Hope slammed her head into the floor, she could feel it bounce and everything went fuzzy for a minute. She blinked a few ties trying to clear her head. Her hearing had stopped. She had no idea what jut happened. She blinked again, but this time when she opened her eyes Papa Odin was only inches from her face. He had both hands on either side of her face. Hope could see his mouth moving but couldn't hear. It was all white noise and ringing. Odin was pulling her up to her feet, as her hearing slowly came back. And all she heard was screaming, gun shots and explosions. 

"Wh-what....what's going on?" 

"We were compromised! WICKED is here!" He yelled. 

"What? How?" 

Hope's sore head couldn't understand. This was supposed to be a safe place. They were supposed to be safe. How did they find the camp? Odin pulled her out of the burning building and outside, breaking her from her confusion. 

"Where's Lanna?" 

"She was in the field! I don't know now!" Hope cried, panic starting to bubble up.  "Or Vera or Tim!" 

Odin grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Hey! Hey, we don't panic! Panic doesn't help the situation. We need to grab the guns, and find Lanna." 

Hope slowly nodded. "Okay...okay." She was glad Papa was here, she wouldn't know what to do, her mind had gone blank. Odin grabbed her hand and pulled her after him. Fires were everywhere, clogging the night air with thick smoke. There was an explosion. Odin dove taking Hope with him. He used his body as a shield. Wreckage from the explosion rained down on them. There was more wild screaming. Odin got to his feet dragging Hope with him. He shoved her forward. 

"Run." He barked. She did. She ran through the rows of tents. She passed a few bodies, she slowed down but Odin shoved her again. 

"We can't help them now." 

Hope's stomach dropped. She had seen death and dead bodies, but this different; blown apart, burnt, gruesome needless death and destruction. They made it to their tent, somehow it was still standing. Odin grabbed a few guns, chucking them to Hope. With the weight of the familiar weapon, with something she could use to defend herself, she felt her head clear. She swallowed the panic and the fear. 

She shoved another smaller gun into the back of her belt, She had one rifle strapped around her back and one loaded and ready in her hands. Odin had, in the thirty seconds was dressed to the nines in his army gear. Now he looked like the Viking god manifested on earth. Hope was glad he was on her side. 

"Lets go kick some WICKED ass." 

Hope pumped the rifle in reply. They ran back out int the chaos, guns blazing. y this time WICKED soldiers were running everywhere with their electric launchers. They shot anything that moved. But now the Right Arm was fighting back. They weren't going down without a fight. 

"Do you see Lanna?" Odin barked over the noise. 

"No."  

"Take 'em out!" A soldier was pointing at us. Odin took him out, he fell back with a wild scream, and a spray of blood. Hope raised her gun and pulled the trigger of her own gun, the solider with the launcher dropped. 

"Keep going!" Odin yelled. 

He pushed her away from the others. 

"Stop!"

"Don't move!"

Hope froze and slowly looked to her right. Two soldiers stood holding their launchers pointed her. 

"Hands up!" 

Hope raised her hands into the air, still holding her gun. 

"On your knees!" 

Papa Odin appeared and  the soldiers were dead before they hit the ground. Hope exhaled. She knew Papa always had her back, but this was still a high stress situation and her anxiety  was at an all time high. 

"There, that group of boxes. By the truck!" Hope yelled, pointing to the pick up truck that had a massive gun attached to the back. Odin nodded and they sprinted towards the box. Hope knelt down, behind some of the packed up crates. Hope and Odin crouched side by side. She watched as Vince came running, Sonya, Harriet and Aris right behind him. He climbed up into the back of the truck. 

"Harriet! Ammo!" Vince yelled. 

Harriet threw up a long string of bullets. Sonya swung her rifle around, she tossed Aris an extra. A guy in all black was running towards them, Hope swung her gun around and took out the threat. Sonya spun around, the fire around them reflected off her big eyes. Her and Hope made eye contact and they nodded to each other. Odin was yelling at Vince about taking out the helicopter. There was more scrambling, the Maze guys were running up the hill. Newt seemed to be struggling. Hope watched as Minho dropped back to give him a push up the hill. As he did, he lost ground, a solider was gaining. Looking through the scop, she took a quick steading breath aimed and got the WICKED worker right in the forehead, just as he went to dive for Minho's jacket. Minho yelped and spun around, seeing the dead soldier. 

"Your welcome." Hope yelled. He turned, mouth open and eyes wide. 

"Vince! Harriet!" Frypan yelled as he skidded to a halt "Come on!" He yelled, turning and helping Newt.

"Over here!" Sonya waved. 

Odin and Hope did their best to keep the soldiers from coming up the hill towards the truck.

"How can we help?" Minho yelled sliding to a stop. 

