Summers heard the report of a rifle. At the same moment, the APC lurched from some kind of impact.

He felt a body slam into him, and then, suddenly, everything was spinning.

Before he could recover the still mangled arm of the thin man grabbed his head. And in an instant, a black, inky substance washed over him.

The thin man had likely chosen to take out the biggest threat first. Considering Summers was tired, and still very injured, it wasn’t a terrible plan.

Fortunately for Summers, it was still a mistake.

Summers gripped the black mass, his world lighting up as every part of the thin man’s body became an extension of his own.

Then, he willed it to stop. Every muscle, every nerve, anything he could sense. Summers could smell burning skin, whether that was the thin man or his own wasn’t important.

The world stopped for just an instant. He looked up at the frozen form of the thin man, inches away.

“…Guys-“

Summers looked for the others, only to realize that he wasn’t in the APC anymore. A strained glance showed that he was, in fact, about thirty feet away from it.

He must have been slow on the uptake because a handful of soldiers were already pointing their rifles at him.

“Hold fire! Hold fire!” The Colonel’s voice shouted from over the others.

Summers would have thanked her, but the strain of keeping the thin man still was taking everything he had. And he was fading fast.

Then the barrel of a gun pressed against the thin man’s head. He saw Pat and the others beside him, their own weapons raised.

“…You’re going to stop whatever the fuck it is you’re doing to my friend, or I’m putting more than a few holes in your head, you got that?” Cortez held a finger on the trigger.

Summers felt secure enough to tear away from the thin man’s arm, moving back as quickly as he could. The thin man, thankfully, didn’t follow.

That was good as Summers was beyond exhausted. He could only watch as the other man raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

All with the most alien smile on his face, looking directly at Summers.

“We were right to watch you... You’re quite the treat.”

“Get one of those suited fuckers.” Cortez nodded to Pat who ran for the Humvees in the distance.

Summers got to his feet a bit uneasily. Everyone in their group was more or less unharmed. Even if their APC was on its side, a group of soldiers staring at the partially caved in front.

It seemed like one of the Humvees had somehow run headfirst into the vehicle. Something told Summers the thin man may have had something to do with that.

As he watched soldiers approach the thin man, something occurred to him. None of the others under the hamr’s control had hesitated to throw their lives away. Hell, that might have just been a way for the infection to spread even further. But the thin man was different. He was willing to surrender if it meant protecting his own life. And it was clear he had some kind of connection to the Colonel and the others, enough so that the woman hadn’t killed him on sight, despite the risk. It was doubly clear he didn’t want to go back to them.

Summers managed to catch his breath, looking up to find Colonel Rivers just a few feet away, more than two dozen of the other soldiers behind her. To his surprise, she wasn’t looking at the thin man, even as her men manhandled his already twisted form to the ground. No, she was watching Summers.

And there was something about her expression that worried him.

Asle rubbed at a bruise that was quickly forming on her shoulder.

“…You two okay?” Nowak leaned out from the driver’s seat of the APC.

Asle only nodded in response, she and Synel had been strapped in pretty tightly during the impact so they’d avoided being seriously hurt. The only thing amiss was the large, strangely square hole left beside her, where Summers used to be. Also, her hair was a little shorter on one side now, but that wasn’t much of a concern, hair grew back after all.

“Managed to talk them into letting us handle the problem. They got that asshole outside and Summers isn’t in any shape to explain. You gonna be all right on your own?”

“We’ll be fine.” Synel answered for them.

Asle agreed, even if she’d been inches from death a few moments ago. That was becoming normal for her at this point.

Synel unbuckled from her seat, then started helping Asle with hers.

“Come along, we should make ourselves useful.”

Asle eyed the upended APC skeptically.

“…I don’t think we can fix this.”

“I’ve taught you better than this…” Synel started. “What we just saw wasn’t an accident. That man out there offered us a deal earlier, didn’t he?”

“…Yes?”

“And he said he’d made the offer to others? Soldiers, like our friends?”

“I-“ Asle trailed off before realizing what her teacher was getting at.

