(continued from previous)

Eddie sat next to Riverdog's pale and slumped body in the cave. He washed the sweat from the older man's face with a wet cloth. Riverdog's eyes were pale and a faint glow emanated from them. The only other source of light was the map and symbols on the cave wall. Ever since Maria had been brought to the cave two nights ago the glowing had begun. It was the sign of connection. The communicator had begun the signal. Maria was the key to open the door.

“I’m too weak now. They cannot find me. I need the girl.” Riverdog spoke to Eddie, his voice was weak and each breath was labored and with difficulty.

“Shh, it’s okay. Six days. It’s already begun. It will come. You will be free.” Eddie continued to comfort him as his breathing evened out and he slipped into a restless slumber.

The nightmares would plague him in his sleep as they had for years. Ever since he helped to heal the man when he was a child. The voices would come at night and talk to him. But he was becoming too weak to hear them. He could no longer understand the connection.

Eddie listened painfully to the humming of Riverdog. They were coming closer. They would be here soon and then the door would open.

***

Michael woke alone in Maria’s room. He squinted and waited for his eyes to adjust to the light. She wasn’t in her room. He forced himself up and out of the bed that was the only comfortable place he had ever slept in his entire miserable existence.

“Maria?”

Michael could hear a slight hum, almost like a whisper, coming from the bathroom. He went and knocked on the door. “Maria?”

Maria shook her head violently. The glowing still pulsed from the tattoo on her back but she quieted at the sound of Michael’s voice. Pulling her shirt back on, she opened the door. Michael stood in front of her, rubbing his eyes from the sleepiness. Maria reached out and ran her hand along his face softly. Her eyes seemed brighter to him than usual. Like a spark was lit behind her green lenses. He shivered involuntarily as the shocks tingled down his face all the way through his toes.

“Maria?”

“Shhh. Can you feel it? Can you feel it?” Maria smiled at him as she ran her fingertips lightly over Michael’s mouth.

“Maria, what’s going on? Are you all right?” He wanted to break away from her but the electricity was so intense and pleasurable that he didn’t know how to move. He felt trapped in her embrace, no matter how lightly she held him.

“It’s okay. Michael, it’s okay.” Maria released his face and he could feel the sheath of electricity surrounding him.

Before Michael had a chance to respond the phone rang, startling both of them. Maria backed away from Michael. She looked up at him confused for a moment before picking up the ringing phone down the hall.

“Hello?”

“Maria, is that you? I can barely hear you with all the interference. Can you hear me?” Max was practically shouting into the phone because of all the noise that the static was making.

Isabel sat in his room with him. She was holding the glowing and humming orb that had woken Max up. They had already called Alex and Liz. Now they just needed Maria and Michael and the six of them were going to meet out at the reservoir.

“Yeah. I’’m here, so is Michael.” Maria handed the phone to Michael, who still held onto the side of his cheek from the slight electric shock.

“Michael!” Max screamed into the phone, expecting the static and interference.

“You don’t have to yell. I can hear you.” Michael pulled his ear away from the phone annoyed.

“Sorry. There was a lot of background noise before. Listen, you two need to meet us out at the reservoir right away. Something’s happening.”

“We’ll be right there.” Michael hung up the phone.

He didn’t have time to question what was happening with Maria now. Max sounded anxious. He hated when Max sounded anxious. Max wasn’t supposed to worry, he was supposed to be in control at all times.

“Let’s go.” Maria didn’t even ask Michael what the conversation was about or what Max said. She grabbed her sunglasses, even though the sun had just barely started to rise in the east, and walked out the door.

***

“Max, what’s going on?” Michael asked his friend as they all six stood around in a circle.

Max held out the orb, which still glowed. The humming seemed familiar to Michael, but he just couldn’t place it. Max held the orb gingerly, as if it were hurting him. Noticing Michael’s curious looks Max handed it to him. Michael jumped slightly as the electric shocks pulsed through him like little waves of charged particles.

“We don’t know why. It never did that before. And I can’t figure out where the noise is coming from.” Max shook his head in confusion.

