"Glad you could make it, Dan." "Well, I'm sorry I'm late to the party." "Was shoring up the southern wall in case the damn Skitters attacked again." "We gonna use that thing to bomb the bastards like last time?" "Not like last time." "A toy plane carries a toy bomb." "Wouldn't even make a dent in that mess." "Unbelievable." "There's twice as many as before." "Ah, not to worry." "This should take them all out in one fell swoop." "I cooked down the leftover fertilizer, made white phosphorus." "WP?" "I've seen that used in some wars." "That's nasty stuff." "We added an aerosol sprayer onto the bottom of this drone." "So, we're gonna crop-dust the whole valley with it." " That's the plan." " Genius." "They're feeding on Croomia." "We studied it in med school." "It's rare, but it has great medicinal and nutritional value." "Everything a growing Skitter needs in order to attack us." "Once that stuff is gone..." "We'll be back on the menu." "So, let's do this." "Good job." "Wait for it." "Now." "So far, our primary focus has been on dismantling dormant Espheni technology," "preventing the enemy from becoming a threat should they get their power core back online." "And from there, it's simple." "Kill as many of their bio-creations as possible and advance." "If all the militias around the globe do this, we can gut the Espheni war machine and take back our home." "Okay, okay." "I don't think we need to watch that again." "I had no idea you were such a natural." "It's time for a personal stylist." "Apparently, even the Volm cameras add ten pounds." "Under my father's orders, the Volm distributed this message to every rebel group we could locate worldwide." "The good news is that these Mason militias have been quite successful." "Wait. "Mason militias"?" "No, they..." "They can't call them that." "So far, your global coalition has destroyed an estimated 52% of all Espheni technology." "Good." "Good." "You said "good news." What's the bad news?" "This gray area, less than a square mile, is inaccessible to our reconnaissance efforts." "That's Fayetteville." "They're jamming you, aren't they?" "To hide what?" "Why?" "It could be an early effort to launch a new power core." "But if they don't have power, how can they power a jamming device?" "The power core was supporting their greater war machine." "Beamers, mechs." " Which we're systematically disabling." " Yes." "However, the Espheni also have self-contained energy mechanisms for smaller applications, such as communication transmitters." "Jamming devices." "Bottom line, we underestimate this enemy at our peril." "Apparently, they're up to something in Fayetteville." "We take the 2nd Mass there, and we stop them." "What's this other static here, up in the northeast?" " Jesus Christ." "That's Washington, D.C." " Uh-huh." "What the hell's going on in D.C.?" "We do not know, Tom Mason." "Not yet." "Hey." "You should eat." " Is there anything else I can..." " Yeah." "Keep your promise." "You said you could make my brother better." "I'm so sorry." "You knew it couldn't be done." "You just wanted to steal our food." "Is that him?" "Is that Brian?" "Yup." "Only picture I could recover." "He's eight here." "I'm 11." "For what it's worth, I think you're safer with us." "But is he?" "Catie?" "What just happened?" " I..." "I have to go." " That was him." "That was Brian." "He was the only one that ever called me Catie." "I think 'cause we both have Espheni DNA, I can connect to his mind." "Can you let me talk to him?" "No, I..." "I don't think this is a good idea." "Then you can." "Will you?" "Please." "Please." "I've spent months praying that my brother was still in there." "He's the only family I have left." "Love..." "You." "Brian?" " Pain." " What can I do?" "Can I take away the pain somehow?" "Hurt!" "You!" "No, no, no, no!" "Don't stop!" "Please!" "Please!" "I..." "I didn't break the connection." "He broke the connection." "What did he mean about hurting me?" "I just..." "I think that he..." "He wants you to know that he..." "He loves you, and he doesn't want to hurt you, but he doesn't know if he can help himself." "You hear that?" "I heard it when I was on patrol." "Came up here to check it out." "It's a bottomless pit." "They're streaming in through that choke point." "What are they waiting for?" "Must have an overlord." "Question is, where is he?" "Where's he getting all the Skitters?" "We are wasting too much time on this." "We can't even get out of the starting gate." "I gave an order to the other militias that I can't even follow myself." "Maybe that's the point." "The Espheni stall us with Skitters and hornets till they can get their remaining