"You need to defend us! Like those two." Harriet yelled, and indicated to Odin and Hope, who were picking off WICKED soldiers. Blue electricity bullets were flying everywhere, exploding and sending tendrils of electricity everywhere. 

"Ammo!" Harriet yelled again. Sonya chucked some over. "Hey! Do you know how to use this thing?" She asked Minho, tossing him a gun. He pumped the gun and spun around. Out of the corner of her eye, Hope saw him stand how he showed them this morning. Frypan also had a shot gun, Newt had a smaller hand gun and knelt down. She didn't see Thomas or his dark haired friend, Teresa anywhere, but she didn't have the capacity to ponder. In electricity ball shot over her head missing her by inches. 

"Cover me! This fifty's our only chance!" Vince screamed. 

Everyone turned outwards doing their best to defend the truck and Vince and the gun. Odin turned to take out another solider. He stiffened and cursed. 

"Lanna!" 

Hope twisted to see. A guard had Lanna by the hair was was dragging her down towards the base of the hill. She was fighting and screaming the whole time. Odin turned into the protective bear he was.

"Stay here." He snarled. He got up and charged the man screaming the whole way. He tackled the guy, making them all fall. He threw his fists into the guys face, he didn't move but he threw a few more punches for good measure. He pushed off the dead guy only for a blue electricity bullet to hit him and Lanna in the back. They dropped to the ground screaming. 

"No!" Hope screamed, dread and horror shot threw her so fast. She froze, unable to move as a group of soldiers charged up the hill. She finally got her feet moving, Hope threw her self from the behind the boxes and started down the hill. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. Someone grabbed her from behind and yanked her. Hope twisted to fight back. 

"Whoa. whoa, it's me!" Thomas yelled.

"Thomas?"  she cried. "Wha-"

"Brenda! Come on!" The Hispanic name who was the driver, Jorge was yelling. He had the crank girl with him, she grabbed Thomas's arm, and mine and pulled us.

"You dumbasses!" The girl yelled. "Are you trying  to get yourselves killed?"

"We have to take cover!"

"No! I have to go." Hope tried pulling her arm free. She saw Odin being dragged down the hill by two WICKED soldiers, Lanna was dumped on the ground. 

"We have to leave! Now, while we still have the chance." Jorge yelled over the noise.

"I have to go find the others!" Thomas cried, his eyes were dilated in fear, and he was breathing heavily. He went to get up from their hiding place. Jorge grabbed him and yanked him back down. 

"No! Look! Look." Jorge pointed to the truck. The WICKED soldiers were advancing, slowly surrounding the truck. 

"You can't help them."

"Vince, hurry up!" Someone yelled. The gun was jammed and he was doing his best to fix it while bullets whizzed passed his head. 

"There's too many of them!" Someone cried.

"I'm out!" Frypan yelled. 

"Me too!" Newt yelled.

"Look out!"

Hope watched horror struck as a electricity grenade was thrown into the back of the truck where Vince and the others were. The thing exploded, and took out everyone around the truck. They all collapsed in wild screams. She knew it was over when Vince and the gun were out of commission. They were simply out numbered. Wicked soldiers were everywhere. 

"I'm sorry kids. There's just nothing you can do for them." Jorge shook his head. "If we don't move now, we won't be much better off." 

Hope looked at him in disgust. Shaking her head, "No. I'm staying."

Thomas also shook off their hold on his arm. "You guys gotta go. Now."

"What?" Brenda cried. She was giving him big sad eyes.

"They're not here for you." He yelled over the gun shots and explosions. "You'll be safe, but you have to go now." 

"Thomas..." She tried. 

"He's right. They're here for immunes. Somehow they found our camp, and rounding up all the immune kids." Hope agreed with Thomas. 

"I can't leave them." He said.

Hope turned away from them and looked back down at the valley floor. "My family is down there. I don't abandon my family!" Hope snapped. 

"Go." Thomas gave them a slight push. 

"Good luck, kid." Jorge said, he handed him a home made explosive.

"Bren, we have to go. Come on. Come on." He got up and pulled the girl with him, away from the fighting. Hope watched as Jorge and Brenda

"Cowards. So much for all in this together, or loyalty..." Hope muttered. 

Together her and Thomas turned back towards their families. 

"So...you got a plan?" He asked. 

"What? Me? No...I wasn't expecting to be alive this long. I was hoping you had one." 

"Well...I have a bomb..." He said uncertainly. 

"Okay. We can work with that. But we can't throw it, we risk blowing the people were trying to save up." 

"Fare point." Thomas said with a frown. "I need to get closer." 

"Let's go, come on. Come on!" A tall thin man was yelling. 

Hope shivered. "He's actually here!" 

"Who?" Thomas asked, glancing at her. 

