"Maverick are your people coming?" Tia asked.

"They won't leave me to die here. If they aren't here now it's because they are fighting to get here."

The sounds upstairs matched the events on the screen, as they wrenched the shutter open. The sound of metal on metal set my teeth on edge. Finally, they had bent it enough to reveal the door. More men walked up they had military-style guns. I looked down at the rifle in my hands. This isn't going to cut it against those. Where the hell did they get those from?

One of them started shouldering the door. It gave way quickly and a flash on the screen mixed with the muffled sound of the gun going off above us.

Tia laid the guns out and lined up the ammo for easy loading near the bottom of the stairs as the gun went off. She flinched at the sound but didn't stop what she was doing. One of the others grabbed the man writhing in the doorway leaving a thick trail of blood as he dragged the man out of the way.

The rifle had got him in the leg when he had taken a step inside. The man was writhing and screaming as he was pulled away from the porch. "He's alive." I said.

Tia looked up at the monitor. "That will stall them, but not for long." She was still flat but had a slight waver in her voice now.

"Maybe long enough," I said pointing at the screen.

One man in a long coat stepped forward and spoke to the men at the door. They stepped back and the wounded man was picked up from where they had left him. The men started moving away from the house. They slipped into the darkness and less than a minute later police in full riot gear started surrounding the house.

"You need to tell them to stay out." Tia's voice finally had emotion in it, she was panicked.

"Janna you copy?"

The radio crackled and Janna came back. "Mac! What..."

"Tell the officers outside the house to stop. The house is trapped!" I watched them lining up at the door as I spoke.

The frontman took one step towards the door, then stopped holding his hand up to stall the others. The men at the door lowered their guns and stepped down from the porch.

"Done Mac. Are you alright?"

At that moment Tia fell to the ground. Her head bounced off the metal nailed to the stairs. Her body contorted and flailed. "I'm fine but we need an ambulance. Tia is fitting and everyone needs to stay out until I can disarm the traps."

I moved the guns away from her and tried to redirect her limbs to stop her from hurting herself.

"Mac the ambulance crew need information on Tia."

"She hit her head hard and I think she's bleeding. No more information at the moment." It felt like forever before she stopped fitting. I ran my hand over the back of her head. It came away bloody and my chest felt like it turned to stone. "She has a head wound. She's bleeding."

"Copy that... are you alright Mac?"

I knelt and put her in the recovery position. "I'm not sure... I'm not wounded."

The brightness made me groan. The brightness disappeared as soon as I moved my head. My head hurt and I felt achy all over. "Tia?" Maverick's voice sounded concerned.

I was becoming aware of more pains in my body and recognised them. "I'm fine." My voice sounded hoarse.

"Stay still miss Frost." I sighed at the unfamiliar voice.

Grate! They called an ambulance. "I'm not going to hospital!" My voice was still hoarse but I'd managed to put force behind it.

I opened my eyes and squinted at the room around me. "You hit your head pretty hard." My vision cleared and I looked down Maverick was holding one of my hands. "Your head is bleeding Miss Frost."

I started to sit up but both Maverick and the paramedic tried to stop me, but I flapped at them making them move away from my arm. The paramedic moved back but Maverick refused to let go of me.

I looked at his hand in mine again. He held it firmly but gently. "Tia at least have it looked at."

I sighed and nodded. "Where's Tobin?" Maverick smiled and pointed to the now mostly disassembled kitchen.

Tobin was trying to rebuild the makeshift kitchen. I smiled seeing him moving the bits of wood to try and make them fit together.

"Tobin, come here." He turned and came over picking up Ted as he passed him.

"Yes?"

"Why don't you draw a new kitchen out and we will build a better one."

He looked at the work he'd done and then looked back at me. "Can I build it?"

"Of course. We will get new wood and make it better than before." Tobin smiled and walked off to the blankets. He pulled out his notepad that I had given him and his coloured pencils from his rucksack.