tech weapons back online." "Why don't we just crop-dust them again?" "We could, but I only have enough fertilizer for one more batch." "It doesn't matter, anyway." "The Espheni are replacing them as fast as we can kill them." "But how are they replacing them?" "They were pouring into that valley like starving children." "I'm just wondering if they're reproducing them somehow." "Reproducing?" "They're making them?" "Yes." "Biologically." "I mean, we know that their mechanical weapons are down, right?" "They have no beamers, no mechs, so all that's left are biological weapons." "Hornets and Skitters, they don't need power." "They just need to eat." "So, the Espheni are growing them?" "Maybe." "I mean, we know they're obsessed with DNA, genetic mutations." " Like Brian." " Right." "And that insect that we caught." "Now what is that?" "Anthony, what happened?" "I heard a noise, and I came in to check." "Anne!" "What happened, Anthony?" "Soon as I got in here, that thing extended its friggin' arm, shot his claw out like one of those telescoping billy clubs" "I used to carry as a cop." "I was..." "I was all the way over here, and it just grabbed me and slammed my head into the wall." "All right, that's it!" "We hunt this thing down, and we kill it." "No." "We don't have time to go hunting right now." "You're saying we're not gonna go looking for this?" "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying." "We leave it alone." "If it comes back, you all have my permission" " to shoot it on sight." " Wait a minute, Tom." "He ran." "He didn't hurt anybody." "He could have come after any of us." "He didn't." "What about Caitlin?" "Dragged her away." "Maggie." "I put them in this position." "I need to take responsibility." "I need you with the 2nd Mass." " I'm going." " Damn it!" "Maggie!" "You can't go alone." "Your dad's right." "You guys should all be focused on finding the source of those Skitters." "Yeah, and you need somebody to watch your back." "Who knows what that thing is..." "He's a person." "Okay, person, is capable of." "I don't want to put you in that position with your dad." "My dad, my problem." "Then let's gear up." "I thought you weren't supposed to be on duty." "Couldn't sleep." "Kept wanting to see that damn mutant for myself, see how they tried to make a human more like them." "That mutant has a name, you know." "Yeah, used to have a name." "Now it's a goddamn Espheni." "All right." "Relax." "You finished?" "You're welcome." "Column of Skitters flows into the valley here, 10 o'clock." "We need to send scouts to follow that column back to its source." "Hopefully, where they're manufacturing these damn things." "Send Hal." "With Pope and Sara." "I think Hal went with Maggie." "He should have brought her back." "I said all hands on deck." "How about just Pope and Sara?" "We don't need another Mason family babysitter." "Fine." "Take Sara and move out." "We need to plug that spigot before something else comes out of it." " You want me to go with him?" " Yeah." "No." "Uh, I want to talk to you." "I don't suppose you've had any of those" "Woodrow Wilson hunches lately, have you?" "That's what I want to talk to you about." "So, why do you care this much about two people you just met?" "It's hard to explain." "Well, my brother understands, right?" "Hal, please." "It's..." "It's the spikes." "It's like trying to explain color to someone who's been blind their whole life." "Hey." "Help me understand." "When you connect to someone, like, right into their mind, into their soul, it's emotional, you know?" "You feel what they feel." "What'd you feel?" "That's something you might understand more than me, actually." "Brian was in so much pain, and all he cared about was not hurting his big sister." "Hey, hey, hey..." "So, what do you mean I would understand better than you would?" "Because you grew up with a family." "Okay?" "I didn't have that." "So, I've never experienced that kind of connection, that kind of love." "Until now, in a really weird way." "They're close." "Yeah, except the eyes were just a little bit closer together." "I understand you wanted to see me, Tom Mason." "Yes, I did." "Um, and the leg was a bit more tapered." "I was hoping that you could help me." "Um..." "I've been having these, uh, visions or memories." "I don't know exactly what they are, but there's something in them that doesn't really belong." "It's kind of a creature, and I was hoping that you could help me identify it." "Dad thinks someone's communicating with him." "Or something." "I think it had eight limbs." "I know, it sounds crazy, but the information that I've been getting has had some