He never looked back. Daniel took off at a sprint, and after dodging a couple more of the green power circles, kept going. He crossed three fields, and even saw two more white-walled pods, but steered well clear of them. Then he dropped into a valley, and followed it west, with the sun to his back. This led him to a small town, of maybe two hundred buildings.

Daniel passed a couple of buildings on the outskirts, but avoided going into town, thinking that it would be the first place that the overseers would look. He followed a small creek that ran west from the town and hit a river that ran north to south. He swam across the river, then continued west up a step rise. Here there were a couple of cabins, overlooking the river back to his east.

The cabins were locked, but Daniel managed to climb through a small window into one, where he laid down on a dusty bed and quickly fell asleep. His dreams were haunted with the beautiful face and images of Victoria.

When he woke several hours later, he was disorientated. Had he missed first chime? He reached out for Number Seven, ready to climb on top of her, then the memories of his crazy flight last evening came flooding back to him.

The biggest concern was that he had no food. He knew how to hunt, trap and fish, but was hesitant to leave the cabin. Still, he waited until it was dark again before he went down to the river. After he caught a fish, he set a couple of snare traps.

He gathered some wood and snuck back into the cabin. After locating a lighter, he started a small fire in the fireplace and cooked his fish. He could remember eating a lot of fish, but he couldn’t remember one tasting this good. He giggled for about a half hour over the fish, then realizing that he had killed it, he sobbed uncontrollably for another half hour.

In this manner, Daniel spent the next two weeks. He snuck out at night for food, and stayed in the cabin during the day, sleeping and having emotional outbreaks. He ate several fish, a squirrel, and a groundhog.

The bouts of shame over his recent rapes and murder were the worst, followed up by his sobbing over his lost wife Andrea and lost love Victoria. This was followed by him stomping around the cabin smashing tables, lamps, mirrors, and pretty much anything that he could get his hands on during terrible anger tantrums. More then a few times, he regained his composure and found himself cowering in terror under the bed, hiding from the aliens.  It had been a tough two weeks.

The good news was that his emotional tantrums were becoming more and more infrequent, and he was finally regaining control of himself. He had also found some useful items. A first aid kit, a hunting knife, a flashlight, and some new clothes. He packed away some blue jeans that were just a little loose and a couple of long sleeve shirts.

One thing that he had noticed during his nighttime food outings was that every once in a while he would see series of small blue and green lights in the sky. One day while he was peeking out of the cabin window, he saw an eagle sized flying machine go by, with the same blue and green lights on it. The enemy had drones. Their lights were easier to see during the night, so that pretty much sealed the deal that he would be traveling at that time.

Tonight, he had big plans. He was going to sneak back to the town that he had passed through during his flight from the orchard pod. He was hoping to gather some intelligence on the enemy and learn anything that could help him.

Once it became dark, he waited for another hour, then left the safety of his cabin. It didn’t take him long to make it back down to the small town, where he headed straight for the bar. Not that he needed a drink, although a stiff one sure would come in handy after what he had been through, but he was seeking something else.

He had seen the Black Castle Tavern on the outskirts of the town when he went through the first time, and made his way back there. It had several damaged motorcycles strewn about the parking lot. The door was unlocked, and he quickly went inside.

Daniel lit the candle that he had brought, and noted that the interior was about what he expected. A rough and tumble biker bar, with a couple of pool tables and a beat-up old jukebox in the corner.  He began searching behind and under the bar. Next, he went to the manager’s rundown office and found what he was looking for.

Behind the desk was a Mossberg 12 gauge over-under shotgun. Upon closer inspection, he noted that it was a Maverick HS-12 Thunder Ranch edition. It was black and weighed just over six pounds. He was able to find a shell box in the desk drawer with 17 rounds in it. He had figured that the police stations had been emptied out, but knew that a good biker bar just might pay off. Now he was armed.

He had also gained some information. On top of the desk were invoices, showing that he was in Castle Rock, Washington. Odd, he had just assumed that he was still in California. He grabbed a bottle of Jack and another of Captain Morgan and headed back to the front door. A quick peek outside revealed that he was still alone.

