Chapter 2: Lunch Time

At 2.15 Kyle pulled into a shady space at a rest station, switched off the engine and looked round at his sleeping friends. Nobody stirred, all of them drained of energy in the heat of the day. He grinned evilly and clapped his hands loudly, whereupon everyone jumped except Maria, who snuggled deeper into Michael's arms muttering "five more minutes, Mom."

There was general indignation with Kyle until everyone remembered their situation and gloom suddenly descended.

Lunch was unpacked and eaten in or around the van, everyone used the restrooms, leaving someone on look-out at all times and they were back on the road again within 20 minutes, this time more alert and ready to talk.

The seating arrangements had changed again, this time Maria was driving with Michael riding shotgun. Max and Liz were in the rear seat, Isobel in the double middle seat and Kyle in the single seat across from her.

"Kyle, did you look at the map? Where are we heading for now?" Max showed some interest at last.

"Kyle discussed the route with Maria and me when we stopped for lunch, Max. We think the best thing is to head up through Colorado on our way to LA." Michael turned to exchange a look with Kyle, who caught the conversational ball and ran with it.

"Yeah, we talked during lunch, while you were devouring Liz." He snickered. "It seems to us that taking the scenic route is better than going direct which is what the Feds will expect us to do, when they don't find us in Mexico. They'll either think we're making for LA as fast as we can to disappear among the wannabees and wierdos or that we're heading to Chicago or New York. There'll be more chances for us to hide in the mountains and take our time getting to the coast the long way round."

"How long were you guys planning to take to get there?" Isobel roused herself to make her first comment for hours.

There was a pause before Michael spoke quietly.

"About a year . . ."

There was instant protest from the back of the van.

"What! No! Max, tell him!"

Max told him.

"No way, Michael, that's a crazy plan! Anyway, you should have asked me first. Nobody makes any decisions about anything without me, understood?"

Isobel and Maria were silent, the latter concentrating on the road, the former watching Max and Liz speculatively over the back of her seat.

"Crazy, Max? What's crazy about it? We'll get to the coast like you want. It's not like we're short of time. This way we'll just take longer and be safer. Anyway, no one's made a decision yet; this is up for group discussion. We'll take a vote, unless anyone has any other ideas?" Michael spoke calmly and quietly, but they all heard the underlying steel in his voice.

Maria, listening with all the attention she could spare from the road, thought that her Spaceboy had grown up so much over the last year. Back then, he was fighting the whole world, paranoid about the FBI (not that she had blamed him, she was just clinging on to her own sanity as it was), demanding Max be the leader but resenting all his attempts to lead. Now he was the one making plans and displaying all the thoughtful leadership skills that Max should be doing. She sent him a mental flash of her pride in him and caught his wryly-amused response, although his challenging stare never wavered from his angry 'brother'. She desperately hoped that there would be private time soon, because although she thought she and Michael both knew they were back together for good, there were issues remaining from their break up that still needed closure.

Liz held Max's hand comfortingly and thought frantically for any flaws in Michael and Kyle's plan. On the face of it, there were none. It was a reasonable suggestion and had the added attraction of no blame attached to Max if it went wrong as, being Michael's idea, she thought there was a strong possibility that it would.

"So, do we head for Colorado? Liz and Max's objections are noted. What about you, Isobel?" Kyle looked round at the group who all nodded, except Max who stared out of the window and openly sulked.

Suddenly, Maria's panicked voice came from the driver's seat.

"Guys, get down, there's a big, black limo coming up behind us. It's 3 cars back and it's about to pull out and overtake . . ."

Michael thought quickly.

"Izzy, change our hair - make us look like you and Kyle in case they've seen us before . . ."

Isobel rapidly leaned over and waved her hand over Maria and then Michael before crouching down and covering her upper body with a blanket. The others had already assumed their uncomfortable positions on the floor and the tense atmosphere was made nearly unbearable by not being able to see what was happening.

Endless minutes passed before Michael said "Relax. They've gone ahead, didn't seem to take any notice of us. May have been nothing, but you were right not to take a chance, Maria."

"For future reference and extra cover, I think whoever's driving should adopt whatever disguise we are currently using . . . What? What? Michael, it's no laughing matter."

