Those
Left Behind
Author: DocPaul
Rating: R
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimers: The concepts
and names are the same, but the characters belong to me. I give them life, more
life than
Warnings: There
is nothing happy here. Angst.
Summary: After
Michael returned to save Max at Graduation, and the others escaped, they all
said their goodbyes as they got ready to depart in the van, leaving
Author’s note: This
is a ‘what if’ storyline. The whole premise behind Departure was too silly
to believe, that I thought of this alternative version. In this story, Liz,
leaving the graduation unprepared to run, never having the chance to retrieve
her journal. Devastation was a path they left for those left behind.
Those
Left behind
For Betty
“You
can’t go.”
“What?”
Maria couldn’t believe it. It was her decision whether she would go or not go.
It should be her decision. He made his when he stayed on Earth, and she should
have the right to decide about leaving
“I
can’t let you, Maria.”
“I’ve
thought this through, Michael. I want to be with you. I love you. I’ve always
loved you. This should be my decision.”
Michael
looked at the others, and took her arms pulling her away from the group. “I
love you too, and that is exactly why you’re not going.”
“This
is because of before.”
“Maria.”
“No,
don’t deny it. I broke up with you, and you haven’t forgiven me for that.”
Maria ran her hands through her hair, uncaring what it did to her style. “If
you love me, and I love you, and we want to be together, then it shouldn’t
matter.”
“It
does matter. We will be on the run for the rest of our lives, Maria. Forever.
Not safe. Ever.” Michael saw Max make a gesture that they needed to hurry.
“I
want to be with you.” Maria’s stomach hurt.
Michael
shook his head no. This was the way it had to be. He couldn’t risk it. Risk
her. “Maria, I already said goodbye. I meant it.”
“And
that’s it.” Maria stood back looking at him in disbelief. “It’s always
been this way.” Seeing his look of confusion, she continued. “Choosing
between the alien stuff and us. The alien stuff always rules supreme. What about
my heart? Your heart?”
“I’m
following my heart, and for the first time, my head as well. Taking you with me
would be the pinnacle of selfishness.
It would be compromising your safety and your life. Too many people have died
because of me and I can’t have you be another one. I won’t.” Michael heard
his name. “I’ve gotta go. We…” Michael paused looking at her. He wanted
to kiss her one more time, but he couldn’t. Steeling his heart, he turned and
walked away.
They
stood there in the dark watching the van’s tail lights until they faded away,
neither of them speaking. Jesse
stood a few feet away from her. There was nothing to say. They were just human.
Nothing special. Easy to let go. Not a reason to take or stay.
~~~
5
Months later…
“Max,
you’ve got to talk to him.”
Max
looked up from where he was sitting on a bed next to Liz in another cheap motel.
They were almost out of money again, so it was back to one room for the five of
them. Michael tended to sleep in the van despite the cold, and Isabel shared a
bed with Kyle, while Max and Liz, husband and wife, took the other bed.
His
wife.
Max
smiled an idiotic grin. Liz Evans.
“Snap
out of it! Michael! He’s a problem. Go deal with him.” Isabel couldn’t
take much more. Her life. It was a nightmare.
How
do you learn to hate? It was hard to say. But in six months, Isabel had learned
these facts. First, she hated her life and how it turned out. She hated her
brother Max, with a passion, and along with him, Liz Parker. She hated Michael
Guerin. And finally, she hated that they were all she had left in this world.
Max
and Liz were as simpering in marriage as they had been before the glorious,
earth-shattering event that realigned the planets, brought about world peace,
and turned the waters of the world to milk and honey.
Actually,
no.
None
of those things happened. Nada. No magical alliance. No unseen Destiny. Even
Liz’s alien powers had waned. In the last six months she had had exactly three
premonitions, and the last one didn’t even pan out. The only thing that
increased was the dolt-like, smug smile on Liz’s face as she sat next to Max,
smiling into his eyes.
Michael.
He had changed. For the worse. All the ground he made over the past few years
had dissolved before their very eyes. They had suspected it was Maria that
brought about his varied improvements over the last year or so.. Maria critics
would say she nagged and pestered him to be what she thought he should be. But
in truth, all the changes came from Michael himself, from deep within. He
changed because he wanted to be better, to be worthy of Maria. That was just how
he saw it.
For
the first time in about two years, both Isabel and Michael were unhindered by
significant others. She had left Jesse, and he had denied Maria. You’d think
they would’ve joined together, consoled each other, and maybe, by default,
tried an earlier written Destiny.
No.
Nope. Nada. The will wasn’t willing, and the flesh even less. It was a hard,
crushing reality to find that no matter how far they roamed, those they left
behind still owned their hearts, and everything else was second best, sometimes
not even that.
Michael
Guerin was the furthest thing from a dream mate Isabel could think of. He was
nasty, biting and sarcastic. He rolled his eyes at every word leaving
practically anyone’s mouth. He lost his temper constantly, never slept, and
became meaner as the days moved forward. He made ‘Alien King Michael’ look
like a Campfire boy.
He
was Michael Guerin again. Michael, pre-Maria, but even worse. For once in his
life, he had no great purpose. No search for home. No Destiny to be a soldier,
or even a stand-in King. He was nothing but a fugitive trapped with four other
people he suspected he didn’t even like.
Food
tasted like paste. And it was possible that the sky was eternally gray. He
hadn’t laughed once since they left
Using
all the hot water was grounds for a firing squad.
Laughing
at a
It
was hard. Isabel could understand because she and Michael were in the same boat.
They each had left someone they loved behind. In an act of love, they had walked
away.
Then
there was Max.
Max,
who had saved Liz Parker three years ago, thus starting a chain reaction that
slowly dissolved their safe boring lives. Max, who had broken a pact forged
between the three of them. Max, who cheated and lied, not only to them, but to
Liz. Max, who let a murderess into their lives who took Alex away. Max, who did
so much wrong, starting from the moment he saved Liz Parker. And his reward? He
got to marry the girl. He got to keep his love close. He had set everything set
in motion, and once again Max Evans had gotten everything and paid no dues.
How
do you learn to hate?
You
live with it every day.
~~~
“Can
we talk?”
Michael
looked up from the magazine he was reading. “Do I have a choice?”
“Look,
Michael…”
Michael
sat up and slammed the magazine down. “Guess that means no.” Michael got up
and grabbing his jacket, he left the room, slamming the door behind him.
Max
watched the door close. Glancing at Liz, he could see the sympathy in her eyes.
He sighed and picked up his coat, following Michael out to the van. Michael was
lying down on the back bench seat. It was cold. How Michael could stand sleeping
in the van was beyond Max’s comprehension.
“Is
this where you, King Max, tell me that Princess Isabel would like me to adjust
my attitude? Or is it Queenie? The all-seeing, all-knowing Great and Magical
Wizard of Roswell, Liz Parker? Oops, I mean Evans.”
Max
ignored the insults. After five months, it was par for the course. “No, this
is where I tell you to get over it.”
Michael
just snorted. “Thanks, Max. I feel better already because I’ve been ordered
to get over it.”
“I
mean it, Michael.” Max took a seat in the front and turned around to regard
his one-time best friend. “You’re pissed. About what this time is anyone’s
guess. This attitude has been a constant cloud over the entire group since we
left
Michael
sat up, his face flushed in anger. “You know nothing, Max. I suggest you shut
the fuck up before I forget that I’m
not a murderer.” He should’ve left Max there to fry. He didn’t have to
come back, but he did.
“She
wanted to come. You said no. Don’t take it out on us.”
Michael
swore and looked out into the night. “This isn’t about…” He couldn’t
say her name. Closing his eyes, he felt a need to rub them, but resisted. Max
was watching. “What? Do you even care? You’ve got your wife. You’re all
happy and sickeningly nauseating most of the time with all the cooing,
lovey-dovey names, and smug smiles…so happy, even though the rest of us are
miserable.”
“Don’t
blame us for your unhappiness. Maybe you should just admit it, Michael. You
didn’t leave her behind because you were concerned about her safety.”
“Shut
up.”
“No.
You can listen or not, but pretending wounded nobility isn’t solving or
admitting the problem.”
“And
that would be?” Michael asked nastily. Max the Magnificent always knew
everything.
“The
problem is she was right. You were still punishing her for breaking up with you.
That was why you left her behind, made her unimportant. It’s why you took away
her right to choose.”
Michael
wasn’t getting any sleep tonight. Max wasn’t going to go away. Trapped.
Michael searched for a place he could go sack out away from the others. Perhaps
he could break into an empty room and sleep in it for the night. Watch some
television. Forget.
“Are
you through? Or is there more to this lecture?”
Max
was tired. Tired of all of it. “No, that’s about it. You need to learn
forgiveness, Michael. You never forgave me for saving Liz and telling her about
us, and all the things afterward. You never even thought of Isabel in any mode,
once you learned about Kivar and her betrayal as Vilandra. You can’t forgive
Liz for being important to me. And you couldn’t forgive Maria for wanting a
life that didn’t revolve around us, you, and danger. You couldn’t forgive
her for wanting more, because that meant you weren’t enough.”
“I
forgave her. We…” Michael looked at the night again. “We were sort of back
together in an unspoken way before everything went wrong.”
“Why?
Because you two were occasionally sleeping together? She wanted more, but you
kept holding back. After we helped the Colonel, I thought things were getting
better, but you left her out there on a limb. She could have you physically, but
nothing else. Not your heart. You couldn’t forgive her that one thing, after
how many years she forgave you everything?”
“Shut
up, Max. It was none of your business. I never asked for your opinion, nor do I
want it.”
Max
opened the door and jumped down. “Too bad. You made a mistake. You let your
inability to forgive prompt you to throw away the only woman you ever loved, the
only person who ever accepted you, warts and all. And, Michael,” Max said
softly, “there are a lot of warts. So just learn to accept it, because we are
sick of it.”
Michael
didn’t even bother to acknowledge Max’s leaving.
Inability
to forgive.
The
only person he had ever loved unconditionally. No one, but her. He hadn’t
lied. There was never anyone else for him except her. There never would be.
Lying back on the bench, he ignored the cold.
“I
don’t even have a picture of you,” he said to the darkness. “Three years.
You would think that I would’ve at least taken the time to carry a picture of
you in my pocket.”
Michael
laughed bitterly at himself. The laugh turned into a barely suppressed sob. It
wasn’t supposed to hurt this much. He always knew he might have to leave.
Years had passed, and he had convinced himself it wouldn’t matter…that he
could walk away.
Michael
wiped a trembling hand over his mouth. It was wet. A cold sweat broke out on his
upper lip. He felt sick. Sleep. He needed sleep. It was too cold to sleep. That
was why he slept there. It kept him awake. He hated dreaming.
The
nightmares.
They
started almost immediately after they left
The
nightmares made no sense. It was like an acid backwash. A really bad trip.
Color
and noises that sounded like distorted screams. Scenes moving too fast to keep
in focus. One thing that stuck and made sense. Fear. Not a slight anxiety. This
was deep bone shaking fear.
A
month after
He
had never told anyone. He couldn’t. It made no sense. It was Maria. It had to
be. She was crying for him.
He
had left her standing in the dark. He had left her alone.
~~~
“Anything?”
Kyle
shook his head and closed the hotel door. Two days. They had searched and waited
for two days.
Michael
was gone.
