"Kali, how did you know where I was?" El asked.

She pulled some of her hair behind her ear as the pizza van putted along the highway. "I used the Void," she said.

"You couldn't do that before," El said. "Thank you for riding with us so we could talk."

"No problem. I had some training from a friend, a psychic."

"That's great!" El said. "You are getting stronger."

Mike listened intently, while Jonathon used their second-hand shop Bushnell binoculars to watch the road. He didn't move much, as the road seemed unendingly straight. Argyle yawned.

"Who was it?" El asked.

"Just a guy," she said, but El noticed her eyes growing wetter and she avoided the subject.

"Are you still tracking Hawkins Lab workers?" She asked.

"No…" she muttered, "I've changed my mind about that." She looked away and shifted in her seat. "I just…"

The van lurched to the side abruptly and wobbled up and down.

"Flat tire!" Argyle said.

The van bucked and wobbled as it came to a stop, but the shaking continued. Jonathon opened the door.

"Earthquake!" He shouted. The land rose and fell and the road undulated. A grinding low rumble could be heard everywhere. "How strange!" He jumped back in the van and the world continued to convulse.

Both vehicles bounced and rolled for a few more seconds, then it all stopped. Will looked around, then got out the side sliding door suddenly, and it slammed with a bang. He pointed up the road. In the afternoon sun, his form cast a long shadow ahead of him.

"A gate?" he asked. "Is there a gate up there!?" His hair blew in the warm wind, and the sky looked as if storm clouds were forming.

El stood next to Will as he pointed. He indicated a sort of hillside and cliffs of bare peachy orange rock. Will chewed on his lip.

"Uh, what's a gate?" Asked Argyle.

"I can't say just now," Jonathon said. He scanned the horizon with his binoculars but stopped when looking back down the road.

"But we're being followed," he said.

In his heat-wave distorted view, he saw a tan-colored car and a man in a white shirt and tie looking back at him with his own binoculars.

Kali hopped out and strode for her bus, shouting, "Let's get out of here!"

The groups sped off down the road for five miles. Then they saw the roadblock. The Army vehicles and police cars stopped all traffic and a long line of cars waited.

"Can you conceal us with this many people?" El asked Kali through the CB.

"I'll try," she said from the bus, the CB making crackling sounds. "But I've never done this many people."

———/

Agent Ackroyd heard the CB chatter on his radio. He watched from two miles away with a telescope as the pizza van and school bus turned around to come back toward him and away from the roadblock. He picked up his microphone.

"Ackroyd here. Sullivan blocked the road. They are coming back westward."

—:—

Kali's closed her eyes.

"No one's seen us," Jonathon said.

The two-vehicle train began driving away. Fifty cars and a dozen trucks didn't seem to notice them, as not one person looked their way.

El looked back at Kali in the front passenger seat of the bus. Then she fell over.

"Kali!" El yelped. "I think she fainted!"

"Fu—-dge!" Will said.

"They're coming!" Mike said.

Army vehicles sped after them with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

"Argyle, take a side road!" Jonathon ordered. The van turned and nearly rolled over as he slid it around a corner. The bus followed.

The road quickly became dirt and gravel, creating a huge plume of dust as they fled. The jeep followed them with police cars chasing.

"I'm going to have to stop them," El said. As the van passed through a narrow group of rocks and tall sagebrush, a tan AMC Eagle drove in behind them at a right angle side from a road. It stopped and blocked their path. El raised her hand.

"Wait, El," Mike said.

"What was that?" Argyle exclaimed. "Jonathon, I'm feeling anxiety here!"

"Why did that guy do that?" Axel said, looking through the bus's rear window. He watched a man wearing a shirt and tie get out of the car. The man held up a badge and the column stopped.

"He's a cop or something," Axel said. He swayed as the bus bounced and made it to the seat where Kali moaned. Waking up, she held her nose to stanch the bleeding.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"You passed out," Funshine said, "And we're trying to get away. Some guy stopped them."

"Wait, let me see!"

Funshine calmly slowed the bus down and called the van. "Kali wants to stop here for a second, over."

Kali made it over to the van in a cloud of dust. El stepped out. "Let's go see what's happening."

The two climbed up to an overlook to see. Sullivan and another man argued, and the police stood by with the soldiers.

"Get the hell out of my way!" Sullivan shouted, his teeth bared.

"You are to report to the Army Criminal Command immediately, Colonel. You are under investigation for your actions," the other man said.

"I will report back after I have eliminated this threat," Sullivan grumbled as his muscles began to shake. "Get out of my way! Damn you!"

"You are out of your jurisdiction, this is a police matter. Isn't that right Officer Briggs?"

Officer Briggs said nothing.

"Arrest him," Sullivan said to his soldiers, who walked forward.

"You can't arrest me, Colonel."

"Arrest him or I'll shoot him."

The police looked at each other, and Sullivan produced his pistol and aimed it at the man.

"Kali, help him," El said as they looked over a bush.

Kali paused to examine El's face, then raised the index finger of her left hand.

"Where'd he go?" A soldier said.

Sullivan and the men looked around. The agent stood there for a moment, then turned and looked at them. He smiled and waved. Then he walked around the vehicles with a valve stem remover and let the air out of one tire per vehicle while they looked around for him.

"Where are you? Stop messing with my head! I know you are doing this you purple-haired witch!" Sullivan shouted. "I found out who you are too! Brenner's pets!"

"The tires!" Someone said.

Kali and El smiled as the unknown agent climbed up the hill toward them. When he reached the top, he introduced himself.

