Laura stepped over and around the bodies that lay like a carpet over the grounds of the church. The Sharlah didn''t bother to do that from what she had seen. They mostly stayed around their work stations but the armed guards would just step right onto people who didn''t move in time. Most did, they parted like a flock of disturbed pigeons around a pile of seeds but just filled back in as the guards passed. It had been over a day since she was fitted with the device on her wrist but so far, it hadn''t done anything to her. She thought that maybe it was just a tracking device but when that woman tried to escape it seemed to have shocked her.


    "Psst. Hey. Why is nobody talking?" She was sitting against the fence and nudged the man beside her. She realized that she hadn''t even tried to talk to anyone yet. The shock of it all was wearing off.


    "You''re not allowed. They''ll beat you and shock you if they hear it. Don''t talk to me." The man said. He was in his late 50''s or 60''s she guessed. He was overweight and wore a long white beard. He looked like a cartoon she had seen as a kid about a fat man that brought gifts to kids one night.


    "I''m sorry." Laura said and caught a guard looking at her from the other side of the shrubbery that was in the distance and between them. The alien looked down at it''s own wrist which held a small screen and began typing something. Then it pointed at her.


    "Oh no." She breathed. The old man scooted a few inches to the side and up against another person to his left.


    The alien started talking and pointing toward her but they went back to their work of quite literally throwing food at people who sometimes scuffled over it. The doors to the church opened and only about half of the group who had gone in came back out. A little girl was crying and saying something about her grandpa before she was pushed down and handed a piece of bread by one of the aliens. She sobbed and ate the bread as a shuttle lifted off from the rear of the church and when the airspace was clear, another came in to land.


    <hr>


    Connor couldn''t feel the mosquitoes anymore. They had either ate their fill or he had grown numb to them as well as his feelings. He wasn''t sure how they had found him under the window curtain full of trash that he had detached and pulled on top of him. He had climbed to the top of Clearwater Intelligence building, the city newspaper and found a supply closet with some cleaning equipment and maintenance supplies. He crawled to the edge of the rooftop, pulling the curtain behind him like a sled and then pulled it over his body with a layer of random trash and objects on top of it. Somehow the bugs still found him. He hoped the Sharlah would not.


    Shuttles had come and gone since he slipped into his hide, but there hadn''t been anything else of note besides a truck full of people that arrived the night before. They almost had him there. He was tired, dehydrated, and in a daze as he walked toward the city. That initial sprint away from the logging camp had taken everything out of him, but he still had enough presence of mind to duck into the forest when he saw the red headlights approaching. The Sharlah seemed to be protective of their eyes at night. He filed that away for later and kept watching.


    The loss of his back pack and thus almost all of his ammunition was weighing heavy on his mind as he routinely counted the guards as well as the camp workers. He had five rounds of ammunition in his rifle and it was only five because he had enough sense to load one after shooting Vigas. It was just like Lewis had said, there were dozens of guards and dozens more workers along with the Sharlah who came and went from the camp. He wondered if running away from the former soldiers was a good idea or not but it wasn''t really an idea at all. It was a reaction.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    <hr>


    The alien pointed at Laura again and said something. Was this really because she had been caught talking? If so, why were they not beating her? The doors to the church swung open again but this time a huge creature with a full suit of armor and a red helmet walked out, scanning the crowd with both his own eyes and some kind of handheld device. The alien pointed toward her and the being stalked over to the fence nearly killing people under his metal boots.


    “Do you know where this human is?” It barked at her in the English language and held up a picture of herself and Connor from his wallet. Her whole body shivered from the shot of adrenaline that was not being used to fight or flee.


    “N n n n no. He’s dead. He died in a car crash.” She stammered and he hit her so hard that she felt her nose give way to his gauntlet.


    “He is not! You will help me find him!” The creature said and grabbed her by her bloodied and torn red hoodie.


    <hr>


    Connor was paralyzed. It was her, there was no doubt in his mind. His hands trembled so hard that he couldn''t keep her or the Sharlah in his scope. He watched helplessly as it held up a picture of him and screamed at her. They were looking for him because of Vigas. He wanted to fire but even if he killed five of them in a row, she was still behind several layers of defenses and surrounded by more of them. He cursed when he remembered the alien beam weapon still back at the mine. Connor''s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and ideas but none of them would work. He could cause a distraction maybe, but she would never get away. If he could find a way to bring down one of the fences, the whole crowd of people could overwhelm the Sharlah, maybe, and take their weapons.


    He was brought back to reality when the Sharlah hit her hard in the face, grabbed her by the collar, and pulled her to her feet.


    <hr>


    Laura could barely keep her balance from the strong blow to her face but the Sharlah wouldn''t let her fall. It dragged her through the crowd of people who were clawing at one another to get away from them. They didn''t want to be next. One of the techs dashed over to them and bowed it''s head in what looked like respect but it hissed something in their language and pointed to her body scan. It ran it''s hand along her stomach and said something else but the one in the armor shoved it away and pulled her toward the church.


    <hr>


    Connor was frozen, both in fear and indecision. They were going to take her into the processing center for some reason. Maybe she would come back after they did something with her. It looked like maybe she was sick or wounded from the crash, the alien tech was pointing at her and trying to stop the officer from taking her away. He shoved the tech and started pulling her toward the church again. They were going to take her away. They were going to take her from him and torture her to find out where he was hiding. She didn''t even know. He had to do something.


    Connor pulled his rifle close and started going through his mental exercises but this time he couldn''t calm down. He checked his range setting for the tenth time at least. He looked at the curtains of the open church window and saw no movement from the wind. He took a deep breath and let it halfway out and then started over again and again. They were just a few feet from the door now. This was it. He took aim, took his breath, let it halfway out, squeezed the trigger ever so slightly until the recoil surprised him, and he shot Laura in the back of the head, and as the young girl fell to the ground and died, so too did the boy who loved his parents, who loved his farm, and who loved her dearly. Connor James was no more, but his body lived on.