“Come take a break, you two. It’s already 2 in the morning and we all need our rest. You can work with it again in the morning.” Max explains.

“Just a little bit longer.” Sarena pleads.

“No, he’s right. One thing I’ve learned, it’s better not to burn ourselves out.” Liz joins Max.

Dejectedly, Sarena agrees with them. “If you think it would be best.”

“I do. We’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow and we all need to be at our best.” Max explains. “You can use Michael’s Cot, since he will be up for a while on watch.”

“Well, if he will be up…”

“Get some sleep.” Max cuts her off.

“Okay.” Sarena agrees, seeing the look in Max’s face and knowing that he means business. This is the most serious that Sarena has seen Max be in the many years that they have known each other. She goes over to Michael’s empty cot and takes a seat before lying back to get some sleep.

“I’ll be there is a second.” Max tells Liz as she begins to head towards their cot. He turns and walks over to Michael.

“Michael, wake me at 5 and I’ll take over for you.” Max tells him.

“Eye, Eye sir.” Michael says sarcastically. Max just looks at him sternly. “What? I was just trying to liven your mood.”

“Thanks.” Max says before heading over to join Liz.

He lies down on the cot next to her and stares into the ceiling, trying his best to fall asleep, knowing all well that he needs hi rest too, they have a busy day ahead of them tomorrow, and he doesn’t know what will come out of it all. This is what is worrying him the most. The not knowing what will happen. Liz knowing him as well as he knows himself just lays her head down on his chest and goes to sleep there. Max feels the warmth of her pressed against him, and allows the feeling to seep into his body. He takes in a deep whiff of her hair, and allows the sensation it brings to flow through his entire body. Before he knows it he has fallen asleep.

Michael looks over at the group, noticing Max fall asleep, and turns back to the computer screens, to see what he can find. The moon is still high in the sky, so there is plenty of light being cast by it. Not that there is anything to be seen. He keeps going from one screen to another, and all that he sees are the empty streets and the massive amounts of destruction throughout the city. The cameras nearest the area that they will be focusing on tomorrow is still of no use, displaying nothing but distorted images. Nothing that he can make heads or tails of, but he still switches through all of the camera shots.

He continues to do this throughout the rest of the night, and before long he can begin to see the lighting of the sky on the horizon, the precursor to dawn. He looks at it and is surprised to see it so soon. He didn’t realize that dawn was already on it’s way. He looks down at his watch to see that it is almost 6 am, and thinks to himself Oops! Oh well, better go wake up Max now. He stand up and walks silently over to Max’s cot. Hating to wake him, he taps on his shoulder trying not to wake Liz up too.

“Huh? Wha??” Max says trying to wake up and make sense of things.

“It’s almost 6. Time to get up.”

Max tries to slide out from under Liz without waking her, and she begins to squirm a little but manages to continue sleeping. “Anything to report?” Max whispers as they make their way back toward the computers.

“Nothing. Still no movement out there, and that is what worries me the most. They are up to something, I’m sure of it.” Michael tells him.

“Me too. Me too.” Max agrees with him. “Ok, maybe you should try to get a little sleep. We will try to head out in a few hours.”

“Ok. I think I’ll take Alex’s bunk since he hasn’t slept in it for the past few days.”

Max just nods as he heads over to Alex’s cot. Max turns over to Isabell’s cot to see her asleep with Alex sleeping in the chair next to her bed. He has felt bad that Alex has been sleeping like that, knowing that it can not be comfortable, but also knowing that Alex wouldn’t have it any other way. Max slowly turns back to watch the computer screens.

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

Alex jerks himself awake. A little disoriented and tries to take in his surroundings. He looks around to see Max at the computers and everyone else sleeping before he turns back to Isabell. He looks down at her sweet face and notices the contented look on her face. Knowing the answer before he checks, he places his hand on her neck and finds no pulse. He feels the tears begin to swell in his eyes, as the time has finally come. He knows that it is better for her, because she is finally out of pain, but can’t help but feel the emptiness begin to fill his insides. His stomach wrenches in pain, and he slowly begins to rise on shaky legs. He slowly makes his way over to the chair that Max is sitting in and puts his hand on Max’s shoulder.

