Gila River (L/M teen) [COMPLETE]

Finished stories set in an alternate universe to that introduced in the show, or which alter events from the show significantly, but which include the Roswell characters. Aliens play a role in these fics. All complete stories on the main AU with Aliens board will eventually be moved here.

Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators

User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/11/2008

Post by greywolf »

It was several minutes before the blinding pain in his head had receded to only a bad throbbing, and he was actually able to focus his eyes again. There was little doubt that they were in big trouble. Nancy – thank God – seemed unhurt. She was lying on the ground next to him near the fire circle – tied – gagged, but breathing regularly. Her eyes met his and he could tell she was fairly terrified. He didn’t blame her for that; he was too.

There were four men – one of medium height who carried a sawed-off shotgun, three somewhat larger – two with AK-47s and one with some sort of small ugly machine gun with a large clip. Since all four weapons were illegal for them to possess and one of the AKs was undoubtedly the reason that his head was throbbing mightily, he had little doubt that these men were not friendly, and unlikely ever to become so. They had place four large packs inside the large tent, and the medium size guy – who seemed to be the boss – was sticking close to those packs. All four of the men seemed to be thirsty, they had emptied the canteens that had been left at the camp, and were in the process of drinking all the water in the collapsible bucket that they had available to put out the fire.

Jeff turned his eyes back once more to Nancy, looking closely to make sure she was OK. Her eyes looked back at him, apparently herself worried about his head injury. He did his best to reassure her with his eyes, and with a slight head nod – which still sent stars through his field of vision – that he was alright. Her hands were tied behind her with parachute cord – most likely what had been strung as a camp clothesline. Chances are that the rag in his mouth – and another apparently in hers as well – was half of a pair of hiking socks that he had drying on that same clothesline. Jeff had bought the parachute cord from a sporting goods store over five years ago – 550 cord the man had called it. That was apparently the breaking strength of it when new – 550 pounds. The salesman at the sporting good store had said it had multiple uses – hold tents in place – hang foodstuffs in trees where they would be safe from bear – clotheslines…. It was cheap and light and strong. Nancy had three or four turns of it around her wrists which were tied in back of her, about the same at her ankles, and a little less holding the gag in her mouth. Fro0m what he could feel, Jeff was tied up the same way.

Jeff tried to pull his wrists apart – hoping that in five years the stuff might have weakened – hoping he might be able to stretch it to where he could pull his hands free – but succeeded only in pulling some of the hair off his wrists and abrading his own skin. If he ever saw the salesman again – not looking real likely, Jeff had to admit – he could tell him that the stuff worked fine for immobilizing captives as well.

Since he couldn’t do anything about his bonds, Jeff turned his attention back to the four men. The leader was giving them directions to conceal themselves around camp and try to capture the two missing people – Lizzy and Max. All four men seemed dog tired. The leader stayed in the large tent near the four packs, his sawed-off shotgun at the ready, while the men concealed themselves along the routes into camp from both the river and the desert.

Over the next twenty minutes Jeff watched the men. The leader sat down on a sleeping pad on the floor of the big tent, his back against the rear wall. He closed his eyes several times but would jerk back awake with a start. The other three gradually found seated areas to conceal themselves, and they seemed in little better shape. Jeff watched one man nod off, his breathing becoming slow and deep, and they other ones seemed to be fighting fatigue as well. Jeff spotted Lizzy leading Max back to the camp from the river through a break in the brush before the men did, but both were past the break before he could do anything to warn them.

‘Shit,’ he told himself. ‘An hour ago I was worried that they were taking too long. Now I’m wishing Max wasn’t so damn shy. Hell, he and Liz could have found a quiet place and made-out for a half hour, and chances are these guys would have all been asleep.’

Even so, he hoped that Liz might see one of the armed men – they were now almost asleep – and run off before she and Max were noticed, but it was not to be.

“Mom – Dad – We’re back. Sorry to take so long. My hair didn’t seem to want to dry.”

Jeff watched in horror as the nearest man pulled himself quietly back into the bushes letting Lizzy and Max pass. As soon as Max was past – the concealed man jumped out and hit Max in the back of the head with the butt of the AK-47. Liz screamed and was almost instantly pounced on by the second man. Lizzy was dragged kicking and screaming to the fire circle where she was tied and gagged and roughly thrown to the ground beside her mother and father. Then the unconscious Max was dragged up alongside her, and also tied and gagged. The noise woke ‘El Jefe’ from where he was resting in the tent and he came out and looked at the two new captives, paying little attention to the unconscious Max, but looking at Lizzy with a look that caused a nauseating fear to grow in the pit of Jeff Parker’s stomach, before turning to Nancy – then to his men – and saying, “It appears we will have some entertainment tonight.”

The men laughed as if this was some sort of long-standing very crude joke. The man turned back to Nancy, and continued, “Perhaps if you exert yourself fully – perhaps we will be satisfied with you – and we will not need to seek amusement in this little child. A grown woman knows so much more about how to please a man than some young thing who knows only how to scream and cry. Think about that – what you can spare your daughter – if you choose to cooperate.”

The other three men chuckled again – like they’d seen this game played before – and enjoyed it.

With that the man turned around and told two of the others to be on guard for the next two hours, then to wake the first two and take their places. The boss and one of the AK-47 carriers then went in and collapsed on the sleeping bags in the main tent – the two others going back to guard the approaches to the camp – still looking pretty sleepy themselves.

Jeff tried again to break his bonds – pulling until the skin abraded and bled, without managing even to loosen them. He looked in his daughter’s eyes and saw only terror there – eyes darting around looking at her parents – looking at her unconscious friend – he heard her sobbing even around the gag. But the most painful thing was when he looked in Nancy’s eyes. They were looking at him – begging him for forgiveness.

Jeff understood what she was trying to tell him. They both were pretty sure that none of the four of them were going to survive this encounter – that these bastards were going to leave no witnesses – but if there was any chance – any chance at all that they might leave Lizzy alone – maybe even let her live…. Nancy had to take it.

He tried again –straining with all his might – feeling blood trickle down where the parachute cords cut into his skin. But there was no give – none at all.
Jeff had never felt so helpless in his life.
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/12/2008

Post by greywolf »

Almost two hours later, little had changed in the campsite. Jeff’s headache was still a throbbing misery. The two men in the large tent were soundly sleeping, and apparently so was one of the two guards. The other was apparently just managing to stay awake, watching the area along the river to the north like he expected someone to eventually come from that direction.

Jeff had tried his bonds another dozen times – succeeding only in further traumatizing his wrists. He looked over at Nancy – wishing he could do something – anything to get her and Lizzy out of this mess. His daughter’s eyes still seemed terrified, moving constantly to her parents – to the four men – and finally to the young man beside her. It had taken Jeff almost an hour to figure it out – not that Lizzy was a happy camper other times, but the real terror overtook her when she saw the unconscious body of Max Evans.

