When we got back to Harold’s farm, we went back through the shapeshifting machine so that we could transform into our actual identities.

“Wow, you got a KLD-459! I guess if you are going to steal a space cruiser, you might as well get a stylish one. Good choice. Are you going to stay the night or take off right away?” Harold inquired.

“I’m pretty beat, myself, I think we should stay here just for the night,” Jessie said.

“Well, we better not stay any longer than that. It will only be a matter of time before they come looking for us in this area.” David was obviously nervous. He would go to the window and look out into the fields every few minutes.

“You are certainly most welcome to stay, but David’s right. You better get going pretty soon,” Harold agreed.

After dinner, Jessie and I went to our room. We were both anxious to spend some time alone for a change. I put my hands on Jessie’s back and began to rub it. She was very stiff and tense.

“Try and relax, my love. We will leave this planet tomorrow and be free of the threat of capture.”

“And then we will be without a home again, left to wander the universe.” Jessie was still not resigned to the idea of leaving her home planet once and for all.

“Jessie, no one knows more than I do how hard it is to leave your home behind once and for all, but we have to continue to believe that we will find a place where we belong. I know I’ve said it before, but I still believe it.”

“I know you’re right, but I keep seeing the look on my parents’ faces when I was in prison. I’m having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I may never see them again.” I held her tight as a few tears flowed from her eyes.

"We are going to be alright, and you never know what fate may bring. You may yet see them again before it's all over." Jessie turned around to look at me, and I wiped the tears from her eyes. Then, we kissed, sharing a long, passionate moment. Jessie's clothes fell to the floor and she pulled me on top of her.

“Make love to me. Help me forget all that I’m leaving behind me,” she whispered. I caressed her long legs and we made love, starting off slow and tender and working our way up to a feverish pace. We were careful not to try and make too much noise in order to keep from disturbing the others. We fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms.

Unfortunately, the dawn brought some unwelcome visitors with it. Harold came running into the room with a look of urgency on his face.

"Quickly, you have to get going. The police are here. I'm pretty sure old man Patterson, my next door neighbor must have spotted you and called them. You know they're offering $2 million as a reward for your capture. I have a secret passage leading out of the basement. You have to leave now before it's too late!"

We threw our belongings together and made for the basement just as the police knocked on the door. David was already there when we found the passageway, which was activated by a secret lever. It was made to look like part of the wall.

We took off down the dank, dark tunnel. It smelled like damp Earth and felt very cool. Finally, after about two hours, we came out the other side in a small field surrounded by forest.

“I wonder where we are,” Jessie mused. David took out his crystal screen phone and asked it.

“Where are we?”

“You are in the dead center of Gordon County about five miles south of Franklin, Maryland,” A friendly voice spoke up.

“Not sure that’s very helpful. I have no idea where that is,” David said shaking his head. A second later, the device began to ring and Harold’s face showed up on the screen.

"Ok, you can come back now. The cops are gone. They couldn't find anything so they finally left. I told them that the neighbors must have gotten confused. I said the people that they saw were my visiting relatives that just left. They acted a little skeptical about my story, but they had no evidence to keep them here. You better get going, though. Obviously, my nosey neighbors are on the lookout," Harold shared.

“Thanks again, my old friend- for everything. If it wasn’t for you, we would be in custody again, awaiting our execution.” David hugged Harold and we both shook his hand. We climbed aboard the space cruiser and I was at the helm. Soon, we began to the launch sequence and began to cruise up into the upper layers of the atmosphere. Jessie looked back over her shoulder at Earth as it became a small blue ball below us.

It felt good to be back in the quiet reaches of outer space again, but I could see from Jessie’s expression that she was home sick. I put my hand on hers and smiled.

“Don’t forget. Somewhere there’s a place for us,” I spoke softly and patted her hand as David set the navigator for planet Padure.

After about a week of space travel, Padure finally came into view. As we came closer and closer to the surface of the planet, we could clearly see that something was different; something was not quite right. The planet was still a lush green ball, but there seemed to be great patches that had lost their greenery and huge billowing clouds of smoke rose up from these places.

“What’s happening? Something’s amiss here,” David stated as he looked down on his home planet.

