A New Beginning r-5

by Kevin Ryan

  The doors were heavy and squeaked on their wheels as he pulled them together. Then Kyle locked the two doors together with the padlock and looked up in time to see Gomer's pickup heading down the road into the rapidly darkening sky As soon as he turned away, he felt an odd vibration in the ground.

  Earthquake? he wondered.

  Inside their room, Max felt the ground shake underneath him. He was immediately on guard. Instinctively, he turned to the others to make sure they were okay. His best friend was wearing the same hyper-alert expression than Max was sure was on his own face.

  "What was that?" Liz asked.

  "I don't know," Max replied, a chill running up and down his spine. He had a very bad feeling about whatever was going on. By the look on his best friend's face, he was not the only one.

  "Let's check it out, Maxwell," Michael said, getting up.

  Max was on his feet in a second.

  "Wait here," Michael said to Maria.

  "We'll be right back," Max said to Liz.

  "You'll be right back? You're going to leave us here while you check out whatever is out there?" Maria said.

  As Maria spoke, the shaking of the ground turned into a deep rumbling that was getting stronger.

  "She's right," Max said. "Everybody stay together. We'll find Kyle and go from there.”

  Kyle ran toward the road and followed the lights of the pickup as it drove away from the garage and the center of town. As the ground started to shake even more around him, Kyle saw the pickup begin to weave on the street. Then he heard a loud crash and saw it come to a sudden stop, as if it were slamming into a wall that he couldn't see. The rear of the pickup seemed to lift into the air and hang there for an instant.

  Then the lights in the pickup went out. Kyle could still see the outline of the vehicle, but it began to dim in front of him. No, that wasn't it. The truck wasn't dimming. It was just getting darker, much darker. Looking up, Kyle could still see the night sky and stars clearly above him, but the road around the pickup was nearly pitch dark.

  Looking into the darkness made Kyle queasy. Then he was not just queasy, he was nauseated. Something about the darkness made him want to…

  The world seemed to be moving in slow motion, and then Kyle heard someone call his name. Max. It was Max. With effort, he turned away from the sight in front of him and saw Max and the others approaching him at a run. They were looking at him and past him toward the pickup.

  Kyle wanted to tell them not to look, but then the dark- ness was gone, and he saw a bright light shining on his friends.

  The ground continued to shake, harder. Kyle turned quickly to see a large, brightly lit… something hovering over the ground.

  The ship, if that's what it was, was big. Almost as big as Johnny's garage. It also seemed like a perfect cylinder… almost like a giant, solid pipe. It was covered with maybe half a dozen small white lights and another half a dozen large searchlights that moved and crisscrossed over the road and surrounding area.

  For a terrible moment, Kyle saw one of the searchlights point directly at him as his ears told him that his friends were right behind him. The light was blinding, and Kyle had to close his eyes and then turn around. Finally, he could see the searchlight's circle track away from him. He tried to focus on his friends, but a bright afterimage obscured his vision.

  When his eyes began to refocus, he turned around to see the cylinder continue to hover. Then the lights went out all at once, and Kyle heard a rush of air as the ship raced away.

  He tried to track it with his eyes, but he looked away when he saw the cloud of darkness again. When he looked back, the ship was nowhere to be seen.

  "Oh, my God," he heard Maria say from behind him.

  18

  Uh, my God, Max, it was a ship!" Liz said from behind.

  Max nodded, still looking out into the sky. It was a ship, there was no question about that, Max thought. The only question was what they did now. His instinct was to pile himself and his friends into the van or whatever vehicle was handy and get as far away from Stonewall as they pos- sibly could. "Kyle, are you okay?" Max asked his friend.

  "Yeah, I got here a few seconds before you did," he said. Kyle didn't look hurt, but he was obviously shaken up. There was something else, too, something in his face.

  "Are you sure?" Max said.

  "I think so. I feel a little sick," Kyle said. He explained about the black cloud that had hidden the ship, or what- ever it was. "Looking into that darkness made me feel sick to my stomach, I can't explain it," Kyle said.

  "What kind of technology was that? What kind of ship? Max, who are they?" Liz asked.

  "That was nothing like the ship that brought us here. A Skin ship maybe?" Michael said.

  "I don't think so," Isabel said in a very firm voice. "I think I know exactly who they are, or at least what they look like.”

  "Who is it?" Max asked.

  "The monster from Jessica's dream. I think she was dreaming about the things that took her," she said.

  Then a sound disturbed the quiet around them. Until Max heard it, he hadn't realized how quiet it had been. Since they had arrived, there hadn't been any of the usual insect sounds, not even the endless chirping of crickets that usually went on all night.

  This sound was a growling. No, not a growling… it was someone moaning.

  "Help me," a weak voice said.

  "I'll go," Max said. Then he caught a glimpse of Liz's face and corrected himself: "We'll all go.”

  The group approached the pickup. The truck was angled toward them, and Max could see that the front end was pretty well smashed.

  As they approached, someone pushed his way out of the pickup. Max recognized him immediately.

  "Gomer," Kyle said.

  The large man staggered away from them, to the side of the road.

  "Gomer," Kyle repeated as he rushed to the pickup to look inside.

