The tunnel was left in darkness equal to the hollows of space. All flashlights turned off to conserve battery. The majority of their party of twelve sleeping. Yet, some still remained awake through the night staring into black. Those who could not sleep because they had to stay awake, or couldn't sleep, regardless. No comforts of easy rest after their brush with death just hours earlier, now left to wrangle in that fear in the sensory deprivation of the tunnel. General Webb rarely slept, and when he did it would only be a few moments before his nerves shot him awake again. The soldiers, Stamos and O'Malley, quelled the bleak with banter – silent and hushed. Riley let Shiva rest on his shoulder again, but he wouldn't allow himself the luxury. Lilja, among all the others, stayed wide awake in the darkness. Her heart thrashing in her ears in so many internal weights. So much anger and helplessness fed in the quiet, yet not quiet at all in her head. Inside she was screaming. Wailing in the despair of the many lost hours ago. So many others in years left to dust. Souls constantly haunting, easily crawling back when her mind was left to itself. As if the chasms of her mind were their afterlife.

Robbie didn't sleep, either. He recalled Lilja's macabre vision as a threat. So sudden and almost impulsive, it felt as if he was just a nuisance for her from the beginning. Like an insect, she swatted him away with her darkest truth. What he did not know, is the reveal of her past in the Russian lab was far more a torture for herself. In that moment, it was an act to protect him. Protect the others. That his company was now a perilous distraction taking her from her one and only role. Guarding their lives.

The rumbling and quakes of earth from the tripods outside had left hours ago. Even so, Lilja would not dare to see if they were near. Knowing they could be listening just as easily as she could was keeping her in a frozen limbo. Now their survival depended on chance. She irked at how ignorant it was to underestimate them. They were now so brutally aware and vengeful to her exploits, she was certain it would only be a matter of time before they found them again.

Hours of numbness and black crept by, eventually a flashlight switched on. Lilja blinked to the light and saw General Webb coaxing others from sleep. Their moments of rest had come to an end.

"Everyone up. It's time. We head straight to the end of the tunnel and seek daylight. Riley, Stamos, get them up. O'Malley and Brantley, ready the gear."

Lilja shifted up, a few bones cracking in her back and knees from a still, craned position for hours. She caught a glimpse of Robbie across the railway and flicked it away. The heartache had a second to build. A second to remind her how his company felt secure – and she fought from it. Eventually, they were all on their feet. Drowsy and deprived but compliant. Dreading another day of wandering to an imagined salvation. The tidy gnawing still there, reminding them there was no such thing.

Words were rarely exchanged in the hours through the tunnel. A lifeless convoy pushing on, all contemplating the meaning. Trying to drum up a reason to stay alive. Even Lilja. Perhaps her despair the heaviest of all. All the fight inside her sizzling and dying away, its remains left in the drag of her heels. Emotions were the fuel to keep going, now the poison surrendering all the drive. Her mindset back to the moments before she left the lab. There's no point. So much emotion felt and spent that there was none left to spare. Leaving her in a husk of nothing. Her only advantage she had left, she thought. The only way to keep her guard up.

They came up to a dead end. A mound of rocks and rubble collapsed blocking the way out. There was a hopeful thought that it was just the earth giving way, but Webb knew it was likely the same case at the opening they came in.

He observed in a fight for breath, "They blocked us in… just as I feared."

"God dammit," hissed Riley. "What do we do? Start pulling rocks till we see daylight?"

Then the rubble started to shift and crack, throwing many into panic. The boulders and mounds of earth split in two – making an opening. Their panic died when Lilja stepped from the crowd, a face unforgiving. Not one they'd imagine a hero would appear as. She was distant and resentful in the deed. As if she was doing it in reluctance. Her face filled white again, and the streaks of bruised veins spidered her skin. Her eyes as black as the abyss behind them. She lowered her hand as a blood red sunrise shined through, looming their faces in the same tones. The crumbling ceased as she did, plainly stating they could do the rest themselves. That they did, silently moving the rubble to make a decent opening. The men meddled with the rocks, even Robbie helped. Shiva would pull a rock and shoot a confused glare at Lilja. A distinct apathy in her that was never there before. Shiva knew there was something wrong with her friend. As Lilja claimed coldly the night prior, she wanted to be left alone. So Shiva did.

