TAT: Malign (AU/ML/Teen) [COMPLETE]

[RosDude]

Winner Round 13





Winner Round 11








Best Science Fiction Story

Title: Malign
Author: Chad
Disclaimer: The characters of Roswell do not belong to me. No infringement intended.
Rating/Category: AU/Teen to start but will become very ADULT in the future
Time After Time:

Time After Time is a series of loosely linked stories throughout history. Each story will feature Max and Liz in a CC relationship. Most of the other pairings will be CC, but it is not required (meaning that mild UC is a possibility). Nor is pairing the other characters with anyone necessarily going to happen. The stories in this series can all be read independently, but will be connected by Max and Liz's relationship, and by one other trend. See if you can pick it out! The stories may end happily, or not. This is at the discretion of the author. The backstory in each fic might be different. These stories are not necessarily canon based. The events of the TV show Roswell are just another link in the time after time chain.

Summary:

Welcome to the 23rd century.

Beware of Maligns:

Maligns are extremely dangerous and harmful creatures. All government-controlled facilities housing maligns are to be isolated a span of fifty miles in each direction. Anyone to come into contact with a malign without the proper protective gear is to be quarantined instantaneously, no questions. Any residence of an area located less than fifty miles away from an area that is suspected of malign activity are to be evacuated without delay. Maligns are not to be searched for by anyone who does not posses the proper training and authorization. Any and all sightings (accidental or otherwise) of maligns are to be reported to an MD officer immediately. If there is suspicious activity in your area, please alert an authority figure. Any person(s) that is in deliberate insubordination of these edicts will be detained.

Author’s Note: This story will take place in a series of parts that correspond with Max and Liz’s age. These parts will not necessarily be placed in craniological order do to effectiveness of the story telling. The story will be separated into four parts that cover three different time periods in the life of Max and Liz throughout a time span of twenty-five years. The second and fourth parts will cover the same time period. However, the story will still be intelligible. (At least I hope so. lol)

Glossary
(May be added to as story progresses)

Ber-kit: A derogatory name used by male MDs on female operatives. A play on the words ‘berserk’ and ‘kitten’ meant to show the contrast between a woman’s natural femininity and brutality.
Chips: A form of money.
D-Mac: Extremely hazardous explosives
Domicile: A house.
Doughboys: The particular name of the group of MDs that will be featured.
Lavatory: A bathroom
Litter: A mode of transportation. A littler is an automobile that is used for transportation. Instead of being driven it is equip with a computer for which a course is plotted and a person(s) inside of the litter is/are taken to their desired destination.
Maligns: What humans refer to aliens as.
Malign Disposer (MDs): The group of men that hunt down, kill and capture maligns.
Malign Researchers (MRs): A group of scientist that studies the genetic makeup of maligns.
Toxic Exposure: When a person is infected by gandarium. (Side Note: Humans are not aware of the name gandarium, or what it does, or what it’s for in the case of maligns. They just know that it kills people. The more and more it was exposed to Earth’s atmosphere it was able to evolve and is therefore now able to infect more than just the people with the defect in their blood. However, as a corollary of the gandarium’s evolution it lost its domino infection ability and can now only be transmitted through direct convection from the gandarium.)
Toxin: Formerly known as gandarium

Part 1:

Chapter One

Plat City, New Mexico: Lacebark Cave ~2210~

Dover Blackwell was not a fearful man. He had learned at a young age that there were far too many bad things in life that did happen, and to fear the bad things that could happen. Yet, as he peered down into the obscurely dank cavern, an eerie feeling crawled down his spine like a spider slowly making its way to its defenseless pray. The feeling was one much like the cavern itself: dark and hollow. He felt the prickling itch of the imperceptible bugs he knew were crawling along the tiny cracks of his skin. His being shuttered in nervous anxiety as he shifted the weight of his gun to his left arm. His palms were sweaty, his forehead clammy, and his teeth clicked together in tangible shivers. His heartbeat pulsated stridently in his own ears, like the sporadic beating of a drum. The sound was so loud that he feared his heart would burst forth from his chest cavity at any given moment.

Dover wiped one of his sweaty palms across his brow and drew in a deep breath. He let the damp cave air fill his lungs and grimaced at the stale taste it left in his mouth. He was tired, cold, and ready to get the hell out of the cave and go home. Frankly, he was pushing the brink. What was this strange feeling that traveled sinuously throughout his body? Why did he have such an overwhelming emptiness in the pit of his stomach?

"I hate these damn caves. It’s always a maze down here." Adder Watson’s raspy voice thundered into Dover’s ear. The loud base drowned out even the staccato hammering of Dover’s heart. The man was no more than a few feet in front of him, but Dover could hear Adder’s voice as if the words were coming out of his own mouth, thanks to the transmission radio that was attached to the inside of his helmet.

"Man up, Adder. We’ll be done as soon as we locate the maligns," Link Patterson, their squad captain, said. A few of the other members of Dover’s squad laughed benevolently. The cave was too dark for Dover to see any of his fellow officers, but he could feel the change in the air as the men moved around him.

"That’s easy for you to say, Link. You’re not down in this microbe infested death trap," Adder retorted. His words were followed by a loud gushing sound, indicating that he had just ended the life of one of the microbes he had referred to with such abhorrence.

"Boy, I was down in the caves when you were just a babe nursing at your mother’s tit. I don’t want to hear any more of that lip. Your mission is to find the maligns. The sooner you do, the sooner we can all go home. The sooner we go home, the sooner we can all be relieved of your bellyaching."

A couple of the soldiers that were still above ground laughed again, and Dover smiled at his comrades’ banter. But though he smiled, it was a smile that contained little mirth. He could not get rid of the sense of dread that seemed to linger with him. He had a strange feeling, as if something was horribly wrong. He had an irrefutable sensation deep within the pit of his being that his life was about to take a dramatic turn.

"How you hold’n up, kid?" Link’s scratchy southern baritone asked. The question came from fifty feet above Dover’s head, where Link and the other half of the Doughboys were waiting for them to surface with the malign pod.

"Not bad sir," Dover answered truthfully. "But I can’t say too good either."

"Why is that, son?" Link asked.

"I just have a bad feeling, sir. That’s all."

Link paused as if he was taking a moment to consider something before he made an assumption as to what was bothering Dover. "This isn’t your first wayfarer mission, right son?"

"No sir, it is not," Dover answered.

"Then I’d be worried if you didn’t have a bad feeling," Link in turn replied. Dover heard the hint of laughter in Link’s voice, but he knew that the man was being serious. Honestly, a wayfarer was no laughing matter. Many men had been killed during such missions. Sometimes do to severe toxic exposure. Other times it was at the mercy of good old Mother Nature herself. Whatever the cause of death, it was an outcome that was prevalent in wayfarers. Dover was well aware of the fact that he and every man that was in the cave with him, were putting their lives on the line by being where they were.

"Hey, I think I found something!"

Collectively, a beam of light shined down upon the heads of the men that were inside of the cave. "Where at, Watson?" Link and the other operatives that were above them, fixed their lights upon Adder’s head.

"Would you get that damn light off of me? What, are you trying to do, blind me?" Adder extended his arm and pointed out towards a small opening that was on the inside of the cave. "There, it’s over there."

The lights that had previously been focused on him simultaneously moved from Adder to the wall. There was a tiny crevice visible, but it appeared to be too small for any of the men to fit through. Dover walked over and shined his strobe between the small crevice. Inside he could see the silhouette of something that was illuminating behind the wall.

"There’s definitely something inside," he confirmed.

"What’s the distance from the wall to the pod, Blackwell? Can you tell?" Link asked right away.

Dover continued to look inside of the crevice. Judging from what he could see of the pod, he would guess that it was directly on the other side. "We’re going to need a spade," he said.

"A spade?" Adder asked. His voice was full of horrified outrage. "That’s taking it back to the old schoo. Why don’t we just get some D-Mac down here and blow that sucka’ open?"

Dover rolled his eyes as he looked at the man standing beside him. "The pod is behind the wall, genius. If we blow that crevice, we blow the pod. If we blow the pod, this entire expedition is shot to hell."

Adder groaned. "Do you realize how long it’s going to take to tear a hole in that wall that’s big enough to get through, and get a pod out of with nothing but a couple of lousy spades? We’ll be here all night."

"Dover’s right, Watson," Link said before Dover could comment. "We can’t risk fracturing the pod. We’ll have to dig the crack out." Dover was relived at Link’s agreement. He didn’t want to spend the rest of the night arguing with Adder. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Adder. He was a good man. It’s just that he never passed up the opportunity to gripe about any and every thing.

Adder grimaced at Link’s words, but for once in his life made no further audible disagreements.

Shovels were lowered down to the men that were in the cave and they began working on enlarging the tiny crack that was in the wall. It took about two hours of working to dig through the solid dirt before the crevice was large enough to fit one man through. But if there was any chance of the men removing the pod they would have to keep digging. Link decided to send one man in while the others kept working on enlarging the hole. He chose Dover.

Upon hearing Link’s selection the strange feeling overtook Dover once again, but he did not want his squad to sense that something was wrong, so he accepted Link’s decision with no argument.