Michael and everyone was so concentrated on the orb that they never noticed Maria staring off into the skyline. She was watching the faint outline of the dry lightning of the desert as it struck in random. Her eyes hurt from the sun as it rose higher in the sky. Her teeth clenched as the tattoo on her back sent out shockwaves of electricity in a matching pattern of the orb.

“We can’t leave it at our house. What if our mom finds it? Michael, can we leave it at your apartment?”

Michael nodded his head in agreement as he inspected the activated orb. “What does this mean? Are they coming for us? Are they trying to contact us? Max, we can’t leave this alone. We need to find out.” Michael was getting the excited look that he only got when on the verge of discovery about his past.

“Maybe...maybe we should all takes turns skipping classes. You know, so that someone will be around the orb all day. So that way you guys will know if anything else happens,” Alex spoke up, hoping that they would agree and not shut him, Liz, and Maria out of this like they always tried to do.

Max nodded. “That’s a good idea. And if anything happens then someone can call Isabel on her cell phone, Michael on Maria’s, and me on Liz’s. You know, when one of isn’t the one watching it. Okay?”

“Sure. That’s a good idea.” Isabel smiled briefly at Alex. And Liz nodded to Max as well.

“Maria?” Max asked as he realized that the other girl had been quiet during the whole exchange.

“Don’t miss the signs around you.” Her voice sounded muffled, almost as if she were speaking from inside a cave.

“What did you say?” Michael grabbed her and spun her around to look at him, but he couldn’t see her eyes because of the sunglasses she wore.

“What? Oh, yeah you can use my cell phone. That’s fine.” Maria shook off Michael’s grip and backed away.

“Maria...” Liz started to ask her friend about her erratic behavior recently but didn’t know where to begin. Plus with all this business about the orb, she didn’t want to complicate anything.

“We should be going guys.” Without looking at any of the other five, Maria strode over to her car and opened the door.

“I’ll watch it first.” Michael put the glowing orb in his pocket.

“Okay. One of will get it in a couple of hours.” Max put his arm around Liz and they walked to the Jeep as Michael looked to Maria in her car. He wanted to go back and look at the drawing he had done the day before.

The signs. I need to watch for the signs.

***

Michael sat in his apartment alone. On his right sat the orb, still glowing but the humming had stopped. In front of him lay the drawing of his visions from the electric shocks he had been feeling for the past couple of days. Damn it! What does it all mean? What does this mean?

Michael shook his head in frustration and ran his hands through his spiky hair. Nothing had happened since Maria had dropped him off at his apartment. She didn’t even look at him during the drive back. Not that he would have known because she kept her sunglasses on the whole time, despite the fact that they were heading west, away from the rising sun.

“This has to all mean something. But what?” Michael spoke out loud to himself because the silence was killing him.

But the silence was better than the eerie hum form the orb. He couldn’t quite place it or understand what this all meant. Michael looked at the symbol on the orb and then compared it to the drawing he made again. He could practically feel the connection between the two but he couldn’t fit it all together. It was almost as if there was a missing piece. The missing link or key to unravel it all.

The knocking at the door snapped him out of his obsessive thoughts. Quickly rolling up the drawing and tucking the orb away, he rose to answer the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Alex.”

Michael opened the door and nodded a slight greeting to him. Alex walked into the apartment and shut the door behind him. “Um, Max said that you had a test fourth period so you should probably go. I’ll stay here and baby-sit the orb until Liz or Max come. Here’s Maria’s cell.” Alex held out the phone to Michael.

“Thanks. Um, did you get this from Maria?”

“Yeah, well, sort-of. She never actually acknowledged my presence when I took it. But she didn’t stop me either. Who knows? She could’ve been asleep.” Alex shrugged.

But the truth was that he was concerned about his friend, only he didn’t know how to bring up his worries without it becoming some big alien thing. And he thought that right now they had all the alien crisises that they could handle.

“What do you mean?” Michael questioned Alex further.

