Evolution/Episode 5

"Worth In Battles" is the fifth episode of season one and the fifth episode of Evolution overall. It was released on 8th May 2017.

Previously On...
(Enter different scenes of the previous episode to serve as flashbacks.)

Arriving at Charleston' military base and finding the President and her military escort in dire need of help in evacuating, the refugees of the Hayes Hotel suffered major losses to their own fighting force as a cost in the successful extraction of the President but the losses that were suffered leave it to be questioned on whether it was worth it. Meanwhile Edward made attempts to train some of the civilians who had taken refuge in the hotel only for the group to get attacked from a pack of Alien spider-like creatures, barely getting saved in time by the arrival of William while in the city of Charleston, Victoria's friends, both old and new, suffered the same fate and were left shaken from their close to death experience.

Synopsis
With the President of America now safe from harm, the refugees of the Hayes Hotel group together with the few survivors from the Charleston military base and have a moment to rest. However this break cannot last forever and Nadia is determined to begin learning more about the Aliens with the help of Emmett as the group's leaders strive to be prepared to take the fight back to the Aliens and Daniel is put in charge of a questionable mission.

Episode 5 - "Worth In Battles"
21st August 2049 - 07:10 - Unnamed Location, America

The drive in the tank had been mostly silent and, from what Emmett could see through the tank’s front window, it didn’t look like it was any different outside of the tank either. The group of them were just moving down the road, heading towards the Hayes hotel in silence as they mentally recovered from the losses they suffered.

They all knew that not all of them would make it out alive but that didn’t make it any easier when reality came crashing down on you and made such sad expectations the reality.

Emmett eventually sighed and took a stand from his seat in the tank, politely excusing himself from Jeanne and Berney who watched curiously as he opened the tank’s hatch and carefully hopped out at a safe moment. Grateful to be in fresh air rather than be stuffed up in the tank.

“Come out for fresh air, huh?” Vernon questioned, as if reading Emmett’s thoughts, as he came to walk beside him, offering a soft chuckle, although the chuckle still had a saddened tone to it “it is a rare sight that the lab engineers ever come out for sunshine. I must document it for study.”

Emmett wasn’t sure how to reply to the Chief of Staff, he wasn’t good with people, never had been. Should he send a joke back? No, he was terrible at them. Should be change the subject to their situation? No, that would just make matters even more depressing. In the end he wound up just giving Vernon an acknowledging nod, leading to an awkward silence befalling the two for a few moments of walking until Vernon decided to speak up again.

“I should apologize. You didn’t deserve me snapping at you and I weren’t actually angry at you” the Chief of Staff told the engineer as they walked side by side, a sigh escaping from the former as he turned his head to look back at the few remaining soldiers that were trailing behind “it was clear we would lose people, that is the harsh reality of war. You can have a perfect plan but still you will lose soldiers. Despite being aware of this fact however, it still doesn’t make watching your friends and family die easier and it makes people think irrationally. So, due to that, I apologize. You did a good job Emmett.”

“I fully understood the situation General. Sacrifices had to be made and I wasn’t prepared to make them, whether you wanted to or not, you’ve had to force me to do it. No need for apologizes to me but if it helps the situation, I humbly accept your apology” Emmett told Vernon in response, again giving a polite nod before he turned his attention to the road ahead of them “I do hope this headquarters we were told about isn’t much further. The tank won’t be able to go much further and it’s not exactly the best vehicle to leave out in the open.”

“No need to worry about that. We’ll be there soon” Dannisha spoke up, joining their conversation as she came to stand beside them “although I still think we shouldn’t have had that break in the night, we’re lucky to have not gotten attacked already.”

“If we had continued throughout the night, it would’ve been harder for us to see any threats coming at us” Vernon pointed out, shaking his head as he gestured to the tank “and anyway, smarty-pants’s shield needed recharging. Better we had a stop and let it recharge even if we agreed that seeing threats wouldn’t be a problem.”

Dannisha couldn’t argue with that logic as she walked beside the two men, the three of them falling into silence for a moment until Dannisha had turned her head to look behind her, the sight of Charlie and Butterfield carrying a still unconscious Ashley causing her to question Emmett as she turned back to look at him “hey Emmett. Do you have any ideas how Ash is going to be doing?”

Emmett took a moment to look back at the wounded soldier but it wasn’t long before he shook his head “I mean this in no offense but i’m an engineer, not a doctor. My advanced intelligence in technology doesn’t help me at all in the biology study, so no I-” Emmett’s words were cut short as he saw Dannisha’s reaction become saddened, Emmett immediately trying to think about ways to make the situation feel better. It was moments like this that made him wish he was a bigger people-person.

“I understand. Sorry for-”

“If she’s still breathing at a normal rate, then she’ll be fine” Emmett started again, interrupting Dannisha’s apology as his mind went on overtime to think about all the little basics of biology he had learned “she’ll be in shock, which is why she is currently unconscious, and of course she is going to be crippled but the heat of the lasers are hot enough to cauterize the wound immediately, no bleeding. Just give her support when she wakes up and she’ll stay fine.”

Dannisha was taken off guard for a moment by Emmett’s suddenly but detailed thought process on the subject but soon she was sending a smile his way as she nodded in agreement “you’re right, I was looking at it personally and not logically. Thanks Emmett...you shouldn’t sell yourself short” she told him before giving both men a polite nod and exiting from the conversation, heading back to the carried Ashley and leaving the two men themselves to walk in silence on their way to their destination.

Meanwhile, trailing a little bit behind them as he walked at the side of the tank, Daniel watched the entire exchange, a glare tracing the features on his face as he listened to their discussions, one of his hands clenched in a fist as he could barely contain his anger. He wasn’t like the other soldiers present, he didn’t feel like the sacrifice they paid was worth it and he was hoping he was wrong.

He better be wrong. --- *Cue Theme Music*

*A Mix Of Sad, Dramatic But Inspiring*

*Enter scenes of the Series in the background while pictures of the main characters pop up on screen with the cast names*

The first scene appearing was a completely destroyed city, all of its buildings laying in rubble as a large UFO hovered above the city, looking menacingly, as down on the streets below, a battle of survival being fought between the Humans and Aliens.

Starring...Ryan Robbins, Emilia Clarke, Genesis Rodriguez...

The second scene appearing was heavy rain pouring down on the Hayes hotel's courtyard while a group of survivors stood together in a group around recent graves in the ground.

Danai Gurira, Luke Neal, Devon Bostick...

The third scene appearing was a group of survivors on a hill as they overlooked a city down the road, Aliens patrolling around the entrance as trucks drove past them and headed into the city.

Eliza Taylor, Moon Bloodgood, Dallas Roberts...

The fourth scene appearing was a group of survivors, in a underground train station, bundled together in a circle, back to back, as they aimed their weapons towards the darkness where unknown creatures were hidden.

Lauren Cohan, John Boyega, Dale Dye...

The fifth scene appearing was a battle between Humans and Aliens, the Aliens firing from the forest while the Human soldiers charged out of a military base as they fired their rifles.

Sean Murray, Colin Cunningham and Lindsey Morgan...

The sixth and final scene appearing was the Hayes hotel as soldiers walked back and forth along its walls while on guard duty and refugees of the hotel grouped together in the courtyard, going about normal lives as the title "Evolution" appears above them. ---  21st August 2049  - 07:10 - Hayes Hotel, America

Bella couldn’t help but have a small smile on her face, despite the current situation, as she walked through the corridors of her husband’s hotel, proud of him for having not only rescued these refugees but provided them sanctuary. Although she was still quite concerned for his current situation and she didn’t like the idea of him continuing to serve.

“You alright Mrs Hayes?” suddenly came a voice from behind her which made her jump as she turned around to see that it was Nathan, a polite smile on his face while Bella let out the breath she was holding before addressing him.

“Jeez Nathan, you nearly scared me to death and I told you that Bella is fine, Mrs Hayes makes me feel old.”

“Ha, sorry about that Bella and the latter is a force of habit. You’re still young and beautiful” he told her, earning a smirk from the one he was talking to before awkwardly rubbing the back of his head “anyway, you alright? You look a bit lost.”

“Oh, i’m fine Nathan, i’m just looking for the medical room.”

“Ah, that’s right, you weren’t here when that was set up. Do you want me to take you there?”

Inwardly Bella cursed, she knew the moment she saw Nathan he would want to help and, while she appreciated it, she couldn’t let anyone else accompany her there “that’s alright Nathan, I really appreciate your offer but it's fine...i’m sure Vicky would be wanting you right now” she replied, trying to slide in that joke to get him off the topic but she failed to remember one important problem with the joke she made.

Fortunately, Nathan just laughed it off as he shook his head “you’re mistaking me for Bri, i’m the gay one. Bri is the one Vicky has slept with.”

“Right...sorry about that.”

The two of them then fell into a bit of an awkward silence with each other, Nathan narrowing his eyes in curiosity before he eventually shrugged it off and gave a nod “alright, if you’re confident in finding it on your own” he commented before raising his fist, Bella grinning as she raised her own fist to give him a fist bump “it’s good to have you back Mrs...Bella.”

“It’s good to be back Nate” Bella commented in reply before the two of them parted ways, Nathan going back to do his own business while Bella let out a soft sigh and continuing to explore the corridors in search of the new medical room, really blaming herself for having not asked her husband where it was located.

Meanwhile, in one of the rooms on the same floor, Brian was standing in front of his mirror, twirling a bit from side to side to check out the skirt he managed to get while in Charleston, quite happy with how he looked as he called out to the certain person in his bathroom “so when am I ever going to get to try out your makeup?”

