A New Beginning

21

It took Max an instant to place the sound. By the time the floor started to shake, he was already on his feet. He got up so quickly that his feet got tangled in the chair. He would have fallen if Michael had not been there, holding on to his shoulder.

"Liz," he said, voicing his thought.

She had gone into the back. Max headed for the kitchen at a run as the diner went dark. He banged into a table and heard Michael and Kyle doing the same.

"Close your eyes," he heard Kyle say, and did so immediately.

It helped relieve the nausea and the lightness in his head… a little.

It seemed to take forever to reach the back of the diner. Then Max's hand found the door to the kitchen and pushed it open. Michael and Kyle were right behind him, he knew and he pushed on. He felt the energy crackling in his hands as he ran, fear for Liz summoning it. He would make whoever was doing this regret they had ever come to Stonewall… if he could see them long enough to strike at them.

The ground was shaking so hard that Max found he had trouble keeping to his feet. Still, he felt his way back. There were screams and the rumbling all around them changed pitch. Something was happening.

"No!" Max said.

Then there was an odd whooshing sound, and the dark cloud lifted. Max opened his eyes, trying to readjust to the light in the alley. By the time his vision returned, he realized that the rambling had stopped. In fact, the alley was deathly quiet.

And Liz was gone.

"Bell!" a frantic voice called out next to him. It was Sam; he had a desperate look on his face.

Max knew exactly how he felt.

"Did they take her?" Sam said, his eyes wild.

Michael put a hand on the mans shoulder, and Max knew what he had to do.

Reaching out, he cupped his hand around the back of Sam's neck and concentrated. Slowly, the man crumbled to the floor.

"What did you do, Max?" Michael said.

"Put him to sleep for a while, 1 think," Max said. Lean- ing down, he touched the man's forehead.

"He's all right," Max asked.

"Liz," Maria said, from behind him.

Max shut out everything and concentrated on the prob- lem at hand. "Michael, help me with him.”

Together, they half carried, half dragged Sam into the diner and drew the curtains.

"Maybe, we should call someone," Maria suggested as Max and Michael drew all the blinds.

"No. No police. We don't call anyone," Max said.

There was no one to call. There was no one who could help them… no one who could do what he had to do now.

"Isabel, I need to connect with Liz. Asleep or awake, I need to know where she is, now," Max said, his voice tight and controlled… nothing like the swirling mass of grief and fear inside him.

"I'll try," Isabel said.

"No, don't try. Do it. Like you did with me when I was in the White Room. Direct contact," Max said.

Isabel nodded and sat down in a chair. She closed her eyes and fell immediately and deeply in to a trance. With- out asking, Max knew that Isabel was pushing the limits of her abilities.

A few moments later, Isabel came out of it, gasping for breath. "I know where she is," Isabel said, taking deep breaths. "She's not in the big room. She isn't on a table… yet. Bell is there and someone else," Isabel said.

"Dawn?" Kyle asked.

"I think so." Isabel said.

"Where?" Max said.

Isabel pushed her way out of the diner and scanned the road in the distance. "She could see outside for a second. There was a window, or a screen.”

Searching in the moonlight, Isabel pointed to a hill a mile or so in the distance. "There, behind that hill.”

Max turned to Kyle. "I need the keys to the van," he said.

"Max, you can't," Isabel said. "It's too dangerous. You said it yourself. Even our powers…”

"I'm going," Max said, his tone inviting no argument.

"Then we'll all go," Maria said. Max heard steel in her voice too. He understood. Liz was her best friend.

"No," Michael shouted. "Absolutely not.”

"She's my friend," Maria said defiantly.

"Don't you get it? They only take women," Michael replied.

"So you're saying that I can't help save Liz because I'm a girl?" Maria said, the challenge clear in her voice.

"Yes, in this instance, you can't go because you are a girl," Michael replied. He was clearly struggling to keep in control.

Max felt the seconds slipping away. If the ship left the planet or even the immediate area, they would never find it… and he would never see Liz again.

"You unbelievable, sexist…," Maria began, but stopped herself.

"You need to stay, Isabel, and keep and eye on Maria," Max said. "It won't be safe for either of you where we're going.”

Max didn't make it an order; he had given up that right. However, he would stop them if they tried to come. But Isabel only nodded, and then she gave Max a quick hug. "Come back, Max. And bring Liz with you," Maria said.

Nodding, Max turned to go. "Stay with them, Kyle," he said.

"I'm going," Kyle said.

"We don't have time for this," Max said. "It's too dangerous.”

"I know what's going on here, Max. Do you really think your chances out there are that much better than mine?”

"He has a point, Max," Michael said.

"I can't allow it," Max said.

"Well, maybe, but you're not the King and not the boss of me," Kyle said.

Kyle was right, but Max didn't want another person's life on his conscience. He reached out his hand. To his surprise, Kyle acted quickly. He leaned into Max for a moment and grabbed the keys from Max's other hand. Then he twisted his body away from Max. A second later he was holding the car keys.

"Nice try, Max, but I'm going. In fact, I'll drive," Kyle said.