“I dunno. She’s just been so...distracted. Almost like she hasn’t been all there. And she never even took her sunglasses off in class today.”

Michael nodded. He had noticed the same thing about her and was glad that Alex had brought it all up. “I gotta get to that test. I’ll try to talk to her later.”

“Okay. I’ll call you guys if anything, you know, happens.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” Michael handed Alex the orb and left, locking the door behind him.

***

Michael never could find Maria after his test. In fact no one had seen her all day, not since early that morning in the quad when Alex took her phone to bring to Michael. Now he really wished that Maria still had it so that he could at least call her and make sure that she was all right. But he didn’t have time to track her down right now because he could feel his hands twitching and shaking as the electricity in the air increased and all the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck raised in awareness. He jumped when the shrill ring of the phone came from his pocket.

“Yeah!”

“Michael, you need to get back here right away!” Max yelled into the phone.

Michael took off running before the two had even hung up the phone. He ran as fast as his alien strength allowed him all the way to his apartment.

Throwing open the door, Michael found Alex, Max, Liz, and Isabel all there waiting in expectation for staring at the orb. The electric shockwaves hit him like a force immediately. And the glow was now almost blinding in the small dark apartment.

“Max, Isabel?” Michael ran over to them and saw that they also felt the pulsing form the orb. “Do you feel that?”

Isabel nodded, trying to hold her tears back. She didn’t know why she felt like crying but it was if she couldn’t stop the flood of emotions that the charges emitted from the orb. They didn’t hurt. Instead, they were almost addictive. As if she needed to get closer to them but she didn’t know why or how.

Max looked frightened and kept glancing worriedly at Liz and Alex. Even though they didn’t feel the pulsing shocks, when they had touched the orb it sent a strong electric wave through them. Scaring them sufficiently to not want to touch it again.

“What the hell is going on?” Michael looked to Max for answers.

“I don’t know but the stones started to glow as well. I think that we should get to the cave. We should go see Riverdog. He may know what is going on.”

Everyone nodded at the plan that Max laid out before them. It seemed like the only option at this point. No one knew what else to do or how to proceed from here.

“Michael, did you find Maria?” Liz looked up at asked with the concern etched visibly on her face.

Michael just shook his head.

“We don’t have time to find her right now. We need to get to the Reservation in case anything has happened.” Max wrapped his arm around Liz as he spoke regretfully.

She only looked down and sighed at the words that she knew were true.

“Wait. There is...there is one other thing. I don’t know what it means but...” Michael trailed off as he reached behind the couch and pulled out the drawing. “I didn’t even know that I was doing this. It just happened. It was almost as if the air, the electricity controlled me. I don’t even know what it means.”

Everyone gaped in disbelief at the drawing in front of them.

“Michael. What is it?” Isabel looked to her brothers for answers.

‘‘I don’t know, Is. I don’t know.”

“Let’s bring it with us. Riverdog may be able to explain the meaning. Let’s go.” Max grabbed the brightly glowing orb and Michael rolled up the drawing as the five of them set out to find Riverdog and some answers.

***

“Riverdog! Riverdog we need to talk to you!” Max shouted into the cave.

He could see a glow coming from the back of the cave where the map was drawn on the wall. He could hear voices in the back and gestured for the others to follow him.

They crept silently to the back of the cave towards the source of light and the voices. The five of them collectively gasped at the sight of Riverdog. He was pale and his eyes glowed dimly. The voices heard had been Eddie talking to him as he washed the dying man’s face with a wet washcloth. Eddie never looked up from his task as he heard the teenagers enter the cave.

“I knew you would come eventually. There isn’t much time left. We must prepare.” Eddie spoke plaintively to them.

“Prepare for what?” Max took his leadership role immediately.

“For the change. You need to be ready. The answers that you are looking for. You will have them soon.” Eddie cared for Riverdog still.

“What’s wrong with him?” Liz asked with a shaky voice.

