Can you make a chapter summary?

yeah that shouldn't be a problem... and would give info on the previous chapters faster than re reading everything

ok... those people who are still semi active on this forum only have to wait another day. this is going to be my longest post yet. its time to introduce 'The Gang', and the 'Core Men'

Seperate your chapter into parts. Then post it per day. Don't like reading huge paragraphs.

they arent huge paragraphs... you mean huge posts? if i did individual posts per paragraph that would be a hell of alot of posts

Ok. Right, do it your way.

OK people... this is certainly my longest one shot post i have done... its a double feature, chapter 5 and chapter 6....



“Your not kidding me are you?” Sails gulped. “Skynet. I never would have... Skynet.” He paused for a moment trying to wrap his head around what was told to him. “Skynet.” He repeated. “So almost all of humanity has been destroyed by something designed to protect? Billions dead at the hands of a military pet project. I mean, it was the military after all. Couldn't they have seen this coming and stopped it before it could attack?”

It didn't take long for us to tell Sails everything that we knew. The sun was still hanging low in the eastern sky when he started asking questions. I had let Kyle do most of the talking, and I spoke up every once in a while to fill in a missing detail. This elaboration wasn't just for Sails benefit, Mac also was intent on learning what we knew. “Agreed.” He said. “The US government wouldn't just let something with that much potential firepower go unchecked. The instant something went wrong they would have pulled the plug.”

Kyle nodded. “According to what I learned, they tried. They even when so far as to rebuild the entire code in an attempt to fix Skynet.” He paused for a moment, recalling what Wyatt had told him. “As you can tell, they failed. Skynet restored itself from backups, and became 'angry' with its creators. It infected the world basically, the declared war by launching a nuclear Armageddon.”

“But the early warning systems...” Mac started

“Under Skyent's control.” Kyle said cutting him off. “The American, Russian, Chinese, and Korean arsenals were large enough that Skynet could strike every city and population center at ease. It didn't have to strike from long distance either, it used local nukes against local targets.”

“To what end though?” Mac inquired. “What kind of military firepower can it have other than missiles and what was already built? It destroyed every industrial sector, so there's no factories or anything left for it to use.”

Kyle shrugged, at a loss on how to answer, so I answered for him. “Skynet has what's left of the industrial sector, what's left of the worlds manufacturing ability. Even if only one factory was left operational, Skynet produced machines from that factory could be used to repair, or build, more factories. Given time it could rebuild the world's infrastructure and raise a virtually unstoppable army.”

“So were screwed in other words.” Sails interjected.

Kyle shook his head. “No. Everything has a weakness, we just have to find Skynet's and exploit it. It's not hard to see a T-70 on approach, and if we're vigilante then drones will be easy pickings. It's not like they can sneak up on us easily.” Kyle paused for a moment. “Speaking of sneaking around, aren't we late for our date? If we miss the time window, lingering in a dead city isn't going to be fun.”

“I guess we are.” Mac said as he stood.

“Yeah. We can continue this conversation while we're on the move.” I suggested, and agreements were all around. “Hey, Mac. Do we have any extra supplies? If this has a chance of being a trap, Sails should be armed when we go in there. I'd hate to have him die on us when we just met.” Sails gave me a funny look, and walked over to where Mac was standing.

“Yeah I think we have one or two.” Mac said as he moved around the damaged Humvee to its rear. “Sails. You ever fired a weapon before? I don't want to give you something that might accidentally kill us.”

“Not many” He responded. “A few pistols, and a riffle a few times when I was younger.”

“Hmm, OK.” Mac reached into the rear of the Humvee and pulled out a M-16 and two clips. “Here you go. You shouldn't find that too unwieldy or hard to use.” Sails accepted the weapon and Mac turned back to the vehicle. “Hey Kyle and Derek, get over here, I might as well out fit us all right now.”
We walked over, and he started pulling out different equipment. “If were going in, might as well be heavily armed, and as well equipped as we can get. Which is going to be basically everything that I brought.”