She really does care for him,’ thought Jeff. ‘If that is a ‘crush’ – well, it’s the same kind of ‘crush’ I have on her mother – a crush that could well last a lifetime,’ which, he reminded himself, might only be a few more hours for all of them, and not necessarily very pleasant hours at that.

He almost missed Max’s awakening, even though he was looking in his direction. You sort of expect sleepers to gradually awaken but that wasn’t the way it happened with Max. Jeff noticed a barely detectable change in his breathing pattern and in less than a heartbeat, Max’s eyes flew open, a look of sheer terror on his face. Jeff could hardly blame him.

But the terror in Max’s face turned instantly to relief when he saw Liz tied next to him and their eyes locked momentarily. Even through the young man’s gag, Jeff could hear the sigh of relief that came from him.

After that both kids calmed down, seeming to communicate in a body language of their own. A quizzical look from Max, and Lizzy’s eyes went to the two men in the tent – then to each of the guards, first the one sleeping, then the one eighty feet away with his back to them. Another quizzical look and a quick scan of the area with his eyes was returned by a slow shaking of Lizzy’s head, then a shrug. Apparently the years as lab partners had done their job. In only seconds Lizzy had communicated to Max that there were these four and no others – at least not yet. Just like Nancy and him, the kids apparently already could damn near read one another’s thoughts.

It was the next thing that surprised – and elated Jeff Parker. Max pulled his hands from behind his back – slipping out of the parachute cord as if it were a rubber band. The kid had never mentioned he was an amateur escape artist – but apparently he was. Max reached forward slowly to where his ankles were knotted together with parachute cord, and somehow had that pulled off in less than a second as well.

Max kept his eyes on the back of the one armed man who was still awake as his right hand groped behind Lizzy for her wrists and in a couple seconds had her arms and legs free as well. Neither of the teenagers panicked. Liz was already reaching for Nancy’s bonds when Max got to Jeff’s wrists. Somehow the parachute cord just seemed to stretch and Jeff found his wrists were free. Jeff wasn’t too sure how Max had done that, but whatever the method, he certainly liked the result, and this was no time to ask questions. In less than a minute all four were free, still laying in the dirt by the fire circle, but no longer bound.

Jeff didn’t bother to ask if everyone was alright – whether they were or not, there was no time for discussion. Charging the large tent wasn’t an option – the screen door was zippered shut and the two heavily armed men inside would surely awaken if they tried to enter it – even if the guard in the distance didn’t turn around and see them.

“Max – get Liz and Nancy into the brush,” Jeff whispered. “ I’ll try to get our packs from the small tent. If we don’t get the canteens, we won’t be able to leave the river to go back the way we came, and they’ll track us down. I think they are expecting reinforcement from upriver – which means we’d have to go downriver, and it would be at least four days until we could get to anywhere we could get help. If they don’t want any witnesses – and I don’t think they do – they’d have us by then.”

Max didn’t say anything, merely nodded – wincing as he did so – Jeff could understand that, his own head still ached deeply with any sudden movements. Max left – keeping low – leading both Nancy and Lizzy off into the bushes to the southeast of the camp.

Jeff hoped Max was alright – the blow to the head had been a wicked one, but – first things first – moved slowly to the small tent.

Both canteens had been drained, but at least he had them. They could sneak back along the river to the south and fill them before heading back east along the trail. It would be marginal with only two canteens – but not as much of a risk as having four armed men who wanted you dead knowing where you were along the riverbank. The floor of the big tent was littered with empty canteens, ones the men had brought with them, as well as Lizzy and Nancy’s – but there was no chance of getting those. Jeff still had a small knife and some matches in his pack, along with his clothes. Max’s bag still had the two space blankets – that might be a help as well. He grabbed both packs and headed out the door.

Jeff was halfway out of the door of the tent when the alarm Pancho had set went off. Jeff froze, his eyes going quickly to the large tent. Both men were starting to move, but not looking his way ….

“Jefe’,” called the guard who had been watching the river – the one who was actually awake, “… the prisoners are escaping…” Apparently the alarm had made the man look back toward the campsite.

Jeff cursed himself under his breath for forgetting that alarm – but it was too late to do anything now – not even to run. Both of the men in the large tent came barreling out of the door, their weapons coming to bear on him.

“The other prisoners… where are they? Tell me – NOW!” screamed the man with the sawed-off shotgun.

Jeff just stood there. Even if his family and Max didn’t have much of a chance, Jeff wouldn’t do anything to take away the chance they did have. The other guard – the one who had been sleeping – came down and joined the two men, the remaining guard looking up and down the river, searching for the missing prisoners.

“You will talk,” said the man with the sawed-off shotgun, “... or you will die. You have ten seconds. uno - dos - tres - cuatro – cinco …”

Jeff closed his eyes. This wasn’t going to be pleasant…..
Last edited by greywolf on Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/13/2008

Post by greywolf »

“seis - siete - ocho - nueve …”

“Well I’m right here,” said Max, stepping out of the bushes a few dozen feet behind Jeff and walking slowly to his side.

“Max … what are you doing here? Why aren’t you taking care of Lizzy and Nancy?”

“I’m trying,” said Max softly, “… to lure that guy watching over the river down here with the other three.” Max looked up at the man with the AK-47 who was overlooking the river. “Hey butthead,” he said, putting his hands up in what seemed to Jeff to be some sort of karate stance, “ … I thought you guys believed in machismo. You got the cojones to come down here and take me on mano a mano, or can you only hide behind bushes and club guys in the head when they don’t know you are there? Come on cobarde, I’ll take you on.”

Jeff’s initial impression was that Max was still suffering from the effects of the concussion. Why else would he have come back into the line of fire to insult the biggest of the bad guys – a man that easily weighed double what Max weighed. But then he understood. Since he had failed to get the canteens, Liz and Nancy’s only chance was to keep near the river. They simply didn’t have the endurance to go back to the car through the desert without being able to carry water. The AK-47 could easily kill from 400 yards away. If the man stayed where he was, Lizzy and Nancy would have little choice but to either backtrack into the desert – with no water in the scorching late afternoon, or run the gauntlet of the man’s fire to get where they could perhaps float downstream on a log or improvised raft.

Max wasn’t irrational – he was sacrificing himself to lure that man down from the hillside so Lizzy and Nancy could get away. Since he had failed to get the necessary gear, that was probably the best option left for getting the women to safety. And it seemed to be working, too. The man was responding to the taunts and insults. Already he was coming down from his vantage point. But just as Jeff started to get his hopes up, the man who seemed to be the boss apparently caught on.

“Stop – He is trying to goad you into not watching the river. Without canteens, it is the only way the women can escape. Back – go back quickly. Make sure they cannot get away.”

“Well,” said Jeff quietly, “Thanks for trying anyway, Max.”

