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.

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.