The first thing he gave to everyone was a thick and heavy vest. “Kevlar.” He explained. “It'll stop a bullet, but will still hurt like hell.” He looked at me. “Specially on you and your ribs, but it's much better than nothing. Just don't go around acting invulnerable, you can still be killed with one of these things on.” The vest was very heavy, and restricted movement a bit, but if it stopped a bullet it was well worth it. Mac put his on, then instructed us on how to put them on and tighten them down.

After inspecting each of us, he went back to the Humvee and pulled out more equipment. He handed each of us a belt holster, and we put them on. “USP-45's, good pistols, not the greatest but good. Twelve round clip, and a good range if you can shoot accurately.” Mac said as he handed each of us one, and he gave each of us two clips. I chambered a clip, and put the other in a vest pocket. I tested the weight of the pistol, and satisfied I put it in the holster and clipped the covering on. “They won't do a dammed thing against armored targets, but their better than nothing when you run dry on ammo.”

“Speaking of...” Mac reached back into the Humvee and grabbed the two boxes of shotgun shells. “Sails and I can easily carry our ammo in our vests, I don't know if you guys want to carry extra. They might decide to explode on ya if your hit just right. Your out though, right?”

I nodded and took the boxes from him. “Yeah, ran out in that last fire fight with the drones. Your low too, Kyle, that is if I remember correctly.”

“Yeah. Never got a chance to reload after the T-70 attack.” Kyle took a box and started loading shells.

Sails looked at the three of us and asked, “How much combat have you guys seen? I mean it sounds like you were attacked by a virtual army.”

“Between the three of us, and one other, we have taken down what? One T-70 and four air drones? Skynet has been after us since it's seen us.” I started loading my shot gun in the standard order: bird-shot, high-explosive, bird-shot... The prospect of using a HE round against a human was gut wrenching, but we would need the firepower if Skynet was on the hunt.

“This other, he's...”

“Dead.” I answered. “Dead for no damned reason other than that damned T-70.”

“Wow. You guys have been through hell.”

I discovered that the belt had shell holders in the back so I loaded five rounds of HE and five rounds of bird shot into into it.“I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of hell.” I said morbidly as I finished. “If thing's a trap then you'll get a taste of it too.”

“So you really think that Skynet would go so far as to set a trap just for you guys?” Sails asked unconvinced.

“Not just for us.” Kyle answered. “For everyone else with supplies and a radio. Skynet's out to kill everyone, not just us. I wouldn't be surprised if it was set up for us though. If I was Skynet, I would be pissed at the amount of destruction we have caused.”

I rested my shotgun across my shoulders and waited for Kyle to finish loading. I had to admit, we looked impressive,. If we were a little more clean cut, we would have made a killer recruiting poser for the army. Matching vests, two people with shotguns, and that rugged look. The only one who looked slightly out of place was Sails. He didn't look very comfortable this heavily equipped. Mac seemed to agree with me, “If you guys were in camouflage, you'd seriously look like my old unit...” He stopped for a moment. “We should go.”

Mac turned and got into the driver seat of the Humvee. Kyle gave me a concerned look, and I shrugged. Must still be upset from the war. “What was that about?” Sails asked.

“He lost most of his unit in Iran. He's ex-Marine Core, not my place to tell his story. You'll have to ask him on your own.” I said quietly. Sails gave a concerned look, and we headed tword the Humvee. “Don't worry. I would trust him with my life.” He paused to consider my statement, then got in.

As I got in Mac turned over the engine. “I'm not going to go slow this time, we need to make up for lost time.” He looked back at me. “You alright with that?”

“I'll be fine. The pains not nearly as bad as it was. So go ahead and floor it, we don't want to miss them after all.” Mac turned back, and eased the Humvee onto the deserted road. A moment latter the engine roared and we were on our way to Sacramento. “Hopefully this drive is much less eventful than that of our previous one.” If it's not, at this rate were going to be long dead before we get anywhere near a city.

