Maria let out a blood-curling scream, breaking the second of silence. All I could do was stare at the head of Max's mother, discarded on the floor.
My brain had stopped functioning. Everything had happened so fast, so close to the dream I had just had, that I for a second was convinced that it was all a dream.
I must be dreaming. I must still be dreaming.
But then Mr. Evans roared, grabbing the limp arm of his lifeless wife and pulling her out of her murderer's grip. As soon as Diane's body was pulled into her husband's, Dresden, Max and Michael in unison fired energy blasts at the intruder, the combination of the blasts enough to have the alien disintegrate into a fine dust.
Before the dust had settled, Dresden spun round the doorframe of the entrance to the room with his arm raised in front of him, to see if anyone else was there.
I couldn't feel my heart anymore. I was still waiting to wake up.
"Mom..."
The broken sobbed whisper came from Isabel, who was stumbling to her feet and almost drunkenly hurrying up to her mother. It was painful to watch her confusion in deciding where to go. Her mother was in pieces.
Max had already left my side, running forward and - seemingly without acknowledging what exactly he was doing - picked up his mother's severed head and brought it to his father.
"We can fix her," he told Mr. Evans hoarsely.
Maria was crying hysterically next to me and in shock I slowly reached out and placed my arm across her shoulders, pulling her into my side. Her tears were hot against my skin when she turned her face into the curve of my neck.
"No," Mr. Evans said, giving Max a slight push away from him. "She's gone."
His voice was garbled and unrecognizable, while his stance signaled strength. He would not break down. Not now.
Max pushed his mother's head towards his father again, the scene looking morbid, and I could hear the tears in his voice now as he desperately cried, "Using enough energy we can-"
Mr. Evans slapped Max. "No!"
Paying Max no further attention, Mr. Evans tenderly placed Diane's broken body on the floor and took his wife's severed head from Max's hands, placing it on the floor as close as possible to where it had been attached just a minute ago.
Michael stepped forward and grabbed Max by both arms, pulling him backwards.
Mr. Evans looked back at his son, his eyes blazing with anger. "She's dead."
Max resisted Michael's hold with everything in him, his movements turning more and more frenzied as he tried to get loose.
I squeezed my eyes closed and mumbled to myself, "Wake up wake up wake up."
"She can't be dead," I heard Isabel sob loudly and then wail, "Noooo! She can't be dead. Mom! Mom!"
I looked into Diane's unresponsive eyes. Even from the distance, I could see the enlarged pupils and the mild clouding of her corneas. The eyes of a dead person.
"We can't fix this," Mr. Evans said, echoing my own distant thoughts.
At Dresden's authoritative bark, I opened my eyes again, "We have to leave. Now!"
I didn't hesitate. They had just killed a very loved person of our group. We didn't have time to delay.
"Come on, Maria," I told my friend and got to my feet. "We have to move."
Her strong sobs didn't lessen, but she followed my instructions without debate.
"We'll leave through the other exit," Dresden hurriedly instructed. "Leave everything behind."
I heard sounds from outside the opened door, before Dresden turned around and slammed it shut. Placing his hand over the lock, he melted it, before he took a hold of Alex and told him to, "Get Isabel!"
Grabbing Maria's hand, I pulled her towards the alternative exit, looking over my shoulder to make sure that Max was coming too and being relieved to see that Michael was forcibly pulling him across the room.
Alex was struggling to get Isabel to come along with him, but her need to not abandon her mother was stronger than Alex's muscles.
Soon enough, Mr. Evans left his wife's side to help Alex transport Isabel.
As if a spell had been broken, Max forcibly stopped thinking about what had just happened to his mother the second we left the room. Like closing a door. I heard him arguing with Michael, convincing him that he was okay, and then he was next to me.
He grabbed my free hand tightly, giving Maria a glance over - to assure that she was okay (as okay as she could get) - before he looked at me. We never stopped running and I couldn't fully take in his expression. But when I saw the wetness on his cheeks from his tears, I grew aware of my own tears.
But I couldn't think about that just yet. I couldn't think about the fact that both of our mothers were dead. I couldn't let the horrific death of Max's mother feed into the memory of my own mother's death. It would cripple me.
And that was just what our enemies wanted.
Instead I squeezed his hand and sent him as much love as possible through the connection. His pain was hitting me in almost unbearable proportions, but sadly enough I recognized the pain from grieving my own mother. I never thought I would benefit from that grief, but right then I realized that it had - in a sick way - prepared me for this. Stopped me from being bulldozed by what had just happened.