Max felt the time ticking away. "Okay," he said, starting down the street. The boys were immediately at a run and reached the van quickly.

Kyle jumped in the driver's seat while Max and Michael jumped through the side door. Before they were even sit- ting, Kyle hit the gas and the van shot forward.

Even in his super alert and focused state, Max realized that the van was running smoother than it had since they'd gotten it. It also had more pickup, he noted as Kyle accelerated quickly.

They tore down the empty road, past the place where Dawn had been taken.

"There," Max said, pointing to the tall hill to their left. Immediately, Kyle pulled off the road and onto the open field.

The van bumped its way through the field, bouncing up and down. Kyle had to slow down to maintain control, and Max felt precious seconds ticking away. Then, when they were maybe two hundred yards from the foot of the hill, there was a loud snap from up front, and the van veered sharply to the left and came to a stop.

Kyle winced when he heard the snap. Something had broken in the front end. He knew it didn't matter now. The van couldn't take them any farther on tonight's trip.

If they succeeded in what they had to do, they would fix or replace it. If they failed in what they had to do, they wouldn't be needing transportation anymore. It would be cheerfully provided by some mean-tempered aliens. And the trip would be one-way.

"Van's toast," Kyle announced as he opened his door.

Almost as soon as they came to a stop, the three boys had jumped out of the vehicle almost simultaneously. Without a word, they started running for the hill at full speed. They were there quickly, and Kyle was sure that he had just beaten every sprinting time he had ever made on the football team.

They started climbing the hill and were at the top in less than a minute. Looking down, Kyle saw the ship. There was no black cloud, no running lights. Just a large cylinder sitting on some sort of landing struts in the rocky field.

It looked smaller on the ground, and Kyle figured it was maybe sixty yards across. It also looked a lot less men- acing, but that was a dangerous illusion, he realized.

"They don't look so tough now," Michael said, echoing Kyle's thoughts.

"We have to move quickly. Once they're in the air, we'll never see Liz again," Max said.

"What's the plan, Max?" Michael asked.

"No plan. We just go in and hit them with whatever we can, and we go from there," Max said.

"Looks like its about to go down on the street," Michael said.

"And we're not leaving until it's finished," Kyle added.

Michael gave Kyle a thin smile, but Kyle could see Michael's face setting into… what? His friend had had the same look during the confrontation with Gomer. Michael looked dangerous… and so did Max.

Kyle felt a rush of optimism and decided that he wouldn't want to be those aliens in the ship right now.

"Looks like they haven't turned on the cloaking device," Michael said.

"The what?" Kyle said.

"Whatever it is that creates the black cloud," Michael said.

"It might be a defensive weapon, or just a by-product of their energy source," Max said. "Let's hope we'll get close enough to do some damage before they turn it on. Let's go," Max said.

The boys moved quietly but quickly down the other side of the rocky hill. The ship was less than a football field's length from the bottom.

Kyle's heart was hammering in his chest, but not in fear. He remembered the feeling from the big games of his high school football career. He was "flipping the switch." That was what they had called it on the team. Flipping the switch was the change that came over you when you played the game. Athleticism could get you only so far on the field. To win, you had to turn a corner, you had to get aggressive. Kyle felt pretty aggressive now. He felt like he was ready for anything.

"Come on," Max said. "Let's get as close as we can with- out giving ourselves away.”

The trio had taken less than ten steps when Kyle heard a click from up ahead. Kyle kept moving until Max's hand went up and he said, "Stop.”

Instinctively, Kyle went as quiet as possible. Something was ahead of them, and Max was pointing to it.

There was that sound again, a high-pitched click, fol- lowed by another one. Kyle couldn't place the sound, then he realized he didn't like it… it sounded unnatural.

It took Kyle's eyes a moment to focus in the moonlight. Then he saw a figure up ahead. It was tall, taller than Michael… mabye seven feet in height. And though it was roughly the shape of a person, Kyle immediately knew that what he was looking at was no person.

He was looking at a monster… something out of a nightmare that Isabel and a girl named Jessica had shared.

The color of its reptilian-looking skin was hard to make out in the moonlight, but Isabel had called it brown and Kyle thought that was probably right. The shape of the head was the creepiest thing about it. The mouth was wide, but the head was relatively narrow at the top, and it came to a rough point in the back of the creature's skull. The yellow eyes were hard to look at. They had a mali- cious intelligence. And they were looking right at the three boys.

"He sees us," Max whispered.

"Why isn't he doing anything?" Michael wondered aloud.

"I don't think he takes us very seriously," Max replied.

Michael lifted his hand, "Well, he can take this seri- ously.”

"No," Kyle whispered back. "No fireworks or energy balls or whatever it is that you guys do. You'll sound what- ever kind of alarms they have. Let me take him the old- fashioned way. It'll be quick and quiet.”

Max turned his head in surprise.

"I've taken down two-hundred-and-sixty-pound defen- sive linemen on the field," Kyle said. "If I get into trouble, I'll call you and you can come back for me. Come on, we're losing time.”

As if to punctuate Kyle's comment, the ship began to hum. Then a few of the exterior lights switched on. If the ship took off…

Max studied him for a moment, "Okay. He's yours.”

