Max, Michael, Isabel and Liz are running down the street. Max leading the way, while Liz runs next to him, with hand in hand. Michael and Isabell are bringing up the rear. Max looks over his shoulder to see how far behind their pursuers are and can not see them, which makes him breath easier, until they round the corner to find that the way they were planning on taking is now blocked by the recent collapse of a building. Realizing the folly of this particular turn has lead them too, he pushes his way back past Michael and Isabell only to see the aliens that have been following them round the corner. These aliens for all outward appearances look Human, but for that matter so don’t the three of them. Max reacts without thinking, raising his hand just as they are about to fire on them, and a green protective shield appears in front of them just in time to dispel the energy from their weapons.

Michael seeing this as an opportunity to strike back, is taken back by the sheer numbers rounding the corner, when an idea pops into his head. He moves the aim of his outstretched hand from the first of their attackers to the building next to them. Without warning the wall standing next to them exploded outward knocking all of the aliens to the ground and burying them in mound of rubble.

Max, lowers the protective shield, and turns to Michel. “Good thinking, space boy.”

“Just got the idea form this pile of rubble over here. If they put it here to block our way, why couldn’t we do the same?”

“Yeah, but now what? Both ways out of here are blocked now.” Leave it to Isabell to point out the obvious.

“Well we can’t go back the way we came, there’s no knowing how many more there are behind them. So, I say we find a way through the way we were headed. Michael, see what you can do with that pile.” Max points to the large pile of rubble blocking their path.

“Stand back!” Michael lowers his hand to the pile and slowly backs away from it, while keeping his hand aimed at it. His hand begins to glow and suddenly there is a huge explosion from the center of the pile, causing the pile to fly in every direction, and if it wasn’t for Max’s Protective shield, they would have been hit by half of it. The explosion did clear a good portion of the path, but only for a second as the building walls next to it caved in back on top of the pile making it even worse than before. “Sorry. Guess I don’t even know my own strength.

Isabell just looks at him and shakes her head.

“What, I didn’t see you come up with any bright ideas!” Michael yells defensively.

“Michael. Michael!!!” Liz tries to get his attention.

“What? Not you too?”

“No, Michael. I was just going to tell you to make a hole in that wall. If I remember it right that is the old barber shop, and it was still standing last I remember.” Liz explains.

“Oh, yeah.” Michael turns to the way and without much of an effort on his part the wall explodes inward. The dust settles a few seconds later and the make their way into the building. Michael goes in first.

“You next Liz.” Max takes her hand and leads her through the hole. Next turning to Isabell, “ Your turn.”

She takes his hand and begins making her way towards the opening when suddenly she is hit from behind and she falls through the opening only hearing Max screaming behind her before blacking out.

“No!!!!!” Max screams, and turns to throw up a shield just before another bolt was going to hit her. Anger in his eyes, he turns from Isabell to see her attacker. It is one of their pursuers, who had somehow managed not only to live through the blast and being buried, but had also managed to free himself from the pile. Max can not see him clearly in the moonlight, but can see that half of the fake human skin that they wear had been torn from his body. Max can feel the anger boiling inside him, he turns towards the attacker with his free arm and a second later the aliens body explodes into a thousand pieces flying in every direction. Max lowers his hand and is startled when someone grabs him from behind. He quickly turns to see Liz trying to pull him through the opening. He looks through the hole to see Michael carrying Isabell, and Liz trying to pull him through.

“Max! Come on!!” Liz cries to him.

“I’m coming.” He sadly replies and follows her through the opening.

They escape through the front of the barber shop. Liz pulling Max along with her as Michael carries Isabell. They continue to run at full pace to the UFO center, their only safe haven left in the town. Ever since it was bought out by that eccentric all those years back and her turned it into a kind of fortress, it has been the only place they have felt really safe, aside from the Pod Chamber, but not wanting to lead the other aliens to the Granolith, they have avoided it at all cost.