It would be his job to enter the cave and appraise the pod. If it was still young, it would be taken back to the lab and studied by the Malign Researchers. If it was near gestation, it would be destroyed on the spot. The age could be determined by the glow that assailed from the pod. While Dover appraised the pod, the other men would work on enlarging the crevice in case the pod was still young, and could be removed.

"Make sure you’ve got a good audio frequency, Dover. We don’t want to lose contact. These walls are thick." Dover nodded his head in affirmation of his understanding, then squeezed through the enlarged crack and into the opening on the other side.

The light was brighter than he had anticipated. His eyes were unprepared for the vivid light after having adjusted to the darkness of the cave. He flipped down the protective lens that was on his helmet to block the rays of the pod. Even with the lens covering his eyes, the glow of the pod was unlike any that he had ever seen. Saffron light filled the chamber, bouncing and reflecting gorgeously off of the walls. There was a strange crystal like material on the wall adding to the brightness of the room.

Dover had seen several pods since he had become a Malign Disposer. Not one of them had been like this. As he walked slowly over to the pod he was overcome by a somewhat euphoric feeling that seemed to cancel out his previous feelings of uneasiness. The entire room seemed vigilant and insulating to a degree that was well nigh motherly. If he hadn’t known that it was impossible, he would have sworn that he had stepped right into a live incubator.

Shaking his head to clear it of its giddy fog, he walked closer to the pod. He had already been able to determine from the brightness of the light that the pod must be extremely close to gestation. That meant he would have to destroy it.

There were two ways to destroy a malign pod. One was to sever what the MRs liked to refer to as the "CORD". It was a small membrane located behind the pod that seemed to function in the same way as a placenta, giving the pod nourishment and all the other essential things it needed to live. The other way to destroy it was to dissect it. It was the way that was used mostly when the malign was too far developed for severances of the CORD to make much of a difference. After the sack was dissected, the CORD would still have to be severed as well. Dover would have to dissect the pod.

He approached the pod with an extreme amount of caution as he took out his knife. It would only take one, maybe two, clean incisions for the pod to be dissected. He had never seen a pod so near to full gestation. It was quite a sight. As he stood looking at it, he wondered what the malign looked like when it was fully developed. Every pod he had ever seen had been either dissected or severed before it had gotten the chance to hatch. There were rumors that the MRs had allowed a few of the pods to hatch in order to study them, but the rumor contained little merit. Everything the MRs did. they did for scientific purposes, not for malicious pleasure. The scientist would not let the pod hatch so that they could study it, and then kill it later, as if they were cold-hearted barbarians. Dover didn’t believe it for a second.

Deciding that he had better pick up the pace, Dover lifted his knife to the sack and made a puncture that went all the way to the hilt. He then slid his knife down the pod from the top to the bottom. There was a large popping sound like that of a deflating balloon, and the pod began to collapse, releasing a gush of amber liquid on to the chamber floor. Dover stepped away and started to walk around to the back of the pod where the CORD was located so that he could sever it, but he stopped suddenly.

His euphoric sensation was now again completely overwhelmed by the feeling of dread. He felt his heart begin to pound as it had before, and his nerves flared wildly. Dover looked around the chamber nervously and a bit fearfully. He wondered if he was suffering from toxic exposure, but he immediately rejected that thought. He remembered reading in one of his training books that a person could only be infected by toxic exposure if they came into direct contact with toxin. Besides, it was catalogued by MRs that toxic exposure made the body frail and ailing until it was no longer able to function properly. What he was feeling was more of a moral disheartening, not physical. He walked back around to the front of the pod and just stared at it. He wondered if there was some unknown substance in the cave that could be causing him to feel the way he was. But none of his comrades seemed to be effected by these strange emotions.

Dover did not like what was happening. He decided that his best bet was to get out of the cave as fast as he possibly could. Maybe once he got home he would start feeling more like himself again. For the second time, Dover turned to walk around to the back of the pod so he could sever the CORD, but he was stopped yet again, this time by his own accord. Dover returned to the front of the pod, and stood stock still, looking down at it. The flaps of the sack hung over the pod loosely from where he had dissected it. He could not see the malign, but he knew it was there, and at the moment it was still alive. An incontestable urge to see what this creature looked like took hold of him, and before he could stop himself, or realize that what he was doing could be potentially dangerous, he pulled back the flaps of the remaining film of the sack.

The sight that was revealed to him was one he would have never have imagine in all of his time as an MD. If he would have had to guess what a malign looked like, he would never have guessed it to be the image he was looking down upon.

Inside of the pod, there was a small, very human looking child.

Time seemed to stand still and move in fast motion all at once. The thump that had previously been the beating of his heart, ceased immediately. All he could do was look down at the child in horrific awe. All he could do was stand there and watch as the child shifted inside of the pod in the same fashion that an animal would shift against its mother in an effort to make itself more comfortable. All he could do was watch the movement of the child disquietly, not being able to believe what he was seeing in front of his very eyes. This…malign was nothing more than a child. A small, harmless, defenseless child.

That realization brought Dover from his petrified state. He reached inside of the pod and started to tear away at the remaining sack until he could see the child clearly. It was now apparent that the child was a boy. He had the look of a child of no more than five or six years. He was quite small. It was amazing, the way he was curled up into the pod. Dover could see the other end of the CORD was attached to the boy’s navel the same way that a baby’s umbilical cord was attached to its mother. He was in every sense of the words ‘just a little boy’.

"Dover, man, what’s the status of the malign?" Dover had not yet recovered enough from the shock of seeing the boy to respond to the voice that came across his radio. It took the question being asked several more times before it actually registered in his head.

"What? The malign?"

"Yes the Malign. What is its status?" This time Link asked the question directly.

Dover stared down at the little boy that was sleeping obliviously inside of the pod. He wondered if Link was aware of what these ‘maligns’ that they had been destroying for all these years really were. This was just a child. What harm could this little boy possibly do to the world? Someone had to know. There was no way that he could have been the first person that had ever seen this. What were they doing? Is this what they were protecting the world from? This child, and other children like him? The thought sickened him.

"Blackwell, I’ll ask you one last time, what is the status of the pod?"

Again Dover looked down at the boy. He had no idea that the fate of his life was about to be determined in that very moment.

"It…It was too close to gestation. I had to kill it." Surprisingly, the lie came from him easily. He stood there in awe of his actions as he waited for Link to respond to his answer.

"Alright then," he heard Link say. "There’s no need to keep digging boys. Let’s pack it up."

Dover heard a few cheers from the outside of the cave, but he barely registered them. He was still fixated on the boy. He could not believe what he had just done. He’d lied to his commanding officer. He’d lied to his comrades. He may have even risked their lives. He had done it so easily, and it was all because of a mal…because of a little boy.

Or, what he thought was a little boy. Just because this malign just happened to take the form of a child, did not mean that all maligns looked like humans. It could have just been a clever ploy, couldn’t it?

"Dover, you can come on out. We’ll send a clean up crew on over in the morning."

Dover’s eyes widened. In the morning, a crew would come to scour the cave. He had already told Link that he’d killed the malign. Would they be expecting a body?

He had to think of something. He paused for a second. But even if he was able to think of something, what would he do with the boy? He couldn’t take him home. No matter how human he looked, the boy was still an alien. He couldn’t expose his family to that. But leaving him to die was definitely not an option. But there was no other place to take him, besides his home. He would just have to be careful to make sure that his family wasn't exposed to the boy until he could determine whether or not he was a true threat. Until then, he would keep the boy safe himself.

"Dover, did you hear me? I said you can come on out," Link’s voice said over Dover’s radio.

"Yes sir, I heard. I’ll be right out."

He looked down into the pod at the sleeping boy once again. There was nothing that he could do right now. If he stayed in the chamber any longer, his squad might start to become suspicious. He would have to come back for the boy when there was no one around. As far as the clean up crew needing a body, he would just have to come up with some sort of decoy.

Dover left the side of the pod and returned to the opening in the wall. He stepped out from the crack and rejoined his squad.

"Damn man, you got malign guts all over you," Adder said, slapping him on the back. Dover looked down at himself, noticing for the first time that the bottom of his pants was covered in the amber liquid that had spilled forth from the pod.

"Oh, yeah I guess I do," he said stoically.

Adder shrugged, "Don’t you hate it when they’re close to gestation? That damn sack just explodes all over you, doesn’t it?" Dover nodded his head, barely indicating that he had heard Adder’s comment.

As he connected himself to the zip line that was dangling above his head, he only half listened as his comrades conversed around him. But he did not contribute to the conversation. He could not, even if he had wanted to, for his mind was still fifty feet below him, in the cave with the little boy who was sound asleep in a pod.

TBC

[RosDude]

Sorry it had taken so long for me to post chapter two. I had midterms all last week and I got attacked by the cram monster for two weeks. Thank God this is my last year of this crap. Oh, and I plan on updating R.I.S.K tomorrow.

Thankyou to:
nickimlow
cocopucks
I am a dreamer
Ellie
linliz68
dreamer destiny
roswellianprincess16
kittens
touched by an alian
cherie
Luvya
Natz
BelevnDreamsToo

and Anybodyelse. For the feedback

All right here is the next chapter.