Otherwise I might be like Maria right now: stumbling along under the weight of her own wrenching loud sobs.
The sobs and wails echoed off the walls as we ran further down the corridor. They came from Maria and Isabel. The rest of us were disturbingly quiet.
When we reached the thick door that would lead out of the underground bunker and into the underground dirt tunnels, I remembered my dream. Max should have seen it, but with everything that had happened, I couldn't be sure if Diane's murderer had entered the room just as my dream had been underway, distracting Max.
Either way, I needed to inform him that, "Tess is here."
His steps slowed and I adapted my pace to his, making Maria barrel into my side.
Dresden got the door open and was ushering people through, into the unknown darkness on the other side, while Max came to a complete stop and looked into my eyes. He was searching my brain for answers, and with the dream at the front of my mind right then he easily found what he needed.
Looking both troubled and worried, Max turned to Dresden and gained his attention by placing a hand on the leader's shoulder.
Dresden distractedly looked at Max and said hurriedly, "Just go on through, Max."
Max inconspicuously shook his head and stated firmly, "Theresa Carter is here."
Dresden paused in the act of ushering my father through the door and slowly turned to Max. His face was unreadable, but his body had gone rigid.
Answering the unspoken question that hung in the air, Max said, "She visited Liz's dream right before the attack, stating that she had 'found' her."
"Right," Dresden said slowly, his gaze flickering around the remaining members (Maria, Max, Mr. Evans and I) and moving over the opened door. "That's not good."
He rapidly pointed towards the door and told the remaining members of the group to go through.
My stomach clenched and my chest tightened up as my nostrils were filled with the murky smell of damp dirt. The smell brought back memories of the hole in Max's abdomen. It brought back memories of blood and death.
I gagged, just barely stopping myself from throwing up. Max squeezed my hand tighter.
"Alright, listen up," Dresden said after closing the door and sealing it shut after him.
I looked at the seal he had just made and wondered why such a seal hadn't been done before so that the alien wouldn't have been able to come in and murder Diane. Or maybe it had been done, but had failed at keeping them out. If that was the case, why bother with doing it now?
Only the occasional hiccuped sob from Isabel was heard as Dresden started talking. I looked over at her, realizing that she was seeking comfort in Alex's arms. He had wrapped both of his arms around her trembling body, hugging her tightly.
"There are reasons to suspect that Tess is close by. Which complicates things further. Be suspicious and objective about what you see from now on. If she gets close to you she might manipulate your mind and make you see things that are not real. If something seems odd, out of place, too extreme; use caution. It might not be true. Trust your gut feeling. It'll be the only thing that has a chance of guiding you if Tess hijacks your mind. She might be clever enough to try and turn you all against each other. Don't believe it. We're working together now, right? So if someone seems to have turned against you, it might be a trick." He took a deep breath. "Do. Not. Feed. Into. It."
There was a second of silence before Isabel's voice, thick with tears, croaked, "Maybe she already did it. Maybe mom dying was all a trick-"
Isabel instantly got the hopes up in the group, while I felt a twinge of horror at having left Diane behind. What if she was actually okay? What if her death actually was a trick of the mind?
But Mr. Evans crushed that belief and there was no mistaken that he would have wished for Isabel's hopeful theory to be true. "Tess is strong, but she's not strong enough to manipulate so many minds into seeing the same thing at the same time. Because you all saw it, didn't you?"
I nodded mutely and felt that heavy grief brutally suffocate the momentary shred of hope when the rest of the group joined in with nods of affirmation.
A broken sob tore over Isabel's lips, but there was no more after that. She swallowed harshly and nodded, mostly to herself. My heart ached when Alex pressed a slow gentle kiss to Isabel's forehead and she automatically pressed into his body.
"Okay," Dresden said. His voice was incredibly jaded. "Stay together unless you are ordered otherwise. Look out for each other."
"We're about 4 miles from Command's location," Mr. Evans said evenly. "We might not have a chance to rest going there. There is a high risk that we have to go into battle immediately when we get there or most likely before then. We will be traveling underground the whole time. We will not light up the tunnels if not needed. Traveling in darkness gives us better protection."
That's when we heard the sounds on the other side of the closed door. My heart plummeted to my stomach and my deep gasp collided with Maria's. The alien murderer had not been alone.
Dresden lowered his voice into a hissing whisper, "Okay. Go!"
We scampered off, like frightened mice.