“You don’t” came Victoria’s own reply, earning a pout from Brian but before he could reply, there was a knock coming from his door which left Brian to send a glare in the general direction of his bathroom before moving to answer it, finding Alexandra to be the one standing there.

“Hey Bri, you said you had some…” she began but trailed off when she noticed he was wearing the skirt he had picked up yesterday, taking a moment to gather her words again before she looked back up to his face “you said you had some drawings you were working on so I was curious if I could…”

“Well, well, well” Victoria suddenly spoke up, causing the two at the door to turn and see the former leaning against the wall, only in her towel, while a smirk played on her face “what have you got going on here playa? Me in the night, Alex in the morning. Is Zoey later this evening?”

“Vicky” Brian groaned as he sent a playful glare to her which was received with her own challenging look, the smirk not even leaving her face as he told her off “It's not like that and you know it, you’re making me feel like I sleep around.”

“Whatever you say boo boo” Victoria replied as she raised her hands in a defensive stance, causing her towel to drop in the process which resulted in Alexandra blushing heavily and turning to look away while Brian rolled his eyes as Victoria quickly retrieved all of her clothes off the floor around the room before going to return to the bathroom “i’ll be out of here in a few” she assured them before closing the door.

“Urgh, sorry about that. She likes to tease” Brian told Alexandra as he turned back to face her, only to cause the latter to blush even further as she reached up to nervously run a hand through her hair which had been pulled back up into a ponytail and only after a moment did Brian realize what he said and nervously chuckled as he raised his hands “Oh no, not like that. Heh, just tease like friends do to each other.”

“Maybe I should come back later?”

“It’s fine, you wanted to see my drawings?”

“No, no, i’ll come back later...when you’re less...busy” Alexandra told him before she practically ran off back down the corridor, nearly bumping into a few people that were passing by and left Brian to sigh as he closed the door again, turning to find Victoria again leaning against the wall but this time she had the majority of her clothes on.

“Aww, did she run off? Probably for the best, you don’t last long anyway, quick shooter.”

“Hey, you know that I last a lot longer. That was only during our first time.”

“Oh I know. Doesn’t mean i’m not going to tease you to the end of your days about it though” she told him, causing Brian just rolled his eyes at that comment before he placed his hand on the door handle and again opened the door, Victoria getting the point so she sent him a smirk as she moved to walk past him, blowing a kiss and saying “i’ll see you soon” before she exited the room and he closed the door on her, Victoria making her way down the corridor while Alexandra, a couple doors down, entered into her own room and sighed as she closed the door behind her.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected, she should’ve known she would react by running away before she came to his room. She couldn’t help but try though, she was interested in him. She didn’t know why she was interested in him but she wanted to learn more about why he was the way he was.

Taking a deep breath, Alexandra moved into her room before collapsing back onto her bed, hanging her head off the back and finding her eyes landing on the bible that was on her bedside table before she then closed her eyes.

She’d work on it. She had plenty of time like everyone else who was stuck in the hotel. ---  21st August 2049  - 07:14 - Hayes Hotel, America

It was quiet time in the corridor. A very peaceful quiet mood that had set upon Perceval Pearce as he wiped away at the floors with his mop, making sure to reach back and pull his bucket on wheels along with him as he walked forward, slowly but surely making his way down the corridor as he made sure to clean every little section of the floor.

Perceval was both cursed and lucky for his job. He had insomnia which while it kept him heavily tired at times, he managed to use it to get work done which was a great help now that he was the only janitor currently in the hotel. However he also suffered from impaired vision, even glasses being unable to help him look closely into the smallest things which was an annoyance when he was trying to look closely at the ground.

Perceval just soldiered on though. He had a job to do even if it was a new war for the world.

“Ah Percy” came William’s voice suddenly which caused Perceval to come out of his thoughts and see that he was now standing in the entrance of the bar, having clearly gone about his job as he was lost in his thinking “I haven’t seen you for the past few days, was beginning to think of the worse.”

“I only arrived back yesterday Mr Hayes, I believe you were out finding Mrs Hayes when I returned” Perceval answered his boss as he decided to move further into the room and go about cleaning its floor, he was mentally cursing himself for going out of his planned schedule of cleaning the corridor’s first but since his superior had opened a discussion, he might as well get some work done as they talked “I decided not to bother you when you returned, we both had things to do.”

“Oh Percy, it wouldn’t have been a bother at all. I would’ve preferred knowing you had returned” William told him as he stood up from the bar stool he had perched himself on and moved across the room to where Perceval was standing, offering out a hand that Perceval took and shook “It’s good to see you alive and well.”

“The same to you Mr Hayes. It’s a shame that not many of the other staff have managed to find sanctuary here. Although I guess I was lucky to not have any family before the current events, i’ve been told some of the staff left to find family. I hope they found safety.”

“As do I Percy and please, I told you that you can call me Will” William told him with a smile before he moved back over to the bar, this time going behind the bar rather than taking a seat as he reached for a bottle and two glasses “care to join me for a drink? I know you’re working and how systematic you are with your job but you can make some time for me, can’t you?”

Perceval paused for a moment, looking around at the floor he had to clean while he held the mop to his chest before he eventually let out a sigh and placed the mop into the bucket and made his way over to the bar “I shall make the time. Just remember that I shouldn’t be the one to get blamed for the hotel not being cleaned entirely.”

William chuckled at that as he shook his head “I wouldn’t blame you, you’ve always been the best janitor and anyway, while you’re good at your job, this is a big hotel and you are one man, do not work too hard” William told him as he began pouring Whisky into the glasses, Perceval unable to stop himself from turning up his nose. It may have been a favorite alcohol to many but it was one of Perceval’s most hated.

“I’m sorry...William, may I pass on the Whisky for another? Tequila perhaps?” Perceval asked, making William pause before he poured Whisky into the second glass, a polite grin appearing on his lips as he set it on the bar and looked around for a Tequila bottle.

“I apologize Percy, I forgot that you have a more...unique taste to most people.”

“Well, everyone is different in their own ways.”

“Very true” William agreed as he grabbed a Tequila bottle and turned back around to pour it into Perceval’s glass “which is why I wanted to get your opinion on a certain...touchy subject. One that I trust you to keep to yourself.”

“Unless if you’re about to tell me you are an Alien in disguise and will kill us all in our sleep, your secret is safe with me.”

“I’ll keep that secret for another time then…I wanted to ask for your opinion on my situation. Bella believes I shouldn’t be apart of the fighting force due to the problem with my heart.”

“Well, did you feel like you are having heart problems while you were out there?”

“No. However who knows what might happen...I mean if i’m put into a situation that…” William didn’t want to finish his sentence as he just stared at the two untouched glasses full of alcohol in front of them but Perceval understood where he was coming from. The last actual war William had been in didn’t end well for his psychology.

“Well, does the General know of your problems?”

“He knows of my heart problems. As far as he, or anyone, is aware though, they’re confident i’m over my...other psychological problems.”

“Then I guess it’s up to you. Either you keep it to yourself or you tell people and recognise that whatever benefits and drawbacks that come with your decisions are down to you.”

William sighed, knowing that Perceval was right but also not feeling very helped at all. However before William could be polite and thank him, Jamie came rushing into the door and spoke up before him “Will, Danni is back and she has company. The President is with her.”

Immediately William’s personal problem was pushed away as William gave Perceval a parting nod “I’ll talk to you later” he told his janitor before quickly running across the room to join Jamie at the exit before running down the corridor, leaving Perceval to stare out the window as he grabbed the glass full of Tequila and downed it, turning up his face in distaste when he realized he’d grabbed the Whisky instead.

“Thank you for your wisdom, Percy. Thank you for your amazing work at keeping my hotel clean, Percy. We couldn’t have a clean hotel without you, Percy” Perceval muttered to himself as he grabbed the glass of alcohol he actually wanted and downed it, letting out a sigh as he looked around at the entire room “back to work I guess.” ---  21st August 2049  - 07:18 - Hayes Hotel, America

There was a sense of lacking faith among the recent arrivals at the hotel, a face of complete confusion on Vernon’s face as he turned to look away from the hotel and raise his eyebrow at Dannisha “a hotel? You’ve set yourselves up in a hotel? How do you expect us to believe the President will be safe here?”

Up until that moment Dannisha had been watching as Charlie and Butterfield carried Ashley into the hotel, accompanied by Daniel, as they recieved looks from the civilians passing by while they aimed to get her to the Nadia as quickly as they could before she turned her attention to hold the Chief of Staff’s gaze “it has provided sanctuary for us so far and as long as we remain cautious and careful, it will continue too and anyway, we’ve observed activity that the Aliens have apparently showed reluctance to take combat into the forests and, as you can see, we are in one.”

The latter part of the information that Dannisha provided them caught Emmett’s attention but before he could show any curiosity Vernon clearly got himself worked up and could barely keep himself controlled “and you’re willing to put the life of the President in the hands of theories? Do you realize how important she-”

“Enough General” Jeanne told him softly, laying a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him before she sent a nod over to Dannisha “I thank you for your hospitality. Although the General is right, this may be a good location for now but we shall want something better in the future.”

“Oh? My hotel isn’t enough for you Madam President?” came William’s voice, turning all attention onto him as they watched the man himself approaching them with a grin on his face “I feel offended by that statement. My hotel is quite nice” he told her, earning a raised eyebrow at William as she looked questionably between him and Dannisha before she spoke out her question.

“And you are?”

“Oh, how rude of me” William said before he bowed down, making a dramatic greeting and earning a chuckle from Jamie who stood behind him “I’m William Hayes, the owner of said hotel you just insulted. Also Gunnery Sergeant, kinda, i’m supposed to be honorably discharged but an Alien invasions seem to force me back onto the front lines.”

