clearance.

“Alright young man you want to learn about the Hausers I’ll tell you about the Hausers.” with that Barbra grabbed Shade and put him over her knee.

“What? What I do.” Shade looked over his shoulder at Barbra who was giving him a stern look.

“Oh don’t you dare give me that young man, you know darn well what you did, and if you want to learn so bad tonight then I’ll gladly teach you, not only about the Hausers but also the penalty for little boys who think it’s alright to spy on adults.”

*******************************

“Hey Shade you still with us?” Kit asked, as he waved his hand in front of Shade’s face.

“Yeah.” Shade said, as he opened his eyes and looked at the town. “I learned about the Hausers from a woman by the name of Barbra, leader of the Night Witch squadron.” with that Shade turned and walked back to Molly who was taking a nap, As he knelt down he pulled his trench coat up a little higher around her chin to keep the cold air from seeping in and giving the little girl a cold.

“Night Witch? I’ve never heard of them.”

“It was a group of female fighter pilots.” with that there was a pause before Kit started to laugh.

“Are you kidding a woman fighter pilot is crazy enough, but a group of them?” As Kit kept laughing he didn’t notice Shade standing up, he didn’t notice Shade walking up to him, but he did notice the fist moments before he was given a black eye.

“Learn a few things fast Kit, one don’t ever laugh about people from my past, and two there is no such thing as a weaker sex.” As Kit stood up he was ready to brawl with Shade until he looked into Shade’s eyes, he could see that what he had done did cross a line and the fact that Molly was now looking at the two boys scared.

“Why are you two fighting?” Molly asked, as she sniffled a few times.

“We aren’t fighting Molly.” Kit said, as Shade turned to face her.

“Yeah Kit just needed some help with a lesson.” with that Shade smiled softly at Molly then turned around, walked past Kit towards the entrance, and knelt down keeping a close eye out for anything approaching them. “We’ll rest here for tonight.”

“But its only noon we can keep moving.”

“And find are selves in the middle of nowhere by the time night sets in, right now we have shelter, I’m going to go back into town and see if I can get any supplies, I want you two to stay here, and out of trouble if I’m not back by nightfall wait until morning and then get away from here, get as far away from her as you can, and don’t stop until you ether find you selves back with Rebecca and Baloo, or back in Cape Suzette.” His words were stern, his tone as cold as ice, as he stood up and started to leave. “Protect her Kit, at any cost you protect your little sister.” An hour later as Shade started to enter the town, slowly moving up to it all the way and keeping an eye out for anything, he started to walk the streets finding it to be a small war zone, there was Thembrian soldiers on the ground as well as Hausers, but it was clear on which side won this battle. As he kept looking at the main building seeing that certain shapes through the flames told him what the Hausers did after they took control of the town. As he started to make his way around he found woods, and some discarded cans of food lying around what looked to be the town’s market, he gathered these items up, as his mind started to fill with the images of what took place, only hours before they had stumbled across it. By some of the cloths that the people was wearing it was clear it happened early morning, the Hausers stormed in and attacked from the east, when the Thembrian military of the town ran to defend the their town they found themselves outnumbered if not outclassed, by the remains of the radio tower it was clear that it was taken down early in the battle, the radio building and pole was burned while the top of the pole laying a few feet away seemed almost untouched. As he walked through the homes of the people, he saw breakfast still on the table, in some the pots where still boiling over with gruel. It was early morning alright, once the Thembrian military of the town was defeated the Hausers wasted no time and grabbed the people from their homes, in a few of them it looked like they found themselves in more fights, only to put an end to it with gun fire. As Shade walked into what looked to be a child’s bedroom he looked around at the Thembrian toys, as his mind started to see a child playing with these toys, and parents smiling watching their offspring, happy to be a part of a loving home. Shade smashed the toy on the ground and stormed out of the home, his blood was bumping as he stormed across town, now he wanted to be found, he wanted to see one if not more Hausers, he wanted to make them pay for what they had down to these people, he wanted to make them pay for what they had been doing. He stopped looking for them when he noticed that the sun was starting to go down, and the fire of the main building was now smoldering. Shade looked into the burning embers and could see the figures from before so much more clearly. He knew what the Hausers had done before he could see the figures in the remains of the building. As he looked at the image for several minutes he turned away as his mind started to echo screams that had long died out. He was angry, he wanted to get the monsters back but as the screams filled his ears his sorrow grew. His sorrow soon turned to hate but not towards the Hausers, this time it was himself that he hated, he hated the fact that he wasn’t able to stop this, but most of all he hated the fact that there had been so much life loss. As he carried the supplies back to the cave he lets the tears run down his face and freeze to his mask, as he walked into the cave he set the supplies out made a fire and then walked away leaving Kit and Molly to eat while he sat in the darkness. After several minutes Molly nudged Kit and pointed to Shade, getting Kit to look at Shade confused.

“Hey Shade aren’t you going to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.” Kit motioned for Molly to keep eating as he walked up sat down next to Shade. He knew something was really bothering Shade, and even though he didn’t like the kid, he wasn’t about to just turn his back on him.

“What did you see?” Shade turned his head away from Kit, not wanting to tell him what he had seen in the town. “Shade how bad was it?”

“Their dead, that’s bad enough.” Kit didn’t move for several minutes before he put a comforting arm around Shade.

“Hey come on it’s going to be alright, we’ll find Baloo and Ms. Cunningham and then we’ll get out of here.” Shade didn’t look at Kit as he took a deep breath.

“Kit.”

“Yeah?”

“Use that line on Molly, not me.”

“What?… it didn’t work?”

“I’m not a part of your family, trying to give me hope about finding your parents doesn’t work all that well.”

“Well you could always ask them, I’m sure Rebecca would adopt you.”

“You want a matching pair?” Kit was slightly confused by this question, as he looked at Shade.

“A matching pair? A matching pair of what?”

“Of black eyes.”

“I would love to see you try.”

“You’ll only see it once.” Kit smiled, as he looked at Shade. It was like arguing with a little brother, or a good friend as he started patting Shade on the back.

“Come on, you have to eat something.”

“Oh I’m about to, if someone doesn’t stop hitting my back.” with that Kit stopped and then looked at Shade’s shirt, it was slightly discolored on the back.

“What did you lay down in?” kit’s voice was filled with concern as he started to rub his fingers together from what was on Shade’s back.

“Nothing.” Noticing the concern sound in Kit’s voice Shade got up, and walked over to Molly. “Come on Kit, your right I should eat something.” Later that night as Kit and Molly slept Shade went back to the village and started to do something to easy his own mind. Elsewhere Rebecca laid next to Baloo holding onto the big bear as he wrapped his arms around her. She was having trouble sleeping thanks to Baloo’s snoring, but even without that she would still find it hard to sleep with the looming shadow of death over her. Every time she closed her eyes, she would see Kit and Molly huddled together out in the open freezing, she could hear Molly clearly telling Kit that she wanted her mommy, no matter how much Rebecca wanted to be there to take them into her arms, and keep them warm she couldn’t touch them. She would try, but her hands would keep passing through them, and in horror she would watch them slowly turn to ice. She always woke up after seeing them solid ice always scared to go back to sleep after she had calmed down.

“Don’t worry young’uns Ol’ Papa bear is coming, ain’t nothing going to stop me.” Baloo mumbled as Rebecca looked up at him. As she looked at the big bear she smiled, knowing that if they got out of this mess soon, he would be her husband, he had his faults but Baloo had a big heart. As she looked at him she saw so many good things about him, but would never tell him before as she laid her head against his chest. She smiled as she listened to his heart beat, it calmed her nerves