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 61: Thursday Evening
It was five minutes past six o'clock in the evening when the growing commotion of people talking and moving about outside their room caused Phillip and Diane to stop their discourse and turn their full attentions to it. What made the disturbance unusual was the size of it. They were accustomed to interactions between the MPs who stood guard in the hall and the occupants in the other rooms. They had themselves on five occasions called an MP to their room to put a question to him or voice a complaint, and once they summoned him for a bathroom break. The MPs also interacted with them when lunch was delivered to their rooms and later when the trays were taken away. The MPs were always polite and attentive for the most part. They did what they could within the limits of what they could do to make their stay comfortable. Because of their relatively good nature and polite demeanor, several of their guests were emboldened to be difficult. Their raucous complaints and demands were frequently heard resonating down the hall. But these were always isolated incidents between one or two MPs and the occupants of a single room. What was happening at this moment seemed to be spreading into several rooms, and it was coming closer to them.
Phillip and Diane were lying, cuddled together, on one of the single occupancy beds when they heard a knock on the door across the hall from them. They both listened intensely to the conversation that followed. The exchange was quick and polite. The MP asked that Mr. and Mrs. Ross come with him. They heard no reply to that, but they did hear the movement of feet. This suggested to them that Mr. and Mrs. Ross, who were people they did not know, were following the instructions of the MP. Phillip and Diane were made curious by that. Their minds began entertaining questions about where they were going and what was happening. Before they could vocalize these thoughts to one another they were distracted by the sound of someone knocking on their door.
"Come in," Phillip instructed a second after he and Diane had gotten to their feet.
A second later, a tall MP opened the door and stepped just over the threshold before speaking in a polite manner.
"Mr. and Mrs. Evans, will you please come with me?"
"Where are we going?" Phillip challenged.
"The cafeteria," the MP answered without hesitation.
"I'm not interested in food. I want to know what's going on," Phillip countered with a flash of temper.
The MP seemed completely unfazed by that demand. He continued to display a polite countenance in his response.
"I'm sorry, sir, I know less than you about what's going on. My instructions are to escort you to the cafeteria."
Phillip took a second to examine the MP and then walked out the door hand in hand with Diane. In the hall they noted several other people, men and women, walking down the hall towards the center stairwell.
"If you'll just follow them," the MP directed with a point.
Phillip and Diane had just completed three steps down the hall when they heard a familiar voice behind them. When they turned about to look, they saw Jeff Parker angrily entering the hall at the direction of another MP. With him was his wife, Nancy. Jeff was in the middle of making threats of lawsuits and criminal charges when he and Nancy noticed them. Jeff stopped his complaining at that instant and hurried toward them with Nancy in hand.
"What the hell is going on here?" Jeff questioned an instant after stopping in front of Phillip and Diane.
"I don't know," Phillip softly responded with a shake of his head.
"Where's Liz?" Diane questioned Nancy with a hint of desperation in her voice.
"I don't know," Nancy answered back quickly, with equal anxiety. "She wasn't in the house when we got up this morning."
"Neither was Max and Isabel," Diane confided.
"What do they want with our children?" Nancy questioned back with a terrified look.
Just as Nancy spoke, Phillip noticed that the MP who came to his door was escorting someone out of the room that was further down the hall. Jeff followed his look. A second later they were both surprised to see Jim Valenti walk out of that room. He noticed them an instant later and then turned and walked towards them at an unhurried pace. His expression carried a bit of a scowl that seemed to be directed at everything around him with exception for the Evans and the Parkers.
"You folks alright?" Jim asked as soon as he reached them.
Jeff ignored the question and jumped to the one he was most interested in at that moment.
"Do you know what's going on?"
"We're being detained," Jim reported under his breath as he continued to scowl at his surroundings.
"Detained?" Jeff questioned loudly and with an inflection of incredulity. "What the hell is that supposed to mean."
Before Jim could respond to that, Phillip put a quick question to him.
"Is Kyle missing?"
"Yeah," Jim responded with a quick look to Phillip. "… your kids?"
Phillip and Jeff answered this with a nod and a "yes." Before they could discuss it any further a MP politely interrupted them and requested that they continue down to the cafeteria. The five of them put up no resistance to that and proceeded down the hall and then down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs on the ground floor was another MP. He directed them towards a door a short distance down a center hall that another MP was attending to. When they got to that door, the MP opened it and ushered them in.