“Ah yes, William Hayes. For a guy who doesn’t like being the hero for your actions, you sure like bringing attention to yourself” Jeanne replied, a smirk on her face which he shared until the President herself changed the subject “I’ll assume there is enough room for the soldiers? They’ll need some rest. I’ll also need to see the General in charge Dannisha here told me about.”

“They’ll be enough room, I’ll go and find Eddie, he’ll probably be asleep right now” Dannisha said through the slight tension in the air as she walked towards the hotel, mouthing “play nice” to William with a roll of her eyes as she went by him leaving William and Jamie to stand with the President and her company in silence until Vernon was the one to break it.

“Well, are you going to show us where we can rest and then meet this Eddie?”

“I don’t know, the President was just insulting my hotel not too long ago…”

“I apologize but we must really get to business. The more time we waste, the more-”

“I’m just pulling your leg Ma’am” William told her, giving her a salute before he reached back and patted Jamie on the shoulder “Jamie here will show the soldiers to free roams for them to bunk down in. Our doctor Nadia will want to do checkups when she is available. Madam President, you can follow me to our makeshift meeting room.”

Jamie gave William a nod before he gestured for the waiting soldiers to follow him as he left the scene and headed towards the hotel, the soldiers all moving to follow him once Vernon gave them an acknowledging nod before the Chief of Staff turned his head to William “As Chief of Staff, i’ll be accompanying the President. If that is okay with you, Ma’am?”

“Of course Vernon, i’ll need you there anyway” Jeanne told him before she tilted her head to look at Emmett who had just been standing there awkwardly until she acknowledged him “Emmett, i’ll want you to come along too. You’re our smartest bet of getting things done we have” she said to him, earning a nod from him.

“Alright, well just follow along” William said after he took a moment to observe the tank that was currently parked outside his gate before shrugging it off and walked back towards the hotel, leaving the three of them to follow behind him.

This was going to be fun was all William could think to himself. ---  21st August 2049  - 07:20 - Hayes Hotel, America

Charlie could feel the eyes on them as they rushed in carrying Ashley through the hotel. So far she was in fine condition, nothing threatening, she just hadn’t woken up yet. However they had silently decided that even though this was the case, it would be best to get her to Nadia as quick as they could.

“Please make way” Daniel called out to the people in the corridor, there wasn’t many with Charlie only counting five but they didn’t want to waste a few seconds waiting for them to get out of their way, before Daniel turned the corner and ran a bit further ahead of them to alert Nadia by calling out “doctor, Ash is in need of your medical attention!”

As soon as she heard someone calling to her, Nadia rushed out of the medical room, clearly in a bit of a messed state but no one was bothered as to why she looked a bit of a mess, probably due to it being so early, and went straight to looking over Ashley, quickly seeing what the problem was and gesturing to the medical room “lay her down on one of the beds. Tell me what happened.”

“She got shot by one of the bastard’s lasers. As far as we can see, she isn’t bleeding” Daniel reported to Nadia as Charlie and Butterfield laid Ashley down on one of the beds, Nadia giving them an acknowledging nod as she surveyed the damage done to Ashley’s leg carefully and silently, the three soldiers in company silently waiting to the sides.

“Has she woken up since she was hit?” Nadia asked without moving her gaze from the wound, able to see out of the corner of her eyes as Daniel shook his head while she noted how the wound had been cauterized before she sighed “not much I can do other than clean up the wound and make sure it doesn’t get infected as the lasers, however they work, clearly stop her from bleeding out. However dying isn’t her problem, her body has gone into shock from receiving the wound. The problem right now is her waking up.”

“Will she be okay?” Charlie finally spoke up, his fingers nervously toying with each other as he slowly raised his eyes to look up from the ground to look up to Nadia “I mean you mention you can’t do much for her but...will she be okay?”

Nadia shrugged and sadly looked to the three of them “I can’t tell. She should wake up but that’s up to her. All I can do is keep her comfortable and her wound clean” she paused for a moment as she looked over the unconscious Ashley before gesturing to the medical room’s door “you should probably get back to your duties, make sure you eat and everything. I’ll alert you if anything changes.”

Nadia received one nod each from the three soldiers before they all exited from the room, Nadia waiting for a few moments before she walked over to her little desk, sitting down on her chair once again and letting out a sigh as she reached down and grabbed onto a bottle of wine, about to bring it back up and pour herself another glass when a new voice from the doorway brought her back to full alert.

“Ah, so it was the smallest lounge that was changed into the new medical room” Bella commented as she entered into the room, looking around it, having managed to successfully find it by following the three soldiers who had just left “smart. I should’ve thought of that, wouldn’t have been searching for as long as I was. Ah well.”

Nadia took a moment to recover as she tried to quickly but non-suspiciously hide her bottle back into its bag before she sent a soft smile over to the woman who had just walked in “yeah, the owner decided it would be best. A free room that’s big enough to do the job” she said in return before she stood from her chair and made her way across the room “what can I do for you Ms... ?”

“Hayes” Bella finished for her, turning her attention to Nadia with a smile on her face “and yes, that means I am the wife of said owner. You’re the new doctor I presume?”

“Nadia, yes...I’m happy that you were able to reunite with your husband, we were just talking about seeing our families again not too long ago actually, we can do with some good news around here” Nadia rambled on for a bit before she took a breath and offered her hand, a hand that Bella shook with her own “well, what can I do for you Bella?”

This was the moment where Bella had to begin lying which caused her to put the lying charm on as she reached up to rub the back of her head, making herself look nervous as she let out a forced sigh “Ah, well I was wondering if you could help me. See I have a heart problem which can require me to take nitroglycerin pills. Would you happen to have any?”

Nadia was a bit taken back by the problem she was told as Bella seemed to be quite healthy from first glance but she wasn’t going to judge and instead she gave a nod “Yes, I think your husband managed to get some when he went on a medical run not too long ago. He thinks ahead a bit, huh? Let me go have a look.”

“Hah, yeah. That’s my hubby...thinking ahead” Bella replied a little awkwardly as she watched the doctor move over to her boxes of medical supplies and sort through them, Nadia having clearly not had the opportunity to organize all the medical supplies but fortunately she was able to find the pills she was looking for soon and enough and walked back over to hand them to Bella.

“I’ll have to take note that you’re using them but don’t worry, that will remain secret between the pair of us unless if you specify anyone else who can know. I assume you know how to use them and when?”

For a moment, Bella didn’t answer and instead silently looked over the bills. Clearly lost in thought and if one was to look into her mind, they could clearly see she was thinking back to how her brother used to have to take the same pills and now her husband was the one taking them, it didn’t set well with her and the longer she was lost in thought, the longer Nadia became curious.

“Are...are you okay Bella?”

That question broke Bella out of her thoughts as she looked up to Nadia before giving her a smile and a nod “oh yeah, sorry I was just making sure I remembered when I was to take them so I could make you aware then I remembered my old doctor told me only when I was suffering chest pains, heh. Sorry.”

Nadia narrowed her eyes in doubt, making Bella really wish she was a better liar but eventually Nadia just shrugged her shoulders and gave the woman a smile “alright. Take care of yourself Bella, i’m here if you, or anybody, ever needs me” she commented, Bella having got the feeling that she was off the hook at first until Nadia said that last bit, now realizing that the doctor knew something was up but wasn’t doing anything about it, as of yet.

“Just don’t move into another room and I’ll be able to find you” Bella said with a chuckle, earning a polite smile from the other woman before Bella awkwardly made her exit from the room, clutching the pills in her hand as she headed back to her shared room with William, leaving Nadia alone again as her attention turned to the unconscious Ashley, letting out a sigh.

She needed more of her alcohol. ---  21st August 2049  - 07:30 - Hayes Hotel, America

Jeanne didn’t like to be a judging person but as she stood in the makeshift command room of the Hayes hotel, she couldn’t help but question at how this would make a good headquarters for their operations, a feeling that she knew her Chief of Staff shared.

However, as of right now, none of them really had any other options so instead she would just remain grateful that they have managed to find some form of sanctuary within this hotel and at least the group that had taken them in had some form of an idea about what was going on.

“So, Emmett is it? How do you serve us with being the brains of our current situation?” William asked, breaking the silence in the room as Emmett looked up from the ground and awkwardly tried to figure out where William was going on with this and after a moment of Emmett clearly having no idea, William clarified “what’s your job?”

“I’m ah, an Engineer.”

“Oh? I guess we have you to thank for the tank parked outside my hotel right now then?”

“He also managed to create a shield for the tank. It’s a work in progress still but Emmett has proven to us he will be a great help in fighting off these Alien bastards” Vernon spoke up from his side of the room, William’s eyes lighting up like a christmas tree, a look that reminded Jeanne of a child who had just been gifted a present that didn’t make her feel too good at the current moment.

“No shit? Well, there is a little price to pay for parking at my hotel. I’m sure if I could give that-”

“No” Vernon replied bluntly as if he was a father telling off his son, Jeanne really beginning to question whether this William really was the big hero she had heard about as his attitude really wasn’t making him seem to be. However before any of the four of them could take the discussion any further, the room’s doors opened, Dannisha and Edward entering the room which caused Vernon to take a stand from his chair when he saw the latter “Edward goddamn Grey? You are supposed to be retired!”

Edward himself grinned when he saw his old friend, both Generals making their way through the room in order to meet in the middle and shake hands “Nice to see you again good fellow, have your duties as Chief of Staff been serving you well?”

“They have indeed. It’s quite the hard act to follow from you however Eddie. It’s good to see you alive and well, ready to teach these Aliens a lesson.”

