• chapter three •
❁ ❁ ❁

Jess was heading towards where Ben, Hal and Matt were.

Jess saw Ben doing push ups.

"100, 101, 102..." Matt said, then Ben jumped up.

"You just did 102 push ups!" Matt said in amazement.

"Guys! I have sentry duty tonight!" Hal said while lying on the bed.

Ben put on a shirt and then Jess knocked on the door.

"Impressive," She smiled. Ben looked up, he froze for a second, in awe of Jess' beauty.

Jess stood there awkwardly before stuttering, "I don't think we've been fully acquainted –" She started.

"I know you, Jess, right?" Ben smiled.

"Yeah, you remember?"

"Fragments, " He shrugged.

Matt rolled his eyes at he two before interrupting them. "Hi Jess, I'm Matt, his little brother," He smiled.

"Hi Matt," She smiled.

"Do your spikes hurt?" Matt asked Ben.

"They did, not anymore though, sometimes I forget they're even there and then I lean the wrong way or bend into something," Ben said.

"What about your's?" Matt asked Jess.

"Same deal, kid," She replied.

"Can I touch one?" Matt asked Ben.

"Sure,"

Matt lightly touch one of his spikes. Then Ben groaned loudly and over reacted.

"Are you okay!?" Matt asked worriedly, Ben started laughing, and Jess chuckled.

"You jerk! That wasn't funny!" Matt exclaimed with a smile.

"Sorry! Sorry! I couldn't help myself!" Ben laughed while picking Matt up and started tickling him on the couch. Jess laughed.

"What was it like? With the Skitters?" Matt asked them both, then Jess dropped her head.

"You don't wanna know, kid," Jess sighed.

"Ben?" Matt asked. "Did they talk to you?"

"Not like you think. It was – You don't have your own thoughts. It's not your own thinking, at least not the way you normally do, so - It's more like someone's thinking with you. Um, remember when we went camping with Dad and you weren't feeling well. You were hungry and thirsty and your stomach hurt. Well, imagine if dad knew everything you wanted before you even asked for it." Ben said.

"You must've been scared," Matt said.

"When they first caught me. I was never more afraid in my entire life. But after the harness, it wasn't so bad." Ben shrugged. Jess furrowed her brows, she was worried about him.

"Did you miss us?" Matt asked while Ben pulled him into a half hug.

"I don't know. In some bizarre alien way, I think the Skitters actually cared about us, you know? They weren't monsters. They were family, and in some weird way, I still miss that." Ben said.

✧

Jess went to see Tom and Captain Weaver, they wanted to know why she was a prisoner of the aliens.

"Long story short, they tried to harness me and my body somehow rejected it, resulting in the harness to 'fall' off somehow, but the spikes remained attached, hencing why my spikes are longer than the rest of the unharness kids. I'm disconnected from the Skitters, but I can connect to the other harnessed or unharnessed kid. That's why I knew all their names." Jess, Tom and Weaver slowly walked around outside, contently listening to her story. "They took me as a prisoner and tortured me day after day. They would wake me up with a taser, pricked and poked me. They even attempted in removing my spikes." Jess stopped and took a breath. "Then they sentenced me to hard labour with a specific group of harnessed kids. Which was Ben's group. I would communicate with them through the harness, but the Skitters would eventually find out and take me away and torture me some more." Tom and Weaver stood there, listening to her story, utterly taken aback by the pain and suffering she went through.

"I'm no stranger to hard work and loyalty, I know how to handle a gun and many other things, and I'm willing to contribute to the 2nd Mass in any shape or form." Weaver and Tom looked just about speechless.

"Wow," Tom stuttered. "How - I,"
"I don't even know what to say, but," Weaver cleared his throat. "Listen Jess, I'll never be able to understand what you went through, but I might just understand your need for revenge, so I'll tell you something," Weaver placed a hand on her shoulder, she took a breath. "The 2nd Mass is your new home, and we'll need someone like you, someone strong and smart to protect it. How does that sound?"

Jess smiled, "Anything you need, I'll provide," Weaver patted her shoulder and walked off.

Tom walked Jess to the armoury and handed her a handgun. "I have a strong feeling I can trust you,
Weaver wants to put you on the scouting team with Hal when you're on a mission, but other than that you're on sentry duty with him." Tom informed.

"Yes, sir," Jess smiled and walked off.