"Director Janson." Hope nodded towards the man in a white sweater. He was walking up and down the front line of kids, yelling orders.  

"You know him?" 

"Everyone knows him Thomas. He's the Director of WICKED. He hardly ever shows his actual face. He must be here because he knows you elites are here. You really pissed off WICKED." 

"Well...it wasn't intentional, we just wanted out." 

"I get that part. But you still pissed him off, and brought down the wrath of hell on all of us." Hope spat. "Now shut up and lets figure out how to help them!" 

"Line them up here! On their knees!" Janson yelled. "Put some eyes up on that ridge." He pointed to the general direction of where Hope and Thomas were hiding.

"Shit. Their gonna come up here!" 

Hope watched as a man with some kind of gadget was going around, shoving heads down and held it up to the back of the kids necks. He got to Sonya, shoved her head down, read something on the screen and then yelled.

"B-5."

"How many did we get?" Janson called to the man with the scanning gadget.

"All of them. Give or take." He answered back.

"Give or take what?"

"Well, they lost a few."  He shoved Newt's head down. "I got A-5." He stepped over to Frypan. "A-6. B-3."

"Where's Thomas?" Janson yelled. 

Thomas shoved the explosive into his jacket pocket, "Well, this is one way to get closer..." 

Before Hope could stop him, he sprung up, his hands in the air. "Right here." He shouted. He started down the hill towards the group. Hope felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She knew this wasn't going to go well. She turnedher attention on the rows. She saw Odin on his knees in the back row. She saw Lanna in the line of other kids, but she didn't see Vera. Hope spotted Tim, but she had no idea where Vera was. Maybe she made it to the mountain and was hiding.

"Thomas." Janson said opening his arms wide. A soldier grabbed Thomas and dragged him forwards. Janson for the hell of it, slammed his fist into Thomas's stomach. "Get him in line."

"Okay." Janson said with satisfaction, a cruel smile on his thin twitchy face. "Bring her in."

There was a loud humming mixed with a deep heavy thumping. A Berg appeared from behind the safety of the mountain. It was huge. Hope froze, watching it, her mouth open. That was her mistake. She got distracted. Pain exploded threw her head. She crumpled to the ground dazed and confused. Her gun was ripped from her hands, and she was checked for other weapons, which they took from her. She felt herself being carried and dragged down the hill. She was dropped down at the feet of someone. Hope's head was pounding, and her world was spinning. It was the second time her head had taken a hard hit. 

"What's this?" A nasally voice sneered. 

"Found her behind the crates, where Thomas was hiding. They must have been planning something." 

"Interesting. Thomas, did you find yourself a girlfriend while you were running around the scorch?" He let a mocking laughed out. "Who is she?" He crouched down and grabbed a handful of Hope's hair and yanked her head up, forcing Hope up onto her knees, her head was yanked upwards, so she was forced to look at him. 

"Oh, Thomas, she's quite pretty." 

Hope shivered, and let a whimper of fear out. This guy was creepier then he appeared in all the adds. 

"Leave her alone." Someone yelled. 

Janson ignored the person and looked up at the captain. "Did you check her?" Janson asked. Janson let go of Hope's hair, letting her fall back to her hands. 

The captain brought out he little scanner and forced Hope's head down. The scanner beeped and a computer voice followed, "ERROR" 

The captain cursed and smacked the device. And tried again. A second time it beeped followed by the voice, "ERROR." 

"What the hell? Faulty equipment. " He muttered. "Hey, Janson." 

"What?" He snapped. 

"Take a look at this." 

Hope's head was shoved down again, the back of her neck was scanned and for a third time, the decice beeped followed by "ERROR." 

"What's going on?" Janson snarled. "Did you try the medical scanner?" 

Someone came running and handed something else to Janson, this one looked way more frightening. The captain grabbed a handful of Hope's hair and yanked her head back. A long scry needle extended from the device. Janson not so gently jabbed it into Hope's neck. She winced and gasped in pain. He held it for a second, Hope was too scared to move. He pulled it out and waited, string at the screen. 

"Immune." The computer voice said. There was  moment of silence and then "No other data found."

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" 

"I don't exist." Hope said with as much bitterness and distain as she could muster. 

Janson's eyes flashed dangerously and he backhanded her. She felt her lip split and she tasted blood. She fell to the ground to a lot of protesting and yelling. She spit her blood out and glared at him, with angry tears in her eyes. 

"Get her in line. We'll figure this out later." He waved his hand, dismissing her and the captain. He turned his back on them, "Right now The Chancellor is here." 

Hope was grabbed and dragged into the line, and made to kneel beside Frypan. He looked at her with concern. 

"You okay?" He whispered. 

Hope spat some more blood onto the ground. 

"Fantastic." She snapped. 

The berg had landed, the ramp was extended and the door slid open.