Max
stood at the window and gazed into the night. Michael left that night while they
slept. He took his jacket, nothing else, and he walked away. Where the hell was
he? Maria?
“We
leave tomorrow.”
Isabel
sat up abruptly. “Max, we can’t. How will he know how to find us if we
leave?”
“He
will. Michael knows the rules. We get split up, we rendezvous at the designated
place. We follow the schedule, changing location every seven days until he finds
us again, sends word, or we get tired of waiting.” Max closed his eyes.
Hopefully Michael was paying enough attention to the code that Liz devised.
“Week
forty-three of the year is
There
were fifty-two weeks in a year. Fifty-two cards in a deck, divided into four
suits of thirteen. Each week of the year was designated by a card in the deck,
hearts being the numbers one through thirteen A, Diamonds were one through
thirteen B, Clubs were C, and Spades were D. There were twenty-six letters in
the alphabet, and so they used the alphabet twice giving each week of the year a
letter corresponding to a city. They all memorized the cities in order. Figure
out the week of the year, find the city, and at that city’s bus depot, find
the locker corresponding to the card of the deck. In that locker they would
leave messages regarding where they were, up to that week. Then they would move
on to the next city.
Liz
looked at Max, “What do we do, Max?”
“We
go where we’re supposed to be, and wait.”
What
else was there?
Isabel
looked out in the dark, and sighed. Michael was smart. He had broken free.
Isabel closed her eyes, hoping he went home to
~~~
“Jim,
I’ve got a report of a possible B & E at
“Ten-four,
Vera. I’m on my way.” Jim turned his Deputy’s SUV towards the middle of
town. It was late. Three in the morning. Normally he didn’t mind the late
shift.
“Vera,
I’ve checked.
“Roger,
Jim.”
Jim
sighed and stretched on his way back to his vehicle. Prank. High school kids
liked to call in false reports and sit at a distance and watch the police
respond. Things never changed. Getting in behind the wheel, he sat there for a
few moments in the dark. Some things did. Lonely nights. He had nothing but time
to think about it.
“Don’t
turn around.”
Jim’s
body went still at the low voice. Sitting forward he tightened his grip on the
wheel.
“Is
this vehicle bugged?”
“I
don’t believe so.” Jim wanted to turn around but he remained facing forward.
He knew that voice. Would know it anywhere.
“Then
let’s take a drive.”
Jim
started his patrol again, taking dark lonely streets, and turned out of
“Vera,
I’m off to Sutter’s pond to check on a possible Rave.”
“Roger,
Jim. Careful out there in the dark.”
“Affirmative.”
The
SUV provided the only lights in the night surrounding the small pond. Pulling up
to the pier, he got out and waited. It took only a few moments before his
passenger decided that they hadn’t been followed, and he emerged from the back
seat.
“Good
to see you, son.” Jim gave the young man a heartfelt hug. It felt like a
lifetime since he last saw Michael Guerin. “What are you doing here,
Michael?”
Michael
looked over the dark waters. Aw, the pond where Liz Parker tried to do a
striptease for Max. Pathetic. Only those two could make something sexual look
like something lame. He laughed his ass off later when Max told the whole watery
tale of the two of them trying to skinny-dip, Max having a vision about his son,
and almost drowning. They had called him, and he went to get them. Both Max and
Liz had been huddled in blankets shivering, and Michael had gotten a glimpse of
Liz’s staid white cotton underwear. It was enough to make him consider turning
gay, that was until Maria showed up wearing that scrap of nothing lace. Maria
always defined the limits. Isabel, married, looked like a June Cleaver, and Liz
was so asexual, she was wearing panties that would shame her own grandmother.
Not
Maria. Maria liked silk and lace, and she was a card carrying member of
Frederick’s and Victoria’s Secret. She wore matching panties and bras in
shameless sheer material that gave a person a glimpse of what was underneath,
and at times, she wore nothing at all. He loved how unwrapping her was always a
treat of unexpected delight, never knowing what she would have on under her
clothes. Everything about her was a surprise.
“Where
is Maria? I went to her house and sat outside it for hours. It looks
abandoned.”
Jim
swallowed hard. Looking at the water, he felt it again, that welling of emotion
behind his throat threatening to burst out of control. He couldn’t…not
alone. Jim reached into his vehicle and grabbed a sheet of paper from his
notepad. Scribbling directions and a time, he handed it to Michael. The old
copper mine.
“There
is too much to tell. This place isn’t safe. Meet me there and I’ll answer
your questions.”
Michael
shoved the paper in his pocket and nodded. “Just tell me where Maria is.”
Jim
went and stood at the end of the pier. His shoulders shook a little. He said
quietly without looking over his shoulder, “She’s gone, Michael. Gone.”
When
he turned around, Michael was gone too.
~~~
He
found a place to watch the mine undetected. Sitting there, hours before he was
scheduled to meet Valenti, he heard the words repeated in his mind over and over
again. Gone. Maria was gone.
Gone?
Left
No.
He
waited as the first vehicle arrived. It was after dark, and he watched the
headlights from a distance. There were three sets. After they arrived and went
inside, he waited another hour, watching the horizon. There were no other
lights.
~~~
“Michael?
How did he look? Did he mention Liz? Are they all here?” Geoff asked, holding
his wife’s hand. She was quiet and drawn. Worry etched her face, as
conflicting emotions raced through her. Liz. She wanted to see her daughter,
but…
No.
She was still Liz. Still her child.
Philip
paced the room. “This is crazy. None of them should’ve ever returned. We
just finally got back to some type of normalcy, and now this will start it
again.”
“Philip,
maybe he has a message from Max and Isabel,” Diane said softly. She hoped that
was the case. To hear from them again would be worth almost anything. Almost.
Diane
bowed her head at the thoughts running rapidly through her mind. Almost
anything, but not everything.
“I
think he came back for Maria.” Jim said. “He came alone.”
The
group of adults exchanged glances, and slowly looked away. What could they say?
What should they say?
“What
should we tell him?” Geoff asked. He swallowed hard. Damn. It was back. A need
to cry; the need to break down.
“I…it
will be hard for him. For all of them. But, they need to know. They need to know
so they can understand why they can never come home, never contact us, and never
stop running.” Jim sat down hard on the edge of an old table covered in dust.
“We tell him the truth.”
“That
is exactly what I want,” said Michael from the top of the stairs leading into
the room.
~~~
“Michael,
are you hungry? I brought some food just in case.” Diane was busy wringing her
hands. Nancy Parker was silent in the corner, but Michael could see a hint of
tears on her eyelashes.
“I
want to know where the hell Maria went.”
There
were people missing. Most noticeable was Maria, her mother, and Jesse. The
Parkers, the Evans, and Jim Valenti all seemed to shrink into themselves.
“We
can’t tell you, Michael.” Jim hurried before Michael interrupted. “We
don’t know.”
Michael
was quiet. This was bad. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed
to be here, waiting. Angry, but waiting. She had to know he would come back for
her. She had to know that! Michael
kept repeating the sentence in his head. She wouldn’t leave, not as long as
there was a chance. Maria DeLuca never gave up.
If
she left, then things went wrong.
“What
happened? What went wrong?”
Jim
looked at the others, they all looked away, so he took the first turn.
“Everything.”
~~~
“They
didn’t even give us a chance to regroup or create a story. They came
immediately after the graduation. They took the Parkers and the Evans.”
Geoff
cleared his voice. “They searched everything. Our homes, our business, our
cars.... Everything. They packed up Liz’s room and took every scrap they could
find, even the dust and dirt. They found her journal behind a wall. They took
that too.”
Philip
nodded. “Same with us. They literally packed up our entire home, anything that
Max and Isabel had ever touched. They did the same to your apartment. They had
no reason to question what they thought they knew about you. Max standing in
front of the entire town during graduation, telling the world, confirming he was
an alien, that you were aliens, was all they needed.” Philip felt ashamed.
That one act was a death warrant. “Stupid.” What had it proved? How could
they have confessed to the world, then left behind two people the most
intimately involved?
“They
took you?” Michael asked. No. That wasn’t right. This had nothing to do with
them! They weren’t involved.
“Yes.
All of us. We were in their custody for almost two weeks. They interrogated us.
Lie detectors. Scans. Blood testing. We were considered exposed to an alien
form.” Geoff put his had on his wife’s shoulder. “Exposed to our daughter.
It…was bad.”
Michael
sensed it, sensed what they weren’t saying. Exposure. Maria. Jesse.
“Where
is Maria!?” Michael’s voice raised in fear. Oh damn. The cold sweat broke on
his skin again.
Jim
cleared his throat. “She…she and Jesse... never had a chance. No warning.
They came back to
Michael
could hardly talk. The nightmares. They had started immediately after he left
“Maria?
They have Maria and Jesse?”
Jim
walked away and stood with his back to the group, his shoulder hunched. The rest
of the group was quiet. Finally Philip Evans stood up.
“You
have to understand, Michael. We…the group of us, were considered exposed, but
for Maria and Jesse it was worse. They…they were intimately involved with aliens. Jesse with Isabel, and Maria with
you. Intimately…sexually. The government wanted to know if there were changes
because of such close exposure. They…” Philip couldn’t continue.
“They
had Liz’s journal. It had everything in it. It told them just how intimate you
and Maria were, and Jesse was understood, since he was married to Isabel. It
told them,” Geoff looked down at the floor, “everything.”
Michael
couldn’t believe it. That journal. That damn
journal, and he had given it back to her! What. An. Idiot. He should’ve
followed his instincts and destroyed it. He honestly thought Liz had. He had
been an idiot to trust her. Looking at Jim, who slowly turned around, Michael
frowned.
“Why
didn’t they take you, too? You were healed. Changed.”
Jim
shook his head. “Liz wasn’t here when it happened. She never got around to
adding it to the journal. There was Max’s death. Your rise as King. Her
interpretation that you were a homicidal maniac, willing to kill any human that
learned your secret. Your threats. So much happened, she never got a chance to
add in the stuff about me. But there was enough. My helping you. Kyle. Pierce.
It was all there.”
“They
let you go?”
Jim
nodded. “It was Kyle they wanted. Not me. They had no reason to want me. At
least not yet. They ran blood tests on me and a few others. They all came back
normal. No residual effects. I haven’t started to change yet. Don’t know if
I ever will.”
Michael
paced the room. “You should leave while you can.”
Philip
Evans and Geoff Parker both stood. Philip shook his head. “No. Jim stays. This
is his home. He was born and raised here. He belongs here. They will never
know.” Philip looked around at all the adults. “We’ll make sure of
that.”
The
five of them. They had taken over the younger generation’s place. Once it was
the three aliens, and their three human friends. Now it appeared that the adults
had their secret, their alien, and an alien would continue to live in
“You’re
choosing a hard life. I know. I’ve lived it all my life.”
“We
know. But if Jim leaves, they will know. This way he doesn’t become a
target.” Philip had it all worked out. He and Geoff had thought it through.
Jim
just shrugged. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Not anymore. Amy was gone.
Maria gone. And Jesse…God! Jesse...
“They
have Maria,” Michael said hollowly. He left her. His pride made him leave
her…
“No.”
Jim said. “There’s more.”