“Oh!…You surprised me.” Max says as he almost jumps out of his skin. Seeing Alex, He knows what’s wrong but finds himself asking anyway. “What’s wrong? Isabell?”

Alex can not bring himself to even speak, so he just points over to Isabell’ s cot.

Max gets up and slowly walks over to her cot as Alex takes a seat. Max makes his way over to stand next to her, and looks down on her as a tear streams down his cheek. He thinks to himself They will pay for this. As the anger rises from inside him. He clenches his fists so hard, that his own fingernails dig their way into his flesh, and he doesn’t even register the pain it is causing. After a second he bends down and pulls the blanket up over her face, before heading bask to Alex. If he his feeling this way, he can just imagine what Alex must be feeling. As he walks over to Alex, he looks down at the palms of his hands and can see the bleeding gouges in them from his nails. He just looks down at them and the quickly close themselves to the point if there wasn’t any blood there, then you wouldn’t have even realized there had been a wound. He makes his way over to Alex and sits down next to him, giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder, before pulling him over to him and letting him cry on his shoulder.

After a few minutes Alex regains his shoulder and looks over to Max and without words says Thanks.

Max stands up and walks over to Liz, who is still sleeping in their cot. “Liz. Liz.” He whispers.

She wakes up and a smile comes to her face at the sight of waking up to see him in front of her, but her smile quickly fades when she sees the distress in his eyes. “What, what is it?”

“It’s Isabell…” He starts to tell her as the lump rises in his throat.

She already knows what he is going to say, and stands up to give him a hug. “Is there anything I can do?”

“You can wake up the other’s while I wake up Michael.” Max tells her.

“Sure. Anything.” She replies before heading off to wake Sarena and the Valenti’s.

Max walks over to Alex’s cot where Michael is asleep in it. He shakes Michael to wake up, and Michael’s eyes open quickly to take in everything around him. “What is it?”

“It’s Isabell. She’s…”

Michael already knows the rest of what Max is going to say, he can almost sense the emptiness inside of him.

“Come, give me a hand.” Max tells him.

“A hand doing what?” Michael asks.

“A hand getting her ready to bury.” Max explains.

“Do you think that is such a wise idea, seeing that the Skins are just waiting for the chance to kill us?” Michael questions him.

“I don’t care if it is a wise idea or not. She deserves it. For all that she has done for us, this is the least we can do for her. Now give me a hand!” Max orders.

Michael knowing the tone of his voice and knowing that he has no chance of talking Max out of this walks over with Max to Isabell’s body. They wrap her tightly in the blanket, as the others start to wake up and get ready. Liz and Sarena walk over to Alex to try and comfort him, as Max and Michael finish preparing Isabell’s Body.

Valenti grabs a couple of handguns and places them in the back of his belt before coming over to join Max and Michael. Michael noticing this gives him an approving nod, thankful that someone else will be prepared for anything. Kyle and Valenti give Max and Michael a hand carrying Isabell out if the UFO center and out to the back of it. Max leads them to a spot in the back of the UFO center where a barren tree stands. Max looks over to Michael and nods towards the tree and Michael already knows what he wants him to do.

Michael raises his free hand towards the spot of ground in front of the tree and begins to concentrate. The ground in front of the tree begins to shake and then slowly at first, but with increasing intensity, dirt begins to pour out of the ground like lava from a volcano, and before long there is a hole several feet deep, surrounded by mounds of dirt.

They all slowly lower Isabell’s body into the whole and Michael, Kyle and Valenti back up from the hole. Max looks down into the hole for a second, and then slowly waves his hand over the hole, and the dirt fills back into the hole, to the point where you couldn’t even tell that there was one dug there moments ago. Next Max walks over to the tree and slowly moves his hand down the side of the tree and these words appear. Here Lies Isabell Evans. Beloved Daughter, Sister, and Friend. May the memory of her live on forever.

Max steps back and looks at the tree as tears begin to flow down his cheeks. Liz walks over to him and places her arm around his side and pulls him close to her, and with her other arm she pulls Alex over to them too. The all hug each other as Sarena and Kyle watch them. Valenti and Michael half keep an eye on them and the other on their surroundings.

After about 15 minutes or so, Max pulls back from the others and wipes the tears from his eyes.