“This isn’t over, sir. I’ll get as many as I can…”

Well, maybe the kid isn’t quite playing with a full deck after all,’ Jeff decided. Even with a concussion, Max should have understood he had no chance against three armed men. Nonetheless, the kid had done anything he could have asked him to do. And maybe he was right. If they rushed the three men, maybe they could perhaps injure one or two of them – at least occupy them for long enough that Liz and Nancy could hide. It wasn’t likely that a Forest Ranger or someone else might come by … but it could happen.

"Max -- for what it's worth, it's been a pleasure knowing you..."

Jeff moved his weight slowly forward, wondering how quickly he could cover the twenty feet to the trio – but once again, it seemed like the leader read his thoughts. The sawed-off shotgun was leveled at Jeff and Max, and the man again spoke.

“I am giving you the count of ten once more – where are the women? uno - dos - tres - cuatro – cinco …”
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/14/2008

Post by greywolf »

Jeff looked at the young man beside him. Max looked somewhat sad, but not afraid. He still held his hands up like the boy in Karate Kid, sort of wax-on, wax-off style, but he was now watching the three men before them, with only a quick remorseful glance at the guy climbing back up to his perch overlooking the river.

“seis - siete - ocho …”

Jeff Parker wondered if either of them would actually hear the last number, or if the buckshot and bullets would arrive before the sound of the word. It seemed like an odd thing to think about at the time of your death, that too struck him as curious. But what he did NOT expect to hear, was what he actually did hear.

“- nueve …”

“LIZZY, NO….!” came the voice of his wife from the bushes to his right, perhaps a hundred feet back. He looked back quickly, and there was his daughter – seeming so vulnerable dressed in the swimming suit and blouse – stepping forward from the brush with her hands held high. She was scared – no doubt about that – but she was looking straight at Max.

“Don’t shoot,” she said, “I’m coming out…”

Nancy stepped from the bushes as well then, shaking her head sadly from side to side, and looking nervously at her daughter in front of her.

Pancho grinned, and then steadied his gun on Max and Jeff. He looked up at the man climbing the hill with the AK-47 and motioned with his free hand at the women.

“Tie them up – tie them well this time.,” and the man turned and started to climb back down toward the three others.

“Should I tie these two as well, Jefe?” asked the man with the AK-47.

“No – these eels will not have the chance to slip out of their bonds again.” Pancho nodded toward the man with the 9mm submachine pistol. “Shoot them,” he said , “ …in the knees. I want them both alive to see what we do to their women.”

Jeff looked at Max. He was barely looking at the three men. His eyes were on the fourth man .. the one working his way down the slope, and Max was silently urging him on with his eyes. In just a few seconds more he would be even with the other men. Of course, they didn’t have those few seconds – at least not before the guy with the machine pistol. shot their legs out from under them.

Jeff looked back at the three men in front of them – looked as the one lowered his machine pistol to fire at their legs – knowing he couldn’t possibly cross that campsite before his legs were chopped out from under him and waited for the gun to fire. When he heard the first shot – WHACK! – he was amazed – it had come from behind him.



Pancho had not reached the leadership of a cartel that employed thousands of people without certain people skills. Granted, his management style would be described as ‘touchy-feely’ only by some of the female employees, and even they did not generally find that pleasant. When you run a criminal enterprise, you tend to rule by force and violence. Nonetheless, you don’t survive to become the leader if you are incapable of reading the faces of the people you work with. Promotion tends to come quickly and violently in the drug business, oftentimes with fatal consequences to existing management.

Pancho had been surprised when the boy had revealed himself, he certainly wouldn’t have given himself up to save another – not even had the man been his own father, yet the timing of the boy’s surrender – so close to when he would have had the other killed, seemed to leave little doubt that was what he was doing. The taunting of Ortega – the one man standing guard of the river – had confused him. The boy surely couldn’t have been stupid enough to have delivered himself into their hands simply to avenge Ortega’s clubbing him with the rifle? No, it surely had to be more than that. It was the look of anxious anticipation as Ortega had started his descent toward the campsite that had given the boy away. He was NOT sacrificing himself for this older man – but for the woman and the girl. The man had two packs – and two empty canteens. Without any gear, the women and boy had been restricted by the burning desert to the course of the river and would have been quickly found. The boy’s insulting and taunting little more than a ruse to draw Ortega away from his lookout so the women could steal their way to the river and perhaps float downstream before the search could be started. The boy was smart and wiling to sacrifice himself – but Pancho knew he was smarter. He could almost see the despair in the boy when he ordered Ortega back to his post.

Pancho had not really expected the girl to show herself. Was she the boy’s sister? Surely, Pancho thought, none of his sisters would have offered themselves to save him – spit on his grave, more likely. No – she looked with such bravery and foolish confidence at the boy – she loved him – only love could make someone do so stupid a thing – like it made the girls mother follow her docilely – still deluding herself no doubt that her daughter would be left alone if she cooperated with sufficient enthusiasm. The girl and her mother would be an interesting night’s diversion and now that all four were accounted for, Ortega could come down and restrain the women and then Ortega could get his satisfaction, if he desired, by crushing the arrogant youngster. Whatever martial arts training the boy may have, it would not matter – Ortega had learned to survive in the streets, and outweighed the boy at least two to one.

No,’ Pancho thought. ‘..too much is at stake here. The boy just MIGHT be good – or perhaps just very lucky. There is no sense taking chances with the men – none at all,’ he thought, as he ordered Gomez to shoot their legs.

But as he looked back to the boy, Pancho forgot about the women moving slowly toward him – forgot about the man who would never live to reach them if he tried his foolish charge. He looked into the eyes of the boy and realized that something was wrong. The look in those eyes was wrong – not the look of someone about to be shot. It was a predator’s look – the look of an animal getting ready to strike, and he was looking at Ortega as he walked back down the path.

Pancho’s mind ran through the possibilities. The camp had been given a brief but reasonably thorough search – they had found no weapons – yet still, this boy considered himself the hunter. He was waiting, Pancho realized – waiting for the four of them to be close together.

‘A grenade?’ he wondered. It made no sense. Where would the boy get something like that -- why would they carry such a thing? But as Pancho looked into those eyes – those eyes that were looking at the descending Ortega with an intensity that didn’t seem entirely human – a cold chill went through him.

The words were in Pancho's mind – making their way to his tongue -- the words to order Ortega back up the trail – to order the other two to spread out, when the sound of the shotgun struck his ears –WHACK! – startling him even before the pellets hit his face and hand.

Pancho’s cheek and forehead stung like fury, and he looked past the men to the women – to see the young girl with the small shotgun, furiously trying to break it open as she dug another shell from between her breasts out of the swimsuit top. She must have had the weapon behind her back under the blouse, held in place by the strap of the swimsuit as she had walked forward with her hands raised.

