Laura Burns - Quarantine

"And in everyone else it activated whatever genes they had for all these different sicknesses," Maria said.

"Yeah, that's what Liz says. But no one else knows that the virus itself is alien. It comes from Liz's alien DNA. The CDC won't figure that out."

"Because of the whole they-don't-believe-in-aliens thing."

"Exactly. So Max has to figure out how to stop the virus."

"Got it," Maria said, standing up. "How long ago did they take Liz away?"

"Hours and hours," Kyle replied. "She was much sicker than I am. When Max touched her, she got even worse. He was probably putting more alien DNA into her system just by trying to heal her."

"So she's overdosing on alien genes."

"She and I both," Kyle said. He dropped his head back onto his pillow. "I have to sleep now."

"Don't worry, Valenti," Maria said gently. "We'll take it from here."

"Alien DNA." Valenti shook his head. "That's it, the entire virus. It's alien DNA."

"It's my DNA," Max corrected him. "This is all my fault. I always thought I was doing a good thing when I healed people. Turns out I was infecting them with some big time bomb." I should have known better than to think I could do anything to help people, he thought bitterly. Every

time I try to do the right thing, it has awful side effects.

"Max, that's just not true," Isabel said. "This virus came from a chemical spill. Maybe we're lucky it was Liz in that lab. If it had been one of us, the virus would've been much stronger."

"So her DNA mutated," Michael said. "And that's what's swimming around in everyone else now. What do we do about it?"

"It seems they're all sick because their bodies can't handle the alien influence," Max said. "So we have to get rid of the alien DNA in them."

"Not necessarily," Valenti put in. He was pacing around his living room. "Think about it, alien and human DNA can coexist. You guys have both."

"That's true," Isabel said. "And if Liz is right, she and Kyle have both had some alien DNA for a while now and they've been fine."

"So it's not the DNA we need to target," Maria said. "It's the mutation."

"No, it doesn't work that way," Max said, trying to remember his genetics. "There should be a gene that acts as a sort of bridge. It allows the human and the alien to coexist without harming each other. We all must have that gene, and Liz and Kyle should have it too."

"So the chemical spill did something to deactivate that gene in Liz," Michael said. "How do we fix it?"

"I go in again and try to heal her," Max said. "Then the CDC can use a sample of Liz's DNA to make a cure for the others."

"Then half the people in Roswell will have alien DNA," Valenti said. "Seems kind of appropriate."

"But last time you made Liz even worse!" Maria cried.

"Well, this time I know what to look for," Max replied. "Unless anyone has a better idea?"

He looked around the room. No one said anything. "Okay. I'm going to figure out how to do this. You guys figure out how to get me to Liz."

He headed out to Valenti's backyard, needing to be alone. He didn't want to let the others see how frightened he was. Maria had a good point. Last time he'd made Liz's illness worse. This time he could kill her.

I have no choice, he thought. Liz wouldn't be in this situation if I hadn't put her in it. He sighed heavily. If she got through this, he would leave her alone. She wasn't sure she wanted to get back together with him, and maybe she was right to feel that way. It seemed that everything he did put Liz in danger, even though she was the most important thing to him. So if she still wanted him to back off, he would.

But first he would save her life.

Michael pulled on the pant leg of Kyle's Meta-chem jumpsuit. "This is way too short," he complained to Max. "No one will ever believe it's my uniform."

Max shot him an impatient look. "Then fix it," he said.

"I don't know how." Michael tried zapping the fabric with his powers, but he only succeeded in burning a tiny hole in the knee.

Max reached over and grabbed the hem of one leg. He ripped the stitching and pulled the hem down. Now the leg was only about an inch too short. "Oh," Michael said. He pulled down the hem on the other leg.

"If anyone asks, I'm looking for a job and you're taking me in to meet your boss," Max said.

"Right. And my name is Kyle from Housekeeping," Michael said. "Let's go."

They climbed out of Kyle's pickup, which Valenti had lent them, and walked up to the employee entrance of the Meta-chem building. Michael unlocked the door with Kyle's passkey and held the door open for Max to enter.

A bored-looking security guard sat at a small desk inside.

"You mind if I bring my friend in for an interview?" Michael asked gruffly.

The guard shrugged. Michael led Max past him, pretending that he knew where they were going. Once they were around the corner from the guard, they stopped. Michael pulled out the map Isabel had drawn of where the CDC headquarters were. "This way," he said. "It's not far from here."

"I hope that's where Liz is," Max said.

"Only one way to find out. Look sharp." They headed deeper into Meta-chem, and Michael tried not to think about what was waiting for them. Because after this, they had no plan. How to find Liz, how to save her… Max would just have to handle that part.

"Liz? Can you hear me?"

The voice vibrated through Liz's body slowly. It's weird that my metabolism is speeding up when everything else feels so much slower, Liz thought. Light hit her eyes in slow-moving waves, and so did sound. Is this what the aliens feel like all the time? she wondered. It truly was an alien experience.

"Liz?" It was Maris Wheeler's voice. Some part of Liz knew that. She forced her eyelids to open.

The room was dark. They kept it dark and quiet because they knew what Liz's symptoms were. All in all, they'd been pretty nice. Of course, she'd had lots of blood taken, and they did tests frequently. How did they get all the medical equipment to Meta-chem so fast? she wondered. They even had an MRI machine.

"You have an MRI," she murmured, trying to focus on Maris's face.

"Yes. My husband is very ill. We treat him here." The voice swam down to Liz through layers of white noise… the hum of the monitors she was hooked up to, the buzzing of the fluorescent lights out in the hallway, the murmur of voices from the CDC headquarters nearby. If Liz wanted to, she could focus on any one of these sounds and block out the others. But that took a lot of energy, and she felt so weak…,

"Liz, do you know why you're here?" Marts asked.

"Because I cleaned up the spill," Liz murmured. "It mutated me."

"That's right." Marts smiled widely. "That's exactly right."

The lights went out. But Liz barely registered that, because the siren that started to ring was so loud that she thought the sound would burst her eardrums. There was nothing in the world but that piercing sound, and the pain it caused. Pain like nothing Liz had ever felt before; pain she seemed to feel on a molecular level.

"Liz? Can you hear me?" This time the voice was Max's. Liz slowly became aware that the piercing alarm sound was gone. The lights were still off.

"What happened?" she whispered.

"Michael pulled the fire alarm. We had to get everyone out of here. They'll be back in a matter of minutes." Max was talking very fast. Liz listened to the sound of his voice, but she couldn't follow the words.

"I'm going to try to heal you. It won't be like last time. I'm going to look for one specific gene," Max was saying. "This gene turned off, and I need to turn it back on."

Liz was aware of two things: fear and love. She'd never experienced emotions like this before, with her whole body. The fear came from somewhere in her spine, sending tiny tremors up through the muscles of her back. She was afraid for Max to touch her, because last time it had hurt so much. The love came from the pit of her stomach and sent waves of heat radiating through her chest. The love made all the parts of her body call out for Max. "Max," she whispered. "I love you. I feel it in every single cell. I can hardly bear how much I love you."