Her eyes kept darting back and forth from Max, the glowing orb, the glowing map, and Riverdog. The orb, map, and stones all glowed with the same bright intensity and the hum could be heard clearly from the orb in the echoes of the cave. But Riverdog’s eyes were dull in comparison to the other glowing, not that human eyes were supposed to glow to begin with.

“He is dying. The change must transfer soon other wise it may be too late. He is too weak to open the door himself. He cannot do it. The voices are too weak. He can no longer hear them.”

“Open what door? What voices? What does this have to do with the map and the orb?” Max stepped closer to Eddie and Riverdog. “Please tell us.”

For the first time since the five teenagers had entered the cave Eddie looked up at them. He stared straight into Max’s eyes before turning his head to look at both Michael and Isabel. “You will know everything soon. The door will open and all the answers will be given. But you need the key, the link to the door. Riverdog is too weak. He can no longer hear the voices clearly and therefore cannot complete the mission. He is your link no longer. Look for the signs. The key is strong, growing stronger everyday. In five more days. Five more days and the change will be complete. The door will open.”

“What key? The orb? Is the orb the key?” Max pressed on insistently.

“No. The orb is the tracker. It is how your people know how to find you, how they know where to open the door. But in order to activate the orb the key is needed. Riverdog used to be that link, that key that you used. But he is old and can no longer withstand the connection. Don’t you feel it? Don’t you feel it happening? The changing, the electricity as the transfer occurs.”

Michael felt the hairs raising again in awareness and the feeling of deja vu swept over him. Don’t you feel it? The signs are all around you. Look for the signs.

“Maria! What the hell did you do to Maria?”

Michael pushed past Max and grabbed Eddie pushing him up against the wall. His face was twisted and contorted in rage. But Eddie never showed any fear. In fact he never showed any emotions at all.

“I’ll tell you. You need to know.” Michael released Eddie as Riverdog spoke to him. He addressed them all in a weak and raspy voice.

“What is happening?” Max knelt next to him on one side as Michael sat on the other.

“When I was a boy and the man got very sick, just as you did, Michael, I helped to heal him. This brought me into a connection with the man and this cave. I became a part of the mission here. I became connected to your people. That is how I knew what to do and about the symbols. The voices, the voices would tell me. It is the humming you hear. You cannot understand but they are speaking to me. At least they used to. But I am old and I am tired and I cannot hear them clearly. The time is becoming nearer. I am too weak to finish the link and open the door. But when you became sick you opened the others up to the link.”

“Maria and Alex. Because they helped to save Michael.” Max prompted Riverdog to continue.

“Yes, Liz was too close. When you healed her, she could no longer be the link because of her connection personally to you. She was already marked. Alex could not connect fast enough for the change. We would have missed the opportunity with him. That left Maria. She was perfect. She felt an emotional connection to you three but was not already actually connected. Maria is the key. She will give you all the answers. She will open the door.”

“Where is she?” Liz sat beside Max at Riverdog’s side.

“Preparing. You cannot disturb her now. She will come to you when the time is near and then we must connect. You all must use the stones to join her to me. The transfer will then be complete.”

“What transfer?” Alex and Isabel held hands and walked closer to the man.

“Don’t the three of you feel it? The power. The electricity needed for her. She is strong. Stronger than I ever was and she can be the link needed. The orb and the map will light the way. She will be ready. The change will be complete soon.”

“The shocks. Every time she touches me I feel the sparks between us, like an electric pulse.” Michael’s voice matched the excited look on his face. He would be getting his answers. It was everything that he ever wanted. “I’ve been feeling her connection to us, her connection to the orb. It’s been like a charge in the air around her, around us.”

“Yes. That has been her as the connection is transferred. Her dreams have been guiding her. But now she must act. Maria must be ready.”

“Ready how? What is she doing?” Liz bit her lip, a nervous habit. She did not like something about all this. Was this all safe for Maria?

“I do not know exactly what because my connection is so weak now. I have lost the ability to hear the voices. I cannot connect any longer. She is the key, she is the link now and has all the power. You will find her when she is ready and then, then I will be let go. I will be free.” Riverdog coughed as his dry lungs tried to breath in the dusty cave.

