MUNDANE | FALLING SKIES

i, twenty-three

AND A CHANCE OF MICE

After hiding out the attack Pope had drawn upon the Second Mass, and spending the rest of the night trekking through the pitch black and near silence, they had made it to a high school about three hours from the Meadow by foot. Because the further they got from the city, the better.

Even on the little sleep everyone got in the last few hours before the first signs of the sun threatening to make it's reappearance to the skies, there was no other option but to continue on and find a way to fight back, survive.

Elizabeth and Nathan had just turned a corner in one of the school's many hallways after returning from having done recon in the area by the time the sun rose, boots squeaking against the tile flooring as they did. "And what about using the burn piles as a distraction and create as much distance between those and us before attempting? I mean we can try to pull that off."

The pair had been discussing a mission Weaver had brought up about needing to restock on supplies. Or rather how there was no other option but to either hope the shops smart was left with plenty of stock to supply the Second Mass for at least a week. All while simultaneously make sure there were no Mechs, no Skitters or other humans to ambush them.

One problem was, their enemy was learning their ways quicker than they could adapt. The evidence was clear when they dropped the EMP on the meadow in response to Pope's flare within a fraction of time.

Where they once had fifteen minutes to clear out, they had now turned to ten. They couldn't risk using burn piles with miles between them to lure whoever could be in there, and clear out the store with only a group of five before they would realise. After everything, one thing was sure about their invaders, they weren't stupid.

"They'd be onto us in minutes, remember..." Her final words trailed off as she noticed the man being pulled around the corner by Andrew and another one of the fighters.

Pope.

In any other circumstance Nathan had laughed at the annoyed look that crossed her face with such dramatic expression, no, he'd shared the same stone cold glare as their friend had when he passed them while dragging Pope with.

But not Pope, no, he was loving every moment of it as he turned to look at the twenty year old as in passing with a smug grin while doing so. "Hey, Mason! That your boyfriend?"

The twenty one year old at her side had stopped dead in his tracks, eyes narrowing as he glared in their direction of the words, "Excuse me?"

Her fingers latched onto his arm as she tried to force him to keep moving, knowing from even the littlest time she spend around the delinquent this provocation had been to draw out a response.

"Pitch in a word for me would you?" And by the look on either of their faces, it had been working and this time it had even stopped her dead in her tracks.

But in the split second she was about to turn, and tell him to shut the fuck up, Andrew had silenced her near spilling of words with his own. "Oh wouldn't you love that, Pope."

They had come to a halt as the twenty one year old at his side looked at the long haired man as if awaiting his response with risen brows as his companion vanished past the corner. "Hey, how'd you know my name?"

"You remember I told you to say hi to some of my friends?" The browns of his eyes moved between the two men, it immediately dawning on him she truly hadn't been bluffing about the things she'd said. "Now you have."

Andrew pulled his arm harshly as they turned the corner, dragging Pope away from them with his every step as amusement appeared in his face and what was an almost manic laugh that followed his words and he disappeared from their view.

Elizabeth had raised her brows with widening eyes in response to the sound, wordlessly expression how she had thought the man insane for it. Tapping Nathan's arm as she beckoned him to continue their way to the make shift armoury to drop off the ammo they had taken with them on recon as spares.

"What did you mean by that?" He was talking about her mentioning them to the man.

In her defence she wasn't expecting to make it out of that auditorium, and by letting Pope know he wasn't going to get away with things as easily, because she wasn't going to go without a fight. And that her fight wasn't going to end with just her made this a full circle moment instead. Because instead of being dead, she had stood watching one of the guys she trusted more than anything, someone would do anything to challenge Pope if he had overpowered the Second Mass, drag him away to pay for the crime.

"Told him he would get his ass kicked by you guys and Matt. He's getting dragged to a make shift jail by Drew, that's close enough." The twenty year old bid a good morning to Jimmy as they crossed paths before briefly looking up at Nathan, "That being said, may he enjoy a moist and dusty storage room and a chance of mice."

The young man had laughed at her words, how she held such satisfaction in Pope getting to serve his time until Weaver decided what to do with him. "Seriously what happened in there?"

Her fingers pushed the swing doors as they passed through them, "Well, I certainly I would love to know what he and my dad drank a beer over."

And she didn't need to see the look on her friend's face to know there would be a mix of perplexity, or more so, the ridicule at the idea Tom Mason had drunk a beer with the man that wanted to rob the Second Mass, killed one of their people and held them hostage.

If his face hadn't given away enough of what thoughts had crossed his mind at the sound of her saying that, his voice certainly had. "They had a beer together?!"

But just as she was about to say something else, somewhere along the lines of, while we were held in locked up thinking we weren't going to get out alive. The very man they were speaking about had crossed the corridor they were headed to.

And so she decided to quiet down the conversation and to keep it as it was for now, "My point exactly."

posting two or three lil filler chapters to fill up the space between what happens on the episodes, and simply because I can and didn't feel like these would fit in one and the same chapters. 

AUGUST 2025