Once he exited the bar and started to head back towards his cabin, he saw something that caught his attention. A building in the downtown area was covered in recruitment posters. ‘Join the Resistance!’ lined the walls. He cautiously made his way into the building.

Daniel’s well-trained eye quickly spotted several green power circles placed in random spots on the floor. He carefully made his way over to a desk, and saw something odd. Pictures of the old prison on Alcatraz, calling it ‘America’s Last Stand’. It appeared that Alcatraz was the headquarters for the resistance. The location wasn’t what he found to be odd.

Why would the resistance be openly advertising their headquarters? Even in a small town, the overseers were likely to eventually see these posters and fliers. It didn’t add up. Regardless, he needed to get back to his cabin before daylight. A noise startled him. A banging noise. He carefully made his way back to the front door.

Blue and green lights passed by right as he opened the door. He froze in place while it passed by. About fifty feet away, the drone stopped and hovered. Still, the banging noise was coming from the opposite direction, some distance down the street.

Daniel made his way back into the resistance center and sat with his back against the front wall, near a window. It wasn’t safe to try and make it back to his cabin. It took him awhile in that position, but eventually he drifted off into a fitful sleep. It was a talent earned in the Marine Corps. Most marines could fall asleep anywhere at anytime.

He startled awake several hours later, Victoria’s perfect face fading away with the sleep that had just left him. The banging sounds had awoken him, because now they were much closer. In fact, it sounded like they were coming from right outside the window that he had been sleeping under.

Daniel got onto his knees and peeked out of the window. He could tell by the position of the sun that it was a few hours past noon. A very loud bang interrupted his thoughts. That’s when he caught sight of him. A man!

He was tall, round, and bald. The man was prying at the aluminum shutter with a bar. Once it popped off, the man turned and tossed it into a gray power circle where it disappeared with a sizzle. Then he crossed to the other side of the window and started to work on that shutter.

Daniel was so excited to find another human that he quickly rose and stepped out of the tavern door, saying “Hey, did you escape too?”

The tall heavyset man slowly turned and faced him. He wore the same tan pants and shirt that they had worn at the orchard pod. The man had no hair on his entire head, including his eyebrows. On his forehead, running the complete circle of his brow was a silver metal band.

Yet, the most startling thing was his eyes. They were completely covered in a milky white film. The large man cocked his head and sniffed the air. He let out a loud grunt, and raising his metal bar, charged at Daniel.

The man’s weapon was actually more than a bar. It was three feet long and made of iron. On one end it had a two-pronged fork for prying, while the other end had a hand sized hammer head. It looked to be well constructed, and could be used for prying, pulling, and smashing things. The hammer head was what was coming straight for Daniel’s head.

He barely dodged the blow, and threw a hard right punch into the man’s gut, spinning away from the attacker. The man responded quickly, swinging his free fist at the retreating Daniel, catching him in the side of the head. The blow was tremendous, sending him sprawling.

            Daniel came to a rest on his butt, just in time to take the pronged side of the bar into his left shoulder. The prongs were about two inches long, wide at the end, but ending narrow. Probably for pulling out various sized nails, bolts, and screws.

The deep penetration of the weapon caused him to yell out in pain. He responded by kicking the large man directly in his knee, causing him to buckle and fall onto his other knee. Daniel quickly kicked the man in the face, knocking him backwards.

            Daniel crab crawled away from his attacker, and rose to his feet, just as the milky white-eyed man was staggering back to his feet. He grabbed the 12-gauge Thunder Ranch by the stock and yanked it from the top of his pack, ripping it free from the Velcro straps that held it down.

            The bald man took one step forward when a blast from the shotgun removed his face. He staggered backwards, falling into the gray power circle. With a loud sizzle, he was gone. Daniel turned to go back to his cabin, and found himself facing one of the drones with the flashing blue and green lights.

It hovered two feet away from him, at face level. He raised the shotgun and blew the drone to pieces. He reloaded two fresh shells into the 12-gauge while he took a moment to think. His shoulder ached, and his shirt was turning red in that area, but he didn’t have time to worry about that.