The instant they walked through the door, the Parkers, the Evans and Jim were engulfed in the smells of cooked food. After a few steps into the room, they located the serving area where the aroma was coming from. There were no cafeteria workers anywhere in the room and only a few takers for the food. A collection of men and women of mature age were seated at tables at the front of the cafeteria in a cluster. Jim noted that Russell Guerin was chomping away at a plate full of food, but the most that any of the others were having was drinks.
"Nancy," Amy DeLuca called out as she jumped up from her seat and hurried towards her. They quickly hugged and separated.
"What's happening?" Amy questioned Nancy with an astonished look.
Nancy responded to that with a confused shake of her head and a muffled, "I don't know."
Without hesitation, Amy turned to Jim with a questioning look.
"Why did they bring us here?"
Amy was not the only person in the room looking to Jim for answers. The other parents, minus Russell Guerin, got up behind Amy and moved to within speaking distance. Before Jim could answer Amy's inquiry, he began hearing new ones from the group. Most wanted to know why they were brought there. But all, minus Russell Guerin, wanted to know where their kids were.
"That's what they want to know," Jim responded to the group. "They're looking for our children."
Jim was instantly hit with a barrage of questions that varied on the same request.
"Why do they want our kids?"
"I don't know," Jim spoke up loudly to silence the group. "But I think our children do."
A second after that, a murmur of confused questions began between the parents. This went on for a dozen seconds before Phillip spoke up to organize their inquiries.
"Wait a minute," Phillip spoke loudly.
Almost immediately, all talking stopped and all eyes turned to Phillip.
"We need to find out what our kids have in common," Phillip continued in a voice loud enough for all to hear. "My son and my daughter are seniors at Roswell High. Is that true for everyone here?"
There was an immediate response to this. All concurred that their children were seniors in high school. But several of them were quick to point out that their children attended either Goddard or University High Schools. After that they began examining their children's relationships with each other. Most had no knowledge that their children were acquainted with the children of the other parents, and all were surprised to learn that they had secretly met together inside the old soap factory building. After ten minutes of researching every possible way that they could think of for their children to be acquainted, the group settled into an exhausted silence.
It was now that Russell Guerin chose to toss out his feelings on the whole situation. Up until this moment, he had nothing to add to their conversation. He had no idea how Michael was connected with any of their children, and he did not care. It was only this lull in their conversation that prompted him to say anything at all.
"Well, I don't know about any of your kids," Russell announced with indifference. "But Michael is a freak of nature, and I wish to god I had never adopted him."
Russell Guerin had Jim's full attention an instant after that remark. Amy knew that Michael was adopted and so did the Evans, but this was news to everyone else and astonishingly so to Jim and the Parkers.
"You adopted Michael?" Jim questioned Russell with a surprised expression.
"Hell yeah," Russell answered back with a tinge of anger. "You don't think my wife would have run off without him if he was her kid."
Everyone there noticed Jim's surprise at hearing that, but it was Jeff who was first to question it.
"Why?" Jeff questioned in an alarmed tone. "What's so important about that?"
Jim took a moment to ponder the inquiry before answering it with reluctance.
"Kyle is adopted."
The Evans, the Parkers and Amy were shocked to hear that. The rest of the parents were also listening to this with extreme interest. After taking a moment to assimilate this new information, Phillip made a confession, softly.
"Max and Isabel are adopted."
"Oh my god," Amy blurted out an instant before bringing her hands up to her mouth.
"Is that what this is about?" Jeff questioned loudly as he stood up with an angry expression.
Several others in the room stood up to better hear and see what was being said. Nancy looked up at her husband in stunned silence. Jim took note that all within the room, except for Russell Guerin, were equally as shocked as Nancy. His suspicion told him that this was the commonality between all their children, and he tentatively put this theory to the test.
"Everyone who adopted raise a hand."
To the surprise of all there, they all raised their hands. After several seconds of amazed silence Jim responded to that discovery.
"That can't be a coincidence."
"But what does it mean?" Amy questioned with an inflection of worry.
"It doesn't mean anything," Jeff asserted strongly. "It's not a crime to adopt."
As they were speaking, Phillip was pondering another question. After Jeff made his assertion; he put his thinking to the test with a gently spoken statement.
"We adopted from the Holcomb Children's Home in Albuquerque."
There was an audible gasp from several that was heard throughout the room. It took little more than a minute for all there to confirm that they too adopted from that institution. Even after that was uncovered, all there were still confused. No one knew where to go from there. It seemed obvious to everyone that this was somehow responsible for this whole event, but how was beyond any of them to imagine. A silence fell over the room as all there tried to make sense of this revelation. It was a couple of minutes later when General Pittman and Major Ryan Kawecki walked into the room. Ryan was carrying a small two-way radio that was just big enough to be too big to fit in any of his pockets.