Maverick squeezed my hand drawing my attention to him. "I need to talk to the chief... are you OK?"

"I'm fine Maverick. You go."

He hesitated watching me. "Will you at least get checked out?"

"Yes." He frowned at my frustrated tone.

"If you're going to be like that, I'll stay."

I smiled at him. "You're looking for an excuse to stay Maverick. If you want to stay, stay."

He smiled at me and looked embarrassed. "You don't mind?"

"No, I don't."

The paramedic checked my head wound and looked me over for any more wounds. Other than muscle soreness and a few bruises I was fine. Despite all the blood, my head wound was only small, it wouldn't even need stitches.

Maverick relaxed a little after he was finished. "You're sure you don't want to go to hospital?" I nodded to the medic in answer to his question.

He gathered up his equipment and left the basement. "You can go and talk to the chief now."

Maverick looked down at me and then at my hand. He jumped a little then let go. "Sorry."

I smiled. What on earth is he sorry for now? He stood and then knelt next to me again. "Can... that is if you're up to it, can I bring him down here?"

"He will probably want to talk to me too, so yes."

Maverick stood and after a moment of watching me with an odd expression on his face, he left. What is up with him? Why is he acting so strangely?

Tobin walked over to me and showed me his drawing. He'd drawn the kitchen with with real cooker and a few cupboards. Next to the cupboards was a folding table and chairs. Then he showed me the second drawing that had beds and a door between them. "Where are these beds going?"

"Over there. We can't sleep on the floor forever."

I smiled. "And the door?"

"It goes to the safe place." Maverick and the chief came back in as Tobin showed me another drawing. This one was like a child's treasure map. "Look see we can go from here to there if we need to."

"What's this then?" I pointed to an x drawn on the path.

"Traps or doors, so they are to stop people coming for us."

"That's really good. Do you think you could come up with some good traps?" He nodded smiling and running off.

"Should you encourage him to think like that?"

I stared at the chief. "You're only saying that because of where he came from. If he was another boy from another environment you would find his interest in building things like traps and tunnels cute."

"She's the right chief"

The chief crossed his arms and huffed. "Let's get on with it then. What happened?"

Maverick cleared his throat. "They surrounded the house and used explosives to weaken the shutter. Then they used angle grinders to cut open that hole. You know we had laid traps and one of them got shot which led to them leaving."

I shook my head. "They left because they were losing too many people."

The chief nodded then frowned. "We were in a shootout with them but... how could you have known that?"

"They wouldn't have stopped for any other reason. They are relentless in their pursuit, only when the odds are against them do they retreat and recalculate."

Maverick knelt next to me. "What do you think their next move will be?"

"Why ask her?"

Maverick stood I could see his anger. "She is the walking, talking reference book on these people. We need to use her for her information or do you want more bodies to pile up." The chief sighed and nodded.

"There are so many things they could do now. They could give up on me for a while, or they could come back tonight. They are patient so can wait if it's too dangerous to take me now. So it depends what you have done to them."

I looked over at Tobin scribbling in his notebook. He was talking in hand signals to Ted about his traps. I smiled at him as he told Ted that a big rock in the ceiling was the best way of trapping them and blocking the way to the safe place.

Maverick knelt next to me again, he looked over at Tobin and then back to me. "We injured one and the chief's men took out about 30 that we have found. It looks like some were dragged off."

"They wouldn't have come after me with so few. You can guarantee they have three times the numbers we saw here. If they have that many, they will likely come back. I need that builder."

Maverick looked up at the chief. "Do you think you can get him here?" The chief nodded and went back upstairs. "What's the plan?" Maverick asked turning back to me.

Tobin walked up to me with his drawings and came to sit on my lap. "Look."

Tobin showed me the picture of a rockfall trap. "I need him to make these." I pointed to the pictures. Tobin smiled looking excited and ran off to draw more.