They came into the red gloom thinking it was not so scarlet the day before. That the sunrise was just at its peak of colour. That was until they saw the sun perched in the sky like it was the height of noon. That the shade of the skies, trees, clouds, and hills were red, themselves. Given their shade by vines spread across landscape like an invading weed. It hugged and choked the life from the trees. Spreading thick and vast that no inch of a former vista was left untouched. Their heels squelched in the eldritch weed that carried the repugnant stench of something they all knew too well. Blood.

The twelve paused and froze to the sight, at first. Certain it was something to be imagined. The more their senses stirred, the more damning it became. That their world was no longer their own. That the invader had undoubtedly won. Unchallenged. Unstoppable.

Earth was now an alien planet, itself. They were simply the remnants of times lost. A bygone age that would never be the same again. Even the stark and unwavering threshold of Webb withered at this. His voice a weak break of fear. "Orlov… this is the…"

She said coldly, "Yes."

"So… that means…"

"We have lost," she added. No reserve of emotion in her voice. "They are home."

They convoyed through the wasteland. Scarlet was helpless in quelling Jack's fear now. His weeps nearly inconsolable to see a world so changed. The only way to stop his cries was the brutal reminder they could be heard by the 'monsters'. There was always the hum of the tripod machine in the distance. It carried like ambiance through the country, even for miles, it never left. They could only pray it would not come closer.

The lakes, ponds, and streams they'd pass reflected off the red sun. As if all the water in the world had been replaced with blood. The stench could have made that thought a real possibility. It was daunting to imagine what the red weed was made from. For Lilja, it wasn't a thought, it was knowledge.

Webb walked ahead of the pack bearing that same knowledge. O'Malley caught up to inquire, "What the hell is this stuff, General?"

"Those machines… they were taking people. They took us. If not for Orlov's efforts, I'm sure we'd be among this. Sprayed over it like fertilizer. They're terraforming, Major. We are a key ingredient."

O'Malley slowed his jaunt to hear it. "Dear God…"

"Don't think He as much to do with this, anymore."

The red pines carried the remains of shredded clothing over the branches. A harrowing view as if they were in a crevice of Hell. Every now and then, their refuge would pass bodies. Left to rot and rejoin whatever terrain of Earth left. Not just human, but all walks of life. Deer, elk, wolves, and even a bear. Bones commonly mistaken for twigs snapping under their boots. The invaders were making Earth uninhabitable for all its' creatures.

Words were sparely uttered. Weeps and gasps of horror from Darla and even Shiva. The soldiers were never equipped to see horror after horror. To walk a battlefield of red, the battlefield they lost, filled all in despair. The girl with the psionic ability was no longer a safety net, as she too seemed to distance from the crowd. Glaring in the oppression of their surroundings.

Riley kicked through the weed, growing angrier as he did so. His spite to what they had done and what they sown of their planet a visible fury. That the blood of people was almost a taunt. He refuted the idea of them simply cattle in their eyes. For Robbie, he kept his head down. Gazing over all the vines he'd step over, trying so direly to dissociate as if it was just a bad dream. That any minute he'd wake up in the comical surroundings of his bedroom at his dad's house. The race car bed he had outgrown years ago still under his body, reminding him of his dad's neglect. Surrounded by all the action figures he collected as a child. That Rachel would still be in the bed beside him playing with her horse toys. All the things he loathed. Sharing a bedroom with his sister, having to stay at his dad's house – all the things he took for granted he direly wanted back. In that moment, he pretended he had it.

Anything but this.

Shiva had taken time from her horror to try and distract. She saw Robbie alone. Lilja to the back of the pack alone, too. Their once enjoyed company a thing of the past, much like their world. She couldn't stray from it. She ambled up to him hoping to offer comfort and gain answers.

"Hey," she sighed quietly, coming up to his side. "How are you? I mean… you're probably pretty shit. I guess… how can I help?"

Robbie snapped from his disillusion. "Huh?"

