Alex opened his eyes slowly, looking around he realized that he was lying in the back seat of someone's car. And while it had a nice interior, it was quite uncomfortable for him to sleep in. Alex slowly sat up, letting his back and legs stretch. He looked out the front windshield of the car and saw a diner. Looking out the rear window Alex saw a lonely piece of highway surrounded by a desert with mountains in the background. Alex looked at his clothes and noticed he was wearing a suit, suddenly memories of all the events from earlier came back to him.
"Now where am I?" Alex asked as he opened the door and got out of the car. Looking back at the car he saw it was a black Ford T-bird.
Alex took no more than two steps when he felt a sharp buzzing pain in his head. He gripped his head in his hands, not understanding what was happening to him. Alex then realized that the buzzing sensation was coming from somewhere. Alex looked around, wondering where it was coming from. It wasn't until he turned to the diner that he realized it was coming from within. Determined to know what was going on Alex headed to the Diner. Once inside the diner Alex saw Richie sitting at a booth and eating. Alex walked over and sat across from Richie.
"I was wondering when you were gonna wake up," Richie said before gesturing to the food in front of him. "Want something to eat?"
"No thank you," Alex said. "My stomach's a bit upset right now."
"Suit yourself," Richie said taking a bite of his food.
"So where are we?" Alex asked.
"About fifty miles north of Denver," Richie said.
"Where are you taking me?" Alex asked.
"I'm taking you to meet Mac," Richie said. "He can explain what's happening to you much better than I can."
At that moment Alex felt the buzzing sensation in his head again, thankfully this time it was less painful. Alex noticed Richie turn his head slightly. Alex wondered if Richie felt it also, but then he saw Richie reach into his leather jacket and turn his head in the direction of the door to the Diner. Just that moment a man who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with short black hair walked in. The man spotted Alex and Richie and made his way towards their table.
"Mac!?!" Richie exclaimed removing his hand from his jacket. "How did find us?"
"I got Joe to tell me," Duncan said as he pulled a chair up to the booth and sat down. "He contacted your watcher, and got me directions on how to find you. You've never handled a situation like this before, so I decided to come and help out."
The older man spoke with an accent that Alex couldn't quite place, it sounded like a variety of accents all rolled into one. Almost as if this man had been from many different places.
"Duncan Macleod," Duncan introduced himself holding his hand out.
"Alex Whitman," Alex said shaking Duncan's hand. "Can you tell me what's going on?"
"I guess I'll start from the beginning," Duncan said. "I was born in the highlands of Scotland, in Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel in 1592."
Alex smiled for a minute thinking he was joking, but seeing the serious look that Duncan and Richie were giving him he knew they were telling him the truth.
"Well you look great for...what?" Alex asked thinking. "Four hundred?"
"Four hundred and nine to be exact," Duncan said.
"And how old are you?" Alex asked looking at Richie.
"How old do I look Alex?" Richie said.
"I dunno, eighteen? nineteen?" Alex guessed.
"I had just turned nineteen when I died," Richie said. "That was eight years ago, I'm actually twenty-seven years old."
"How is that possible?" Alex asked.
"You, I, and Richie are part of a race of beings known as immortals," Duncan said. "You'll never get sick, you'll never grow old, and you'll never die."
Alex took a moment to absorb what Duncan said. "Okay," was his response.
"How did we become immortal?" Alex asked. "Is this an alien thing?"
"Aliens?" Duncan asked, his brow knitted with confusion.
"Oh I forgot too mention," Richie said. "Alex here is from Roswell, New Mexico. You know the place where that spaceship supposedly crashed."
'If only you knew,' Alex thought to himself.
"Oh I see," Duncan said. "Honestly we don't know, No immortal knows why we're here."
"Not even a five thousand year old pain in the neck," Richie muttered under his breath.
"What?" Alex asked.
"Oh nothing, just a thought," Richie said. "You know you've been taking this pretty well."
"Oh I've seen some things that are pretty far out there," Alex said raising his eyebrows and nodding his head.
Duncan didn't know what to make of Alex's comment, but decided to let that it slide as Alex began speaking him.
"When I was in the parking lot I felt this strange feeling in my head," Alex said. "And before you came into the Diner I felt it again. Is that a part of being immortal?"
"Yes," Duncan answered. "That's how we sense that another immortal is near."
"Is it always that painful?" Alex asked rubbing his temples.
"Only at first," Richie said. "After a while you get used to it."
"So where are we going?" Alex asked.
"Back to my place in Seacouver," Duncan said. "So I can teach you."