He was sure that the overseers had seen him via the drone, so there was no returning to his cabin. They were coming and he needed to get as far away from here as possible. Daniel strapped his weapon back on top of his pack and ran. 

He ran for two hours straight, maintaining a steady pace. Being a marine, he was in good shape and knew how to run. He had scored a 300, the maximum score, on his last military physical fitness test (PFT). The test consisted of pullups, sit-ups, and a three-mile run. It was a tough feat to max the PFT, and he had done it twice.

He stayed on dirt roads, following the setting sun west, and at the two-hour point, he found an old red wooden barn just off the road. Daniel made his way inside, and after sitting on a hay bale, he took off his shirt to inspect his wound. There were two deep gouge holes in his shoulder that were still leaking blood.

He pulled out the small first aid kit from his pack that he had found in the bathroom of his cabin. He opened the bottle of whiskey and took a deep draw from it, before he poured antiseptic onto his wounds. When the pain subsided, he taped gauze over the holes and applied direct pressure over the wounds, hoping that it would stop the bleeding.

By the time that he had finished, it was getting dark outside. Daniel made a semi-comfortable bed out of the hay bales, and fell into a deep sleep. Once again, he was awakened by noises. These were humming sounds coming from outside the barn. He went over to a small four pane window and after wiping it clean, took a look outside. What he saw sent fear from the pit of his stomach to the rest of his body.

A long column of the overseers’ hover cars were passing by on the dirt road. There were at least ten of the cars, emitting the blue light from underneath, and accounting for the loud humming noise. There were four overseers in each car. One driving, one watching a screen, and two manning some type of mounted weapon at the rear of the vehicle.

The front car turned and slid up to the barn, while the other nine cars continued down the dirt road, heading west. He could see the next lead car turn off and head towards a white farmhouse. The two overseers that weren’t manning the large gun exited the hovercar and started to approach the barn. He needed to hide, and fast!.

He grabbed his pack and rolled off the hay bales, pulling a couple of them on top of himself, while groaning from the pain in his stiff shoulder. Then he heard the barn door slide open. Daniel put his hand on the shotgun, more for comfort than anything. He was only able to load two rounds at a time into the Thunder Ranch, and there were four foes to contend with.

He could hear the overseers rummage around for a bit, and saw them turn over a couple of wooden crates. He tensed up when he could see two black boots through a sliver of space between the two hay bales. Then the two overseers abruptly turned and left the barn. Daniel took a deep breath of air, not having realized that he had been holding his breath.

Once he heard the familiar hum of the hover car moving, he cautiously made his way back to the small window and looked out. He saw the hover car that had been at the barn pass by the farmhouse and continue down the road. He found it odd that the two overseers on the mounted gun in the hover car at the farmhouse never even acknowledge the others in the passing car. His enemy seemed to be very emotionless.

A couple of minutes later, two overseers exited the farmhouse and got back into the hover car. They then followed the route that the other cars had taken down the dirt road. But Daniel wasn’t focused on them anymore. There was no mistaking what he had seen. The curtain on an attic window in the farmhouse had fallen back into place. Somebody had been watching to see of the overseers had left, just as he had been doing.

Daniel decided to wait for the cover of darkness to make his move to the farmhouse. First, he had to stop his bleeding, because his gauze was now soaking wet. He had used his antiseptic earlier, so this time he poured whiskey on the wound, and after squeezing his fists through the pain, he tried stuffing gauze inside of the two holes, then covered the whole bloody mess with another pad.

The sun had told him that it was around noon, so he laid back down, trying to get some more rest. His mind was racing, with thoughts of Victoria and Andrea, and the people in his pod. He was certain that they were all dead now, because of him. He drank half of the bottle whiskey, before he finally drifted off.

Sometime after dark, he startled awake. Had he missed first chime? He rolled over to get on top of Number Seven, before he remembered where he was. He was startled to realize that they had programed him so well, that his subconscious automatically reverted back to his daily routine so easily.

