"You don't remember?" James asked.

Jada shook her head.

"Well, you were going in and out of consciousness, so-"

"Heps bushwhacked us." Avery growled, "The assholes."

Jada thought for a moment, "I think I remember a building."

James nodded, "That would be the ruins of Lebanon. We were skirting the edge of it, when the heps ambushed us."

Suchong nodded, "Roadside bomb knocked us off the road-"

"-and strait into a fire hydrant." Avery finished.

"Tried to repair it, but..."

"Damn Cerberuses showed up."

Jada looked back at James, "I remember someone else."

"Yeah, me."

Jada looked to the doorway, where two people stood. The one who spoke, a young man in his early twenties, strode over and held out his hand, "Icabob Newman."

James jerked a thumb at him, "Our unofficial librarian."

"Librarian?" Jada asked, shaking his hand.

Icabob nodded, "Well sure, I mean, once the occupation started, the Consortium saw to it that all human history was destroyed."

"And he's taken it upon himself to either rerecord it himself or find some sort of new source." said James.

Jada looked from Icabob to James, "What about the internet?"
Icabob shook his head, "Gone."

Jada stared incredulously, "Gone?"

"We don't know when it happened, but the internet is just...gone." said James.

"But I thought there was no source for the internet, no, like, ground zero or control center-"

"We know, but somehow the Consortium eliminated the internet."

Icabob nodded, "Our best means of communication. So now its pretty much just scrounging through the ruins of libraries and schools, and if I‘m lucky, find something."

"Is anyone gonna introduce me or what?"

James snorted, "Whoops, my bad." He waved a hand at the other person, a woman, sitting on the edge of the couch Avery and Suchong occupied, "Jada, this is-"

"My name's Ariel." the woman said, "And its about time another woman has showed up here, all the guys have been goggling me and its driving me mad."

"Well," said Avery, "the human race is facing extinction, so procreation-"

"I wouldn‘t consider you even if I were a homo."

Suchong laughed, "Oooh burn."

"Ouch woman." Avery whimpered, mock rubbing the spot over his heart.

"Are there any more of you?" Jada asked.

"There's anywhere between a dozen of us and maybe forty or fifty." said James.

"Depending on who we rescue, who joins up, and who dies." said Avery.

"How do you recruit?"

"We walk up to people on the street and say, ‘hey come join us'."

"No really, how do you recruit people?"

Avery stared at her blankly.

"That's basically how we do it." Ariel said, brushing her blood red hair out of her eyes.

Jada caught James staring at Ariel when she brushed her hair out of her eyes, but no one else did.

"TV's are outlawed," Suchong was saying, "so are radios-"

"And computers." said Avery.

"Well," said Icabob, "They're kinda useless anyhow."

"So word of mouth is the only way we can do anything."

"Don't you worry one of the civilians will turn you in?" said Jada, "I mean, not everyone is on our side."

"True," James nodded, "but what choice do we have?"

"Especially now." said Avery, "The people standing in this room are it right now."

Jada looked from one person to another: Avery, James, Suchong, Ariel and Icabob. That's it.

"We lost Barty when we rescued you." said James.

"And lost Al-Mualim to those Cerberuses." said Suchong.

"At least he took one with him." said Avery.

Icabob opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Ariel spoke loudly, "So what's your story Jada?"

"Yeah," said James, "What happened after we-" he stopped, thinking of the alleyway.

Jada put a hand on his shoulder to tell him silently that all was forgiven, "I managed to escape Milwaukee after we split up. Then I headed north."

That wasn't exactly true. Jada spent nearly a week outside of Milwaukee, sneaking around the outskirts on the faint hope that she might see her brother again...

Jada mentally shook her head, her brother was here now, her only living family was back.

"And?" Avery coaxed.

"I, uh, I headed north-"

"We got that."

"Shut up Avery." James said.

"Sorry."

Jada continued, feeling her brother's presence right beside her, "The Consortium or the heps had little presence up north-"

"That's cause of-" began Icabob, but Jada continued over him.

"I heard about the Inquisition, but I didn't believe it."

"What did you know about it at the time?"

"No more than my brother." Jada said, looking at James, "It was some sort of parasite that the Consortium unleashed on sparsely populated areas, areas where resistance fighters could easily hide-"

"Like here." murmured Suchong.

"-but I'd never seen one before."

"What do they look like?" Ariel asked tentatively.

Jada shivered, remembering her first encounter.

11 Years ago

Jada stood on the edge of the forest, staring into its shadows, hoping against hope the stories weren't true. The Inquisition...the parasite.

A twig snapped behind her, making her jump. She spun around, looking wildly, expecting to see some disgusting creature loom up at her. Instead she saw a pudgy man in a muddy dress suit running up to her.

"Run!" he panted.

"But-" she began to protest, pointing at the forest.

"No time. Run!" he grabbed her and pulled her along. Behind them, she could hear what sounded like vehicle engines roaring, and dogs barking.

"Heps?" she asked, the man nodded, unable to speak for breathing so hard.