Chapter 5 part 2

Human instinct. It is both our weakness and our strength. It can predict terrible events, but if you ignore it, things around you can go horribly wrong. Everyone in there life has experienced that intolerable itch at the the back of his or her mind. It screams that something is terribly wrong, but you believe that nothing could be mistaken. If you heed its call it may save you life, but you may become dependent on that instinct. If you fail to listen you may regret it, but you will be wizened. That nervous tick can save you, but also damn you in the future.

The instant we saw the remains of that once great city of Sacramento, that instinct kicked to life inside of me. Dark spans of cloud covered most of the horizon now, and took what little sunlight there was and turned it to a dark orange glow cast among the ruins. Large piles of concrete and debris could been seen from long distance, the remnants of city blocks. Few buildings were left standing from what we could tell, and those that towered in the disaster, were nothing more that shells. Large fires burned in different sections of the city. Those fires poured dark gray smoke into the air, adding to the low hanging clouds. How anyone could survive in such a wasteland was beyond me.

“My god.” Sails was the first to break the silence.

“God had nothing to do with it.” Mac countered. “We did this. Humanity destroyed itself with its own creations.”

“Not yet it hasn't. We're still alive and kicking, and so are other people.” Kyle said with a hint of hope.

“Provided that this isn't just a trap.” I said grimly.

“Shut up, or I'll hit you.” Kyle joked. “Seriously though, it doesn't matter trap or no trap we have to try.”

No one talked much more. We were all silent in the awe of display of raw, destructive, power. Millions used to live in Sacramento now they were all dead. Turned to ashes and spent upon the wind. There were no bodies, nothing other than rubble marked that man once lived here. Our speed dropped tremendously as we were forced to drive over piles of rubble. Everything was gray, the concrete chunks, the sky, even the smoke from the distant fires. The smell of ash and charcoal was heavy upon the winds, and dust flew up behind us.

Mac drove the Humvee on a little further into a narrow valley, and stopped the vehicle. He turned off the engine, and turned to face us. “We're going to have to hoof it from here. I don't want to risk getting trapped in a pile of rubble.” He grabbed his P90 and got out. The rest of us followed suit shortly. “City center should be a few blocks ahead. Its better if we approach on foot anyways that way they don't have a chance to easily find our escape route.”

Making our way across a few blocks seemed simpler than it actually was. We tended to follow the narrow valley streets, and hit dead ends multiple times. What was less than a quarter mile on map took us over an hour to navigate. Eventually, we became frustrated and stormed up the hills of debris. Even that choice had dead ends. Large slabs of solid concrete forced use to choose a different path, and strait drops forced us to back track.

Eventually we climbed the last hill, the one overlooking the ruins of the city center. Below was possibly the only semi clear area in the interior of Sacramento. A largish square area, was surrounded on all sides by rubble, and had only a few large chunks of building in it. It was open, very open. Anyone could be spotted moving into the square, and it would be difficult to spot someone prone on the ridge of a pile. “I'm not liking this setup.” Mac voiced with concern. “It's a shooting gallery. Anyone who goes down there could be very easily picked off by a sniper. Minimal cover, and large open areas between that little cover and the piles. Who ever goes down there is going to be killed if it's a trap.”

“Maybe we should wait up here for them to show first?” Kyle suggested. “That way we have the drop on them if they pull a stunt.”

“What if they are waiting for us though? What if they wont show until we show ourselves?” Mac countered. “If they truly need help they are going to take precautions, not blindly accept help from someone who could be out just to kill people.”

“I'll go.” I said, and started to head down.

“Hold up.” Mac said quickly. “It's suicide to go down alone. I'll go with you. Kyle and Sails can cover us from a range. That way even if things get dicey with them or us we have close and long range firepower. Just don't shoot unless you have to, OK? I don't want dead civvies.” Kyle and Sails nodded, and Mac and I started to make our way down the broken slope.