“Is this safe? Will Maria be all right?” Liz continued to ask Riverdog her pressing questions.

Michael looked at Liz sharply, not because he was angry with her but because he was angry at himself for becoming so excited at the prospects of having all his answers possibly at the price of Maria.

“Yes, she will be fine. This will not hurt her.” Eddie answered for Riverdog as he coughed. “You should go now. He needs his rest. You will feel when the time is ready to come back. You have seen the signs. You will know what to do when it is time.”

“Come on, Michael. We’ll be back. Maria...Maria will be fine.” Max tugged on Michael’s arm and dragged him out of the cave.

Eddie watched the departing figures and turned his attention back to Riverdog.

“We cannot tell them. Otherwise they may stop the transfer. I cannot do it. I need her. I need to be free.” Riverdog looked out at Eddie with his faintly glowing eyes.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let them stop it. They won’t know. You will not die. She will die in your place. You will be free.”

***

Michael, Max, Isabel, Liz, and Alex met at Michael’s apartment as they had for the past five days. Each day they would sit and wait for a sign of Maria. But each day they were met with disappointment. No one had heard from her since the morning they met at the reservoir with the glowing orb. Each the day the humming from the orb would increase as did the glowing.

“Where is she? Max, I’m so worried. Her mom will be back soon and I can’t keep covering for her at work. People are going to notice. And...and I still don’t trust that this is safe. What if something happens to her?” Liz looked to Max for support and guidance.

He didn’t know what to say or how alleviate any of her fears because the truth was that Max had been having the same disturbing thoughts about the situation as well.

“Today’s the day.” Michael interrupted before Max could respond to Liz’s worries.

“What? Michael, are you sure?” Isabel sat next to him on the couch. She could feel the current as it ran around them in the room.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure. You can feel the change. It’s like she’s guiding me to her. The orb will find her. She’s ready for whatever is happening.”

“Then we go to the cave. Maria will be there.” Alex took charge for once as he saw the shocked looks on Max and Isabel’s faces and the scared look an Liz’s. “We need to find her and if Michael says that it’s time for whatever this change is, for her link or whatever, then we go to the map and Riverdog.”

***

The group stepped out of the jeep that they had driven as closely to the cave as possible. The sky was dark from black clouds that were rolling in over the New Mexico desert. Max and Michael grabbed the flashlights out of the back and led the way to the cave. They had hiked about half a mile when Isabel suddenly gasped and grabbed Max’’s elbow. She pointed wordlessly to the sky.

“Oh my God.” Liz exclaimed under her breath.

“That’s the sign. That’s what I drew! Max, the cloud has formed the sign, the symbol from the drawing.” Michael excitedly pointed to the cloud in the sky.

The black cloud had formed one of the symbols from the map on the cave wall. This was the same symbol that Michael had drawn in his vision. Under this could be envisioned another symbol on the ground overlapped by the five stars.

“That’s where she is! We need to go out to Maria! She’s in the desert! Hurry, guys!”

Michael took off running at top speed with the others quickly following behind him. He ran for what seemed like hours over the tops of the hills towards the rocky desert. “Maria!”

The group halted at the sight of their friend. Maria stood in her jeans and bra only in the middle of a giant drawing in the sand. She stood facing them as they ran close to her, but not actually entering the territory of the symbol.

“Maria?” Liz called out to her with an outstretched hand. “Maria, please come to us.”

Maria opened her eyes and they all instinctively shielded their faces from the harsh light that glowed from where her pupils once sat. Maria tilted her head upward to the sky. The light from her eyes shone bright on the dark cloud above her. She turned slowly in a circle away from her friends.

They gasped in collective shock at the five marks on her back. The raised tattoo still pulsed and glowed and the three aliens could feel the sparks calling out to them. The pull of the mark was intense and powerful.

“Oh my God. Michael, Max. That’s the map. Maria is the sign. Riverdog and Eddie were right. She’s connected. I can feel it. God, I want to be closer to it.” Isabel tried to steady herself as the electric force from the glowing marks slammed against her system.

