John slid down the slope of the ravine behind the house and watched as the soldier lowered Lia. He steadied Lia with hands on her hips, easing her into the tangle of brush that covered the steep slope.

Taking hold of a thick root, she favored John with a look he could almost discern in the dark. She was calculating something. If John knew Lia, it was probably how she would get even for the way he woke her at the gully.

Dirt sifted down on them and John had to forestall his worrying as he and Lia bowed their heads to wait for the soldier to join them on the slope.

The sound of the battle grew in intensity as John felt Casey slide to a spot between himself and Lia.

“What makes you so sure the aliens are going to use the weapon?” Lia raised her head and used a free hand to brush the dirt from her face.

Somehow, using a method, John could not perceive Casey hung to the slope without using his hands. He cupped a hand to his ear and pointed towards the battle. “Do you think the aliens are going to let that go without a response?”

“Maybe these are good aliens,” Lia voicing a concern that bothered John privately.

“What color is the sky in your world?” Casey ignored any comment Lia might have made to the question by turning to John and checking the equipment strapped to John’s back with such force that John thought he might end up at the bottom of the ravine.

“Jesus,” John protested.

Satisfied with his check, Casey regained his position and knuckled his teeth as he considered the edge of the ravine several feet above.

“We have to get into the house without notice.” John and Lia listened carefully to Casey’s words. “I will climb to the top and look for aliens after they fire that wave weapon. Once I know none of the aliens are around, I will wave both of you up. After that, we get into the house by the back door and look for survivors.”

John waited for more of the plan, but the soldier remained silent. The entrance to the house seemed like the easiest part of the plan.

“How do we get away?” he asked after waiting for what seemed like minutes.

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“We won’t be able to use the cars,” Casey replied quickly, as if he had been considering the same question. “The alien ship stops a car’s engine from working when it gets close enough. I’d say all the cars in the yard are dead to the world and would take hours to start.” He looked at John, Casey’s face in a shadow that made the man seem to have no features. “We’ll have to walk.”

“Walk where?” Lia said sarcastically. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Not true,” Casey returned to his watch on the lip of the ravine. “Superior is about twenty miles north of us. Even you could walk that far.”

“Is that some kind of sexist remark?” Lia demanded.

“Nice shoes.” Casey replied evenly.

“Asshole.”

The remark struck John as funny. He held his laughter in check, knowing his companions would not see the humor in their conversation.

“We’ll probably die if we head in that direction,” Casey added softly.

“What?” Lia and John exclaimed together.

Casey let his head rest against the cool ground and wondered how the two actors could be so naïve. Military operations were a practice in common sense; all the factors surrounding a mission had to be analyzed. Everything planned to avoid errors that would make the mission a failure. All it took was imagination.

“I can guarantee you that a failsafe is in the mission objectives and procedures. If we did not report in a certain amount of time, or an emergency beacon activated, the cavalry will be here shortly after and they will not be looking to rescue anyone.”

“They’ll kill us,” Lia let loose from the tree and took a handful of the grass woven into the back of Casey’s suit. “You’re saying they’ll kill us.”

“Yes.”

“Why?” John asked, but suspected he knew the reason.

“If something goes wrong, or aliens came to take us.” Casey gave a small laugh at the irony of the second part of his statement. “None of this is supposed to happen in the United States. If they leave us alive to tell the story, it will be harder to cover it up in the long run. Better just to kill us all now and save themselves the trouble.”

A faction in the government had that type of power made John’s head swim in bewilderment. He wanted to deny the logic of the soldier’s opinion, but he could remember events that had made the evening news, events that spoke of the same careless disregard for the citizens of the country? How often had he heard of the rights of the honest citizen trampled in the rush of politically defined justice?

With those questions and a host of doubts he had gained over the years, he knew the answer was a simple yes. The government desired power and the abuse of status.

They were in the middle of nowhere, as Lia had put it. Who would know there had ever been a pitched battle between aliens and humans at this place? If cleaned sufficiently, there would be no trace of the action and there would only be a group of missing people to mark their passing.

It was a frightening thought.

“How?” he croaked.

“One helicopter stationed at Superior that I know of,” Casey shrugged as if the threat was of no matter. “Probably a heavy assault from one of the military bases in the area added in for good measure.”

“What do we do?”

“We wait for the wave.”

John thought he could see the trace of a smile on the soldier’s face.