The tunnels were dark and frightening. Our nerves were on high alert, jumping at any possible sound that was out of the ordinary. For the most part, we only heard the sound of our own footsteps and nervous breaths. But occasionally, I thought I heard echoes of far-away laughter. But maybe it was just my stressed-out brain making things up.
Just like the tunnels leading up to the underground bunker where we had spent the last six days, the tunnels leading away from that bunker had sporadic exits. During the first stretch, those exits had doors, but the further we got, they were just holes in the densely packed dirt walls. I didn't like those exits one bit. Every time we got closer to one, I expected someone to be hiding there waiting to spring out at us.
To keep the fear at bay, Max was talking to me through the connection. Even though it was 99% strategy and going through abilities we had practiced, there was that 1% of comfort and love declarations. He didn't seem to want to linger too long on those 'subjects' though. I understood rather early on that letting how much he loved me sink in too much would put him in a fragile place of just wanting to take one of those many exits with me and have us escape what was waiting for us at the end of the tunnels. It made him feel vulnerable and lacking control.
It was all becoming glaringly obvious that we were about to risk our lives. It had become frighteningly real for Max the moment his mother had been killed. There was no way to prepare yourself for how quickly she had been robbed of her life. Max wouldn't let himself get sucked in by the very real fear of the same thing happening to me.
At one point during that tunnel marathon I had a silent discussion with Max about Maria. Wasn't she supposed to be hidden away?
But everything had happened too soon and there had been no time for neither my father nor Maria to be hidden. We decided to discuss it with Dresden at a time when it wouldn't frighten Maria too much. She needed to calm herself down enough from the trauma of seeing Diane become beheaded with someone's bare hands before we could spring on her the plan to hide her away somewhere. Where she wouldn't have any alien powers to protect her, only the feeble fortune of a good hiding place and her ability to stay as quiet as possible.
Apparently, Dresden had already thought of this.
Through a communication device no larger than an USB flash drive, Dresden was in contact with other members of the rebellion. The device was clearly alien, being made invisible at will and clearly visible and present when it would physically change hands. Dresden kept it attached to the top of his jacket and his mind processes would activate it when he was being called for by his allies. It also functioned just about everywhere, which was especially important when traveling underground.
We could hear him communicate in a language foreign to me throughout our run. Max had taught me some words, but a lot of the words spoken by Dresden was not known to me and almost not known to Max. Max only knew basic Antarian.
This meant that our leader had arranged for Maria's asylum long before I had started worrying about it. Right around the time when we had escaped into the tunnels.
Unfortunately, this also meant that I would have no time to discuss this with Maria before it actually would happen. Maria already knew of the original plan, but I personally knew that Maria wasn't all that keen about that plan. She wanted to stay with the group.
"We are closing in on a meeting point," Dresden basically warned us, saying the first words to the group in about 30 minutes. I called it a warning since Dresden probably said it out loud just so that the people meeting us wouldn't scare us to death. We were all as tense as a cat in a dog pound filled with starving malicious dogs.
"We will be splitting the group up," Dresden continued and my heart grew ice cold.
What did he mean by that? We were stronger together. Right? That's what had been drummed into us.
His words had us all come to a halt and my grip on Max's hand tightened at the same time as his grip on mine.
Before we had found words to question or protest, Dresden continued, "Williams will take care of Maria-"
"Whoa whoa whoa," Michael said loudly, putting his hands up. "That won't happen."
Maria's hold on my hand had loosened and my glance on her face took in her sudden paleness.
"She can't take part of this battle," Dresden said calmly.
Even though Michael had, just hours before, emphasized how wrong it would be for Maria to be play an active and fighting role in an alien war, he was right now opting for Maria to stay with us. "She won't be safe."
"I'm not going anywhere," Maria said, her voice a weak version of what it usually was.
I didn't say anything. I was torn. I just wanted Maria to be safe. But I wasn't sure what route was best suited to accomplish that.
If she didn't participate, she was less likely to get hurt just by not being in the midst of everything. But if she was stowed away, what protection would she get? The best men would be needed in the war. They would not be appointed to protect a human teenager.
"If she goes, I'm going too," Michael declared firmly.
All eyes were on Michael at his statement.
Max was the first to say what was probably on everyone's (except Michael's) mind, "Don't be stupid, Michael. You're needed in the battle."
"Must I remind you," Mr. Evans said, his voice still worn and oddly unrecognizable from the events earlier, "that you are appointed to protect my son? It would be-"
Before Max's father had finished what he was saying, I knew it was a bad decision to bring their archaic laws into this. Michael's eyes flashed with anger and he opened his mouth to say a thing or two, at which point I interrupted.