“It’s the Sarceastians, I’ll bet,” I said as I shook my head.

"I knew they might still have an interest in this planet, but I had no idea that they would wreak this much havoc." David sighed as he got into his chair and prepared for landing. We touched down well away from the burning sites so that we wouldn't be spotted. After we landed, we climbed up on a nearby ridge and got a better idea of the devastation. There were still large chunks of lush forest dotting the landscape, but huge areas had been completely denuded. We could see large, domes set up on tripods like gigantic spiders. There were materials coming out of pits that had been dug into the ground that was traveling up conveyor lines into the domes. We could see Sarceastians working around the pits moving about like tiny ants.

“Son of a bitch! They’ve set up mining operations and they’re cutting down the forest.” David’s nostrils flared out in anger and he threw a rock over the ridge out of anger. “The Sarceastians will never rest until they’ve spoiled the whole universe!”

We went back to our space cruiser and pulled out an electronic landscape scanner so that we could see what things were like in the direction of David’s home to the east.

"According to the scanner, we should be able to stay in the forest and make our way to your house. There is a clear cut about two miles to the west, so we need to steer clear of that," I said. David seemed hopeful that we were going to be able to get back to his home, but the prospect of living there safely seemed to be fading. We loaded our backpacks with supplies and did our best to cover the space cruiser with vegetation to at least keep the Sarceastians from spying it at a distance. We took off through the forest, stopping after an hour to sample some fruit from a Gulanor tree that tasted very sweet and filled our bellies. The calm and quiet of the forest relaxed David's mood a bit until we heard the sound of a large machine in the distance cutting down more acres of forest. When David heard this sound, he got to his feet and put his hand on his laser gun.

“Just wait until I get even with them for what they’ve done,” he said.

Jessie and I looked at one another, but we didn’t respond. I could tell that we were both thinking the same thing.

There's no way that we can go up against so many of them Jessie shared with me.

I know but it wouldn’t do to tell David that now. He’s already so upset.

We walked on for the next several miles in silence until we came to the familiar site of David's house. David ran out of the forest, through the field and up to his old home. Unfortunately, it was now a pile of rubble. The house was never in great shape, to begin with, but now it looked more like a woodpile than a home. Jessie and I stayed back and gave David his space as he sorted through the remains. He gathered together what personal belongings he could find. When he found a picture of his now deceased wife in a cracked picture frame, he fell to his knees and began to cry. Jessie and I came up to him and I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Things could be so much worse. We could be standing on a high platform awaiting execution. Instead, we escaped and now we're here. Where there is life, there is still hope," I said. David got to his feet and nodded his head. He took his bag of belongings that he had gathered and walked back into the forest.

“Come on guys, it would be best not to stay in the open for long. Obviously, the rotten Sarceastians have been here and they are likely to be back at some point,” he finally said. We followed behind him until we were about a mile away from David’s house.

We pitched camp and set watches so that the Sarceastians couldn’t catch us unaware. We managed to hunt down some Cheekwallas, which are plump woodchuck-like beasts, so we were able to fill our bellies.

"That house was all I had left of my former life. Now, that's all gone. I'm a fugitive just like the two of you. I'll tell you one thing, I am so very grateful for your company and companionship," David allowed.

“That’s very kind of you. We are thankful for all the help that you have given us. One day, we will all have a place we can call home,” Jessie answered.

“This is my home. Even if the Sarceastians have set up permanent settlements here, I will not leave again. I will make it my mission to be a thorn in their sides and take out as many of them as I can. I will die being the defender of Padure so that I can help to preserve what’s left of its natural beauty. What do the two of you plan to do?”

Jessie and I looked at each other with the same quizzical expression.

“I don’t think we’ve planned far enough ahead to know our next move,” I said.

"Yeah, beyond escaping Earth and escaping execution, I don't have a clear strategy," Jessie mused. A cloud of melancholy seemed to linger over us as the evening came on. I took the first watch and began to walk around the perimeter, listening to the calls of unidentified night birds that sounded similar to owls. Luckily, there was no sight or sound of the Sarceastians anywhere. Around midnight, David woke up and came over to relieve me of my guard duties.

“I really used to love the sounds of the forest at night It pains me to think that this sound may one day be only a memory,” David shared.