“Exactly. He never said the deal was with the men he was controlling. Which leaves two possibilities. Either the medication wasn’t enough, which I doubt since it’s quite clear these people have prior experience with this prisoner of ours. Or...” Synel gave Asle a meaningful look. “It was sabotage. And if I’m right, we need to find the one responsible. ”

Men had come from the base to help Summers’ group the rest of the way. He'd lost track of his friends during the shuffle, though given his current state, that wasn't surprising. He couldn’t do much more than lay on the stretcher they’d brought him.

The inside of the base was, unfortunately, just as bad as the outside. Buildings were demolished, tents set up, all in all it looked as though the few soldier's they'd met were lucky to be alive.

As for the thin man, he'd come along for the ride. He, however, was in view of every soldier there. They'd taken the tarp off one of the two trucks that was following the convoy, allowing everyone to see the twisted man strapped in the back. That was both reassuring and worrying at the same time. Summers was tired, but he still remembered what the man looked like before they'd put him to sleep. They'd broken arms, his spine, and probably quite a few other things. But he'd still managed to escape his restraints, which were shredded beyond recognition, and nearly overpower Summers.

Then again, that might have been the point. From what he'd seen in the city, the hamr could take and leave whatever parts it needed at will. If his goal had been to take what he needed from Summers, then he was very, very lucky.

As he was carried, Summers suddenly became aware of something. He turned to a small cement building at the center of the base. It was odd, the building looked completely unremarkable. But Summers could feel some odd sensation goading him towards it.

“Corporal Summers?”

Summers heard the man beside him speak up. Jacobs, by the torn tag on his uniform. Summers only vaguely recalled the man had worked on him for a handful of minutes when the army had just arrived. A medic then, or maybe a doctor, it was hard to tell given the state of things. He must have been talking to Summers but was too exhausted to notice.

“…Sorry, what?”

“I asked if you had any pain. Colonel wanted you looked at so we're going to be taking you to the medical tent, all right?”

Apparently, the Colonel saw fit to actually help him. That was nice, at least. Maybe that last near death experience had a silver lining.

“Yeah. Sure. Fine.” Summers laid back in the stretcher. He could feel the strain of the last few days finally setting in, with the danger passed.

Hopefully, now he could finally get some sleep.

“Gah! Damnit!” Summers flinched away from the knife that just stabbed into his back. One of the guards outside gave a worried look in his direction before he managed to quiet himself.

“Corporal, I’ve given you enough morphine to kill a man twice your weight, I don't know what to tell you.” Jacobs gave Summers a worried look, he was still in a rubber suit, one that was now splattered with blood Summers assumed was his own.

He looked down at the IV in his arm. Summers could only guess that what Cortez had got him back in the city was to blame. The monster she'd taken it from was supposed to filter out poison, and therefore the hamr. Instead it must have ensured he'd feel every cut while he was under the knife.

Summers was reminded that, as many benefits as he'd gotten from his “condition”, it always found a way to bite him in the ass.

Jacobs moved towards the fluid bag at his side.

“…There's not much left in there but I can up the dosage-”

“No... Just do your thing.” Summers grit his teeth, much as he wasn't a fan of pain, he was less fond of the idea a piece of metal could shoot up an artery and into his brain at any moment.

Jacobs hesitated only a few seconds before continuing.

And Summers immediately regretted his decision.

“Okay, that doesn't feel like a scalpel!”

“I broke all my scalpels on this skin of yours.”

“Then what are you using?!”

“...I think you'd be happier if you didn't know.”

“Shouldn't... there be more than one person doing this?”

“If we had them, yes, and if it weren't against orders. Colonel wanted to make sure you were taken care of, but we have priorities. And unfortunately for you, Sergeant Wendel's high on that list.”

“...Wendel?”

Summers only vaguely remembered the name they'd called out when they'd found the thin man.

“Right... you wouldn't know.” Jacobs paused. “The Sergeant. Guy that nearly killed you back there. He was what you'd call patient zero, the whole reason we're out here. And the reason we're stuck here.”

“...He the reason the walls are like that?”

“Walls are the least of it. I'm guessing you realized Wendel's different from those other things?”