“The same to you Vernon” Edward told him before he came to remember the presence of their President in the room as well, leading him to turn and face her as he gave a polite bow, a gesture that she returned “and it is a blessing that you are alive and with us as well ma’am” he said to her before taking a seat, everyone else in the room taking their own seats as he looked to them all “so what is our current situation?”

“Unfortunately not much” Vernon answered, letting out a sigh as he shared a look with Jeanne “we managed to escape from the Military Base with the help of your soldiers but we’re still very low on numbers...and not very well equipped. The best thing I can suggest is working out ways we can get the supplies we need. Does your group have anything planned for that situation, on the way back Dannisha had talked about supply runs to Charleston?”

“Ah, yes...well that’s going to be a bit of a challenge” Edward said with hesitation, earning curious looks from everyone present outside of himself and William before he sighed and rubbed his eyes “the Alien forces aren’t the only problem we have for anyone heading into the city. We’ve also seen and fought these spider-creature things that appear to nest in the city itself” he told the four of them, confusion rising in Dannisha as she sat in her seat and looked between the old General and William, speaking up for her curiosity.

“Spider-creature...things?”

“You heard right. We ran into them in the woods while I was training civilians and William also ran into them in the city when he, Bella and Vicky went to save the kids who ran off…” Edward said casually but it was only when he saw Dannisha’s face of complete questioning that he realized she also needed to be updated on the situation while William just chuckled and gave her a shrug.

“Yeah, it’s a long story Danni.”

“To keep this long story short” Vernon interjected, turning all attention back to him as he spoke up on the situation “you’ve encountered spider-creature things? I assume that they are Aliens?”

“We assume so” William answered as he leaned back on his seat, very casual about the situation as he laid his feet up on the table “our doctor Nadia has a corpse of one in our medical room, she plans on taking a look at it, seeing if she can learn from it.”

Jeanne raised her eyebrow in curiosity at this “oh really?” she asked, not really expecting any form of response before she gestured to Emmett “do you think one of you could be so kind to take me and Emmett to this doctor of yours? I assume you have to address your soldiers Vernon?”

Vernon nodded at this “I do indeed but before we go about our business, I did think that we should send a squad to Charleston, check out what is going on there but not cause any problems” he paused as he thought for a moment before turning to face Edward “do you have any men who aren’t, to put it bluntly, too high up in the chain of command but will still be able to lead a squad on this scouting mission?”

Edward gave a nod “Once he’s gotten a break, Daniel should be able to lead a squad. I’ll come and tell you more later” he told his fellow General, Vernon giving a nod before he politely excused himself to address his own men and made his way to the exit of the room, Edward turning to look at William as he gestured to Jeanne and Emmett “Will, could you take these two to the medical room? I’d like to discuss things with Dannisha, in private.”

William decided he didn’t need to question this and nodded, taking a stand from his seat which led to Jeanne and Emmett also standing up, moving to follow him out of the room which left just Dannisha and Edward alone in the room as Dannisha moved to be closer to the old General, the two of them in silence for a few moments until Edward finally broke it.

“How many of ours survived the battle?” he asked, surprising Dannisha a little as she hadn’t mentioned the battle yet and he mentioned it as if it was a big thing but then she realized she probably had a look on her face that told him that something terrible had happened.

“Along with me, Daniel, Charlie and Butterfield made it out of the battle. Ashley also made it but she is currently unconscious from suffered wounds…that is it.”

This news shocked Edward to the point that he needed to sit back down and have a moment to take in what she had just said, he expected bad news but “...I sent everyone in our soldier force to that Base except for William. You’re telling me there are only six of my soldiers left? You’re telling me we lost fourteen of our people in one battle?”

Dannisha could see the heartbreak in his eyes, the sigh of a man filled with guilt and feeling as if the entire world had come crashing down on his shoulders but Dannisha could only offer him one hand on his shoulder and the other on his own hands as she looked him in the eyes “I’m sorry Eddie...they’ll be happy to know that the mission was a success though, their sacrifices won’t be in vain.”

Edward just remained silent, his eyes moving to look at the command table in front of him, the map still laid out on the table as he got lost in thought, leaving Dannisha to silently wait for him until he finally replied to her “I’ll arrange for funerals to be placed. You should go see your son, he’ll be happy to see you’re back and i’m sure you could do with a smile.”

Dannisha nodded in agreement to that, considering over what to say to him but in the end she decided not to say anything and gave his hand a gentle squeeze before standing up from her seat to make her exit from the room, leaving Edward alone as he leaned back in his chair and again got lost in his thoughts while he kept looking towards the map, his eyes trailing along the locations.

There had been seventy-one refugees at the hotel when Edward sent his soldiers on a mission to save the President and, despite the recent arrivals, that had led to the deaths of fourteen men and woman who deserved more than to be left as corpses on a battlefield.

They were just more deaths to add to the guilt that Edward already carried on his shoulders. ---  21st August 2049  - 07:43 - Hayes Hotel, America

Keegan was running as fast as he could through the corridors, quickly apologizing to any he bumped into before resuming running. He had just heard the news about his sister and he had to see her now. Nothing could distract him.

With the speed Keegan was running, he was surprised when he didn’t smash everything as he made his way into the medical room, frantically looking around until his eyes landed on his sister and he moved to stand by her bedside, a surprised Nadia taking a moment to recover from the barging in before she stood up from her desk.

“I’m sorry but who are you?” she asked as she made her way over to him, Keegan not replying at first, probably not even noticing her presence as he looked over Ashley until Nadia appeared on the other side of his sister which finally broke him from his protective spell.

“Oh, sorry, i’m her brother. How is she?”

Nadia offered a sympathetic smile now that she knew who he was “She’s not in a life threatening condition is the best way I can put it. She suffered a wound to the leg from one of their weapons but its heat automatically cauterized it, she just has a hole there. Otherwise she is still unconscious, from what I am unsure. I’m sure she will wake up soon though, her vitals are strong.”

Keegan wasn’t sure how to reply to this news but the fact her vitals were strong was enough for him to be grateful as he just offered her a nod, Nadia getting the point and going back over to her desk, Keegan standing there silently for a moment before he leaned down to kiss Ashley’s forehead “stay strong sis” was what he whispered to her, turning to leave the medical room again until his eyes landed on the Alien-spider corpse “woah, you got one of them eight-legged freaks?!”

This caught Nadia’s attention again as she looked up from her desk to instead glance at the Alien corpse “yeah, I plan to have a look at it” she said, sighing and then muttering “I should get to that now” before getting up from her desk and moving around the room to collect equipment, Keegan considering offering his service for a moment until he decided he would probably just get in the way, causing him to instead exit from the room, sharing a nod with William who had just arrived with Emmett and Jeanne.

“Ehhh, what’s up doc?” William said, a smirk on his face to his reference, as he entered the room with Emmett and Jeanne shuffling in behind him, noting a very brief glare on Nadia’s face before she hid it behind a smile and addressed the three.

“Other than a invasion?” she commented before turning her attention directly to the President and her Engineer as they cautiously approached the Alien corpse “careful Madam President, it might bite” she said as a joke but when she saw their expressions she just shook her head “I’m joking. It’s dead. Either that or it is playing the waiting game.”

“Have you made any investigations into it yet?” Jeanne asked as both she and Emmett leaned over the table to look at it, a clear look on Jeanne’s face that she thought it looked creepy, a smirk on William’s face as he hoped for her sake she wouldn’t see a live one.

“Not yet, I was just about to when you arrived” Nadia commented, joining them at the table as she looked over the corpse “you’re welcome to stay and enjoy the view” she told them, again meaning it as a joke but she was beginning to realize she sounded more of a bitch than a joker.

At least it didn’t seem to bother anyone in her company and instead Jeanne reached to give Emmett’s shoulder a pat before nodding “actually Emmett is going to stay and help you out” she told the doctor, earning a confusion look from William as he questioned the decision.

“I thought he was an Engineer?”

“I am but with a lack of proper expertise at the military base, I took the role of examining Aliens as well, although I don’t know how much I could do, I didn’t get much experience in looking at them so far.”

“You’ll do fine” Jeanne told him, offering a smile before she turned to look at William “as for you shit-talker, I need you to take me around this hotel of yours. I want to meet the people, we’re all in this together, I don’t want them to feel as if i’m above them.”

“Geez, am I getting paid for the amount of babysitting i’m doing?”

Jeanne just rolled her eyes at him before she exited from the room, William sending a curious glance over to Nadia after the President had left and while Emmett had his back turned which confused Nadia but once she gave him a nod, he decided to let whatever it was go and nodded in return before he exited from the room, leaving her alone with the Engineer.

“So” Emmett said awkwardly after a moment of silence, offering Nadia a smile as he nervously rubbed his hands together “have you got a name for the creature we’re about to open up?”

Nadia thought about it before she smirked and shrugged “Eight-Legged Freaks.” ---  21st August 2049  - 09:20 - Charleston City Outskirts, America

Daniel rubbed at his eyes for the third time as he, Charlie, Berney and Butterfield walked through the forest and were making their way to Charleston. He wasn’t exactly sure what would happen today but he was hoping it wouldn’t be a lot, he was too tired for any more action.

“Can’t believe they are already sending us out to the city for a scouting mission. We barely got any rest after the battle that happened yesterday” Berney whined, more to himself than the others as they gave him no response, they all may be tired but they still had a mission to do. They just hoped something worthwhile came from this mission.

The four of them just kept walking their way to Charleston as it wasn’t too far from the hotel and they would need to save their energy in case something did indeed go wrong in the city, allowing their silence to fill the mood until Charlie sped up a little to walk beside Daniel, keeping his voice low enough to make their conversation private and let Butterfield and Berney know he wanted it to be that way.