  "Gomer!" Kyle shouted. Gomer finally turned around and looked at Kyle as if he didn't recognize him.

  Max saw that the tow truck driver had a bloody nose. Other than that, he looked okay.

  "Where is Dawn?" Kyle asked.

  "They took her," Gomer said, his voice weak.

  Max knew that the next logical question was: Who took her? But Kyle didn't ask it. They all knew.

  "What happened?" Max asked.

  "I don't know," Gomer said. The man's head seemed to clear a small fraction, but he still looked like he was in a fog.

  Shock, Max thought.

  Kyle had produced a rag from somewhere and handed it to Gomer. "Put this on your nose," Kyle said.

  Liz put a hand on Gomer's shoulder and said, "Gomer. Do you remember anything?”

  That seemed to bring him out of his haze a little more.

  "We were driving… then it got dark all of a sudden," Gomer said. He was struggling to remember details.

  "Then we crashed into… something," he said, shaking his head, "but there was nothing there.”

  Gomer took a breath and continued. "It was too dark to see, but there was noise. Dawn screamed. I tried to grab her, but something had her… The dark, there was some- thing wrong with it.”

  Max could see that he was barely holding himself together. He looked like he was about to cry, and then something else crossed his face.

  In a huge heave, Gomer leaned over and threw up on the side of the street. Kyle took a position next to him to see if he was all right.

  "Max, I think we have to call the police," Liz said.

  "What do we tell them?" Michael jumped in. "That aliens kidnapped Dawn and we should know because… ”

  Max shushed him with a wave. Then he called for Kyle, who left Gomer leaning on the pickup several feet away "We do have to report this," Max said, keeping his voice down. "A girl is…missing.”

  "We can't talk to the police. God knows who is looking for us. There's probably alerts across the country for us," Michael said.

  "And if we disappear right after another g
irl is kid- napped, every cop in this state will be after us… and they'll have a pretty good idea of where we are. I don't like it, either, but we don't have a choice. We'll have to take our chances. We tell the truth: We heard a crash and found Gomer in the car. Nothing about the ground shaking or the ship. Gomer is the only eyewitness to the… abduc- tion. And he didn't see anything.”

  Then a thought struck Max: Whoever was after them would be looking for six. "Michael, why don't you take the girls back to the room. Kyle and I will answer their ques- tions.”

  The others nodded, and then Kyle said, "I'll get Gomer into the office and call Dan.”

  Kyle grabbed Gomer by the shoulders and said, "Come on, let's get you some help.”

  A little earlier, Kyle had been ready to take Gomer apart. Now he felt nothing but sympathy for the shaken figure in front of him.

  Gomer stood up and allowed himself to be led toward the garage. "Dawn…," he muttered.

  "We'll call Dan and then the police," Kyle said.

  They reached the office door, and Kyle realized that he didn't have a key for that, so he had to prop Gomer against the door and run to open the shop area door. Once that was done, he led Gomer inside and into the office from there.

  Instead of a couch, the office had a large bench seat from an old car. Kyle put Gomer down on that and reached for the phone and dialed.

  After a few rings, his boss picked up.

  "Yes," Dan's voice said.

  "Dan, it's Kyle. I'm in the office. There's been some trouble. Gomer and Dawn were in an accident.”

  "Are they okay?" Dan asked, concern in his voice.

  "I've got Gomer here, but Dawn is… missing," Kyle said.

  "Missing? She was in a wreck. She can't have gotten far," Dan said.

  "It's not that. We think, Gomer thinks, that someone took her," Kyle said.

  There was silence on the other end of the line, and then Dan asked, "Does Gomer need a doctor?”

  Kyle took a look at Gomer, He had a vacant look on his face and was shaking. "Yes," he said.

  "I'll call an ambulance and the state police. Stay there," Dan said.

  Less than two minutes later, a disheveled Dan appeared in the office. He looked over Gomer, who was half out of it on the couch. "The ambulance will be here soon. The state police, too. What happened, Kyle?”

  "Dawn was working late. She came into the shop, and we talked for a minute. Then Gomer came to pick her up, and they left together. I was locking up when I saw the truck hit something in the road. Then its lights went out. I ran over.”

  "We heard the accident too," Max said.

  "We found Gomer but not Dawn. Gomer said someone took her," Kyle said.

  Dan was upset, but seemed satisfied with their story. And then a few minutes later the ambulance showed up. Two state police officers arrived just as Gomer was getting loaded into the back of the ambulance. Max and Kyle told the same story they had told Dan, and the state police offi- cers tried to question Gomer, whose muttered replies didn't make much sense.

  One of the two officers came back and took out a pad. "What are your names, boys?”

  That was it. Kyle knew if they gave their real names, they were dead… the FBI certainly had them on some sort of wanted list by now. If they gave fake names, their false identities would fall apart as soon as the police asked for identification.

  "Max," Max said. He hesitated only for a moment and said, "Max load.”

  That was it. Max had thrown the dice. They had already told Dan their real first names. They couldn't tell the cops something different. Their last names, on the other hand…

  "I'm Kyle Miller," Kyle said.

