Laura flinched when she felt a static pulse through the knowledge cap. Her hand gripped it and she pulled and tugged, trying to remove it. The thing was solid, gripping her skull tightly. On the far wall, she saw a workbench, and near it was a large tool chest. Laura knelt close and pressed her face against Katy’s. “Stay here, hun. Momma has to do something.”
Silently, Katy nodded her head. Laura forced a smile and kissed her forehead then crept across the space to the bench, feeling the static increase in her head. She knew it would have to be removed before they found her or crippled her with the cap. Finding a flat-tip screwdriver, she pried at the metallic device until her scalp bled, but the cap refused to move. She began to panic as the pressure in her skull increased. She searched the walls and saw a string of jumper cables hanging from a hook.
Taking the cables, she moved back to the garden tractor in the center of the room and lifted the tractor’s seat, finding a small 12-volt battery right where she hoped it would be. She began breathing heavily, feeling the rush of pressure from the cap as it blocked the fear of what she was about to do. She connected the ends to the tractor battery then placed the negative on her cap. She looked in the corner where she’d left Katy, smiled, and then touched the positive clip to her cap.
There was no explosion or arc of electrical sparks like she expected; just the pain of a sledge hammer coming down on the base of her neck. She fell backwards and tumbled to the wooden floor. Instinctively, she reached up to touch her sore head and noticed the plate was gone. She found it on the floor beside her, the surface of the gold plate scorched where the electrical connection was made.
She lay on the floor, her cheek pressed against the dry boards. Katy ran to her side and palmed her face. “Are you okay, Momma?” she whispered.
Laura reached up and held the girl’s hand. “I’m fine now.”
There was a noise from outside, a splintering of wood that she knew was the clapboard fence. From her angle, she could just see under the sliding door and watched as heavy boots stomped through the yard in her direction. A bright light passed over the door, breaking through gaps in the shed’s siding. She sat up and pulled Katy onto her lap, letting her eyes search the small space for a place to hide. Panicking, she knew it was hopeless; they were sure to find her.
Backing away, she scooched into the feedbags, pulling them in front of her. She heard hands grab the door, the wood clacking as something attempted to open it. The door slid partway before a distant explosion paused its motion. Laura heard human screams and gunshots followed by a man’s voice shouting challenges. Holes appeared in the door where bullets pierced the wood, and a blue flash filled the gaps with light.
More gunfire and explosions covered the sounds of human screams. Laura crept toward the door and peeked out. An alien soldier in a blue uniform with red sleeves lay dead. Another was sitting against the clapboard fence a distance away, its hands grasping its bleeding chest. Laura slid the door open and looked out, seeing bright flashes of explosions over the rooftops of the homes. In the space between the houses, a man was kneeling as he held a pistol and was firing into the street.
She watched as blue bolts raced around him. The man stood his ground, covering groups of fleeing civilians who had previously lined up to enter the transports. Laura called to Katy and lifted the girl to her chest. Now was her chance; she would mix in with the fleeing group and leave with them. She ran through the yard, racing along the side of the house. As she drew near, she saw more uniformed men with rifles squaring off against the aliens. She turned and ran into the street. Just before she reached the man with the pistol, she watched as he was hit in the chest by a blue bolt, his torso melting under the flame of it.
The man fell back, his body hitting the ground. Laura watched his pistol slide across the pavement. She rushed toward the body, quickly scooped up the weapon, and tucked into the waist of her pants as she ran past him. Holding Katy tight, she found her way into the mass of fleeing civilians and tried to disappear into the group. It was chaotic, all of them running for a distant gate at the end of the street. Seeing the soldiers, their soldiers, fighting back against the aliens, she thought of Jacob. Laura tried to search the human faces for her husband, hoping he was alive and safe.
Running closer to the gate, she saw the uniformed men exchanging fire with the red-sleeved soldiers, the men desperately trying to create an exit for the civilians to escape through. The Deltas were clustering and stampeding into the opening, trying to plug the gap. A small car raced through the gate from outside, charging directly at the horde of Deltas. Bodies broke and were tossed aside as the car hit them, knocking several back and creating a wake of death in its path. The car reached the center of the horde and screeched to a stop. The Deltas swarmed and piled onto it before the car exploded into a blinding fireball. The blast knocked Laura back, the blinding flash pushing a shockwave over the crowd.
The crowd of civilians broke up and scattered, panicked men and women breaking in all directions. She followed a group of women behind a house. Holding