The weapon must have been outside the camp -- perhaps they had been target shooting earlier. It was a small shotgun designed for very short range use, and the distance was far too long for it to be lethal or even very serious. The tiny pellets had been lofted a great distance and had been little more painful than a hornet’s sting when they had struck. The threat to the man and boy had made the girl strike too quickly. At short range it might have been fatal to a man – but it never had any serious chance of stopping the four of them. At this range, it was little more than an irritation unless a chance pellet hit an eye which was possible but unlikely.

'So this was their plan – it was a stupid one,' he thought. But he had toyed with these fools long enough…

“Kill them,” screamed Pancho, wiping a small spot of blood from his cheek where the tiny pellet had barely reached beneath the skin, “… Kill them ALL!”

But as he brought his own shotgun up and pointed it at the boy in front of him he looked in the boy’s eyes. ‘I’ve missed something – something important,’ Pancho thought as he readied his own weapon.. The boys eyes were still the eyes of a predator and they unnerved him. Pancho hesitated – just a fraction – allowing Ortega to take his place beside the others as they all opened fire -- even at the last wondering what he had missed.
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/16/2008

Post by greywolf »

Jeff stood there, knowing that nothing he could possibly do would affect the outcome of this – and in that at least, he found a measure of peace. Perhaps his family had been doomed from the moment the four men had found their campsite – perhaps there never was a chance for any outcome but death for them all. At least this death would be quick and clean – even for Nancy and Liz. They wouldn’t have to experience the pain – the degradation – the abuse that they would have surely received at the hands of their captors. At least that much he was grateful for.

The saying is that your whole life passes before you when you are about to die – and perhaps that was at least somewhat true. While he regretted the brevity of his life, he couldn’t complain about the quality. Nancy’s love had been rich and their lives had been full – far better than he honestly believed he deserved. She’d given him happiness, and the most wonderful daughter a man could ever have, and he had enjoyed every minute of their time as a family. If he had to die, he could at least say that he’d had a good life while it lasted. He thought of Nancy – wondering if there really was a hereafter, and if they’d be together if there was. He’d always been a little bit hazy on just what his beliefs were about heaven and such, but he found himself hoping they’d be together always and was pretty sure Nancy would feel the same.

He felt bad for Lizzy – she hadn’t really had a chance to live and love just yet – to develop into the beautiful young woman that he knew she would have been in a few more years. Perhaps she’d be there in the hereafter as well – perhaps with Max – a Max who would perhaps have learned to worry less about whatever differences he thought he had with Lizzy and would think instead of the common love that they both seemed to share for each other - a Max who wasn't quite so shy at returning his daughter's affection. Perhaps in the next world his daughter would have the true happiness that fate had denied her in this one. Jeff hoped so, anyway.

When Jeff saw the guns fire he was – well, not really ready to die certainly – but instead resigned to the fact that sometimes even the best efforts of a father and even a lab partner who might have been a rather good boy friend in a few years just weren’t enough when fate says it’s your turn.

But as the bullets and buckshot were blasted outward there was a golden flash that blasted toward the four men and it hit most of the incoming projectiles like a strobe light, illuminating them brightly and giving them – just for an instance – the appearance of stopping them in their tracks.

As he saw Max crumple at his side, Jeff wondered if the bullets had hit him and he had just not yet become aware that he was already in the act of dying, or if by some miracle the first barrage had missed him and he would live a few seconds more, at least until the men could realize he still lived and fired again. He looked back toward the gunmen, knowing he was dead one way or another – more curious than anything else. That’s when he saw the carnage.
The tent was a bloody shambles - and so were the four men who were either dead or in the act of dying collapsed back into that tent.

'It wasn't an illusion', he decided. Somehow the bullets had been stopped – more than that – they’d been driven back by a wall of force. The four men – what was left of them – had been blown backwards, the very bullets and shot they had fired sent careening back to tear through their bodies. Even where the bodies had not been pierced by projectiles the flesh was torn asunder as if the air itself had flayed the skin from their bodies on the side on which that golden flash had struck.

Jeff looked back in amazement at his wife – Nancy seemed fine – and his daughter – Lizzy was limping slightly but moving toward him quickly.

‘No,’ he thought, as he saw the desperate fear in her eyes, the eyes locked on to the body at his side - ‘ …she’s moving toward Max..’

Jeff looked down then – down to the unconscious body at his feet – down to the young man whose hands still showed a fading golden glow.
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/16/2008(2)

Post by greywolf »

24 hours earlier

Jeff was squatting knee deep in the Gila river, watching and listening for any indication that the associates of the four drug runners were approaching. He was filling the last canteen full of water, the other five sitting back on the bank with Nancy and the small submachine gun he’d brought along just in case those associates did show up. Jeff was uncomfortably aware that their little family was not together and he wanted to get back to Liz as quickly as possible.

As he handed Nancy the last canteen, she handed him the bar of soap – salvaged from the emergency kit they had finally found in the smashed debris in the campsite. The bar of soap was a small one, and not particularly environmentally friendly either by the smell of it. It had a harsh antiseptic smell to it. ‘Well, the damn fish are just going to have to suck it up on this one,’ he thought to himself as he used it to wash out the shallow cut and deep abrasions on his wrists he had made trying to pull out of the parachute cord.

The soap stung but he needed to get his wrists cleaned up and bandaged – there was still much to be done. He listened and looked again for any sign of the other drug runners before moving up to the bank where Nancy dried his wrists and started to apply ointment.

They had, Jeff had to admit, gotten off very easily. An hour ago he had given them all up for dead. Nancy was unscathed – she was bandaging some painful but relatively minor abrasions and cuts on his wrists. He was more worried about Liz – she had a single puncture wound in the groin, he thought from a single shotgun pellet – possibly a ricochet that had escaped – that had escaped – that had escaped – well … escaped whatever the hell it was that Max had done to those guys.

The guys themselves – were dead, the last of them had stopped breathing about forty-five minutes ago without ever regaining consciousness. It wasn’t just the superficial injuries, either. He had needed to move one of them to get the little machine gun and the part of the man facing forward had been – mushy – like he’d run in to a brick wall going fast, except of course that this brick wall had come to him. At that he figured the four got better than they deserved. They certainly hadn’t suffered, and they’d made it plain enough that they had intended to make Liz and Nancy suffer – and to make Jeff and Max watch. No, Jeff Parker had no reservations about the fact that Max had killed the four men – although exactly how he had done that was still a concern.

And then there was Max himself. He was probably still unconscious back at the camp, laying where he had fallen in the shade of the little lean-to Liz had build for him out of branches and one of Max’s space blankets from his pack. Unconscious, with Liz sitting next to him, the blood-spattered AK-47 she had salvaged from the chaos and gore of the large tent in her hands – the look on her face practically daring any associates of the four dead men to even think about hurting Max. Jeff had had some reservations about leaving her there – about Max awakening and seeing someone holding a rifle near him – he’d killed the last man to carry that rifle. But he’d figured it was better not to voice those concerns – they wouldn’t have done any good anyway, he was sure of that – as he remembered their first conversation after their – experience.
  • Liz had come up to him and hugged him – then instantly fallen to her knees in front of Max, her eyes full of tears. He’d checked the boy over pretty well – he was still in swimsuit and t-shirt – and couldn’t find any trauma other than the lump on the back of his head where he’d been hit with the rifle butt. He’d reassured his daughter as best he could and then asked her the question.