"Sorry," said Shiva. "We haven't really been properly introduced. Uh, I'm Shiva. I know Lilja pretty well, we're kind of from the same fox hole. By fox hole, I mean government lab. I'm the weirdo that can… 'perception bend', as they call it."

Robbie asked in a bit of curiosity. "What's that?"

"Um. Like I can make you see whatever I want. I'm not going to! I mainly use it for the otherworldly assholes in their death machines. Of course, I… know I'm not as useful as Lilja. I can distract and confuse. She's the only one I know that can take them down."

Robbie was still wrangled in the horror of his surroundings, but he was taking some comfort from Shiva's approach. She was like Lilja, but different. Sharing a bald head, as well. However, she was older. Far more sociable. Less cold and mysterious. If anything, she was relatable.

"Well… confusing and distracting is pretty important, too. What Lilja can do is badass, but you're just as badass."

Shiva beamed a smile, the first smile in hours. Robbie tried to return it, but he couldn't conjure the energy. "Well, I think we're all a little bit badass, to be honest. Survived this long and none of us have visibly gone batshit. Especially you. I've only seen you scared once, and that was when Lil was in trouble. You're a good kid. I feel it's important to remind you of that. Especially now."

Robbie went silent again. The only sound a shuffle of twelve collectively moving through the alien landscape. Shiva asked, she dared to ask, certain it may be a sensitive subject, "Are you two okay? I mean, tell me to shut up and go away if I'm overstepping here. Just… seems like you two were pretty close yesterday. You were her first friend. I know things are terrifying right now and I'm sure you're both weighted in that. But… did something happen in the tunnel?"

Robbie sighed, "I don't know if I should talk about it. Yeah… I thought she was my friend, too. I thought."

"She's a little awkward. Then again, she has been kept in a lab her whole life. I'm sure whatever she said, she meant well. I'd be asking her about this, but talking to her right now is like pulling on a tiger's tail, so I'm keeping my distance. You should see her when she's got her period. Jesus H. Christ," winced Shiva jokingly. Trying to get a chuckle or at least a smile from the teenage boy. Yet, he remained stoically quiet.

Finally he expressed, "She didn't say anything. She… showed me something. Something I don't know what to think of."

"Like," she asked, imitating her hand going to her head. "Showed you something?"

"Yeah, and it scared me."

Shiva feared what it could be. She had a hunch, she was hoping she was wrong. "Can you tell me what it was?"

"No," he said. "I'm sorry."

Shiva felt like his decline was less because of loyalty than it was fear. Fear of Lilja. In that reveal, she knew what it was. "Was it what happened in the lab?"

Robbie flicked his eyes to her, and that fear was visible now. Shiva knew it was a confirmation she was right. She groaned to herself sullenly. "She's… trying to push you away. Believe it or not, she showed you that because she cares about you."

"That makes no sense, what do you mean?"

Shiva explained, "When Lilja was born, she had no one but her father. Dr. Orlov. He wasn't just a father, he created her, too. When the suits saw what she could do, they got scared. They wanted to kill her, but Dr. Orlov wouldn't allow it. He loved her too much. They saw a weapon that had grown unstable. He saw a toddler that was having tantrums like any other child would. Except, for Lilja, those tantrums were reasonably more catastrophic than other children. Dr. Orlov tried to take her from the lab to protect her, and it got him killed. Now, imagine being five years old. Confused, scared, grieved, and alone. Surrounded by people scared of you and wanting to hurt you. Most importantly, imagine feeling all of that with the ability Lilja has. Believe me when I say that lab will always be the regret of Lilja's life."

"So, it happened? She killed all those people?" Robbie asked in a shattering voice.

"Yes." Shiva nodded. "Because she felt. Ever since, she never has. She let her emotions fade away, becoming this robot that never smiled, never laughed, never cried. Because she knew if she did, she would hurt someone again. Becoming a shadow of herself. She's a lot more adept at controlling her abilities now, but it didn't change anything. Not until she left the lab, I started to see who she really is. Not until she met you. She's someone with a heart so big sometimes it swallows her whole. Someone who wants to connect so badly with others but doesn't know how. Always weighted in the guilt of that day. That's why she showed you that. Because she wants to keep you safe… and fears if she opens up, she won't be able to. Shutting you out may be her way of protecting you."