“I wanted to apologize for what I did back in the base, I stepped out of line…”

“Don’t worry about it Jenkins, you’ve already been told off for it.”

“But I should worry about it. If I hadn’t picked up that communications device and responded, maybe we could’ve found another way to do it or either you or Danni could’ve done it bette-”

“Enough” Daniel told him, grabbing onto Charlie’s arm to force him to stand in the spot he was, earning curious glances from Butterfield and Berney but the two kept walking, allowing Daniel and Charlie some privacy as Daniel himself let out a sigh “we all make mistakes Charlie. Shit happens...just don’t let it get to your head. This war has only just started, we’re going to lose a lot more people, focus on the present right now.”

Charlie didn’t answer right away, instead he was just looking down to the ground with a sad look on his face as he was deep in thought. It was only another moment later that he looked up to look into Daniel’s eyes “I heard Will found his wife and other family...do you think the rest of us can hope for the same?”

Daniel was a bit caught off guard at this question, being unsure what to say at first as he was never really good at things like this and he didn’t want to be that person who talked about hope, he wasn’t a good motivational speaker and this hesitation on Daniel’s part made Charlie sigh as he bowed his head again and got ready to catch up with their two soldier companions “you’re right, i’m thinking stupidly.”

“I didn’t say that” Daniel replied as he grabbed Charlie’s arm, keeping him in the spot again while Daniel awkwardly rubbed the back of his head “look, i’m not going to bullshit you. It’s unlikely but it is still possible. I’m sure our superiors have plans to look for people after we’re in a much better position. Just...hope, alright?”

Charlie nodded in acknowledgement but didn’t give any other response which Daniel had predicted. As he told himself, he wasn’t a motivational speaker. He wasn’t the type of person who could get someone to hope in a shitty situation, he was just the guy that got stuck in that situation too but he wasn’t ready for this conversation to end, not yet.

“I’m sorry” Daniel said suddenly, breaking the silence, as he laid one of his hands on Charlie’s shoulders “you didn’t deserve me shouting at you. I was just...upset about the situation. Looking back on the situation, I doubt there was anything any of us could do to make the it better. I know it doesn’t help, being one of the few survivors of a battle like that, it scars you but don’t blame yourself solely, alright?”

Charlie gave another acknowledging nod as he looked up to Daniel, thinking for a moment before he offered a soft smile “and i’m sorry for being a pain in the ass recruit.”

Daniel allowed himself to laugh at that as he put his hand on Charlie’s back and guided him to continue walking and catch up with the other two “don’t worry about it. If you weren’t being annoying, you’d be doing it wrong. Now let’s go spy on the enemy.” ---  21st August 2049  - 10:01 - Hayes Hotel, America

“Are you sure she’d want to be disturbed? Especially by me? I have barely even talked to her…”

“Nonsense! You’re both family, it’ll be great for you to come with me to see her!”

“Meaning you and Brian have a thing going on again so i’m the only one available.”

Victoria brought her walking to a stop as she turned to look at Nathan by her side, her eyebrows coming together as she glared “what’s “have a thing going on again” supposed to mean?”

“It means that you two are doing that “I’m the Alpha” thing again.”

“Ridiculous. We all know i’m the Alpha, Bri’s my Beta and he knows it”

Nathan rolled his eyes at the big grin that Victoria gave him before he continued walking down the corridor towards Maggie’s room “whatever you say Vicky, I just hope you eventually realize Bri doesn’t actually care about being better, he does it to wind you up.”

“Good because IF he was trying to be the better one, he would never succeed” she commented in retort, apparently going oblivious to the second part that Nathan pointed out as the two of them came to stand in front of Maggie’s door. However just as Nathan was about to knock on the door, it swung open with Maggie standing there, surprising both of them, as she looked over the two with a raised eyebrow before she let out a sigh.

“What do you want?”

“Were you expecting us, somehow?”

“She has ears like a bat” Victoria told Nathan as she leaned over to his ear and blocked her mouth from view as if she was whispering to him “she could hear something from the other side of the hotel, I swear!”

“I don’t need to have such hearing when you two are louder than drunkards” Maggie told the both of them before she let out a breath and loosened her grip on the door handle “why are the two of you here?”

“We just wanted to check in on you” Victoria said softly as all joking dropped from her attitude when she looked over Maggie “I know you feel like an outcast to our family but you’re apart of it and with-”

“It’s okay” Maggie said suddenly, interrupting Victoria as she knew where the conversation was going “Most of us are missing family and if everyone else can keep going on without theirs then so will I...I just don’t know what I can do around here.”

“Well, if you’re looking for something to do, Vicky is running this musical group with all the other teenagers. We actually have another session later today if you wanted to join us Mags” Nathan said with a soft grin, Victoria nodding in agreement with this statement while Maggie clearly gave the idea some thought before she just shrugged.

“Sure, whatever, just come fetch me when it’s time” Maggie told them before she moved to close the door on them, intending to end the conversation, but being unable to once Nathan put his foot in the doorway, effectively blocking the closing path and causing Maggie to look up at him and see his worried expression as he spoke to her.

“You sure you don’t want to talk? I know we haven’t talked much but I’m a great listener and Vicky tends to over talk a lot so if you need too…”

“If I need to then I’ll find you but I’m fine for now” Maggie replied, a look in her eyes requesting for them to now leave her alone, something Nathan obliged to and moved his foot out from the door, allowing for it to be closed, a moment passing before Victoria smacked him on the chest.

“Oww, what was that for?”

“For saying I over talk a lot.”

“Have you heard yourself sometimes? You practically grab at all the attention when you want it.”

Victoria just rolled her eyes and gestured for him to follow her as she began to walk down the corridor again “come on, let’s go make sure the others haven’t run off again.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hotel, Emily was enjoying herself, being surrounded by strangers again made life feel normal and having to step aside occasionally as some young children ran past reminded her of being a teacher, she’d have to remind herself to see how the teaching was going here, if it was going at all.

Of course, being the klutz she was, it didn’t take long for the happy stricken Emily to crash into someone, knocking them around a bit as two boxes and its contents of paper and pencils went flying, apologies being said from both Emily and her crash buddy as they knelt down to the ground to pick everything up.

“No, no, you shouldn’t apologize, you were carrying these two boxes, I should be the one to be blamed for-” Emily cut her own statement short as her eyes caught hold of a round and extended belly that was in front of her, coming to the realization of whom she bumped into as she looked up to their face “you’re Gabriella?”

“That’s right” Gabriella replied with a smile “i’m the pregnant woman everyone is talking about. You may call me Gabby though.”

“Oh thank God, I didn’t just want to assume and be wrong, you know? I mean it would be rude to assume you’re pregnant, just because of your...uh, size” Emily rambled as she continued picking up everything and putting them back into the boxes, nervously chuckling “I did that to my teacher once, same situation actually, heard someone was pregnant and just assumed.”

“Mhm. Would be rude if it turns out i’m not actually Gabby, huh?” Gabriella teased, Emily clearly becoming panicked but once she looked up at Gabriella again and saw the teasing smile on her lips, she relaxed as Gabriella laughed “well you’ve met me now so there is no need to worry about which fatty is the pregnant one anymore, unless if someone else around here is secretly pregnant, you’ll have to be careful then.”

Emily nodded in agreement, finishing putting everything away with Gabriella before she stood up, carrying both of the boxes in her arms “let me help you, make up for causing the mess. Where were you taking them?”

“Thank you, the owner of the hotel freed up a room for me to teach the kids. I was bringing these boxes there because I thought they might like drawing today” Gabriella replied, gesturing for Emily to follow her as she resumed walking down the corridor “I’m not actually a teacher but I thought this would be good practice for being a mother.”

“Oh how convenient” Emily said more to herself than her new friend but when Gabriella gave her a curious look, Emily laughed and explained “I’m an actual teacher, I mainly taught college kids but I’ve had experience with the younger generation. I’d be happy to help out if you’d like?”

“That’d be great” Gabriella said with a smile, earning one from Emily in return. ---  21st August 2049  - 11:10 - Charleston City, America

When Daniel had been charged with a mission to go into Charleston and see what the Aliens were up too, he expected something interesting to happen. However apparently he was wrong to think that.

Beside him, Berney didn’t even bother to hold back a yawn and then on the other side of Berney, Charlie was still ranting on about something to Butterfield, Daniel having not paid enough attention to hear what it was actually about but he could tell from Butterfield’s expression that he was trying to remain polite. Butterfield may be a kind person but even he had limits to Charlie going on and on.

“Alright Jenkins, that’s enough. We’re on a mission, not seeing a movie” Daniel ordered, giving one more brief glance over to Charlie who immediately went silent, nervously looking away as Daniel returned to looking through the scope of his rifle.

“Anything going on down there yet?” Berney asked impatiently and when Daniel shook his head, he let out a frustrated sigh as he placed his rifle down and turned to lay on his back, closing his eyes to rest as if he was on vacation “this is stupid. Why are we still staking out this one spot in the entire city?”

Daniel held back his growing anger due to his given orders being questioned “because we saw more than the usual coming back and forth to this area not that long ago, something is clearly different with this area and anyway, if you don’t like my orders and think you can do better, go somewhere else.”

This caused Berney to glare at Daniel, clearly about to fight back with an attitude before Butterfield spoke up “activity happening down there.”

All four soldiers brought their full attention to the area a few roads away now, being able to watch through their scopes as quite a few Aliens appeared on the scene, joined by a special one that was much bigger than the rest, all four soldiers remaining completely silent as the bigger Alien made its way through the crowd, clearly having an intention in mind.