When they arrive they find Alex there working on the computer when he turns to see them enter. When he sees Michael carrying Isabell, his heart dropped into his stomach. He runs to her as Michael lays her down on the table that Max has just cleared. He rolls her onto her stomach so that they can see her wound. Alex feels for a pulse and fails to find one. Max shoves him out of the way, and rips the opening in her shirt, tearing it from the bottom all the way up to the back of her neck. He places his hand over her wound and begins concentrating. His hand begins to glow brightly, and the wound begins to close, before Max collapses onto the floor.

Liz runs to him and pulls his head into her lap as Michael goes over to Isabell, and places his hand over the half healed wound and begins concentrating on his own. “I wish I practiced this more, now.” His hand begins to close and the wound begins to finish closing, when the first gasp from Isabell can be heard.

Alex looking up from his tearful collapse runs over to her and pulls her to him. “I thought I had lost you.”

“And you still might. Even though I do feel better something just doesn’t feel right.” Isabell explains.

“I know, I should have practice that more.” Michael admonishes himself.

“No, it’s not that. There was something about the weapon they used. Nothing like we have encountered before. I just can’t explain it but I just don’t feel right.” She brings her hand back to where she was hit and brings it forward to see blood on it. “See what I mean.

Michael looks at her back to see the area he had just healed slowly beginning to blacken and open up again. “What the…?”

Isabell turns to see Max collapsed on the floor in Liz’s lap. She is whispering to him and stroking his hair. “What happened to him?”

“He tried to heal you and collapsed from the effort.” Liz explains. “Here, Michael give me a hand.”

Michael comes over and grabs him and carries him over to one of the cots in the room and lies him down on it. Liz goes over to sit with him, before Michael heads back to Isabell and Alex. “Maybe you two should get some rest too. I’ll stand first watch.”

“Michael, you should get some rest too. You look exhausted. Help me get Isabell over to a cot, and then you get some rest too. I’ll stand first watch.” Insists Alex.

“No…”

“Yes, Michael, he’s right. What good will you be if you exhaust yourself like Max did?” Isabell explains.

“Okay, but you wake me up the minute anything happens.”

“Will do, now if you don’t mind.” Alex and Michael help Isabell to one of the cots, and Alex tucks her into bed just before she passes out herself.

Michael lies down on another cot, and just looks at Alex like, remember to wake me the second anything happens.

***********************************************************************

The images of Isabell falling in slow motion forward crossing Max’s eyes. As he turns to catch her, he screams, “Isabell!!!”

“Max, Max. It’s okay.” Liz tries to comfort him. Rubbing her hand over his forehead and hair.

Max opens his eyes to see Liz looking down over him. IT takes him a minute to take in his surroundings and figure out where he is. He finds himself lying on a cot with his head resting in Liz’s lap. She is mothering him. The last thing he remembers was trying to heal Isabell, and then it hits hit. He doesn’t know what happened to her. “Isabell?”

Liz tries to explain everything that happened. “ She’s all right for right now. You were able to heal the majority of her injury and Michael was able to finish. Do you know what happened to you?”

Max answers, “ No not really. It was an injury that I have never come across before. It took a lot out of me.”

“That much was obvious.”

“Where is she?”

“Resting over there on the other cot.”

Michael walks by and see that he’s awake. “Well it’s about time you woke up and carried your own weight.”

“How long have I been out?”

“About 12 hours now.” Liz tells him.

Max slowly pulls him self up to a sitting position, throwing his feet onto the floor, and then tries to stand. His legs are a little wobbly and when he begins to fall to his side, Liz catches him and uprights him. “Thanks. Isabell?” He calls as he walks towards her cot. Alex is sitting there holding a towel on her forehead.

“Max? Is that you?” Isabell says weakly.

“Yeah, it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve felt better.”

Max looks to Alex and can see the worry on his face. “Isabell, tell me the truth.”

“Well, to put it simply it feels like my whole body is burning up. Almost like my entire body is dying a piece at a time.”

“Is there anything that I can do for you?” Max asks worriedly.

“Nope, not even sure that there is anything that you could do. Not sure what they hit me with, but it is still doing a number on my body as we speak.”

“I’m sorry Iz. It’s all my fault. I should have never let down my guard.” Max starts chastising himself. You can see it on his face that he blames himself for this.

