[i]Alexei had stayed to watch the kids, insisting that Gwen, Ru and Markos go to the town square. Markos’ skills may have been needed, and Ru’s strength. Ru had been reluctant to part from his daughter, but they all agreed a second attack this early wasn’t likely. And it was no secret that Gwen was more useful than Alexei in most situations, so she would go and could tell him anything he needed to know later. They arrived in the square after a quiet walk down empty streets, passing houses painted with Fedor’s markings. They didn’t see any of the crosses that symbolized death, but many were marked as empty. Some doors hung open, left ajar by those who had been too panicked to close them as they fled the town. They only saw two other people. The first was a woman, who walked past them without a word. Her strides were long and quick, and her haunted eyes darted back and forth, as if she expected to see an alien around every corner. The second was a man, sitting on his porch with his head in his hands. It was easy to spot Elena in the square. The elderly woman was meeting with people and sending them off to work. Gwen was relieved to see that the magistrates were still trying to keep Flats running, even after the nightmares of the previous night. When they approached, she was speaking to a man. ”-body next to the Peemo’s house,” she said in a somber tone, “I don’t know what he was doin’ there, but they killed ‘im. I’m sorry. He’ll be buried with the others.” The man sniffed, fighting back tears, and she embraced him. After a minute they separated, and the man stepped away as he muttered, “I’ll…get back to helpin’ with the…” They couldn’t hear the rest of what he said as he shuffled away, leaving them alone with Elena. She turned to them, not even bothering to give a proper greeting, “Fedor send y’all to help?” They nodded in unison, and Markos spoke first, “What happened?” Elena pinched her lips together in a pained expression, but answered with a curt, rehearsed explanation that she had probably used at least twenty times that morning, “The four-arms hit the north side. Killed everyone in their way ‘til they reached the town hall.” She pointed across the square to the town hall. Its doors were wide open, windows were smashed, and the walls were scorched. There were bodies lined up in a neat row in front of the building. The snow around them was stained with red blood and something blue… “Lady Jel’s gunmen holed up in there,” Elena continued, “Didn’t work. Killed a few aliens, but they’re all dead. Aliens cut ‘em up. They sacked the bodies an’ the hall then up an’ left.” “How many dead, then?” Markos asked. “Fedor’s still countin’,” Elena replied, seeming to grow sadder as she went, “It’s too hard to tell. Whole lot o’ people ran when the aliens showed up. Their…bodies might be out in the fields…Don’t know if anyone’s comin’ back.” “Where’s Mikhail?” Ru asked, referring to the third magistrate of Flats. “Dead,” Elena nearly whimpered, “Four-arms made a mess all the way down to the hall. Everyone on Mikhail’s street is dead.” “How can we help?” Gwen pitched. Elena smiled weakly, “Thank you, for coming. Most people are gone or won’t leave their homes. Have anythin’ that you can move bodies with? A net or cart?” They all shook their heads. Elena sighed, “Okay…I’ve got Daniil an’ Sergey out on the east side, next to the cemetery, diggin’ a hole for the bodies. Go help. They’ve got extra shovels.” Gwen grunted. Digging a hole in the frozen earth would take at least a day, even with five people. Ru was looking out to the bodies in front of the town hall, “We gonna bury the aliens, too?” “Yeah,” Elena grumbled, “Better than lettin’ ‘em rot.” Gwen looked to the bodies, too. The blue in the snow must have been the aliens’ blood. But her eyesight wasn’t good enough to tell which bodies weren’t human from that distance. “Magistrate!” Someone called, and they turned to see a gaunt man coming towards them. Gwen didn’t know him. “What’re we gonna do when they come back?” He questioned, stopping in front of them, “You know they’ll come back.” Elena waved her hand to them, signaling for them to leave as she addressed the man. But they waited to hear more. “We’ll be ready,” Elena assured, “Keep your voice down. No need to scare people.” “They ought to be scared,” the man disagreed, lowering his voice, “Listen, I spoke with Fedor. He told me what happened. There’s not enough. We need to get more protection.” “More?” Ru interjected, joining the conversation, “We already had protection. The four-arms killed ‘em all.” “We have guns,” Gwen added, “We can fend for ourselves.” “We’re not enough!” The man hissed, “How many more people are gonna run? How many can fight? How many weapons do we have? We’re defenseless!” “Only if everyone acts as scared as you!” Elena snapped, “Do you have any suggestions?” “Yeah,” the man retorted, “We send someone to Lady Jel. Get more of her guns.” “How many would she send?” Elena disputed, “We just lost all of ours. She’s already at war with Lord Zire, an’ no doubt these aliens.” “She doesn’t care about us,” Ru said, “She’ll let us die.” “She might send help,” the man insisted, “Someone has to go!” “So go!” Elena barked. The man was suddenly quiet. He averted his eyes, and Elena narrowed hers, “What? Scared o’ the spiders? Or bandits? Next time you make a suggestion like that, you better be willin’ to do it yourself.” The man glared at her, but she met his stare with her own. Gwen admired the old woman’s fire. Few people could stand up to her, even at her age. Gwen wanted to be the same when her hair turned gray. If she lived that long. “Forget it,” Markos soothed, “We’ll take care of ourselves. If someone wants to go, they can try.” “And good luck to them,” Elena spat, rubbing the man’s nose in her small victory, “Now get to helpin’. Traveler knows we need to make ourselves useful. Gwen turned, orienting herself eastward, towards the cemetery. “Ru?” Markos queried, and Gwen looked over her shoulder to see Ru towering over Elena and the gaunt man. He locked eyes with Markos, his face set in a mask of determination. “I’ll go.”[/i]