“Hey, look there” Charlie spoke up quietly, pointing his three companions in the direction of a group of Aliens carrying a box of some kind through the crowd and placing it down to the ground, Daniel using his scope to look extremely closely at the box “wonder what’s in the box?” Charlie added, speaking up for all of their curiosity.

“Nice reference” Berney commented, earning a grin from Charlie before Daniel put his finger to his lips and shushed them, watching through the scope as the box was opened and nearly immediately after, several of the Alien-spiders ran out, screeching as if they were going through the worst pain in existence until they disappeared into the drains, all of the Aliens letting out a noise that sounded like their version of laughter as they watched.

“Well, I guess that confirms where your Eight-Legged Freaks come from” Berney muttered but before Daniel could offer any form of response, Charlie was leaning forward on the edge of the building, causing a loose brick to come completely loose and fall from the ledge, his three companions all staring at him in shock as the brick hit the road below them and let out a soft noise before Berney offered a chuckle “Well, at least we’re a few roads away. Otherwise they would have heard that.”

Daniel just let out a frustrated sigh, turning his attention to look back through his scope. However once he did, he came to a very bad realization. The Aliens had heard them and the big one was looking right at them as it commanded for the forces to move towards where Daniel and his squad were currently located.

“Shit, apparently they have super hearing” was Berney’s comment but none of them, even Berney himself, gave no care for it as the four soldiers quickly got themselves up and began to make a run back into the building they were on top of.

They had to get out of the area, fast. ---  21st August 2049  - 11:13 - Hayes Hotel, America

Nadia let out a breath as she placed down the scalpel, reaching to wipe her forehead with her arm as both her and Emmett looked down at the cut open Eight-Legged Freak on the table, her eyes narrowing in confusion “it’s strange. There’s no blood, at least, not as much as they’re should be when cutting a living thing like this open.”

Emmett silently nodded in agreement as he moved around the table to examine the creature at different angles, Nadia had noted that he didn’t seem to be the talkative type, something that she didn’t mind at all. It made dissecting the creature easier anyway. However she did feel like there was some things other than the matters on hand in his mind.

“That doesn’t make any sense” Emmett finally said, breaking their silence as he turned his attention up to her “I may not be an expert but I’m pretty sure you’d need more blood to pump around your heart, right?”

At first Nadia was about to just agree but then her statement made her realize something, causing her to bend down and quickly dig back into the creature, Emmett standing by her side confused, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly “uhh, is something wrong?”

“There’s no heart.”

It took a moment for this realization to set in as Emmett watched Nadia give up her search for a heart and pull her hands out, Emmett eventually catching onto what she said and being utterly confused “how does it have no heart?” he asked, turning to look away from the creature and instead at Nadia.

Nadia shrugged but just as she was turning to talk with Emmett, something quick moving out of the corner of her eye and before she could react, the creature had launched itself of the table and at Nadia, the doctor screaming as she fell to the ground, her hands grabbing onto the creature in a desperate attempt to keep it from doing any damage, the creature looking terrifying as its mouth opened and closed rabidly to bite her.

Emmett had no time to think about what was going on or how it was possible, instead he had to get something to kill the creature and kill it quickly, nervously looking around for something to kill it but the only equipment he could see was the dissecting equipment and that would be too small to do any damage with how quick the creature was moving.

“Just get something to knock it off!” Nadia yelled at him, through her struggle to keep the creature off of her, as if reading his thoughts, Emmett still having no ideas as he looked around until he eventually just braved it and charged to the creature, putting in all his strength as he lifted his foot and forcefully kicked the creature off of her.

Being released from her attacker, Nadia quickly crawled behind Emmett for safety before getting up off the floor and quickly rummaging through her boxes, throwing everything everywhere as she looked for anything to defend themselves with, Emmett making a weak defense as he lifted up his fists, watching as the creature recovered and stood back up again, letting out a terrifying hiss towards them as it prepared to launch again.

“Uhh, please hurry doc…” Emmett said worriedly, backing up and reaching onto her desk for something to grab, his hand clasping around a bottle of wine, lifting it up to attack just as the creature launched, Emmett letting out a yell as he swung the bottle, hoping it would make contact with the creature and save him.

Fortunately it turned out that Emmett wouldn’t have to as he was able to catch glimpse of an arrow stuck through the creature’s head as it’s dead body fell to the ground. Both him and Nadia then looked up to the room’s doorway where William stood there, his crossbow aimed where the creature had been before he lowered it and smirked at the two “so much for being dead, huh?”

Nadia allowed herself a little laugh while Emmett nervously backed away from the creature, William making his way into the room so he could kick at the dead creature’s corpse, looking it over before he turned his attention to Nadia “so what can you tell me about it? Are we back to Zombies and needing to put them down through the brain?”

Nadia wasn’t quite sure how to reply to that, she was only a kid during the apocalypse, so she just shrugged as she stepped closer to the creature and caught her breath before speaking “it… it doesn’t have a heart. I...don’t know how but it doesn’t.”

William nodded to this, surprising Nadia at how he didn’t appear shocked at the discovery but before any of the three could take the conversation any further, quick footsteps could be heard as Vernon and Keegan appeared in the doorway, Keegan just standing there looking surprised as Vernon barged in “Keegan here tells me there was a scream, what the hell happ-”

“Spider-man here came back to life” William commented, gesturing down to the now dead creature “it’s taken care of though. I hear it happens quite regularly in the comics” William joked, something Vernon clearly didn’t appreciate as he glared at William.

“A threat comes back from the dead to kill civilians and you make jokes?”

“It’s dead. Burn its corpse alive if you want to be sure” William told the Chief of Staff before he turned to look at Emmett and Nadia “you two are okay, aren’t you?” he asked and when they nodded he turned his attention back to Vernon with a grin “see? Everything's A-okay. Now, why don’t we focus on the information we learned from this thing rather than my good jokes?”

At first Vernon wanted to retort further but instead he just gave in and sighed as he pointed to the creature “I want that Freak tied down tight if you’re going to study it further. Understood?” he demanded, nods coming from all three which he accepted and made his way out of the room again, leaving the three and Keegan to stand in silence until William grinned at Nadia.

“I think that can be counted as karma for your joke earlier” he teased, earning chuckles out of them all. ---  21st August 2049  - 11:20 - Charleston City, America

The streets of Charleston were calm, no sign of being disturbed. Some littered papers blowing across the ground due to the wind, a few birds even flying around. Nothing unusual going on the street otherwise than the streets being completely empty.

That was until Daniel and his soldier companions came frantically running around the corner, ducking down and moving to the sides as multiple lasers were fired in their direction, fortunately they managed to avoid what was fired in their direction but they wouldn’t be able to keep that up for long.

“We need to split up, head into the buildings and make our way out of the city!” Daniel yelled to his three fellow soldiers as they ran as fast as they could, the four of them being able to hear that the Aliens weren’t far behind them which caused them to try and pick up speed, Berney taking a moment to look behind them as they ran, watching as the Aliens followed their path and exited from the Alley and onto the streets before turning back to look at Daniel as he yelled back.

“We should just head out into the forest! These bastards don’t want to hate nature? So we take cover in it!”

“We’re sitting ducks out here Berney!” Daniel retorted, a laser barely missing his face as if to prove his point before he continued talking “we need to lose the heat in the buildings and then make a run for an exit, now split up!” was the last command he gave them before splitting off from then, quickly running around a corner and leaving the other three to run down the street until they too decided on where to split off from the rest, the Aliens left to split up to chase the multiple targets.

Daniel wasn’t exactly sure how many were following him, nor did he want to spend the much needed time to find out. Instead he just kept his focus on breathing and running and hoping that his fellow soldiers would be fine and stick to their plan as he gave a little thought back to the moment they had thought of said plan.

''With the four of them frantically running down the stairs, hoping to reach the bottom floor before the Aliens arrived to their destination, Charlie lagged behind a bit as he barely managed to ask his question through all the breaths he was taking “what’s the plan Daniel? There is no way we can fight them head on or get back into the forests before they shoot us down!”''

''Daniel had to think about this for a moment, his body focused on getting him down these stairs without a single trip before he let out a sigh once he came up with a plan, he didn’t like it but it was all he had he thought to himself as he responded by saying “we try to lose them in the buildings. At first we run together, going around as many corners as we can and then we split up. We then keep going around corners and moving in and out of buildings until we lose the ones following us separately. After that, it is your job to get yourself back to the hotel, understood?”''

His three fellow soldiers all nodded in agreement and so the four of them continued to move down the stairs as quickly as they could, silently hoping that they would all get out of the situation alive.

Focus on the present, Daniel reminded himself as he kept running, having entered a building throughout his thinking back time and ahead of him he found himself fortunate to see a window that was already smashed, Daniel still cutting himself as he moved through it but that didn’t matter as he was able to duck down on the other side of it just as the Aliens entered the room he was previously in, the Aliens themselves briefly looking around before Daniel heard them charge up the stairs, clearly mistaking he had gone up there.

Letting out a grateful breath, Daniel first looked to make sure he was safe before he made his way towards the forest, climbing the backyard fence that was in his way before he ran as quickly as he could into the cover of nature, finding himself joined by Berney on the way up the hill before they both collapsed down onto the ground, regaining their breath for a few moments.

“Did you see what happened to Charlie and Butterfield?” Daniel asked after he had regained most of his breaths, looking over to see Berney shake his head before he stood up, offering Daniel his hand to help him stand up as well.

