Connor threw his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed the beefed up sniper rifle in one hand and the unconscious girl by her collar and started to pull. He grunted and pumped his legs with every ounce of strength that he had. He was pulling her away from his failures. His girlfriend, shot in the head to spare her from Sharlah torture. Her dead father, or what''s left of him laying motionless in the cab of the truck. Her two dead uncles who came to stop him from kicking off the violence too early, before they had a plan to save whoever they came to save. He would do it all again, he knew, to save Laura from whatever they were going to do to her, but now he had to live with it.


    Liz started to wake up, she had only been out for a few minutes, the stress of it all causing her to faint. She rolled onto her stomach and started swinging at his arm until he let go.


    "Stop! Stop! It''s Connor."


    "I know, you fucking psycho! Get away from me!" Liz screamed and looked back where her rifle was set up and then at his hands.


    "Listen, we can talk about it. We will. Right now we need to get away. If any of them remember the shots that came from up here, they''ll be looking for us and they won''t care who is mad at who."


    Liz went silent and stared daggers into his eyes but she knew he was right and looked away.


    "Come on, we need to get back to the my camp and get my gear. I have food and water for us. You can go your own way from there."


    She returned to the dagger stare. "Are you serious? They were the only family that I had left. My mom might have been in that camp but now I''ll probably never know what happened to her. I"m sure they''re swarming all over it now and taking the people who are still alive up to their fucking mothership."


    "I''m sorry. I don''t know what else to say. Just come with me to the mine and we''ll figure it out. We need to get away from here." Connor said.


    "You can walk in front. I don''t want a knife in my back when I turn around."


    Connor took a few steps and then stopped.


    "What?" Liz whispered.


    Connor wanted to scream at her. Let some of it out. He wanted to shove his finger in her pretty face and tell her that he did what he had to do and that if her crazy uncle would have just left him alone in the first place, none of this would have happened. But he just shook his head and moved on. He put one foot in front of the other, just like he had been doing all along, and led her on the long walk back to the mine entrance.


    They watched it for nearly an hour from what little distance they could find in the thick vegetation, Connor still holding both guns for fear that she would kill him if she had an equalizer. He knew he would have to give it back eventually, whether he made her leave or not, but that wasn''t now and he still only had one round left in his own rifle. Nothing moved. He could feel her patience wearing thin and could see her grief coming back to the surface.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    "There''s nothing here Connor, lets go. It''s getting dark." Liz whispered.


    "Yeah, you''re probably right. We''re not sleeping here, we just need to get my stuff. Stay outside and keep your eyes open."


    "What? Screw you, I''m not staying out here." Liz hissed.


    "Fine, just stay behind me."


    "Give me my gun back."


    "Shh, come on." Connor said and started moving forward in a crouch.


    He stopped at the mine entrance and listened for movement inside but heard none. When he stopped, Liz stopped. She stepped where he left his footprints in the dirt and she kept completely quiet. He had to respect that.


    "The room where I was sleeping is right up - "


    Click.


    Connor dove backward and tackled Elizabeth to the ground as both walls where he had just been standing erupted and met in the middle. The explosion reduced his world to a dull moaning sound that may have been coming from him. He couldn''t think, hear, or see but he could feel. His back was on fire.


    "Ahhhh" He screamed and rolled onto his side. Liz was already ripping his jacket off and checking for wounds.


    "You''re okay, you just took some rock shards in the back. You''ll be sore tomorrow but it''s not bleeding very bad. You saved me from that. Thank you."


    He nodded and sat up on his knees and elbows, waiting for the fog to clear.


    "I still need my stuff.”


    Liz looked at him and then at the blown out walls ahead.


    "Connor we can find more food and water, you don''t have to go in there."


    He locked eyes with her again but this time she was right.


    "Yeah. Yeah alright. They probably took it anyway, the beam rifle. My ammo too, for this." He said tapping his rifle with his free hand. "Here, this is getting too heavy. If you''re going to shoot me, just make it quick alright?"


    “Where are we going?” Liz asked once they were back outside in the fading light. She was watching the dropships in the distance making their trips to and from the huge alien mothership in low orbit. “My mom and Uncle Lewis are on one of those if they''re still alive.” She said absently. Tears were streaking down her dirty face again, leaving trails of clean white skin in their wake. It was an awful sight for Connor.


    “I left some boats near the creek. We should float further downstream and get out somewhere close to New Vista. We can find a house to hide in for the night and probably find something to eat there.” He said and risked a glance at her again. He could feel her pain every time eyes met and it killed him.


    “I want to kill them Connor. I’m not mad at you anymore. I get it.”


    “You get what?”


    “If they hadn’t come here from whatever hell they’re from, then you and your girlfriend..what was her name?”


    “Laura, Laura Miller.”


    “You and Laura would have been spending this night together watching movies or hanging out with your friends. My dad and his brothers would be sitting by a campfire. I would be in my room drawing or reading a book. We would be in peace. They brought this on us and now we either have to fight or die. I get it. You fought. You made a choice to go after Laura and try to save her. I’m not mad at you.”


    Connor reached out and hugged the girl that he had just met and the dam broke on his own emotions. As day became night and the unfeeling shadows fell across the trees, they cried together there in the forest, holding the only person that they had left in the world. A stranger.