A New Beginning

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 girl 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.