Connor once again awoke to tremendous pain but this time it was only in his head. Something had hit him hard and nearly killed him, but he was alive. There was another pain and the sensation of something rolling across his body. What was that? He groaned and reached for his head but his hands were slapped away and he hit the rocky ground under him.


    "Pssst. He''s awake. Hold." A voice whispered.


    "Shit, see if he can walk." Another voice from farther away.


    "Hey, can you walk?" The first one said.


    Connor rolled over onto his stomach and climbed to his feet but teetered to the side and was caught by a strong hand. It was still dark but he could see the imposing shape of a bulky man in front of him. "Who the fuck are you? Did you hit me?"


    "Yeah that was me lad. I saved your life. You were about to get us ALL killed by trying to shoot that lizard by the fire."


    "You don''t know that. I was just watching them. That was my fire. My gear is in there."


    "Where they looking for you?" He asked.


    "I asked you who the fuck you are. Who the fuck are you?"


    "Shawn. That''s Nathan and his daughter Liz, short for Elizabeth. We live nearby, lets just leave it at that for now."


    "I''m Connor, my folks lived nearby too. What were you doing here?"


    "They took someone from us." Even in the dark, Connor could see the man''s eyes harden. "We saw those ships all landing in the same area and came to investigate. Just hoping for a lead I guess. Do you know why they''re taking people?"


    "I do, but you probably don''t wanna know." Connor said, sitting back down from his unsteady stance. "Do you have any water?"


    Shawn handed him a canteen as Nathan and Liz came into view like silent cats on soft paws. "Tell us."


    Connor looked them over. Shawn and Nathan were probably in their early 40''s and fit. They had the clean cut and confident look of prior military and they looked similar enough that they could have been brothers or maybe cousins. Elizabeth was closer to his age and very pretty even with the hardship that the circumstances brought upon them all. She had long red hair that was bunched up underneath a camouflage pattern hat. All of them wore camouflage which was amusing considering that nobody knew the capability of the aliens. They could be hiding in a bush and completely stand out if the Sharlah were colorblind. It was all ridiculous. Everything.


    "I think they eat people. I think that''s why they''re here. They''re carnivores and they''re here to round us up and eat us. They want to farm Dottir and we are the cattle, you understand?"


    "Bullshit." Nathan butted in. "That''s bullshit, how would you know?"


    "I caught one and talked to it." Connor said flatly.


    "You caught an alien and talked to it." Nathan scoffed.


    "I did. It had a translation device. Why do you think they were looking for me? It told me that it wasn''t important and nobody would come, but as soon as it took it out of the mine, they came."


    "And where is this alien prisoner?" Liz asked. Her voice was so soft and gentle but the disbelief was there for her also.


    "I blew it''s head off so they couldn''t have it back."


    Nathan motioned for others to step away with him and Connor could hear them whispering about him. They either thought he was crazy or he was a liar but the evidence was there. He just couldn''t take them back to it.


    "Hey." Connor said, a bit too loud. "Look at this." He slid a mesmerizing blue blade from sheath fixed to the side of his shin. He touched it to the tree behind him and slid the blade along a few inches of bark. The edges of the cut turned red and started to smoke before he patted them out. "I took this from him while he was sleeping. I have one of their rifles too but it''s in the mine."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Holy shit." Said Shawn. "Can you walk?"


    "I think so, I''m starting to feel better. You hit me hard though, I probably have a concussion."


    They walked probably thirty minutes before coming to an old logging camp. It was owned by the same mining company and helped to clear the area for expansion. There were a few mobile home style buildings on wheels that were brought in and dropped by trucks and a small log cabin that served as a general store for the workers to purchase anything that they didn''t bring from home. Dirt roads branched off in every direction with signage indicating which area they were leading to and one of them went to Connor''s base camp. He hadn''t even seen a road but he didn''t have much time to explore the area.


    "There''s some food and drinks left in the cabin if you''re hungry, just try not to be outside for long. We stay in the trailers. Who knows if or when they''re watching." Liz said.


    "Right. What do you guys want with me? Am I free to go?"


