Mine went off to war when I was nine and never came back. I don't even have a picture. Ben-"

She stiffened when I mentioned his name.

"He gets you Kaylee. He understands you in ways I never will, maybe it's because he's more patient, I don't know, but he understands how your mind works, how you're feeling, and how to help you in ways I never could. But you also have to realize that you're not the only one who misses him. Okay so he was your boyfriend. Well he was Hal's little brother, Matt's older brother, and Tom's son. That's three other people related to him by blood that really miss him, okay? You didn't hear Hal. Ben leaving really fucked him up. Ben was my friend as well. He still is. He and I were friends before you could even tolerate him, okay? I seem to remember a certain Kaylee Parker using quite a few choice words when asked about Ben. Remember all those shooting lessons? Well right before that I would give him fighting lessons. We kinda fought but most of it was me interrogating him about if he liked you, as friend or more. Okay, so we all get you're angry and scared for him but you need to pull it together. You always focus on the past. It's time to let all that go, especially the preinvasion bullshit and look to the present because I happened to know there is a certain little eleven year old girl who really wants to talk to you."

She turned around very slowly, making no sounds. She looked calm but I guess that was the calm before the storm because as soon as she was fully facing me, she was about to fucking lose it. And let me tell you I was legitimately scared for my fucking life.

"You know what?" She finally spoke. "I never did those exercises you made for me. I never paid attention at those appointments. The only reason I kept that stupid journal was so that you would think I did. I never heard you talking to me on those walks to school, even though my headphones weren't even playing music half of the time. And you know why I never talked to you? Because EVERY time I talk to you about something, you find some way to make it about yourself. You always have to one-up me about everything and never-"

"I do not! I have always listened to whatever-"

And then she lost it.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I AM SICK OF YOU TRYING TO MAKE MY LIFE SEEM EASY. I HATE HOW YOU JUST CAN'T LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING! I HATE HOW IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU!"And then she flipped out. Kicking and hitting things and all. Her whole body was shaking and her eyes showed no color.

"And guess what?" She wasn't even finished. "You wasted your damn time trying to convince the school to keep me running, because half of the time I ditched practice to go get high with Ash." I just stared at her. At this point I was speechless. I never knew she hated me so much even before the god damn invasion. "Guess you were too busy screwing around with Zach to notice all the fucking holes in my arms." Oh fuck no she did not just fucking say that.

"You are way fucking out of line, Kaylee," I spat. By now I was mimicking her stance, both of our arms crossed standing straight up watching the other one.

"Yeah? Maybe I am. But it felt damn good to finally say that."

"You know what fine. Fuck you and all your fucking problems. I'm done trying to care since you hate me. I don't give a fuck if you hate me; I just hope you can pull yourself together enough for Veronica because she really wants to talk to you. Don't ignore her like you did me."

I turned around so I was facing and empty cell to my left and, silently, I cried. I couldn't help myself. Out of all our fights, all moments of bitchiness, it never got that bad. She had never said anything like that to me. She had been angry with me before but never this pissed off. This was a whole new level for Kaylee. I couldn't let her see me cry. Not now. I flipped my knife open and closed, trying to keep my mind occupied. Someone started clapping.

"Well wasn't that an entertaining little show?" It was Pope, spouting off as usual. "Crappy, overcooked dinner and a show. Now if only you two could focus all that anger on the little bastards outside these walls, we would be un-" I wheeled around and launched my knife at Pope so fast he didn't even know what happened. The knife landed less than an inch from his head, in his hair. "WHAT THE HELL?! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!" Pope shouted.

"Oh relax. It's only a pocket knife; nothing major."

"IT STILL COULD HAVE HIT MY SKULL!" He rushed forward toward the fence dividing the two cells, taking the knife with him, and slamming the fence with his hand.

"If I had wanted that knife to hit anywhere other than the exact spot it did, you would have known. Plus I wasn't aiming to kill. I was aiming to shut you the fuck up."

"Yeah well maybe throwing your only weapon at me was not your best option." He tossed the knife up and down in his hand. I just smiled and pulled my hunting knife out of my boot.

"Who said it was my only weapon?" He just glared at me and the knife that was almost as long as my forearm. "Let's see, my cell is bigger, I have more room to dodge a knife, I'm smaller, therefore a smaller target and my knife is bigger. Let's be honest, any sane person would rather take a hit from my little pocket knife from a drug store or my hunting knife from the army. So yeah throwing that knife at me was my best option."