    “Did you know about – this? That Max could…?”

    “No, Daddy. I knew – I guess even in the third grade I knew – that Max was hiding something from me. I had no idea that it was this – whatever this is.”

    Liz had looked up at him then – looked up guiltily, as she had continued, “I’m so sorry Daddy. When they caught you coming from the tent – I didn’t want Max to go back. I didn’t think he could do anything – and I didn’t want to lose him too.”

    “Don’t feel guilty about that, Liz. I was upset when he came back too. I wanted him to stay and take care of you and your mom – not risk his life in some foolish try to save me. I would have felt the same way if I had been in your place.”

    “He told me, Daddy – he told me that a young lady needed her father – and that if he could get the men close enough to him he could stop them – he didn’t tell me how. He told me if he couldn’t get them all he’d get as many as he could, and that mom and I should hide in the bushes with the shotgun – wait until any that he didn’t get came close before we used it – to shoot them in the face.

    I looked in to his eyes when he told me that – and it was like looking in to his soul. I just knew it was true – knew that I could trust him to do what he said he could”

    “He didn’t tell you to show yourself to lure them all together?”

    Liz shook her head. “No daddy. I saw him try to lure the last guy close, but when the leader sent him back … when he threatened to kill both of you, I took the shotgun and went out there. I knew that mom would follow me, but I couldn’t let you both die if I could stop it .., not if I could get that last guy back down with the others. Besides, I don’t think mommy would have wanted to go on without you anyway.”

    “You went out there not even knowing what Max was capable of? You trusted him that much?”

    His daughter had looked down at Max, then up at her father before speaking. “I am lucky enough to have two guys that I trust – totally and completely, Daddy,” She had kissed his cheek before looking back down at Max. “You are one - Max is the other one.”

    It had been a brief heartwarming moment in an otherwise horrifying day – at least until his daughter had looked up with a sly smile and continued, “… of course, I guess neither of my guys totally trust ME quite yet.”
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/17/2008

Post by greywolf »

As they came to the top of the trail, Jeff got a clear look at the campsite. Lizzy was still sitting next to Max. She had the only canteen in camp that had still had a little water in it, and she was using it to wet down a hand towel to wipe off his face and cool him down. At least she was alright, Jeff thought, letting out a sigh. But before he could take another step toward the camp, he felt a tug on his shirt.

“Jeff,” said his wife, ‘ … we need to talk. You’ve been walking around with that look on your face that indicates you have been having one of your internal conversations with yourself. I thought at first you were just being quiet to listen for other men, but it’s clear it’s more than that, so out with it. Go ahead and get it off your chest.”

“Well – it’s about that boy. Did you see the parachute cord we were tied up with? Where he touched it? It was just like silly putty. And then what he did to those men….”

“What he did to THOSE men? Oh, you mean the ones that were going to kill us – probably rape a couple of us first – those fine specimens of humanity? You are suddenly concerned about those men?”

“Well – not exactly, it’s about Max.”

“Bullshit! Jeffery Parker, I’ve known you for almost twenty-five years now and this is NOT about Max. Max certainly has some explaining to do, and I’m as interested as anyone in hearing what he has to say, but this isn’t about Max and you know that damn well, it’s about you and Lizzy.”

“It’s about my concern for Lizzy, certainly. Max said he was different but … damn. Who knows what he might be capable of? He killed those guys by waving his hand at them. Think how easy would it be for him to hurt Lizzy.”

“Oh, he could hurt her alright… just like you could hurt her or I could hurt her. Hurt her far more than others could. That’s because she cares for him – like she cares for us, or at least something very close to that. People are always more vulnerable to the people they love than they are to anyone else.

I think Lizzy could hurt Max like that too. I think that Max has spent years being afraid of Lizzy hurting him – of getting close to her and then being rejected when she discovered his secret. But he isn’t going to hurt her – not if he can help it – and she isn’t going to hurt him either, not if the way she’s been acting since he knocked himself out is any indication.

So when Max wakes up – if Max wakes up – I think the world is going to be a different sort of place for both of them and frankly I’m worried about how YOU are going to deal with that.”

“But Max lied, honey – or at least he never told any of us about himself, which is almost the same thing. How can we trust him?”

“I don’t blame him for not telling anyone. Look at the weirdoes and conspiracy nuts that the Crash festival attracts to town. Growing up in Roswell, why on Earth would Max want to let anyone know about being different? He’d be splashed all over National Enquirer at a minimum, assuming he didn’t wind up locked up somewhere with scientists taking him apart to see what makes him tick. Nobody deserves to be faced with a prospect like that – certainly not a nice young man like Max.”

“But why should we let Lizzy be a part of that? Why should we take the chance?”

“LET Lizzy be a part of this? Jeffery Parker, do you think I LET Lizzy walk out to face three armed men with that pipsqueak shotgun shoved up her blouse? Lizzy has a mind of her own, and she makes choices. That certainly wasn’t the choice I wanted her to make, just because Max had told us he could get the close ones. You can’t think I actually thought Max had a chance of pulling that off. Do you?
What I thought was that you and Max were going to die. What I thought was that Lizzy and I weren’t going to have any real chance of getting away. When Lizzy pulled out that shotgun and fired, the best that I was expecting was that they’d kill us all at once, so Lizzy and I could at least avoid being the entertainment for the night. That’s why I was there – not to save you or Max – just to have us all die together.”

“Well, there was no reason you should have had trust in Max’s promises – you couldn’t have known.”

“But Liz did know, Jeff. She didn’t know what he’d do, but she knew his character – the kind of human being he is.”

“Yeah, well, assuming he’s even human.”

“Of course Max is human, Jeff. Certainly far more human than those monsters he managed to kill. But you are either missing the point – or deliberately trying to avoid it. Lizzy is going to make her own decision when it comes to trusting Max – just like she did when she walked out into that clearing. My guess is that she trusts him now even more than she did then.”

“But what if she’s wrong? What if he does hurt her?”

“If she’s wrong she’ll have to learn from her mistake and go on, just like everyone else – but you know what, Jeff? I don’t think she is wrong – anymore than she was wrong when she went out in the clearing with the shotgun. If she hadn’t done that, Jeff, you and Max wouldn’t be here. That lookout would have seen what happened. He’d have killed you and Max before you could have gone 10 yards. Then either he would have killed Lizzy, or she’d have killed him, I don’t know which, but I doubt seriously that our daughter would have watched the two guys she cares the most about in the whole world be gunned down and than just gone off to hide.”

