A/N—Reviews please! Come on guys, even if you hate it, or think my writing
sucks, it would nice to get some reviews down. Plus I will love you
forever!
A/N2—For the sake of non-confusion, I've put little stars by Roswell Max's name…but I'm not sure how well they'll come out, considering none of the stuff in italics or bold has come out.
Chapter 4: Just a bug on a Windshield
3-6-8-4-2-8-3-6-5-3-7-7-9-8-1. I turn the number over and over in my head. I gaze down at what was once one of the greatest metropolises in the country: Los Angeles, the so called 'City of Angels'. It sure doesn't look like a city of angels right now; it looks like the rest of America: dark; broken; dangerous. I know that I won't stay long here, although the idea is tempting. It would be so easy to get lost here, so easy to never be found by Manticore or anyone else in this city of freaks. I have to turn away now, because if I don't I will get lost here; and more: I'll lose myself. I miss Max* more than I can say right now. All I want is for him to put his arms around me the way he used to and tell me that everything is going to be okay. It would be a lie, but I want to hear one. The truth is that I'm all alone and I'm being hunted by one of the most covert government conspiracies in the world.
For a while there, I thought I might be okay. Thinking that I had sort of jumped the gun with the paranoia. I mean, my picture was in the newspaper, so what? That was before I saw the tall man in the dark suit asking the bus driver whether he had seen a teenage girl with long dark-brown hair on the bus. I got out of their real fast. So that's the truth. I'm not just being paranoid. I'm just someone's idea of a science project gone whack—okay, so a really valuable science project that they really want back, but still.
It's times like these that I start thinking of Max. Not my handsome alien boyfriend, but the girl who was my sister and best friend for the first nine years of my life. What happened to her? Did she make it out okay? Where is she? What's her life like now? I always tell myself that she was a fighter, and that if any of us had made it, it would be her, or Zack. Zackie was my hero, the one I could always count on to take care of me…the one who was always there. I guess I always thought that he'd come back for me some time—show up on a white horse and be my knight in shining armor. But life isn't really like that—it's not some fairy tale life. There's bad people out there who want to turn little kids into soldiers to fight their wars for them.
It's funny how I don't even hate Manticore anymore. I just feel really sorry for them. The truth is that their all just cowards who where insecure about their own genetic make-up and wanted to engineer other people to fight their wars for them.
Beyond the endless drone of the café, I can hear Eyes Only's voice coming from the television. I have to give it to the man—he sure is persistent. This is the 8th time that message has replayed since it first did last night. It's sort of comforting. I mean, it makes me feel a little less alone, a little less like just a bug that's gone splat on a windshield…
Roswell—Alex
I feel like it's sophmore year, and I'm the same ignorant little Alex hacking into Tupulki's computer files. Except this isn't sophmore year. So much has changed since then, and I can't really consider myself ignorant any more.
"According to these files, Eyes Only has used barcodes in one of his broadcast's before. He's also had several parallel broadcasts focusing on a covert government operation known as 'Manticore'. These files are really heavily encrypted, and even with a much more powerful modem and drive speed, I don't think I could crack them. Essentially, their designed by a hacker who's used to beating other people's encryption systems."
"Uh, Alex, do you think you could speak in English please? Cause I'm not getting the whole computer talk thingy." Maria bursts out, and the others stare at me with blank looks. See how the aliens like to be out of the loop.
"I can't break into this guy's files."
"You guys, I hate to be all anti-climatic here, but what the hell are we going on here? I mean, yeah, Liz had a tattoo on the back of her neck, but how much does that really say? She's been kind of mad with her dad all year, and she mentioned something about her grades dropping a little. Maybe we're just overanalyzing the whole situation." Max, Maria and I glare daggers into 'Spaceboy."
"No. Way. I've known Liz longer than any of you, and I know that she wouldn't just split like that. Not without telling us. There's got to be a reason." I can totally see Maria tearing herself up about this. I think she figures that she should have gotten some sort of best-friend vibes and seen this coming. But the truth is, none of us really saw it. One minute she was here, the next she wasn't.
"We have to keep looking, have to trace every little lead we can. Maria's right, there has to be a good explanation for Liz leaving. She would have told us otherwise. We can't give up. Alex, see if you can find some more info on this 'Manticore' thing. Maria, go through all of Liz's personal stuff. Find out what she took and what she left, look in her papers—anything that might give us a clue as to wear she is. Michael—I need you to talk to Liz's parents—ask if they've gotten in any fights lately or anything. But be tactful. Tess, I want you to look at every form of transportation that left Roswell two days ago. Buses, trains, anything. Is, I'm going to need your help. I'm going to try to make a connection with her through your dream-walk power. Everyone, get to work."