“Yeah...” Summers suppressed the urge to scream as Jacobs made another cut. “…I sort of caught on to that.”

“See, the army found something back on Earth, something big, alien. We called it the anchor. No one was sure what it was, but then this Sergeant, he gets the genius idea to touch it. Next thing we know, he's trying to kill us. They find something in his brain, take it out, and suddenly, that same idiot is a genius. You see the gate in Alaska, back when it was working?”

He wasn't about to mention he was the reason it “stopped working.”

“...Yeah, it looked like a satellite to me.”

“Wendel's the one that made building that possible. That anchor, it's the core of the machine. That one was just a small piece of it. According to Wendel, it was supposed to act as a gate on its own. Where to, we didn't know. But the army used Wendel to make a workaround. Then, one day, after one of his surgeries, he flips. Touches the anchor, and next thing we know there are these... things everywhere. His people. Because he's not Wendel anymore.”

“Right...”

Summers knew the hamr changed memories slowly, in his case, he'd only “remembered” what was different after he'd removed the mass from his brain. It was a sort of fail safe. Even if you managed to save someone before they were changed, they might not be entirely the same person.

“...Anyway, after he turned traitor another genius, and I mean with a capital G, does something to the gate. Slams the door right in Wendel's smug face. All hell broke loose. Things appearing and disappearing… That’s what happened to the walls. We found men and pieces of those... things spread out for miles.”

“...We saw a tank about a week and a half out, it looked like it had been embedded in a hill...”

“There's more shit like that out there. But yeah, even after that, both our gates were still working, we still had contact with Earth. Problem was we'd just had a major containment breach, Wendel and most of his people were in the wind, and the brass couldn't risk those things spreading to the rest of this world. Before you ask, we tracked one to Alaska.”

“And their job was to kill what had gotten out...?”

“They figured the way these things spread from body to body, if we let him have a foothold in this world, it'd be a matter of time before he overwhelmed us. What we didn't count on was that Wendel would do the same to us, some time ago he attacks the base, and the anchor stops working, along with our gate. He shut out our supply line, and he’s been waiting for us to die out ever since.”

“…They still have the gate in Alaska…”

“If they could have fixed it, we’d have been saved by now. And if those things he let out are still spreading… If I were on Earth, I'd cut my losses, make sure that what’s out here never gets back home.”

Much as he hated to admit it, Summers saw the logic in that.

“...Right…” Summers repressed a sigh. “Fan-fucking-tastic...”

After about an hour of surgery, Summers was drained both mentally and physically.

“…I'm about done here, might need another x-ray to see-”

Jacobs was cut off as the flap to the tent opened. A guard stepped inside, and Summers saw Colonel Rivers directly behind him.

“Colonel-” Jacobs moved to put down his tools.

“You need to come with us.”

Summers noticed the Colonel's hand was hovering dangerously close to the holster at her side.

He really did sigh this time.

“What the hell did I do now?”

“Not you.” Rivers held a hand to Summers, her gaze fixed directly on Jacobs.

Jacobs stopped at that, and Summers felt a definite shift in the room, not a good one.

“...Mind me asking what this is about ma'am?”

“I believe I gave you an order, Captain.” The Colonel took another step forward. “...I'm going to need to you to drop that now.”

Summers glanced down at the still bloody utility knife in Jacobs hand.

He didn't move for a long moment.

“Tom...” The Colonel cautioned.

Summers lunged just as Jacobs charged the Colonel with the knife. The blade sank into Summers hand, thankfully the pain didn't even register as Summers twisted the man's arm, driving him into the ground.

By the time he looked up, both the Colonel and the guard beside her had drawn down on him.

For what it was worth, the Colonel looked as surprised as she should have been. And Jacobs was still trying to struggle beneath him. All Summers could do was keep the man pinned.

Less than an hour later, Summers' friends had found him sitting on a fence outside the medical tent that was now a hive of activity. They were watching as the Colonel barked out orders to the guards. Jacobs had to be treated with kid gloves as he was, technically, a biohazard, since he was still covered in Summers' blood. The Colonel was thankfully not taking any chances.

