Falling Skies : between friendship, love and fight [TOME 1]

Chapter 7 : The implanted problem

- Hey, Eléa. What do you think about a little competition ?

- Competition of what ?

- Pumps. The one who do the most won.

- Won what ?

- The right to have beaten the other one ?

- Ok, sounds good.

We come in the room where the Mason family sleeps. There was already Hal who I think was already asleep. We started to make pumps and Matt counts.

- 98, 99 and 100. 101, 102 ... You just did 102 pumps.

- We did ?

- Guys, enough. I've got night sentry duty.

- Kind of gross, huh Ben ?

- Shhh !

- Some of the other kids you were with said that their spikes are going away.

- I know. Ours aren't. Maybe it's cause the others weren't there as long as Rick and us.

Matt ask if it still hurts, we say that it is only at the beginning but not so much now. Then Matt ask if he can touch spickes of Ben, he accepts and pretends that it's painful. And Matt ask if he hurted him. And for any answers, Ben told him that he couldn't stop himself. We're laughing, even Hal.

- What was it like ... With the skitters ? Did they talk to you ?

- Not like you think. It was ... You don't exactly have your own thoughts when you're with them. It's not like you're thinking. At least not the way you normally do, so ... It's more like someone's thinking with you.

- Hum ... Remember when we went camping with dad and you weren't feel well ? You were hungry and you were thirsty and your stomach hurt. Well ... Imagine if dad knew everything you wanted before you even asked for it.

- You must have been scared.

- When they first caught me, I was never more afraid in my entire life. But after the harness, it wasn't so bad.

- Ben, did you miss us ?

- I don't know ... In some bizarro alien way, I think the skitters actually cared about us, you know ? They weren't monsters. They were family. I know it sounds wierd but ... sometimes I still miss that.

When Ben finishes his sentence I smile at him saying that is true, and Hal sit down on the bed and get up to leave the room.

Hal goes to the infirmary to see Anne.

- My turn ?

- Were you waiting out there ?

- Yeah. You got a sec ?

- Just. You're not sick, you're all right ?

- No, no, no, no, I'm fine.

- It's just, uh, .... Hum ....

- You can think of me as your doctor, if you want. Anything you say stays between us.

- It's Ben and Eléa .... Something's up with them. You know I mean, I know what all they're been through and everything. It's not that. It's like ...... They're just not acting like themselves.

- I find it too, says Elisa coming in the room.

- Like how ?

- Like she just did 100 pumps without breaking a sweat.

- Same for Ben and he'd have been lucky to hit 10 before the attack.

- For Eléa, it was when she managed to make just one.

- We don't know what they had them doing all those months.

- No, we know ... It's just hard to explain, tries to explain Elisa.

- If you had known them before, you would understand what we feels like. He was .... my bratty little brother. You know. He was my bratty little brother that was twice as smart as me. And now, he's like ...

- A grown-up ?

- No, they're ..... They're differents, replicated Elisa.

Hal and Elisa came out of the lab letting Anne thoughtful. They went in the room where Clayton has convened all the parents to explain them what they'll do. There, they join Ben and Eléa. Ben goes in a corner of the room with Elisa, letting Hal and me alone. We look at each other and smile.

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

- Especially now, when you've got all these people thinking that their kids are the enemy ! Say I.

- No, you see, you've got them thinking that ! I'm trying to get them think about the safety of their kids instead of their own comfort. This is a temporary measure, folks, until ...

- Until what ? Until We're attacked ? Then what, Terry ?

- You think the skitters are just gonna give us a pass ?

- I never said that !

Tom arrives and try to calm everyone, and ask what's going on. A man ask to everyone who lost their kids if they still had his kids with them, will they split up.

- Hey, that hasn't been decided yet. Everybody here wants the same thing .... Our kids to be safe.

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

- We don't want anybody to die, this is about what it's gonna take to survive, said Elisa.

- Well, I swear to God, anybody tries to take my little girl ...

- Hey, don't forget who the enemy is. Everyone here has had to make hard choices just to make it this far. And we're gonna make more. But if we fall apart now and we start turning on each other, then it doesn't matter when the attack come cause we've already lost.

- And who's gonna decide what we do if they attack ? Weaver ?

- No, I will, said Tom.