"You know this can't go on for much longer, Vladimir."

General Petrov stood with Dr. Orlov behind a glass window, looking into a medical room off the laboratories. Lilja was being assessed by a trembling nurse. She was playing with a stuffed animal of Bambi. Innocently distracted as the nurse was dripping sweat from the brow. Making each move careful and slow. Even so, Dr. Orlov only saw a child. His child.

"She's young, sir. Very young. With a lot of power. I am currently developing ways to control it. We will control it. You must give me more time."

"I've given you plenty." The General adduced. "You did it, Dr. Orlov. You succeeded our expectations. You made a weapon that could decimate the armies of Russia's enemies. But like any nuclear reactor, when it becomes unstable, we must do everything to ensure our motherland. Even if it means relinquishing that power."

Dr. Orlov took in breath so pathetically, a feeble attempt not to plead. "Please… she's only a child."

The General turned back around. His turn was subtle, but he called attention to it with just a glare. Behind them the hallway to the playroom. What was the playroom. Now nearly caved into itself. Wiring ripped and creating a violent current. A crater of mortar and rubble where the playroom was, spidering cracks of foundation through the halls. All of it simply the product of a toddler's temper tantrum.

"That is no child." The General rumbled back, leaving the doctor to come to terms with the only decision he had to make.

Lilja, Shiva and Riley scoured through the underbrush, letting Lilja lead their way. They had been travelling on foot for hours. Every hour coming closer to the source. Hearing the rhythmic engine of the tripods hills away. They were in the neck of their woods, skulking in the shadows like insignificant insects. They preferred it that way. As long as Lilja could see the tripods in her head, they knew they weren't aware of being followed. The worst of all of it was the destruction path they'd have to pass. Completely powerless in helping civilians getting preyed on. Hearing the thunderous battle horn only to hear the mewling screams of people minutes after. Which made their goal far more imperative. The lust for revenge was hot in all three of them.

Lilja was always cool and void. Her spirit broken long ago. It kept her abilities at bay, kept the people around her safe. After years of sheltering it, she almost lost it. It was a tender muscle when she came to D.C. It hurt to even stress it. Now it was begging to roar. Building like a steady drum solo. For the first time in a long time, she was starting to feel it unhinged – crawling out like a wound that wouldn't dry of blood. She did not speak in their travels; she did not stop. Her drive was the ferry. Remembering the people falling into ash in droves. Their tentacle limbs snatching children from the river like they were ants. The intentions of the tripod in New York. How it wanted to dismantle her. Pick her apart as if she was just an ant, too. How sickly jealous she was to imagine how they felt in those machines. Beyond powerful – unstoppable. As if it was a sport to prey and murder humans. Or even worse, they were utterly apathetic. Saw humans as nothing more than termites infesting their new home. Doing what they did like fumigators. The latter broiled in Lilja's skin. She was driven to finally show them the consequences of their actions. That she was no ant.

The world was starting to lose its spectacle. Even Lilja noticed the change in the sky. The permanent haze that had nothing to do with Earth's climate. The stench of their otherworldly exhaust. Even the colour was being leeched from the trees, grass and hills. They were destroying their world. For no other reason than greed. If God made humans in His image, Satan made them in his.

They heard the diesel engine of military vehicles convoying up the sloppy mud road through the tree line. Riley jumped into action, calling for Lilja and Shiva to follow him hastily. Thumps and implodes of military weaponry fired off in the distance. Nuclear weapons sending green and orange streaks through the haze in the horizon. Just as they came out to the open road, a crowd of refugees were out in the farmlands. Walking like zombies to a destination uncertain. Like Riley predicted, the tripods led them to the next firefight. He sprinted into the road, yelling like a mad man for the army vehicles to stop.

"Out of the road!" The military officer barked through his humvee at Riley.

"I'm a goddamn Lieutenant of the National Guard and you're taking us up that hill, you understand?" Riley had barely spoken in their travels on foot, his voice coming to life now was a sudden roar that even made the hairs on Lilja and Shiva's arms stand up. The marine didn't argue, he didn't refuse. Any help was surely needed at this stage of their war. Given their mission was strictly to aid the refugees in getting to safety from a battalion of machines, they were desperate for recruits. A decorated officer like Riley was not one to turn away. He insisted the two women come with them, and the soldier obliged. As soon as Riley got in the passenger seat he snatched the radio for Webb.

"All units that can hear this, this is Lieutenant Kenneth Riley, coming with the 93rd Mechanized unit of the Marine Corp. General Jeremy Webb of the National Guard mechanized Scouts 84 unit, this is Lieutenant Kenneth Riley. I am with Orlov and Amani, and we are advancing on Whistler Valley."