Addressing Dresden, I fought to keep my emotions under control and asked, "Will you leave Maria alone to fend for herself or will she be protected?"
The expression in Dresden's eyes was soothing and reminded me of the magnificent color and size of his true (alien) eyes behind that human mask. "Dan Williams will take care of her."
Michael's one-worded opinion on this was final. "No."
"You have no say in this," Mr. Evans said with cold impatience.
"Is he good? Can he protect her alone?" I asked, curling my fingers tighter around Maria's hand.
"He's good," Dresden answered simply, his tone telling us that his reply marked the end of the discussion.
But Michael wasn't sensitive to those indirect ends of discussions. Instead he looked ready to pop. Like a boiler ready to explode. His face was turning red, even in the darkness of the tunnel, and his eyes were growing larger and more distinct, taking over his face. It looked like he was fighting with himself to remain where he was and not run up to Maria.
"He's not good enough," Michael pushed out between clenching jaws. "Fucking Williams."
My throat was getting drier by the second and I forcibly tried to swallow past my heavy tongue.
Should I trust Dresden or Michael?
Michael obviously knew who this Williams was. And he didn't seem overly impressed with the man's capabilities.
They're not gonna waste their best men on protecting Maria, Max told me grimly through the connection, confirming what I had myself suspected but hadn't wanted to believe.
I felt cold all over, magnified by the feel of Maria's cold hand in mine. It felt as if I was going to lose her. Like the hold on her hand right now was the only thing keeping her alive. As soon as our hands would separate, her life would be hanging by a thin thread.
"We're losing men by the minute," Mr. Evans said darkly, his voice having dropped almost a whole octave. "We don't have time to select a man of your preference, Mr. Guerin."
"We should all be grateful that we are able to spare someone to look after Ms. DeLuca," Dresden filled in.
I'm sure it was not supposed to come off as so cold and indifferent, but the words instilled a streak of hopelessness in me. It was becoming very clear that we were all hanging on by a thread by now.
We were losing this war. And keeping one human girl safe from aliens was certainly not very high on the priority list.
To be frank, their only reason to keep Maria safe right now might only be to keep me sane and thus keep my connection to Max intact, ensuring their own survival.
I looked over at Maria and met her frightened eyes.
She might not be much to the aliens, but to me, Maria was family.
At the thought, my eyes moved to my father. He was disappearing into the background. The only times he became noticeable was when he was alone with me or Maria. On those occasions he became more like himself. But in all honesty, my dad hadn't truly been himself since my mother had been murdered.
I wondered now, catching his eyes from across the small circle we had formed, if he was only surviving because of me. If he was only keeping my mood up in training, making sure that I ate and slept, and running with me through underground tunnels, in order to make sure that I survived. Looking into his shiny tired eyes, which lacked that sparkle of the person who used to be my father, I wondered if he was already dead. If he had died that day when my mother died. I wondered if this whole alien business had robbed him of everything normal and if he would ever be able to find his way back to himself.
With his lack of active participation, I realized that everyone in the group had forgotten about him. He had formed a small group with Diane earlier - them being both human parents - but now Diane had been killed just a couple of feet from my father. With Diane's death he had all but faded into inconspicuousness.
"What about my dad?" I asked, before the lid on the boiler that was imitating Michael would shoot off. "Will he go with Maria?"
Dresden cleared his throat, almost looking embarrassed for a second (making me suspect that he had indeed forgotten about my father), and glanced over at dad before answering, "Yes."
"Don't worry, Ella," my father said quietly, his voice as comforting and warm as I always remembered it to be. My heart trembled. "I'll look after Maria."
I swallowed back the tears. A few feet from me, Michael was calming down, his anger possibly interrupted by the prospect of Maria not being alone with Williams. Not that my father could do much in ways of protecting Maria, but it must have comforted Michael some - just like it did me - that Maria would be with someone she knew very well.
I was relieved by the idea of my father being hidden from the battle. Without the will to fight for his own survival, he would not survive in an alien conflict. Knowing what Maria had learnt during her stay with us in the bunker, Maria was most likely the one to protect my father if needed, not the other way around.
"Yes," Dresden declared. "Maria and Jeffrey will go with Williams. The rest of us will continue."
I swallowed and nodded. Gauging the other's reactions, they seemed complacent. We all knew that we were running out of options and that this was probably the best solution.
I squeezed Maria's hand and met her eyes. She gave me a weak smile, which I tried to return, when my father surprised me by stepping up to me and wrapping me in a tight hug.
Goodbye.
This was goodbye.