“But she’s still a kid…”

“She is not a kid, Jeff, she’s a young woman. We can’t dictate to her and blindly expect obedience, and what I’m afraid of is that you are going to try to do exactly that – and that would force Lizzy to make a choice that I don’t want her to make – that she shouldn’t have to make – and that frankly, I’m not altogether sure which way she would make that choice.”

“All I want us to do, Honey, is to protect our daughter…”

“But that’s just it… we never could, not really. Things can happen – nobody can control that. But Liz has known that young man since the third grade and I can tell you, she’s a much better judge of the kind of person that he is than either of us are. What’s more, she knows that, too. Don’t force her into a position where she has to make a choice between giving up Max or giving up being our daughter – OK?”

Jeff shook his head sadly. “Look, dear – let’s just see how this goes, alright? I’ll try not to do anything stupid – I’ll listen – but I’d be less than honest with you if I told you I was really comfortable with what’s going on.” But even as he said it, Jeff knew in his own mind that this really didn’t have anything to do with whatever Max’s secret was. He couldn’t avoid the belief that Lizzy – and Max too – were too young for any serious boy-girl stuff. No, maybe that wasn’t even true. Maybe it was just that Daddy was too young to see his daughter go through it – but that didn’t make it any easier.

“You know,” Jeff told his wife, “ … I know a guy in Kiwanis with a daughter – she must be in college by now. He told me the first time a boyfriend picked her up at their house for a date he felt like he was handing a million dollar Stradivarius over to a gorilla. I think I know just how he felt.”

Nancy kissed him softly on the cheek and took his hand – dragging him into the clearing where his daughter was watching over an unconscious young man.
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/19/2008

Post by greywolf »

Jeff’s eyes went instinctively to the cutoffs that Liz was wearing. He knew there was a bandage under them – over Liz’s right groin. The puncture wound had bled slowly but persistently for about fifteen minutes, but Nancy had put a pressure dressing on that was now held in place by the cutoffs, and that seemed to have stopped the bleeding, even if Liz did move around a little bit uncomfortably. He could see no evidence of renewed bleeding since he went down to the river – that was the good news.

He had strongly hinted to Lizzy that she ought to keep her distance from Max – his concern was simply for her safety – or at least that was what he was trying to tell himself. The last conscious moment the boy had experienced there had been four men shooting weapons at them and Max had been trying to kill them all. When Max woke up – if Max did wake up – he would likely not know that he’d been successful and might well regard anyone close as a target – especially if they were carrying a gun. It was only prudence and common sense that Lizzy should keep her distance, and as an honor student she ought to have been able to figure that out by herself.

But it had been apparent even from the time they’d gotten to the top of the trail that Lizzy wasn’t paying attention to his ‘hint’. Oh, she hadn’t hovered right over him except when wiping his face with the damp towel – she’d been too busy watching for the other drug runners they all figured would be coming – but she hadn’t really been keeping her distance either. Worse, as soon as she saw him and Nancy at the top of the trail, she apparently believed her guard duties were over as well. She had turned back towards Max and poured a little more water onto the towel, and was now wetting his lips with it.

As they approached the two teenagers, Jeff was doing his best to keep his promise to his wife – to be non-confrontational. That is, he thought he might at least try to get in a sentence or two before he reminded her a little bit more sharply of the dangers inherent in being too close to Max.

“Is there any change in Max?” he asked.

“I think he’s getting closer to waking up. It looks like he may be trying to drink when I wet his lips…”

“That’s great news, Lizzy,” said Nancy.

“Uh – yeah, dear. But if he is waking up, you might just want to give him a little more space. Remember, Lizzy – Max was sort of upset when he passed out.”

Jeff watched in increasing annoyance as his daughter appeared to bring her face even closer to that of the unconscious boy. OK, so he hadn’t EXACTLY ordered her to back off, but she was a very bright girl. She could have obviously understood just what he was trying to say, if she’d been paying any attention at all.

“Lizzy – it might be just a little dangerous that close to Max. He may be agitated when he wakes. Backing off might be a prudent thing to do.” ‘There – could it be any plainer than that?’

“Max would never hurt me,” replied Liz – if anything getting a little bit closer.

Vexation was starting to become something more intense. Jeff took a deep breath and almost opened his mouth before a glare from his better half seemed to caution him. He did his best to temper his statement. “I’m not saying that Max would INTEND to hurt you dear, …”

“Oh!” said Lizzy, “I think he may be coming around…”

Jeff watched in terror as Max’s face assumed a feral grimace, his hands rising toward Lizzy. In the reflection of the lean-to tent made from the space blanket, Jeff could see the palm of the hand start to get a golden glow as it was lifted toward Liz’s heart. Jeff felt his own heart stand still – sure that his daughter was about to die, and unable to move fast enough to cover the few feet between them before it happened.

But as his hand approached her chest, hers went out to meet it.
“Max, are you awake…?” Lizzy asked.

The golden glow faded from his palm as their fingers intertwined. Max opened his eyes suddenly and saw Lizzy’s face right in front of him. His face changed to a sappy grin, and he softly said, “Lizzzz…,.” before his eyes crossed and the lids closed and he rolled on his side, cuddling her hand under his cheek as he went instantly back to sleep.

“Lizzy, that scared the shit out of me. Dammit, do you have any idea what almost happened…,” started Jeff, but the words died out in his mouth as Lizzy started to gulp air in big sobs, her shoulders shaking. Almost at once, Nancy stooped to cuddle her daughter – the kneeling young lady not releasing Max’s hand as she continued sobbing, the tears falling from her cheeks to fall on the sleeping boy below.

Jeff went back to salvaging what he could of their gear. Some things – like the main tent – had been shredded by the blast that Max had caused. Still more – like Lizzy’s sleeping bag, had been grossly contaminated by the blood and fluids draining from the remains of the deceased drug runners, while other objects were simply too heavy to carry. They couldn’t leave until Max could travel, and neither Max nor the wounded Lizzy was going to be capable of carrying much initially. Two or three of the guns they had captured were also going along as well – the fear of running in to additional drug runners enough to make Jeff want to carry them, despite the extra weight.

Jeff tried to lose himself in the job, not wanting to think of just how badly he felt about Liz’s reaction to the chewing out he’d given her. It was the first time he had ever sworn at his daughter – and the first time he’d ever hurt her feelings enough to make her cry.

After about fifteen minutes, Lizzy was apparently calmed down, and Nancy came to joun him salvaging gear.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen – I really was trying,” said Jeff. “I should never have sworn at her. I don’t want my daughter to hate me, and I don’t want to make her cry, either, but she wasn’t even listening to me.”