He removed his red stained shirt, and noticed that the new bandage was now soaked in blood. When he stood up, he grew dizzy and had to steady himself. Daniel once again changed his bandage, using the last pad that he had. After his head cleared, he put on a pair of blue jeans and one of the long sleeve shirts from the cabin.  

Daniel made his way to the four paned window and looked towards the farmhouse. He could make out its outline in the light from the halfmoon, but everything inside looked dark. Good. He wanted whoever was inside there to be asleep. He had blown off the face of the only other human that he had met outside of the pod and didn’t want a repeat.

Daniel slid out of the barn door, and low crawled the hundred yards to the farmhouse. Once there, he made his way to a large front window, which was boarded up. He could see only darkness between the boards. He debated climbing the stairs to the front door which was surrounded by a wraparound deck. He decided against that route, thinking that the boards would creak with his weight.

Daniel made his way around the north side of the house, where there were two smaller windows that were also boarded up. This time, he could make out some dim light through the spaces between the boards on the second window, He could also make out a couple of muffled voices coming from the room. Whoever was inside was still up, and there was more than one of them.

Daniel made his way to the back of the house, where he found more boarded up windows and a backdoor. There were three old wooden steps leading up to the door. After thinking for a minute, he removed the 12 gauge from on top of his pack and, and made his way very slowly up the steps.

Daniel placed his hand on the smooth black doorknob and gave it a slow turn. He had expected it to be locked, but the knob turned, and the door slid open an inch. Now he could hear the muffled voices coming from the right side somewhere within the house. He pushed the door another inch farther open. CRASH!

Aluminum cans tumbled down onto the tile floor behind the door. An alarm. No sense being quiet now, he thought as he pushed into the room and made for the dark corner to the left. A couple of things caught his attention.

First, he could smell popcorn, which made his stomach rumble. He hadn’t eaten in a day. Second, he was in a large backroom, with two doorways that led further into the house. The one to his direct front was dark, while the one to his left had a dim light flowing from the open entryway. Third, he could no longer hear the mumbling. Whoever was in here was now waiting for him.

The wounded Daniel made his way through the dark entrance to his front, immediately bumping into a chair. He found himself in a dining room, although the table was gone, and only three chairs remained. There was no other exit. Daniel felt his shoulder ache, and reached up and touched his wounds with his free hand. The fresh shirt was soaked in wet blood.

Daniel felt dizzy, and considered retreating from the house. Yet, maybe they had medicine, or at least pain killers. He made his way back into the large back room, and after taking a deep breath to stop his dizziness, he headed for the dimly lit archway. It led into a long hallway. He could see three closed doors running the length of it, were it appeared to empty into a dark room.

The first door was where the light was coming from. Daniel could see it chasing away the darkness from underneath, as well as spilling out from the keyhole. He walked very slowly towards the door.

His last footstep caused a slight creak from the floorboards. He tensed up, half expecting bullets to fly through the closed door. When none did, he reached out and grabbed the door handle. He turned the knob, and shoved the door open, keeping his body at a slight angle in the doorway.

Standing directly in front of him was a young Hispanic girl, who was about seven years old. She had shoulder length black hair and big dark brown eyes. The little girl smiled when Daniel lowered his shotgun. He smiled back at her.

Daniel took his left hand and touched his shirt at the shoulder, which was now soaked in blood, and again fought off the dizziness that threatened to overcome him. His head was now pounding, and he felt faint. Then he heard the click.

That caught his attention and out of his peripheral vision he could see a figure in a dark hoodie holding a nickel plated .357 to the side of his head. The click had been the hammer being pulled back. It looked like a cheaper version of the Smith and Wesson model, possible a Taurus. Cheap didn’t matter much at this range.

“Dejalo,” a gruff voice demanded.

Daniel stood there for a moment, the room spinning, when he heard the same voice say in a language that he didn’t understand, “Suelta el arma o te dejo caer!”

There had been no need to repeat the order, because the Thunder Ranch had hit the floor mid-sentence, with Daniel as he finally did pass out. The last thing that he had noticed was that the little girl was no longer smiling.