Alex glanced at Kyle and then quickly asked, “What do you remember, Maria?”

Michael looked at Alex, but remained silent. Her memory. It was working. Coming back. Fuck. He waited. That prison of his was a fucking lonely place. He had forgotten how lonely. She had taken some of that away.

“The medallion. It doesn’t mean anything to me. Not yet. But I remember coming to Roswell. I checked into the hotel. It was still early in the afternoon. It took a few tries, but I finally made the call.”

“Meta-Chem Corporation, how can I direct your call?”

“I’ll be there. Maria…” he stared down at the phone at the sound of a dial tone. Sitting back in his chair, he slowly hung up the phone in shock. His daughter. Taking out a picture from his wallet, he looked at her smiling young face. Angel . His little angel hugging the Dalmatian puppy he had given her for her birthday. Guilt. He spent the money to appease his guilt for what he was going to do. Leave.

“So you called him, and agreed to meet him?” Alex said slowly, cautiously. He was almost afraid to push her too hard, or she might lose that tenuous grip on her memory.

“Yes. Senior Chows. He was there in two hours. Waiting for me. He looked the same as I remember, just older. More worn, and almost gray. He didn’t age as well as my mom has.” Michael reached over and took Maria’s hand. Alarmed at the coldness of her hands, he tried to warm them with his.

“Maria…”

She just shook her head. “I’m okay. I can remember. I can do this.”

“So what happened when you met him?” Kyle asked finally breaking his silence.

“We argued. I argued. He didn’t have what I needed.”

Michael frowned. “What did he not have, Maria?”

“A reason. A good reason for leaving me.”

The man looked up from his drink to assess the young woman standing at his elbow. She was gorgeous. Not like a model, but something else. Exotic. There was a touch of passion to her, a vitality. Amy. The way she moved her head reminded him of Amy, her mother. His ex-wife. She had Amy’s hands.

“So you were leaving?” Kyle said.

“Yes. I was early for my reservation in Colorado, so I was going to see my cousin, Sean. He called and wanted me to come, and I really needed to talk to him. He’d understand. He was the biggest pain in the ass when we were growing up, but he was like my brother. He knew things. He knew about me.”

Alex watched Michael. He was listening closely, but his hands never left hers. She was shaking from cold, and he took a green afghan from the back of the sofa and covered her with it. Michael Guerin was actually taking care of someone.

“Why didn’t you leave, Maria? Why did you stay?”

Maria looked at Michael, and something in his eyes gave her the courage to go on. To finish it. “He called me. It took him awhile, but he called every motel, inn, B&B and hotel in the area to find me. It was late. Real late. He sounded crazy. He was rambling about doing it. Going back for the proof, and he was going to prove to me that he was good. That he cared about people, about me, and about changing. I didn’t know what to say, but I think he was drunk and crying. He begged me to meet him. Meet him the next day. He gave me an address. It was a motel room. A place on Highway 285, heading south out of Roswell.”

Alex and Kyle exchanged looks. He had left Roswell. He was hiding from those who would kill him. Damn. He brought her into it, and she walked into something she had no clue about.

“I went. I don’t know why. Maybe I was afraid that if I ignored him that it would make me like him. Make me selfish and conceited, hard and uncaring. I don’t know. So I went. I was booked until Wednesday, so I still had the room.”

“What happened, Maria? What happened when you saw him?” Alex asked gently.

“He was drunk. He was talking crazy.”

“Maria! You’re here! You came, and you didn’t leave.” Maria stepped back from him as she entered the motel room. Great. Nookie motel. Extraordinary.

“Maria?” Alex tried to get her attention, but she seemed off somewhere. “Maria, can you…” Michael shook his head no. Alex ’s voice quieted, and he pulled back. He went silent. Waiting. He could wait for Michael to work his magic.

“Maria. Baby, c’mon. Come on back and talk to us. Just let it go for a moment and rest.” Michael moved closer still and put his mouth close to her ear resting his forehead against hers. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be scared. We’re here. You're not alone.”

“He left me. He left me alone.”

“What happened?” Michael didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to know, because he had seen the paintings. He already knew. He had the flashes and the feelings of pure terror. But this was for her. It was the only way back to herself, the only door open in the prison of her mind. “Maria, can you tell me? Tell me about the last time you saw your dad.”

“Alive. He was alive. But I killed him.” Kyle made a sound at the confession. But Michael ignored him.

“How did you kill him? Tell me.”