    "Well, we just didn''t want you to fire a shot and get us all killed but now we kinda feel responsible for you. What do you want?" Shawn said.


    "I want to find my girlfriend, Laura Miller. They have her in some kind of concentration camp but I don''t know where. Other than that, I just wanna put a slug in every ''Lizard'' that I see. They killed my parents and left them rotting in their house. I made Vigas bury them."


    "Vigas? It had a name?" Liz asked.


    "Yeah. It didn''t say much but that was it''s name."


    "Hey, the radio is clicking, I think Lewis is coming back." Nathan said through the open door of their trailer.


    "You guys are doing okay for yourselves considering. Those are some pretty nice rifles and you have radios?" Connor asked.


    "Yeah, Army vets. Nathan and Lewis are my brothers, we all joined up together." Shawn said.


    "Yeah that checks out. What was Lewis out doing?" Connor asked.


    "He used to be recon, he wanted to go out to Clearwater and see what''s happening there but he didn''t want us to tag along. He''s pretty stubborn, you can''t tell him no. Special forces ego."


    "I see." Connor said.


    "Yeah, You can settle in that trailer over there and rest for the night. Decide what you wanna do tomrrow."


    "Alright thanks Shawn."


    "Yeah, it''s the least I could do. Sorry about hitting you so hard. I couldn''t take the chance."


    "I understand. I would have done anything for my family."


    <hr>


    Connor snapped awake to the sounds of muffled shouting in the other trailer. He had probably only just dozed off for less than an hour but it was enough to send him back into a near drunken state with his concussion symptoms. He jumped straight to his feet and fell against the wall as he tried to put on his right boot. The arguing stopped for a few beats and then started back up as whispers. Connor finished getting dressed and knocked on the family''s trailer.


    "Connor?" A new face asked.


    "Yeah, I''m not the pizza driver. What''s happening out there?"


    "Come in, hurry."


    Connor stepped inside, it felt claustrophobic with all five of them inside and standing. He pressed his back to the wall by the front door and asked again.


    "I went to Clearwater. It was like a ghost town, there was nobody there. I searched around and all of the houses still looked lived in, like nobody packed their things before they left. So I kept going and on the edge of the city is the Church of St Martin, it''s a mega church, tons of government fund and the like. It''s massive, multi story, several acres of land around it. Well they turned that whole place into some kind of prison camp. There''s huge fences around it with electrified and barbed fences. Guards all over.


    The people are just living outdoors mostly, there''s no shelter. The ground was almost completely covered with sleeping people. I watched for a while and when the church doors opened, they started grabbing people and putting them in a line. They went through some kind of screening and were either kept inside or sent back out into the yard. It was weird though.. I noticed that it was mostly young people sent back outside and they kept the older ones. I don''t know if it was some kind of health screening or what?" Lewis paused in his report.


    "I told you, they''re farming us. They''re going to eat the old people first and let the young ones live to breed and age." Connor said flatly. He was becoming numb to the idea already. He was broken. "How many guards?"


    "Dozens, It was dark outside and I couldn''t really see inside so that''s an estimate. Every so often a ship would come in or out so I don''t know what was happening there. Supply drops maybe. It was all happening behind the church. He told you guys they were farming humans?"


    "Yeah, this man caught one and talked to it. Blew its head off after." Shawn said, pointing at Connor.


    "Is that so? How did you do that?" Lewis prodded.


    "They attacked my farm after the base fell. Some of the soldiers crash landed a chopper in our field so they followed to finish them. Anyway, I went back the next day and found my parents dead. One of the aliens, they''re called Sharlah, was wounded and left behind. It had a translation device and told me a few things. I killed it when the rescue party came."


    "Much respect." Lewis said and gave a fist bump.


    These guys are warriors too, but on our side. I hope they make it.


    Images of his escape flashed into his mind. He went through everything again. He saw the beams ripping through his house. He saw the soldiers missing their limbs and vomiting from the trauma of what they went through. He saw the car flipping over the embankment and the blood stains all over. He snapped and burst out of the trailer door in a mad sprint toward the city of clearwater. Shawn and Lewis half heartedly trailed behind him yelling for him to stop but it was just noise. It was all just noise.