I know my strengths and weaknesses and I know how to set myself up best in a fight. Pope angrily threw the knife on the floor and it slid under the fence right to my feet. I picked it up and shoved it in my pocket. I didn't want to turn my back on Pope, or Kaylee for that matter, so I stood and faced the stairs that lead up to the exit, with everyone in my peripheral vision. Yelling at Pope helped stop the tears so I didn't look like a total pussy. I think I have cried like twice in front of Kaylee, though with her super spidey senses, I'm sure she knows about all those times in my room. She is weird that way.

No one was talking so I started humming. I hated silence, so I would hum any song that popped into my mind. Currently it was Carry On My Wayward Son.

Hal's POV

I ran over to the 'jail' as soon as my dad finished his lecture. I wasn't really paying attention but it was something along the lines of how I need to control my temper and how the people of Charleston were being gracious enough to let us stay and a bunch of other bullshit about how I need to fix things with Alyssa and apologize to that asshole Ryan and it ended with him going to talk to Manchester about a few different things, getting Alyssa out among them. I ran down the stairs but was stopped by a guard with a gun.

"Can I just go down there to talk to Alyssa?" He looked at me with a blank stair. I would have thought they would all know her by now, I mean we have been here two whole days. It only took the Second Mass like an hour and that was back when we had all 300 people. "The short one. Really loud, probably hasn't shut up since she got down here." He nodded.

"You're brave going down there. I'd sooner face those things outside then those two down there. Seems like they have some serious issues I'm not even sure Dr. Phil could've fixed." Oh great so Kaylee is down there too, and they have been fighting.

"Yeah the fighting is normal."

"Is the knife throwing?" Fuck. Just fuck.

"Yeah." I brushed passed him and ran down the stairs. Alyssa was in a cell between Pope and some of his gang. Kaylee was facing the wall in her cell with her hand gripping the wall and Alyssa facing me with a blank look on her face and a big ass knife in her hand. Under her eyes were a little red. Pope and the Berserkers minus Lyle and Tector were shooting murderous looks at Alyssa.

I knew Alyssa saw me but she didn't say anything. "Look, my dad is talking to Manchester. He's going to get you out."

"Since your daddy is pulling favors maybe he could put in a good word for the rest of my team and I," He motioned to everyone around him.

"Yeah, well, this is because of you, Pope, and your team. You're lucky you're not in front of a firing squad."

"At least they would be putting those guns to use." I leaned up against the cell wall and focused my attention back on Alyssa. She was fucking pissed.

"I don't care what Manchester says. I'm getting you out of here."

"You do what you're thinking you're going to get us all killed. Plus I don't need your help, Hal. I survived fifteen years without you, many times in situations similar to this and I made it out just fine." She looked me in the eye and I could see tear stains from when she was crying. I wonder what happened.

"Damn it, Alyssa. Is this because of what happened of on the road? Because if it is I'm good with it. I'm sorry for what I said."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. How else should it be? What happened before all this shouldn't matter anymore."

"For God sakes Hal I told you I got pregnant at age fifteen and you called me a fucking slut. It shouldn't be over 'just like that'. You should have done anything but what you said. You were my boyfriend Hal. Now just go." She turned and walked away but I didn't move. "Go!" I could see tears coming back. I turned around and walked away. There was some meeting going on upstairs my dad was speaking at. If there is one person more stubborn that me it was Alyssa and she really didn't want to talk to me.

Upstairs I sat next to Matt. It was a meeting to elect a new leader. A few people spoke, Jeanie, Weaver's daughter, came up and said something about wanting to go get her boyfriend and all the kids they were with and then Manchester introduced my dad. He came up and basically by the end of his speech, that crowd would have killed a person if he asked. He has a way with words none of the kids were blessed with. He can get anyone to listen. Everyone was about to jump up and riot against Manchester with my father when one of the soldiers came running in.

"General Bressler! General Bressler!"

"Sergeant! What is it?"

"I'm sorry Sr. We had a situation that couldn't wait. Our perimeter scouts found a deharnessed boy trying to get in." I instantly stood up and so did Matt. "They're bringing him in now."

"Deharnessed boy?" Dad asked. I could tell what he was thinking. We were all three thinking the same thing: Ben. "Did he say what he wanted and that he had a message for Tom Mason?" The army men and my dad raced down to Manchester's office and I followed but wasn't allowed in. I couldn't hear much but from what I could here, it wasn't Ben. A few minutes later they walked out holding the boy's hand behind him and I heard something about lock up. If they are locking him up it means they didn't take well to the skitter rebellion. I had a plan; I just needed to find my dad.