~~~
5
Months ago…
Jesse
tried to keep the car on the road. It was hard. His hands were shaking so badly,
and he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering. Maria sat next to him, and she
was crying. Really crying. She was bent over, with her head on her knees, and
the weeping was almost too much for him. He could feel responding moisture
behind his own eyes.
Pulling
over in front of the ‘Welcome to
His
hands faltered, and he couldn’t move. Isabel.
Leaning
his head back against the headrest, he closed his eyes and gulped. She was gone.
She left. He was sorry. All the trouble they had since he learned. His coldness.
It wasn’t supposed to be forever. They were supposed to be forever.
“Maria.”
What could he say? There was nothing to say. The aliens of
“I
can’t believe this. I just can’t believe this.”
Disbelief.
He understood. All that they had done. All their love. None of it was never good
enough, or sufficient. They had just left.
“It
will be okay.” Those works choked him. Bullshit.
Maria
looked up at him, her tear stained face pale and tear rimmed eyes just stared in
disbelief. Jesse nodded. Okay, so he lied.
“What
do we do now? How do we go on?” Maria looked out the window. “My heart is
breaking. I can’t breathe. I don’t…I can’t see tomorrow. I just want to
sleep. Maybe I’ll wake up and it will just be a bad dream.” Maria laughed
bitterly. “I thought the same thing when Alex died. Sleeping didn’t change a
thing.” Maria gave another laugh that dissolved into a small sound of
hysteria. “He just left. I’m so sick of being left behind.”
“Maria.”
There was nothing he could say. He felt the same, but she had years of
experience on him in dealing with their alien significant others. “Let me get
you home. We can’t do anything tonight.”
“We
can’t do anything ever. It was never our choice. They stole that from us, just
like they stole our hearts and our lives.”
Jesse
started the car and headed home to
Jesse
watched as Maria slowly peeled herself out of the car. He reached over and
squeezed her hand. “Try. Try to get some rest. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Maria just nodded. They both knew there would be no rest for either of them for
a long time.
It
happened so fast, he couldn’t register it at first. Getting ready to back out
of the drive, he saw the light on the porch come on, and Amy DeLuca stepping
out. Maria was walking slowly…almost like she had aged fifty years in one
night.
They
came fast and swift. Dressed all in black, they blended with the night. Two
grabbed Maria. One with his hand over her mouth, and the other took her legs.
It
was the Amy’s scream that woke him from his stupor. Reaching for the door to
get out, to rescue Maria, it took a few moments for him to realize that there
was no door. Hands. Reaching for him. Struggling, he tried to get free. Hands
under his arms kept him restrained, and then a rag with something on it…then
nothing. His last thought before the chloroform took him over was that at least
someone thought he and Maria were important.
It
was dark in
~~~
It
hurt. The lights. Maria struggled to her feet in the room. No furniture. A bank
of mirrors, but nothing else. It was too light. Whiteness.
Bending
over, she retched. Her stomach emptying as she felt sicker and sicker.
Struggling,
she crawled along the floor searching for a door, her hands banging on the wall.
Crying. She moved as fast as she could. Her stomach was sour and cramping.
“Maria?”
Maria
looked around trying to pinpoint the sound. It came again.
“Maria?”
“Jesse?”
“Yeah.”
Maria found where it was coming from. An air vent, up high on the wall.
Jesse’s voice was filtering through. “I heard you crying.”
Maria
had the mind to snort. He was being kind. He meant to say, he heard her having a
hysterical fit. White room. It was a White Room. Oh, God!
“Jesse,
my mom. I remember seeing my mom before they took me.”
“She
was on the porch. I think they left her alone.” Jesse couldn’t say for sure,
but it was his feeling. Searching his prison, he couldn’t find a way out. His
stomach was sick, and he could hardly stand on his feet. It was good to hear
Maria’s voice. It was good not to feel alone.
“What
do they want?”
Jesse
sat down against the wall next to the air duct. “To know where they went.”
“We
don’t know.”
“I
know. We just have to convince them of that.” Jesse rubbed his face. His head
hurt, and his mouth was dry. He’d kill for a drink of water. “It will be
okay, Maria. Just tell them what you know.” There was no way for him at that
moment to even imagine how bad it was. How bad it could get.
~~~
“Where
is my daughter, Jim?” Amy paced her home. Hours. It had been hours. She had
called the police, and Jim Valenti answered the call. Jim. She hadn’t really
seen him since last summer. They saw each other on the street, but no more
dating. Amy never really could figure out what went wrong, why things changed,
but one day she was dating him and suddenly just like that, he stopped calling.
“I
don’t know.”
Amy
stopped and looked at the man. He was lying. She knew enough to spot a lie.
Hell, she had a teenage daughter. Maria was a master, but at times even she
couldn’t slide by.
“All
this time, after all this time, DO NOT lie to me, Jim Valenti.” Amy held her
ground and stood in front of the man. “Where is my daughter!?”
“I
don’t know.” Jim held up his hand. “But I know who has her. They took the
Evans and the Parkers as well.”
“Who?”
Amy wiped the moisture from her forehead. People she knew were gone. Taken. This
was unreal. “Who? And don’t say Alien abduction.” If Maria was part of the
hoax Max Evans was playing on the town, making it a travesty…Amy didn’t know
what she would do.
“No.
FBI Special Unit. They’re looking for aliens.”
Amy
sat down fast. Fuck. Fuck Jim Valenti
if he didn’t give her a real answer! “Funny, Jim. I’m serious here. If you
don’t tell me something, I’ll make sure that new Deputy’s badge is gone.
Do you understand?”
Jim
sank to his knees in front of her. “I’m not lying, Amy. Kyle is gone too.
They didn’t take him. He went. He went with the aliens.”
“Aliens?”
Amy just shook her head. Aliens? He
was crazy if he thought she was going to put up with this. “What aliens?”
“Max
and Isabel Evans, and Michael Guerin.”
Amy’s
hand flew to her mouth. “Oh god! That explains the hair!”
~~~
“Mrs.
Parker, where is your daughter?”
“I
don’t know. I don’t know.” The woman couldn’t move. Terrified. The
bright light. Her arm hurt. They took her blood, and a man with a scalpel sliced
a piece of her skin. It hurt. Burned. Her hair. They took her hair too. X-rays.
A MRI and CAT scan. Gynecological exam. Heart assessment. She couldn’t breath.
Her chest felt heavy, and it hurt. Wasn’t she supposed to be able to breathe?
“My
daughter is Elizabeth Parker. She is my child. Mine. I carried her. Birthed her,
and cared for her every day of her life. She is a good girl. Never in trouble
until she met Max Evans. She is going to be a biologist. Go to Harvard,
Stanford, or Northwestern, anywhere away from Max Evans. My daughter…you have
made a mistake.”
“When
did she change? Was it when she was shot in the Crashdown three years ago?”
The voice asked behind the light.
“My
daughter was never shot! She spilled ketchup. The bullet missed her…”
“Let
me read something to you, Mrs. Parker.”
“I
am Liz Parker, and yesterday I died.” The
voice read the journal flat and without effect, making the girlish ramblings
somehow more inane and contrived.
“That’s
not Liz. No. My daughter, she would never lie to me, to my husband. She respects
and loves us too much. You don’t know her! You don’t know her…”
~~~
The
man watched the interviews, read the reports. It was all the same. The Parkers
were genuinely shocked, but the Evans knew. Only for a short while. The stories
were the same. None of the tests showed anything out of the ordinary.
Mrs.
Parker had a weak heart. During a test, she had a heart attack, but they brought
her back. Otherwise, the parents were all normal. Normal parents. Clueless. Lied
to and deceived by their children. If apathy and not paying attention was a
crime, then this group of parents was paying for three years of being duped.
“The
Sheriff’s son was changed. He’ll turn like the Parker girl. Bring in the
Sheriff…Deputy. I want him tested as well. He had one living in his home, and
his son is becoming something else.”
Leitchner
watched as a few agents took off. They were in special medical labs outside of
“The
children he saved that one Christmas. Bring them in.”
One
of the doctors looked at Leitchner. “We found the adoption agency and tracked
down the alien baby, Zan.”
“I
want him as well. Nothing is to be left undone. Find this
“Yes,
Sir.”
The
parents. He watched them in their holding cells. The monitor flipped from cell
to cell. Changing the monitor, he looked in on the girl, and the husband to an
alien. Almost ten days, and they both were breaking. The girl stopped talking.
Stopped crying. Stopped asking for her mother. They had only done a few tests on
her, but the man... They needed to concentrate on him. The girl would have to
wait. She had a bigger purpose now.
“Cut
the parents loose. Advise them they are being monitored and if they have any
contact with their children, they are to inform us immediately.”
Leitchner
stared at Maria DeLuca. She was pale and thin. Her hair hung lifelessly about
her face, and her lips were pale as well. She looked ill.
“The
girl. Is she eating?”
“Not
much. She can’t hold it down, and complains of no appetite.”
“Put
in an IV. Tell her if she doesn’t eat, we will force feed her through a
tube.” Leitchner turned away. Pregnant. The report came back conclusive this
morning. He had an alien child on the way. The girl was useful, at least until
after she delivered the baby. “Concentrate all tests on the man. He is
expendable. No more drugs for the girl. She is to eat, sleep, and exercise. You
can do superficial tests, but nothing physically harming. I don’t want her
harmed.” Yet. It was a word that hung in the air. Not until they had they
alien child.
“Yes,
Sir.”
“How
soon can we move to more secure laboratories?”
“Estimation
is that it will take at least four more weeks to get all the altered steel and
metal into a complex in
Leitchner
nodded.
He
flipped a switch and looked in on an interview session with Maria.
“I
swear, I don’t know! I don’t know where they went. They left me behind.”
Maria looked around frantically trying to see beyond the light. Jesse. Where did
they take him this time? Last time he was so sick. In pain. They were giving her
drugs, and she couldn’t remember what day it was. Jesse. They were hurting
him.
She
could hear his screams of pain. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I told
you! We’re not important. They left us because we were just human…unchanged.
Leave him alone. God, please! He’s
suffered enough.” They weren’t listening. No one ever did. Not before. Not
now. Maria couldn’t take any more. “Leave him alone, and I’ll tell you
anything you want to know. I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t hurt
him!”
He
was their bargaining chip to control her. “Good, then Ms. DeLuca you will
start by eating.”
~~~
“Jesse?”
Maria rested against the wall on the floor. They had furnished her room. A bed.
Comfortable. A quilt and food. Lots of food and water. Juice. They gave her a
phone so she could call if she needed anything. The bathroom. Go for a walk.
Shower.
They
followed her to the shower. A guard watched her. It was hard at first showering
naked in front of him, but after a few days, she learned to turn her back on him
and get it done quickly. He never really looked at her. She was nothing. Just a
piece of meat. An experiment. Something to poke and prod, to use and discard.
Sounded so fucking familiar.
The
bathroom was the hardest. The toilet was behind a small half wall, and the guard
could see her head. She couldn’t go. It was humiliating. “I can’t do this
with you watching. Can’t you just turn around for a moment?” The guard
didn’t even blink, or acknowledge that she spoke. “I can’t do it!”
A
voice came from overhead. “What is wrong, Maria?”
“I
can’t do this with someone watching. Privacy! Would be appreciated!”
“Maria,
just make a poop, and let the nice guard escort you back to your room.”
“I
can’t!