In that time, they'd filled him in on why a man who seemed friendly only moments ago had just tried to kill his commanding officer.

“He... sabotaged us?”

“More like he set us up.” Nowak explained.

“...Run it by me again, how the hell did you figure out he made a deal with that asshole?”

Apparently, while Summers had been busy bleeding, the others had learned something was odd with the fluid bags that were hooked up to the thin man's IV.

Namely, Nowak had concluded the last bag they'd given him was pure saline, with no anesthetic whatsoever.

Asle held up the bag in question as if it were the smoking gun.

“This one tasted different.”

“And this Jacobs was the man that gave it to us, it's not complicated.” Synel finished.

“Okay...” Summers started. “All right. Asle, in the future, don't taste test anything that isn't food.”

If he was being honest with himself, he was impressed with the two. Though he preferred not to think of what might have happened if he were sedated, as Jacobs had intended.

Still it hadn't even crossed Summers' mind to chalk up the thin man's awakening to anything other than “weird alien powers” not unlike his own. He'd guess the Colonel would have come to that same conclusion before suspecting her own men of treason.

“...Why not? It worked.” Asle looked genuinely confused.

“Because... Sarge you want to help me out here?”

“...At those doses it honestly wouldn't hurt her.” Nowak responded.

“And it worked.” Cortez added.

“Still-”

Summers stopped as he noticed Colonel Rivers walking towards their group. Her expression was decidedly not a happy one.

“Are you all right, ma’am?” Nowak sounded concerned.

Even Summers was surprised by how affected she seemed.

“I've known that man fifteen years...” The Colonel eyed the tent in the distance. Jacobs was being hauled out by a few of the, now suited, guards.

“Stress... has a way of breaking people, ma'am.”

“I'm more than aware of that, Sergeant... I just didn't expect... it doesn't matter.” The Colonel composed herself before turning to Summers. “...Corporal, I wanted to speak with you on another matter.”

“...What is it you need, uh, ma'am?”

“When you caught us out there, you were interrupting an operation. We intended to capture either Wendel or one of his Lieutenants.” She hesitated. “Most of my officers are aware at this point, but I'm planning on making a deal with Sergeant Wendel.”

And this was not the conversation he was expecting to have.

“You want to... why in the hell would you think you could negotiate with that thing? You know what this thing is trying to do?”

“Is she talking about who I think she is?” Nowak looked shocked more than anything.

“We're aware of his motives, he and whatever entity he works for need bodies. But we need to face the facts, if what you're telling me is true then we've failed. With or without him those things will keep spreading through this world and we don't have the manpower to stop it. ”

“Summers could-”

“I'm aware of Corporal Summers' talents, Sergeant. I've seen his work twice now, that's why I'm speaking to you.” The Colonel looked back to Summers. “I'm going to be negotiating for our return home. If Wendel wants this world, there's not a whole lot we can do about it. Near as I can tell he has his own agency and therefore we can mediate with him, with his life as our bargaining chip. You bought us this opportunity.”

“Ma'am…” Summers began. “I can say without a doubt that is a terrible idea.”

“I have a duty to my men, Corporal. And to you. You didn't sign up with my unit, so I'm giving you the choice. If we go home, I have my doubts you'll ever see the sun again. You would be an active danger to our world. With Wendel's cooperation, we can reactivate the gate, and destroy it on our way out without harming his precious anchor. The few experts we still have with us are confident he won't be able to follow. He gets what he wants, and so do we.”

“...And what about the world we're on? We're the ones that brought this thing here.”

Summers glanced back to the group at his side. Asle had lost everyone she knew because of what the army did, so had the twins, Orvar.

“Is that true?” Synel looked to the Colonel. “You're the reason for… this?”

“…Yes…”

“…Why?” Cortez looked puzzled. “Why bring all this here?”

“…We thought it was the safest way to contain a threat we only thought was a possibility. As it turns out, that was the right move.” The Colonel hesitated. “…As I said, even if we were to destroy the gate and that… thing…. we couldn't stop what’s happening.”