“No but they need to look out for themselves. We need to get back to the hotel” Berney reminded Daniel of the plan, helping him up before he turned to walk further into the forest, Daniel just standing there to look over Charleston with a worried expression on his face until Berney called out “come on”, breaking Daniel out of his thought process as he too turned to head deeper into the forest.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Charleston, Charlie was panicking as he ducked down behind a wall, trying to keep his breathing steady while his hands shook. There were too many Aliens, he’d wound up heading too deep into the city and further into Alien territory and now he was unsure where he was going.

He had to keep moving was what he told himself.

However just as he regained most of his breath and was about to continue running, activity nearby caught his attention and lead to him looking through a gap in the rubble, watching as Butterfield came running out into the streets but came to a stop and Charlie could see why, he had been surrounded by Aliens, a fact that became clearly proven as the Aliens surrounding him came out of cover.

Clearly Butterfield was in a lose-lose situation and Charlie could only watch as he decided to go out fighting and raised his gun, unfortunately unable to get off a single shot before a laser struck him straight through the chest. However sadness was briefly shoved away by Charlie and was instead replaced by confusion as he noticed things that were off with what just happened.

The laser was different and and there was no wound on Butterfield as he collapsed to the ground.

“He’s only unconscious” a deep, non-human, voice spoke up from behind him, as if reading Charlie’s mind, which caused Charlie himself to turn and find himself face to face with the big Alien from before. A neutral but evil look on the Alien’s face as it stared at the Human “he’s being taken to a special place for a special use. Just like you.”

Charlie had no time to either take this information into consideration nor do anything before the Alien’s fist connected with his face, knocking him out flat. ---  21st August 2049  - 14:07 - Hayes Hotel, America

“Keep it, make sure you one hundred percent feel comfortable with how you grip the gun. On the battlefield you don’t always get to be comfortable but practicing like this will help for the start” Dannisha called out into the gathered crowd of civilians as they each trained with water guns, Dannisha noticing a mix of different outcomes with how the civilians were doing.

“Spike you aren’t a gangsta, put that gun how it should be” she heard Edward speak out, turning her head a bit to see an embarrassed Spike moving his water gun into a more correct position while Nina laughed at his side, Dannisha figuring she had probably dared him to do it.

She still wasn’t completely confident on training the civilians for combat but their recent battle at the Military base had made her accept Edward’s plan, they needed more soldiers and at least they weren’t training with real guns right now. She was also pleasantly surprised when she saw people like Jeff not only doing well but also helping out the lesser improved ones like Han.

“So how are the boots doing Eddie?” Vernon called out as he arrived in the area, bringing most of the attention to him as he came to stand beside Edward with a grin on his face, looking over all the civilians “or are they completely FUBAR?”

Edward chuckled at the use of old military slang, having not heard it in a while with the new military “it's mixed right now. They all have a chance however, some have to learn not to fool around though” he told his old friend, adding the last bit as he sent a knowing look over to Nina and Spike, Vernon smirking at that before he moved to wave his way through the civilians, judging for himself.

While Vernon did this, Dannisha noticed as Nancy waited until she had been judged before moving to talk to Edward, sparking Dannisha’s curiosity but in the end she shrugged it off and turned her attention back to the civilians while Edward greeted Nancy in return.

“What can I do for you Ms. Morales?”

“I was hoping to talk with you in private General.”

This caused an eyebrow to raise on Edward’s face as he turned his focus away from the civilians to completely focus on Nancy “about what?”

Nancy didn’t answer right away, instead she looked back nervously at Vernon before biting her lip and turning back to look at Edward “Before you brought up the idea of using me to rescue people through radios. I was wondering what was happening about that?”

Edward let out a sigh and shook his head “I’m not sure that will be happening any time soon. With the losses we have suffered, we aren’t in the best position right now.”

“But if we get more civilians then that would mean more trainable soldiers, yes?”

“A good idea but it has a large possibility to draw attention to us and not only do we have just seventy-two members and only sixteen soldiers left but we have little weaponry. We can’t draw attention to ourselves right now.”

Nancy sighed, not liking what she had been told but she accepted it, pausing for a moment to look over all the training civilians before she turned her attention back to Edward “shouldn’t we at least check out our options? See if it's possible in the first place?”

Edward too thought about it for a moment before he gave a nod as he gestured over at Vernon who was now talking with Dannisha about the civilian recruits “I’ll talk it over with the Chief of Staff, he’s really the one in charge now, i’m just helping out with leadership wishing I was retiring on a beach somewhere.”

Nancy nodded in understanding but before she could give any response, Jamie called out from the gate that the soldiers sent out before had returned as he moved to get the gate open, Edward along with Vernon quickly making their way over to the gate and leaving the civilians to wait for their trainers to return.

At first there was eagerness to learn what had happened on the mission but once they all saw that it was only Daniel and Berney walking through the open gate, their expressions changed to worry as Vernon stepped forward and looked between them as he yelled “what the hell happened?!”

At first none of them received an answer as Berney was unsure if he should be the one to answer and Daniel silently had his head down until he finally looked up at his gathered superiors, a dark glare in his eyes, a look of anger on his face as he yelled back and took them all by surprise “what the hell happened?! We’re going out and dying on your goddamn stupid missions is what the hell happened!”

Berney stepped back nervously, not wanting any part of what was going on while Edward stepped towards Daniel “come on Danny, let us calm down so you can tell us exactly what happened” his General told him as he attempted to reach up and grab Daniel’s shoulder in support only for Daniel himself to roughly shove the arm away before pointing his finger accusingly at him.

“No! I’m not going to fucking calm down. We’re fighting a war against Aliens and all you are doing is sending your soldiers to go out and die on stupid missions! What even is the worth of all we are doing?!”

“There is no worth in battles, soldier” Vernon told him, trying to keep his anger controlled as he spoke as softly as he could “it’s just trying to survive needless fights but it is something we have to do.”

Daniel turned his glare on the Chief of Staff for a moment as he growled out “we aren’t surviving, we are dying” before turning his angry attention back to Edward “because of you! You sent us to Charleston for a generator we could do without and Bob died! You sent us into a death trap for a President who is worthless to us and fourteen of our people died! THEN you sent me to lead a worthless mission into Charleston and I don’t know if Charlie and Butterfield are alive! We are ALL dying because of YOUR stupid decisions!”

“That’s enough Pratt” William spoke up before Edward could, all attention turning to him now while Daniel seemed to grow angrier at the sight of William, stomping away from Edward in order to confront his new target.

“Oh don’t you even start! William Hayes, the great hero of America, where were you when we got slaughtered? Oh yes, I remember, looking for your family. How goddamn heroic!”

William still had a neutral expression as he stared into William’s eyes “enough Danny. I know you’re angry and you have every right to be but the people who are dead? They wouldn’t want us to tear each other apart and anyway, you mentioned you don’t know if Charlie or Butterfield are dead or not. We need to have hope they aren’t.”

“Hope?” Daniel replied, his eyes still filled with anger but his voice gone soft as he tried to keep his breathing level, not calming himself down but showing signs of exhaustion before he finally just let out a sigh and looked down to the ground “hope isn’t enough to fight this war.”

“No but it's what we need to start it” Edward spoke up again, bringing the attention back to him as he stepped forward, noticing how more civilians than just the training ones had been brought to the scene by the action “what we are doing right now is nowhere near enough to win but it’s going to get us there. Together we need to figure out these Aliens. Together we need to find ways to improve ourselves to fight them. Together we build to reclaim our planet and when the time is right, together we will fight.”

Numerous ways of agreement went throughout the crowd, from nods to clapping, as Edward smiled at them all “we are in this together so together let’s get to the stage where we can kick these Aliens in the ass and send them back to hell!” he yelled out now, earning an uproar of excitement, William putting his hand on Daniel’s shoulder to show him some support as he whispered.

“We’ll beat them.” ---  21st August 2049  - 15:01 - Hayes Hotel, America

“I’m not sure about this Vicky, I mean you sure how I was last session, i’m terrible at the bass guitar, even with you teaching me!”

“Nonsense Rey-Rey, you just need practice. We all need practice.”

Reyna gave a sigh of defeat in arguing and instead just clutched the bass guitar in her arms, she wasn’t good with it but she always wanted to be. If Victoria wasn’t prepared to give up on her then she shouldn’t give up on herself either.

“So what else is on your mind?”

This sent confusion through Reyna’s mind as she looked back up at Victoria with a squint “what do you mean?”

Victoria just chuckled and wrapped her arm around her friend, pulling Reyna close as they walked together and causing a light blush to rise on her cheeks as they got so close together “I can tell that something is on your mind other than music. If you don’t get it out of the way now, it’ll get in the way when you are practicing, so what’s up?”

Reyna thought about it for a moment before she shrugged, deciding it wouldn’t be too much of a big deal to tell Victoria, before speaking her mind “it’s just that, before all this went down, I was studying to be a doctor and I saw how doctor Nadia was doing and it wasn’t that good, I thought she could do with some help…”

“Then help” Victoria said with enough happy enthusiasm to make Reyna question if she was doing drugs as she felt too happy for someone who was in a situation that they were all in “if you feel like that you won’t get in her way then you should at least offer to help, who knows, maybe she can teach you along the way?”

“I guess, i’m just worried that Nadia might get offended…” Reyna said in more of a whisper than she intended for it to be which caused Victoria to stop walking towards the meeting spot and take a hold of Reyna’s hands, causing an even deeper blush than before to form on the latter’s cheeks as they shared a gaze.

“Don’t worry about that. Maybe Nadia’s in that medical room right now praying that someone would come and help her so you should offer that help. I’ll take you there later after the session, okay?”

Reyna nodded with a light smile “okay.”