“Maria,
you will, or else…”
Maria
sat on the floor trying to get Jesse to talk to her. He was the ‘or else’.
“God!
Jesse, please!” Her hand reached upward to rest on the wall not meeting the
air vent.
“Maria…I
can’t talk right now.” His voice was so strained. Pain. It was in every
vowel, every sound.
“What
did they do to you?” Maria asked in a low horrified whisper.
“Maria.”
“Just
tell me!” It was her fault. She would behave. Do what they asked.
“My
bones. They surgically took bone samples. They cut a bone out of my leg. One in
my arm. My hip, pelvis, and collarbone.”
“They…”
Maria tried to understand what he was saying. “Jesse, you’re still using
those bones! How can…”
“They
grafted, plated and pinned metal in place of the missing bone.” Jesse
couldn’t breathe. The drugs were wearing off. He hurt. All over. They were
going to start chemical treatments tomorrow. Radiation. Maria. “I have to
sleep. Rest, Maria. Just rest.”
“Jesse…”
Maria’s hand stretched up the wall. “Jesse, no...”
For
once, he couldn’t talk to her. It hurt too much. He wished he could see her
one last time. Maybe hold her close. Feel her body, warm and alive. Maria. He
wanted to touch her, anything. Maybe just stare. She was his lifeline. Jesse put
his head down on his knees and slowly let sleep drain him of consciousness.
He
was in love with Maria DeLuca. Her voice. The dreams of her in his head. She
looked like an angel. He couldn’t even hardly remember his wife’s name.
Didn’t want to either. One thing was certain, meeting her was the worst thing
that had ever happened to him. All he could remember was that he hated her.
Isabel. Vilandra. Didn’t matter anymore. He hated her. Not as much as he hated
Max Evans, but damn close.
Michael
Guerin could have her. They deserved each other. He wanted Maria. Only Maria. If
he listened closely, at night he could hear her voice singing softly. Lulling
him. Leading him home.
“Thro’
many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace hath brought
me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”
“Do
you still love him?”
Maria
paused in her singing. Alex. The song reminded her of Alex. “Who?”
“Michael.”
Maria winced as Jesse spit out the name. Michael. Maria looked up at the ceiling
of her cell. Did she still love him? Her hand crept over her body. Pregnant.
They said she was pregnant.
It
wasn’t real to her, but Michael was. He was somewhere. Living. He was her only
hope that somehow, some way, he would sense his child like Max did, and he would
come to save it. Him or her. Their baby. She would be gone. It didn’t take a
genius, or a great intellect to figure out why they made her comfortable. At
first she thought it was Stockholm’s syndrome. They were going to make her
like it there. Then they told her about the baby.
They
could control her with her baby, but she remained stubborn and refused to budge
unless they treated Jesse better. It worked…a little. Not much. But it was the
best she could do.
Did
she still love Michael?
“No,”
she said softly. Jesse sighed a breath of relief. Maria closed her eyes and
prayed to God. Forgive me. She would always love Michael Guerin, but Jesse
couldn’t handle hearing that, so she lied.
Maria
rubbed her flat stomach in wonder. A baby. How the heck did that slip in? It had
to be after they saved Connie and her father. She had punched him playfully, and
he sat in the back seat of the Cheville with her. She eluded him. He invaded her
space. He was so cute about it, that she couldn’t help laughing. They stopped
at his apartment, and she ran in for her jacket. That was the first time. It had
to be later. He was complaining about her confiscating another one of his
shirts. So she, in a snit, pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it at him.
It might have worked had she at least had a stitch of clothing on under it.
Sex.
That they could do. They sort of found a quiet relationship together without the
words. No talks about what they were or where they were going. No promises. For
once, Maria remained silent. She wanted him back, so she just ‘went with the
flow’ and followed his lead. They weren’t together, but it felt like it. He
sought her out. Wanted her in his bed. Tapped on her window to see if she wanted
to catch the late movie. Bitched about the video she selected to watch. He did
everything but make a commitment one way or another.
She
might have given up and cut her losses, if it weren’t for sex and the way he
touched her. That was all hers. He couldn’t lie, hide, or disguise what he was
feeling. Not any longer, and never from her. And she wasn’t beyond using sex
and their attraction to each other to let him understand how much she missed
him, loved him, and wanted him back. Using what they had during sex, the
connection to tell him without the words what he didn’t want to hear or deal
with, was her only outlet. He responded to it with a breathless ‘Oh wow!’,
and the most incredible moments together. It was those times that gave her
confidence that they would find their way, until they had run out of time.
“What
was Alex like?”
Maria
had forgotten he was still awake. Lost in her own thoughts. Alex. He was…
“Beautiful.
He was the best of us.” Maria paused. “He was my best friend in the whole
world.”
Jesse
uncurled himself and tried to concentrate on not screaming in pain. He didn’t
want to scare Maria. “I thought Liz was that.”
Maria
curled to her side, towards the wall from where Jesse’s voice came. A tear ran
down her cheek.
“She
was. Once. I never had a sister, and Liz was that. But things changed. We tried.
We tried for two years to hold our friendship together, but it was hard. Boys do
that. They come between the best of friends, and alien boys…they’re the
worst.”
“You
always seemed real close to me.”
“This
last year?” Maria thought about it. “No. Not really. Still friends. Bound by
a common secret. But no. Alex, he was my friend. Thick or thin, Alex would be
there. Liz was so obsessed after Tess left. She wanted to be everything to Max.
Erase Tess from his brain. But the baby was haunting him. She compromised who
she was, what she was, all for this ‘great’ all-inspiring love that
couldn’t even keep his dick out of another woman.”
Maria
let her anger show through. Tess. That bitch killed Alex! Liz forgave Max for
that! Forgot Alex. Put him aside until Tess came back. Suddenly she had
‘powers’ and could push Tess a little, but was it really about Alex? Then
there was the whole voting to terminate Tess. Like butter couldn’t melt in her
mouth, Liz voted no, forgetting Alex again, because ‘she wasn’t a
murderer.’ Not like the rest of them. Of course, that fact hadn’t stopped
her from suggesting they might have to kill Michael when he was King. Add in
after the crest transferred back to Max, her snotty ‘Max is King’ while
trying to run her foot up his leg…it all sickened her. Maria couldn’t take
it anymore.
Her
friend. Liz. The real Liz Parker was never so vain and self-centered. Never
needed to be the woman with a powerful man. But when they needed to leave, Liz
didn’t even try to understand what Maria was saying, how she was losing her
entire life. Her best friend let them leave her behind without even a goodbye.
She never understood how devastating it was to Maria. Liz wasn’t leaving for
college, to come home on vacations, but forever. Liz walked away forever without
a look back at a lifelong friend who was closer than a sister. And she left a
journal documenting everything.
No.
Alex was her best friend. And he was gone. Sacrificed to a cause that made no
sense, and with him was the real Liz Parker. Her Liz would’ve found it
impossible to leave Maria behind. But the new, alien improved Liz didn’t need
anything. She didn’t need parents. Didn’t need friends. She didn’t need
dreams. She just needed to know how to say, ‘What do we do now, Max?’
Jesse
was quiet for a moment as Maria was thinking. No. Maria was wrong. She and Liz
were good friends, but everything was clouding that fact. She was letting being
left behind color how she saw her life, and the past year. Maria was letting the
pain of being tortured and the White Room change her views of past events. A new
perspective wasn’t always a good thing, but it could be enlightening.
“You’re
just angry with her.”
Maria
thought about it a moment. Another tear ran down her cheek and she wiped it away
angrily. “No. Not angry, Jesse. Disappointed. Discarded. Abandoned. Heart
broken.”
“You
will forgive her, Maria. Next time you see her, you’ll forget you were hurt
and upset.”
“Will
you forgive Isabel? When you see her, will all you feel be gratitude to have her
back?” Maria asked, curling a hand under her cheek as her eyes became so
heavy. Tired. She was tired a lot lately.
Jesse
was silent. No. Never. As long as he lived, for whatever remained of his life,
he would hate Isabel Evans. If she had told him from the start, it would’ve
been different. He could’ve made a choice to accept the danger. Instead he
woke up in it, with her pleading and begging him to understand, to support and
love her. He did. He put away the betrayal of her silence, and accepted her to
have it tossed back with his wedding ring as she drove off in the night. No.
Love was a two-way street. It had to give back as much as it gave, and he
would’ve never left her behind if the circumstances had been reversed. He
would’ve found a way to keep his love with him.
~~~
“Jim!”
Amy DeLuca was out of the booth and rushing to Jim Valenti’s side. It was
after hours and the Crashdown was closed. The parents took to meeting there
almost every night, almost as a vigil, waiting for news of their children, and
those taken.
The
others quickly joined him.
“Are
you okay?” Diane asked, scared. He looked tired and old.
Jim
nodded as he took a seat at the bar, and Geoff went to the other side to pour
him a cup of coffee.
“Can
I make you anything?” Nancy was uncertain what to do. Ten days. They took Jim
the day they released the rest of them. It was twenty days since their children
ran away, and Maria and Jesse were taken. Twenty days. Almost three weeks.
“No.”
Jim was shocked how hoarse his voice sounded. Not having used it recently, his
voice sounded different. Almost like that of a stranger.
“Any
news? Maria?” Amy couldn’t lose hope. It was all she had left. Damn Michael
Guerin to hell! Michael and Liz Parker. Amy couldn’t even think of Max Evans
and the confession that condemned her daughter. Amy tried to keep her hatred of
Liz Parker from Liz’s parents. It was hard. Alex. Maria. Both gone to this
great alien conspiracy, and where was Liz Parker? Sleeping with Max Evans.
Happy?
“No.
Nothing.” Jim rubbed his eyes. “I think,” Jim lowered his voice. This
place had to be bugged. It wasn’t safe to talk here. He knew that. But he had
two years of paranoia working for him. The rest of them were new to this stuff.
“They’re experimenting on Maria and Jesse. I think I could hear Jesse
screaming in pain.”
Philip
just sank his head into his hands as Diane put her hand over her mouth and tears
flooded her eyes. Amy opened her mouth to talk, but Jim covered it quickly with
his hand, and shook his hand no. Taking a napkin, he wrote the word ‘bug’ on
it and showed Geoff, who showed Philip, and so on.
Jim
sat back trying to think. A place. Somewhere that they couldn’t be spied on.
Someplace where audio tracking would be impossible so no one could eavesdrop.
Scribbling
on the napkin, he passed it. Copper Mine. It worked once. It could work again.
~~~
“Camilla?
No way. Think of something better.”
Maria
searched the book of baby names. “There is nothing wrong with Camilla.”
Michael
shrugged. “Sounds like tea or some kind of soap. Bruno. I like Bruno.”
Maria
put down the book and gave Michael a look of disgust. “Bruno? You expect me to
name my child, Bruno. It sounds like a dog’s name, Michael!”
“Strong.
Fierce. Loyal. Bruno.”
“Uh
huh. Umm, no.” Maria looked up at him from under her lashes and said casually,
“We could name the baby Rath. After all, Max’s son had his old name.”
Michael
rolled over in the bed and stared at the ceiling. Running the name over and over
in his mind, along his tongue, he appeared to really be thinking about it.
“Rath? Hmm, interesting choice. Let’s see... Murderous. Arrogant. Vicious.