“He did it for me. All for me. Because of me, he died.” Maria’s eyes suddenly focused and she met Michael’s gaze, clear and concise. Hard and stark in the memory and the knowledge. “I should’ve stayed. Made sure he wasn’t alone. But I was angry with him, angry that he thought it would be so easy to make amends, to walk back in. After all this time, he thought one small act, one small piece of jewelry would do it.”

“What happened, Maria? It wasn’t the last time. So how did you meet up with him again? How did you see him die?”

“I didn’t. I didn’t meet up with him. I woke up uneasy. Worried. I couldn’t just leave, and that damn medallion was burning a hole in my pocket. I hated it. St. Jude. He gave me a St. Jude medallion. The patron saint of lost causes. My god! It was like a knife, a mockery of my life! My entire fucking life was a lost cause…”

“So you…”

“I went downstairs and told them I was staying. I added another week to the stay. I wasn’t due until the next day in Colorado, so I thought I would call them later and change my reservations. Family emergency.” Maria laughed at that. A high brittle laugh that had a sound of hysteria. “Family emergency.” She just shook her head.

“And…” Alex and Kyle remained quiet as Michael in a low soothing voice pulled the memories from her.

“And I went back to the motel. He was gone. He had left. It took me awhile to locate his home in the Meadows subdivision. I sat in my car laughing, almost in tears. It was modern suburbia. When I was a child, a young girl, this life was all I wanted. The house on a block that looked like all the other houses on the block, and worrying about mowing the lawn. Damn, now? It’s my worst nightmare.” Maria looked at Michael. “I like your house. It’s as unique as you are. A real place. Not a cardboard cut-out of every other house in America, like how all the motel rooms look and smell the same. There can’t be anything worse than being ordinary.”

Michael smiled at that, his tongue coming out to lick his lips. She followed his movement with her eyes and he bit back a groan. They didn’t have time for that, plus company. “Being normal and ordinary has a lot to recommend it at times.”

Maria smiled at him. “I don’t know if I can learn how.”

“Me either. I think we’ll just have to consider it a sort of ‘grass is greener’ syndrome.”

“Okay. Together we’ll be strange and bizarre.”

Alex made eye contact with Michael who nodded. “So how did you find him, Maria?”

“I went back to the motel. I knew he was scared, and just because he wasn’t there before I didn’t think he would come back to his house. So I drove back and I parked my car.” Maria frowned. “It was getting late and dark. I was bored. Playing with the medallion. It was like a taunt or something. I don’t know. Anyway, he came back. I was getting ready to get out of my car, when suddenly this other car drove in. It was black. Dark windows.”

Maria paused. Almost like she was trying to think of something, remember it, but she just shook her head. It was gone.

“I stayed put.” Maria looked at Michael. “They shoved him into the hotel room and I was thinking, worrying about what I should do. Call the police? He stole documents from his work. The FBI? God, does anyone even know the number? It’s not like 911 or 411. I mean, what is it? 1-800-Call-a-Fed? I just didn’t know. Another car came before I could even decide what to do. They pulled him from the room and shoved him into the second car. Some stayed behind to search the room I think. But I couldn’t just leave him alone. So I followed.”

“You followed? In the dark? At night?” Kyle couldn’t wrap his mind around the whole concept. She just took off in the night in a strange place to follow her dad being held at gunpoint by killers? Who the hell let her out alone? She was a menace to herself.

“Yes, in the dark. What is this? A Dr. Seuss investigation? What? 'In a house with a louse. In a box with a fox…' Dammit, what was I supposed to do? I followed.”

“Which way did they go?” Alex asked ignoring Kyle’s reaction to the Dr. Seuss comment.

“I don’t know. It felt like wes t, but it was hard for me to say since I don’t know this area and I was following in the dark, with my headlights off.”

The three men exchanged looks. Seeing it, Maria sighed.

“Yes. Off. They would’ve seen me following otherwise. It was dark. And I had to follow closely, so they couldn’t see my headlights in the night, so I could use theirs as mine. It was still scary using their light trail. The road…it was dark, and I hated not knowing exactly where the road was. I felt sick. Nauseated and hollow inside.” Michael understood. Fear. It lived in the pit of her stomach. He understood that feeling, because he felt it every time Hank would come home.