The radio was quiet for a moment. Then Webb got on the channel bringing a relieved grin to Riley and Shiva. Even Lilja had a slight smile of relief. "This is General Jeremy Webb, it's good to know you're alive, Lieutenant. We are on route to Whistler Valley as we speak. Marine Corp and our field operatives are already engaged in combat. At this point, mission is to hold off tripod threat until refugees can get to safety. If we can take a few of these bastards down while we're at it, it'll be a damn good day. Is Orlov ready?"

The officer driving raised a brow at the question. Riley turned back to Lilja. Her face steely and painted in dirt and grime. She didn't even need to nod. "Oh, she's ready, sir. Lock and load."

"Good. No assessment this time, you three. Straight into combat. Make everything count to keep those people safe. It's gonna be a hairy one. Prepare yourselves."

Shiva took Lilja's hand gently then, making her dead blue eyes come back to life. "You got me. No matter what, I'll protect you."

"And I'll protect you." Lilja replied surely, turning her gaze back to the road ahead.

The officer finally asked, "Mind telling me what's going on here?"

"You hear about what went down in D.C. and New York, officer?" Riley asked him over the jolts and rumble of the convoy.

"Can't say I have, I'm just deployed, sir."

Riley slapped his shoulder, "You're in for a treat, then."

"Why's that?"

Riley made a nonchalant gesture with his thumb to the backseat, "You're about to see Little Miss Sunshine in action."

The marine raised a flummoxed glare in his rear view to the child in his back seat. Wearing military garb, a face as determined as any soldier, but her age was odd. Lilja glanced to the mirror in turn, staring at him right back. He flicked his eyes back to the road then. She caught a few things for the young soldier's mind. Of course, she knew what he was thinking before she heard it. That she was unusual, strange, a freak. Someone to not trust or attempt to understand. She was used to it. Over time, she had begun to hear it from herself, as well.

The cosmic waves from warfare spread higher against the clouds. It pulled the sky apart, throwing the clouds into mist. Replacing them with thick smoke. It was a combined arms battalion at work. Jets rushed in over the refugees, blasting missile warfare at the machines on the other side of the hill. Their humvees deterred left, breaking through agriculture and fencing. Apache helicopters flew in a line, spraying more missiles at the adversary. Many of the convoy turned at the start of the hill joining the combined arms slowing their advance from refugee evacuation. However, Riley ordered the officer to keep on to the other side of the hill.

The closer they got; they could see the first of the tripod offence. It was already receiving heavy fire. All of them were. Four to five tripods only slowing to the nuclear push of weapon – not damage. At least not for long.

"Lilja! Start taking them out!" He barked.

The officer cried, "What?!"

Lilja was more than eager. She was desperate – starving to use her ability. She raised her right arm and sat up as much as she could without flying out of the speeding humvee. She focused on not one, but two tripods. The push and pull of the shield started again. At first it was like wrestling a toddler, then shield power matched her rage. She ripped her utmost at its properties, feeling the manpower even feeding the shields. They weren't using weaponry like javelins or anti-tank missiles. They were using fusion ammunition. Nuclear. Using anything and everything the US military had to deter the tripods from taking anymore lives. Unlike the weapons used in D.C or New York, these weapons were almost fuel to the tripod energy. Fuelling the shield power and the tripod endurance. Lilja withered then, unable to comprehend how or what was causing it. All she knew was that every blast and explosion was making them stronger. Worse still, she could not disrupt the shield.

"What are you waiting for, Orlov?! Take it down!"

Lilja screamed back, "I can't!"

Shiva yelped, "What do you mean, you can't?!"

She said quieter and basically silenced against the explosions and rumble of war. "It doesn't make any sense…"

Once again, her abilities were futile against their calamity. Outsmarting her when her ability was needed the most. Her face curled into a vicious snarl. Bearing all her hatred into her eyes, throwing whatever she could to disable the shield, but it was needless. She roared and ached, Shiva watched all the blood leech from her face and her eyes go darker than usual, and to no avail. The tripods still mercilessly advanced over the hill. Taking heavy fire and soon to rip apart the line of Marines and National Guard defences.

A line of more humvee and heavy tanks drove up to their clearing. Webb barged from his door before the vehicle even had time to stop, marching to the four with guardsmen at his back. "Alright, Orlov, Amani, what are you waiting for?! Dismantle those shields, now!"