  The officer studied them with disinterest and turned to Dan. "Do you know these boys?" he asked.

  Dan said, "Yes. Kyle works for me, and they're staying in my studio out back.”

  The cop didn't hesitate. He just closed his notebook and said, "Stick around. We'll question Gomer when he's feeling better. Then we may have some more questions for you boys.”

  Max and Kyle nodded.

  "Do you know the girl's folks?" the officer asked Dan, who nodded and gave them the address.

  "I should go with you," Dan said, his voice tight. "I know her father pretty well.”

  The officer nodded, and they left together.

  Kyle tried not to show his relief. Less than three days into their great trip, it had almost ended with a simple, Let me see some identification, please.

  When they had first arrived in Stonewall, Kyle had looked down on it for being a hick town. The sticks. Well, apparently they did things a little differently in the sticks. And that difference had just saved their lives.

  19

  "What now?" Maria asked when Max and Kyle got fin- ished talking.

  "We can't leave," Max said. "It would be too suspicious.”

  "Well, it would look bad to the cops, but the cops are not the biggest problem in this town," Michael said.

  He was right, Liz knew. There were worse things than police here. Worse things even than the Special Unit.

  There were rooms that weren't rooms.

  And monsters.

  "But in a few days we will have to get out of town and put as much distance as we can between us and these aliens," Max said.

  "What about Jessica? Dawn? Who knows how many others?" Kyle said.

  "I don't think we can…," Max said. He didn't allow himself to complete the thought out loud.

  Liz wanted to say that it wasn't true, that they could help. They could do something, find a way. But even as she thought it, she knew it wasn't true. Max and the others would likely lose any battle they fought. She had seen it happen in her vision of the future, in her vision of a differ- ent battle.

  What chance did they have against a huge ship full of monsters? But if that were true, what hope did Jessica have? What hope did Jimmy have? As if he were reading her mind, Max said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think we can fix this.”

  Liz caught Isabel's eyes and saw her own feelings mir- rored there. Liz had caught glimpses of Jessica's pain, but Isabel had visited the girl's dreams.

  No one spoke much for the rest of the night. They got ready for bed and took their places with minimum conversa- tion. They didn't sleep much either. Whenever Liz did close her eyes, she saw rooms that weren't rooms, and monsters.

  It was a long night, but it passed and Liz and Maria had to get ready for work.

  The others got ready as well. Without discussion, they headed together for the diner, where Bell was waiting for them with concern written on her face. "Are you kids all right? We heard about Dawn," she said when they entered.

  "We're fine," Liz said. She was surprised to see Sam peek out from the kitchen. He didn't say anything, but he looked concerned. Bell sat them down, and they told Bell and Sam the same story they had told Dan and the police. It was true, to an extent.

  "It's a shame. I hope they get the bastards before anyone else gets hurt," Sam said.

  Liz realized that that was the longest sentence she had heard Sam speak since they'd arrived.

  The group ate quickly, and Kyle headed off to work while Max, Isabel, and Michael got ready to paint.

  "You don't have to do that today" Bell said.

  "We want to," Max said. Then, to keep her from protesting, he added, "It'll keep us busy." He didn't add that it would keep them near Liz and Maria.

  A few minutes later, Jimmy arrived, but he barely acknowledged them. He just took his place at the booth by the window and put his head down.

  The day at the diner moved slower than it ever had before. At first Liz thought it was because of how she was feeling. Then she realized that it was because there were fewer customers… and no women. It looked like people were not going out if they could avoid it. Things had got- ten bad in Stonewall… very bad, and desperate.

  Unfortunately, it looked like they weren't going to be getting better anytime soon.

  Kyle got to the garage early and decided t
o get right to work. If he finished early, he would be able to get even more time in on the van. And it seemed important to get the van running as fast as possible.

  He found that he didn't like the idea of running out on the town. People had helped them here. And now those people were scared and facing something they didn't understand.

  Better that they don't, he thought.

  If they knew what was really happening, they would be terrified and they would all run for their lives.

  Like us.

  Max was right, though, he knew. What could they do against the force they had witnessed? Even Max's powers, incredible as they were, would be no more effective than Kyle's wrench against that technology.

  When he reached the garage, he was surprised to see the shop doors open already. Then something struck him about the shop doors… they were only partly open. In fact, they looked exactly as Kyle had left them the night before.

  Dan had said he would lock up, but clearly he hadn't.

  Kyle found his boss in the office, he head down on the desk. He was still wearing the same clothes from the night before.

  Hearing the door open, Dan woke up and raised his head. His eyes looked haunted, and he looked exhausted.

  He also looked like he had aged ten yeas "You okay, Dan?" Kyle asked.

  Dan shrugged. "I've known Dawn's father since I was a kid. He used to hang out with my brother. Last night I told him his daughter is gone.”

  "I'm sorry, Dan. I'm sorry about Dawn and about your brother," Kyle said.

  His boss showed a tiny flash of surprise when Kyle mentioned his brother. "This place is named after him. Our father opened it the year he was born.”

  It looked like Dan wanted to talk. Kyle was too sur- prised to move for a long moment. Then he sat down on the office couch. "Was the van out back his?" he asked slowly.