-the next evening-

'Is that Charleston?' Abby asked, sitting up as straight as she could and staring through the windshield.

Ben peered around the passenger's seat, which contained a sleeping Hal, and grinned. 'Yep,' he replied. 'We're almost there.'

'Whoa,' Abby stared, clearly impressed, at the Liberty Tree, its metal leaves clinking gently in the soft breeze. 'It's beautiful.'

'That's the Liberty Tree,' Ben informed her. 'Jeanne built it. It represents everyone who has died in the war. Every one of those leaves has a name on it.'

'Wow,' Abby said.

'Wait here,' Ben said. He left her, Jimmy, and Deni near the edge of the square and strode up to the tree. He stared at the leaves for a few moments, looking for one in particular, then removed a leaf and rejoined his friends. He looked at the leaf in his hands and handed it to Jimmy with a grin. 'I think this belongs to you,' he smiled.

Jimmy took the leaf and looked down at it. 'Someone put a leaf on it for me?'

'I did,' Ben nodded. 'But, seeing as you're not actually dead, I figured I should take it down.'

Jimmy smiled at his friend. 'Thanks.'

'Mason!' a voice called. Tom turned to find Duane Pickett standing near the portion of the Charleston city center that led to Popetown, Steve and Luke flanking him.

'Pickett!' Tom called back. He glanced at Anne, cautioning her to stay where she was with Lexie and Matt, before making his way to the Picketts. 'You came to Charleston after all,' he observed.

'We did,' Duane nodded. 'Brought Gil here. The doctors patched him up and we left again, but ran into a bunch of those aliens back at the ranch house. Gil held 'em off so we could run and they killed him. Came back here 'cos we got no place else to go.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' Tom said genuinely. 'I'm glad you and your kids made it, though.'

Bibby appeared from behind Duane and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 'So are we. Did you ever find your family?'

'I did, actually,' Tom nodded. He nodded back towards Anne and Lexie. 'My wife and daughter.'

'Glad to hear it,' Duane smiled haltingly. 'I heard that you bunch went to Boston to kill these bastards.'

'We dealt them a blow,' Tom nodded. 'We destroyed part of their defense grid so that the Volm, our extraterrestrial allies, could land their main force.'

'So the spider-bugs are gone?' Luke demanded, stepping up next to his father.

'No, there's still fighting to do,' Tom replied. 'And now we've got the Volm to deal with. They want to ship us all to Brazil to keep us out of the way.'

'I ain't goin' to Brazil!' Steve fumed, moving to stand next to Bibby. 'Those bastards killed Uncle Gil; I ain't lettin' them live that down!'

Abby and Ben watched the conversation between Tom and the Picketts, while Deni and Jimmy wandered further into the city. 'Who are they?'

'Some people we ran into a few months ago,' Ben replied. 'Matt kind of shot Duane—the man's—brother.'

'Well, that's always awkward,' Abby said.

'Kind of,' Ben agreed.

'Speaking of Matt'—

'I hear it too.'

'Stop it!' Summer cried, stepping between Matt and the large man who was menacing the boy. 'Leave us alone!'

'We ain't gonna let a bunch of razorbacks run around Charleston,' the man sneered, glaring down at her. 'It's not safe or fair for the rest of us.'

'What do you mean?' Matt demanded. 'There used to be a bunch of de-harnessed kids here with the skitter rebels.'

'They cleared out not long after you lot left,' one of the man's equally large companions informed them. 'I guess they figured without Mason here to protect them, they weren't safe.'

'They were right,' another man laughed loudly.

'What did we ever do to you?' Summer demanded.

It was the wrong thing to say. The front-most man grabbed her right forearm and flung her to the side, directly into a crumbling brick wall.

'Stop it!' Matt shouted, running to her aid, only to receive a backhanded blow from the man.

'What did you do to me?' the man fumed. 'The aliens killed my whole family. They took my kids and put those things on their backs. I have no-one because of them!'

'Hey!' Abby yelled as she and Ben arrived. 'Pick on someone your own size!' she shouted, slamming her fist into the man's nose.

He staggered back, clutching his face. He seemed about to continue antagonizing the children, but noticed the spikes on Abby and Ben's backs, which were beginning to glow blue, as were Summer's. Realizing that they were outnumbered, the three turned and ran.

'Basically, we left Boston and got back down here as fast as we could,' Tom said. He was still standing in the square with the Liberty Tree, talking to the Picketts. Anne and Lexie had joined them shortly after Matt had left to show Summer around. 'It took a little while to get out of New England, but once we did, we made pretty good…' he trailed off as he saw Abby and Ben enter the square, Ben carrying a tearful Summer on his hip and Abby leading Matt, whose lip was bleeding, and cradling her right hand.

Anne gasped and rushed over, beelining towards Summer. 'What happened?' she demanded.

'Some bullies who don't like spike-backs,' Abby fumed.

'They though Summer and Matt were good targets for an anti-spike protest,' Ben grumbled, shifting Summer so that Anne could see her wrist.

'This is broken,' Anne reported grimly. She looked at Summer's face and saw a large, purple bruise forming where she had hit the wall. 'And this doesn't look good. I have to check it out, but I'm thinking concussion.

'Are you okay?' Tom asked Matt, placing a hand under his chin and pulling his face up to the light.

'Yeah,' Matt pulled his face away.

'How about you?' Tom turned to Abby. 'What happened to your hand?'

'I may or may not have punched the guy who hurt Summer in the face,' Abby admitted. 'I think I trashed my wrist again.'

'I'll look at it once I get Summer patched up,' Anne said. 'Let's get down to the clinic.'

A/N *sigh* drama... Oh well. This is the penultimate chapter!