“Ok, we got everything?” Max asks.

“Yep, and we are off.” Valenti responds before pulling away from the UFO center.

“Ok, so head over to the old gas station just at the edge of town. It should give us adequate cover and a place to strike from.” Max says while pointing out a place on the map directly between the well station and the town.

“You got it.” Valenti responds.

“Ok, so what is the plan when they come?” Michael points out since they have yet to cover that part of the plan.

“Well, we will need to stop the truck without destroying it in the process, so I think our best chance will be if I stop the truck, but the rest of you will have to be ready to react right away. We’ve got to get to them before they can even think of breaking their seals to avoid capture or attack. We don’t know what weapons they will have with them, so we will have to be careful.” Max begins to tell his plan.

“Ok, gotta.” Kyle says nodding. “You stop them. We tackle them.”

“Yes, but remember they have weapons that we have no idea how work, as we have recently witnessed.” Max says with a pained look on his face as the memory of Isabell rushes through his mind.

“Ok.” Alex says without really responding to anything, while he busies himself with the stuff in his lap that he grabbed from the bench before leaving.

“We almost there.” Valenti says while tapping on Max’s shoulder and getting him to turn around and look.

“Ok, I’ll get out and open the garage, we should be able to hide the vehicle in there.” Max says.

They pull up to the garage on the far side of the gas station, and Max slowly gets out of the vehicle looking around to make sure no one was around, and quickly makes his way over to the garage door and looks inside. He reaches down and pulls the door open and looks inside one last time before waving Valenti into the garage. Valenti pulls the truck in and everyone gets out and heads to the back of the truck and begin to unload it.

“Ok, get the ropes ready. We will want to tie them up as quickly as possible.” Max tells the others while looking outside.

“Ok guys, here grab some of these.” Valenti tells the others while handing a few things to each of them.

“Zip Ties? What are we going to do wire them up?” Michael responds confused.

“They are super strong, and a lot quicker than ropes, plus more secure. The only way to remove them is to cut them off. They are commonly used in place of handcuffs in riot situations.” Valenti tells him.

“Oh. Ok.” Michael says while placing them in his back pocket.

“Ok, Kyle, you and your father stay over on this side of the street. Alex, you come with Michael and me to the other side of the street. When we see the truck I will signal you guys right before I get ready to stop them, and as soon as I do, you guys go. Got it?” Max tells everyone what to do.

“Got it.” They all respond.

“Okay, from my estimates we have probably about 10 minutes before they come back this way, so let’s get ready.” Max continues.

Valenti and Kyle head over to stand by one gas pumps and get ready, while Alex, Max and Michael head across the street and hide behind a flipped over car. And settle in to wait for their target to arrive.

After a few minutes you can tell that Michael is starting to get antsy. “Ok, Max how much longer?”

“Relax Michael, it’s only been 3 minutes. We’ve got a little longer to wait.” Max tells him.

The waiting isn’t easy for any of them. They are all beginning to get anxious, and when 10 minutes comes and goes, everyone begins to get nervous. Max keeps looking to his watch and back to the road, with an ever increasing nervous look on his face.

“Max, where are they?” Michael asks him.

“I don’t know!” Max snaps back, but just at that minute he hears something and signals for them all to be quiet. The sound he hears is a truck engine and he can see the dust being kicked up by the truck before he can see the truck itself. Max stands up a couple of seconds before the truck is about to reach them, and raises his hand. A green shield is cast up in front of the truck and the truck slams into it, throwing the passenger through the windshield and the driver smashes his head into the steering wheel. The others quickly jump to react.

Valenti and Kyle run to the driver’s side and pull the door open, while Alex and Michael run to the passenger who is now lying on the hood of the truck, and yank him off. Valenti quickly pulls the driver out of the truck and throws him onto the ground. Where Kyle quickly jumps on his back and grabs both of his arms and pin them together behind his back, while Valenti quickly uses one of the zip ties to tie his hands together. Valenti then ties his legs together, and uses a third to tie his hands to his feet.