I almost want to salute and say something like, 'Hail the fearless leader!' But I know how crushed Max really is about this. I think he said more words in the last 2 minutes than he has in the last 2 days. I guess it finally occurred to him that we're all really confused here and that we need someone to take action. I just hope we get some results…For Liz's sake, and for our sanity.
1 Roswell—Max—30 minutes later
Izzy keeps telling me to relax, but I can't I'm so worried about Liz. I keep feeling like this is all a bad dream that I want to wake up from, but deep down I know that it's all real, and that things had to have been pretty serious for Liz to just run away like this. What I can't understand is why she didn't tell me. We tell each other everything, and it feels like it's been so long that we've had each other for support, always there for each other when things got really tough. I feel like yelling my lungs out, but I know that won't do anything—just scare the others. I have to be the 'fearless leader'. It was just always so much easier when Liz was around.
"Just relax Max. Just listen to the sound of my voice. Remember the first time mom and dad took us to the beach? I sprained my ankle running in the sand, you got really sunburned, and when we went out in the fishing boat both of us puked the whole time? That's still the best vacation I've ever been on—just because it was the first time since the adoption that we had actually felt like a family. You, me, mom and dad. A team. Things seamed so much more simpler then, huh? Can you remember dinner the last night we were there? I can taste the crab like it was yestaurday…"
As I listen to Izzy drone on and on about that first, horrible, wonderful vacation, I can feel myself relaxing. Just a little bit at first, but all of the sudden a lot, and the next thing I know, Is has my hand and we're dream-walking Liz. Which is weird, because she's awake. The first thing that I notice is her. She looks thin and tired, but actually not that scared—like she's trying her best to be tough like she always is. It suddenly occurs to me to look around at where she is. It looks like some kind of station, maybe a bus or a train station, and like everything else in this world it's old and rundown. I look up and see a sign: 3 p.m. to Seattle, WA. Just as I'm starting to fade out of this dream-world, I see her turn around and see me. "Max?" I hear her whisper in surprise, but by the time I start to answer I'm back in my bead room with Isabel. She looks at me questioningly.
"Looks like we're going to Seattle…"
To be continued.
A/N: I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record but, please review!! I will love you forever, plus I'll get the next chapter out sooner!
A/N2—For the sake of non-confusion, I've put little stars by Roswell Max's name…but I'm not sure how well they'll come out, considering none of the stuff in italics or bold has come out.
Chapter 4: Just a bug on a Windshield
3-6-8-4-2-8-3-6-5-3-7-7-9-8-1. I turn the number over and over in my head. I gaze down at what was once one of the greatest metropolises in the country: Los Angeles, the so called 'City of Angels'. It sure doesn't look like a city of angels right now; it looks like the rest of America: dark; broken; dangerous. I know that I won't stay long here, although the idea is tempting. It would be so easy to get lost here, so easy to never be found by Manticore or anyone else in this city of freaks. I have to turn away now, because if I don't I will get lost here; and more: I'll lose myself. I miss Max* more than I can say right now. All I want is for him to put his arms around me the way he used to and tell me that everything is going to be okay. It would be a lie, but I want to hear one. The truth is that I'm all alone and I'm being hunted by one of the most covert government conspiracies in the world.
For a while there, I thought I might be okay. Thinking that I had sort of jumped the gun with the paranoia. I mean, my picture was in the newspaper, so what? That was before I saw the tall man in the dark suit asking the bus driver whether he had seen a teenage girl with long dark-brown hair on the bus. I got out of their real fast. So that's the truth. I'm not just being paranoid. I'm just someone's idea of a science project gone whack—okay, so a really valuable science project that they really want back, but still.
It's times like these that I start thinking of Max. Not my handsome alien boyfriend, but the girl who was my sister and best friend for the first nine years of my life. What happened to her? Did she make it out okay? Where is she? What's her life like now? I always tell myself that she was a fighter, and that if any of us had made it, it would be her, or Zack. Zackie was my hero, the one I could always count on to take care of me…the one who was always there. I guess I always thought that he'd come back for me some time—show up on a white horse and be my knight in shining armor. But life isn't really like that—it's not some fairy tale life. There's bad people out there who want to turn little kids into soldiers to fight their wars for them.
It's funny how I don't even hate Manticore anymore. I just feel really sorry for them. The truth is that their all just cowards who where insecure about their own genetic make-up and wanted to engineer other people to fight their wars for them.