The pair ran along into the forest as fast as they could and didn't stop. They ran for the longest time. Jada's side ached, her legs were burning, but she didn't stop...she didn't want her brother's sacrifice to be in vain.

They kept running for what felt like an eternity, and didn't stop until they came across a small, gently bubbling creek.

Jada immediately bent over and began to drink the water, regardless of its sanitation, her throat felt like sandpaper.

"Oh shit. Oh shit." moaned the pudgy man. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit."

Jada quickly looked up from drinking the water, "What is it?"

The man shook his head, "Don't look up."

Jada never understood that kind of phrase. If someone says ‘don‘t look up', curiosity says, ‘look up'. So she looked up, and nearly screamed.

Webs. So many webs that she couldn't see the sky, or, for that matter, the tops of the trees. Just clouds of white silk stretching from one tree to the next in all directions above her. And in those webs, long dark shapes skittered to and fro.

"Oh god." Jada whimpered, grabbing at the cross necklace hanging around her neck.

The man looked at her, "How can you believe that shit?" he whispered heatedly, his eyes flicking from one shadow to the next, "Where is your vaunted God now?"

There was a noise behind her. Jada's entire body went rigid. The man's eyes were focused on whatever was behind her; they were wide with horror. Full of dread, Jada turned around.

It had a six foot long black body, with hairy legs sticking out in all directions, up, down, left, right, making the giant centipede-like creature look like a giant hairbrush. It had a pair of bone colored pincers sticking out of what she assumed was its front end, and six beady sickly green eyes, all focused on her.

She didn't think, she just ran. Ran and ran and ran, the horrible sound of skittering close behind her. The man was yelling something too, but she didn't hear it. She just ran, that abominable image forever burned into the back of her mind, and her nightmares.

But she had been already running too much, her legs felt like lead, and that water...

She fell. She scrambled to get back up, but she was too tired.

Too late. She felt a hundred horrible hairy legs crawl all over her. She screamed, but the creature continued to crawl around her. Now she felt something warm and sticky around her legs.

The creature was encasing her in its webbing.

She struggled as hard as she could, but the giant centipede continued to wrap her in its web.

Then she heard a bloodcurdling scream and she looked to see the source.

The pudgy man was hanging halfway up a tree, held there by webs. His throat was ripped open, blood gushing down his chest. Three of the giant bugs crawled around him, and several smaller bugs were crawling inside his open neck.

The bug crawling on her shifted position, its hundred plus legs poking her body like stiff sticks. She struggled anew against the webs, but...she felt tired. That water?...

The webbing was reaching her chin. Everything was going dark. She heard barking?

James...

Something rough and warm and...wet, slid against the side of her face. Jada remembered the bugs, and was terrified to open her eyes.

Again, something rough, warm and wet slid against the side of her face...she didn't remember seeing any of the bugs bearing anything warm, rough and wet.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes.

A Scottish terrier stared down at her, its mouth hanging open, tongue lolling out, ears perked up in curiosity.

Jada began to laugh. And laugh, and laugh some more. In response, the terrier licked her face some more, its tail wagging wildly.

When her laughter began to subside, Jada examined herself. Half of the webbing was torn away, the terrier had clawed it open. All that was covered was her legs, which she began to rip away. The moment she did so, the terrier joined her, chewing and scratching away at the web.

"Thanks." she said, scratching the terrier behind the ears. The terrier just licked her some more. She laughed and tried to move, wincing as she realized that the webbing had cut off circulation and blood was just now returning to her legs.

Suddenly remembering where she was, she looked around her. There were the bugs, four of them, lying on the ground...surrounded by a dozen or so assorted dogs. From labs, to collies, even a Great Dane, it was a pack of domesticated dogs that had turned wild to survive when their owners died or fled without them. Some however looked younger, like the terrier.

The second generation. Jada realized, slowly standing up, Like me.

As she stood, another dog trotted up to her. A Siberian Husky, with a scar over one eye leading all the way down its muzzle, and a stub for a tail; this dog had to be the leader of the pack.

The husky sniffed her hand then looked up at her, then trotted off away from the forest of webs, where it stopped a few yards away, turned and stared at her, as if beckoning her to follow.

How can you believe that shit? Where is your vaunted God now?

The pudgy man's word echoed back to her, and she turned to look back at his corpse still hanging on the tree, and at the mangled corpses of the bugs the dogs rescued her from.

"Right here." she said simply, and with that, turned and followed the husky out of the forest, the rest of the pack following behind.

"Bugs. Giant bugs." Jada said, shivering again.

Ariel moaned, and Suchong shivered, murmuring, "Figures."

"But what did they look like?" Icabob asked eagerly, pushing his thick glasses up his nose.

Jada shivered, thinking of the giant centipede-like creatures, and of the smaller, indefinable ones she saw climbing inside the pudgy man's throat. She still didn't understand why they were called parasites, but she didn't want to.

Icabob pressed on, "Were they like an arachnid? Or insect? What-"

The image of the giant bug crawling down the tree, all six putrid green eyes staring at her, all hundred plus legs slowly moving like a predator's, ready to pounce, was morbid and nightmarish. Jada wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

"I've heard they got slightly transparent bodies, ya know, like-"

"Hey everyone, I finally got that damn truck to work." Avery interrupted loudly.