Michael and Alex do no run into much resistance from their guy, since he was still un-conscience from going through the windshield, but knowing about their quick recovery rates, they didn’t take any chances. Once they got their guy tied up, they began to drag him over to lie next to the first one. At that time Valenti reaches into the truck and turns the engine off, allowing Max to drop his shield, which he kept up to prevent the truck from trying to move while they were acting.

“Thanks.” Max tells him.

“No problem, thought you were getting a little red in the face.” Valenti jokes with him.

“Ok, let’s see just what they were after.” Michael says as he rounds to the back of the truck with Alex. He reaches the back of the cloth covered truck and grabs the corner of the fabric and flings it aside. At that exact moment, he hears a shot from inside the truck and quickly jumps out of the way, just to see that Alex was hit square in the chest, but not before Alex managed to react and fire back before falling to the ground. Michael quickly jumps up raising his hand into the truck ready to strike when he sees that Alex had managed to his the Skin that was hiding there. A second later Michael sees the skin’s body disintegrate, before turning and running over to Alex.

“Alex!!!” Michael screams while running over and grabbing him and pulling to him.

“What? What was that?” Max say running around from the front of the truck and sees Michael holding Alex in his arms, knowing what happened without having to ask. He quickly ran over to Alex’s body to see what he could do. But as soon as he gets there he knows that it is too late.

“Max…Max do something.” Michael pleads with him.

“I…I can’t Michael. It’s too late.” Max tells him. “He was hit with the same type of weapon as Isabell. Even if I could bring him back, how long would it be for, and what kind of pain would he be in.”

“But….” Michael tries to continue but can’t. The tears filling his eyes.

“Michael, it was his choice to come. He knew the risk. Plus now he’s with Isabell, and I know that makes him happy.” Valenti tries to console him before heading over to the back of the truck and looks inside. “What did you hit him with?”

“It wasn’t me, it was Alex. He managed to get him with this…” Michael says holding up the alien weapon that Alex was working on.

“That is one powerful weapon. It took the whole back of his head off and plastered it on the back side of the truck.” Valenti responds before climbing in. “Hey, come look at this.”

“What is it?” Max says standing up and walking over to the truck.

He looks inside to see Valenti standing by some boxes and other equipment in the back. Valenti is digging around in one of the boxes, and finds something and pulls it out. “Look familiar?” He says holding up one of the guns from the crate.

“How many are there?” Max quickly responds, while climbing into the back of the truck.

“At least a couple dozen, from my estimates.” Valenti responds.

“Where’s the water?” Kyle points out after climbing in.

“Yeah, that’s weird, where is it?” Valenti responds.

“Ok, they weren’t out for water, then where would they have gone to get this stuff?” Max asks more just to ask the question, than actually expecting an answer. “Well, we don’t have the time to figure that out now. Let’s load the all this stuff and make it back to the UFO center before the rest of the Skins get word of what we did.”

They all quickly get to work loading their vehicle, while Michael is still sitting on the ground holding Alex. “Michael, come one. We’ve got to get moving.” Max tells him.

“I’m not leaving him here, Max.” Michael responds as the tears continue to flow.

“I don’t expect you to.” Max answers him carrying over a blanket to him. “Let’s wrap him up, and take him back with us. We’ll bury him next to Isabell.”

“He would have wanted that.” Michael says, while wiping the tears from his eyes and lying the blanket out onto the ground and then wrapping Alex’s body in it and silently carrying him back to the truck and placing him in the seat next to him. Noticing the two that they had captured were tossed in the back with the rest of the stuff.

The rest of the trip was very silent, no one wanting to break the silence the entire way back.

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

Liz, noticed them return in the camera outside the rear door, and was pleased to see Max was the first one out of the truck, but her pleasure was quickly washed away when she saw the look on his face and Michael pulling something wrapped up out of the car. She reacted before she even had realized, flipping the chair she was sitting in, onto the floor, while running to the rear door and flinging it open. Once outside she knew who was in the blanket, seeing Kyle, Valenti, Michael and Max there. Michael laid Alex’s body down on the ground before going to the back of the truck. Opening the back and grabbing the first Skin in the back by the arm and flinging him out of the truck and slamming him head first down on the ground.