"There's a problem," said Shiva dejectedly. Riley and the officer hopped from the humvee to meet with the Scouts 84 head on.

"What do you mean a problem?" General Webb barked boisterously over the explosions.

Lilja explained, "I can't. They're absorbing something from the weapons. These weapons are different. It's making them stronger."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Then Riley said in a realization as he stared out to the battlefield, "Nuclear." It got the other's attention. He faced them and said louder, "Nuclear! That's the only thing that's different here. Those missiles are uranium. Until now we've been using anti-tank missiles."

"That's ludicrous," said General Webb heatedly.

"We don't know the first thing about these machines, General!" Riley yelled back, "We gotta fire something else!"

"We can't just change tactic warfare now that we're in it! That is the Marine Corp defence, and they are neck and neck with the bastards now!"

Riley pled with Shiva, "Can you do something?! Anything!"

Shiva stalled in panic for a moment, taking in the chaos and knowing full-well the urgency. But she was as useless as Lilja. "They see the soldiers and refugees, they've been engaged in combat for too long… there… even if I did try, it would be too obvious. They'd break the mirage in moments."

General Webb's face curved to a stone-cold scowl. He was beginning to realize the Marine's initial objective to hold them back as refugees escaped was their only option. Another failure.

Riley wasn't ready to give up yet, "So what the hell are we supposed to do?!"

Lilja's scream broke at the end of his question, "Look out!"

It sent all the soldiers and Shiva and Lilja scrambling for cover as a tactical humvee was struck with a laser beam, throwing it into the air over twenty feet and smashing against the ground. The thundering footsteps came closer, with three large headlights glaring down just a yard away. One of the tripods had left their battalion to spot the gaggle on the other hill, and their positions were ultimately blown. Riley snatched the young soldier and pulled him to cover behind an old barn. Where Lilja and Shiva had their hands together in a vice grip, sprinting through tall grass. Scouts 84 guardsmen were spread over the field in ash, and their heavy tanks and humvees blown to pieces in seconds. Another tripod joined its comrade, but this was a far larger tripod. Much larger than the ones they fought in D.C. But its comrade was smaller and nimble. At its arrival, the smaller tripod went back to the firefight, leaving the bull to deal with the Scouts, itself.

Just behind them was the colossal destruction of the combined arms forces. Their time for the refugees had run dry. Tanks that were sent in as the last defence lit up in a wave of fire from tripod rays. Any refugee or soldier that wasn't dusted by the beams or taken by explosion, was picked up by their swarming tentacles.

Lilja and Shiva ran until Shiva pulled her to the ground. Their bellies against cold soil and their chins scratching against rock. Their hands stayed joined together. Lilja didn't question it, she didn't make a peep. She trusted Shiva intently. Shiva closed her eyes, and the veins stressed in her forehead. All she had to do now was pray they wouldn't be stepped on. Then she remembered Riley.

Gunfire in vain was heard, then screams from soldiers being lifted off the ground and rising into the air until they were gone. All while the stomps and engine song of the tripod screamed in their ears. Lilja shook in horror, squeezing onto Shiva's hand tighter. The tripod stomped from them, searching other corners. Shiva released her abilities, making herself and Lilja opaque to the tripod if it was to see them. But its sights were set on a barn.

Lilja whimpered, "Riley… he's there."

"What?" Shiva whispered. Then she saw two bodies sneak behind the barn as the tripod approached. There was one humvee untouched, a sprint away from them. Even farther for Riley and the young soldier. Riley knew if he could get himself and the soldier to it, they could escape. But he wasn't leaving without Lilja and Shiva. Webb and the other soldiers were out of sight. Presumed dead or taken by the one that was hunting them. It was just the four left, and they were the last hope this war had.

Then the tripod saw two people running out of barn cover. It followed with spreading tentacles for collection. But all Riley saw was the tripod chasing nothing. Nothing at all. He knew instantly it was Shiva giving them the time to get to the humvee. He grabbed the soldier by the arm and pulled him.

"Let's go! Let's go!"

Shiva and Lilja seized their opportunity, as well. In doing so, Shiva had to break away from the mirage. When the tripod realized it had been fooled, it turned back to see the four scrambling for the humvee. It was still idling, and Riley got the soldier in first before rushing Lilja and Shiva. The tripod steady on their trail.

"Come on! Come on! Hurry!"

The soldier got in the driver's seat, and Riley leapt in passenger. The tripod rumbled the ground, leaning over with its tentacles already flurrying for someone to grab. Lilja and Shiva leapt into the backseat and the humvee raged its wheels. Throwing up dirt before racing down the hill. When a tentacle grabbed Renick's arm, it yanked him clear from his seat. His scream ripped and travelled up.