"Oh, it is, babe, it is. You . . . should . . . take a look . . ." Michael snorted helplessly, only laughing harder as she glared at him through raccoon eyes, threatening punishment to come when they stopped for a break. He noticed her eyes widen and her compressed lips suddenly relax into a tiny smile as she turned her attention back to the road. Then he suddenly sobered up as he realised no one else was laughing.

Turning round he saw a quartet of silent, frightened people staring back at him and knew that they were on the verge of panic.

"Listen, guys, it was a false alarm, no harm done. Maria spotted them in good time and we took action."

He tried to encourage them, as he saw that Max was frozen with horror and the others weren't much better.

***Damn, this leadership thing is a pain in the ass***

***Go Michael! You can do it ***

He heard her silent voice cheering him on and knew she was right. He took a deep breath and tried to sound convincing.

"This kinda thing is gonna happen to us a lot from now on and we have to expect it, deal and move on. We can't let it scare us or we'll be dead. Anyway, I've got a few ideas on survival techniques and we'll talk as soon as we find a safe place to rest for a while. It'll be soon, I promise."

He noticed Kyle's expression had relaxed into embarrassed agreement as he was speaking and they briefly shared an understanding look before Kyle turned away and gazed out of his window.

"I made contingency plans for when I was going to split on my own, but everyone should try to come up with some ideas to think about later. We're all in this together, guys".

***You sure are full of surprises, Spaceboy***

***Some of them just for you, babe***

***Oooh, now I really can't wait, Michael***

***Gonna have to, Maria, just keep driving***

He waited for the others to return to their seats and relax a little before he turned back to face the front. At least they hadn't lost it this time, but he didn't want to think too far ahead on that one. Oh, well, at least he wasn't the lone gunman (oops, bad choice of words there). Maria and Kyle had quickly grounded after their initial panic reactions and he recognised that they were the other realists in the group, besides himself.

Max, Liz and Isobel were the weak links. Max because he was still so emotionally unstable from his recent ordeals and from the damage he'd done to Liz and their relationship, as well as by the whole alien king sh*it which, in spite of his earlier claims, he clearly hadn't entirely abandoned. He hadn't been prepared to run for his life because, despite everything, deep down he hadn't really believed that he'd ever have to. Michael worried about him the most.

Liz was strong where her own interests were concerned. Michael believed that she was basically self-absorbed and obsessed with Max as alien royalty to the exclusion of everyone else. Maria, shocked and secretly disillusioned by her best friend, told him afterwards that Liz had suggested killing him so that Max could regain his powers. Michael wasn't surprised. He'd read her diary after all and had later come to realize he had told Liz the cold truth when he said it would tell anyone reading it more about her than the aliens. Michael wasn't particularly concerned about her except for his fear that her obsession with Max would somehow endanger the rest of them.

Isobel was a different problem. She was in deep shock, in terror for her life and grieving for her marriage to Jesse. Michael hadn't missed the token protest the jerk made when Iz had told him to leave her and go make his fortune in Boston. He didn't know if she believed in Jesse's promise of a future together someday or not. All he knew was that the recent events had devastated her most of all. Michael promised himself that he would make sure his emotionally fragile pod-sister was safe and he guessed that Kyle had the same intention.

Maria's flaky, girly surface protected the warm, intelligent, articulate depths that he loved to distraction. She tried to hide her emotional vulnerability with her sharp wit and in-your-face attitude but her fierce loyalty embraced the whole group whether they all appreciated it or not. Deep inside himself he now knew for sure he could depend on her. Whatever the future held, she would be strong for him and he for her. Always.

Kyle, Michael was surprised to discover, had become a good friend to him as well as the girls in the group. Kyle still had major issues with Max, who was more enemy than friend and Michael didn't think that would ever really change much. Still, the Sheriff's humorous and practical son would be a good guy to have on his side and Michael suppressed a secret anxiety that there just might one day be sides to take.

As for himself, Michael knew that his control over both his emotions and powers hadn't been good in the past, but he was rapidly improving all the time under pressure and his instincts for danger were sound. Considering all this, and combined with the other ideas he was incubating, he closed his eyes and gave himself up to some serious thought.

TBC . . .