Part 1:

Chapter Two

Sealant New Mexico: Small town located fifty miles outside of Plat City


Liz looked in awe at the boy that lay sleeping on the bed that had once been her mother and father’s. She had been peeking from behind the door when her brother’s wife, Lillian had sat on the side of the bed and examined the boy. But she had not been able to get a good look at him.

When her brother had entered their house, she’d run to greet him, as was her nightly fashion. However, Dover did not scoop her up and place a kiss on her cheek, as he had every night. He could not. Her place in his arms was already occupied by something he held cradled against his chest, and wrapped in a green blanket. The only words he had uttered to her had been to tell her to go to her room. That’s when he and Lillian had disappeared into her parent’s room. But, just as her brother had carried the bundle off, Liz was able to make out a small head lulling over Dover’s shoulder. It was the head of a little boy.

Afterwards, Liz had lain in her bed patiently, waiting until she heard Lillian and her brother leave her parent’s old bedroom. She had even managed to keep her eyes closed and pretend to be asleep when Dover had come into her room and kissed her on the forehead. She’d continued to lie there until she heard the sound of Dover and Lillian’s bedroom door, which was located next to her own, closing.

She could hear Dover and Lillian talking on the other side of the wall, but she had not been able to make out either of their words. It didn’t really matter what they were saying. Adults were always discussing one thing or another. Hoping that the sound of their own voices would drown out any noise that she made, Liz ever so carefully, tiptoed from her bedroom to her parent’s room.

When she’d twisted the knob to open the door she discovered that it was locked. Dover always locked it because he didn’t want her to wander in there, but he had no idea that she knew that he hid the key inside of the huge urn that was outside of their door.

Now, as she sat on the bed beside the boy, she had a much closer view of him. He was wearing some of her brother’s old pajamas from when he was her age. Her brother must have been a pretty big kid because the clothes were too big for the boy. The sleeves of the shirt hung past his hands and the legs of the pants went past his toes.

She wondered where he had come from. She had never seen him at school. She knew that he wasn’t one of the boys that liked to play in the park after sessions. Even though she had been afraid of those boys, she knew well enough what they looked like. They were pretty bad boys, so she had memorized all of their faces so that she knew to avoid them at all cost. They were way bigger than this boy.

She knew that he didn’t belong to the people that lived in the domicile down the road from theirs. The Pallor-Smiths didn’t have any kids. They had no tolerance for them. At least, that’s what Mrs. Pallor-Smith had told her, when they’d first moved in. Maybe he was lost. Yeah, that was it. He must have been a lost boy, far away from home. She bet that he lived somewhere far away and mysterious. Yeah, that had to be it.

Liz examined the boy once more. He looked much different from all of the boys that went to school with her. His hair was so long and stringy looking. It was the same way that her hair always looked after Lillian had given her a bath. She was not able to make out the face beneath the dark shag of hair because it was completely covered up by the long mass. Nevertheless, the mind of a five-year-old knew no sense of forwardness, so Liz ran her small fingers through the tangled mane to revel the face of the boy. To her surprise, where she had thought him sleeping, his eyes were wide open beneath the curtain of his hair. They were looking up at her as she was looking down at him, exploratory of her every move as she was investigating him.

Her brows creased in confusion as she concentrated on his eyes. The pupils were completely dilated. So much so that she could just barely see the rim of color in his eyes. Having never seen such a thing before, Liz found the abnormality of the boy’s eyes absolutely enthralling.

The boy blinked slowly once and then again, but as he opened his eyes the second time they were as normal as her own, only, they were a slightly glazy shade of brown. Liz blinked her own eyes to make sure that she was really seeing what she believed she was seeing, but the boy’s eyes remained the glazy brown. She didn’t linger on the oddity. Instead, she decided that it must have been her own eyes that were acting funny.

The two children stared at each other for a moment longer until Liz decided that she was bored of just looking at him.

"What’s your name?" she finally asked. He only continued to look up at her in an exploratory fashion. Liz waited for him to answer, but when he still remained silent she determined that he either didn’t know his name, or he didn’t have one.

She decided he didn’t have one.

"Did your mother give you a name?" she cocked her head to the side as she asked the question. Still he did not answer. He only continued to stare up at her, as if she were not really there.

"My name is Elizabeth. That’s a pretty name isn’t it," she stated. She didn’t wait for him to agree or disagree. It wasn’t as if he’d made any indication that he understood a word that she was saying anyway.

"My brother calls me Zee-Zee, but I don’t like it. But I don’t hate it either. It’s an okay name," she shrugged. "I guess."

The little boy’s eyes followed her but his body still lay on the bed, completely inert.

"Do you know my brother?"

No answer.

Liz frowned. She didn’t understand why the boy wouldn’t talk to her. She was being nice enough. She didn’t think that she was asking him hard questions like the ones that the teacher liked to ask at school. Maybe he was just shy.

"Since you won’t tell me your name I’m just going to have to make one up for you," she said, trying to get him to break his silence. She looked up at the ceiling, as if she would magically gain the ability to pull his name from the sky.

"How about…" Liz looked around the room as she searched for something that would aid her in choosing a name for him.

"Oh, I know! I’ll go through all of my boy dolls’ names and you can tell me which one you like." Again, she did not wait for his agreement or disagreement.

"So there’s Paul. He’s my space monkey doll. But you don’t look like a space monkey so we won't call you Paul. Hmm there’s Randy. He’s an elephotamus. But you don’t look like an elephant or a hippo."

The boy watched her as she climbed off the bed and began to pace around the room in what appeared to be deep thought.

"Jack? No, you’re not a turtle. Leon? Nope, not a crocodile. Troy? No, you’re not a bird." She stopped her pacing and looked at him. "You’re a boy!" she said excitedly. Of course, he didn’t know why.

"And since you are a boy, I’ll give you a boy’s name. Your name will be Max. He’s the boy version of my Girl doll. Her name’s Rebecca. Do you like the name Max?"

The newly dubbed Max didn’t answer.

"I like the name Max." She climbed back into the bed and laid down beside him. She looked down at the bed sheet for a moment and then looked back up at the boy and smiled as if a thought had just accrued to her.

"My brother must really like you, Max. This was my Mommy and Daddy’s bed. He doesn’t let nobody sleep in it ever never."

Liz suddenly placed her hand over her mouth as if realizing that she had said something wrong. "I forgot, we have to whisper when we talk. My brother thinks I’m in my room, so if we are too loud then he will know."

Liz laid her head down on the same pillow that the boy’s head was resting on. He turned his head to look at her, but still remained mute. "Max, how come you won’t say anything to me?" There was a bit of hurt in her tone.

The boy continued to stare at her, his eyes shifting to random areas of her face. She followed his eye movements with her own eyes, wondering what it was that he could be thinking.

Then, too her amazement, he opened his mouth as if he was finally going to speak, but he didn’t say anything. His mouth just gapped open and closed in a mimicking action. His eyes strained as if he were trying to say something but he could not make the words come out of his mouth. Liz watched him in confusion, wondering what he was doing. And then realization dawned on her.

"You…you can’t speak," She said answering her own question. The boy, now renamed Max, stopped frowning and continued to stare at her. Liz supposed that since he was not frowning anymore her guess was right, but if she was then Max had no way of communicating to her that she was.

"Oh." She was quiet for a moment as she thought about what he had just sort of reveled to her. "Well that’s stupid. Everyone knows how to speak." Again he gave no indication that he understood her words. Liz lifted up off the pillow and stretched her legs out across the big bed.

"Why didn’t your Mommy or Daddy teach you how to speak?" she asked him, forgetting that he couldn’t have answered, even if he could understand her.

Her frown deepened as Max continued his voiceless staring. She would just have to teach him how to speak. The task shouldn’t be that hard. Then the two of them could talk like normal kids and he would stop staring at her. It would be fun. It would be nice to have someone around her age that she could talk to. She loved Dover and Lillian, but they were adults, and adults didn’t understand all the things that kids did.

Yep, once she taught him how to speak, the two of them would have so much fun together. They would be able to do all sorts of things that she couldn’t do with her brother and his wife. She could hardly wait for tomorrow to come.

But she would have to wait. She couldn’t do it tonight. She was already supposed to be in her own bed asleep, and if Dover caught her up, teaching her new friend how to speak, then he would be very mad at her. Tomorrow then. Definitely, definitely she would teach him tomorrow.

Liz yawned tiredly. She climbed off of the bed and walked over to the door. All the way there she was aware that Max hadn’t taken his eyes off of her. She was going to have to teach him not to do that too. If he went around staring at people they would think that he was weird.

Once she reached the door she turned back around to face him. He was now sitting up on the bed, she supposed it was so that he could continue to stare at her. "I’m going to bed. If Dover catches me up, I’ll get in trouble and I won’t be able to teach you how to speak tomorrow."

Liz watched the frown take shape on Max’s face as if he was trying to understand her. He didn’t look too happy about her leaving.

"Don’t worry, Max. I’ll be back tomorrow," she said, giving him a wave goodbye.

"Goodnight."

She opened the door and tip toed out of the room as quietly as she possibly could back to her room. As she closed the door behind her, and climbed back inside of her bed, she thought about her new friend Max. She wondered how long he was going to be staying with them. She hoped it would be for a long time. Besides the kids at school she didn’t know any other kids in their area. Maybe he could stay with them forever. That would be fun, even if he was a little weird.