“No she wasn’t, dear – she truly wasn’t. She wasn’t defying you – she barely heard you she was so worried. I didn’t understand just how worried she was until she broke down crying. It wasn’t that you yelled at her – she honestly hadn’t been sure that Max would ever wake up until he did. When he did, she just sort of lost it. With everything she’s been through – everything we’ve all been through – it’s understandable enough.”

“You mean she’s not mad at me?”

“Right now I don’t think she’s capable of being mad at anyone, dear. She’s just relieved. Why don’t I take a turn watching upriver, and you go down and talk to her? It might do you both some good.”
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/20/2008

Post by greywolf »

So with his wife acting as lookout, Jeff went back down to the little lean-to to see his daughter. The fingers of Lizzy’s hands were still intertwined in Max’s and as Jeff looked at his daughter’s face, he was doubtful if they had separated – even during her long hug with Nancy. Her face looked like she was so worried – and some other emotion as well, something he couldn’t quite place. Then she opened her mouth – and he recognized it instantly.

“I’m so sorry, Max, …. This is all my fault.”

“How is he doing?”

“Oh, hi daddy, … better I think … at least I hope.”

“I hope so too. He looks better – maybe with a little more rest he’ll be OK. It isn’t your fault though, you have to understand that.”

“It is too my fault. I’m the one that tricked his mother into pushing him into coming along on this trip – and tricked you and mom into inviting him.”

“Well, yeah, I’ll give you that, but I planned where we would camp – and that we would go camping at all. We could have gone to Disneyland instead. If you want to put blame on someone, the whole world is at fault – it’s not like you or me or anyone else could have predicted those four guys would show up.”

“But they did, and Max did this to himself – and THAT was totally predictable – just like you going back to get the canteens … You and he are a lot alike that way. The teachers laugh about me being the perfect Miss Parker, but Max they call Mr. Dependable. I knew he’d stop them when he said he would – even if it killed him.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like it’s going to kill him, thank God, but Lizzy – Max isn’t a child. He’s a young man, and he made his own decision to do that. You aren’t responsible for what happened to him.”

“ I know that, I guess. I just wish I could make my heart believe that. It’s just that Max has always seemed a little younger than me, maybe. When he showed up in third grade he had been home-schooled for two years and didn’t really know how to act around other people – that’s why he was so shy. I once asked him where he lived before he was adopted and he kind of looked at his feet and said he really didn’t have much of a life before then. Even back then I cared for him – he always seemed like the little brother I was promised but never got – at least until the past few years. Since then – well, I guess I’ve looked at him a little differently. The friendship has been there, it’s just been – less brotherly,” she said, reaching down to softly smooth the hair next to the bump where the rifle butt had hit him.

“Sorry about the promised baby brother. Your mom and I just sort of kept putting it off – finally we decided it was too late.”

“It’s not too late, Daddy. You and mom are still young enough – of course, you might have to stop bunking with my would-be boyfriend in the small tent, and go back to bunking with mom in the big tent,” said Liz, blushing but with the first genuine smile Jeff had seen on her face since he’d made the Clearasil crack to Max.

“Hey – you don’t tell me how to run my love life and I won’t tell you how …,” he stopped in mid-sentence as he realized exactly what he had been suckered in to saying. His daughter looked up at him suddenly, her face the very picture of innocence, and asked.

”What were you saying, Daddy?”

“Look, it’s hardly the same. You are only fourteen years old…”


”Almost fifteen…”

“Fourteen years, six months, and nine days – I was there for the event and remember it well.”

“Still, in less than a year I’ll have my learner’s permit.”

“That’s to drive a car … not to have a - a love life.”

“I’m not sure I can do anything to stop loving him, Daddy – permit or no.”

“Lizzy – it isn’t that easy – and it’s not just you either – it’s Max. It’s not just that Max is – different – but Max KNOWS he is different. Part of his shyness has been that knowledge. Now we know, and who knows how he’ll react to the knowledge that his secret is now out. He may become even more shy – he may try to fade into the background altogether. I couldn’t really blame him if he did – it wouldn’t be easy having everyone know he was different – know he could kill with a wave of his hand.”

“But we aren’t going to tell – and I can handle Max, daddy. He’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, those four guys over there thought they could handle Max, too, dear – they couldn’t.”

“Well, they didn’t know him like I know him – I have to admit, they never really got a chance to know him – or to see his soft side.”

“Max has a soft side?” Jeff asked. “I’ve seen his shy side, and his lethal side – I don’t think I’ve seen his soft side.”

“You should have seen him when Mr. Pibbles got hurt.”

“Mr. Pibbles?”

“Mr Pibbles was the guinea pig we had for a class pet in third grade. Everybody loved Mr. Pibbles – especially Max. Jimmy Groening got to take Mr. Pibbles home for Christmas vacation and he dropped the cage and it came open. Mr. Pibbles panicked and ran under the stairwell rail and dropped from the second floor onto the first floor. It looked like he was really hurt, and some of the sixth graders said that we should put him out of his misery. Max just grabbed Mr. Pibbles away and ran off. When we came back after Christmas, Mr. Pibbles was as good as new. Max must have spent his whole Christmas vacation nursing Mr. Pibbles back to health. He’s the kindest person I know, Daddy.”

“Well, kind or not, you’re right – we’ll help him keep his secret. But as to the dating stuff – I still think you are too young – but I’ll talk about it with your mom. And Lizzy – it really isn’t about Max being different. I’d feel this way about you dating anyone right now. It just seems too early.”

“But I’m not interested in dating anyone,” said Liz, turning back and softly caressing the hair on Max’s head. “Just Max.”
Last edited by greywolf on Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
greywolf
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2000
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 12:08 am

Re: Gila River AU/W L/M teen 11/22/2008

Post by greywolf »

As Jeff joined Nancy – scavenging for a few more items to take with them past the ruins of the main tent, she looked up.

”How’s Max doing?”

“A little better, I think. He seems to be more like he’s just in a real deep sleep now – before it looked like he was about to stop breathing on us. Lizzy thinks he’s doing better, anyway.”

“And how are things between you and our daughter?”
“Well, we talked for awhile – that much at least went well.”

”I take it you agreed to differ?”

“Well, more just differing than agreeing, I’m afraid. But at least we are talking. She’s blaming herself for Max being in the condition he is. She feels guilty about tricking everybody into having him come along. It’s not that I wasn’t upset about that myself for most of the trip, but it’s like she doesn’t even realize what would have happened if Max hadn’t done what he did. She’s not even rational about it.”

“Well,” said Nancy, smiling up at her husband, “I’m not sure she’s got the monopoly on that. If Liz didn’t care for Max, she wouldn’t have invited him along, and where would THAT have left us? Yet her daddy still is upset that she DOES care for him.”

“I didn’t say any of it necessarily made sense, Nancy. The whole situation is bizarre beyond belief.”

“Well, the drug guys and – whatever Max did was. I think that Liz falling for Max was almost inevitable. She has been talking about him since third grade – all the more so since they became lab partners.”