Alex reached out to steady her but jumped back as she shocked him with his touch against her skin.

“Guys! Look!” Liz pointed to Maria who had turned back around to face her friends.

“We must hurry. It’s almost time. We have to open the door. The signs are not complete. The change must continue.” Maria spoke in the same eerie hollow voice that she had spoken with days before at the reservoir.

She stepped out of the symbol and walked slowly past her gawking friends. They all followed behind as they made the trek back to the cave where Riverdog still lay and Eddie had the stones out in preparation.

“Max, what are they going to do? I’m worried.” Liz whispered quietly into Max’s ear so that Eddie and Riverdog could not hear her concerns about this ritual again.

“I know Liz. I am too, but I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how to help her without finishing this ‘change’ that they keep talking about. And I, I feel her power. It’s hard to describe without you feeling it. I feel safe, loved, like a...like a connection to home.” Max tried to find the words to share the experience that the three aliens were having form this power rush but he didn’t know how to express the strange emotional, as well as physical, connection that they were all feeling.

Maria hunched her back over in pain as the marks began to pulse with more intense electric shocks as she entered the cave. Riverdog sat up as they all came to stand behind Maria. He sat with his legs crossed at the center of the symbol where Michael had lay in his cocoon state. Maria knew to sit across from him and she did so.

Riverdog’s eyes now only had a faint distant glimmer. It was almost not noticeable in comparison to the bright white light that Maria emitted. Her eyes illuminated his face as she maintained direct eye contact with him.

Eddie gestured around the circle for the five friends to take their places. Each took their same spots as they had for Michael’s healing, except that Michael took Maria’s place. He handed them their stones and backed away. It was up to them to finish the transfer. By connecting to both Maria and Riverdog then Maria would be opened up to the remaining power that Riverdog held. She would be the completed link to the door.

Max, Michael, and Isabel immediately closed their eyes and worked on their gut instincts as how to connect with the two within the inner circle. Liz and Alex followed suit, taking their cues from their friends around them. The stones pulsed in tune with the markings on Maria and the humming increased to a soothing lullaby that all five could hear calming their worries.

They were all so entranced by the beautiful song that no one except Eddie noticed as Maria’s shouldersbegan to convulse and her body shake as the electric shocks sent powerful vibrations through her all too human body. Her muscles were twitching violently from the assault of the remaining link that Riverdog held and she threw her head back. For the first time in days her own voice broke through the connected consciousness.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” She shrieked in absolutely pure terror and fear as the connection to their orb and the link finished laying its webs on Maria’s mind and body.

She convulsed and shook from the vehemence of the last vestiges that Riverdog passed through to her. Maria stood on her shaking legs and ran past the circle out into the desert. Only when she broke the connection of the circle did everyone turn to look at her.

Michael felt his own hands shaking as Maria touched him where she had run past them all out of the cave. “What happened? What the hell was that?”

Riverdog stood with renewed strength. “Go to her. The door will open. She is the key to open the door.”

Michael glanced back at Riverdog and Eddie one last time before chasing after the shaking girl.

Max and Isabel both watched in shock before joining Michael. Liz stood grounded in her spot as did Alex. They could feel the air change around them. But instead of the electric shocks that Max, Michael, and Isabel had been feeling, they could feel the absence of the charged air. They could feel the difference in Riverdog.

“What did you do?” Liz walked up to the two men. She pointed at them angrily and with a shaky finger. “Tell me what you did because I know that you are lying. You aren’t dying! What happened? What is going to happen to Maria?”

Eddie looked back at Riverdog briefly before addressing the near hysterical girl in front him. “You can’t stop it now. It’s too late. Don’t you see that? She is opening up a world. Maria is the key to the door, she will bring the answers that your friends have been searching their whole lives. But you’re right. Riverdog isn’t dying. At least not anymore. Maria is. Maria will die in his place. Don’t you see? The key that unlocks the door isn’t meant to understand or have the answers. She is human and it is her life that is necessary for the door to be opened. But if it is not opened now, when the signs are aligned, then the door will be locked forever. Riverdog was too weak before to be a strong enough link for the orb to connect and track for the door to open. We needed one of you and, as we explained earlier, Maria was perfect. She has a part to fulfill and tonight her destiny will be complete. They need this, it is the mission. Their answers will be given.”

