"Goddammit, what happened?" Alex groaned as he tried to get up. His stitches had torn loose, and he was bleeding again.
"Get off me man," Marcus complained, pushing him up and away from himself.
"Alisha, are you okay?" There was no answer.
Alex scrambled to his knees and peered into the extended cab of the truck. Alisha lay there in a heap, her eyes wide open, and he neck at an odd angle.
"Dammit!"
"Wha?"
"Alisha's dead. Broken neck."
"Damn."
Coming out the back hatch on the cab, they saw Garrett trapped beneath the trailer, half out of a window. All they could see was his head, arms, and shoulders. There was blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth.
"Garrett? Are you hurt?"
"Yeah," he coughed up some more blood, "I think I have a broken rib."
JJ climbed out of the sleeping cab at the back. "Where's Alisha?"
"She broke her neck in the crash," Alex told him. "Help me get Garrett out form under here. Everyone, push at the same time."
Try as they might, they were unable to budge the bus even a little bit.
They turned around to find a semi-circle of twenty armed alien troops surrounding them, weapons pointed and ready to fire. They could easily have opened fire and killed them all, but for some reason they hadn't done that. So far.
"Don't leave me," Garrett choked, "Please don't leave me like this."
Alex pointed at the soldiers, then at Tony, and mimed a pushing motion. They didn't seem to get it. One of them pointed with his rifle to the left and made some clicking and grunting sounds. Alex repeated the gesture desperately, this time actually pushing on the bus. Still nothing.
"Alex, help me," more blood was coming out of his mouth.
Now it was Max Stafford that he saw lying there, pleading him for help. He threw his back madly against the bus and pushed with all of his might. "I'll get you out of here, Max." Blood was starting to run down his side from the stitches he had ripped out.
JJ joined him, back against the trailer and pushing with his legs. He knew about Max, and understood his friend's fervor and helplessness.
Marcus joined them, and then John and Tony. Even Karen and Shannon added their effort to the cause, but to no effect. The trailer might as well have been a mountain for all the good they did.
The soldiers moved forward and began shoving them away from the bus and towards the landed ship. The one who pushed Alex was surprised when he grabbed the rifle out of his hands. He stuck it under the truck and tried using it as a fulcrum. The soldier recovered quickly and hit him on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
Alex's eyes popped open, and the first thing that he was was Shannon's face, a look of deep concern and sadness in her eyes. He was lying on the ground with his head in her lap.
"Hey brother," JJ knelt down beside him, "try not to move, okay?"
"Garrett?" Alex managed to get out in a hoarse whisper.
When JJ shook his head, Alex felt hot tears running down his cheeks. Alisha and Garrett lost at the same time, and Kris before that. It had been a very bad week for his friends. Max and Boomer and Hollis before that in Afghanistan. Was he cursed? Were all of his friends doomed to be casualties of his actions? The thought chilled him to the bone.
"Hush now," Shannon told him, "The rest of us are okay. We'll get out of here somehow."
A song that he really liked by Breaking Benjamin was going through his head;
"Tired of feeling Lost, tired of letting go, "Tear the whole world down, Tear the whole world down, "Tired of wasted breath, tired of nothing left, "Tear the whole world down, Tear the whole world down, "Failure. Failure."
"Where are we?" he managed to choke through his tears.
"Some kind of camp," Tony said, "hundreds of people in a fenced-in area."
"We've got to get out of here," Alex said as he tried to sit up. A wave of nausea and dizziness washed over him and he fell limply back onto Shannon's lap with a groan.
"You might have a concussion," she said, "you're not going anywhere yet."
"Dammit," he cursed. "JJ, are there any soldiers in here?"
"Yeah Sarge, lots."
"Recruit some. We'll need help if we're going to escape."
"You got it, boss."
The pen that they were in was surrounded by a wire fence, but the horizontal wires glowed with an orangish color. Obviously some kind of electrified fence. About a hundred people wandered hopelessly around the fenced-in area that was about half the size of a football field, alone or in small groups, though there was little conversation going on.
"Hey brothers," JJ said to a few soldiers in uniform standing together.
"Who are you?" one of them asked.
"Specialist Jasper, First Infantry Division," he said, clasping their hands in turn, "call me JJ."
"Meyers, Copeland and Perez," the one said, "10th Special Forces Division."
"Spec Ops? Great! You guys want to get out of here?"
"Hell yeah, man."
"Come with me."
Within an hour, JJ had half a dozen captured soldiers gathered around Alex, who was just beginning to be able to sit up without being sick. He was still dizzy and nauseous, but he could control it now.
"How long have you guys been here?" he asked the soldiers.
"About six hours," Meyers said, "haven't been able to find a way out yet."
"How many gates?"
"Just two. One on either end."
"Split up," Alex told them, "watch the gates to see how they open them when they bring in new prisoners, or take them out."
"Copy that, Sergeant," they said, disappearing into the crowd or prisoners.
"Don't let them touch the wires," A young girl's voice said nearby.
"Excuse me?"
"They're electrified or something. If you touch them it'll hurt. Bad."
"Who are you?" Alex asked the teenage girl with straight black hair and black eye shadow.
"I'm Raven. This is Nixie. She touched one of the wires by accident."
The second girl was about the same age as Raven, but with dyed red hair and an angry frown. Her arm was lacerated from the elbow to the wrist, crusted with blood. She held it protectively to her chest.
"Oh, honey." Shannon exclaimed, "let me take a look at that."
"Why?" Nixie asked angrily.
"I'm a nurse. At least let me bandage it up for you."
"Go ahead, Nix," Raven told her friend.
Nixie reluctantly approached her and held out her arm for examination. She winced and hissed in pain as soon as Shannon touched it.
"That's from just touching the wires?" Marcus asked.
Nixie nodded. Shannon took a tube of antibiotic ointment out of her pocket and began to slather it over the wound as gently as she could. Then she took off her shirt and ripped it into strips for bandages, leaving her in only her bra. She didn't seem to mind.
"Thanks for the warning," Alex told them.
"We overheard you gathering people to escape. We want in."
"Okay, we'll take you with us."
"We don't just want to tag along," Nixie said angrily, "we can help too."
"How can you kids help?" JJ asked.
"We're not kids," Nixie said as she punched him with her good arm.
Okay, sorry," he said, holding up his hands in surrender.