"I work for Sam Owens," he said. "Get out of here."

"Will do," Kali answered.

—/—

Will sat on top of the picnic table crossed-leg style. The warm evening air blew through the picnic area in the park. Land as flat as a table spread out horizontally in all directions like the stripes on Will's shirt.

"What's this town?" Mick asked Dottie. "Adrian, I think," she said pushing her finger across an unfolded map. "Texas."

"Sullivan is the Army dude who killed all those scientist dudes, right?" Argyle asked. He combed out his long dark hair.

"And he's gone rogue," said Funshine. "He's off the rez, man."

"So they'll try to catch him, maybe as hard as he's trying to catch us," Jonathon said. He put his food wrappers in the park garbage can.

"That Agent Ackroyd must be reporting back to the DOD, or CIA, or FBI, or someone," said Mike. "But who? And why don't they just send troops to get him?"

"They're trying to cover it up," Argyle said.

"Damn right!" Said Axel. "Bunch of A*holes!"

Kali and El slurped on their milkshakes from Jesse's Café. "We made it halfway," said Kali. "Sorry about back there."

"Sister, you did good," El reassured. "I think you pushed too far."

"Do you think a gate opened?" El asked Will as he ate some fries. He turned his hazel eyes to El. "I feel the creatures around me sometimes. Like the poltergeists in that movie, hiding in the TV. Just out of sight. It might be a gate forming—or just a monster. I don't know."

"All I know is they want El, and they're not going to get her," said Mike.

"Do you think Papa was all bad?" El asked. Mick and Dottie joined them.

"I don't know," Kali said. Her dark eyes and thick brows produced a seriousness to her face. She glanced at Funshine as he stood watching the road for trouble, and spoke in a quiet voice. "I think Funshine likes me, you know."

"He seems nice," El said quietly.

"He's old," Kali said.

"You could do worse," Dottie said in a low-pitched voice.

"Hey Funshine," Jonathon said, let's go gas up while Argyle mellows out."

"I could use some snacks," Funshine smiled.

"Don't wreck my van, man."

The van and bus drove off.

The setting sun set the land ablaze in orange and the sky in pink light.

Will looked up to the sky, saying "There!"

They looked at the sky to see a phantom of darkness, a demobat very high overhead. It passed over them, its long tail unmistakable and teeth gleaming in the pink light of sunset.

"That is one ugly bird," said Axel.

"Great," Mike said. "Do you think it's following us?"

"No," Will said. "It's looking for something else."

The men returned, and Jonathon jogged over to Will excitedly. "I found the perfect place to camp tonight. There's a group of ufologists on their way to Nevada and they have a campground to their own with three spots left. If we get there soon, we'll be practically invisible."

"Let's go, dude!" Argyle said. "Let's see the little green people"

"No, they aren't aliens."

He leaned his head back and expanded an eye in mock surprise.

"What makes you so sure?"

——-

The blaze of the campfire warmed El and Kali in the cool desert air, while some slept and some socialized with the many interesting and largely drunk UFO enthusiasts. Music played, and parties teemed with people. Across from them at the party near their bus sat an older couple with gray hair and dentures. Argyle was roaming everywhere.

"About half of these people are looking up at the sky," Kali said.

Mike sat down next to El with a few UFO-shaped homemade cookies. He smiled and El looked at his beaming face, then leaned in for a kiss.

"These are nice people, guess they're driving to someplace called Area 51." He looked over to Kali and lowered his voice. "Hey…uh, do you realize how much fun you could have here with your powers?"

"Yeah…" she replied, "I thought about it. But why?"

Up the road, Mike noticed two police cars with lights flashing. The parties quieted down. "We have trouble, El."

They drove up to the edge of the encampment, parked, and four officers stepped out. They walked toward the first vehicle, an RV driven by the leader of the trip, a man nicknamed "Alien Bob."

"We're looking for a group of kids," the lead officer said. He was short but self-assured with red hair and a mustache. Alien Bob, by way of contrast, bore a resemblance to an older, fatter Bill Murray.

"Are they green? " He replied, "Or gray?"

El nudged Kali, "Let's do this together…"

Silently, a large blue glowing disk floated over the hill. Soon, everyone watched it and pointed at it. The disk moved suddenly forward toward them, stopped instantly, and then flew off to the side in a way no aircraft invented by humans could do. Massive in size, details of its hull could be seen. An odd phosphorescence drifted in the air.

The police officers stood with mouths open as well and forgot what they were doing there. They wore expressions of terror mixed with confusion. The lead officer dropped his flashlight and glanced around. Another froze and blinked repeatedly.

Then the UFO moved silently over the first police car and a bright light shone down upon it. Riveted to the scene before them, staring upward and shielding eyes, no one said a word. Then the police car began lifting off the ground. The police stepped back and marveled as it rose up into the air: five, ten, twenty feet…then moved with the UFO as it settled over the other police car. Finally, the floating police car seemed to be released—and fell a few feet. Everyone gasped. But it slowed, then drifted down until it set gently down upon the second police car. The lights on top crunched and the metal of both vehicles strained and the car settled. The lights on the car flashed and blinked and the sirens howled and chittered hellish noises, horns honking and radios screeching.

Then all went silent once again, the glowing disk vanished. Everyone looked for it. But it had simply disappeared. All that was left was a blue-green fog that settled and stayed in the air for a few minutes.

Kali and El wiped their noses.

"Hi five, Kali and El,"Mike said.