Amoral. A psychotic killer. Excellent choice, Maria.”
“Alex,”
she said softly.
Michael
went quiet, and he turned back on his side. “Alexander Guerin. Alexander
Charles Guerin.”
Maria
smiled. His eyes searched hers. “Alexandra if it is a girl?”
“Yeah.
I like it.” Michael lounged back in the bed. This parenting stuff wasn’t
that bad. There. They already settled on a name.
Maria
flipped the pages to ‘A,’ so she could see what the name meant. Michael
swiped the book from her hands and tossed it. Leaning over her, he played with a
piece of her hair by her ear. Blowing softly he watched the soft downy hairs
move against her skin. She was so damn beautiful.
Her
skin was clear and almost translucent with a healthy bloom on her cheeks, and
the redness of her incredible mouth drew his eyes. Her eyes sparkled like an
oasis of green, alive and intense. Pregnancy looked good on her.
“I
was thinking…”
“Uh
oh.” Michael pinched her and Maria laughed softly. “Okay, tell me. You were
thinking?”
“That
we should get married.” Whew. Michael blew his breath out hard. Piece of cake.
“Married?
You and me? I do? Death do you part stuff?”
“That’s
what marriage means right? That, a mortgage. No sex. Take out the garbage. Kids.
Backyard barbeque, and trash pick up. Bowling with the boys. Thanksgiving.”
“Handing
out treats on Halloween?” Maria asked cocking her head to the side.
“Yeah,
and eating most of it. Trying to figure out if it’s illegal to try to barter a
kid out of his stash.”
Maria
rolled over onto him, resting her arms on his chest, and her chin on her hands
as she gazed at him seriously. “We don’t have to do that, you know. The baby
is yours whether there’s a ring on my finger, or we ever do the ‘I do’
thing. No one can take that away from you.”
“I
know.” Michael ran a finger down her nose, and smiled slightly. “Maybe this
is something I need. Maybe I need the ‘I do’ ceremony, and a sense of this
is my place.”
He
never said that much. It was unusual for him to be so straightforward about what
he needed. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him happy, but she didn’t want
him trapped either.
“Michael...”
“Maybe
I need to know that you’re mine and I’m yours, and no matter what happens,
we stick together. Thick or thin, DeLuca. No more walking away. No more leaving
anyone behind. There is nothing more important to me than you.”
“There
is nothing more important to me than you.”
“Then
we’re a family.”
Maria
rolled off of him, and pulled him with her. He leaned over, sweeping the bedding
away. Looking down at her naked body, Michael gently stroked her stomach, and
then bent down and kissed it. Maria watched him as her hands went into his hair.
“Yes.
We‘re a family.”
~~~
Michael
and Maria both woke up at the same time.
Maria
sat breathing heavily in the darkness of her cell. Rolling to her side, with an
arm around her stomach protectively, she squeezed her eyes closed as tears
leaked through.
Michael
was sleeping in the van in somewhere America. He sat up breathing hard. Panting.
His hand shook as he ran it through his hair. His body was hot, aroused and
actually ached in strange places.
Every
night he dreamt of her. Every night. Some nights, nightmares where she was in
pain, afraid, and screaming in fear. And then there were other nights, erotic
fantasies, and dreams of long walks holding her hand complaining about missing
his game, and watching her play on the beach, walking along the water’s edge.
She
walked a line where the sky met the water. Laughing, she ran and called back to
him. He called her back from a rising fog where the contrast between white on
white was lost. Lost. Her body folded into the fog, and she disappeared.
Maria!
Michael
got out of the van and stumbled away in a confusion of thought. He couldn’t
clear his head. Too much. Too many images. Her voice calling his name. Bending
over beside the motel wall, he threw up.
~~~
“Do
you know where it is?” Amy asked pacing in the small space of the copper mine.
“I
think so. There are reports of increased activity at the Wheeler Laboratories.
Those labs had been closed down since the fire. No one was using them.”
Philip
handed Jim some more coffee from a pot. “We have to go. I agree with Amy.
It’s Maria and Jesse. We can’t leave them there.”
Geoff
frowned. “Let’s be realistic. We’re talking the Feds. How are we supposed
to take them on? We’re businessmen…” He looked at Amy, “And women. Not
secret agents, or Special Forces trained. We aren’t Steven Seagal.”
“That’s
okay,” Jim said. “Steven Seagal isn’t even Steven Seagal.”
The
group chuckled.
Nancy
Parker who was pale and thin, finally spoke up. She hadn’t felt very well
since they let her go, and after her experience she wasn’t leaving anyone in
the hands of those people.
“We’re
talking about Maria. I’ve known her all her life. We can’t leave her behind.
Not her, and not Jesse. If what we were told is true, our children outsmarted
FBI Special Unit agents, other aliens, and kept Jim in the dark for over a year.
We have to be able to do better. We are adults.”
Amy
looked gratefully at Nancy. It didn’t change her feelings towards Liz, but it
helped. Every little bit helped.
“You’re
right. They were resourceful. They had an advantage though. The alien powers
helped them, and some pretty ingenious planning. Maria was one of the main
instigators. She could think pretty fast on her feet.” Jim smiled at Amy.
Maria was a survivor. They had to believe that after three weeks she and Jesse
were holding on.
Amy
clapped her hands. Now they were talking. “So how do we get in?”
“I
can maybe get the floor plans of the labs. They should be in public records with
the construction and architecture companies that filed for building permits.”
Philip said as Diane nodded. She could help him do that. They looked up floor
plans in public domain all the time for landmark buildings requesting renovation
permits.
Geoff
looked at the group. “But how do we get past security? This isn’t a
convenience store, and we saw how successful Max and Liz were at that.”
Jim
reached into his pocket and pulled out a security access card. “I don’t know
if this will work, but when I was a security guard for Meta-Chem labs, I had
clearance for all the Wheeler laboratories. They might not have changed the
coding since no one is using the Meta-Chem site after the fire.”
Amy
looked at the others. “Okay. So it’s decided. I want my daughter back, my
daughter and Jesse. We go.”
Diane
nodded. “Go.”
Geoff
looked at his wife, and she nodded. “Go.”
Philip
slapped Jim on the shoulder. “Too bad your alieness hasn’t come online, but
then they would’ve never let you go. Then we’d be rescuing you too.”
“I
would’ve just walked out. So it’s decided. We go as soon as we get the plans
and create a complete mission scenario. No mistakes. We don’t have an alien to
heal us if someone takes a hit. We’ve got one chance, and one chance only. If
they move them, we’re dead in the water.”
Philip
nodded. “It’s a go.”
~~~
“What
is Ramirez’s status?”
“Not
good, Sir. They hit him with full bombardment of radiation. The rads were off
the chart.”
“Results?”
The
doctor glanced over at his colleagues. “Pretty much what any human would do.
He is dying of radiation poisoning. It was like he was standing on the building
of Chernobyl’s reactor core looking down into it. His hair is falling out, his
skin peeling. He’s in pain.” The doctor looked uncomfortable. “We can find
no indication of changes in his body from intimate exposure to the alien life
form. He is, as far as we can tell, human.”
The
doctor didn’t want to mention that they were hurting humans, the very people
they were sworn to protect. It didn’t set well.
“We’ve
got a problem with the girl. She is upset because the male isn’t talking to
her. She is off her food, throwing up, and if I could risk it, I’d shoot her
up with a quite a few milligrams of something to calm her and make her sleep.”
“Is
the baby under stress?” He couldn’t lose his alien. He needed that girl.
“The
mother is under stress. The baby is too. She needs to calm down soon, or we’re
looking at a possible miscarriage.”
“Doctor,
I don’t care what you have to do. You get that girl calm. Put the man back in
the cell next to her, load him with pain killers. Keep him talking to keep her
happy. I don’t care.”
“Yes,
Sir.” The doctor nodded, and making a gesture to his colleagues, they quickly
left the room.
~~~
“You
feel okay today, Maria?”
Maria
shrugged. “Not so hot, Stan. I think I need a long hot shower.”
“Not
too long. Not too hot. It’s not good for the baby.”
Maria
looked over at her guard. “How do you know?”
“Two
kids. Wife just had the second one a year ago.”
Maria
was quiet for a moment. That was impossible. Sometimes she forgot it was her own
government torturing her and Jesse, and not some alien creatures bent on
destroying mankind. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect any of you to be
normal and human. I can’t bring together the image of the monsters that run
tests on me, threaten to take my baby, and imprison me, with that of an everyday
human who goes to their child’s ballgame. It doesn’t compute.”
Stan
didn’t comment. He was breaking protocol talking to his prisoner. Prisoner.
She was an eighteen year old girl, pregnant, alone, and scared. It was hard to
see her as a national threat of any sort. The man was bad enough. He was dying
and in pain.
When
they got to the shower, Maria quickly took off her clothes and hung them on the
special hook. Turning on the water, she looked around for more soap. Stan. He
was turned with his back to her. Smiling slightly, she appreciated the gesture
of privacy and human dignity.
On
the way back to her cell, Maria could hear Jesse. He was in pain. They were
doping him up again. Before she entered the cell, she looked at Stan.
“Thanks
for today.” Maria paused. “Do you think that when they’re finally through
with me, after they’ve ripped my child from my body, irradiated me, burned,
prodded and mutilated me, that they’ll slice all my organs up and leave my
remains as tissue samples on slides as they look for oddities?”
Stan
swallowed hard, but remained silent. It didn’t matter. She already entered her
cell. Maria wasn’t expecting an answer. He really hated his job.
~~~
“This
is Mama-bear one to Papa-bear, come in.”
Jim
answered Amy’s call. “This is Papa-bear, over.”
Amy
scanned the area. No real new movement. Front guards changed just a few moments
ago. “Front area is clear. There are three new skinnies in the house, and two
out. Copy. Over.”
“Copy,
Mama-bear. We are moving forward. We have a go.”
Diane
bit a nail as she listened to them talking. It was going to be a long night.
Jim, Philip and Geoff were slowly moving forward. Nancy was home playing a tape
of them having a card night with all windows drawn. They recorded over eight
hours of it last week. Diane hated that Geoff won so many of the pots.
Nancy
Parker was left at home to man the phones. She was the key contact for all
teams, and their cover for the ever-listening bugs. Three teams counting Nancy.
Diane and Amy on major lookout and cars. Geoff and Philip were on security
lookout detail while Jim entered the complex. Geoff and Philip would follow just
a few feet behind.
God,
she was sick! Sick of worrying. Sick of being afraid. That must have been what
Isabel, Max and Michael felt all their lives, and the price that Alex, Kyle, Liz
and Maria paid to befriend and help them. It was inconceivable. This friendship.
This amount of trust in children so young. It wasn’t about three of them being
special or better, or Liz and Kyle becoming more because they were turning
alien. All of them were pretty damn special to give up their youth and dreams,
and let loyalty, friendship and bravery guide them into adulthood. All of them
were unique.
~~~
“Maria?”
Maria
scrambled to the wall collapsing beside it. “Jesse? Jesse Ramirez, you’ve
been silent too long. I was worried.”
“Sorry.”
Jesse coughed. “Can you finish the story? Or you want to talk?”
“Talk.
I’ll finish the story later when you’re ready to sleep.”
Jesse
chuckled. “Maria, stories of trolls, battles, and lost treasures are hardly
conducive to sleep. It makes me want to run out and watch Lord of the Rings.”
