Many of the characters within this story, and the universe they inhabit, are the intellectual property of Jason Katims Productions.
Roswell: Re-Imagined
Written by Horatio Jaxx
Chapter 50: Watching the Watchers
The Roswell Thirteen first became aware that they were being watched outside of school when Max and Liz sat on the grass by the football field during a study break. It was a hot and sunny September day. They were sitting under a tree when they saw two Deputy Sheriffs approach a parked van and call out the occupant. That event caught their attention only because it was easily visible to them. Curiosity motivated Max and Liz to peek in on the thoughts of all involved there. Shortly after reading the thinking of the man that the Deputy Sheriff had called out, they learned of a second man inside the van. Several seconds later, they knew that both men were agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and that they had been video recording them. From the Deputy Sheriffs they learned that this was not the first van that they had seen staking out their school.
Max and Liz were quick to pass this information along to the other members of their group of thirteen. In reaction to the news, they all began actively scanning the thoughts of strangers, especially people in parked vehicles. Within a few weeks' time they had mapped a web of surveillance that tracked their movements and watched their homes. They discovered that cameras with high powered lens and sound amplifying microphones were frequently recording them when they were outside. That discovery frightened them, but it also provided them with a way of monitoring their monitors.
They're only watching us, so let's keep watching them, Max projected during lunch hour.
Initially that plan was embraced with extreme reservations. They all feared that their watchers would come to collect them before they had time to escape, but that idea became less of a worry as they collected and monitored more thoughts.
They're making plans to watch us for the entire school year, Kyle projected.
But can we trust that? Maria projected in counter.
We can, Isabel projected in response. We just have to keep acting normal.
Everyone thought that doing nothing was a risky plan, but they all knew that running was far riskier, and that it would force the hand of the people who were watching them. After choosing again and again to do nothing from one day to the next, the thirteen settled into the plan of waiting and watching their watchers.
Over the next several weeks, the thirteen learned the names and faces of all the agents who were shadowing them. But for all their mind reading of their watchers, they still did not know why they were just watching them. The agents in the field only knew that they were to observe and report. The people behind the field agents were mostly unknown to the thirteen and were believed to be too far away to read even if they did know who they were. The one name they did learn of was Major Ryan Kawecki. The watchers knew him as their immediate commander, but the thirteen had no idea where he was.
Over the next three months, the Roswell Thirteen learned nothing more about their watchers. Because of their preference for appearing oblivious to these OSI agents, the Roswell Thirteen forced themselves to act like normal teenagers. They never openly did anything that made them look different from anyone else, and they avoided saying anything that suggested they were being secretive.
As time went on, the Roswell Thirteen grew increasingly unconcerned about their watchers. The condition was reinforced by the thoughts they were reading from their minds. It became known to them through many reads of their thoughts that they were under strict orders to not disrupt their lives. The Roswell Thirteen took solace from that. All of them, minus Isabel, found comfort in their freedom to be average teenage couples, and that gave them hope that their relationships would endure regardless of what was to come. For Isabel, the status of being romantically unattached made her feel isolated and alone.
Max noted Isabel's growing depression and tried on several occasions to lift her spirits, and he managed to do that to a small degree for brief periods. Her parents, Phillip and Diane Evans, noticed her increasingly sullen behavior as well. They inquired about it to Isabel and to Max numerous times, but the answer they got back never seemed to be a match for Isabel's state of mind. Their feelings on the subject gradually focused in on the fact that their daughter had no boyfriend. That thinking lead to an embarrassing conversation between them and their daughter. The talk ended with a loud, angry, emotional outburst from Isabel.
"I'm fine. Just mined your own business!"
Phillip and Diane were so unnerved by her reaction that they resolved to wait out the phase they hoped she was in.
Phillip and Diane also came to a concession with regards to Liz Parker. Halfway through Max's and Liz's senior year, they both concluded that the relationship between the two of them was too intense to try and discourage. They feared that their disapproval was pushing them together. This new position was assisted by Isabel's confession that she had misjudged Liz. The sight of Isabel and Liz socializing on several occasions gave Phillip and Diane cause to give Liz a second chance. They welcomed her into their home, and Liz made good use of the opportunity. She charmed her way into their affections despite all their efforts to resist.