“Oh my God. You’re killing Maria. Alex? Alex! They’re killing Maria!” Liz and Alex fled the cave and raced to the desert where the sign was etched in the sand and the sky had opened up above.

“Max! Max! No! Don’t let her do it! It will kill her! The door will kill Maria! Please, Max!” Liz cried as she stumbled to the three watching. Her tears were streaming down her face as she collapsed in Max’s arms.

All three aliens looked at the two humans as they came dashing to them outside of the symbol. They turned in horror to look at Maria as the actuality of Liz’s words sunk in and they understood what was happening.

Maria was crouched over on her knees, naked, in the middle of the symbol. The black cloud that had formed the symbol in the sky swirled menacingly over head and lightning bolts would streak across the desert. Maria arched her back and the five star tattoo burst forth with light. The shriek that came from Maria was almost deafening.

Michael tried to reach her and pull her out of the circle but the electric shockwaves ripped through him painfully as he reached the edge of the sign on the ground.

“Maria! Maria no!” Michael cried out to her as the screams of terror and pained echoed through the desert and surrounded his ears. Isabel and Alex had to hold him back from being shocked again as Max held Liz’s trembling and hysterical body.

Suddenly a single lightening bolt connected with the ‘V’ on Maria’s back and her body thrashed under the power of the raw electricity. Michael, Liz, Alex, and Isabel all threw their hands up over their eyes protectively as the light from the connection of Maria with the lightning blinded them. The air began to pulse with the most excruciating and agonizing surges of pure and direct power. All five were thrown back from the impact of the blast.

For almost an hour after the explosion all five lay in their contorted positions where they had landed form the blast until one by one they slowly regained consciousness. Max sat up gingerly from his aching bones. He turned his head around and saw Liz next to him. She opened her eyes and looked up at Max with tears still flowing freely down her face.

“Max?” Her voce trembled uncontrollably.

“Maria!” They heard Michael’s voice call out as he tried to stand. Alex and Isabel both helped him up. Michael’s legs still shook from the electric shock of when he tried to enter the sign.

“Maria!” he screamed at the top of his lungs with an absolute terror and fear that Isabel and Max had never heard from him before. “Where is she? Damn it! Maria!”

“Look! In the middle of the symbol! There!” Isabel pointed to the small body, and from their distance they could make out the blonde hair that was blowing gently in the wind. Michael forced his legs to work and ran hurriedly down to the where her small body huddled in the desert.

“Maria!” Michael reached out and touched her naked shoulder. But something was wrong. She was cold and he felt different. Something was different. “You aren’t Maria.”

The girl turned to him and smiled. “No. No, Michael, I’m not.”

“Who are you? Where is Maria?” Michael tried to push the bile back down that was raising up in his throat as he realized what had happened. Maria was gone. She opened the door.

“I have all the answers. You’ve been waiting for me. Max, Isabel, Michael. You know me. I’m one of you. I’m Tess.”

***

“Maria.”

I know that voice. That voice isn’t like the others. It is comforting and will help me.

“Hello? Please help me. I don’t know where to go.” Please?

“Maria, you know where. Just follow my voice, child. Remember what I always said to Lizzie. Follow your heart. Come to me by following your heart.”

“Grandma Claudia? Am I...am I dead?”

“Shh, don’t cry, baby girl. I’ll look after you now. I’m here for you. I’m here for you.”

I’m gone. Lost. All because one evening I didn’t say good bye. I didn’t lock the window and they came in. I didn’t lock the door. I was the key. I was the key that opened it all. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be alone. I miss Michael. I never got to say good bye. I never got to say good bye! I never got to lock the door! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I should’ve locked the door!

I want to go home.

Back to Area 51 (Section I)