Maria
laughed softly. “Hmm, really? That must be a male response. All that fantasy,
sci-fi stuff puts me to sleep.”
“Figures.”
Jesse was quiet for a moment. “Are they treating you okay?”
Maria
felt bad about the worry in his voice. She couldn’t tell him she was pregnant.
She just couldn’t. He didn’t know they stopped testing her. He thought he
pulled the lucky straw for the radiation testing.
“I’m
fine. Good. Worried about you.” Her voice dropped. “I wish I could see you.
I’m lonely. Talking helps, but I miss human contact.”
Jesse
looked down at his body. Last thing he wanted was her to see him, or know how
sick he was. He wasn’t going to last long. Only a fool wouldn’t recognize
the truth. He hurt. Everywhere. It was a pain so deep and throbbing, he could
barely keep from screaming. The drugs helped for a while. But his tolerance was
building and the relief from the painkillers was wearing off faster and faster.
They were worried about his respiratory rate.
He
wasn’t different. Nothing was changed. He was still human. They had tested a
human…killed a human. An innocent. He hoped the doctors rotted in hell for
that, and never found peace. His
only regret was Maria.
If
things were different, he would have slowly found a way to date her. Take her
out. Pay attention. Love her. Marry her after he obtained a divorce from Isabel
on grounds of desertion. He would treat her so well, that she’d forget Michael
Guerin. That was his dream. He dreamt it every night. Him. Maria. Together. Two
beautiful kids, and her speaking a fast sassy Spanish tongue. His dreams were
becoming erotic and very graphic. He dreamed every night of his life with her,
their kids. It was good. It was more than good. It was perfect. He was happy.
Really, really happy. She never lied to him. She loved him. She gave to him the
amount of loyalty she gave the aliens, even when they treated her as
insignificant. He wouldn’t take it for granted. Not her loyalty and courage,
and sure as hell, not her. She was a gift.
Jesse
closed his eyes. They hurt from the flooding of tears. He was going to do the
unforgivable. He was going to leave her behind. She would be alone. Maria. He
couldn’t bear to think of her left in the hands of these monsters. He feared
for her the most. He hadn’t changed, but he suspected Maria had.
In
ways she didn’t even understand, she had been changed. He knew. She talked to
Michael in her sleep. It was like he was there. She loved him still. She said
she didn’t, but in her sleep, her voice filled with love betrayed her true
affection. Good for her. He wanted her to have everything, even if that was
Michael Guerin. Maybe the bastard stand-in King would save her. That was his
newest fantasy. The idea that Maria was saved. Alive. He could die peacefully if
that were true. He loved her.
In
his cell, alone, hurting, he thought about it over and over. He asked her how it
was for her and Michael when they first met, and was sex with Michael as strange
and intense as it was for him with Isabel.
Maria
had laughed and shared with Jesse what she felt was a common experience. The
alien-human orgasmic connection.
Maria
was wrong.
It
was different. Michael had opened up to her. Let her inside. Somehow they had
made a connection. Jesse really believed that Maria was talking to Michael in
her head. That connection, though strained and weakened by distance, was still
there. He didn’t have that with Isabel. Another experience she had cheated and
denied him. She never opened herself up and shared herself with him. Sex, yes.
But her soul? No. They never made that extra connection, and for that reason, he
never changed. He stayed Jesse, human garbage. Used and discarded in the
appropriate receptacle.
“Are
you asleep?”
“No.
Just thinking.” Jesse said smiling slightly.
“About?”
“You
mostly. I was wondering if your hair was growing long.”
“We’ve
only been in here for over two weeks, three I think. Maybe four.”
“A
month. It feels longer.” Jesse’s voice was so flat and monotone. His
coughing was increasing. A month? So that was how long it took to torture and
kill a human body. He bet his captures could’ve done it quicker, but the
sadistic bastards were drawing it out.
“Jesse?
Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
Jesse waited a moment to catch his breath. “Today I think I learned something
about myself.”
“What?”
Jesse
phrased it carefully. Maybe she would listen and learn too. “I learned that I
was capable of great forgiveness.”
“Forgiveness?
How?”
“How,
I don’t know, but why, is because I realized why Isabel was so afraid. I
realized what she was trying to protect me from. I don’t give her points for
involving me without telling me the truth, but I can understand why it was so
hard.”
“It
was.” Maria rested against the wall. She was feeling tired again. “She
wanted to tell you from the beginning. Michael and Max wouldn’t let her. It
was her greatest sorrow that she couldn’t tell her parents and you. Everyone
else had people who knew. Michael had me, and Max had Liz. We knew the secret,
so we accepted them as they were. Isabel didn’t get that. They robbed her, and
in turn, robbed you.”
“You’re
excusing her.”
“No.
Just maybe helping you to understand.”
“I
do. Really, I do, Maria. It might take me some time to really forgive.” Time
he didn’t have.
Maria
knew what he meant. She was guilty of not being very charitable. But honestly,
she couldn’t figure out how she was going to overcome what was inside her. She
was dead anyway. It was just a matter of time. So for her soul, she would work
on forgiveness. It could take the rest of her life. She was going to be a mother
now, so she needed to be better than that. Time to put away childish things.
~~~
Jim
stopped at a security access checkpoint. Looking both ways, he checked with
Geoff and Philip. They gave him a thumbs up sign. It was clear. Looking at his
old security card from when he worked with Michael at Meta-Chem, he hoped it
worked. The rescue would end right here if it didn’t.
The
swipe. Wait. Wait even longer. It wasn’t going to work. Jim bowed his head
when the light went from red to green, and the door lock clicked.
They
were in! It was time to find their missing. Everyone went home. No one left
behind.
~~~
“Maria…”
Maria
had been telling Jesse a story, a story of an ordinary human rising to great
heights of valor and honor to overcome overwhelming odds. Persevere. Survive. Be
strong. Live.
“Yes?”
“I
wish I could be your hero from the story. I wish I was that strong,” Jesse
said with a sadness in his voice. “I wish I was as strong as you.”
Maria
laughed. “You are, and so much more.” Maria closed her eyes as tears clouded
her sight. Stan, standing outside, was listening to the story and closed his
eyes too. The man was dying. “You were so much calmer and collected when you
learned the truth about them, more than I was. I ran screaming into the night.
Liz had to catch me!”
Jesse
chuckled, picturing his Maria, in her wacky way screaming and running, hands
flying around her head. “Do you ever regret it? Knowing them? Meeting them?”
Maria
paused. Truthfully? Alex. Jesse. They were two high prices to pay, but could she
ever regret meeting and loving Michael Guerin? She had. The moment she realized
that Alex would dream no more. Touching her stomach, she closed her eyes. None
of that mattered anymore. The now. Her child. That was what was important. She
had regrets, but there was no time for that. No time.
“Yes.
I regretted it at times. When I realized that my youth was slipping away, that I
was required to be more than I was ready to be. I regretted losing my ability to
dream. For a human, Jesse, the lack of imagination is perhaps the worst of
curses. I woke up one day, Alex was gone, and I forgot how to breathe by myself.
I had to reach for something, a dream. I…never felt worthy of Michael, worthy
of the sacrifice he made to stay on Earth for me. I wanted to be more, and I
needed to do it on my own. Partially to prove I could be that strong, and
partially because I knew that if anything happened, the next alien crisis, my
dream would be buried again. Mostly, I regretted never getting the chance to
prove myself to Michael…so he could be proud, so he could know that I was
worth the sacrifice.”
“Maria,”
Jesse swallowed hard. “You were worth it. I’m sure he thought so.”
“Are
you? I never was. Sure, I mean.” Maria sat with her head against the wall.
“I guess you can say, ‘I’m sorrow’. Three years…three years and I
cried more than I laughed or smiled. How much can a small human heart take? I
wish I could say that I’m proud to die for them, but I can’t. I can’t
because it means I failed. I let them take something I was supposed to protect,
away.” Maria stopped talking. She couldn’t tell Jesse about the baby.
“I
miss church.” Jesse could feel it inside him. The creeping death. “I wish I
could have a priest. Catholic, you know.”
“Me
too. Name like DeLuca, it’s expected.”
“I
want to confess one last time…”
Maria
was quiet. Bowing her head, she hugged her bent legs, her arms wrapped around
her knees.
“God
can hear you, Jesse. Just pray. Confess. He’ll understand that there was no
priest.”
Jesse
crossed himself quickly, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been
too long since my last confession. I’ve let hate enter into my heart. I’ve
killed a man. And for that I can find no forgiveness in my heart. I’ve
suffered pride. And I sinned against my wife. All these things, weigh down my
soul, and I pray that you take this burden of my guilt from me. For the Lord is
my salvation, and there is but one true living God, Jesus Christ, my savior.”
Maria
sniffed trying to pull the tears back in. Smiling slightly she said, “Face
before God, man comes naked and exposed, and he tells him that his sins are
cleansed. Go and sin no more.”
Jesse
asked quietly. “Maria? Do you think there is a God? Knowing that we are not
alone, that there are others?”
“Yes.
I believe more, because of it.”
“If
he made us in his image, then how can that be?”
Maria
wiped her face, and sniffed away the tears. “I believe that ‘in God’s
image’ means a purity in heart. I’ve seen in Michael’s heart, and it is
just as pure as any human’s. Sometimes I suspect more so. The universe is such
a vast and wondrous place, that I can’t conceive that it isn’t part of some
divine plan. Do I regret knowing about them? That we are not alone? No. You and
I, Jesse, we have been given a gift of knowledge. The knowledge that we are not
alone on this one bright planet. The knowledge that we are part of something so
incredibly huge. I have to believe that it is God that makes this grandeur.”
“I’m
dying.” Jesse curled up next to the wall where he could be close to Maria.
“I think of you…and I believe that there is a God. That he watches over me,
and he’s calling me home.”
Maria
buried her face in her hands. One hand reached up on the wall towards the air
vent. “Jesse! No. Don’t die. Don’t leave me alone.”
“It’s
okay. I’m okay with it, at peace.” Jesse closed his eyes trying to swallow
another pulse of pain. “I know you will be okay. I just know that someone
watches over you.” He had to believe that. He had to, or he couldn’t rest in
peace. “Maria? Do you remember any of the Psalms?”
“The
Lord is my Shepherd?” Maria asked. “I can’t remember it all.” Maria
regretted not paying more attention, especially now that there was a need.
“Anything
is fine. I need to sleep. Can you tell me one?”
Her
memory wasn’t the best. School was never her strong point. Struggling, Maria
cleared her mind, and tried to picture something the way she did music. Closing
her eyes, she cleared her thoughts, and it was there. It was a different Psalms,
not the Lord is my Shepherd. She could hear it. Alex. Alex’s voice. Listening,
she repeated what he said to her.
The
Lord is my light
“The
Lord is my light…”
and
my salvation;
“…and
my salvation;”
whom
shall I fear?
“…whom
shall I fear?”
The
Lord is the strength of my life,
“The
Lord is the strength of my life;”
of
whom shall I be afraid?
“…of
whom shall I be afraid?” Maria looked up at the air vent. “Jesse? Is that
okay? Jesse?” He was silent. Asleep. It was wrong to wish him to stay when he
was in need of relief from pain. Selfish. Maria curled up next to the wall, to
be close to him. “I’m here. I’m still here.”