“Max, we better get inside soon.” Michael warns.

“He, he’s right. Lets head back in.” Max agrees.

They all head back in while Valenti and Michael come in behind them all.

“I don’t want to sound like I don’t care about all this, but don’t you find it at all weird that there were no signs of skins though that whole burial?” Valenti comments to Michael.

“My exact thoughts. They are up to something, and I’m really beginning to wonder what it is. What do you say if the two of us sneak out later tonight and take a look.” Michael answers him.

“You read my mind. We’ll go on your watch, and I’ll get Kyle to take your place while we are gone.” Valenti plans.

“Deal.”

They all head back inside the UFO center, not much talking going on. Max just sits at the table with the maps on it staring blankly at them, while Liz and Sarena head back to work on the cameras. Alex helping them out to help preoccupy his mind, and try to help him from thinking continually about Isabell. Kyle, Valenti and Michael head off to the supplies to go through them and get everything prepared for tonight.

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

Later that evening, Max looks over to a clock after watching the computer screens in front of him and sees that it is 2 in the morning. He rubs his eyes to try to get some of the tiredness out of them, but it has finally come time to switch with Michael for the watch. And the last few days haven ’t offered much sleep, and his body is reminding him of that fact. He rises and stretches his arms and back before heading over to Michael’s cot to wake him up. He looks over to see that Alex has fallen asleep in Isabell’s now vacated cot. He thinks to himself of how hard the last day has been on All of them, but how much harder it was for Alex. He couldn’t imagine how he would react if he were to lose Liz.

He shakes his thought out of his mind. He never wants to think about losing Liz, no matter what else happens. She has been the one constant in his life and he relishes all the memories they have together. He looks down at Michael who is sleeping on his back, snoring rather loudly. Most of them have gotten used to his snoring, but Max always appreciated the fact that they sleep on different intervals. Max leans down and whispers, “Michael. Michael wake up.”

“Huh? Wha? Oh, is it that time already?” Michael responds after taking everything in.

“Unfortunately, it is. So, up and at them soldier boy.”

“Very Funny. Ha. Ha. Has anyone ever told you how good of a comedian you are?” Michael says sarcastically.

“Uh, no.” Max answers the question.

“So, what does that tell you?” Michael quickly replies.

“That it’s time for you to get up and me to get some shut eye. It’s been quiet all night. Again.” Max adds the last part to show some of his concern, but turns from Michael after saying it and heads over towards the Liz and his cot.

“Ok. I’ll let you know if anything changes.” Michael says more as a joke meaning that nothing will, and then heads over to the chair in front of the computers.

Max arrives at their cot to find Liz has fallen asleep, with a book in her hand and notes spread all over the bed. He slowly slides the book out of her hand, making sure not to wake her, then her stacks up all the notes and books lying out on the cot, and stacks them on the floor. He then slowly slides himself down on the cot next to Liz, and Liz without waking rolls over and lies her head on his chest and nuzzles up next to him. Max lets the warmth of her body flow into his, and just enjoys the comfort he feels from it. He lies his head back down on the pillow and is quickly off to sleep.

Michael starts flipping from camera view to camera view for about 15 minutes before looking over to Max’s cot to see that he is asleep. He quietly walks over towards Max’s bed and listens to him breath peacefully in sleep. He was actually surprised to see him sleeping already. Even though he was surprised, he also thankful, because it will give them more time to do what they need to do.

Michael silently walks over towards Valenti’s cot, and just as he is about to give him a little shake to wake him, Valenti’s eyes pop open. Michael almost jumps out of his skin at seeing this, but quickly regains his composure realizing that Valenti was already awake. The two of them go and wake up Kyle next, making sure to keep quiet the entire time. Not wanting to wake anyone up, to what they were going to do.

The three of them quickly gather up all the supplies they will need, before meeting at the back door. Being far enough away from the others they feel comfortable being able to whisper to one another without fear of waking up the others.

“Ok, Kyle, lock the doors behind us. We will keep in strict radio silence unless something happens. You can watch the monitors to see our progress. If you see anything, Click the sending button 3 times and we will stop right where we are. We will wait for 3 long clicks before continuing. Got that?” Valenti explains the plan to Kyle.

