Kath Wagner looked up at the appartment block as she pressed the buzzer again. It was an icy cold late-February morning, the packed snow crunched beneath her shoes, "Come on Maggie! Where the hell are you...", she complained to herself.

Then a teenage boy came out. Kath noticed he had a glazed look about him, "Hi...", beamed Kath shivering in the cold, "...do you know Maggie Winters?"

The teenager looked at her, like it was the first time that he had actually noticed her, "Huh? No...No one...all gone...they're all gone"

Kath pushed the glass door aside and entered. The boy was obviously high on drugs or something. She climbed up the steps and was amazed about how silent it was. No shouts or cries, no doors banging and slamming...no nothing.

As she walked across the fourth floor landing, she noticed that a few of the doors were open. Nervously, she called out and pushed open the closest door to her. The appartment was empty, like it had been left in a hurry. All the appartments were the same...empty.

Kath found the teen boy sitting on the cold street outside. She asked his name and he replied Joey Carter.

"The Visitors...they took everybody...everybody to the roof...and I escaped...I hid down in the laundry mat"

Kath was shaking, and it wasn't just the winter chill in her bones - she was beginning to realise that her assumptions of the aliens good intentions were in question.

She reached out and grasped the boy's hand, "Come on Joey...lets go"

VVV

Sean Steele crossed the street and looked up and down as he pulled the collar up of his jacket around his neck, he then entered an empty shop and closed the door behind him. A police siren whined in the background as he looked about the gloom of the old shop and then coughed.

A man came out from the shadows. Sean stepped forward, "Duncan?"

The other man nodded.

"Hello again...sorry I'm late...and I'm sorry for giving you the runaround...but I had to be sure that I could trust you"

Duncan nodded, "you can"

The sun shone in through the whitewashed windows, "The last time we met you said that you wanted to tell me something...you know Sam"

"Yep...they took us...they took the whole neighhourhood"

Sean frowned, "took? The Visitors? Why?"

Duncan was shaking, "It was past midnight...it was like a dawn raid done by the cops and that...there was all these spotlights and stuff...it was so bright they nearly blinded us...me and my wife Shelley"

Sean leaned on the sill and glanced out to the street through the blinds, "and then..."

"They broke in...the Visitors...they were trained soldiers...they were...were...they just treated us like animals...herding us all like cattle onto these trucks..."

"Trucks?"

Duncan nodded, "Yeap...trucks...big white ones that had their banner on the side. The Captain said that there was some issue with the neighbourhood and we had to be taken to safety...that's what they said...but I managed to escape...when we got to where we went...the doors opened and we were forced out...it was like a world war 2 concentration camp...high mesh fenses with bard wire...look out towers the lot..."

Sean turned, "where is this? Do you know?"

"Out of town...one of the older guys fell and there was all this commotion...I managed to slip beneath the truck, my wife didn't give me away...she saw me and then followed the others towards this warehouse...it was only when I got to the perimeter fense when I heard the screams...there was laser fire too"

Sean rubbed his beard, "What the is going on? Why did they herd all of you there for...?"

Duncan was shaking, "I got out...God knows how, but I did...even with a spot-light going around...but I saw 'em...I saw them being wheeled out on trolleys to the shuttle...people...packed up in cocoon things...I don't know if they were dead but...I just ran...I crapped myself, I just had to keep on running..."

Sean reached out and rubbed the other mans shoulder, "It's okay...you're safe now...but we have to find out what's going on...why would they take people to the Mothership? What are they doing to them up there"

"I wish I knew...but whatevers happening, my wife is up there...it's happening over and over..."

Sean shuddered...but how would they find out? How could they?

"Chemical compound my ", he whispered.

VVV

The Visitors raided a building in Maryland close to Sam Walkers appartment in early March - rebel activity had been suspected. In the lounge, Sean had gathered everybody for an emergency meeting - everybody was looking to him for direction, everybody felt that the ex-cop was a natural leader, "We can't stay here...we are getting too big"

Sam looked up, "So where are we gonna go?"