I ran back to the 'jail'. "I'm back." The guy let me go down but he followed me. As we were rounding the corner I elbowed him in the gut and threw him down the stairs, something Alyssa taught me. He was out cold. Dai came down after me.

"Better make this fast, Mason."

"What the hell are you doing?" There's Alyssa.

"Aliens are planning a new offensive. Rebel skitters sent a deharnessed kid to bring us to a meeting but Manchester won't let us go." I saw Kaylee perk up at 'deharnessed kid' and 'rebel skitters'. "So we are going anyway and I want you there."

"You sure that's a good idea? Nothing has changed between us."

"See that's where you're wrong. Do you know why I said that after you told me about your bad girl past? Because it didn't make sense. I don't know that Alyssa. I have never met her before. The only Alyssa is the one standing right here who kills aliens and will put me in my place. The one who put her life on the line over and over again for the Second Mass." I stood up and unlocked her door. "We wiped the slates clean. I'm no longer Hal the Hhigh school jock and you're no longer Alyssa the girl who sleeps around. That might be the only thing that came from this whole mess. A chance to start over, to become better people than we were before."

"Nice speech," she smiled. "Have you been practicing?"

"A little. Look me, Dad, and the rest are heading into the field and I would feel a hell of a lot better if I knew you had my back."

She stepped forward and hugged me. "I'm in."

"You in Kaylee?"

"Hell fucking yes." The four of us ran up the stairs to where my dad was waiting with the others and Porter had guns for us. We made it all the way to the top stair case before the soldiers came after us.

"Drop your weapons and step back!" They had us surrounded.

"Stand down." Weaver ordered but I kept my gun up, Alyssa kept her knife up, and Kaylee had like five weapons out.

"Hal. Alyssa. Kaylee."

"Fine." I lowered my gun and Kaylee did too. She was reckless but not stupid. Alyssa on the other hand was a little bit of both.

"What? It's a knife? You really think my knife will beat your guns? Please. You have us surrounded. You guys are pathetic, scared of a sixteen year old girl with a knife. It's sad really. If you're gonna be scared, be fucking terrified of that one." She motioned to Kaylee, who I could see had her hand around a gun invisible to anyone but me and maybe Weaver.

"Don't trust her. I have seen her use that knife and Kaylee drop the gun." Okay so maybe Tector could see the gun too.

"You're all under arrest. Manchester's orders. He has declared a state of emergency. All suspected victims are to be detained."

It was Porter who spoke next. "You son of a bitch, are you ever gonna grow a backbone and-"

"Colonel that's enough."

"General. I saw how you were with Manchester. You know this is the right move." My dad spoke up, ever the peaceful one.

"I know how Manchester sees it, too."

"Seems to me you better start thinking of these people instead of your position, General," Weaver argued.

"What the hell do you want from me?"

"Talk to Manchester. Convince him we're right." I'm pretty sure that was a rhetorical question, Dad.

"Cuff them and take them inside." All the soldiers did as they were told except for Tector. "Sergeant Murfy!"

Tector put his gun down. "I'm sorry, sir. I respectfully refuse."

"Take him too."

"Damn people I managed to stay out of jail for fifteen years in regular society. I'm thrown into post apocalyptic society for like two days and I have I'm going back to jail for the second time." Alyssa was spouting off. Sergeant Clemons eyed her.

"Lock that one up by herself." Clemons ordered.

"Pathetic. Intimidated by little old me." She was giving him that look. The one she used on her dad. I'm guessing these two had a run in before.

"Carter, you're going to make it worse," Weaver told her.

"Yeah, Alyssa, just stop talking," I added. We were walked back down into the jail. Above us there was sirens going off and I could hear the speakers announcing. "All members of the Second Mass please report to the commons area immediately." Which was followed by a lot of panic and yelling, of course.

They took my dad and Weaver but brought him back shortly. We were all just kind of sitting there not really knowing what to do when the buzzers went off and we could here Bressler coming in. "Open them up. All of them." Two soldiers had Manchester in cuffs.

"I build this compound. These are my people." They locked him up but he continued to babble on.

"Dads what's going on?"

"The civilian government has been suspended. We are now under martial law."

My dad looked at Manchester. "Arthur, you gotta know I didn't want this."

"Well you got it Tom!"

"You wanna make that rendezvous with your rebel skitters I suggest you do it fast.

---

SCHNAP. Well, it probably wasn't what you were hoping for after an eight frickin month wait, but I hope it sustained you for a few minutes. Chap 23 will be up as soon as Alyssa gives me back my Season 2 DVD -_- haha we love you guys! Thanks for your patience; you guys rock :)

-Parker