Kevin Ryan - Nightscape

As Max found his way back to the two-lane road they were taking, Liz could hear Maria tuning the guitar.

"Michael, do you see that black SUV?" Max asked, his voice tight. Michael obviously heard the same thing and spun his head around to look back through one of the van's two rear windows.

"It was on the road this morning," Michael said.

"Before we stopped," Max said.

"Maybe they stopped too," Maria said, with uncertainty.

"For exactly the same amount of time as we did?" Michael asked.

"Coincidence?" Maria said, but there was no conviction in her voice.

"What's the plan, Maxwell?" Michael said.

Max hesitated for a moment before he answered. Just before graduation he had said that he was done making decisions for the group. He had said the same thing in Stonewall. Liz understood why: He knew that, under his leadership his, Michael's, and Isabel's home planet had fallen. And too many bad things had happened in the last few years. Max blamed himself for all of them, including Alex's death. It wasn't fair, but that was Max. Now he was determined not to take a leadership position.

"Too much traffic on this road for us to do much of anything. For now, I'll just slow down," Max said.

Max reduced his speed to fifty. Immediately cars started passing them. But not all the cars, Liz saw. The black SUV didn't pass them. It slowed down as well, falling farther back until Liz couldn't see it anymore out of her mirror.

"Can you see him, Michael?" Max asked.

"No," Michael replied.

"He might have pulled over somewhere," Liz said.

"Maybe," Max said, his voice even. Then he sped up, taking the van to sixty-five. At that speed, he passed five or six cars.

"Careful, Max," Michael said. "We can't afford to get stopped for speeding."

"Better the cops than… them," Maria said.

"It's all the same, Maria," Michael said. Then, before she could say anything else, he said, "Look, we don't

technically own this van. We don't even know where Jesse got it, but I guarantee you that it's on a list somewhere in every state. I bet the Special Unit's seen to that," Michael said.

"And even if the government doesn't know about the van and Jesse owned it legally, we can't produce a registration and we can't register the van using any of our real names," Max said.

"So even though we escaped the graduation night assassination and the aliens back in Stonewall, a simple traffic stop will put an end to this little adventure?" Maria said.

"Pretty much," Michael said.

"What do we do?" Maria asked.

"We think of something. In the meantime, Max and I have been changing the license plate number every day," Michael said.

Max reduced his speed to just a few miles an hour over the speed limit of sixty "Isabel, wait for my signal, then we'll need some camouflage," he said.

"I'm ready, Max," his sister said.

A few minutes later, the traffic cleared a bit and the van went over a hill. Even as Liz saw that there were no cars in sight on the other side, she heard Max say, "Now."

Isabel's hand reached up and touched the side of the van. There was a slight glow where her hand touched the metal and then nothing. "Blue," Isabel said simply.

Liz leaned out her open window and took a look at the side of the van. The nondescript faded gray color of the van had been replaced with a bright new blue. The van looked almost new, at least from the outside.

Max inched up the speed, putting even more distance between their van and whoever was following them. "Any sign?" he asked, scanning his own mirrors.

"No," Michael said.

"Maybe it wasn't the Special Unit. It could have been just a coincidence. A second SUV like the one from this morning," Kyle said.

Liz allowed herself to relax a notch. Maybe Kyle was right: There seemed to be no way that the Special Unit or anyone else could have tracked them… was there?

"Liz, do you see that?" Max said.

"What?" Liz said, leaning forward and scanning the road. She had twenty-twenty vision, but Max's was better thanks to the genetic engineering that had created him.

A few seconds later she saw what Max meant: It was another black, late-model SUV

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"There's a black SUV in front of us, up ahead," Max said calmly.

It didn't make any sense to Liz. "How did they get in front of us without us seeing them?"

"They didn't. It's another black SUV," Max said.

"Anywhere to turn off?" Michael asked.

"No," Max said, shaking his head.

Liz looked around. There was nothing but road and trees ahead of them. That, and some hills in the distance. "We could wait until dark to try to lose them," Max said. "We'll have a better chance at night."

"If they're willing to wait," Michael said.

"For now, they don't seem to be in a rush," Max said.

Liz couldn't believe it. This was no coincidence. Somehow,

the Special Unit had found them. Less than two weeks into their trip, less than two weeks after they had barely escaped from Roswell with their lives.

"Our friend is back, behind us," Michael said.

That's it, Liz thought. They're boxing us in.

"Don't worry," Max whispered to Liz. He could tell she was scared. He was, too, but he tried not to show it.

"I won't let anything happen," he said. He kept his voice firm.

Max had given up leadership over this group back in Roswell, but he had also made a promise to himself that he would keep Liz safe and do his best to make her happy. He had nearly failed back in Stonewall. He would not fail again.

Whatever happened, he would make sure that the Special Unit never got its hands on her. She looked at him and nodded. She believed that he knew what to do. She believed in him. She still believed. And he was determined not to disappoint her again.

"They're keeping their distance in the back," Michael said.

Liz saw that the other SUV was staying far ahead of them.

"They're waiting to make their move," Max said.

Liz felt a hand on her shoulder. She knew it was Maria's. She put her own hand on top of her best friend's, then turned around and smiled. Maria was scared, but holding herself together.

"Liz…," Maria began, but Liz didn't hear what her friend said next because, suddenly, she wasn't in the car anymore. She was outside. It was dark and raining heavily. In front of her was a huge house. No, not a house: a mansion. It was very old and falling apart on the outside. Then the scene shifted, and Liz was watching as Maria screamed, terrified. Then her friend was running down a long hallway.

Liz had a bad feeling as she watched Maria approach the top of the staircase. There was a balcony, and Maria was headed straight for it. Liz wanted to call out to her friend to warn her to stop, but Liz realized she wasn't there, not really. Still, Liz couldn't help screaming out, anyway. Of course, Maria didn't respond. But even if Liz had been there, Liz didn't think Maria would have heard her over her own frightened screams. In the last split second, Maria tried to stop, but all she was able to do was twist her body to the side. Then she hit the railing and her momentum carried her forward. And she was flying into space…

Then a hand was on her shoulder, shaking her.

"Hey, Parker," Maria's voice said.

Liz realized she was back in the van. No, she had always been there. The other place was just another… vision.

"What did you see, Liz?" Max asked, concern in his voice. He didn't even have to ask anymore if she had had a vision. He knew.

Taking a deep breath, Liz said, "An old house… a mansion, I think. It was dark and raining. We went inside." Liz turned to Maria. "Then I saw the inside. You were screaming, and something was chasing you."

Maria read something in Liz's face. "What else?" she asked.