✧

There was a group meeting in the gym space. Clayton, who came from 3rd Mass was addressing the news that the children aren't safe at the school since the skitters are targeting them.

"I can only tell you what's worked for us," Clayton said. "I don't have kids, so I can't even pretend to understand how you feel."

"Especially now, when you got all these people, thinking that our kids are the enemy!" A worried father said.

"No, you see, you've got them thinking that. I'm trying to get them to think about the safety of their kids instead of their own comfort. This is a temporary measure folks! Until –"Clayton was cut off by Mike, Rick's dad.

"Until what? We're attacked? Then what, Terry?" Mike said.

"You think the Skitters are just gonna give us a pass?!" The father yelled.

"I never said that!" Clayton yelled. Tom quickly walked over to them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, what's going on?" Tom said.

"I know a lot of you have lost your children." The father said a loud. "Okay, don't think that my heart doesn't break for you. But please imagine that you still have your child, would you let anyone take them away from you?!"

"Hey, that hasn't been decided yet. Everybody here wants the same thing – our kids to be safe." Tom spoke.

"They'll never be safe! Safe is over! We could die any day! And if that day comes, I'm gonna be by my daughter's side."

Jess was standing next to Ben and she looked at his face. He looked disheartened, as did she. She brushed her hand against his and continued to watch the argument.

Then there was a loud noise and gun fire.

They were here.

✧

Jess grabbed her gun and followed Mike and Tom out of the Gym. They ran towards the south post and caught up with Weaver.

"South post?!" Tom said.

"Yeah," Hal replied.

"Jimmy's at South Post!" Weaver yelled.

They ran outside.

"Mike! Clayton! Go for the Mech!" Weaver yelled over the gunfire. Tom, Weaver and Jesswent for Jimmy.

"Jimmy! Jimmy!" Tom yelled outside while Weaver checked inside.

"Any sign of him?" Tom asked Weaver who walked outside the bus.

"No."

Jess started returning fire at the Mech then it started retreating.

"Mech's retreating!" Jess yelled.

"Skitter! Help!" Jimmy cried from the inside.

"Inside?" Tom asked.

"Yeah," Jess spoke.

Tom, Weaver and Jess went inside and started making their way towards the cries of help.

"Tom take the hall, go!" Weaver said and Tom walked away.

"You stay with me," Weaver demanded.

They reached where Jimmy was in trouble. He threw his gun at the Skitter and Jess shot the skitter's head with the hand gun. She turned the safety on placed it in her holster. Weaver took a step forward.

"Jimmy?" He said softly.

Jimmy was in clear shock and ran up to Weaver and hugged him.

✧

Everyone was lining up getting their food. Ben and Jess were picking their rations.

"Why don't you take one and get out of here?" A guy said walking up to Ben.

"What's your problem?" Ben said.

"I'm not standing in line with these razor backs," The guy said to both of them. "They're the reason that we have a skitter problem!"

"You better watch your mouth!" Jess spat. Maggie and Hal came over.

"Take what you need and go," Maggie told Ben.

"You got a problem?" Hal said pushing the guy.

"Just go," Maggie said.

"No, no," Jess scoffed pushing her way through to the guy. "Do you know what it's like to be tortured, poked and prodded at? Be experimented on? No?" The man took a step back. "Okay, try going through that for 7 months! Then try going through that, then finding a place where you think your safe, but then we get assholes like you to alienate us. So, why don't you get take one of these and go." Jess spat, throwing her rations at him and walking off with Ben.

✧

They were in the gym again, all huddled together. Jess was with Ben and Matt.

"Everybody!" Tom said aloud. "I decided to put Ben and Matt with Lieutenant Clayton. It'll put our kids a few hours ahead of whatever else is coming and I think that's a good thing. By tomorrow, the 3rd Massachusetts will be here and if everything goes as planned, we'll be reunited with our kids by tomorrow."

"We just got hit by a Skitter. If they're still out there how are you gonna get through?" The worried father spoke aloud.

"We're a small group on foot. We'll be ahead of the main Skitter force and we'll be way under the radar." Clayton said.

"If you're not?" The worried father said.

"And they're gonna have a security detachment with them. O'Brian. Fuller." Tom said.

"Mike as well, if that's alright." Clayton said. "We go back."

"Okay. We know the Skitters aren't after the youngest ones. The rest will go because our kids are our future and their safety has got to come first. So pack them up, they leave in an hour." Tom said a loud.