“Maria…”

“No, it’s okay. Let’s finish this.” Maria couldn’t shake the fear or the sickness in her stomach, but she couldn't back away, not now. “I stopped my car when they did. I was a little ways away from them. I took my cell phone. I tried calling the cops. But the phone…it was outside a reception area. I don’t know…it was dark, and we were in the desert. But we passed woods first, then turned along their edge into the desert. I crept closer. I didn’t know what else to do. How to save him. No phone. No weapons. I was defenseless. He needed my help desperately and I was nothing. I couldn’t save him. I came to stand behind this small outcropping of rock. They had him against a rock face in this washed-out gully area. I was so close, I could smell his fear. See his eyes. Then he looked up. He saw me. Oh god, he saw me…”

She got up and ran. Michael jumped at her quick movement, and quickly followed. She was in the bathroom. He found her in there being sick. Grabbing a fresh linen, he wetted it and put it to the back of her neck. When she was finished, finally quiet, he sat down on the floor and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close and washing her face. Reaching over, he shut the lid and flushed. Rocking her gently against him, he stroked her back.

He knew what was coming. She didn’t need to relive it. She painted it every night in her dreams.

“You don’t have to tell them. I can finish it.”

Maria shook her head against him. Slowly untangling herself from him, she stood up and rinsed her mouth. “No. I have to do it. My story to tell. My nightmare. I can’t be helpless in the face of despair. It’ll cripple me for life. I have to do this Michael. I have to.” She met his eyes in the mirror. “For him. I have to do it for him.”

Michael understood. He hated it, but he understood. Taking her arm, he led her back to the living room to Kyle and Alex . They stood quietly.

Maria continued after clearing her throat as if she had never stopped. “He saw me, and he didn’t give me away. I saw in his eyes, his desperation, his fear, and it was for me. He wanted me to run. To leave him there to die, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave him alone. I think for the first time in his life he wished I was more like him, and so did I.”

Maria laughed ironically. If she had been more like him, self preservation, the need to shield herself would have kicked in, but no. She stayed. It was an elongated moment of nightmares. A dream that clouded her brain and took it over. She was going to make a noise, distract them. Maybe find a way to avert their attention so she could take him and run. But life wasn’t like that. It moved faster than the brain could plan. Staring at him, she struggled to come up with a plan. A good one. Her eyes locked with his across the distance, the ringing of shots hit her hard. She jerked in fright in unison with him as the bullets hit his body.

“They shot him. Three times. So quickly, it didn’t register. I couldn’t have known that bullets could make so much noise. He…it was like in slow motion, timeless. His eyes widened. Awareness hit, and then regret. He looked into my eyes as he was dying, and he felt regret. I watched the life bleed from him. One minute his eyes were alive, and then they were opaque. Dead, and he slid to the ground in a heap. I watched him die, and I killed him just as sure as if I pulled the trigger.”

Maria’s voice was hollow. Far away. She sat staring at a faraway wall, not looking at anyone. Kyle closed his eyes. They had his father! Jesus! They had her mother! Two parents lost to the same monster. Tears chased down Maria’s cheek, but she kept talking as Michael leaned over and wiped them away.

“I ran. I made a noise. I couldn’t swallow it. I couldn’t see. I just ran. I could hear a voice. A man’s voice telling them to catch me.” Maria stopped and looked at Michael. “It was the voice of the man that came here that first day, when you hid me behind the door. It was him. He shot my father.”

Burns. Michael remembered her instant fear. The tightening of her body ready to run in fright. Burns. Her confused mind recognized the voice enough to know to be afraid. To not trust. Too bad her father didn’t know the same. He had called Burns, thinking because he was FBI he was someone to trust. It cost him his life. He must have left the motel that day to hide the evidence. He called Burns and told him his location, and when he returned, they were waiting for him. Michael just shook his head.

“It took some effort, but I got my car turned around. They were there. One was banging on the window, and I saw a gun. I hit the gas and the car jumped, sped out of control. I almost skidded and lost it in a ditch, but somehow I held it together. Sean taught me to always turn into the skid. I righted the car, and I was speeding. Back towards Roswell, I hoped. Police. I was hoping to catch a State Trooper, or maybe a Trooper would catch me. It was dark, but I had my lights on this time. I could see the headlights in my rearview mirror. They kept gaining. I sped up, but they came closer. The desert was giving away to forest. Woods. The dark was worse. And I couldn’t breathe as I noticed the headlights. Then they hit me, from behind. The car jerked and swerved, but I got it under control. I saw them in my rearview coming up beside me. I was afraid. Scared. I looked anyway. In a window, was the muzzle of a rifle. I heard the shots hit the back of my car near the gas tank and moving forward to me. I flinched. I couldn’t help it. That’s when I lost control of the car. I saw the road ending, the car flew in the air a few feet. Then I came down hard.”