“You. Want. To. Leave.” Asle's words dripped with anger.

“…I was sworn to protect the United States, my people, not yours. I'm sorry but-”

“Sorry?!” Asle shouted. “Your people are the reason everyone I loved died! You punish that man for making a deal when you're doing the same thing!”

Summers was taken aback by the sheer emotion in her voice.

The Colonel didn't respond right away, instead she regarded Asle.

“Jacobs' actions just confirmed what I knew, we can't last like this. I don't make any excuses for what I've done, but I can promise you that you and your friends would have a home Earth side, that's all I can do.”

Distantly, Summers realized anything that applied to him would concern Asle as well. She might not be as far along as Summers, but a single drop of her blood could mean the end of their world, just like him.

It was almost a relief when he realized Nowak hadn't mentioned it to the Colonel. But that was a bridge they'd have to cross, eventually.

“We've made strides in understanding the organism inside you Corporal. From what your Sergeant told me, I'm certain we can produce a more sophisticated method of control. And I can assure you that we'll be doing everything in our power to find a cure.”

It didn't escape Summers that Asle was now glaring openly at the Colonel.

“...Have a decision for me by morning, no matter the choice, I'll ensure you'll have our full cooperation.”

And with that, the Colonel turned to leave.

Summers stood there, watching her leave. They’d come all this way just for the chance to get back home. Really, Summers had come to make sure his friends at least, had the choice. Now, finally faced with the decision head on, he wasn’t sure what he should do.

“You'll be a guinea pig the rest of your life.” Cortez muttered.

They'd been given a small set of rooms at the far edge of the base, beside the walls. Summers thought it would have been a barracks if most of the furniture wasn't destroyed. When he'd filled them in on what Jacobs had told him, that just made things more complicated.

Pat, Orvar, and the twins hadn’t said much since.

“…She's right. Think about it, why would the army be interested in a cure?” Nowak pointed at Summers. “My family's old military, I grew up on a base, I know what they're about. And the second someone sees what you can do, they're going to be trying to figure out how to make more. You'll be a weapon. They would use what you are to kill god knows how many.”

“...As opposed to staying and dying when these things show up? That would be the “good thing” to do?”

“I-” Nowak stumbled over his words. “I didn't mean it like that, man.”

“…I know... And trust me, I don't want that but... this Wendel guy, who's to say he can't follow us? That, once he gets finished here...” Summers glanced at the others. “He doesn't come back to Earth... we'd need a way to fight them off at their level. Maybe that's me.”

“Or, more likely, some general gets a hard on for super soldiers and kickstarts the end of the world themselves.” Cortez stared Summers down. “It wouldn't surprise me if that's was what they were after this whole time.”

“…Maybe…”

As they spoke, Asle and Synel sat in the corner, trying to find somewhere remote enough to wait out the storm, should they choose to stay.

Summers gestured to the map in front of them.

“…Any luck?”

“…Populated areas are too dangerous. And where people aren’t, beasts are. Any place with neither, would be too difficult to settle. Even then, I’m not confident we’d be truly safe, given what we’ve seen.”

She was taking the news far better than Summers would have expected. Or maybe, she was simply better at hiding it. At least she didn’t blame him, hopefully.

Asle kept her head glued to the paper. In fact, the girl hadn't said much since their talk with the Colonel. She'd been as angry as he'd ever seen her, and given what they'd dragged her through, that was something.

“...Asle? What do you think?”

“Everything that woman said was a lie.” Asle hugged her knees to her chest. “She doesn't want to help us. She just wants to use us.”

Summers hadn't discounted that possibility, in fact, he'd suspected as much himself. But still...

“... Should we put it to a vote?” Nowak prompted.

“No.” Summers replied immediately. “...I'm not going to be the reason any of you stay behind.”

In the end, the decision was still unanimous. Death, or captivity, at least the latter had some sliver of hope. And while Summers was a danger, it wasn't likely the army didn't have some sample of the hamr sitting around. At least this way, they knew what was in store for them. They could prepare, and plan for it, together.

By that morning, the Colonel made the announcement.

They were going home.