Chapter 1

August 3, 2021; Year and a half earlier; Seattle, Washington

The smell reached her nostrils before the bus depot came into view. Urine, stale vomit, and the rich scent of rain doing its best to wash away the vile stench that greeted passengers. Seattle, Washington, transgenic central as the news had taken to calling the city.

Only a few short months ago, they claimed a small section of the city as their own. Had a flag flying and everything. One of the reasons she chose the city, who'd think to look for her in the middle of transgenic headquarters? And if worse came to worse, she could always tell them she's one of them. Thanks to Max saving her, she had some abilities, nothing like what they have, but enough to fool a bunch of transgenics...or at least she hoped.

A light tug on her sleeve took her attention away from staring out the window to look down at Jeremy still in her arms. "Stinky Mama." He pinched his nose closed, scrunching up his face in disgust.

"Yea, it's stinky here, huh?" She agreed. "Don't worry. Our house smells a lot better." Last week when she bought the place with a lot of help from her parents, she had Jeremy stay with them while she took one of their two trucks up to Seattle to sign papers and bring some small furniture up there.

The house was one of the "higher" quality homes. Amazingly, it was cheap because not many people wanted to live so close to "mutant freaks," the landlord's words not hers. He didn't understand why a woman with a small child would want to live relatively close to those monsters. All she told him was that it was none of his business and handed him the first three months rent, again thanks to her parents. It didn't bother her much to live so close to them; if they didn't bother her, she could care less how close they were.

Besides on the news where the hottest stories being covered were about the lab created people, she'd seen plenty of instances where they helped someone. She could understand the initial reaction of fear to people who were stronger, faster, and smarter than the average regular human. It's not fun to realize that you're not on top of the food chain any longer, but after seeing the acts of kindness and bravery being broadcasted live, it was hard to fear them, despite what news anchors and the government said.

Mom and Dad were coming up to Seattle in a couple days to help her with Jeremy until she got daycare set up. There were two more places she needed to check before making a decision. She couldn't leave her pride and joy with just anyone.

To say her parents were shocked when she came home after being gone for a little over three years, pregnant, and broke was an understatement. After she left her journal and the note for her parents, she was sure they never expected to see her again.

Although nervous as to what would happen when she returned, she never once doubted their love for her. No matter what she did, they would always love her and support her. May not like or agree with her choices, but they wouldn't abandon her; during those first three years the aliens were in their lives, she forgot that.

The bus lurched to a stop sending passengers and luggage forward. A loud honk from the driver followed by a stream of curse words a mile long caused a look of astonishment from Jeremy. "Mommy woogies."

"Yea he's saying woogies." She used the word Jeremy used for when people said bad words. "Remember what Mommy told you about woogies?" Liz asked. He nodded enthusiastically. "And what was it?"

"Growm ups on-e." He mumbled pass his finger.

"That's a good boy." Passengers stood up and began to gather their things. Jeremy put his small arms around her neck as she stood, and he wrapped his chubby legs around her waist as much as he could. With her one free hand, she slung her backpack over one shoulder and her son's small traveling suitcase under her arm. Then she reached down and grabbed the stroller before scooting out of the seat.

Jeremy rested comfortably on her hip; unlike the couple of other children on the bus, he was alert and aware of his surroundings. Jamie's hazel eyes scanned the crowd, a trait inherently his father's; when there were people around, it could get difficult to put him to sleep. It wasn't just curiosity that kept him awake, he was looking for threats.

As if satisfied the crowd posed no threat, he turned back to her and played with her curled hair. Jamie would pull on it and watch as it sprung back into place causing him to smile.

Once off the bus, she moved toward the luggage compartment and waited for the driver to start unloading. They didn't have to wait long for the driver to begin unloading the bus. She saw her large suitcase shoved near the very back.

Not wanting to wait any longer than necessary, she glanced around; no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to her. With Jeremy still in her arms she lifted two fingers off his body and motioned them towards her. The bags that were slowly being extracted from the bus were pulled out, falling in a heap on the wet ground.

Passengers yelled at the driver, angry that he was so careless with their belongings. The suitcase she had put in there landed on the top; quickly she pushed her way through, grabbed her suddenly available suitcase, and pushed forward through the crowd leaving the angry people behind.

Before she and the others left Roswell for what she thought would be for good, she had developed powers. When Max saved her, something changed in her body, and she became a little more like the aliens. As time went on, she and the others discovered that she had the aliens' basic powers: changing molecular structures, the ability to heal little things, a bit of explosive powers, and some telekinesis.

However, they also found she had a special power of her own that the others didn't have, premonitions. It was the reason they left, she saw their deaths, hers, Max's, Isabel's, Michael's, and Tess's. All of them dead at graduation.

So they called a meeting, the aliens had decided to leave along with her; as far as whoever was after them was concerned, she was an alien too. Kyle, Alex, Jesse, and Maria had a difficult decision to make though, whether to go with their friends or stay in Roswell.