Stan
stood outside the room as they finally became silent. My God.
~~~
They
found the main security feed room. It was empty. The night guard had to be on a
security sweep. The place was still understaffed, as other agents were out
searching for the aliens. Jim moved the monitors, checking each grid. Jesse. He
found Jesse. The man was asleep on the floor, huddled. Oh God. He looked bad.
Maria was on the next monitor. She too was on the floor curled in sleep. Tiny.
So small. Bastards. Hurting a small defenseless creature.
Jim
located tapes for the corridors, and for Jesse and Maria’s rooms. Taking the
tape from the previous evening, around the same time, he fed it into a top
machine and set it to feed into the monitor in a continuous loop. Cameras were
fixed.
The
three of them left security and followed the corridor colors. Maria and Jesse
were in a blue corridor area.
When
Jim slowly entered the corridor, he saw the guard standing in front of a door.
The man appeared to be sleeping with his eyes closed. It took a moment for Jim
to realize that he was praying.
Taking
his service revolver, Jim hit the man on the back of his head. Watching him
collapse, he bent down and checked the pulse along the neck. Alive. Good.
Philip
and Geoff quickly joined him. “Is he...?” Geoff asked.
“Alive.
He’s guarding this door.” Jim quickly searched the guard. A security key.
Standing, he faced the access pad and looked at the other two. Swiping it, they
waited. They were all wearing gloves, but they needed to be careful. No traces
of DNA or anything implicating them.
The
door opened into a dark room.
It
was quiet. It took a moment for Jim’s eyes to adjust to the dark and gloom.
Maria. She was on the floor asleep. Going to her, he picked her up in his arms.
God, she weighed nothing!
“Maria?”
“Hmm?”
“Maria,
it’s time to go home.”
Her
brow furled in sleep, confused. “Home? Heaven?”
Jim
shook his head. “No, Maria. It’s Jim. We’ve come to take you home to your
mom.”
Maria
struggled awake, but she was so tired, and nothing made sense. Mom. That she
could understand. “Is this a dream?”
Jim
quickly stood and handed Maria over to Philip. “Take her. I’ll get Jesse.”
Geoff
shook his head. “We can’t leave you.”
Jim
nodded. “Philip, can you take her alone?”
Philip
handed Maria over to Geoff. “You take her. Jesse is my responsibility.” For
a moment Geoff and Philip shared a complete understanding. Liz got Maria
involved, and it was Isabel’s fault for Jesse. Max’s fault for all of them.
They both had to fix what their children did. Geoff nodded and took off with
Maria. Jim used the security pass to open the door next to Maria’s cell. It
was dark too. Jesse. He was on the floor next to the wall. Jim went to him.
“Jesse?”
The
man slowly came awake. They had come for him again. More tests? No more tests.
Please.
Philip
knelt too. “Jesse, son. It’s Philip.”
“Philip?”
The voice was dry and cracked through swollen lips. Philip could hardly hold his
reaction to the devastation. Jesse. He already looked dead.
“Yes,
Philip. We’ve come to take you home.”
Jim
tried to pick Jesse up, but the younger man cried in pain. He looked at Philip.
“I don’t know that we can move him without hurting him.”
Jesse’s
hand came out and grabbed Jim. “It’s okay. I’m already going home. Just
leave. Leave me. Take Maria.”
Philip
shook his head no. “That is not going to happen, son. Everyone is going home.
No one is left behind.”
“Thank
you for coming for Maria. Tell her…tell her I love her, that she saved me.”
Jesse coughed and cried in pain. “You’ve got to go now. Get Maria away, far
away from here.”
Jim
searched the room. Maybe they could use a blanket from the bed. Jim frowned.
There was no blanket. No bed. A bare room. Maria’s room had a bed. Blankets.
Jim’s blood ran cold. Rape. Did they rape her? Use her?
“Philip,
go into the next room. Grab a sheet or blanket from Maria’s bed.”
Jesse
reached up and grabbed Jim again. “Kill me. Jim, I will never leave this place
alive. Don’t leave me alive for them. Please. They will make me betray you,
all of you…Maria. Kill me and leave. I’m already dead.”
Jim
bent his head. Oh God. “I’m sorry, Jesse. I’m sorry it took us too
long.”
~~~
Geoff
cleared the complex. The guards were still on rotation. Timing was everything.
They had timed and watched them for three days in preparation. Forward guards
should be cycling back. He had to hurry. Amy caught sight of him carrying a
small body. Her baby. She rushed to his side.
“Maria!”
She searched the pale face. Her child. Her small baby girl. “Is she…”
“Alive,
Amy. She’s alive.”
Maria
opened her eyes to stare into her mother’s face. “I must be dead or
dreaming. Mom?”
Amy
laughed through tears. “Yes, baby. Mom. You didn’t think I’d leave you in
there.” She ran her hands over Maria’s face, and through her hair. Her back
was to the compound.
“We
need to move, Amy. Jim and Philip are bringing Jesse.”
Jesse.
Maria struggled. Jesse. She left him. “Mom, we’ve got to get Jesse. He’s
sick. Real sick. They hurt him.”
Geoff
looked back as Jim and Philip came through the door. They were alone. No Jesse.
Turning back, he gestured to Amy. “We’ve got to go now! The guards are due
any minute to return to this sector.”
Geoff
was right. A guard came around the corner at the moment.
“Halt!”
He raised his gun to fire. “Stand fast, or I will fire!”
Geoff
and Amy, with Maria took off towards Diane and the waiting cars parked out of
sight. It was the crack in the air that echoed. It rang in Geoff’s ears, and
he could feel the air about him getting still as the echo pushed outward. Amy
stumbled, and Jim and Philip came up behind her, grabbing her arms and helping
her rush forward.
The
guard raised his weapon again, to take another shot at the figures escaping in
the night. He aimed. Took a bead on a close target. The man holding a person. He
went down, then the bundle was lost. The prisoner.
He
never shot. A gun came down on his head, and he hit the ground hard.
Geoff
stopped at the car, and put Maria in. He quickly got into it as Philip and Jim
loaded Amy into the other car with Diane. Maria sat up and looked back at her
prison.
Stan.
He stood in light of the compound, his rifle in his hand, and blood running down
his head from where Jim had hit him. He slowly dropped his rifle, and raised his
hand in a small salute to her.
Maria
lifted her hand, and put it to her mouth, sending him a gesture of gratitude.
Her hand rested on the glass of the window. Jesse was right. Someone was
watching over her.
~~~
They
made it back to the copper mine without anyone following. Geoff helped Maria
from the car, picking her up, he carried her inside. It was Jim and Philip
rushing in behind them that set the room into a commotion.
“Out
of the way! It’s Amy. She took a shot.” The two men lift Amy onto the table.
“Mom?”
Maria struggled out of Geoff’s hands as she moved closer to her mother. Amy
was covered in sweat. Pain was etched on her face. Jim gently moved her, to look
at her back. There was a small bullet hole. Mid-back. High and center. The
heart. Blood was pumping from it with every pump of her heart.
“Maria…I
saved you.” Amy gulped. “Did they hurt you?”
Maria
shook her head no. “Not really. They only ran a few tests on me before they
stopped. Jesse. He took the worst of it.” Maria looked up and around the room.
Someone was missing. Jesse. “Jesse! Where is Jesse?”
The
others looked at Jim and Philip. Both men looked away, but Jim was gesturing no.
Jesse didn’t make it. Maria let the reality rush over her, but before she
could react, her mother made a sound of pain.
“Jim,
she’s losing too much blood.” Philip took his jacket off, and pressed it to
the wound. “She needs treatment right now! Surgery.”
Jim
swore. Amy. No. “Where can we take her?”
Amy
ignored the men. Her eyes were on Maria. Her daughter. She had gotten her
daughter back. “Maria. I love you. I missed you.”
“Mom,
please. Don’t talk. There is so much I have to tell you. Three years. I’m so
sorry. I should’ve trusted you... told you...” Maria used her sleeve to wipe
her mother’s face. “You’ll get better. And we…we’ll go away. Far away.
Just you and me. They’ll never find us.” Maria leaned down and kissed her
mother’s face. “All I am. Everything good I’ve got in me, I got from you.
I love you.”
It
took a moment for Maria to realize the hand in hers was quiet. It lost its grip,
and that Amy was too still.
“Mom?”
Maria searched her mother’s face. Her eyes were open. But Amy was gone. Jim
stepped back with her blood on his hands, covered in a scarlet red. Philip wiped
a sleeve across his forehead. Disbelief. “Mommy?”
Diane
Evans turned away at the sound of Maria’s childlike voice. Sinking to the
ground she cried. Cried for Amy. Cried for Maria. Jesse. Alex. All of them.
Six
of them. There were once six of them. Geoff, Nancy, Diane, Jim, Amy and Philip.
Now there was only five. They had lost their Alex.
Philip
shut his eyes and placed his hands over his ears as Maria hugged her mother’s
body close and sobbed. It was so sorrowful, full of pain. Wounded animals
sounded like that. It was hard to take.
They
moved away and let Maria alone with Amy. Jim could hear her talking.
“So
I should tell you a story about a girl, an ordinary girl that one day died in a
diner, and she was saved by an incredible flip of fate. An alien laid his hands
on her, and she was restored. I never told you about the day Liz Parker died,
and how my life became entangled with Michael Guerin. It was normal day in
Roswell…”
~~~
They
burned Amy’s body on a stone outside the pod chamber in the desert. Tending
the fire, Maria and the four adults watched as the smoke wafted into the night
sky. Maria stood apart from them. Higher up, and away, outlined on the sky with
the fire in the foreground. The hot desert wind blew at her clothes and hair.
She stood alone, pasted among the night’s starry sky.
If
sorrow and rage could break a soul in half, then hers laid shattered at her
feet. Jesse. Amy. Alex. How many more? Where would it stop? Caught in a
maelstrom. Three years of fear. Resting her hand on her stomach, she thought of
her child. A legacy. A legacy of fear and pain. She would have to do better than
that. Work harder. There was no time to mourn. Their silent dead gave their
lives for the living, and living was the only tribute she could give back to
them. A promise to live. To survive. And to never forget.
~~~
“You
all need to leave. Fake my mother leaving the Crashdown. They will be waiting
for her at our home. Looking for me. Take the Jetta. Drive it away from Roswell,
anywhere. They will question you.”
“We
can’t leave you, Maria.” Diane, Jim, Geoff, and Philip looked at each other.
They couldn’t just leave her alone in the mine, and walk back into their lives
like nothing happened. That Jesse wasn’t dead. And Amy. Their Amy. They
couldn’t.
“You
must. I can’t go with you. They will be searching for me. They will never
stop. I’m safe here for now. Things were done. People lost. I can’t…I
can’t lose any more. I can’t lose any of you.”
Jim’s
silence was finally broken. He needed to know. “Maria. They gave you a nicer
room. A bed. A warm place. Did they…” Jim didn’t know how to ask He needed
to know. She was traumatized enough, but he needed to know how far that trauma
went. “Did they touch you? Rape you?”
Maria
understood what he was asking. Did they use her for sex. Give her a place where
they could visit. “No. No, Jim. Not that. They tested me…some. A few painful
ones, but nothing as severe as…Jesse.” Her voice faltered over his name. In
God’s hands. She had to believe that Jesse was there. With Alex. With her mom.