“Not a problem. You two just let me know if you need support of any kind. I’ll be there faster that you can sing the national anthem.” Kyle tries to add a little humor to lighten the mood a little.

“You got it.” Valenti responds like he didn’t even hear it, while Michael just rolls his eyes back at the comment.

Michael and Valenti head out the back door, and Kyle locks it behind them. Then Kyle quickly goes over to the computer screens and hits the key to bring up the exterior camera and sees Michael and his father quickly making sure they have everything, before Valenti looks up into the camera and gives Kyle a thumbs up. Then the two of them walk off, as Kyle watches them disappear into the darkness. Kyle looks over his shoulder, more out of habit than anything, to see if anyone has woken up, but no one has. He turns back to the screens to keep an eye on as much as he can.

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

Michael and Valenti slowly make their way into the streets in front of the UFO center, taking every precaution possible to make sure nothing will surprise them. They walk side by side each one making sure to keep an eye on their side of the road. They slowly come up to the alley where Michael and Max had found Sarena and slowly make their way into the darkness. Valenti remembers the days when this area would have been lit up by the many street lights in the area, but since this whole war had begun there hasn’t been power in the town since. The Skins had cut all the power going to the area in hopes of driving the Royal Four out, but little to their delight, Brodie had a generator installed in the UFO center allowing them to maintain themselves.

Valenti doesn’t even notice that Michael had stopped for a second and Valenti was still walking down the alley. He turns back towards Michael when he notices that they are no longer working side by side, and sees him digging around in his bag. Michael eventually finds what he is looking for and pulls them out of his bag and walks over to Valenti and hands him one of the objects he has pulled out of his bag. Valenti looks down at then and sees that they are goggles, and a heavy pair at that. He puts them on to see that they are Night Vision Goggles. “Where did you get these?” He asks Michael.

“I found them in the UFO center. You wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff Brodie had stashed around in there. Never thought I would be happy that he was such an eccentric.” Michael quietly answers him.

Valenti just nods in response, glad to be able to see once again. He looks around the alley seeing everything in a green light. He notices large amounts of trash and rubble lining the alley as they walk through it. He is glad that Michael had found these goggles and brought them along. Just by looking around, he sees about half a dozen things he would have tripped on as they walked. Even though the goggles are cumbersome and offer only tunnel vision, it is better than not seeing anything at all.

Michael and Valenti continue to walk along, Michael taking in everything possible while trying to be ready for anything. He didn’t let the others know how much the fact that they hadn’t seen any skins of late has bothered him. Michael has always prided himself on being ready to react to any situation and to be ready to do anything that is required, but this waiting and not knowing has begun to take it’s toll on him. He has become jumpy, almost afraid of what would happen. He is sure that this is what the skins have planned all along. To let them lull themselves into a false sense of security, then take that opportunity to attack. He turns to Valenti as they come to the end of the alley and stop, and Valenti looks around the corner and waves for Michael to follow him.

They continue to walk down the side of the buildings, making sure to stay in the shadows of the buildings, even though they have yet to see any sign of the Skins. Valenti continues to take the lead as they make their way to the barbershop that the others had escaped through several days before. They slowly make their way inside and head towards the back of the shop to the hole in the back wall. Michael goes over to the hole and looks through it to see nothing. As he looks he remembers the last time they were here and how they were being attacked by the skins and now nothing, not a sign of them. He slowly crawls through the opening and Valenti follows after him after making sure that no one had followed them into the barbershop.

Michael makes his way over to the crumbled pile of debris from the building he had knocked down during the attack. Valenti just looks at the pile and looks over to Michael like, You did that? Michael just nods affirmatively and heads over to building on the other side of the alley. Valenti follows him to the building and they find their way over to the fire escape on the side of it. Michael is glad to see that it hadn’t taken any damage from the collapse of the build across from it, and he pulls the ladder down as silently as possible. He makes his way up the ladder as Valenti follows after him. At the top of the fire escape Michael makes his way over to the window at the end of the walk way. Valenti takes note that this would have to be one of the only windows in the area that hasn’t already been broken.