Liz sighed and laid her head down on her pillow. She couldn’t wait for it to be tomorrow.

TBC

[RosDude]

dreamer destiny: your name is Rebecca? What are the odds, I’m glad I could make your day.
TheAliensAreComing!: I’m glad you like my contribution to the series. And thank you. Your comment really meant a lot to me. It makes me feel as if I’m doing well by all you readers.
Natz: Thanks for reading
linliz68: I’m sorry you had to wait so long for this part. Hopefully I can do better in the future.
I am a dreamer: I’m glad you like my child version of Max and Liz
Breathless: thank you very much. I’m very found of your work, and am honored that you enjoy mine as well.
Nickimlow: I’m glad, and again sorry for the long wait.
Ellie: We can only wait and see what the future holds for Max and Liz…well you can, I already know, since I’m the one writing the story lol.
Mrsjbehr: You comment made me laugh out loud.
Smac: Thank you, this is actually first time ever writing kids and I’m glad I am doing a good job of it.
BelevnDreamsToo: I’m glad that you and everyone else find this part to be so cute. It was meant to be that way.
Luvya: I’m glad you can connect with my characters lol. I guess that means they are believable as people.
Fred: I’m glad you like it. This was an awesome challenge.
Cherie: Thank you. I’m glad that everyone loved the whole naming thing. I was worried that people were going to think it was corny.
CandyDreamQueen: Thanks, I’m glad you finally took the time to read this.
Kittens: Umm…they’re not related. That would be weird. Thanks for reading.
Anyonelse: Thank you for reading

Part 1:

Chapter Three

Sealant New Mexico: Blackwell Domicile


Liz was awakened by the sound of rain.

It was clamorous as it tapped a staccato beat against the window. Nevertheless, she was grateful for the sleep disturbing sound and the state of wakefulness that it brought her to. Because of it, she was able to determine that it was now daylight, and time for her to rise from her bed.

She sat up and looked over at the window. The drops of rainwater splashed against the clear blue-tinted glass and raced one another in haphazard swizzles down her bedroom window. The drips chased each other until they touched the window sill and joined the pool of water that had been gathering there since the rain had begun.

She glowered at the sight before her. Though she was happy that the rain had wakened her, she was not glad for the rain itself. There was nothing she hated more than rain. Her mother used to call them tears of the sky. All she knew was that every time the sky decided to go on a good crying jag, she was confined to the indoors. Like her mother, Dover never permitted her to go outside when it was raining. He always complained that if she did, she would catch a cold. She didn’t understand what the big deal was. She got wet when she took a bath, even wetter when she went swimming. How could a few drops of rain falling down on her head cause her to catch a cold?

Liz scowled dejectedly at her displeasing situation. She had so much wanted to show her new friend Max all of the fun places there were to explore in and outside of her home. Now, the two of them would be confined to the inside of the house because Dover was afraid of her getting a little wet.

Not wanting the rain to completely spoil her excitement, Liz climbed down off of her bed with the same enthusiasm that she would have had it been her birthday. It had taken her forever to get herself to sleep. So deep was her desire for it to be the next day. And now that it was the next day, she could go and visit her friend, rain or no.

This morning, she didn’t worry about alerting Dover and Lillian to her presence. Her brother tended to sleep late into the day. Though it was daylight, it was still early yet, so Dover would not be up for another few hours. She was not worried about Lillian either. Lilly was accustomed to waking before Dover; she too was a late sleeper. That meant that she would have plenty of time to play with her new friend without having to worry about being scolded for playing in her parents’ old bedroom. And even so, all she had to do was take Max into her own bedroom, and then she would have no need for worry at all. There was no reason for Dover or Lilly to be mad if they played in her room.

Liz ran down the hall and flung open the door to Max’s temporary bedroom. She wasted no time as she climbed up on top of the bed and pulled back the coverlet.

"Max, guess what? It’s tomorrow. Now I can teach you how to…" Liz stopped suddenly as she looked down at the bed that she had left her new friend laying on just the night before. The bed was astonishingly empty.

"Talk?" Max was gone? Why was Max gone? Where had Max gone?

Liz scrunched her brow up in confusion, then an idea struck her. She jumped off of the bed and got to her knees. Then, she crouched her small body up into as compact of a position as she could get into and looked under her parent’s bed.

"Max?" It was dark under the bed and hard to see. But even with that hindrance, it was still light enough that she should have been able see a Max had he been underneath the bed. However, Liz could not make out anything that resembled a person. Nope, there was no Max under the bed. Only annoying little dust bunnies.

Liz stood back up and looked around the room in confusion. Where could he have gotten to? Was he hiding from her? If he was, it was awfully mean of him. After all, she was going to go through all the trouble of teaching him how to talk and being his friend. She had even given him his very own name. It wasn’t nice of him to play jokes on her. And anyway, what kind of a boy knew how to play hide ‘n seek, but couldn’t speak? He could have at least had the decency of letting her hide first while he was the seeker. She liked playing hide ‘n seek. If he had told her that that’s what he wanted to play, then she would have been fine.

Liz frowned when she remembered that Max could not have told her that he wanted to play, since he couldn’t speak. Hiding must have been his way of communication to her that he wanted to play. She guessed she would have to forgive him, since he didn’t know any better.

"Alright Max," she said to the empty room. "I’ll find you." She turned and looked at the closet door behind her. Was Max in there? If he was, then he wasn’t a very good hider. After underneath the bed, the closet was the most obvious hiding place.

"Are you in there, Max?" Liz asked. She furtively approached the door as if Max would jump out from behind it at any moment. She placed her hand on the doorknob and her ear against the side of the door to see if she could hear inside. The room was silent. She could only hear the funny thumping of her own pulse through her ear.

"I’m opening the door, Max," she said in warning, and then flung the door open as wide as it would go.

The closet was empty.

Liz’s eyes narrowed. So, he was better at this game than she had initially thought. He must have been somewhere outside of the room.

Not bothering to close the closet door, Liz ran out of the bedroom and into the main hall of the house. Then, she began her search.

The domicile was not that big. She knew he was not in her bedroom, and there were only a few other places that he could have been. She would just have to search them all until she found him.

After looking for almost ten whole minutes, Max was still nowhere to be found. It was almost as if he had disappeared. Liz grimaced. She’d checked everywhere. There was nowhere else that he could be inside of the house.

A loud clap of noise sounded from outside the domicile, indicating that the rain had now turned into a storm. Liz looked up at the sound and an outrageous thought formed in her head. Maybe Max was hiding outside. She looked thoughtfully at the entrance door to the domicile. It was possible. After all, she hadn’t gotten the chance to tell him that he was not supposed to go out in the rain. And if she hadn’t told him, then there was no way for him to know. She would just have to go out there and find him…in the rain.

Liz turned around and glanced warily at the door to Dover and Lilly’s bedroom. She really shouldn’t leave the house. Dover would be pretty angry if he were to find out that she left the house on her own, and in the rain no less. On the other hand, he and Lilly were sound asleep. If she didn’t go out and find Max there would be no one else to do it. Besides, if Dover never found out, then he couldn’t be mad at her about it.

Making the decision to venture outside to find Max, Liz ran over to the door and pressed the green slider button that would allow her to exit. Even though she had never used it on her own, she had seen Dover and Lillian use it enough times to know how it worked. The green button was for open and the red was for close.

She stood in the doorway looking out into the outside as the rain pelted the ground in front of her. The wind shifted and the rain started to blow inside of the house, leaving wet drops of rainwater on Liz’s cheeks. Liz wiped her face with the back of her sleeve and looked up at the sky. Though it was the daylight hours, the sky was dark with the rain. She had never seen the sky appear so dark in the day. The clouds rolled over it like waves in the ocean, overlapping each other at a constant rate. For a fleeting moment she even wondered if it was still daytime. But Liz forgot her thoughts as she caught sight of a small figure standing in the distance. A figure she immediately recognized to be her new lost friend.

Max!

She started to go towards him, but was stopped when a strike of lightning sliced through the sky as if it were a splitting scar. It was immediately followed by a loud clap of thunder. Liz gasped and stepped back into the house, but did not close the door. She wasn’t afraid of thunder. It was just noise, and she knew that noise couldn’t hurt her. But the lightning was a different thing. She could see it, clear as day in the sky. And if she could see it, then chances were that it could see her too, possibly even hurt her.

Slowly, she worked up the nerve to take a quick peek around the door to see if Max was still there. Hopefully, the lightning hadn’t spotted him.

It hadn’t.

He was still standing in the distance, looking up at the sky. She was not quite sure what he was looking at, and she glanced up at the sky to see if she could see it too. But the only thing she was able to see in the darkness of the storm, were the black rolling clouds. She looked down at Max again. She wanted to go to him, warn him that he shouldn’t play outside during the storm, but she was afraid. What if another lightning came? What if it snatched her up while she was trying to warn Max?

She brought her small hand to her lips and pinched the nails between her teeth, a habitual trait she had that indicated fear. She was afraid, and she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t leave Max out in the storm. Why had he gone out in the storm anyway? But if she went to get Dover or Lillian to help her, they would know that she had tried to go outside. Then she would be in trouble. She didn’t want to get in trouble.