“Yeah, well I have nightmares about the kind of experiments that the two of them might do if we let them start dating this young.”

Nancy just shook her head and smiled. “Come here,” she said, “ … I want to show you something.” She took Jeff back 40 yards behind the ruined tent and picked up two football-sized distorted pieces of cast iron. “Take a look at these…”

“What are they?”

“It looks like they are what is left of our frying pan and dutch oven. No doubt the lid to the dutch oven is around somewhere – I just haven’t spotted it. These were probably four or five feet in front of Max – on his right – when he did that golden flash thing. This is where they ended up – and the shape they ended up in. If you look at the pattern of the debris, nothing much was disturbed from about the front of the tent on, unless it was hit by shrapnel like these, buckshot from that man’s shotgun, or the four men themselves. If they’d been back four feet farther, all of them might have survived, unless some of the shot or bullets had hit them.”

Jeff looked at the pattern of the debris and the torn up ground. “I think I understand your point. From where Max and I were standing, what he did would have only had to be a third this wide to cover the area where the men were standing, and the blast was aimed well to their right, not right at them.”

Nancy nodded. “Maybe Lizzy is a little bit right in what she said. I don’t know just what Max did, or how he did it, but it looks like he had to change his aim from the men, so the blast would stop the bullets from the shotgun pointed at Lizzy and at me. Even at that, Lizzy was closer than I was and got hit.”

“Yeah, I see the pattern now,” said Jeff, nodding his head. “With a third the power, Max could have taken the men out and still been safe.”

“I don’t think he was sure he could do less and still keep Lizzy from getting killed,” said Nancy. “It looks like … he held absolutely nothing back. He was barely strong enough to breathe when we first got to him. I really had thought he was going to die at first.”

“Look, Nance… I’m not saying Max isn’t a wonderful kid. Hell, he’s more than that – he’s a fine young man. Maybe in a few years…”

“Jeff, Lizzy may not give us a few years. She’s down there right now – scared to death that she’s going to lose him. I really think if we try to keep them apart, Lizzy won’t stand for it. And if we force her to rebel, Jeff, it’s hard to tell where the rebellion will stop.”

“Right now we have to get out of her alive before the other drug runners show up. Let’s concentrate on that right now. I’ll think about it – really I will – but right now the first priority is getting everyone safe. If we don’t do that, nothing else matters.”


It was ten minutes later that Jeff noticed signs of movement back in the little lean-to that Lizzy had built for Max. He checked up and downriver and then headed down to the campsite as soon as he saw there was no indication of anyone approaching. He saw his daughter struggling to hold back her tears of happiness that Max was awake.

“I’ll be OK, honest, Liz…,” said Max, managing to at least get one elbow propping his head up where he lay on the ground.

“Do you have ANY idea how badly you had me frightened?” asked Lizzy, managing somehow to appear both vexed and happy at the same time.

“I’m sorry…I never quite did something that big before. It took more energy than I thought it would.”

“That was a rather interesting trick, Max,” said Jeff. “Where did you learn it?”

Max looked up at Jeff, seeming only now to be awake enough to realize just how badly the cat was out of the bag. Jeff thought he could almost read Max’s mind – trying to come up with some reasonable explanation for what happened. He apparently couldn’t come up with any and sighed deeply.

“I guess I might as well tell the truth. I learned it from my sister.”

“Your sister?” asked Jeff.

“Isabel?” asked Lizzy.

Max nodded his head. “Yeah – Isabel is – like me.”

“Like you?” asked Jeff.

Max looked sort of defensive – and Jeff could see that Lizzy’s hand wasn’t letting go of his – in fact, her whole body language was radiating support and encouragement to him.

“We – really aren’t sure what we are. We woke up in a cave – in some dusty old silver-metal pods. We guess that they had been there since the crash in 1947 and we were kind of in suspended animation. Isabel thinks that we were kids from a union between an alien and a human. I don’t think we ever had real parents – I think we were some sort of alien-human hybrid – some sort of an experiment maybe. We look like people – feel like people – I even looked at our chromosomes with the microscope in science class. We’ve got the right number, and they look like human chromosomes, it’s just that we can do things – like this.” Max reached out his hand and a pine cone three feet away moved about a foot. Even reclined as he was, his head swayed, and he lay back flat on his back. “It’s called telekinesis. I think I’m going to have to rest a little bit before I can do that again. Anyway, we woke up in the cave -- had no food or water, so we wandered out into the desert. Mom and Dad found us and adopted us. We never told them about the cave or pods or anything or about the telekinesis.”

“So how did your sister learn to do it?” asked Jeff.

“I’m not really sure, sir. One day we were playing pool and she just kept making the most impossible shots. I figured she was doing something but couldn’t figure out just what until later.Then I started doing it.”

“So I take it you don’t routinely do that,” said Jeff, inclining his head toward the four bodies.

“No sir. Mostly I just use it to cheat when I bowl and pick up spares.”

“Cheat when you are bowling?” asked Jeff, looking at Nancy in disbelief.

“Well only against Isabel,” said Max, looking defensive, “… and SHE started it with cheating at pool.”

“What I meant, Max, was – if you’ve never done anything this big before – how did you know you could do it?”

Max looked at Liz’s hand – still holding his – and looked back at Jeff. “Because I had to be able to do it, sir. There wasn’t any other way.” He looked back at the bodies. “I didn’t want to kill them – I don’t want to hurt anyone – but there wasn’t any other way.”

22 hours earlier

Jeff watched his daughter, sitting next to Max. She’d started to feed him peach slices from a can - spooning them in a segment at a time, but he was feeling stronger, and had now started feeding himself. She looked strangely disappointed – like she’d enjoyed spooning the fruit into him and his convalescence was ruining her fun, but even at that she seemed to radiate happiness that Max was feeling stronger.

“You two going to be ready to move out in ten minutes, Max?”

“Yes, sir. Sir, I really could carry something – honest.”

“Max, you are as weak as a kitten – and Lizzy is wounded. Nancy and I have everything in our packs that is worth carrying anyway, if the two of you can just keep up and carry your own canteens, we can be far enough away from the river by nightfall to not have to worry about any associates of these guys.”

“We ought to give them a decent burial,” said Lizzy.

“Well, we don’t have a shovel and we don’t have the time – besides, I’m not sure there was much decent about them anyway,” replied Jeff.

”Your father’s right, honey. This isn’t the time for niceties. We need to get going. How’s your leg?”

“It’s OK – the bleeding is stopped, and the puncture wound really wasn’t all that big anyway.”

“Well, everyone take a last look around for anything we might need to have. Don’t worry about the shredded stuff – or the stuff with blood and gore all over it. We can always buy new stuff, if it isn’t really necessary for the next couple days.”

Fifteen minutes later, all four were headed northeast through the desert.
Last edited by greywolf on Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Locked