Dan sat in the back of the vehicle while Travis and his driver drove back to the campsite so that they could re-set up camp. His thoughts floated in a jumble as he sat quietly, waiting for them to get back. He couldn't get what had happened out of his mind. The way Sasha had looked at the alien, and he had looked at her. There was no way to deny they felt something about each other.

He had watched it happen because he had been looking at her the entire time. At first, it was just an accident that she was the one he looked at. Then he saw it. When he did, he kept his eyes on the two of them. Sasha and the alien in question. He could tell she was trying to fight the bond, letting her anger overshadow the effects of it. She struggled the entire time. He saw the stress on her face as she yelled at the human girl, who threw the dagger at her.

He saw the human girl's features. She was irritated and wanted to shut up. That was clear.

After Sasha was injured, the alien even rushed to her aid, even though she was on the opposing side of the battle, and he went as far as to confront his own leader to get her to their medic to save her life. He had never seen anything like it.

From where he stood, he could tell there was a compromise in place to allow the alien to take her inside. As soon as he had entered, four other aliens, probably guards, flanked him. Somehow, Dan knew that the bond between them was what had saved her...if she had been saved from her injury. He wouldn't know unless they went back to the dome to get her.

There was no way to dispute it. The mating bond was genuine and, from what he saw, powerful. There was no denying it after witnessing it for himself. He was even happy that Sasha was the one the alien had found to be his mate. He knew what her future would be if it were someone else, instead of her.

Dan knew Travis wanted her for himself. She wanted nothing to do with the plans for repopulating the earth with humans. Sasha didn't see Travis that way. She wanted love and not to be used as a tool for breeding.

Although Travis kept it a secret, afraid of deserters, he was willing to chain her up and force her if he had to. It was something she didn't know about. Most didn't know about it. Travis had even set up a tunnel system as bedrooms, with chains affixed to the walls in each room. They were meant to contain the women, so they couldn't escape.

After his plans for killing off the alien invaders succeeded, he planned on putting every human female in one of those rooms, chaining them to the bed, and letting whoever do whatever they wanted to them in order to produce children. He didn't care that it was forced. All he cared about was the end result. Babies. Lots and lots of babies.

If Sasha survived the attack, Dan knew she would be well cared for by the way the alien looked at her and how he had protected her. It would also keep her away from Travis and his deranged plans. She didn't deserve what he planned for her or the other women they had with them. Travis didn't even care how old they were. Too old or too young. It didn't matter to him. They would all end up in the tunnels, chained to a bed.

Dan's thoughts wandered. He wondered if it would be the same if a human male and an alien female found each other. Wondering if the mating bond was the same for them.

Thinking about the possibility, an overwhelming thought came to him. He wanted to find his own mate to get a bond that was so strong that they would do anything to protect him. The thought of going back to the dome and leaving Travis and his group seemed much more appealing than it did before they went to the dome to attack. If he hadn't seen the mating bond for himself, he wouldn't have believed it. Now, seeing the bond and its effects for himself, he wanted it.

Dan looked up at Travis and spoke without thinking. "I want to go back to the dome. There were five of our men down. There might be some alive. We can't leave them behind." In his mind, it was a good argument. It was a false argument, but a good one. He wanted an excuse to go back to the dome and find a way not to go back to camp with Travis.

Travis turned in his seat, looking straight at Dan. His eyes narrowed in anger, his voice hard. It was clear he didn't like what he heard. "If they were weak enough to go down, we don't need them," he spat.

"What about Sasha? Do you want to leave her behind, too?" Dan asked, his fists tight, not sure why he was even asking in the first place. Perhaps subconsciously, he knew that, because Travis wanted her for himself, he might want to go back to the dome to retrieve her. That would get him back there.

"I doubt she'll make it," Travis stated evenly, his eyes growing harder. They were narrowing further, not liking this line of conversation. "If she does, they'll defile her like they did the other pregnant human girls. I don't want her, not after one of them touches her. I won't allow myself to be contaminated by those vile monsters."

It was obvious to Dan that he wouldn't be allowed to go back to the dome. He knew he needed to find another way. He would have to sneak back when he could or play dead during one of their battles. He knew there would be more battles as long as Travis and those like him were leading; they seemed to love bloodshed, and it didn't matter whose blood was spilled. There would be many more battles ahead for their group, he knew it.

The vehicles pulled up to the camp, dirt flying as the wheels of the military vehicles came to a sudden stop. The doors opened, and everyone got out, pulling out tents and perimeter sensors as they did. They still had to worry about zombies, so the sensors were the first things to go up.

Dan slowly set up his tent, unconsciously stalling for time. He was in a daze as he entered it, leaving his knapsack beside his cot, and sat down. He sat in silence for a long time. He couldn't get it out of his mind. The way Sasha and the alien looked at each other. It was like they found their purpose, and that purpose was for each other. He didn't understand it, but the thoughts consumed him.

The smell of food wafted into his tent, making his stomach growl. He hadn't eaten in a while. The last meal was one in the early morning before they prepared to attack the dome. Getting up, Dan went to the firepit to eat whatever stew they had prepared. It was always stew. It was the easiest to stretch the ingredients, making enough for the entire group.

Sitting down on a log surrounding the fire pit, he was handed a bowl of stew. He was about to take a bite when he looked inside the bowl, and he tried not to vomit. They had killed an alien and had made the stew out of its flesh. He didn't know if it had been male or female, but the contents in his bowl were definitely alien flesh. He could see the strips of green, cut up into small chunks, mixed within the vegetables. There was no denying what he was looking at.

Discreetly setting his untouched bowl down, Dan headed back to his tent, his gut twisted in horror. Yet again, Travis was going too far. Looking behind him, he noticed that he wasn't the only one disgusted by what Travis had done. When he entered his tent, he found his knapsack and quickly filled it before putting it on, along with his body armor and a full array of weapons. He had decided the moment he looked in his dinner bowl that he would leave immediately. He was getting out of there or die trying.

Silently inching his way toward the border, he flipped the switch to turn off the sensors and ran as fast as he could to take cover before anyone noticed it was him who had shut the sensors off.

Dan, pulling out one of his machetes, headed toward the dome, keeping his eyes scanning the area around him for zombies. He hoped to make it to the dome before morning. Preferably alive.

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