Sean looked at each face in turn, "the next building they could raid could be us...we need a proper base...somewhere they wouldn't look...something that might move so we can be one step ahead..."

The Resistance bus was born. The ever growing rebels had to be on the move - and have chance to fight back.

The rebel groups first priorty was laboratory equipment for Toni Morrell and Amy Appleton, a friend and co-scientist she had recruited a few weeks back.

On a gray March day, Sam Walker and Duncan Rendall stole a truck from an abandoned car lot and took it to a pharamacitical outlet in Delaware, ia to raid it. Microscopes, culture plates, drugs...you name it, they stole it, and dorned up in black boiler-suits and ski masks, they were in and out in half an hour.

After, they drove the loot to the rendezvous point with the yellow bus that was parked up in a leafy suburb.

Children played in the street with toy shuttles and visitor action figures. The truck parked up behind the bus and came to a halt with a hiss of the hydrolic breaks.

In quick precision, the rebel gang quickly shifted the lab equipment from the back of the truck and on board the bus. Ross Morrell stood on the bus steps and flicked away his cigarette - Sam came foward as Duncan closed up the back of the truck, "that's the science stuff taken care of - all we need now is the arms..."

Ross was concerned, "But how? How are we gonna do that?"

Sam smiled and climbed onto the bus and hopped into the drivers seat, "Don't worry - Sean has it all covered"

And with that, he fired up the buses engine and pulled it away from the curb, Duncan, at the wheel of the truck drove close behind...

VVV

Aboard the mothership over Washington, the Supreme Commander warmly looked over at Kristine Walsh, who sat on a comfy seat beside Diana.

"I am now at liberty to announce to you the topic I spoke of in Los Angeles last week..."

Kris looked up, still reeling from all that trouble of getting caught by security in the restricted area of the L.A ship.

"Oh yes..."

John cleared his throat, "yes...and as I said, this will be a highlight of your career...when we will announce to the world...our cure for cancer"

Kris was overwhelmed as she looked away from John and to Diana beside her who lifted her arm and the newswomans shoulder, "you must be very pleased...what a privilege you have been entrusted with"

Kristine shook her head, her mother had died of cancer 3 years ago, "John...oh my god...that is so generous of your people...I really don't know what to say...how can we ever thank you for this!"

Diana smiled and looked towards John to answer.

He came forward as Kristine rose from the seat and took both of her hands into his.

"It's simple...

...our gift to you"

VVV

Ralph Harrison spoke to Kristine in the shuttle that took them up the eastern seaboard, on route to the New York studios.

"It's amazing...", she gasped, not quite believing what was going over and over in her head.

Ralph leaned forward intrigued, "What is? This special report? Come on Kris you can tell me...what is this special announcement anyway...?"

Kristine turned and laughed, "sorry Ralph...this one is a total exclusive for me"

She turned to the window and beamed a smile, her eyes twinkled...the white fluffy clouds moved past fast revealing the out-line of the east coast of the US down below.

It was getting dark and she could see her reflection in the glass...somehow...and it didn't matter how much she tried to...she couldn't quite get the image of those cold bodies in shortage aboard the L.A ship out of her mind.

And her smile faded...

VVV

Frank had arrived from Vancouver. His shuttle landed in the main docking bay of the Washington flagship.

As the door hummed open and the ramp extended, Gerald was fuming, "Was it really necessary to call Frank in?"

John was standing beside him in the hangar with his hands behind his back, he looked at him coldly, "yes...he has brought in a new task force with the new improoved armour along with him - the rebels here in Washington will not know what has hit them"

They both looked up to see Frank came down the ramp and bowed his head in respect of his Supreme Commander.

"At ease Commander Frank...welcome to Washington", smoothed John in a cheerful tone.

Frank smiled, his dark hair poking out of his cap and visor that he now removed as he shook both of their hands in turn, "It's good to be here...I hope you got my final report of how I crushed the growing resistance in Vancouver..."

John and Gerald walked alongside him as they made their way across the busy hangar, "Yes...and I hope you will be issuing more of the same here...in the US capital..."

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