Once more, lightning dashed across the sky in a jagged line and the sound of thunder filled her ears. Liz withdrew from the door and ran as quickly as she could to her brother’s room. She yanked the door back and ran into the room, not caring whether or not she got in trouble anymore.

"Dover, Dover, help!" she shouted to him. She was surprised to find that Dover and Lilly were not sleep as she had initially thought. Instead, the two of them were sitting up in their bed, facing one another. They appeared to have been deeply engrossed in a conversation.

Dover immediately rose from the bed at Liz’s impassionate exclamation, and came to kneel beside her. He placed his hands affectionately on her shoulders, as was his custom when ever she was scared or upset about something, and smoothed back the locks of her dark hair that had been whipped out of its neat ponytail by the force of the storm.

"What’s the matter, ZeeZee? What are you doing up so early?"

Liz looked over her head at the digital numbers that were flashing across the wall clock in her brother’s bedroom. It was earlier than she had originally thought. In fact, it was only just morning. But she had no time to explain to her brother why she was up so early. Max’s life was at stake.

She looked up at her brother pleadingly and prayed that he would not be too mad at her. "Dover, you have to help. Max is trapped out in the storm."

"Max?" Dover looked at her curiously. "Your doll, Max?"

Liz shook her head no. "No, not my doll Max." She hesitated just a moment before continuing. "The boy that I found in Mommy and Daddy’s room last night." She watched as understanding flashed in Dover’s eyes, and he looked down at her with something that she thought should have been anger, but seemed more akin to terror.

"You went in Mom and Dad’s room last night?"

Liz bowed her head, ashamed at herself for disobeying her brother. Dover clasped his hand under her chin. "ZeeZee, look at me." He tilted her chin so that she was looking up into his eyes. "Answer the question."

Liz closed her eyes as she nodded her head yes. She didn’t want Dover to be mad at her, and she was still afraid for Max, who was still stuck out in the storm.

"Yes, I’m sorry, big brother. I didn’t mean to do a bad thing, but I…I…" She squeezed her tiny fists together as she felt tears begin to sting her eyes.

Lillian, who had risen from the bed at the mention of the little boy, came to kneel down beside Liz and Dover. She took Liz into her arms, stopping any further form of explanation from the little girl, as she collapsed into tears against Lillian’s chest.

"It’s alright, Liz," Lillian soothed her, then she looked up at Dover and gave him a knowing _expression. Liz was too busy crying to catch the look that had passed between her brother and his wife. She was upset that Dover was mad at her, but more so than that, she was frightened for the little boy that was trapped in the storm.

Liz wiped her eyes and pushed away from Lilly. She had to convince her brother to not be mad at her and go save the little boy. She reached for her brother and pulled on the sleeve of his shirt.

"Dover, Max is still in the rain. I know you’re mad at me, but you have to save Max. It’s not his fault…" she tried to think of more words to say to convince her brother to save Max. "He was only playing hide ‘n seek. He didn’t know that he wasn’t supposed to go outside in the rain."

Liz watched, bright eyed, as Dover leaned down to her. He stroked a palm across her cheek and kissed her forehead.

"Alright, ZeeZee, everything will be fine. You stay here with Lilly, and I promise I’ll bring Max back safely."

Liz ran her pajama sleeve across her eyes once more, and sniffed loudly. Now that Dover had forgiven her and agreed to go and save Max, there was no need for tears anymore. "You promise that you won’t let the lightning get him?" she asked softly.

Dover nodded his head. "I promise."

Dover rose up from Liz’s level and met Lilly’s eyes from over her head as he silently communicated to her to make sure that Liz stayed inside. Then, he turned around and headed out of the bedroom.

Lilly wrapped her arms back around Liz and drew her close. "Liz, why don’t you come with me to the lavatory so I can get you all cleaned up," she suggested to the little girl.

Liz frowned and bit her lip. "But I want to make sure that Max is okay."

Lilly gently turned Liz around by the shoulders so that she was now facing her. "Dover will make sure that your friend is okay, but you’re a mess. Don’t you want to be all nice and clean when Max comes back?" Liz nodded her head vigorously. "Okay, well then, let’s go get cleaned up, and then you can help me make breakfast. I think, your brother will be pretty hungry when he comes in from rescuing Max from the lightning, don’t you?" Liz nodded her head again. "Well then, let’s make sure that there is a hot meal waiting for him when he gets back."

"And Max too?" Liz questioned.

Lillian looked down into the big bright eyes of the trusting child that was looking up at her expectantly, and felt an overwhelming pang of regret. It was evident that she had come to care for the little boy in whatever short period of time the two of them had become acquainted. The last thing Lillian wanted to do was tell Liz that she could not go near the alien boy. Nevertheless, she had no choice but to do just that.

Dover and she had spent a good part of the night discussing their aberrant circumstances. They had both come to the conclusion that it was much too dangerous for them to keep the little boy with them Neither of the two of them had ever had any intentions for Liz to come across the child. They had both hoped that Liz had not even gotten a chance to glance at the boy the night before as they had swept him into Dover’s parents’ old bedroom. It was unfortunate that this was not the case. The only reason that Dover had brought the boy to their home to begin with was because there was no other place that he could be kept at the moment.

Neither she, nor Dover knew anything regarding maligns other than what Dover had been told by his superiors. That, and what everyone else on the planet had been told by government officials. They were dangerous and harmful extraterrestrial beings, and they were to be kept away from without proper authorization. No matter how human the boy appeared, they knew nothing of his genetic makeup. They were taking a risk with their own lives having him inside of their home. They didn’t want to take a risk with Liz’s. No, until they knew more about this boy, he would have to be kept far away from Dover’s little sister.

But there was no way that Lilly could tell Liz now. She just appeared so innocent and delighted. She sounded so excited, and Lilly didn’t want to kill that excitement with bad news. So instead of shattering the little girl’s happiness, she scooped Liz up in her arms and gave her a big smile. Then ran her fingers through the small child’s disheveled hair.

"And Max too," she added.

TBC

Happy Halloween, to those that celebrate it!

[RosDude]

A/N: For those of you that don’t know I’m getting married next month. I’ve been really really busy with all the stuff that goes with that for last few months. More so these last couple of weeks because the day is approaching and I have finals too. I’ve been working on this and my other story and working on some fanart in my spare time, but I don’t want to start posting again until I can be sure that I will be able to post in regular intervals after that.

I expect that I will start posting again for both of my stories in either late December of early January. In the meantime this is the last chapter that I will be posting until then.

Thank you for cooperating

~Chad~

Thank you for the feedback to:

Kittens
BelevnDreamsToo
Ellie
Natz
Fred
Breathless
Cherie
Mrsjbehr
WildSphinx
CandyDreamQueen
Luvya

And Anyonesle

Part 1:

Chapter Four

Sealant New Mexico: Outside Blackwell Domicile

The storm had grown substantially stronger since it had first started late in the night. As Dover stood, his gaze fixed onto the little boy. He wondered how it was that a being so tiny could withstand the force of the severe winds the way this malign-slash-boy-slash-thing seemed to. Even he, a man fully grown, was having trouble keeping his footing on the slick ground, and his balance with the harsh winds. Yet the little boy, Max as ZeeZee had dubbed him, stood stock still as if the rain were of no consequence to him at all.

For a time, Dover just observed him curiously. Max stood with his arms firmly at his side and his head tilted straight back so that he was on a perfect flex with whatever it was he was looking up at in the sky. He was too far away to see any other traits the boy may have been exhibiting, but whatever was going on, Dover was sure it was extraterrestrial.

Part of the reason that he had not made any attempts to get closer to the boy was because of his lack of knowledge on what was going on. Whatever it was seemed harmless enough. Nevertheless, there was no way that he could be sure of that. Dover was starting to regret his decision to take the boy out of the cave. He had not really thought on the fact that maybe there was a reason that maligns were marked as being so dangerous, regardless of what appearance they seemed to take. He had only acted on instinct, and his instincts had only seen a child and not a monster. But now he wasn’t so sure how dependable his instincts could be in this situation.

Just as that thought was beginning to settle in his head, Dover noticed a strange deformation beginning to form in the sky that was just over the boy’s head. One of the clouds had begun to swirl together in a movement that was far from conventional. The surrounding clouds seemed to retreat from it as if they were making more room for it to form. It was difficult to see through the mask of the rain, but it almost appeared as if this particular cloud was illuminating with a strange blue tinge.

Dover stared up at the sky; his gaze was transfixed on the scene that he wasn’t quite sure was taking place before him. The cloud continued to swirl until it began to take the form of a shape that was unfamiliar to him. It was a shape that was too abnormal to be recognizable, and yet it was evidently more than just a deformed cloud. The blue tinge began to glimmer more brightly around the strange formation and a booming hum resonated throughout the open area in a sound that was so loud that it drowned out even the thunder. Then, as if straight from a science fiction novel, a beam of light shot down from the strange cloud and directly into Max.

All at once the rain, the lighting, the thunder, and the wind moved in towards the beam which consumed them like a starving beast. Dover was propelled forward towards the beam as well, able to do nothing to stop the wind from dragging him along. Then, with a suddenness that it lacked at its commencement, the rain came to a jarring halt, followed by the lightning, and at last the thunder, until all that remained in the sky was the aberration and the loud hum that its subsistence brought about.