Jeff and Nancy Parker came to a similar resolution with regards to Max. They still feared that he was a threat to their daughter's future, but they did not want to give him ammunition in that. Frightened that Liz might rebel against them and do the opposite of what they wanted; the Parkers gave Max permission to visit their daughter. That decision was helped by their determination to not be upstaged by Phillip and Diane. Eager to win the approval of Liz's parents, Max took full advantage of the opportunity. He attempted to ingratiate himself with the Parkers at every opportunity. Nancy Parker was frequently amused by his clumsy attempts to win her approval, but she kept a wary eye just the same. Jeff Parker was not amused at all and distrusted him even more for the effort. Nonetheless, he felt obliged to endure Max Evans presence in his home. Liz was a straight A student again and secret searches of her room produced no drugs or condoms.
The romantic relationships of the six couples within the Roswell Thirteen were hampered by the surveillance of their watchers, but that was true more so at the beginning. Their public appearances were more performance than spontaneity, but that was because they knew they were being recorded. As time passed, they began to relax inside their surveillance fishbowl and that made it easier to be spontaneous. Less than a month out from the end of the school year, the thirteen had become all but indifferent to being watched and recorded from afar. Despite that indifference, any effort to watch and/or listen to them in a private space was now the trip wire for fleeing Roswell.
A factor that the Roswell Thirteen were calculating into their thinking was their dreams. Since their last merge, they were all having protracted shadowy dreams of the outcrop in the middle of the wilderness. The intensity of these dreams surpassed any they had before. Much of what they were seeing in their dreams was lost to them when they woke up, but the residue of it was always there, and the influence it was having was pronounced. Each of them knew that they were experiencing a programmed need to stay in Roswell and to answer the call from the rock outcrop in the desert. But that awareness changed nothing. The pull of their dreams lured them through their senior year with its perceptible effect on their decisions. It was the hypnotic hold of these dreams that lulled them into a passive regard for their watchers. None of them thought to buck the call of their dreams until a startling new piece of information came along.
"I am so tired of this place. I'll be glad when these brats graduate, and I can finally go home."
Max read that thought out of the mind of a watcher when he was speaking the words. He captured that thought during his second period math class, as he stared through the window at the van the watcher was in. He then passed it along to Isabel, Michael, Liz, Maria and Kyle during fourth period lunch.
We need to find that outcrop, Michael mentally projected across the cafeteria.
If we go stomping around in the desert, they're going to become suspicious, Isabel projected back.
They're already suspicious, Michael counter projected.
What if nothing is out there, Kyle projected into the debate. What if these dreams are just a memory of something that once was?
We have to do something, Maria projected in her support for Michael.
If we start acting different, they may decide not to wait, Kyle projected back. Doing the wrong thing could cost us the time we have left.
Isabel, Liz and Maria were clearly feeling ill at ease with this conversation. Isabel's look of anxiety prompted an inquiry from Emilie, who was sitting across the table from her.
"You alright…?"
"Yeah … I'm just feeling a little nauseous," Isabel responded with a surprised look towards Emilie.
"Maybe you should go the nurse's office," Emilie suggested back.
"I'm fine … I'll be alright," Isabel insisted with more than a hint of exasperation.
The three young ladies seated at the table with Isabel took note of her unpleasant temperament and turned their attentions away from her.
Kyle, too, was having problems managing the telepathic exchange he was having and the vocal conversation that was going on at the table where he was sitting.
"Yo! Kyle, what's up?" Scott loudly inquired.
"I've got something on my mind," Kyle suddenly reacted with a stern look at Scott.
"You want to share?" Scott questioned with a large grin on his face.
"No, I don't," Kyle sharply retorted with a scowl towards Scott.
Kyle then sat back in his chair, folded his arms across his chest and focused his attention on the plate in front of him. Scott and the others at the table quickly realized that he did not want to be a part of their conversation and began directing their comments to one another.
We have to meet, all of us, Max projected at the end of several seconds of thought on the subject.
We can't, Liz projected a second behind his remark. If they see us all together, they'll suspect that we're conspiring to do something.
That's just it, Max projected back with a solemn look towards Liz. We have to do something.
Max continued to look into Liz's eyes with a mixture of fear and affection in his own. A few seconds later he projected an addendum to his last thought.
We graduate in two weeks.