Maria paused and Michael swore as her hands tightened on his so much he couldn’t feel anything but pain, that and a flash. He was living the nightmare. Her flight into the woods. The accident. Bullets. And the fire.

“Slow motion. No one told me how it felt to live life in slow motion. It’s surreal. Silent. It stretches, and there is a rush in your ears as sound finally speeds up with a crash. And you sit there in shock, uncertain if you’re even still alive. I sat there when I smelt it. My face hurt where it hit the side window. My bones hurt. I had to be alive. But the gas! The smell of gas was so strong! And then there in front of me, under the dash I saw a flicker of fire. Then I smelt the smoke. It was filling the compartment. I struggled, but my seatbelt was jammed. Finally I got it undone, but the door wouldn’t budge and I was coughing from the smoke. I tried to open the other passenger door. It wouldn’t open. I banged on it, screamed, and pleaded for help. On the hill I could see the shadows of the men trying to kill me. They just turned away leaving me to die in the burning car.”

Kyle was alarmed. Her eyes were constricted to pinpoints. Her voice was hollow. He could feel her shaking from where he stood. “It’s enough. You don’t have to tell us any more or live through it again.”

“I leaned back against the driver’s door and tried to kick and shove the passenger door open with my feet. But my shoes. They were wrong. I couldn’t do anything in them. So I quickly took them off. I slammed my bare feet against the door, again and again. The smoke was so thick, and the first licks of flame were in the compartment. I could feel the fire singing my clothes. I was trapped. I knew I was going to die. I almost gave up. Almost. But I couldn’t. Sitting in the driver’s seat, I sat up on my knees facing the window. I pounded and pounded. I could barely breathe and my coughing was wracking my body. First with my fist, and then finally flat handed I slammed at the glass. Maybe the crash weakened it, because there was the beginning of a shatter. I don’t know. It felt like eternity before I became aware that my hands actually went though the glass. I didn’t feel the cuts. I couldn’t feel anything. I used my hands and knocked away more of the glass as air rushed in. I could hear it feeding the fire. The cracking and a whooshing sound as the fire grew, tried to engulf me. I pulled myself through the broken window. In my right hand I leaned on jagged broken glass, and I could feel it cutting deep in my hand. The pain almost made me pass out, but there was a voice in my head. A voice that told me to live. To live. To run. Run. Run. So I did. I ran in the dark. In the woods. Things pulled at me, tried to ensnare and trap me, but I ran for what felt like forever. I followed the voice to a place. There was a light, and I was scared, but it was light and the woods were dark. I followed the light.”

His place. Michael had been sitting in the dark drinking, but he had left he lights of the living room on behind him. The two story cathedral ceiling of windows let a large beacon of light shine through, bringing her to him. Guiding her. The voice. It was her inner voice that she listened to. The same one he listened to all those years ago, dying in that closet. The voice that told him to stop being a baby, to get up, to hide from the monster, and to live.

“The medallion, Maria. Why is it important?” Alex asked trying to pull her from her nightmare, frowning at the paleness of her face and Michael’s. They were connected. He couldn’t understand it, but Guerin was living her horror with her.

Maria clutched the St. Jude medallion around her neck. No. Nothing so cheesy or mundane as a microchip with all the information embedded. That would be too Hollywood. Too something else. It was just a plain religious icon. Nothing else. It was the memory it inspired that was important.

“When I was small, just a child, my father use to take me to church. We sat always in the same row, in the same pew. I was small, bored, and I would kick my feet at the pew in front, or sit on the kneeling bench like it was my own personal world. Once, I kicked too hard, and a piece of wood came off the pew in front of us. My dad was angry with me, but he reached down and he slid the wood back in place. I don’t remember more, because he left not much longer after that. I destroyed something in the house of God, and because of that, I was cursed. My father left.”

Kyle looked at Alex . “It’s in the church. He must have remembered the place and hid the files there.”

Alex nodded. No one would think to look in a church for something like that, or associate it with Jon DeLuca. No one but Maria. “Maria, do you remember which church?”

“Her Holy Immaculate in a small town on the edge of the Reservation.”

“I know that place. It was closed over four years ago, but it still stands.” Alex stood up. So did Kyle. They knew. They had a lead.

“I’m going too.” Maria said softly.

Michael protested, as did Alex and Kyle. “No. You’re out of this, as of right now.” Michael said.