Slowly, the hum began to dull until it was eventually non existent at all, and along with its demise with the strange aberration in the sky.

Startled by the sudden lack of wind pushing against him, Dover fell to his knees into the rain soaked soil. A dull pain shot through his knees as he hit the ground with a force that he was unprepared for, and it took him a moment to regain his equanimity. But after several shakes of his head, he was able to calm himself and get back to his feet. After brushing himself off as best as he could, he glanced up to the area that had formerly been the spot were Max was standing. Max was in the same spot, but he too was no longer on his feet. Instead of standing there looking up at the sky as he had been before, his small body was laid strewn out on the ground in a haphazard manner.

Dover stayed where he was at first, not moving at all, afraid that his slightest movement could cause the formation to reappear. From where he was standing, he could still see Max laying on the ground. He appeared to be unconscious, but he could just as easily have been dead. Slowly and tentatively with extremely precise movements, Dover made his way over to Max, all the while a bit fearful of what he might find once he reached him. What he really wanted to do more than ever was go back inside of the house and pretend that this whole mess had never happened, but his chivalric nature outweighed his fear for the unknown, and so he continued on towards Max.

When Dover reached Max’s side, he took a moment to examine the boy. His eyes were closed and he was completely unmoving, but still Dover was not sure if the boy was dead or alive. Dover thought back to his basic MD training. If one of his crew were hurt on a mission, it was standard procedure for him to be thoroughly checked out before pronounced dead. His current situation was the same. His first thoughts had been to check to see if Max was breathing, but he faltered, being that he was not sure if maligns even breathed. Deciding not to think on it, Dover placed his hand to the boy’s neck and tried to feel for a pulse. He felt nothing.

Dover continued to move his fingers around, checking to see if there was any sign of life in the boy, but he could feel none. He placed his hand over Max’s chest, but there, he felt no movement at all. He picked up the boy’s small wrist and checked to see if there was a pulse there, but again, all he could feel beneath his fingers was cool damp skin. Dover sighed and accepted that there was nothing else that could be done.

Max was dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liz made sure she had a firm grasp on the glass cup as Lilly poured the bright red strawberry juice into it. She had been waiting patently for Dover and Max to return from outside, but it seemed like it was taking her brother forever to bring Max back. Lilly had already taken her to the Lavatory and given her a thorough cleaning, and now the two of them were just about to finish up setting the table for breakfast. Yet, after all of that time, Dover and Max were not back yet.

When the rain had stopped and the gleam of the sun had started to shine through the window, Liz had not been able to contain her excitement. Surely now that there was no threat of either of them being spotted by the lightning, Dover would return with Max. But that had been almost thirty minutes ago, and still neither one of them had returned.

"Lilly," Liz said, looking up at Lilly, "What’s taking so long?"

Lilly finished pouring the strawberry juice into the last of the four glasses that she and Liz had set out to accompany their breakfast. She looked down at Liz and gave her a reassuring smile. But the smile was strained, for she herself did not feel reassured. Lilly too had been wondering when Dover would return with the little boy, and what it was that was taking the two of them so long. However, she didn’t want to frighten Liz by voicing her fears.

She sat the pitcher of juice down on the table and walked over to the where she had sat the tray of food that the two of them had prepared together.

"I’m sure they’ll be back soon, ZeeZee."

Liz watched as Lilly began placing the food around the table. She didn’t know what it was, but something in Lilly’s voice sounded off. Like there was something that she was hiding from her. Liz quickly threw that thought away. Lilly had no reason to lie to her. Lilly never lied.

Casting it off, Liz climbed into the chair that was specifically for her and commenced to waiting again. Lilly was right. They would come when they would come. And then the four of them could have a nice big breakfast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dover couldn’t bring himself to bury the little boy.
After determining that the boy was dead, Dover had gone to the shed that was just outside of the house and retrieved his spade. After that, he’d taken the body and hiked nearly five miles away from his home. There was no one around for miles. Therefore, there was no one to see or question him. He could honestly say that it was the only time that he had ever been thankful that he and his family lived so far outside of the city. Once he’d reached a destination far enough away that the body would not be found, he’d spent over two hours digging a little grave for which to place the boy’s body.

The wet grown had done little to help his cause, but Dover had continued to dig, not knowing what else to do with him, and not wanting to take the boy back to his home and explain to his sweet little sister that her new friend was dead. Finally, after almost three hours, he had managed to dig a hole that was deep enough to bury the body.

Yet there he stood, covered in mud and dog tired from his work, staring down at the body of the little child that hadn’t yet been alive for a day, and he couldn't bring himself to bury it.

There was no reasonable explanation for why Dover regretted his task. In the long run it might have been better for them all that the boy was dead. Still, he felt a pang in the pit of his stomach that told him that burying the boy was not the right thing to do.

Dover sat down on the ground next to where he had laid Max’s body down. He wiped the back of his hand across his brow, removing the sweat he had accumulated in his work. He looked down at the boy. He looked so peaceful in death that he could have easily been sleeping, but there was no living sign that indicated he could be anything other than dead.

Dover let out a long sigh as he continued to examine the body.

"What am I going to do with you?"

He had already given up on the idea of burying the boy. He knew that there was no way that he could return home with him. And he definitely didn’t want to turn the body over to his superiors. He didn’t begin to know how he would explain having the boy in his possession, nor did he feel much like making up an excuse. And anyway, there was no telling what they would do with him.
Dover sat in the muddy grass for a while longer, contemplating what to do with the child, when a thought suddenly hit him. He would take the boy back to the cave.

Dover had been an MD long enough to know that once the caves were excavated they were sealed off. He’d learned from Adder that the clean up crew only came to do just that, and they weren’t really a "clean up" crew as the name implied. Otherwise, Dover wouldn’t have been sure of what explanation he would have given them for the lack of a body being found in the cave. The information had also eased Dover somewhat. If it was the clean up crew’s only job to seal the cave, then they too could not have been sure what a malign truly was.

Dover knew now what he had to do. Since it was still early morning, chances were the cave had not yet been sealed by the clean up crew. He would take the body back to the cave.

Dover stood up from the ground and brushed his legs off. He would have to go home fist though, and explain to ZeeZee that her friend had run away and that he had not been able to find him. That would be hard, but not half as hard as it would be to tell her that he was-

"Do…ver?"

Dover gave a mental pause at the sound of his name being spoken. The sound was so low that for a moment, he wondered if he had truly even heard it, and for a moment, he thought that his mind was playing tricks on him.

"Dov-er?"

Again the soft voice sounded out his name, this time with a bit more strength in it. This time, Dover was sure that his mind was not playing tricks on him. Slowly, he turned around until he was facing Max’s body; towards the only source that the soft-spoken words could have come from. Dover looked down at Max’s supposedly dead body and let out a surprised gasp as he stared into a pair of glazy brown eyes.

TBC

[RosDude]

Mad props to…
Ellie
Mareli
CandyDreamQueen
Galliard
Fred
Luvya
Cherie
Michelle in Yonkers
BelevnDreamsToo
Thanette

And anyone else

For repen’ ma fic.

Added new words Litter, Lavatory, and Domicile to the glossary and set it up in alphabetical order.

I think just about everyone knows that a lavatory is a bathroom and that a domicile is a house, but I figured I’d put them in there for those that do not, and since these are the words that I will be using for this fic.

Litter: A mode of transportation. A littler is an automobile that is used for transportation. Instead of being driven it is equip with a computer for which a course is plotted and a person(s) inside of the litter is/are taken to their desired destination.
Lavatory: A bathroom
Domicile: A house.

Part 1

Chapter Five

Sealant New Mexico: Even Farther Outside Blackwell Domicile

For a brief moment, Dover didn’t know how to react to the sight of the little boy lying down on the ground. He was not sure which phenomenon was more miraculous; that the boy who had only moments before been dead, was now very much alive, or that he had now somehow seemed to have developed the ability to speak, the latter being an ability that he had been previously lacking.

Nevertheless, to his credit, Dover only stared down at the boy in awed shock for a few moments before he was able to regain his wits. Once he was more himself and less of a statue, he slowly lowered himself down to the muddy earth until both of his knees touched the ground, the whole time never once braking eye contact from Max. All the while that he was studying the child, Max’s gaze stayed locked on Dover as well. Oddly enough, there appeared to be a look of joy on his face. It was almost as if he were pleased with himself for having discovered his voice.

"Dover," Max said again. He had risen slowly from the mud until he was sitting straight up with his legs stretched straight out in front of him. This time his voice was strong and full of complete assurance as he spoke. "Dover."

Not quite sure what else to do, Dover nodded his head slowly. He was afraid that any sudden movements would frighten the boy. "That’s right.," he said in what he hoped was a calm voice. "I am Dover." He placed his hand across his chest to make sure that Max understood that he was introducing himself.

Dover paused to wait and see how Max would respond. He was not sure whether or not Max understood what he was trying to communicate to him, but there was a look in the boy’s eyes that seemed very human. But Dover was still not sure what to make of the boy’s sudden rejuvenation.

Max smiled up at Dover and began to nod his head excitedly, indicating that he did in fact understand Dover. Then he lifted a small muddy hand to his chest and patted himself in the same way that Dover had.