"Teach me what?" Alex asked
"How to fight, how to survive, how to blend in and disappear," Duncan said.
"How to fight!?!" Alex exclaimed. "Why would I need to learn that?"
Richie stopped eating, he knew this part would be the hardest for Alex to accept.
"Alex someday you're going to meet an immortal and he's going to try to kill you." Duncan said. "You're going to have to learn to defend yourself."
"But if I'm immortal how can I die," Alex asked. "You see it's bad enough I was already confused before, now I'm really clue less."
"You may be immortal Alex," Duncan said. "But there is a way you can die."
"How?" Alex asked.
"You can be killed if your head is cut off," Richie said.
Alex froze at hearing this and looked towards Richie.
"That's why you have a sword," Alex said quietly.
Richie nodded.
"Why would an immortal try to kill me?" Alex asked.
"To take your quickening," Duncan said. "When an immortal takes the head of another immortal, he receives all the knowledge, skill, and powers of the immortal he killed. This is called the quickening."
"What if I don't want to fight," Alex said.
"I never wanted to fight, to be immortal, to be a part of the game," Duncan said. "But it happened, and I have no choice in the matter whatsoever. And believe me Alex this isn't something you can avoid. It's your destiny, you can't run from it, you can't hide from it, and there's no way out of it. One day an immortal will come for you, the two of you will fight, and only one of you will walk away alive."
"Why does it have to be this way?" Alex asked.
"Because that's the number one rule," Duncan said. "In the end there can be only one."
"You mean one immortal?" Alex asked.
Both Duncan and Richie nodded.
"And what happens when their's only one?" Alex asked.
"The last remaining immortal will receive the prize," Duncan said.
"What's the prize?" Alex asked.
"The prize is all the knowledge and power of every immortal that has ever lived," Duncan said. "Enough power to either save the world or destroy it."
"What about my friends? My family?" Alex asked. "Can I at least go see them? Let them know I'm alive and well?"
Richie reached into his coat pocket to remove several newspaper clippings. He laid them on the table and slid them over to Alex.
"You should read these first," Richie said.
Alex took the clippings and recognized them as part of the Roswell Newspaper. Alex read the headline, 'Local youth killed in apparent suicide'. Alex turned started reading the one which the obituaries were on, singling out the one annoucing his funeral time. Alex tried reading but his eyes kept blurring, he was crying. Here he was in a Diner in the middle of nowhere, crying in front of two men who he didn't know. But none of that mattered to him at the moment. All that mattered was one word. One word that kept echoing in his mind.
Suicide. They think he committed suicide, they think he took his own life. He didn't remember how he died, but he knew for sure that he didn't kill himself. Everyone he had ever known and cared about believed that he drove his car head on into that semi. And they would continue to believe that for the rest of their lives. He couldn't just let them go on thinking that, he had to let them know it wasn't true. Alex looked up, tears rolling down his cheeks.
"They think I killed myself," Alex choked out. "They know me, they know I would never have done anything like that. I have to tell them it's not true."
"Listen Alex," Richie said handing Alex a napkin. "I know more than anything you want to go back to the life you once lead. But you have to let it go. Would you be able to watch everyone you ever loved grow old and die while you remain young forever?"
Alex didn't know how to answer that. Taking the napking from Richie he wiped the tears from his face. Could he deal with having to watch Liz or Maria fade away into nothing. And then there was Isabel, the girl he loved. The girl he would die for. And now that he couldn't die, could he bear to just sit there and watch her die? Alex was so confused, he didn't know what to do.
"Come to Seacouver with us," Duncan said. "We'll help you to get through this, we'll teach you what you need to know. You have to decide what's best for you and your loved ones. And when the time comes and you feel that you still need to meet with them, then we'll help you with that too."
Alex sat there, contemplating his situation. They had a point. He could never go back to his life in Roswell, not now, not ever. To the world Alex Charles Whitman was dead. And there was nothing he could do about it. He was immortal now, part of a game that had existed since the beginning of time. A game that knew no mercy, a game that chose people against their will and forced them to fight in a contest of kill or be killed. He had no choice but accept what Duncan had told him, that this was his destiny.
"Okay," Alex said realizing it was his only option.
"Well let's get going," Duncan said getting up from his chair. "We've got a long trip ahead of us."
"Oh, Alex," Richie said sliding out of the booth. "I don't mean to be rude or anything but could you please stop that. It's becoming really annoying."
"What?" Alex asked, looking up at Richie with a confused expression on his face.
"That," Richie said pointing towards the table.
Alex looked down and was surprised, he didn't even know that throughout the entire conversation his hand had been tapping the tabletop.
TBC...