Kyle decided to go because Max had saved him and it would only be a matter of time before he developed powers. Might as well be with people who could help him through it and teach him how to use his powers.

With Jesse, Alex, and Maria though they needed more time to think. All three had reasons to stay and reasons to go. In the end Jesse left, but he didn't leave with Isabel; instead he went to Boston where he said he'd wait for her, they could start a new life there, and they could be together. As of two and a half years ago, she still hadn't left to go be with Jesse.

Maria, who had wanted out of the alien madness, went with what she felt in her gut. Every nerve in her body had told her to go with the group. She felt it in her bones that for now at least she was meant to be with them.

When Maria made her decision, she came over to Liz's house and begged her to talk her out of going. She wanted to go to New York and get enrolled in a music program and sing like she always dreamed too. Her friend paced back and forth arguing with herself not allowing Liz to get a word in edge wise.

Finally when she calmed down to a reasonable level, Liz only said one thing. "What do you think you should do?"

Maria had been irritated saying something about what had she just been venting about for the last ten minutes. Liz in a sense waved her question away and told her to not think about anybody else, don't think about their friendship, don't think about Michael, or what they would do without a core member of their group, only think about herself. What did she want? What did she feel was the right choice?

For an hour, Maria stayed in her room talking about anything other than what she came there for. They had been chatting about everything to the point that Liz thought she had made her choice and was getting in one last girl talk for a while until it was time for Maria to leave, and she turned and said she was going with them, that she couldn't very well leave her best friend to live with the aliens all by her lonesome.

Liz said she would love to have Maria come but didn't want her to sacrifice her dream just because she thought Liz couldn't handle being alone. To which she said that it wasn't the reason she was going. The reason she decided on the choice she did was because [i]she[/i] couldn't handle being alone right then. She still had some growing to do before she ventured out on her own and she wanted to do it with her friends.

And lastly Alex, a week prior he had received a letter from MIT, he got a full scholarship. MIT was his dream but his true love would be leaving with her family. It all started when she asked for his help to decode the Destiny Book, from spending hours together every day, they found a friend in one another. It didn't take long for a romance to blossom.

In the end, he gave up his MIT dream and went with the one person he wanted to be with forever, Tess Harding. Many people in school didn't understand their relationship, some thought it was all a bet and Alex was a pity date; why would Tess, one of the more beautiful girls in school willingly date Alex? He may be a musician, but in high school, he was still classified as a dork. Boy did Tess and Alex set them straight when they were caught in the Eraser Room making out on one of the tables.

Finding a corner, Liz set down the suitcase, and then placed Jeremy in the stroller. The stroller was the same one her parents used with her when she was little. She then put her backpack over the handles and put his little suitcase in the backpack.

When she closed it up, she picked up her suitcase again and pushed Jeremy toward the parking lot. Stopping when she reached the lot, she pulled out her car keys from her jeans pocket, the hard denim scraped at her knuckles as she dug for the warmed metal.

Mom, a week previously, had paid for a car so she wouldn't have to walk everywhere in Seattle. There were only twelve cars in the parking lot, she instantly knew seven of them weren't hers, they were trucks, and Mom said she got her a regular vehicle.

Pushing the lock button on the remote she saw a car blink its lights as if happily welcoming her to the city. The car was a late 09' model Dodge neon, one of the last cars made that year before the pulse hit. Normally, the car would have been picked clean for parts being left there for a couple days unattended. Dad had a friend though that lived there and kept it for her 'til today when he dropped it off.

Being a fourteen-year-old car, it wasn't in the best shape, but as long as it ran and kept them dry during the rain, she was a happy camper. While the parking garage was outside, it was under a canopy, so for the most part, it was free of water droplets.

Liz popped the trunk and loaded her suitcase and backpack in. Closing the trunk, she rolled Jeremy's stroller to the back; unhooking the car seat attachment, she buckled her son into place and shut the door. Jogging to the other side of the car, she opened her door.

The second she got in, she locked the door; it was a habit that she and millions of other people had. When the pulse hit, people went crazy; they'd see a car and break in, didn't matter if someone was in it already or not. There were times when a group of people would hide in a parking structure and wait for their next victim.

Liz remembered reading a story in the newspaper once about a woman who hadn't locked the door behind her, and out of nowhere, three masked men opened the door and pulled the woman out by the hair tossing her onto the ground. The men took off with her two children in the back seat. Thankfully the children had been left a couple blocks away from the police station unharmed. But it spooked a lot of people, and to this day, the habit of locking the door as soon as that door closed stuck.

Crossing her fingers, Liz put the key into the ignition and turned. It sputtered for a few seconds, but it revved to life. She breathed a sigh of relief and slowly pulled out of the parking space. After maneuvering through the maze known as the parking garage, she finally made it out onto the main road and was on her way to her and Jeremy's new home.

TBC