"From her?" He asked.

Shiva shook her head, "No. From them. Those things found us yesterday and she usually would have been able to sense it, but you were like a blinding light. You made her feel human. Those things used that as their moment to strike. Now she's likely swallowed in that guilt, too."

Robbie asked in a quiver, "You saying what happened yesterday was my fault?"

"No! What happened yesterday was no one's fault but those things. Seeing her with you was the happiest I've ever seen her. It turned on all her lights upstairs. Everyone should be allowed to feel that. There's no one else to be angry at, but those goddamn things, and that's the truth. She doesn't see that, yet. She's far too used to blaming herself. So, I guess I'm asking, don't blame her, too."

Robbie glanced to Shiva and let his eyes wilt to the vines. "I don't blame her. Maybe I was scared of her… but… I really don't want to be. I'm so sick of being scared."

"Same," she petted down his arm, trying to console. "I know it's a lot to ask… but try to keep hope. Hope that we will protect you. If I know Lilja, she would lay down her own life to protect you. While we may be scared of them, I know for sure those things are scared of her. Take some comfort in that."

Robbie replied sullenly, "It's hard to take any comfort in this." He observed the horror of his surroundings. Shiva couldn't battle that. It was far more than she could comprehend. That the green hills and forests had been eaten by death. Their own extinction before her eyes. She was asking for hope in a hopeless world. That even a dismal imagining of what it used to be wasn't enough. Yet, her imagination was far from anything else. She had an idea, certain he would reject it, but asked anyway.

"Want me to… take it away for a little while?"

Robbie irked at the question, not knowing at all what she meant. "What?"

"Well. I can't take it away in reality, but in your head, I can. If you'd be open to try…"

She was sure she'd get a disturbed decline or even a glare. Instead, Robbie gave a resounding, "Yes. Anything… anything but this."

She smiled, a sadness faint in her eyes. She didn't need to stop and fully concentrate as she usually did. It wasn't otherworldly lifeforms concealed in an a hundred foot machine. It was just one teenage boy a few feet from her. A mirage she could do like the flutter of an eyelid.

In an instant, with one blink of his eyes, Robbie opened them to a vista of green. The smell of blood now the fresh air of thick forestry. Pine trees brim in needles, birch lush in leaves, the green hills through the break of trees hitting off the warm sun. The squelch and crack of the vines now the soft rustle of leaves under his boots. The image so vivid, he had to remind himself it was nearing winter to claim it wasn't real. He paused for a moment in shock, flicking his gawk of surprise at Shiva. She returned a warm smile, assuring it was just her. She could see it too, as a dream, but she was still cursed to see the red vine. Not for Robbie.

He smiled back in awe. She coaxed him to keep up with the rest of the refugees, now surrounded by the world he knew too well. One by one, Shiva approached Scarlet, Jack, Darla, and David, giving them all the same view. The soldiers needed to stay vigilant, especially Lilja, or she would have extended the same to them. However, for those she could sooth, she would try. The oppression in their gaggle subsided if only a little, and their journey crept by a little easier.

Meanwhile, to the back of the convoy, Riley was purposely slowing to be side by side with Lilja. He saw Shiva's attempts of support with Robbie. In an earnest need to mirror that, he dared with Lilja. However, it was likeness to entering a lion's den. Lilja did not give the impression she wanted to be approached. Instead, she seemed to be avoiding his attempt. He finally stated, "Well, well. You're looking a little more intense than usual. I mean, you're always pretty intense. Now, your glare could turn me to stone."

Lilja said back sharply, "Go away."

"Sheesh. Something is pissing you off, and I don't think it's this morbid, red shit everywhere. Whatever it is, I'm sure I've heard worse. Out with it."

Lilja was pensively quiet, but her shoulders pinched. She trudged ahead vindictively, Riley only mirrored the speed. "Lilja. What's going on?"

"Don't talk to me."

"Why?" He scoffed, "You trying to scare me?"

She growled back, still looking ahead, "You should be."

"I guess I must be an idiot, because I ain't scared of you. You've been acting weird since you woke up in the tunnel. I may be an idiot, but I know what this is. I've felt it more times than I can count."