Maria looked up at Michael and stroked his cheek. Strong. He was the strongest person she had ever met. But he was wrong to think she couldn’t match him. “No, I’m not. First, you need me to tell you which pew. To show you where, and second, we need to find my father’s body. The place where they killed him. I think it was in the area they’re dumping the waste.”

Alex looked at the woman. She had said the last thing directly at him. Weeks of walking the Reservation, and she knew. The mate of the coyote knew where the stronghold was. Where death crept in. He nodded. They’d finish it.

“Then let’s go. We’ve got two missing people and no time.”

~~~

Amy looked at Jim in worry. He was still. Too still. The gash on his forehead was still bleeding, but he was breathing. It was dark and the vehicle was moving. The road was bumpy and Amy closed her eyes. Maria. God, Maria. I’m so sorry. Sorry I couldn’t say goodbye. Sorry I’m leaving you alone.

“Amy?”

“Jim!” She scrambled closer. “You’re awake. Finally. I was worried.”

Jim nodded and bit back the nausea, trying to see through the dark gloom of the van. They were moving. This wasn’t good. Looking at Amy, he bit back another thought. Idiot. He was a fool to ever let her stay involved.

“Did they say anything?”

“No. I wasn’t awake yet when they tossed us in here. I just woke before you.” Amy crawled closer to him, sitting beside him for comfort.

Jim tried to reach out, to pull her close, but his bound hands made that impossible. He couldn’t even touch her. Closing his eyes, he thought of Kyle, and how Kyle had found Burns. Oh damn. Amy.

“I’m sorry, Amy. I should’ve never taken you with me.” Jim couldn’t believe how stupid and impulsive he had acted. If Kyle or Hanson acted that way, he’d…damn. Jim never got to finish because the van stopped. They were at their destination.

~~~

Alex took out his phone and made the call. Michael ignored him. His entire attention was on Maria. Her face was lacking any color, and he could feel the coldness from her skin.

It hadn’t taken them long to retrieve the files left by Jon DeLuca in that broken-down church. Alex took them, swearing under his breath, and he quickly made the call.

“Do you think they'll take our parents to where they killed my father?” Maria asked Kyle quietly.

“I don’t know. Alex does.”

“Who is he calling? Is he a Fed?”

Kyle looked at his friend. “He’s something else, or I think he is. I don’t know who he's calling, but I think he’s on leave from his work.”

Michael swore. “Great.” He went back to concentrating on driving Kyle’s car. Maria gave him instructions every once in awhile. They passed Fraser Woods and his home and were heading to the Mescalero Reservation. They took a side road running parallel to the woods. Michael frowned. This was a mistake. Bringing Maria was a big mistake. He should’ve stashed her somewhere safe.

Alex hung up his phone.

“Who did you call? The Cavalry?” Kyle asked.

“No, someone better. Don’t worry, we won’t be alone now that I know where the dumpsite is.” Alex tried to remember the general area. They had walked it weeks ago, but hadn’t seen anything.

Maria breathed in sharply when she saw the rocky outcropping where she had stood watching her father die. They stopped the car and got out. Almost in a daze, she walked to the exact place. Before the men could stop her, she was almost there. Michael took off after her, but he wasn’t fast enough as she was grabbed.

“Hands up, or she gets a bullet for her trouble.”

“I would suggest you follow Gerard’s suggestion. He’s not a great bluffer,” said Clayton Wheeler, Jr. Coming into sight, he stepped around the rock face. They all stood facing each other along a canyon wall, the cliff face to their back. Alex looked up the cliff face searching for something.

Kyle made a sound of distress when he finally noticed his father and Amy DeLuca on their knees behind Clayton and Gerard. Another two men had guns aimed at their heads.

“We knew that eventually Ms. DeLuca would lead you here.” Clayton said. He looked the young woman over. Pity. She was something he wouldn’t mind playing with for a short period of time, but he couldn’t afford to have her alive and breathing. Gerard held her with his gun to her temple, and his other hand moving sensually down the side of her neck.

Michael had stopped with Kyle and Alex , slightly ahead of them and closer to Gerard and Maria. Watching the man handle her, his fingers moving down the side of her exposed neck, Michael couldn’t choke back his fury.

“Get your fucking hands off her!”

Maria’s eyes met his, pleading with him to hold back, to stay safe, but Michael couldn’t see anything but the man’s hands on Maria and, tasting her fear, he stepped forward.