value." "Roughly 352 known species have eight appendages in some sort of configuration." "Okay." "Well, would you mind taking a look?" "You recognize that?" "Yes." "What your son has drawn is a species known as the Dorniya." "So, I really did see something?" "I'm afraid that would be impossible." "The Dorniya are, in fact, the very species that the Espheni enslaved and mutated into Skitters many generations ago." "They have been extinct from their original form for hundreds of years." "They're not extinct because that is pretty much what I saw." "Brian, let go ofme!" "Please let go of me!" "There." "Brian, I'm so scared!" "Let me go!" "Please!" "Please!" "Brian!" "Brian!" " Hey, hey, hey." "Maggie, Maggie." " Let go of me!" "No." "No!" " Look at me." "Look at me!" " No!" "Focus." "Look at me." " No!" " You got this." "Please let me go!" "Maggie?" "Maggie?" "Oh, my God!" "Brian, please!" "Maggie, no!" "Brian, no!" "Please." "He didn't run away." "It wasn't his fault." "I was the one that was holding him back." "You came back to me where you belong." "You should have come alone." "You put my plan in jeopardy." "Soon, you will rejoin your pack." "Now kill her!" "Brian!" "Maggie!" "No!" "He might know where the Skitters are being made!" "Brian, don't shoot them!" "No!" "Brian, you hurt me!" "Brian, no." "No." "Brian, put the gun down!" "Please!" "Don't do it!" "No!" "Brian!" "Why?" "Shh." "Why did he do that?" "He didn't want to hurt you." "And then he just couldn't stand that he did." "It wasn't his fault." "I know." "He loved you so much." "I wish I had a brother who loved me as much as Brian loved you." "He loved you so much." "We're burying them together." "Lions and tigers and Skitters." "Oh, my." "We'll be lucky if those are the only things we run into, especially if we keep tracking this line of Skitters upstream to their source." "You know, somehow I get the feeling you're used to going against the flow." "What gave you that idea?" "It's funny." "Even with hundreds of literal monsters feet away from us," "I'm okay." "I used to be terrified of woods like this before the apocalypse." "Yeah, my kids, they used to be pretty freaked out by the woods, as well." "Whoa." "Hold the farm." "You have kids?" "And you didn't think to mention this before now?" ""Had" being the operative word." "I'm so sorry about what..." "Yeah, I tried to adopt a kid once, but they wouldn't let me, given my record of rehab and all." "That sucks." "Yeah, well..." "And I'd been clean for about a year, too, but..." "Hey." "If you ever want to talk about them..." "You know, it's never too late." "Have a kid, the old-fashioned way." "You know, when..." "When all this..." "This thing ends." "Think you'd make some really beautiful babies." "Hey." "What's that?" "I'm, uh, making a list of everything I want to keep about the world, you know, when the war's over, and everything I think we should get rid of." "Give me examples." "Okay." "Well, we're gonna lose dictators, keep democracy." "Lose weapons people use on each other and keep weapons to use on aliens." "Uh, lose anything jerky or anything pickled." "Keep anything chocolate-covered." "Anything chocolate-covered?" "Really?" "Yeah, like, you know, pretzels or peanuts or cherries." "What about French fries or Brussels sprouts?" "Why not?" "Chocolate-covered maggots or crickets or caterpillars." "That's gross." "What about you?" "Anything you want to add?" "Yeah." "Can we get rid of death?" "Um..." "Sure." "Anything to keep?" "Yeah." "Family." "I miss my mom." "Open the gate!" "Open it up!" "Prisoner!" "Can we get a little help over here?" "It's an overlord!" "Somebody grab something to tie him up tighter!" "You guys okay?" "Put a rifle on him!" "Check these restraints!" "Finally, a break!" "This way!" " Come on." " Come on." "We know you're making Skitters somehow." "I want to know where." "Answer me." "Why?" "You intend to torture me anyway." "No, I intend to kill you." "The only question is how long you suffer first." "I assure you, I can withstand any pain you may inflict longer than your son." "Oh, you might be surprised." "Not likely." "We're done here." " Did you see anything?" " No." "You have to hurt him, Dad." "If I hurt him, you're gonna feel it." "I can take it." "You have to be merciless." "Come on." "We have to do this." "Oh, believe me, I want to, but it doesn't serve any purpose unless you can outlast him." "Are you positive that you can?" "Forget I said that." "I'll think of something else." "Dad." "We're kind of far from the Skitter river, aren't we?" "O ye of little faith." "I know this road, curves west just up ahead." "We're just cutting a