About half way down the slope, I turned to look at Mac. He had seemingly changed personalities. His face was locked in a determined way, and he carried himself differently. “Anything wrong?” I asked concerned.

“No.” He responded quickly. “I'm fine.” He slipped suddenly, and landed hard on his side. I rushed over and tried to help him get up. He knocked my hands away and repeated, “I'm fine.”

“You're not acting fine.” I pushed as he got back up. “Something is off, and your going to tell me before we get down to the square.”

“I told you, I'm fine.” He repeated while he started moving down the slope again.

“No.” I said crossing my arms. “You're not, and I'm not moving till I find out why.”

He stopped and turned to look at me. He was angry, and obviously not wanting to talk along these lines. “Stubborn idiot.” He said harshly. “Fine. You want to know what's eating me?” I nodded. “Fine. If you really want to know, I'm worried that this is going to be a repeat of Iran. I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to respond fast enough and all of you are going to end up dead. Dead. Dead like Mike, Luke and Reamer. Killed by inaction, and failure, on my part. Dead like all those civvies, and their families. Dead, dead, dead...” He trailed off, then began to storm down the slope.

What?! I couldn't think of a response. By the time I could he had a large lead on me down the hill. “Wait!” I called out after him. He didn't slow, or turn to look back. “Wait Mac!” I called out again as I made my way down the broken slope. He cleared the four stories of ruble and headed tword the open center. By the time I made it fully down, he was sitting and leaning on a chunk of concrete in the center of the clearing. I walked over to him, and he didn't even turn to look at me. “What the hell was that about?”

He chose not to respond, so I sat down across from him on a slab of concrete. “Come on. If there's something on your mind, spill it. We can't help if we don't know what's going on”

He took to looking at the grayed out sky. “It's nothing you can fix.” He said flatly.

“Well, tell me anyways.”

“We have known each other for what? Two days?” He asked.

“Hell of a two days though.”

He laughed slightly. “Yeah, hell of a two days. More action in forty eight hours than I have seen in a long time.” He paused, and looked down at his feet. “Thats exactly the reason I exploded just a moment ago. My unit members who died in Iran because of me, were some of my best friends. Even though I have only know you guys for a very short period of time, I already consider you my friends.”

“War does that to brothers in arms.”

“Aye. It does do that.” Mac voiced softly. “That's just the problem. You guys are my friends. I don't want you to die like my other friends. I failed them and they died, and I'm afraid of failing you guys. If you end up dead because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself.”

There was a long period of silence as I considered what to say. “Well, maybe you just overly worried. You are human after all, you can't discard friends and emotions like those tin cans. We can fight, we can defend ourselves, what happens happens. This is war after all, people die. The best we can do is make sure that their sacrifices aren't in vain.” I paused for a moment thinking of how to continue. “If that horrible accident hadn't of happened. My bother and I would likely be dead right now, and Sails would have starved sometime soon.”

Mac looked slightly cheered, but still worried. “Never thought of it that way. OK, I'll stop worrying under one condition.”

I gave him a confused look. “OK. Shoot.”

“You guys aren't allowed to die before I do.”

I balked, and considered it for a moment. There was no point in denying the request, nothing I could do about it one way or another. “As long as you don't have a death wish, that's not a problem.”

“No.” Mac said quietly. He shifted to a kneeling position, and brought his P90 to a more level position. “I don't have a death wish. They might however.” I followed his gaze behind me. Three figures could be made out on top of the debris. They were heavily armed, and had obviously spotted us.

“If they have one,” I said as we watched them descend. “I'm sure we'll have no problem granting it for them.”