Gerard turned the gun on Michael, and Maria grabbed at his arm. “No! No, don’t hurt him.”

Clayton watched the interplay with interest. Obviously Gerard was just as regretful to have to dispose of the lovely Ms. DeLuca without first playing with her, and her protector seemed more than a little upset. Smiling evilly, he took note of Alex and Kyle. More bodies. Excellent.

“Mr. Wheeler, you realize that your operation is over?” Alex asked softly trying to defuse the situation before Michael lost control. “I realize that this dumping has been going on for more than ten years, so that means it must be a legacy left over from your father.”

“True. My father had a hand in it, but actually it was all my idea. My father, late in his life, was obsessed with finding a cure to old age. He was a dying man, and death would be the only thing to ever beat him. He couldn’t stand it. He even hoped that aliens existed. Anything to cheat death. A few years ago they discovered these blue crystals in underground caves around this region, partially on the Res, and partially under Fraser Woods. They made advances in genetic alterations possible, but the residual waste product was too toxic to dispose of safely and within established dumping grounds. The government keeps tabs on such waste. We couldn’t afford to have them look too close.”

Alex and Kyle shared a look between them. Alex had found the residual underground caverns with destroyed crystals. The crystals looked to have been destroyed for a long time, maybe even years.

“So the toxic waste is left over from genetic experiments?” Kyle asked, fearing the answer. That would explain the high birth defects and miscarriage rates in the general region. The people were being exposed to altering materials that was had the same ability to mutate like a radioactive isotope.

“At first, but later other things were added to it. Nothing like free dumping.”

Alex moved forward in a threatening move. His people. The men with Clayton Wheeler turned their guns towards Alex who moved back with his hands raised.

Michael watched at Gerard’s hand moved down and his arm circled Maria’s waist. He said something to his employer. The man nodded.

Looking at his other henchmen, Clayton nodded at the group. “Kill them. All of them.” Gerard started moving back taking Maria with him. Michael moved in protest.

Clayton smiled. “Is it Mr. Guerin ? Seems you were able to keep Ms. DeLuca from us for a longer time then I felt comfortable with. It is a shame that you didn’t remain protecting her. Bringing her here was a mistake, and one that you’ll not be able to fix. I’m afraid that I’m going to need to keep Ms. DeLuca awhile longer. Seems my right hand man, Gerard has taken a liking to her, and I must admit I’m curious myself. The rest of you? I’m afraid you’re just more waste that needs to be dumped.”

Alex hoped that Michael wouldn’t lose his cool. Gerard seemed to feel his anger and kept his gun trained on the man. Looking up to the top of the surrounding cliffs, Alex nodded.

“You might need to take care of us, Mr. Wheeler, but what about them?” Alex nodded to the cliffs. Wheeler and his men looked up at the to the rocks cliffs around them. Slowly they filled with Mescalero Apaches, all holding rifles trained on the men responsible for hurting their land and their people. “You didn’t think they would let you walk away? That you’d be free to destroy and maim at will?”

Clayton and his men circled around, looking at the number of men with rifles trained on them. There was no way out.

“Tell them to back off or we will shoot.”

“Shoot. They have no ties to these people. The people they care about are already being hurt, and they’re here to stop it. To find revenge.”

Kyle made a move of distress eyeing his father and Amy, but Jim made a quick shake of his head. It was the difference between being hostages and victims. As hostages Wheeler and his people had a hold. As mere victims, there was no leverage.

Gerard stepped back again with Maria hard against him. She made a sound of distress as the metal of the gun was once again pressed against her head.

“I told you to get your hands off her!” Michael’s hand came up, and in a surge of power, Gerard was suddenly moving back, hitting the rock face with extreme force. The stunned group paused for a moment, unable to comprehend what just happened, but suddenly all the guns began to fire.

Jim Valenti moved sideways and pushed Amy over on the ground to keep her out of the line of fire, as Michael rushed to pull a now-freed Maria down. Alex ’s gun came from his back holster, and Kyle’s gun was out and firing, returning fire at Wheeler’s men. In a rush of gunfire and smoke, Michael sensed, more than saw Clayton Wheeler’s arm move around to target Maria in his sights. Moving in a flood of motion, he pushed her aside and stepped in its path. He felt the impact, but his body couldn’t understand what was happening.

Life slowed to a moment by moment time frame, and his body seemed suspended above his reason. The inability to coordinate his movements and feel his body reminded him of his childhood, the lack of reality. And then, that fast, the world woke up and sped off again.