Shiva wailed, "Kenneth!!"

The three in the humvee watched in horror as Renick was pulled by his arm up stories into the sky, ultimately being placed in a basket-like cage to the tripod's lower head. Shiva tried to leap from the speeding humvee, her mind racing faster than her body. Tears rushing down her face. Lilja desperately held her back.

"No! No! Turn back! Turn back now!"

The soldier bellowed over her screams, "He's gone!"

Then a tree appeared in his sights out of nowhere, and he slammed on the breaks, but it impacted. Shiva and Lilja jumped out, giving the soldier enough time to realize he drove clear into it. He didn't even see it. The only one who prepared for the crash was Shiva. She was already out before they realized what happened. At the sound of the tripods encroaching fast, he jumped out to chase them.

"What are you two doing?! He's gone! It took him!"

Shiva was out of her own body. Thinking with only desperation as she darted with all she had back up the hill. Following the tripod that was now making its way east. Lilja tried to stay with her, but Shiva's run was fast. Unhinged. Her whimpering and unsteady breath falling out with each struggle over the rough plateau.

"Shiva!" Lilja wailed, but Shiva couldn't hear it. She wouldn't stop. She wouldn't know what to do with the tripod if she caught it. But she wasn't going to rest idly by as it took Riley.

The three clawed up the hill to see it yards away. As if it had reached the number of collections for the day and was off to do the worst with its supply of humans.

Shiva screamed so loud it ripped her voice, "KENNETH!" Then she buckled to her knees, sobbing into the soil, not even caring for the tripod engines starting to come over the hill. They were in the open, protected by luck and time. Both soon to run dry. The soldier, Stamos written to his left chest, came up with Lilja. Just like any soldier, he was sworn to his duty to protect. Now that the majority of the refugees were gone, he swore to protect what he could. Even if it was just Lilja and Shiva.

"We can't be here, we need to find shelter!" Stamos demanded, looking wary to their surroundings. The pop and rumble of weapon fire was in the distance, but all in vain. Shiva was finally starting to see it. Just like those weapons, her and Lilja were useless. The tripods had surpassed and prospered in war. It wasn't even a war. It was an extermination. It was bitterly swallowed they never had a chance.

Lilja knelt down with Shiva then, "We need to go, Shiva."

"What's the point?" Shiva muttered weakly, slow tears rolling down her cheeks as her spirit crushed before them. "Remember you said that? You were right. Like always, you were right. You knew this was a losing fight even from the start. Look around, Lil."

Lilja did as she asked. Sullenly taking in the destruction. The battlefield once full of a combined arms battalion now smouldering mounds of rubble and fire. The herds of refugees perished, its survivors running for their lives with tripods in hot pursuit. The remaining jets and apaches giving all they had, but to no avail as they were eventually struck out of the skies. Unlike the ferry, they were here, and they still weren't able to protect them.

"I promised I'd protect you, Lil." Shiva wept, "But I can't. I'm sorry. We lost this fight when the first machine crawled out of the ground. We've just been delaying the inevitable. The world ended. We're just surviving."

Lilja glared into the valley with the same rage she felt in the humvee returning. She wouldn't comply to the hopelessness. Not against the loss of the refugees, Webb, and Riley. She wouldn't comply. Shiva's broken spirit only ignited it. A rage she hadn't felt since she was too small to understand. To control it. Lilja didn't reply, she didn't yell or bully Shiva's complacency in the face of loss and dread. She understood she'd have to bring her spirit back to life if Shiva was to live. So Lilja walked ahead in the direction of that tripod. It caught Stamos and Shiva's attention.

"Hey!" Stamos yelled, "Stop! Come back!"

Lilja walked undaunted ahead, and Shiva pressed off her knees to join her. Unsure what she was walking to, she wouldn't let her do it alone.

"Lil? Lil, wait up." Shiva stumbled over her shaking frame, ripping through thick grass and rocky terrain. But Lilja was graceful and steady, taking her body over harsh landscape as if she was gliding. But her face resonated such spite. Glaring up to the tripod with all the power she could conjure pounding to be unleashed. Its cry was the thrust of wind in the grass, nearly pushing Stamos and Shiva back. The air went dense like they were in a cave. Cold enough to chill. All of it coming from Lilja like an orb. In her head was the certainty she wasn't going to quit until Riley was back. If he was dead, then she wouldn't rest until that tripod was, too.