“There was nothing that you could have done Max. You can’t know everything.” Isabell tries to comfort him.

“Yeah, but I’m the leader. I’m supposed to be ready for these things. It’s my fault.”

“Max stop it. Even the best leaders don’t make all the right decisions and can’t see everything.”

“She’s right, Max. It’s not your fault.” Liz tries to help comfort him, but she can see it in his eyes as he looks at Isabell lying there, that he blames himself for her. She hates to see him like this, and as of late she has seen it in him more and more. The war has been taking it’s toll on Max, and she wishes that there was a way that she could bring an end to his pain.

Max tries to take his eyes away from Isabell to see what is going on, but seeing the pain on her face, awakes the pain inside himself. I remembers having seen their adoptive parents, as well as Liz’s parents die, and all due to this war. He can’t help but feel that it’s all his fault. If they weren’t here, then none of this would have happened. Too many people have dies to help protect them from the Skins and it if they hadn’t been so friendly, they would still be alive today. With this rolling through his mind he turns from Isabell and starts working his way towards the Computers that Michael is sitting at.

Liz just watches him go, knowing that he has a lot on his mind and needs this time alone. She hates to see him this way, but in recent times she has seen him like this more and more. She turns back to Isabell. “Hi, Iz. Is there anything that you need?”

“No, Alex has been taking pretty good care of me.”

“Ok, but you just let me know.” She turns to walk away from them and Join Max, stopping long enough to pat Alex on the shoulder seeing the pain in his eyes. He simply looks up to her for a second before going back to take care of Isabell.

Max reaches Michael to find him sitting at bank of computers looking at one of them, while pouring some Tabasco sauce on sandwich and then taking a huge bite. Michael turns to see Max walking towards him, and he grabs a sandwich and throws it over to Max who instinctive catches it. “No thanks.” Max tells him.

“Max, you haven’t eaten in over 24 hours. Don’t you remember your last little blackout?” Michael pleads.

“Max, he’s right. If you don’t keep your strength up, there’s no knowing how much longer you can last.” Liz starts telling him, and you can hear the worry in her voice.

Max just looks over to her, and then seeing the concern in her eyes he picks up the sandwich and takes a seat next to Michael, who hands him the bottle of Tabasco Sauce. “So, what’s going on out there right now?” He asks while looking at the different computer screens.

“Not much. Actually been very quiet as of late. Which has me worried. We usually have at least one attempt to get us in here, and so far not one.” Michael explains. Hi reaches over to the keyboard in front of him and hits a few keys and the screen changes to show a different camera shot with each key stroke.

“Any clue what they used on Isabell?”

“Alex looked into it and found a camera that captured the person who shot at her, but couldn’t make heads or tails of the weapon. IT was nothing that he has seen before. Not like any of the weapons that have been used on us yet. He thought it was some kind of projectile weapon.” Michael explains.

“A Projectile weapon” queries Max. A trouble look crosses his face as he takes a bite of the sandwich.

“Yeah, he couldn’t figure it out either.” Michael reaches over to the keyboard again and a image of the person shows up on one of the screens and as you see he is holding a long rifle like weapon that fines with a flame burst from the barrel of the weapon, and he hits another key pausing the image for a second. “But Max, I’ve got another question for you.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“What did you do to that Skin?”

“What do you mean?”

Michael hits another key and they suddenly the alien literally explodes in a huge flash of light.

“I must have developed your ability to destroy things.” Max tries to explain.

“No, when I use my power, I cause the energy contained within the object to be releases in an explosive manner.”

“Yeah, just like that.”

“Here watch this slowly.” Michael hits some other keys and then the scene plays again but this time in slow motion. As we watch the alien fire the weapon in slow motion we can see the projectile leave the weapon and then a few seconds later a huge ball of white energy comes flying at great speed, even though it is in slow motion, and hit the alien in full force and practically pull him apart from the outside.

“I…I…I’m not sure. I’ve never done anything like that before. I don’t even know how I did it. I didn’t think, I just reacted.” Max just stares at the image, trying to make sense of it in his own mind.