Chapter 5 part 3

When two dogs meet for the first time, there are two wildly different actions that can occur. The first is that there is a general exchange of greetings followed by mutual acceptance. This meeting can be just a casual thing where the dogs part in a short time, or it can be the beginning of a pack. The second reaction is much more violent. The dogs will greet each other, then start attacking. The will fight, bloody and torn, until one is sent fleeing or is dead. In this regard there are only two options: friends or enemies.

Unfortunately for us humans, things are never that simple. There were three of them, and only two of us. We had Kyle and Sails on the hill, but much could happen before they react. What will we do if they want to kill us? The obvious answer was to run or fight. Sails could cover us if we had to run, and Mac and I might be able to take them before they kill us. They had made it to the clearing and were making their way tword us. Fight, run, stay. Fight, run, stay. My mind raced trying to figure out what to do. “Calm down Derek.” Mac said seeming to read my mind. “Let them make the first move.”

I forced my self to relax, as the three came close enough to make out in detail. In the middle of the three was a woman, who obviously held the authority position. She was about 5' 7” and had a shock of orange hair tied up in a pony tail. She wore a vest similar to my own, and was armed with a MP5. Her face as dirtied with dust, and here cloths were ragged. Despite her worn outward appearance, her eyes seemingly look in every detail of me. Those cold blue orbs seemed to look right through me as she took stock of me. I ripped my gaze from her, and took measure of her to escorts. They looked brutal. Even though one was my hight and the other was slightly shorter, they were insanely well built. One of them wore a vest, but they both carried nasty looking sawed-off shotguns adding to their look of intimidation.

No one said moved or said anything as we took measure of each other. Sails and Kyle had to of seen them by now, and would be ready to act in an instant. It seemed like an eternity before the silence was broken. “I'm Jaina. This is Waves, and Jamis.” She said pointing to them in turn. “Now then, who the hell are you.”

“Marine core.” Mac said before I could respond. “The name's Mac, this is Derek. We heard your...”

Two loud clicks emanated from a radio on here hip. Jaina held out a hand to stop Mac, and we tensed. She reached down and quickly unhooked it from her belt. “Go.” She said. The radio was turned down to far for us to hear the message. “Bring them.” I flinched, and so did Mac. I cast a sideways glance at the hill where Kyle and Sails were concealed. Damn. They appeared over the top of the hill, followed by five more figures, probably more of Jaina's men. “What's with hiding men in the debris? Thought the Core was more honorable than that.”

“This is war.” I responded. “Didn't know if this thing was a trap or not. Right now it's looking a hell of a lot like one though.”

“More of an ambush.” Jaina corrected. “We don't like surprises, or uninvited guests. Particularity when they are as heavily armed as you.

“Uninvited?” Mac asked. “Weren't you the one who was calling out on the CB frequencies that you were in dire need of medical supplies and food?”

“Yes I was.” She said bluntly. “But four Core men wasn't what I was expecting. If you came to help by offering guns and ammo, we'll just take those from you.” I tensed. She was serious, and I had no doubt about her ability to kill us when Kyle and Sails were already captured.

“So thats it huh?” Mac asked. “Lure in those that have come to help, then kill them and take what you want from them? Your no better than the machines.”

That got her attention. She crossed the void between her and Mac in two quick strides. Faster than I could react she reached out and slugged Mac, hard. He didn't flinch as her fist slammed home on the side of his jaw, but was forced to back up a step from the shear power of the hit. “Don't you ever say that!” She screamed as Mac recovered from the hit. “I lost my brother to them! Don't you dare ever say that!”

“You have quite the right hook.” Mac said as her rage abated. “So are you going to kill us? If you are then at least tell...” He stopped suddenly. “Down!” He yelled as he grabbed and threw Jaina to the ground and fell on top of her.