"Max," he said.

Understanding, however slowly, was beginning to dawn upon Dover. After he and Lilly had finished examining the boy the night before last, they had learned that he had not been able to form words. However, it seemed that though Max could not speak himself, he was aware of the words that were being spoken to him. Dover was sure that ZeeZee had given Max an earful of information about himself as well as his family. That included naming the boy., for he was sure that it was she that had come up with the name Max. Though it had not been a question, Dover nodded his head in affirmation. "Yes, you are Max." Dover brought his gaze back to the boy and nodded his head again in understanding.

But this time, Max was not paying much heed to the man that was on his knees in front of him. Instead, his gaze was fixed down at the foreign substance that was beneath him.

Dover followed Max’s gaze to the muddy ground beneath them, noticing how intensely Max was looking down at the substance that would have no familiarity to him. "Mud," Dover explained. Then he reached down and squeezed his hand in the soggy substance so as to make sure that Max knew what he was referring to.

"Mud," Max echoed Dover’s word, testing the word out on his own tongue. He then mimicked Dover’s action of sticking his hand in the mud.

Dover nodded at the boy. "That’s right." He smiled as he watched Max bury his fingers in the mud, all the while wearing a look of complete wonder and fascination on his face.

The sight before Dover was strange, to say the least. As Max was unaccustomed to seeing something as simple as mud, Dover was not used to seeing someone react to the sight of mud in such a fascinated way. He continued to watch as Max clamped a big handful of mud in his hand and brought it extremely close to his eyes, and then peered at it as if it would jump out and attack him at any moment. He stared at it at close range for a moment until he was satisfied that the mud would not do him any harm, and then lowered his hand away from his eyes.

Dover let out a low laugh at the sight of the pair of mud glasses that Max was now sporting around his eyes.

Again, Max paid no attention to Dover and continued to examine the mud in his hand. He squeezed it between his fingers and watched as the messy glob spread from one finger to the other and stuck. He continued to examine the mud for a moment and then opened his mouth and started to raise his hand to it.

Dover’s laughter immediately died when he saw what Max was about to do. He reached over and quickly yanked the boy by the arm, removing his hand away from his mouth.

"No!" Dover said and then began to shake his head. "We don’t eat," Dover pointed to Max’s mouth, "mud." He opened Max’s hand up and touched the mud that was beginning to cake together inside of it. He continued to shake his head in an effort to reinforce to Max that eating mud was a big no-no.

For a moment, Max just stared at Dover with his head tilted to the side, and Dover was not sure if he had gotten through to the boy or not. But then Max smiled, as seemed to be his custom whenever he was struck by understanding and said, "No eat mud."

Dover sighed, glad that Max understood, and then started to wipe the mud out of the little boy’s hand.

"That’s right, Max. No eat mud," he repeated, and then continued to remove the mud from Max’s hand with the bottom of his shirt.

When he was finished, Max laughed and immediately stuck his hands back in the mud, then held them out to Dover.

"Mud," he said.

Dover sighed and nodded his head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Breakfast was long over by the time Dover made the trek back to his domicile. Max was partially draped over his shoulder like a sack. Low and behold, the boy had discovered the wonder of running and persisted in darting all around the open land. It had taken Dover almost ten minutes to catch the boy before finally hefting him over his shoulder in an effort to keep him from escaping again.

At first, Max had fought him, not likening the feeling of being upside-down, but after a few minutes, he’d stopped struggling and squirmed his way up Dover’s body so that the majority of his body was hanging down Dover’s front and his head rested on Dover’s upper back. Eventually, he’d fallen asleep that way.

When Dover stepped inside of the house, he was met with the sight he had expected.

No one.

He had already noticed that the litter was not outside, which meant that Lilly must have taken Liz to look for him.

Well, there was nothing that could be done. They would return soon.

Dover felt Max begin to stir in his arms and carried the boy into the lavatory. Both of them were caked with mud, and they could both use a thorough cleaning. Dover walked over to the tub, and laid Max, who had not yet woken up, inside it. He parked himself down on the side of the tub and looked down at the sleeping child.

Although his body was that of a five year old, he was really no more than a baby. Albeit, a somewhat advanced baby. But he was a relatively quick learner. Without being able to communicate, he had already been able to decipher his own name. He also knew how to walk and run without having been shown how to.

However, Dover had not put out of his mind the fact that Max had in all appearances been dead. Nor would he forget that Max had gotten up out of bed of his own will and walked heedlessly out into the storm that morning. What had happened outside in the rainstorm, Dover still did not know.

Suddenly, Dover heard a noise coming from outside and immediately recognized it to be the sound of the litter pulling up beside the domicile. Deciding that Max would be alright on his own for a while and that he showed no signs of waking up anytime soon, Dover rose from the tub and went to meet his wife and sister.

When the front door of the domicile opened and Liz and Lilly came face to face with Dover, Liz let out an excited squeal and ran straight into her brother’s arms, followed by his wife.

Dover leaned down to Liz’s level and hugged her close to his chest, successfully getting mud all over her clean clothes.

"Thank goodness, Dover. We’ve been looking all over for you. Where have you been?" Dover released his sister and gave his wife a hug as well.

"Where’s Max?" Liz asked, not giving Dover the chance to answer Lilly’s question.

"Are you alright?” Lilly interrupted.

"You didn’t let the lightning get him did you?"

"Look at you, you’re all covered in mud."

"Please say the lightning didn’t get him."

"And you’ve tracked all inside."

"You didn’t change your mind about saving him, did you?"

"And now it’s on Liz and me."

"Quiet, both of you." Dover said, stopping the two of them from speaking. He then kissed Lilly, on the forehead and wiped a speck of mud off of her cheek. "I’m fine," he assured her. Then he looked down at Liz and hooked her under the chin. "Max is fine too. He’s in the lavatory right now, but he’s sleeping."

Liz’s eyes brightened immensely and Dover could tell that she desperately wanted to go to the lavatory to check on her friend.

"He’s covered in mud too.," Dover explained, looking back to Lilly, who nodded her head in understanding.

"Okay, why don’t you go and get him cleaned up." She looked down at Liz and took the little girl’s hand in hers. "And Liz and I can go get changed." Liz frowned, obviously not liking the idea that she still didn’t get the see Max, but Dover nodded his head in agreement.

"That’s a good idea," he said. Before he could return to the lavatory to start Max’s bath, Liz reached up and tugged on Dover’s muddy pant leg so that he would bring his attention back to her. When he did look down, he almost laughed at the sight of the pout on his little sister’s face.

"When do I get to see Max?" she asked angrily.

Dover smiled and ruffled her pretty brown hair.

"After the two of you get cleaned up, then you can see Max," he said, smiling down at her. He didn’t miss the look of confusion that crossed Lilly’s face at his declaration, but now wasn’t the time to explain to her the change in plan, not with Liz standing right in front of them.

Liz beamed at the idea of being able to play with her new friend again soon. She squeezed Lilly’s hand more tightly and started to drag her off to her room so that she could change clothes. The sooner she got cleaned up, the sooner she could see Max again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max loved the water.

As he sat in the bathtub while Dover worked to remove the dried mud off of his body. He made the task extremely hard by splashing his arms up and down in the water. It was quite possible that by the time Max’s bath was over, Dover was even more wet than Max.

As hard as it was to wash the young boy, it was even harder to get him out of the water. But when Dover finally was able to get Max out of the tub and into the fresh change of clothes that Lilly had found for him, he was ready to jump right back in the tub.

This Max was completely different from the little boy from last night. He seemed to have an endless supply of energy and he was completely fascinated by everything around him, from the large mirror that was mounted on the domicile wall, to the scrub brush that Dover had used to clean him.

It had only been a few hours and already his speech was improving at an extreme rate. He had learned to ask, "What this?" whenever he came across something that interested him, which was just about anything and everything. There were other signs that he used as well. He would frown or turn his head to the side if he didn’t understand something. He would shrug his shoulders to ask ‘why’ or to say that he didn’t know. If he did understand something, he would nod his head. And if he thought something was good, he would smile. Although he still had the nasty habit of trying to explore things with his mouth, he was learning not to be so quick to do so anymore. After putting the bar of soap in his mouth while Dover was getting a towel to dry him off with, Max had learned that this wasn’t an ideal way to examine things.

Dover sighed, and all this was only after seeing the lavatory.

Dover held Max’s hand so that he wouldn’t run away as he opened the door to the lavatory and walked out into the hall. Their domicile was not overly big, nor was it outlandishly lavish, but Dover knew that to a boy who had never seen anything like there home, a boy who was all of one day old, their simple domicile would be a mythical treasure trove.

Once outside of the lavatory, Max immediately started to drag Dover in the direction that had been his parents’ old bedroom, the same room that Dover and Lilly had left him in the night before.

Dover allowed himself to be pulled inside of the room, wondering what Max’s reason was for going there.

Once inside of the room, Max headed for the bed and climbed up on top of it. He sat down in the middle of the bed, his legs stretched out before him in the same fashion that he had sat in the mud earlier in the day, and then did nothing else.

Dover watched him for a while, wondering if he might do something else, but Max just continued to sit there, not moving. After a while, Dover approached the bed.

"Max?’" he asked as he came closer.