“That explains why you collapsed here yesterday. That must have taken a lot of energy to do that.” Liz starts to make sense of what happened to him yesterday, while looking over his shoulder to the screen.

Max just continues to watch the screen as it plays over and over.

***********************************************************************

Outside the night is slowly giving away to dawn. We find ourselves in a vehicle looking out at the sunrise before turning to find Sheriff Valenti driving the vehicle. He is thinking to himself that he is very happy that he is driving a four wheel vehicle due to the condition of the roads. He looks over his shoulder into the back seat to see Kyle is sleeping and not being bothered by the bad condition of the roads. They sure have had to become used to terrible conditions and making due with any chance at all that they could catch some shut eye.

“Hey, dad, do you think you could at least try to avoid some of the potholes?” Kyle remarks sarcastically as he wakes up and brings himself to an upright position, while trying to rub some of the sleep out of his eye.

“Wish I could, but there isn’t much left of the roads but potholes.”

“I know, just giving you a hard time. So, how much farther to go?”

“Half an hour or so.”

“Do you need me to take over for a while?”

“Nah, I’ve got it. You just sit back and enjoy the rest of the ride.” He looks through the rear view mirror to Kyle and smiles at him, and Kyle returns it with a sarcastic smile of his own.

“I just hope that this trip hasn’t been for nothing.” Kyle responds.

“Don’t worry, they will be there, and these supplies will help us hold out even longer against the Skins.” Valenti tries to calm his son’s worries.

“Do you ever get the feeling that we are fighting a un-winnable battle?” ponders Kyle.

“Well as soon as you believe it is an un-winnable battle, not worth fighting, that is the moment that we will lose it. We’ve just got to go on each day as it comes at us, always being ready to react to anything.”

“Yeah, I know you are right, but I still wonder.”

“Doubt is a natural thing in life, but remember not to let doubt get the best of you.” Valenti can see the worry in his son’s eyes even through the rear view mirror. But he knows his son is one tough cookie. He has seen a lot over the past few years, and has reacted to it very well. He feels pride in the fact that his son turned out the way he did. Most people would have reacted in quite a different way to the fact of Aliens living among us, even after the fact that his life was saved by one of them. He always wished his son would have had an easier life, but has always lived by the fact that you have to live with what life sees fit to deal you.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I am actually looking forward to getting back to the bunker and being able to stretch out again. Not that riding in the car for the last 4 days with you hasn’t been the greatest.”

“I know what you mean. I could use some time out of this car myself.” Valenti begins laughing at his son’s statement. “Looks like it isn’t that much further. Look.”

Kyle follows his father’s finger through the windshield and has to squint hard to see through the sun rise, that he can see the edge of town. “Thank God.”

“Same here. You want to hop up here and keep a look out for me?”

“Sure.” Kyle hops from the back seat into the Passenger seat, and instinctively reaches under the seat to grab a couple of hand guns stored under there. He hands one to his father before checking to see if his is fully loaded.

As they pull into the edge of town, Valenti thanks himself that the UFO Center is on the outskirts of town and they won’t have to drive by too much to get to it. HE always worries when driving down some of the main streets where the building are still standing, because the offer so many different points of attack without any warning. He is happy when they make it to the UFO center without incident, but it worries him a little because he doesn’t know where they are exactly, or if the group is still alive. He brags the mic for his radio, and changes the frequency that is broadcasting on. “Valenti to base. Come in.”

He releases the button and there is nothing but static. He starts to get worried, and is about to call in again, when he is startled by the response. “Yeah, we’re here. Where are you?” Michael’s voice comes over the radio.

“Pulling around back right now.” Valenti answers back into the mic.

“Be right out.” Michael replies and then static is on the radio again.

Valenti pulls the truck around to the back of the building, and is greeted by the site of Michael holding open the rear door. Alex is next to come out followed by Max. Max is looking a little out of sorts, and Valenti decides that the answer to that question will just have to wait. He pulls the truck past the door so that the back of the SUV is right next to it. He and Kyle get out of the truck and go to the back and open it. The back is filled with Boxed and tanks of different sizes.