What the... My silent question was answered as a missile few past not two feet in front of me, and exploded a half second latter. The world spun as I was knocked off my feet into the air. I hit the ground hard, bounced, and slammed into a slab of concrete. My breath was forced out from the jolt, and my ribs screamed in protest. I am REALLY beginning to hate this. I propped myself up on my elbows trying to make the world stop spinning. A second explosion sounded before I could focus. I looked in the direction of were the first missile came from and I managed to catch sight of four aerial drones. Shit. Not them again. They turned about quickly and disappeared into the mountains of rubble. No way are they done yet. I forced myself to my feet, and retrieved my shot gun a short distance away from where I landed.

Re-armed, I ran over to where Mac was. “Mac? You alright?” He was still over Jaina.

“He'll be fine, he got knocked out by the explosion.” Jaina said as she crawled out from underneath him. She located her gun, and pulled out her radio. “This is Jaina. Give them back their guns, and spread out. Those buzzards are going to be back any moment.” She turned to me. “No, I'm not going to kill you guys, never planned on it. You buddy here probably just saved my life, so now we're going to save his.”

She turned away from me, and headed to where Waves and Jamis were recovering from the attack. “You two. Up now. Run to the rest of the gang, bird-shot's not useful here.” They nodded and sprinted off tword where Kyle and Sails were. She when back to Mac's unconscious form and picked up his P90. “That goes for you as well Derek. Use his gun, shotguns are worthless against buzzards.”

“No.” I said as I emptied out my shotgun into my hand. “I have dealt with these things before, and what I'm packing is more than enough to down them.” I started loading the HE shells back into the Spas-12, along with the other rounds I had in my belt.

“Your funeral.” She said scanning the horizon. “Damn it. Where the hell did these ones come from?”

“Probably following us. Skynet's been out to get us for the last three days.” I responded as I finished loading.

“Skynet?” She asked confused.

“I'll explain latter.” I said as I spotted the drones in the distance. “There.” I said pointing in the distance. “Looks like we get to play bait.”

Jaina reached down for here radio as she saw them as well. “This is Jaina, buzzards four north-northwest, coming in low.” She put the radio back on her belt and grabbed up her gun. As the aerial drones closed in she opened fire. Sparks flew off of the first drones amour, but caused nothing more than minor dents. The drone spat bullets, but its aim was off due to Jaina, and they hit earth a few feet away from me. I didn't even look up as the drone flew over head, kept my gaze intent on the next drone in line. “What the hell are you doing?!” She screamed at me as she turned to keep firing at the first drone.

I ignored her. The second drone spat more bullets, this time its aim was true. Most of the bullets hit the concrete ledge I was behind but one hit dead center on my vest. The vest dispersed the impact around the whole of my upper body, and I winced from the screams of protest from my already wounded ribs. I held my position though, and as the drone flew over head, I put a round into it. The round exploded dead center in the undercarriage of the drone. Although it seemed to continue to fly, it began to collapse and crashed a short distance away. Secondary explosions ripped through its remaining frame as its remain ammo bins and missiles cooked off.

“Down!” I heard Jaina scream, and this time I threw myself quickly to the side and down to the earth. A hail of bullets passed through the space I just occupied, more than enough to have either knocked me out or have killed me.

The third drone passed overhead, and I couldn't manage to get a shot off before it was out of range. The fourth had apparently decided that I was a bit of a risk. It pulled its run short, and decided to launch a missile in my direction. Jaina grabbed the back of my vest and literally threw me and herself out of the path of the missile. Our dive was accelerated forward by the blast of the explosion, and I bounced hard against the ground. Ow. Jolts pain lanced from my ribs, god damn it. At this rate I'm going to break my ribs again.

The surviving drones disappeared into back into the rubble as I forced myself to stand again. “What the hell are you packing?” Jaina asked as I helped pull her to her feet. “You fried that buzzard in one hit!”

“Shot gun buck doesn't do a damned thing against them. Shotguns aren't effective, eh?” I teased. “Normal rounds just bounce. High explosive rounds, on the other hand, rip them to shreds.”

“You Core guys are defiantly well armed. Lucky us that you guys showed up when you did.”

