Chapter 24 – Memory

"So, what your saying me is after Liz got shot, Max healed her?" Jim asked Alex as he steered the Bronco down the dark highway.

"Yes, no, wait," said Alex, confused. "It wasn't Liz, it was Maria, but the thing is, Sheriff, you're not the only one who keeps mixing that up. Liz has had dreams that she was shot, and Max has mentioned it, too. We all seem to be remembering things that happened, but we're remembering them differently."

"I'm not really sure why I believe you, Alex, but I do. Nothing about this makes sense, but I'm going with my gut on this one," said Jim Valenti. He took his eyes off the road briefly and looked at the young man sitting in the passenger seat beside him. In all his years as Sheriff, he'd never had a run in with Alex, and even though his tale was bordering on the brink of insanity, he was certain he was telling the truth. His mind was screaming that it was all lies, but somewhere, within the deepest recesses of his heart, he knew he was hearing the truth.

"Are you going to turn them in?" Alex asked, hesitantly.

"No, God helm me, I'm not," said the Sheriff. "First off, who'd believe me, and secondly, can't they just erase my memory or something to stop me from doing that?"

"They can't do," Alex began, then stopped as another memory washed over them.

"Alex, what is it!" shouted the Sheriff, alarmed at the expression on Alex's face.

"They can't do that," Alex continued, his voice bleak. "But Tess can, and that's how I'm going to die."

We need to figure this out," said Max, looking around the large table at the others. "And fast. I can't help but feel like something, or someone is working against us."

"Well that's really brilliant," Kyle said, antagonistically. "Considering what happened to Michael and all."

"Look, it's not like you know anything about it," said Max, his voice tinged with anger.

"Yeah, well it looks like I know as much about it as you do," said Kyle. "And that's absolutely nothing."

"Will you two shut up and sit down," Isabel hissed. "You're causing a scene, an the waitress is coming over with our pizza."

Max and Kyle glared at each other in silent enmity while the waitress placed the steaming pizzas on the table. After verifying that they didn't want anything else, she left the table, and Liz began to pass around slices of the pie in an attempt to end the awkward silence.

Maria reached across the table and handed Michael a bottle of Tabasco Sauce, and a packet of sugar and began to eat her pizza. After several bites, she put the slice down and looked warily at the others who were staring at her.

"What, do I have cheese on my face or something?" she asked.

"Why did you give Michael the Tabasco Sauce, and the sugar?" Isabel asked.

"He puts the Tabasco in his soda, and the sugar is for the pizza," said Maria. "Why?"

"But how did you know that?" asked Isabel.

"I don't know, I just knew it," said Maria. "It wasn't anything I thought about, I just did it."

"It's happening again," said Max.

"Isabel, do you have my journal?" asked Liz. Isabel nodded and passed the journal to Liz, who flipped over her placemat and began to scribble rapidly, often referring back to pages in her journal. Within minutes she had a list of all her memories. She drew separate columns for each of the others and began to write in the different memories they had as well.

"Well," she said after she was done writing. "Either we're all having one great big giant déjà vu experience, or something is radically wrong here."

"Something is radically wrong here," said Alex, pulling up a chair and sitting down. "I think I know how I'm going to die."

Isabel gave a small gasp at Alex's pronouncement and knocked over a glass of water, which spilled into the lap of Sheriff Valenti who had taken a seat at the corner of the table next to Isabel.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sheriff Valenti!" she cried. "Let me take care of that for you." She covered her hand with a napkin and held it over the sheriff's lap, and when she removed her hand, his pants were completely dry.

"Isabel," Max hissed. "What are you doing?"

"What!" she retorted. "I thought we decided we could trust him."

"Coffee!" Liz said suddenly. "You did the same thing for me with the coffee."

"That's right," said Isabel. "It was all over your shirt. I didn't want to help you; in fact, I resented the hell out of you. Why, though, why was I resentful of you?"

"I don't know," said Liz. "But it's one more thing to add to the list." She reached for her pen and began to scribble on the placemat once more.

"Alex," she said when she had finished. "What do you mean you know how you're going to die? Nobody's going to die!"

"Don't give me that, Liz. Even you yourself said it one time," Alex argued. "Some how, for some reason, most of us have a memory of me dying, and I'm pretty positive I know how it happens. One of you kill me," he added, looking at the aliens.

Max, Michael and Isabel, drew back imperceptibly at Alex's pronouncement, all of them feeling as though they had been physically attacked. They looked at each other in horror. None of them felt capable hurting anybody, let alone kill anyone.

"Hold on there, Alex," said the Sheriff. "That's a pretty harsh statement to make, no matter what's going on."

"Sheriff, it's true," said Alex. "I swear to you, I'm not making this up. Nobody could make any of this up. It's too bizarre. I started remembering something when you made that comment about erasing your memory. That's what someone did. Well not erase exactly, but they pushed at my brain so hard, there was nothing left. I was like a walking, talking vegetable."

"You were fighting with them," said Kyle, quietly, continuing Alex's tale. "You were in my room, arguing and crying about how she had pushed and pushed, and now there was nothing left, and then you were on the ground."

"Isabel?" Maria whispered. "You?"

"No, it wasn't Isabel," said Liz. "It was Tess."