Turning to Michael, Max said, "We'll circle around him and meet up at the center of the ship.”

Kyle nodded and took a step toward the creature. "Man, are you ugly," his whispered to himself.

Freshman year, the coach had decided that all the play- ers take a karate course offered by the phys ed depart- ment, for discipline. Like most of the guys on the squad, Kyle had not taken it very seriously, but there was one thing the instructor had said that Kyle had remembered. He had been showing them how to crack boards with their hands.

"Before you strike, see your hand breaking the board. If you can't see it, you'll never be able to do it," he had said.

This is just like the all county championships. Now there were some scary guys, Kyle thought.

Kyle noticed the creature eyeing him with interest. When it tilted its head, Kyle got the distinct impression that it was amused by him and his friends. There was a sound of footsteps from the direction that Max and Michael had gone. The creature's head turned quickly and scanned the area. It fixed on Max and Michael.

That was it. Kyle started running. He was less than fifty yards from the alien and he covered the ground quickly.

As he got closer he saw that the creature was fairly bulky up top… broad in the chest area. Its legs and lower body were thinner. Kyle knew what to do now. When he was only yards from the alien, he got himself ready and fought back the revulsion he felt.

Massive upper body means a higher center of gravity, he heard the coach say in his head. In that case, hit them low, the voice continued.

At the last second, he threw himself forward, at the crea- ture's lower thigh. He hit the creature with his shoulder. The creature didn't have time to move. The alien obviously didn't, think humans posed it a physical threat.

Then again, maybe he knows something we don't, Kyle thought as he took out his opponent with the best hit- and-wrap move of his post-football career. Like he learned on the team, he wrapped his arms around the alien's rough skin so it couldn't throw him off.

The rest was physics. The alien was going down.

He met with much less resistance than he expected. The creature immediately fell back, and Kyle realized that it was lighter than it looked. Though he couldn't be sure, Kyle thought he heard a solid snap as he made contact. Kyle and the creature went down together in a heap.

As soon as they hit the ground, he let go and scrambled to put some distance between himself and the alien as he tried to get to his feet at the same time.

Something grabbed his foot.

It's got me with its claw, Kyle thought, fighting down panic.

Kyle felt himself getting pulled closer to the creature and all he could think about was its wide mouth full of teeth. As he slid closer, Kyle heard a series of loud clicks from the alien. They went right through him and brought the panic closer to the surface. While he squirmed and tried to get away, Kyle felt the second claw trying to find purchase on his body.

I'm caught, his mind cried out.

Out of instinct, he reared up with one foot and slammed it where he thought the creature's head would be. He made contact with something and felt the second claw jab him in the stomach. He brought his foot down again and, this time, he heard a satisfying thud and knew he had landed a very solid blow. Kyle had hurt him. Sud- denly, the creature released him and… as far as Kyle could tell… went still. He wasn't sure, because he didn't turn around until he had scrambled several feet away.

When he did turn around, he saw the alien lying in a heap. It didn't move and had stopped making its horrible sounds.

Got him, Kyle realized. He had won one for his friends and for himself. A quick smiled formed on his lips, but Kyle knew they were a long way from done. He had to get to Max and Michael. Kyle pushed off the ground and found that he couldn't get up.

There was an odd pressure in his abdomen. Kyle's hand went to the spot and came up wet.

What? he thought looking down at his hand. It was wet with his blood.

As the haze of his adrenaline rush started to fade, Kyle realized that it wasn't pressure he was feeling in his stom- ach. It was pain.

The creature had stabbed him with his claw when they were struggling. It had gotten him pretty good, too, judg- ing by the fire in his abdomen now. Kyle tried again to get to his knees and found that he couldn't. A moment later, he was on his back, pressing his wound with one hand.

"Kyle, are you okay?" a voice called out. It was Max.

When Kyle spoke, he thought his voice was remarkably strong. "Yeah. I took him down, but he clipped me good. I'll have to sit out the rest of the game.”

"You sure you're okay?" Max said.

"Yeah, go… do what you have to," Kyle said.

He spoke the last sentence quickly as the pain got worse. Kyle knew that Max would stop to heal him if he knew that Kyle was hurt. They couldn't afford the time now. Liz's life depended on them striking hard and fast.

If they succeeded, there would be plenty of time for Max to help him when they were done and Liz was safe.

"Stay where you are," Max said. "We'll be back for you.”

No problem, Kyle thought. I'm not going anywhere.

Despite the pressure he was putting on the wound, Kyle felt the blood seeping from it. He saw the blood spreading over his shirt and begin to drip down to the ground.

Suddenly he knew he was a long way from all right.

Well, the important thing was that Max thought he was okay. Now, he and Michael could finish what the three of them had started. Kyle was glad he had been able to help, even if it was just to take down one of the bad guys.

He shivered. That was new. Had it gotten colder all of a sudden? Kyle figured it had. He noticed something else; the pain wasn't as bad now. The waves were gone, and he felt only a dull ache now.

He shivered again. When did it get so cold?