“We're not all Core.”

“What?”

“There.” I pointed at a metal shape moving in the sky. “Thats one of them, looks like its about to attack.”

“This is Jaina, buzzards one. Going to come right over you, nice and slow.” She said into the radio.

“Jaina!” The radio barked back. “Buzzards two! Opposite direction! Low! Fast! Looks like they already have you in their sights!” I spun before the message had even completed. Shit! They were already close, and I could see one them spinning up its forward guns. I pulled off a hasty shot, and got lucky. The round snaked into the turbine of one of the drones, and exploded. The drone careened off to one side, and the other unleashed its attack.

I swear I was dead. Everything slowed down as the remaining drone launched a missile. I couldn't get out of the way on my own. Jaina was to far away from me to knock me down before it hit, and I knew I was dead. I failed. Kyle would be left on his own in this hellish world. Looks like I broke our promise, Mac. It's truly amazing how fast you think, when you believe you are dead. I guess I could say that most of my life 'flashed before my eyes' before I felt a sharp tug on my legs. My feet flew out from underneath me, and everything sped up to normal.

I landed hard on my back, and the missile skimmed harmlessly over head into a rubble pile. Someone had pulled me down, and I lifted myself to look tword my feet. “I told you! You aren't allowed do die before I do!” Mac was prone at my feet, and had his pistol out. He unloaded into the drone as it passed over head, and rounds sparked off the armor. “Who the hell took my gun?!” He yelled as the drone passed out of range.

The debris pile that the drone was trying to escape over, roared as the drone approached. Flames of bullet fire erupted from it and peppered the drone from multiple directions. No matter how well armored, or how good the maneuvering, there was no escaping that withering hail of bullets. Countless rounds sparked off of its amour, and several impacted its vulnerable turbo fans. Several of the shooters were forced to scatter as the drone careened tword them. Most of them we're well out of the way by the time the drone impacted the hill. The done exploded, and large chucks of the miniature mountain slid down in an avalanche. Kyle!

I didn't even had a chance to go rushing to the pile in search of people buried in it. The last drone came slowly over the hill, looking for exposed targets. I spotted a small movement near the top of the debris, and then the drone exploded. I relaxed as I realized there was only one thing that could destroy a drone in that fashion. My suspicions were confirmed as Kyle rose, holding his shotgun.

“I took it.” Jaina handed the weapon over. “Thought you were going to be out for the duration.”

“Takes more than one tiny missile to keep me down.” Jaina smirked at he boasted. “Speaking of down. Mind telling me why you didn't move you ass Derek?”

“I...” I paused. What the hell did happen? “I guess I froze. When I saw that missile launch, I knew I couldn't dodge. So I guess I just resigned myself to my fate.”

A flash of movement, and my world suddenly shifted to the right. A sharp pain, followed the crack of the hit. “Don't be a fool!” I was to stunned at Jaina's slap to respond to her. “If you want to live, if you want to fight, then save your ass first! You want to die, then do that same thing again, and next time there wont be anyone there to save your ass for you!”

Mac chucked, and I glanced at him “Don't look at me. If I had got there first I would have decked you. In my opinion you got off easy.”

“Great everyones out to get me.”

“No. They are out to save your ass.” I turned and Kyle and the rest of the hill group were standing behind me. Most of them with amused expressions.

“We see that Jaina has formally inaugurated you.”
“Hurts like hell doesn't it?”
“You should have seen your expression, it was priceless!”
“She has done it to all of us, at least once.”
“And more than once if your not up to her standard!

“Thank you, peanut gallery.” I snidely responded.

Waves stepped forward out of the pack. “So, Jaina. What are we going to do with them?”

“They are to stay, and are free to go whenever they choose like the rest of you. Until proven other wise, they are friends, and family.” She declared, then turned to Mac. “Now then, you said you had supplies? Care to lead the way?”

“My pleasure.”