“How many camps exist?" I asked.

Tosu sighed and smiled at me. "More than even I know, the rebels outnumber those of the old ways. Many women have been seeing the truth and have been giving their daughters that truth. The resistance has only wished to avoid outright war because of their belief in The Spirit. Most of those that follow The Spirit find the idea of harming another Paterian to be evil."

I nodded and looked up at her, shivering lightly. A war was a frightening proposition, but my family and I would be safe in this camp. My heart sped up as I thought how scary an alien attack would be in the compounds. The men would not understand and they didn‘t have the weapons we did. They'd be unprepared sitting ducks.

Terror made me suddenly dizzy and I leaned on the wall. Distantly I heard Tosu speaking to me, but I felt as though I would faint.

My boy was in a compound. Jonathan was in an undefended, dangerous compound that was about to be attacked by warships. No one there could defend him, he'd be as frightened and vulnerable as the rest of them.

I screamed my son's name and bolted for the storage area with the transports. I had my sword and a gun on my hip. The only thought in my mind was getting to Jonathan and bringing him back to safety.

My stride was ungainly as I ran, but I went as quickly as I could. Tosu was calling me, but I didn't hear her. I just kept repeating Jonathan's name.

Men in the transport storage watched me as I jumped on a loaded transport and started it up.

"Stop!" one of them called waving frantically, “that transport is slated to leave on a mission! You can not take it!

I didn't care. The big machine lurched forward toward the entrance with me at the controls. My actions were frantic and I wasn't driving well. The transport nearly clipped the side of the mountain as I sped out of the storage area. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tosu push the edge of transport so I wouldn't have a collision, she'd taken flight and was calling to me.

“I have to get to him!" I screamed tearing down the mountain toward the tunnels.

My driving was erratic because tears were blurring my vision. My boy would die and I had to save him. The transport swerved dangerously close to a tree before I righted it. I nearly wrecked when I landed by the closed tunnel at the base of our mountain.

The control to open the tunnel remotely was not something I had used before. I was pushing every button on the transport trying to make the damn thing open when I found myself surrounded.

Men had followed me from the garage and landed five transports around me. They looked very confused. Tosu Landed Lightly on my transport and gently pulled me away from the controls. I fought her like a wild woman.

“LET ME GO!" I screamed, “HE IS JUST A BABY! I HAVE TO GO GET HIM!"

I tried to pull my weapon to make her go away and she knocked it from my hand. Before I had a chance to go for my sword, I found myself wrapped in her arms and pressed into her chest.

“Calm, Little human," she crooned holding me tight.

My terror made me frantic. I kicked and screamed against her strength and made no headway. She just held me. The stress made me dizzy and my powerlessness made it worse. The last thing I remember was the confused faces of the men around us as I faded out.

Murmured words soothed me. I remembered the inky blackness I'd experienced when my family broke. This seemed similar. It wasn't me looking for them this time. It was them searching for me. The familiar voices of family broke through the hysteria and it faded as the calm of the family descend on me.

The voices in my mind relaxed me in ways I could never have dreamed. I felt the bed beneath my back and the enclosed air of the caves. Opening my eyes I saw I had been put back in my bedroom in the camp.

I turned my head and my stomach lurched. The vomit rose in my throat and I was lucky to get it into the waste pail. Rose was there and she wiped my face to clean it, afterward, she took the nastiness away.

“Jesus, Mama," Kennedy said from the main room as she stuck her head in, “was that a panic attack?! You completely flipped out!"