Two Sides of the Coin
Rating: Teen/Mature
Part Four
They worked for hours along with the rescue crew getting people out of the bus. Liz did her best to distract people while Zan did what he could to heal them. Amazingly, there hadn't been any fatalities, with the exception of the bus driver. Zan tried to heal him, but the damage to his heart had been too great. When nobody was looking, Liz climbed back into the bus and located her bag, and her journal. She grabbed her belongings and climbed off the bus and walked over to a nearby police car.
"Can you show me where I should go to get a ride back into town?" she asked, politely.
"Were you on the bus, miss?" the officer asked her.
She stifled the impulse to give a Maria like wise answer and smiled instead.
"Yes, I was, and I'd like to get to a town and make arrangements to continue my journey," she explained.
"I'm sorry miss, everybody that was on the bus needs to be checked out before they can leave," the officer explained.
Liz suppressed a sigh and thanked him and pretended to walk toward one of the nearby ambulances. She looked back over her shoulder and waved to the police officer with whom she had spoken. One more look over her shoulder assured her that he wasn't looking, and she jogged down the embankment toward the woods.
"Hey, Liz, wait!" a voice called. Liz sighed and stopped. She didn't want to wait. She didn't want to have anything to do with this person. He was too much of a reminder of what she had lost. She didn't care why he was here or why he lied about his identity. She just didn't want anything to do with it.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked grabbing her by the arm.
"Away. From here. From you," Liz said through gritted teeth. "You're not my protector, now leave me alone."
"Not happenin babe," Zan said. "You know how it is with us protectors. I was given an order, I have to obey it."
"Obey this," Liz said. "Bite me!"
"I'd love to," Zan said, suggestively, forgetting for a minute who he was supposed to be.
Liz, tired of the games, jerked her arm free and began to walk away. Zan watched with admiration for a minute before grabbing his bag and jogging after her.
"I'm going with you," he said, when he caught up with her.
"You don't get it, do you?" said Liz. "Listen carefully, I'm speaking English here. I do not want anything to do with you. Do you understand now?"
"And don't you get it?" asked Zan. "I have to do this. I couldn't not do it even if I wanted to."
Liz didn't bother to respond; instead she turned and started walking back toward the accident site. As soon as it was within site, she began to call out.
"Hey, I'm hurt, can I have some help here?" she shouted, affecting a fake limp.
The same police officer that Liz had spoken to earlier jogged over and assessed Liz, carefully.
"What happened," he asked. "I thought you said you were okay."
"Actually, Liz said, "I was walking over to get checked out like you said when I got dizzy. I slipped down the embankment and sprained my ankle. So maybe I could catch a ride into town with one of the ambulances or something?"
"Liz, hey, Liz, wait up," a voice called. Liz turned and saw Zan and sighed. He just didn't know how to take a hint.
"Will you please just leave me alone," she hissed, after he caught up with her.
"Is this man bothering you, miss?" the police officer asked.
"No, he's not," Liz sighed. Despite all her aggravation with the whole alien population in general, she wasn't about to betray one of them in any way. "We just had an argument on the bus, that's all."
"Lover's quarrel?" the cop asked in a knowing voice, giving Zan a wink.
"Yeah, something like that," said Zan.
Liz shot Zan a heated look, but kept her silence and allowed him to follow her to the ambulance.
"Don't you get it," she hissed when they were out of earshot of the police. "I don't want you here. I've given up on the whole alien encounter thing. I don't want anything to do with it. It's over, get it?"
"Fine, whatever!" Zan shouted, finally exasperated with Liz's attitude. "You'se is nuthin to me, and I'm freakin sick of watchin over you. I wish I ain't never seen you before. I don't give a shit what happens to you, got it?"
Relieved, Liz started to walk away, glad that he finally got the message, but something against her will stopped her and made her look back. She saw him, standing and watching. Just watching. He didn't make any effort to follow her, but his eyes never left her.
Almost against her will, she found herself walking back toward him. It was as if some invisible force was pulling her to him. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't. Reluctantly, she walked back to him. The sound of the gravel underneath her feet filled her ears as she drew closer to him.
"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.
"I'm not doing anything," he replied.
"You need to let me go. I don't want to be here, don't you understand that?"
"Liz, it's not me that's holding you here, it's you," Zan said.
"It's not me, it's not," she practically sobbed. "I just want out of this whole existence. I just want to be normal!"
"What's so great about normal?" Zan asked, reaching out awkwardly to touch her shoulder.
"What? What did you say?" Liz asked.
"What's so great about normal? Do you really want to be like all the rest of them? Running around in their meaningless little lives, is that what you want?"
"What I want to know is who are you, really?" Liz demanded. That was a phrase Max had used. It wasn't a Zan phrase at all. There was something strange going on, and she was determined to find out what it was.
"I told you, I'm like one of the protectors," Zan said. It wasn't really a lie. Max had asked him to watch over Liz and protect her. He wasn't sure what he had said that had caused such a rapid change in Liz. Granted, his the way he talked had changed since he left New York and started following Max. He only reverted back to his old way of talking when he was upset, like he did after Liz went off on him. But it wasn't that slip that had intrigued her. It was something else. Something he said after. He just wished he could figure out what it was.