Everyone turned to stare at him. He was looking expectantly at Ariel. Dawning realization hit her as Avery flicked a glance at Jada, who's eyes were still unfocused, her mind still on the Inquisition.

"Oh right. Um." she began to speak louder, "You finally got it working? You've been working on it for months! You spend more time on it than you do flirting with me." Ariel sniffed, "You and all your talk of procreation, why don't you just go and have sex with that beast?"

Avery gave her an incredulous look, and, glancing again at Jada, mouthed: Some distraction!

Ariel shrugged her shoulders, as if to say, What else was I supposed to say?

"So, after that-" James said, "er, incident, what happened?"

Jada remembered the dogs leading her out of the forest along an old road, once it must've been a busy highway, but was now no more than a gravel road overtaken by age and plants. They led her down the road until they reached the top of a hill. At the very bottom lay a house. Milling around it were numerous people, and upon coming closer, Jada recognized them as resistance fighters, as they bore the symbol of the resistance: an eagle carrying a sword in its claws spray painted in red on the backs of whatever they were wearing.

They ran up to her, guns pointed in all directions, and asking her what she was doing out all alone. She answered that she wasn't alone, and turned to point at the pack of dogs that were leading her on. But they weren't there.

She was led inside the house, where she stayed for a few weeks, learning how to fight, and working along with the other resistance fighters, maintaining their home. It was there that she learned about soda and its dangerous effects on Consortium. Something about the fructose hurts them, and can kill them if given enough.

It wasn't until she had been there for nearly two months that the place was attacked by a Cerberus. A giant, four legged machine, the two front large, and the back two were smaller, each leg was connected to an abdomen in the center, and dangling beneath the abdomen was the head. With three eyes, one large, one medium sized, and one tiny one barely visible unless in the dark, the machine carried powerful weapons that leveled the house they had called home into pieces.

When one man managed to let off a rocket, it hit the abdomen dead center. But instead of oil or machine parts flying out, blood gushed out. Gallons of blood so dark red it seemed almost black spilled onto the ground, and then...the machine roared.

Then...

"I was captured."

Shocked silence filled the room.

"You...were captured?" James whispered.

Avery sat up on the couch, "How did you escape?"

"You must've had help." said Icabob.

"How long were you in captivity?" James demanded.

"What did they do to you?" Ariel asked.

Jada shivered. Images flashed before her mind: drills, needles...those were the physical tools. But the mental tools...being tied to a table and have a giant pendulum swing above you, slowly getting closer and closer. Or having all the walls close in on you, and the only means of escape was a hole in the floor, but sticking out of the bottom were dozens of sharp spears. They were testing her mental capacity, her endurance...until she broke.

"Jada."

Jada came back to reality, realizing that they were waiting for her.

"Jada," James said, grabbing her by the shoulders, "What did they do to you? How did you escape?"

"James..."

He shook her, his eyes wide and fearful, "Jada!"

"James your hurting me!"

"James that's enough!"

Ariel strode up to the siblings and shoved James aside, "C'mon Jada, I'll show you to your new room and help you get settled in. I think I can spare some clothes too."

Ariel guided Jada out of the room

When the pair left the room, Icabab turned to James, "Geez James, relax. Be thankful she got outta captivity."

"I am!" James protested. He took a deep breath and calmed down, "But...I've heard stories, and so have you, about what happens to people who are captured and...studied by the Consortium." he shivered, "They're...off."

Icabob nodded, "So," he said, looking from one person to another, "Did Prometheus say anything else?"

Suchong shook his head, "No, not really."

"Anything from the others?"

"No."

Icabob stood thoughtfully for a moment, then, "Man, no word from any of the other Olympians? Do you think-"

"I hope not." James said fervently.

"Consortium capturing an Olympian?" Avery shook his head, "Don't bet on that one."

Everyone went quiet for a moment, lost in their own thought.

Then Suchong slapped Avery on the knee, "C'mon, I'll help you work on the truck."

"Okay."

The pair got up and headed for the back door, leaving Icabob and James alone.

"So," said James quietly, turning to Icabob, "Any luck with the Colossus suit?"

Icabob shook his head, "I need more parts, and muscle."

James looked at him indignantly, "I-"

"Too heavy for you alone." Icabob shrugged his shoulders, "If I wanna move it now I'd have to disassemble it, and its taken me days to get it all together."

"What's wrong with it?"

"I need more power to get the whole thing to move. A car batter isn't gonna cut it, and some of the joints are too weak."

"Where are we going to get a larger power source that's gonna fit onto a person's back, and the proper joints to hold that much weight?"

Icabob shrugged his shoulders, "Beats the hell outta me. Unless you happen to know a good mechanic, the Colossus is gonna be scrapped."

James shook his head, "No way, we need something to deal with the Inquisition."

"A barbed wire fence-"

"Would be noticed by the Human Police."

"Why not enlist the others to help, several minds working instead of just two could help our situation."

James shook his head, "No, I wanna keep this a secret."

"Why?"