Beyond the endless drone of the café, I can hear Eyes Only's voice coming from the television. I have to give it to the man—he sure is persistent. This is the 8th time that message has replayed since it first did last night. It's sort of comforting. I mean, it makes me feel a little less alone, a little less like just a bug that's gone splat on a windshield…
Roswell—Alex
I feel like it's sophmore year, and I'm the same ignorant little Alex hacking into Tupulki's computer files. Except this isn't sophmore year. So much has changed since then, and I can't really consider myself ignorant any more.
"According to these files, Eyes Only has used barcodes in one of his broadcast's before. He's also had several parallel broadcasts focusing on a covert government operation known as 'Manticore'. These files are really heavily encrypted, and even with a much more powerful modem and drive speed, I don't think I could crack them. Essentially, their designed by a hacker who's used to beating other people's encryption systems."
"Uh, Alex, do you think you could speak in English please? Cause I'm not getting the whole computer talk thingy." Maria bursts out, and the others stare at me with blank looks. See how the aliens like to be out of the loop.
"I can't break into this guy's files."
"You guys, I hate to be all anti-climatic here, but what the hell are we going on here? I mean, yeah, Liz had a tattoo on the back of her neck, but how much does that really say? She's been kind of mad with her dad all year, and she mentioned something about her grades dropping a little. Maybe we're just overanalyzing the whole situation." Max, Maria and I glare daggers into 'Spaceboy."
"No. Way. I've known Liz longer than any of you, and I know that she wouldn't just split like that. Not without telling us. There's got to be a reason." I can totally see Maria tearing herself up about this. I think she figures that she should have gotten some sort of best-friend vibes and seen this coming. But the truth is, none of us really saw it. One minute she was here, the next she wasn't.
"We have to keep looking, have to trace every little lead we can. Maria's right, there has to be a good explanation for Liz leaving. She would have told us otherwise. We can't give up. Alex, see if you can find some more info on this 'Manticore' thing. Maria, go through all of Liz's personal stuff. Find out what she took and what she left, look in her papers—anything that might give us a clue as to wear she is. Michael—I need you to talk to Liz's parents—ask if they've gotten in any fights lately or anything. But be tactful. Tess, I want you to look at every form of transportation that left Roswell two days ago. Buses, trains, anything. Is, I'm going to need your help. I'm going to try to make a connection with her through your dream-walk power. Everyone, get to work."
I almost want to salute and say something like, 'Hail the fearless leader!' But I know how crushed Max really is about this. I think he said more words in the last 2 minutes than he has in the last 2 days. I guess it finally occurred to him that we're all really confused here and that we need someone to take action. I just hope we get some results…For Liz's sake, and for our sanity.
1 Roswell—Max—30 minutes later
Izzy keeps telling me to relax, but I can't I'm so worried about Liz. I keep feeling like this is all a bad dream that I want to wake up from, but deep down I know that it's all real, and that things had to have been pretty serious for Liz to just run away like this. What I can't understand is why she didn't tell me. We tell each other everything, and it feels like it's been so long that we've had each other for support, always there for each other when things got really tough. I feel like yelling my lungs out, but I know that won't do anything—just scare the others. I have to be the 'fearless leader'. It was just always so much easier when Liz was around.
"Just relax Max. Just listen to the sound of my voice. Remember the first time mom and dad took us to the beach? I sprained my ankle running in the sand, you got really sunburned, and when we went out in the fishing boat both of us puked the whole time? That's still the best vacation I've ever been on—just because it was the first time since the adoption that we had actually felt like a family. You, me, mom and dad. A team. Things seamed so much more simpler then, huh? Can you remember dinner the last night we were there? I can taste the crab like it was yestaurday…"
As I listen to Izzy drone on and on about that first, horrible, wonderful vacation, I can feel myself relaxing. Just a little bit at first, but all of the sudden a lot, and the next thing I know, Is has my hand and we're dream-walking Liz. Which is weird, because she's awake. The first thing that I notice is her. She looks thin and tired, but actually not that scared—like she's trying her best to be tough like she always is. It suddenly occurs to me to look around at where she is. It looks like some kind of station, maybe a bus or a train station, and like everything else in this world it's old and rundown. I look up and see a sign: 3 p.m. to Seattle, WA. Just as I'm starting to fade out of this dream-world, I see her turn around and see me. "Max?" I hear her whisper in surprise, but by the time I start to answer I'm back in my bead room with Isabel. She looks at me questioningly.
"Looks like we're going to Seattle…"
To be continued.
A/N: I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record but, please review!! I will love you forever, plus I'll get the next chapter out sooner!