corner here, save a little time." "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Oh, whoa." "No, no." "Don't..." "Don't sweat it." "It's just one of those artichoke bombs." "It's all been burned to a crisp." " Don't worry about it." " Okay." "Ugh!" "It's not all burned to a crisp." "I can tell you that." "Stop!" "No!" "You're gonna get stuck!" "Get back!" "It's..." "It's under the leaves!" "You'll get stuck, too!" "This isn't good, honey." "Sara, this is that Espheni fog crap." "This stuff is like cement!" "This stuff should have been burned to a crisp!" "Had to have survived by chilling out in the shade." "That's impossible!" "Hold on, hon." "Careful." "If you slip, we'll both be stuck." "Watch it!" "Baby, please!" "Okay, okay." "Okay." "Okay." " We've got to get you out of here." " Okay." "All right, just lift your arms, and I'm gonna come under here." " You ready?" " Okay." "All right." "One, two, three." "Come on." "Come on!" "Oh, it's like superglue!" "It's not working." "Okay." "Okay." "What the hell am I gonna do?" "Oh, dear God." "Whoa." "No, no, no." "Fire." "Fire melts this stuff." "Well, that'd be great if we had, like, some fire anywhere." "Okay." "You have to go back." "You can go back and get the flamethrower." " No, no." "No." " Yeah!" "Go get it, and then you come back, and you can burn it all up, okay?" "No, no." "No." "No." "No." "I am not..." "I am not leaving you." "But what else can we do?" "I'm..." "I'm still armed, right?" "Okay?" "And if a Skitter comes through, they'll get stuck before they can reach me." "I'm fine." "You just go on and do that, okay?" "You listen to me." "You're not gonna die out here." "I promise you that, all right?" "Right." "I wanted to..." "I've been wanting to tell you something since..." "I wanted to tell you that..." "I know." "I feel the same." "You do?" "I do, yeah." "I swear I'll be back for you." "Maggie!" "Just the person I was looking for." "Not too loud, okay?" "I have a splitting headache." "Um..." "Look, before I gave you some of my spikes," "I was really close to being able to get inside the overlords' minds." "I even saw some things they didn't want me to see." "I'm more in control now." "I could probably get through." "I..." "I think I could figure out where all those Skitters are coming from if I had all my spikes." "What, you want them back?" "No, I..." "If we do it together, if we use all the spikes, we might be able to walk right into his brain." "Will it work?" "Honestly, I don't know." "You might have to hurt him, distract his mind long enough for us to get in." "If I hurt him, you'll feel it." "You understand that, right?" "I'd do anything to get at that son of a bitch." "Let's talk." "By all means." "Where are the new Skitters coming from?" "I do not know." "Suit yourself." "I did not ask to be attached to the female." "Mmm." "Too bad." "This conversation is over." " Get out of me!" " Get out of me!" "Can't shake them off, can you?" "Show me what I want to know!" " No!" " No!" "No?" "Okay." " Get out of me!" " Get out of me!" "Show them what I want to know, and maybe they will!" " This will not work." " This will not work." "No?" "Dad!" "What the hell are you doing?" "Ben, Maggie!" "Let go!" "Maggie!" "Ben?" "Maggie!" "You okay?" "Can you hear me?" "Did you see that?" " We got in." " You got in?" " Yeah." "He's the one making the Skitters." " Where?" "North of here." "I can find it on a map." " You're positive?" " Yeah." "There was something else, too." "It's huge." "It's different." "Different?" "Different how?" "I don't know, but it was definitely in charge." "Dad, we're running out of time." "As soon as they hit their target number, they're gonna overrun the 2nd Mass." " How many?" "When?" " I don't know, but it felt really close, really close." "We have to go now, before they attack." "We need that overlord alive, Dan." "He may have some answers about the radio jamming the Volm have been getting, especially in Fayetteville and D.C." "I got a guard on him." "Anne, you were right." "They're engineering them," "Skitters and hornets, at a turtle hatchery." "It's on the map, nine klicks to the northeast." "Ben and Maggie, we need them." "No, they need a little recovery time." "The rest of you are gonna come with us!" "In the truck!" "Except Dingaan." "You and Matt take that drone up to the valley." "Wait there till you hear one hell of an explosion." "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Whoa!" "Whoa!" " Slide over." "I'll drive." " What are you talking about?" "Sara, she's in big trouble." "She got stuck in some of that leftover Espheni fog crap." "How far out is she?" "Ten, 11 klicks." "I