They arrived back at what looked like a high school, and sure enough, as they turned the corner, there written in huge block letters was JOHN F KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL.
An involuntary groan rose from Lia's throat.
"Damn, I thought I'd escaped high school once and for all." she whispered down to Jess, who giggled slightly. Rolling her eyes she hopped down from the truck, a breath of pain came whistling through her teeth, she sucked in another breath and moved over to help Jess down.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to meet the dark eyes of Hal Mason. "You need to get that checked out." he whispered, she turned her head slightly and looked at the harnessed kids that were being carried off to the med bay.
"I will. Once this is all over. Those kids need help more than I do, it can wait." she whispered, feeling immense sadness at what the skitters had done to those children - what they had done to her family. She felt Hal sigh and she turned back, his eyes were curious, like he didn't understand her just yet.
"You're a good person Lia." he whispered, she smirked and shouldered his hand away, turning and grabbed Jess's hand, making sure her jacket covered her whole arm. "That's where you're wrong Mason." she said as she walked away.
He smirked as he watched her walk away, limping slightly before he shook his head and helped his Dad grab Ben from the truck and carried him into the chem lab.
It had been at least an hour since Lia had seen Hal, she had been welcomed into the second mass with only a few questions asked, ones that she had to lie brilliantly to get out of, she told them she and her sister were going to be harnessed, but made it out before they could.
Captain Weaver had seemed impressed by her arsenal, the large automatic gun laying heavily on her back for one. She had laughed and said that her Dad was army, so it wasn't too hard to get her hands on one, the fact that he was army seemed to make Captain Weaver even more impressed.
Her and her sister had been shown around the school and given a room to sleep in, right across from the Mason's apparently, which made her happy and scared her at the same time, when Jess had finally settled down and gone to sleep, she stood up and slipped quietly out of the room, meaning to walk out into the cool night air to clear her thoughts and put everything into perspective for a while.
She stopped when she heard a banging on one of the lockers, she turned and her stomach twisted into knots as her eyes came to rest on the agitated form of Hal. She quickly made a decision to forget her walk and sat down beside him, reaching over to catch the ball he was throwing against the locker.
"Your brother's in there right?" she asked, holding the ball out in her open hand. He grimaced and took the ball, nodding slightly. "Yeah, Ben, he's been missing since the invasion." he was quiet for a second, listening to the yelling behind the doors of the chem lab that was being used as a medical centre.
Lia listened to the yelling, "God I hope they know what they're doing." she whispered, Hal tensed, turning to look at her incredulously, "and you do?" he whispered angrily. She looked down, wringing her hands, "I do. The Skitters... well." she paused as her voice became thick, tears brimming in her eyes at the thought of the screams of her sister as the experiments continued, the withdrawal symptoms of the steroids they gave them and the rigourous training simulations designed by the overlords.
She took a deep shuddering breath, forcing the thoughts out of her mind. "Lets just say that the skitters and me have a history. They're bound to want me back, so if that comes up in conversation with your leader, then my sister and I will be happy to leave. But for the time being, I'm going to try to forget what happened." she stood up, brushing her jeans off.
"Your brother will be alright. I know it." she whispered, running a hand over his shoulder before walking off, sticking her hands deep in her pockets. "Lia." he called to her, her heart skipped a beat, but she turned, meeting his gaze.
"You promise to tell me... what happened to you?" he asked. She smiled sadly, the pain that she knew was coming was too much to bear. "If we're still here in a week." she said cryptically, voice breaking on the last syllable.
Hal scrunched his eyes in confusion and his easygoing smile faltered. She turned, not being able to handle it anymore and walked off, hearing Hal's excited call as his father walked out of the chem lab and told him that his brother would be alright, but he wouldn't be awake until tomorrow sometime.
She walked out into the night air, her leg throbbing painfully, finding a secluded spot in the trees she laid her back against the hard tree trunk as a low cry tore through her throat, tears brimmed in her eyes again as the memories arose painfully, burying the heels of her hands into her eyes to stem the flow she breathed heavily, an elated feeling soaring through her system, she was finally free, she didn't have to live in constant fear anymore, the dreaded feeling of the next hit or the fresh screams from her sister.
She would burn what was left of this city to the ground and take on the overlords herself before she would hear her sister scream like that again.