How else could she go on? She had to believe.
“Why
the difference in treatment?”
Maria
wiped a tear away. “I was protected by Michael in a strange way. He saved me.
I’m pregnant. So you see, they treated me better because they want my baby.
Michael’s baby. An alien child. They won’t rest until they find me. Find
us.”
“Pregnant?”
Philip ran a hand over his face. And for a second he forgot himself.
“Pregnant? Jesus! Didn’t you kids take Sex Ed in school? You’ve got to
know how to protect against this.”
Maria
laughed bitterly. “Yes. We do. And normally…” Maria sighed in tiredness,
her eyes closing. Rest. She was so tired, and she had too much to do. “In this
case, I’m glad the pill and condom failed. Alien sperm saved my life.”
The
adults remained silent. It did. It saved her long enough for them to come.
“Now
you know why it’s important all of you go home. Resume your lives as if
nothing happened. They’ll think I intercepted my mom on her way home, and
puff, in a trail of smoke, we disappeared. They will be looking for two women, a
mother and daughter.”
It
took a little longer, but they finally left. Maria looked around the place.
Curious. She hadn’t been there since they took Max from the White Room. The
White Room. A shudder ran through her body and she was cold. The copper mine.
She’d never see this place again.
~~~
Stupid.
It was stupid.
Maria
chastised herself, but she had to go.
Home.
The
window to her room. When she went through it, it felt like a million years since
she last saw her room. Four weeks. Four weeks to rearrange a life. She was truly
alone.
Her
hand went to her flat stomach. No. No she wasn’t. There was someone for her.
Her baby.
Returning
to her home was not in any way smart, but she needed a few things. It was hard
to go through that window imagining men in black waiting to return her to the
prison. Hopefully, they had followed the bait, found the Jetta, and were trying
to locate both Amy and Maria there. Rushing around her room as quietly as she
could, she removed a board on her floor. Money. She had dumped her account
before Graduation. It happened so fast, that she hadn’t been able to come back
for it. But it was there waiting. She always planned to leave with the others. A
letter for her mom. She was going to leave it on her mother’s pillow. Maria
took that letter too. She quickly went into her mother’s room. Closet. Top
shelf to the right. A tin. Emergency cash. Maria didn’t bother to count it.
The clothes. They smelt of Amy. Maria rested her head in them for a moment.
Grabbing a sweater, her mom’s favorite, Maria took it with her, putting it on.
Getting
ready to leave everything else, she noticed the pictures framing her vanity
mirror. Two of her mom. One of them together, and another of Amy alone and
smiling. Maria grabbed them. A picture of Michael. The only one she had. Maria
took it. Her baby would one day want to know about him. A picture. Their child
deserved that much. Finally, a picture of Maria with Liz and Alex. Alex was in
the middle hugging both girls close to him. Maria looked at it for a moment. She
took the picture and ripped Liz off, tossing her on the vanity table. Taking the
remain piece of herself and Alex, Maria was finally ready to leave.
She
changed into a pair of comfortable athletic striders and packed extra socks,
underwear, her toothbrush, hairbrush, and lip gloss. A pair of sunglasses, a
hat, and a heavier coat quickly found their way into a shoulder bag. She changed
into jeans and a t-shirt, one of Michael’s, and a sweatshirt over the top
replacing her mother’s sweater that went into the bag.
Time
to leave. The house was empty. No one lived here anymore. Maria was almost out
the window before her eyes lit on the guitar. Alex’s guitar. She was leaving.
Tonight. The others wouldn’t understand, but she had to leave alone. If they
knew she was leaving, they would want to come with her. Protect her. She was
better on her own.
Reaching
for the guitar, she took it and was gone.
~~~
It
was late when a knocking, more of a banging came at the door. Mr. Whitman,
Alex’s father answered it in his robe.
“Maria?”
He stood back and let Maria DeLuca into the house. She was small. Smaller than
he remembered. Carrying a bag and a guitar. A shot of pain hit him. Alex’s
guitar. “Where have you been? Your mother, she was frantic!”
Maria
looked up at him with dead eyes. “My mother is dead. They killed my mother.”
Linda
Whitman entered the room at that moment. “Maria?”
Maria
gathered what strength she had. “I’m sorry to wake you. But, I’m leaving,
and I couldn’t go with a clear conscience, not without first seeing you.”
“Leaving?
Amy is dead?” He couldn’t grasp it. “Maria, have you been drinking?”
“I
wish. No. Stone cold sober.” Maria went into the room. “I have a story I
need to tell you. A story that involves Alex, and how he died…why he died. He
was,” Maria choked back her tears. “He was singularly my best friend, and I
haven’t gone a moment since he died without missing him. I need you to listen,
and to understand what happened, and why I can’t let you think your son killed
himself. Because nothing... nothing
meant more to Alex than life.”
The
Whitmans looks at each other. They knew. They knew that Alex never committed
suicide. They knew their son, but it was time. It was time to hear the reason,
to put an end to that long sad chapter in their lives. It was the not knowing
that held them prisoners of grief. Maria was offering them an end to that
suffering.
“Come
into the kitchen. We all need something hot to drink.”
“It
started over three years ago, a normal day like most, when Liz Parker was shot
and died in the Crashdown….”
~~~
“We
can help you.”
“No
one can. It’s not safe. It already cost me Alex, my mom, and even Jesse. I
lost my friend Liz, and I will never see the man I love again. They can’t
touch me. I have nothing…nothing left for them to take, except my baby and my
life. I can’t risk yours too. I’ve already put you in danger.”
Mr.
Whitman nodded. “I understand, Maria. I do. And I can’t thank you enough for
telling us about our son. He was an incredible young man, and he…” The older
man stopped, and rested his hand on his crying wife’s shoulder. “I have
never been so proud in my life. Thank you for that. But you realize that the FBI
has no reason to look here, to look at us. Alex has been gone for a year. There
is no connection between us. We can help get you away. Far away.”
Maria
saw the simplicity in the plan. Of course. She couldn’t stop, but she needed
out of Roswell now. Tonight.
“Okay.
What’s your plan?”
Mr.
Whitman nodded. He could do this. “First, we better make a list.”
Maria
laughed softly and then she cried. “Of course. A list.”
~~~
Presently…
“So
you really don’t know where Maria is?” Michael’s hair was wild, made more
so by him constantly running his hands through it. This wasn’t real. It was
worse than his nightmares. No. That wasn’t right. Maria’s nightmares. He
shared them.
Jim
held his hand out helplessly. “She never made her intentions known. When we
left, she must have left at the same time. Walked in the night, back to Roswell.
And then where? No one knows.”
“The
FBI Special Unit?”
“They
questioned us. But they had listened to us playing cards all night. There were
empty beer bottles, and signs of a party. Amy left here laughing, promising to
do it again next week. And she was never heard of again. We left her car, the
Jetta, outside El Paso, Texas, just south of Las Cruces.”
Michael
felt sick. Real sick. “And Jesse? He died there?”
Jim
and Philip shared a look. Jim tried to hold it together, but he couldn’t. Tear
fell, and they weren’t going to stop any time soon. “No. He was still
alive.”
“You
left him?” Michael couldn’t believe it. Jim wouldn’t do that. He
couldn’t.
“No.
He was dying. He begged me to kill him. He was too weak to move, and he knew
they would torture information out of him about who came for them. He begged me
to get Maria out, and kill him.”
Michael
couldn’t. He just couldn’t stand it anymore. Too much. It was too much pain
and violence. Because of them. All because they had left Jesse and Maria behind.
They should’ve known that no one was safe. No one. They were just thinking of
themselves…the aliens. They left the humans unprotected.
They
left Maria. His child. Jesse. Michael wiped a hand across his eyes. Amy. How
could Maria ever look at him again? Any of them? What they had cost
her…Michael bent over in pain. His pride. His fucking useless pride. Has she
paid enough, Guerin? Was she forgiven yet?
Michael
wandered over to the side of the room and vomited again. Resting his head
against his arm, he looked up at Jim. “Jesse?” He had to know.
Jim
crumbled to the ground. Crying, he shook his head. “I took the guard’s gun.
I shot him. One round. In the head.”
Silence.
In the gloom of despair, silence was the sound that broke the back. It moved
over them like a blanket of darkness. No time. No words. None of them could ever
come back from this. In the dark of the night, they who remained, mourned their
dead.
~~~
“What
are you going to do, Michael?” Philip asked. “Where will you go?”
Michael
was packing food and a clean sweater into his backpack. It was time. He had
stayed too long. He could only bring more death to these people. There was
nothing left for him in Roswell. Maria was gone.
“I’m
going to find Maria and my child. I’m going to find her, beg her to forgive
me, and spend the rest of my life making sure nothing and no one harms her ever
again. That is what I’m going to do.” Michael handed them a piece of paper.
“This paper runs an ad section for the lost. It’s supposed to help reconnect
old lovers. It’s free. We’re the ‘Unforgiven’ and a message should be
placed there if you need to find us.”
Jim
took the information. “We will be ‘Left Behind’”. If you need us,
we’ll be watching.”
“I
leave tonight. After dark. If you want to pass any messages to the others,
I’ll carry them.”
Jim
stopped Michael. “Maria. You’ll find a way to let us know if you find her?
And the baby? If it’s okay?”
“Maria
is ‘Salvation.’ When I find her, I’ll leave a message about salvation.”
Jim
and the others noticed that Michael had said ‘when’ and not ‘if’. He
would look for the rest of his life, if it took that long. Jim knew one truth.
Michael Guerin would never stop, never give up. Not until he found her, found
them.
“Michael.
You should know. All the children you and Max saved that Christmas. They were
taken. And Max’s son? They have him too.” Jim shared a look with Philip.
Philip knew everything about that Christmas from Max after he learned of his
children’s heritage. He and Philip had combed the newspapers searching for
information about the children.
“Are
they…alive?”
Jim
shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. There were reports of
finding bodies. Otherwise they wouldn’t be so intent on finding Maria and your
child.”
Michael
closed his eyes. “So this was all for nothing. All the risk.”
“What
will you tell them?”
Michael
looked at Geoff, and finally at the others. “The truth.” They had made
mistakes. Someone has to take responsibility for this. They had to know that we
couldn’t only think about their own lives anymore. They had to think
bigger…more far-reaching. The people they touched and involved were at great
risk. They should have learned that with Alex, but they were too busy worrying
about their own selfish concerns. Someone had to be accountable.
“Max
will need to know if Zan is alive or dead.” Philip said.
“Max
will do what he feels he has to. My journey is set. I’m finding Maria.”
The
five of them stood on the high promontory above the copper mine hours later,
watching Michael Guerin leave Roswell for what would be his last time, all
things being equal. He blended into the dark, until they could no longer see
him. They, the ones left behind to watch over what was once home.
There
was a cleanness to the journey. It was one that their children would continue on
their own. No more time for childish things. The children of Roswell were fast
taking the final step into adulthood, where all actions had consequences, and
they had to be accountable. Geoff hugged his wife close to him, as did Philip,
and Jim just stood alone. Time flew in the night, and daylight was dawning over
the desert. It was time to take back their lives, and leave their children to
live their own.
Godspeed.
Godspeed.
TBC:
Left Behind II: Finding Maria