ran the whole way here." "South." "Look, I need the truck, get back to her before anything else beats us to it." " Can we pick her up on the way?" " The opposite direction." "Of what?" "We know where they're making Skitters." "There's a major offensive coming our way within the hour." " We have to blow up their operations." " No, no!" "No!" "We get Sara first." "Mason, this time, my family comes first." "We blow the place, we circle back, we'll get Sara." " You got my word." " Your word?" "Mason, how about this?" "How about I drag your ass out of this truck," "I take the truck, I save Sara's life, then I turn around and blow up whatever the hell it is..." "I can't think of everybody, Pope!" " I'm sorry!" " You son of a bitch!" "No!" "No!" "Mason!" " Open the gate!" " Open up the gate!" "This ain't gonna be easy." "I'd say our best bet is to go around the back." "Yeah, especially since those bastards are all streaming out the front." "All right, Hal, Anthony, you're with me." "The rest of you, when they blow the building, we're gonna put a dent into everything that comes running out." "Not everything." "Come on." "Go." "Oh, my God." "They're so cute when they're newborns." "Yeah." "Hey." "Hey." "Come on, Tom." "They've been in there a long time." "They'll make it." "God, they should be out already." "Shoot!" "There should be two more bombs." "Screw the bombs!" "They should be out already!" "There they are!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Open fire!" "Cease fire!" "All clear!" "Whew." " Is Anthony all right?" " Uh..." " What happened in there?" " He froze up." "Think maybe you better talk to him." "Right." "Get everybody to the truck now." "We need to go find Sara." "Do you think there's still time to save her?" "Yeah." "Sara, I got it!" "We're..." "No!" "Sara?" "Sara!" "Hey." "Hey." "You came." "Yeah." "Yeah, I came." "I can't feel my legs." "No, no, no, no." "Don't..." "Don't look..." "Don't look down, baby." "Don't look down." "Okay?" "You're fine." "You're gonna be fine." "Okay?" "You just..." "You..." "You keep..." "You keep looking at me." "Now, why would I want to do that?" "I guess I won't be having that pretty baby." "John." "Remember how I said that the apocalypse was the best thing that ever happened to me?" "I lied." "You're the best thing." "No." "No." "No." "No!" "No." "There." "There they are." "Pope?" "Oh, my God." "You're too late." "You're too late, Mason." "Colonel Weaver sent me to spell you." "Why don't you get some shut-eye?" "What is that?" "Drop it!" "Whatever it is, drop it!" "I said drop it!" "Anthony!" "Oh, my God." "We needed this thing alive." "He had a weapon." "He..." "Look at his..." "I don't see a weapon." "I swear..." "I swear he had a weapon." "Look, I saw a weapon." "Anthony, what are you even doing here?" "I thought Franks was on duty." "I thought he could use a break." "Those were not my orders." "Anthony?" "Did you come here intending to kill this overlord?" "He had it coming." ""He had it coming"?" "Anthony, he could have told us so much!" "This is my fault." "This is classic PTSD behavior." "When I heard he froze at the hatchery," " I should have taken his weapon." " Taken my what?" "Don't take me out the fight." "Clearly, you are a danger to yourself and to others." "Colonel!" "I've done as much for the 2nd Mass as anybody." "You need me!" "Yes, I do." "Which makes this even harder." "Hey." "Feel like I just ran 100 miles uphill with someone kicking me in the stomach." "I'm sorry you had to go through that." "I've seen a lot in my life." "Today was beyond..." "I mean, being inside an overlord's mind?" "For my first time, I..." "That kid was in so much pain." "I never..." "It's..." "Yeah, it's..." "It's a nightmare." "I know." "I'm glad you were there with me today." "I don't know how you've done this alone for three years." "It's crazy." "Dingaan and Matt crop-dusted the last of the Skitters." "We got a clear road north." "Tom?" "Yeah." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Okay, 86 the fire." "Pack up the gear." "I'm ready to go to Fayetteville." "Nah." "This group needs some downtime." "We can pack up in the morning." "Yeah, you're right." "Why don't you go get a drink, on me?" "You can count on that." "You okay?" "Do you think we should have gone to get her first?" "No." "I just remember a time when you would have." "Thanks, Dan." "Get some sleep." "Long way to D.C." "Yup." "You too." "D.C.?" "Without any Volm intel?" " No, we're going to Fayetteville first." " Okay." "Find out what they're hiding." "Something's going on in D.C. though." " Hard call today." " Not the first." "Not the last." "English SDH"