Lilja said coldly, "You do not know how I feel."

"You sure? Maybe I don't. Feel free to educate me. Unless you're blaming yourself for all those people last night. Rest assured, you're not the only one who feels it. We all do."

"You are not responsible for them. I am. I am the one who protects. What do you do?"

Riley shrugged, "Protect you. That means I'm the guy you can lay your shit on and get it out. You think the stoic and heartless approach will help, trust me, it doesn't. Doesn't make the losses hurt any less, either."

Lilja growled, "There was no one to blame last night but myself. I got comfortable. I lost sight of the danger. I let the tripods win. All those people died last night and it's because of me."

"No, it's because of them."

She instilled, "They can't be blamed. I let them find us. All the times I used my ability to find them, I was letting them know where I was. We share the same ability. The telepathy. There were so many signs that I willfully ignored. How they could hide themselves from me. How the one in New York knew where we were. I should have been smart enough to see that. Instead… I let myself get lost in a boy."

Riley smiled a bit, "You let yourself feel a little humanity, you mean. Humans… we make a lot of mistakes. I'm sure you've noticed. We're flawed and chaotic. But… we also feel. We can't help that, no matter how much we try not to. For any other refugee assembly, as soon as tripods found us, it would have been a death sentence. If it wasn't for what you did, we'd all be dead. You may be a disturbed teen… but the more I get to know you, the more I see a soldier."

"I am no soldier. I'm not sure I'm even human."

"You're human. You're a soldier because you're plagued with the same grief we feel when we lose people. The same responsibility and self-blame. You threw yourself at those tripods last night no differently than a soldier would leap over a grenade. You wanted us to get away, and you were willing to sacrifice yourself to do that. To save that boy, and to save us. I didn't thank you. I feel like I've done a shit job in thanking you. You've only ever saved my life since I've known you. To me, that doesn't just make you a soldier or human. That makes you a hero."

Lilja was silent. Too silent. Inwardly she was taking his words into account, trying to believe the same for herself. Yet, the lab still stained her mind. The debt was still great.

"It was not a sacrifice. It was a debt. A debt I need to repay. You and Shiva stole that when you rescued me. I am not thankful."

"I'm not asking for your gratitude. Kind of like how you're not asking for mine. I'm a soldier, too. There's been many lives I could have saved, and I lost. They'll haunt me until the day I die. But there's hope, too. Hope for a new beginning. Every day I get the chance to repay that debt, like you. Let me tell you, every day you're alive, that payment is huge."

Lilja sighed, "What's the point of being alive if I do not help?"

He scoffed, "Look around, kid. You know better than anyone what this stuff really is. Yet, there are eleven people who still keep breath. In the world we're in, that's everything. That's the gods' work. You gotta take time to see the lives you can save, rather than the ones you lost."

"Or the lives I took?" She bit back, a tone dark and unforgiving.

Riley replied undaunted, "Yeah. Maybe you're right, maybe there's no way to repay that debt. But… that's not a good enough reason not to try."

Riley walked ahead, leaving Lilja to chew on that for a while longer. There was nothing that could quell her guilt of that lab. She glanced along the faces of their convoy, each one holding their own story. Each story would have her as their protector. Yet, the burden of that weighed so heavily it could bring her to her knees.

Despair fleeted suddenly when the constant whir of tripod started to change. One coming in closer than the others. So close it started to shake the ground. Webb barked, "One coming down hill, move, move, move!"

The twelve flurried into a sprint, following Webb through the underbrush. Fear and panic came back like a reflex. The pulse of adrenaline sending all in the same speed but Scarlet. Her toil of carrying Jack had been a crutch for days – depleting her stamina. Robbie ran to her and yelled, "I'll take him!"

She passed the boy into his arms staggeringly, waking him from sleep only brought about from Shiva's illusion. Now back in the red decay – in the panic of encroaching monsters. Jack started to cry as he was carried in Robbie's arms, who kept up the sprint much faster than Scarlet. She dropped her rucksack and darted, all twelve disappearing into the woodland. Lilja kept behind, making sure all twelve were ahead and accounted for. Preparing herself for another payment that may be her last.