“Michael!” Max screams while running over to stop him. Max has seen this side of Michael before, and in his anger he was likely to kill them, before they were able to get any information out of them. “Michael, we’ve got to questions them. You don’t want Alex’s death to be for nothing. Do you?”

“No.” Michael snapped back, but realizing that Max was right, he turned and walked away from the truck.

“Kyle, why don’t you and your father, take these two into the UFO center and secure them in there. I don’t want any chance of their escape.” Max tells them.

“Michael, help me unload the rest of the truck and then we will give Alex a proper burial.” Max tells Michael, who slowly returns to help him unload the stuff they had taken from the skins.

Liz and Sarena help unloading he truck. Once the truck was unloaded and the prisoners were secured in the UFO center, they all silently gathered outside, where Michael had picked up Alex’s Body and was carrying it out to the tree where they buried Isabell just a couple of days ago. He takes a second to lie Alex’s body down on the ground before using his power to dig another hole, next to Isabell’s grave. He then picks Alex’s body and places in down into the hole, and steps back while Max, Kyle and Valenti fill the hole back in. Max walks over to the tree where he had place the message for Isabell which read Here Lies Isabell Evans. Beloved Daughter, Sister, and Friend. May the memory of her live on forever. He move’s his hand over it and the words quickly change to read, Here Lie Isabell Evans and Alex Wittman. Love brought them together, and will keep them together forever. May their memories never be forgotten.

Max then steps back from the tree and walks over to the others.

“It’s all my fault.” Michael breaks out into tears again.

“No, Michael it’s not. Remember you told me yourself that this was out of my control. Well, you were right. We need to be here for each other. Sometimes we may need to make sacrifices, and Alex made the highest one of all. If he hadn’t reacted when he did, you may have been next as well as the rest of us.” Max tries to calm him down. He walks over and throws his arm over Michael’s should and they all head back to the UFO center silently.

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

They all quietly headed back into the UFO center after the burial, and went about doing what they were doing. Liz and Sarena went over to the computers and continued to work on some stuff together, as Max and Michael sat down at the table without speaking to one another. Michael just sat back in the chair staring across the table at the prisoners, with such hatred in his eyes, that if it were possible, he would kill them with his look. No matter how much he try to consider himself above all of this emotional stuff, he is constantly reminded of his human side, and it’s ties to emotions.

Valenti and Kyle come over to the table and take a seat with them. “So, what should we do with them.” Valenti asks.

“Kill them!” Michael blurts out.

“Okay, we will call that plan B.” Max responds without even looking at him. “We’ve got to figure out what they know. Since none of us have Isabell’s ability to dream walk into their minds, we will have to do it the hard way. As we already know, their husks protect them from most anything, as long as their seals aren’t damaged. And assuming that they are not going to willingly give us the information that we want, we are going to have to coerce the information out of them.”

“Coerce?” Kyle asks.

“Yeah, and knowing that their husks will absorb a good amount of the damage, we won’t have to hold back too much. So, what do you think, Michael? Think you can make them talk?”

“Just let me at them.” Michael tells him as a large smile crosses his face.

Max looks over to the two prisoners, and points his finger at the smaller of the two. “Leave him, and take the other into the back room. Michael, I want you to get as much information out of the other while you are back there, while I have a chat with this one.”

Valenti and Kyle got over and grab the larger of the two and drag his chair, with him tied to it, into the back room. Michael slowly stands up and cracks the knuckles on both of his hands before heading into the back room after them.

Max walks over to the smaller of the two, and sets a chair down in front of him and takes a seat. He can detect a worry on the prisoner’s face that he is trying to hide. Max suppresses the smile that he can feel building within him. “Okay, I’ll give you this chance to tell me what you know.”

The prisoner just sits there, refusing to answer Max. He just looks from Max’s Face, to over his shoulder towards the back room, and then back to Max ’s face.

Max simply sits up straight and begins to stare him down, waiting for him to crack. “Ok, we’ll wait. I’ve got plenty of time, which unfortunately I can ’t say the same for you.”