Michael reaches for the window to open it to find that it is locked, and le looks through it to see where the locking mechanism is. Once he finds it he places his hand over the window closest to it and concentrates until the lock begins to open itself. Once the window is unlocked he opens the window and makes his way in stopping to help Valenti through after him. They walk down the empty hallway, towards one of the rooms that head to the front of the building. This was the room that they had planted one of the cameras when this had all begun. Valenti takes out his gun and walks over to the other side of the closed doorway and gets ready for Michael to open the door. Michael reaches down for the door handle and slowly opens the door before flinging it open and Valenti goes in first with his gun drawn and ready to fire at any sign of attack, but there isn’t one.

He walks into the room and puts his gun back into his holster as Michael comes in behind him. Michael walks over to the window that the camera was in to find that it had been destroyed. Someone had found it and ripped it off its pedestal and crushed it on the floor. Michael lowers the bag he was carrying, as Valenti looks though the window over to the Warehouse some distance away. He doesn’t see any signs of movement outside, but he can see lights on inside. “It appears that we aren’t the only ones with a generator.” HE comments to Michael ash he fishes through his bag.

Michael just looks out the window and nods yes, and then he finds what he was looking for. He pulls out a spare camera from the bag and begins to set it up where the other one was. “Hopefully, they won’t notice that we have replaced this one until it is too late.”

“I sure hope so. Do you think they took out the others the same way?” Valenti asks.

“I sure hope not, I was only able to find three spare cameras that were still in working order, and it wasn’t like I could ask Alex to fix a few for us.” Michael tells him.

“No, I guess you couldn’t.” Valenti responds sarcastically.

Michael finishes setting up the camera, as Valenti keeps an eye out the window to see if there is anything going on. The only thing Valenti can see is the Warehouse, and there definitely is something going on inside, but from this distance there is no chance of finding out what it is. What he wouldn’t give to know what was going on inside. “So, where did you figure out how to work with those things?” Valenti comments.

“Watch the ol’ egghead long enough and you are bound to pick up a thing or two.”

“So, do you think this will work?” Valenti asks.

“Well I sure hope so. Any signs of activity out there?”

“Nope, nothing. It’s like they are getting prepared for something big, but what? That’s what I would like to know.” Valenti responds.

“You and me both. You and me both.” Michael says while gathering up the tools he was using. Before getting ready to move on to the next point of the night. Michael puts the night goggles back on, and Valenti and him head back through the doorway and down the hallway back to the fire escape, taking care to watch for any signs of movement. They make it uneventfully to the fire escape and make their way back down into the alley. They make their way down the street and to another building without event, finding that the camera located here had been dispatched in a similar fashion as the last one.

Michael quickly replaces this one and they make their way onto the third stop on their agenda, after climbing the fire escape and making their way into the building they go to where the camera is and find that it too had been destroyed like the others.

“Well, it looks like this will be the last stop of the night.” Michael comments.

“Sure looks that way.” Valenti says as he sees something move in the corner of his eye, and puts the night goggles up to his face and looks out into the darkness to see that it was only a piece of paper blowing in the wind.

“What? What was it?” Michael asks.

“Nothing, just a piece of paper. At this point I almost wish it was something, then I would at least know where they were.” Valenti tells him.

“I know what you mean. Well, this one is done. Looks like it is time to head back.” Michael says as he finishes loading his bag back up, before putting on his night goggles. Valenti just nods affirmatively.

They slowly make their way down the hallway and back to the fire escape and climb out onto it. Valenti goes to the ladder first and slowly lowers it trying to keep as silent as possible, but wondering why, since they haven’t seen a Skin this entire trip. Almost making him wonder if all of this was necessary. He begins to climb down the ladder after looking over to Michael as he looked out towards the warehouse, knowing that he too wanted to know what was going on in there. When suddenly something grabs his leg from below and flings him down onto the ground. Valenti can fell his arm shatter from the impact on the ground and he grimaces in pain as he rolls over to see a Skin. The skin is getting ready to fire some sort of weapon at him, but unable to make out what it is since the goggle were knocked off of him when he hit the ground. All he can see is the silhouette as his eyes take their time adjusting to the darkness.

Michael manages to looks down, just as Valenti falls from his sight, at first he thought Valenti slipped, but then he can see the Skin below him about to shoot Valenti. He reacts before he can think dropping his bag thought the fire escape opening and jumping over the edge of the railing, down onto the Skin.