Following behind General Pittman and Ryan were four airmen in fatigues and sidearms. Two of them came to a stop a short distance into the cafeteria's front entrance and took an at ease stance. The other two went to the rear entrance and took identical postures. These men were not Military Police. They wore no insignia with that designation. General Pittman came to a stop a few feet in front and at the center of the formation of parents. Ryan came to a stop at his right and a step behind. All eyes of the parents were on them the instant they walked into the cafeteria.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is General William Pittman," he began in a strong clear voice.
"Where are our children?" Nancy called out before he could say more.
"We're looking for your children, Mrs. Parker," General Pittman answered calmly.
"Why?" Jim questioned quickly. "What do you want with our kids?"
General Pittman paused for a moment to scan the faces of the parents. At the end of this time, he responded to Jim's question in a succinct delivery.
"Your children are not what you think they are."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jeff roared back at him.
"It means Mr. Parker," General Pittman returned gruffly. "Your children are of extraterrestrial origins.
From the instant that General Pittman said that the parents began verbalizing their amazement with loud exclamations of disbelief. General Pittman gave no response to their expletive retorts other than to hold his stance and wait for the parents to go quiet. After nearly a minute all eyes settled on him as he stood there in defiance of their reaction. He then began to explain.
"Two years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Parker, your daughter, Elizabeth Parker, was shot. To the surprise of the attending doctor, she not only survived the wound; she did so in spectacular fashion. So much so that the doctor took it upon himself to send her blood out to a lab to be analyzed. The results of that analysis made its way to the Pentagon."
The parents were enthralled with that report. No one moved. Not a sound was made as they continued to listen to General Pittman's report.
"The blood was subjected to further study by a battery of geneticists, biochemists, neurogeneticists and molecular biologists. They all came to the same conclusion. Your daughter wasn't conceived by anyone on this planet. She was engineered."
The parents all but held their breaths as they assimilated what they were being told. General Pittman paused only long enough to glance about the room and then he continued with his report.
"What was even more fascinating in their report was the statement that the expertise necessary to engineer your daughter was a thousand years ahead of anything that can be done today."
General Pittman paused again to look into the faces of the parents. After noticing that he still had their full attention, he continued with his report.
"As a result of that report, we, the Department of Defense organized a phony health scare and took a DNA sample of every registered person in Chaves County. That's when we discovered that there were twelve more individuals like Ms. Parker living in Roswell … all the same age … and all of them adopted out of the Holcomb Children's Home by someone in this room."
There was no immediate response to that. The parents sat in stunned silence as they searched for the flaw in General Pittman's logic. While they deliberated on this, the one parent who was not in disbelief spoke up with sarcasm.
"So, that's what he is," Russell Guerin contemptuously remarked.
"No, there must be a mistake," Diane asserted.
"There's no mistake, Mrs. Evans," General Pittman countered soberly. "Your children know this, and that's why they're running. And it would be to your advantage to help us find them."
"And how do you figure that?" Jim calmly inquired.
"Right now," General Pittman began with a pleasant expression on his face. "There are a few hundred operatives of the Department of Defense out searching for your … children. If this goes public, every law enforcement agency in the country will be looking for them. Their faces will be televised and published across all news mediums, and then every nut with a gun will be hunting for them."
The parents went deathly silent at the hearing of that. Their faces became masks of panic as all there struggled to wrap their minds around what they were just told. Shortly into that quiet, Ryan began hearing a transmission coming through the two-way radio in his hand. He quickly, brought his hand up to the earpiece to facilitate hearing the caller. He listened for a moment, and then he brought the phone up to his mouth and spoke into it.
"This is Major Kawecki, report, over."
General Pittman turned his attention towards Ryan and waited on his report. He knew that the call was coming from his Command-and-Control Center. The radio was his link to it while he was away. After a few seconds of listening, Ryan spoke back into the radio.
"Maintain surveillance and wait for further orders, over and out."
Ryan then looked to General Pittman and answered his unspoken question. "We've found them."
As General Pittman began moving quickly towards the exit, the Evans, the Parkers, Jim, Amy and the rest of the parents jumped to their feet while shouting questions at his back.
"Was that about our children?"
"Where are they?"
"Are they okay?"
"What are you going to do?"
General Pittman ignored these questions as he rushed towards the exit. As he passed the two airmen standing ten feet into the cafeteria, he barked out an order.
"Stay here. Nobody leaves."
A second later, General Pittman and Ryan were out the cafeteria door. It was six fifty-five in the evening.