“Good, it’s a date then” Victoria said, adding a wink to the end of her statement before she began skipping the rest of the way and leaving Reyna to just continue walking over in silence with her awkward feeling until Brian came up beside her and interrupted her silent walking.

“Careful, she’ll be wanting to get her claws into you next” Brian said, intending it more as a joke than a serious statement but as he sped up a little to meet with Victoria, Reyna’s cheeks only reddened further as she looked down to the bass guitar in her arms again, cursing herself for feeling this way during an Alien invasion and also reminding herself that Victoria already had a… thing going on with Brian already.

Little crushes should just be pushed aside as she had other, non selfish, things to focus on.

As she took a seat on one of the chairs that had been left out and got her bass guitar ready for practice, Reyna could see as the rest of the session joiners entered the area. Kyle and Zoey were lost in some little disagreement of which game is better, Nico as usual was trying to keep to himself but Nathan was making an effort at talking to him and then there was Alexandra and Maggie. She only knew Maggie through mention by Victoria so she couldn’t read her entrance much but she did note that Alexandra was trying to keep herself seated away from Brian but also seemed to be watching Brian like he was an experiment.

Reyna shook these thoughts out of her head. It was none of her business and it would remain that way. Instead she looked around the group to see what instruments had been assigned to whom, noticing that Victoria, Brian and Nathan had guitars too while Kyle and Nico handled the drums, leaving Zoey and Alexandra to do the keyboards, apparently Victoria was already explaining that Maggie would be looking to find her own instrument this session but Reyna had only caught the end of that explanation as she was lost in thought too much.

“So, you’ve all been handed you’re sheets on what to play” Victoria continued to lead as Reyna decided she should probably listen now “so for this session, we’ll just be practicing in the groups of the same instrument. Next session we’ll be mixing it up a bit more and putting different instruments together, understood?”

There were nods all around and so Victoria waved her hands dismissively, the group all parting into their smaller instrument groups, Reyna lagging behind a bit to watch as Victoria took Maggie aside to sort through the instruments, her lagging behind being long enough for Nathan to notice so he whispered in her ear “I wouldn’t chase after her” he teased “you’ll get caught in the romance war with Vicky and Bri.”

Reyna knew he was only joking with her but it only made herself feel even more cursed inside. She was never good dealing with crushes on girls and now she had a crush on a girl during an Alien invasion? Teenager life was hard.

Meanwhile, inside of the actual Hotel and looking over the backyard, William stood on his room’s balcony, watching the teenagers go about their fun session with a grin on his face until his attention was taken away when Bella suddenly appeared at his side, leaning to kiss his cheek before she wrapped her arm around him and leaned her head on his arm and sighed “I got you the medicine. Nadia is already suspicious though, I doubt it will be long before she finds out.”

“It’s fine, i’ll get around to telling her” William told his wife which sent confusion through her as she tilted her head to look up at him with a look that showed her confusion, earning a chuckle from William as he turned his head to lay a kiss on her lips before answering her silent confusion “It’s not fair for me to keep it a secret. I could get people killed out there, especially if I just suddenly collapse on the battlefield and they don’t know what to do. Even if it means me being kicked out of the soldiers, I’ll tell them.”

Bella thought about this new information for a moment before she gently smiled and reached to take her husband’s hand, stroking it’s back with her thumb “this is because of earlier isn’t it? What are the plans for the two missing?”

“Edward wanted to send search teams after them but Vernon won’t allow it. Not enough force would be left if we were to look for two people” William said with a sigh, Bella nodding silently as she laid her head on his but despite what he said, she could see the look in his eyes and she knew what he was planning just before he told her it “i’m going to go out and find them. I have to wait for the right time but i’m going to go.”

“I know and I’ll go with you” Bella told him, the two of them smiling together as William turned to face her completely, his hands coming up to hold her head between them, his thumbs stroking her cheeks which caused her to lose her breath for a moment, unable to think of anything but the two of them before she reminded herself of the conversation at hand and reaffirmed what she just said to him “together, we’ll find them.”

“I’d have it no other way love.”

“Good, i’m not letting you out of my sights again.”

Then they moved their heads together so their lips could meet, as always, causing Earth and everything on it to no longer exist as the only things that mattered to them in that moment were each other. ---  21st August 2049  - 23:57 - Washington D.C., America

Charlie didn’t know where he was being led, a bag was over his head and he couldn’t see anything through it. He didn’t know what the time was, where he had been brought or even if he was about to die. All he knew was he was being forcefully tugged along by two Aliens and that he was somewhere outside by the ground that he could barely see at his feet.

His hearing received a completely different result however as he was pulled along, around him he could hear too much activity to even begin to guess where he was, at least at first, until he listened in closer and began to pick up the different voices that separated Humans and Aliens.

Where the hell was he?

Just as he was about to form a guess in his mind, the bag was lifted from Charlie’s head, the Human soldier having to adjust his eyes for the brief moment he got before he was thrown off a ledge, landing roughly on the ground below, enough to bruise but not enough to break.

Now he was in a single spot, Charlie got his opportunity to look around, first finding his gaze met by the darkness of night and a massive brick wall, too big to climb, in which Aliens were walking back and forth on the top of it which added to his confusion but that confusion didn’t last long as when he slowly got himself up and turned around, his questions were answered.

He was in some kind of prison camp and all around him were terrified looking Humans of all ages, some backing away as if he was an Alien himself while others were curiously looking him over as if he might be a saving grace.

“Charlie!” a voice called out from the crowd, Charlie turning to watch as Butterfield pushed his way through the crowd, followed by a woman he didn’t recognise and was hiding her face in a hood, Charlie ignoring the woman for a moment as he met Butterfield and returned the hug that was delivered to him, the woman going to work to examine him, Charlie figuring she was looking for wounds but he instead kept focusing on Butterfield as he asked the important question.

“Are we in a prison camp?”

Butterfield gave a nod, both men being able to see the sad exchanged looks between the other captives but before Butterfield could give his friend a proper response, the woman spoke up as she patted Charlie on the shoulder “nothing more than bruises. Now I want you to come with me and your friend, he tells me you were from a group at the Hayes Hotel” she whispered before going to make her way through the crowd again, only stopping when Charlie called out to her.

“Wait, why does that matter? Who are you?”

The woman in the hood paused before she turned to face Charlie as she lowered it, revealing her face as she offered him a soft smile “I’m Annie Alexander and this is the Alien prison camp in Washington. Something you’re going to help us get out of.”

Significant Events Summary

 * The Hayes Hotel refugees group pair up with the Charleston Military Base survivors.
 * Daniel's scouting team discover that the "Eight-Legged Freaks" do indeed come from the Aliens.
 * Nadia and Emmett discover that the "Eight-Legged Freaks" don't have a heart and only need a brain to "live", similarly to Zombies.
 * Charlie and Butterfield discover the existence of Alien prison camps when they are captured and imprisoned in one of them.

Cast
(The cast list is ordered by appearance in the episode)


 * Dallas Roberts as Emmett Bourne
 * Olivia Munn as Jeanne Winters
 * Kirk Acevedo as Berney Herbert
 * Stephen Lang as Vernon Paxton
 * Danai Gurira as Dannisha Sinclair
 * Sean Murray as Charlie Jenkins
 * Jon Johnson as Jon Butterfield
 * Megan Danso as Ashley Porter
 * Luke Neal as Daniel Pratt
 * Genesis Rodriguez as Bella Hayes
 * John Boyega as Nathan Sinclair
 * Devon Bostick as Brian Henderson
 * Emilia Clarke as Victoria Hayes
 * Eliza Taylor as Alexandra Ryder
 * Peter Capaldi as Perceval Pearce
 * Ryan Robbins as William Hayes
 * Connor Jessup as Jamie Henderson


 * Moon Bloodgood as Nadia Dominguez
 * Dale Dye as Edward Grey
 * Mpho Koaho as Keegan Porter
 * Jessy Schram as Maggie Harlan
 * Amber Heard as Emily Henderson
 * Jenna Coleman as Gabriella Mercer
 * John DeSantis as The Big One
 * Daniel Newman as Spike Byron
 * Jeananne Goossen as Nina Simms
 * Peter Shinkoda as Jeff
 * Steven Yeun as Han Seong
 * Lauren Cohan as Nancy Morales
 * Lindsey Morgan as Reyna Bullard
 * Frank Dillane as Kyle Hawkins
 * Allison Miller as Zoey Bailey
 * Richard Harmon as Nico
 * Rashida Jones as Annie Alexander

Deaths

 * One "Eight-Legged Freak"

Trivia

 * The "episode representing image" for this episode would be when Edward gave his "together" speech to the gathered crowd.
 * For Daniel's mission, the author was debating between having him lead a squad to scout out Charleston for Alien activity, which happened in this episode, or leading a squad back to the Charleston Military Base to get left over weapons, which will be a plot in the next episode, but eventually it was decided that it would better suit Daniel to complain about going on a scouting mission without being properly equipped than for him to complain about being sent to get weapons in Military Base so soon after the battle in the previous episode.
 * While it goes unsaid, in order for the Hayes Hotel's group to come to a total of seventy-two and only be sixteen soldiers, there would have to be seven unnamed soldiers from the Charleston Military Base who joined the Hotel after surviving the battle in the previous episode which is a reference to the Halo Franchise where seven is a recurring referenced number.
 * Originally the title of the episode would've been "It Might Bite" but the author decided against it since the main theme of the episode was more leaning towards the worth of what the hotel survivors have been doing so far and their future plans.
 * This is the first episode where there were no human deaths throughout the episode which was decided purposely by the author so it would be convenient as it was this episode Daniel would lose his cool.