John had been at the radio almost all night long. He had gotten it to at least make a static noise when he turned it on. After another few hours of tinkering with it, he thought he had found the problem. It looked like it had taken a beating and John guessed that something had hit it hard when the Machines were marching through this part of Los Angeles. After stripping a few wires and connecting them, he was sure it would work…well, he was hoping it would work.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing?"

John whipped around to see Alison standing behind him. She was holding her plasma rifle directly in his face. Slowly, John raised his hands and stood up. As he did so, Alison's eyes flickered towards the radio. Choosing this as the moment to strike, John grabbed the rifle with both hands and yanked it away from her. Within a few seconds, the table shad turned and John held Alison at gunpoint.

"Don't worry." John said as he sat back down at the radio, his eyes never leaving Alison. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just don't move."

"What are you doing?" Alison said coldly. "I wanted to trust you. I wanted to be your friend. Are you working for Medal?"

"My mother was hunted and almost killed by terminations. My father was killed by one. I have almost been killed by several. I have been fighting the Machines for as long as I can remember. I don't work for them."

"Then what the hell are you doing?" Derek snapped as he crossed the room, pistol aimed for John. "I heard voices so I decided to come see what was going on. Seems we let a Gray into our bunker. Give me one good reason why I don't shoot you here and now."

John had been so busy with Alison, he had not heard Derek nor his father enter the room. Both men were armed and both had rage dancing in their eyes. Looking from the brothers back to Alison, John knew this could only end badly for him.

"Alright, just stay calm. I'm giving her the rifle back."

He lowered the weapon slightly and then tossed it towards Alison. As soon as she moved to catch it, John turned and flicked the switch to turn the radio on. He barely had enough time to push the button on the mic before he felt something heavy shove him to the ground. He rolled over only to find a very angry Derek standing over him. The soldier cocked his pistol and leveled it with John's head.

"Who did you contact?"

"No one! I was just trying to fix it, ok?"

"Lier!" Derek sneered. "Now I am going to count to three and—"

The sound of static caused Derek to turn and look at the radio. Then a voice drifted from the speaker. "This is the Resistance Command Center. Identify yourselves. Over."

The pistol lowered and Derek walked numbly towards the radio. John felt his body begin to shake as the unused adrenaline pumped into his blood. He had just dodged another bullet. Maybe that was luck, maybe it was fate, but whatever it was, John sure hoped that he wouldn't run out of it anytime soon. Between the terminations and Derek, there were a lot of things trying to kill him in this world.

"Repeat, identify yourselves. Over."

Derek picked up the mic and pushed the button on it. "This is Lieutenant Derek Reese, 2nd platoon, Charlie Company, with the 132nd. Over."

The radio remained silent for a second before coming to life again. "Roger that Lieutenant. We are very glad to hear your voice. We thought we had lost all of the 132nd. How many of there are you? Over."

"Seven. Over."

"We are sending a couple of birds for an extraction. Meet Evac Team at LZ Echo in 48 hours. Hang in there LT. Over."

"Roger that. We'll be there. Over and out."