Max just smiled and continued to sit patently on the bed. Dover was a bit thrown by Max’s strange behavior, but he was not overly worried.

"Max?" he tried after a few minutes. "What are you doing?" Dover shrugged his shoulders to show Max that he didn’t understand.

"Wait.," Max answered with one word.

Dover frowned. Wait? He still did not understand. "Wait for what, Max?" he tried again.

"Wait for Liz," he said.
Dover frowned even deeper. Wait for Liz? That’s what Max was doing? He was waiting for Liz to come to him? Though he really should not have been, Dover was surprised that Max even remembered Liz, let alone that he was waiting for her to come to him.

Max looked at Dover and frowned at Dover’s confusion. Then he smiled, as if a thought had just accrued to him.

"Wait for ZeeZee.," he said, and then nodded his head to Dover the way that Dover had been nodding his head to Max, to make sure that he understood.

Dover nodded his head letting Max know that he understood, but he came around the bed and sat next to him on it. "Why are you waiting for Liz, Max?" he continued to push.

Max turned his head to the side and frowned, letting Dover know that he did not understand what Dover was asking him.

"Why?" Dover shrugged his shoulders. "Wait for ZeeZee?" he rephrased, hoping that Max would understand his question now.

Max smiled and nodded his head. "Liz teach."

"Teach what?" Dover shrugged.

Max shrugged. "Liz name like Mommy and Daddy. Liz teach like Mommy and Daddy," he said.

Dover‘s frown deepened at those words. He had no clue what that meant.

"Mommy and Daddy?" he asked with a shrug.

Max patted his hand on the bed and then nodded his head. "Mommy, and Daddy," he emphasized.

Dover took a moment to rethink Max’s words. ‘Liz name like Mommy and Daddy.’ He must have been talking about Liz naming him. Like a mom and dad name their child. But what did he mean by ‘Liz teach like Mommy and Daddy’? What did a mommy and daddy teach their child that Liz could teach Max?

Max frowned at Dover and patted the bed again. "Mommy and Daddy, mommy and daddy!" he said as he continued to beat the mattress.

Dover grabbed Max’s hand to stop him from hitting his parents’ bed., then paused. His parents. His Mommy and Daddy?

"Liz’s Mommy and Daddy, Max?" Dover asked and patted the bed the same way that Max had before.

Max smiled, nodded, and then patted the bed again. "Mommy and Daddy teach Liz. Liz teach me," he said.

Dover groaned, and they were back to square one.

Suddenly, the bedroom door came open and Lilly and Liz stood inside of it.

"Max!" Liz called out to him as she ran to the foot of the bed and quickly climbing on top of it. She then started walking on her knees until she was at the same end of the bed as Max and Dover, and then threw her arms around him in an affectionate hug.

"The lightning didn’t get you," she said in a tone that was happy to see that Dover had been telling the truth and that Max was now safe from the storm.

Max didn’t hug her back, but a smile more brilliant than any smile he had ever shown Dover graced his face. And it was obvious that he was just as happy to see Liz as she was to see him.

Liz struggled to pull herself off of Max, grabbed her brother around the neck, and brought him down so she could hug him as well.

"Thank you for saving Max, big brother," she said, planting a wet kiss on his cheek. Max looked at the two of them and touched his own cheek. Then he cocked his head to the side and looked at Dover questionably.

"Thank you?" he shrugged.

Dover nodded his head. "Thank you," Dover repeated. "It means, I," he patted himself on the chest, "am grateful," he smiled and nodded his head, letting Max know that grateful was a good word., "to you." He finished by placing his hand on Max’s chest."

"I…grateful…you." Max mimicked Dover’s actions with each word, then looked up at Dover and smiled. "Thank you."

Dover nodded his head, letting Max know that he had got it right. "Thank you," he repeated again.

The two of them did not notice that all the while they had been talking, Liz had been staring at Max in complete shock. After they had finished, she had continued to stare, her eyes as big as two almonds.

"Max," she gasped. "You can speak?"

TBC

[RosDude]

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Thank you for your feedback and your patience.

Part 1:

Chapter Six

Plat City, New Mexico: Lacebark Cave

Dover swore loudly as he arrived at Lacebark Cave. He hadn’t expected to be coming back to this place so soon. Actually, he never planned on coming back to this place. However, there was no way he could get out of coming here. Early that morning he had gotten a call from Link telling him that all the Doughboys needed to meet back up at the cave A.S.A.P. This had immediately sent Dover into a panic. His mind had jumped to all sorts of conclusions about why they would have to come back to Max’s cave. Judging by how urgent the message that Link had left sounded, it wasn’t going to be good. Then he received another call from Adder. Something about lightning and a freak accident and he had better get his ass down there now. The man talked so fast, Dover barely been able to make out what he said.

By the time he reached the cave, most of the men were already there. Adder was the first man to notice his arrival and approached him slowly. ‘Adder’ and ‘slowly’ were never a good sign.

"What do we got?" Dover asked as Adder reached his side. He didn’t want to have the news drawn out any slower than it had to be.

Adder combed his fingers through his hair, another sign that the man was obviously distressed. "Nothing good. The cave’s completely collapsed. We got one man trapped inside and half a dozen injured. And I ain’t talking scrapes on the knees."

Shit!

"Trapped inside? Who?"

“Jimmy,” Adder answered.

Dover winced. “How long has he been trapped in there?”

Adder shrugged. "Who the hell knows? Fucking MRs can’t even tell when the damn thing collapsed.”

Dover folded his arms across his chest and looked at Adder in confusion. "Can’t we just ask one of the surviving members?"

"Can’t. Not a one of them can remember his own name, let alone when the freakin’ cave collapsed."

Couldn’t remember their own names? That was unusual.

"Toxic exposure?"

"That’s what the MRs are saying, but they don’t know for sure. Last time I checked, amnesia wasn’t a sign of toxic exposure."

Dover suppressed the urge to let out another foul cuss. So far, this was turning out to be worse than any wayfarer accident any of them had ever dealt with.

"What about Jimmy? We in communication with him?"

Adder didn’t answer, but his lack of response was more than enough of one.

"Fuck! So what are you telling me, we’re completely in the dark here?"

"I’d say that’s the least of our problems."

Both men turned around as Link Patterson came to stand between the two of them. Link was an old pro and he hadn’t been the squad captain of the Doughboys for twenty some odd years for nothing. The man knew his shit. He knew more shit than any shit that any man had ever thought he’d known any shit in his life.

And when Link Patterson said they had a big problem, they had a big problem.

"What’s the matter, Captain?" Dover asked, though he knew he would dread Link’s answer.

"My feet are killing me, I haven’t slept in almost forty-eight hours, I got six eff’ed up men that don’t remember who the hell they are, a dog-tired-ass crew that’s been workin' non-stop since the crack of dawn, and one man that’s been trapped in a cave for God-only-knows how many hours! And for all I know, he may already be dead! But I don’t know if he’s dead, cuz I can’t get in God damn contact with him. And if he’s not dead, he’s for damn sure running out of oxygen! So why don’t you tell me, Lieutenant Blackwell, Lieutenant Watson, what the hell is not the matter?"

Dover and Adder stood stunned as Link finished his rant. Neither of them ever knew the man to speak the way he just had. Hell, the man barely ever even raised his voice. He never needed to. With a few solid words, Link Patterson always got his point across, but now, words weren’t going to help their situation. And if what he said was true, the man in the cave was running out of time.

Adder placed two hands over his face and let out a roaring growl. "Fuck this! It’s getting us nowhere. What’s with all this digging anyway? The caves already ruined. Why don’t we just blow it so we can get Jimmy out and go the fuck home? Leave all this analytical bull to the MRs. It’s their job to-"

Link cut Adder off with his own angry roar. "Blow the cave, and risk killing Jimmy in the process? FYI Watson, WE DON’T KNOW WHERE HE IS! If we blow the cave, he could very well be on the other side of the explosion!"

"With all due respect, Captain, if we continue to sit here on our asses digging around in the dirt like some damn little girls in a flower garden, he is going to die!"

Dover had only just arrived on the scene, but he could tell from the two men’s heated argument that, for the men who had been working on the cave all day, tension was rising right along with the New Mexico heat.

Under normal circumstances, Adder would never have disputed Link’s orders, no matter how much of a Boom Junky he was, but the circumstances weren’t normal and both men were obviously at the end of their fuse, so to speak.

"I think Adder’s right, Sir.," Dover said, drawing Link’s attention from Adder to himself. Link didn’t give Dover a look that said he cared about his opinion. Dover continued anyway.

"He’s right. If Jimmy's running out of air, slow and steady might very well be too late."

Link’s eyes narrowed at Dover, but Dover was not halted by the look. "If we don’t do it now…"

"Alright!" Link shouted, cutting Dover off. "Alright, damnit.," he said softly this time. "Tell the boys to lay out the D-Mac. I’ll give the order when I’m ready."

Both men held Link’s gaze for a moment, knowing that it was a hard decision he was making. Then simultaneously, they saluted their Captain.

"Yes, Sir."

Adder turned and headed off towards the diggers to give them their new orders. Dover started to follow him but was stopped by the weight of a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"If this ends badly, Lieutenant…" Link let his words trail off, but he didn’t need to voice his threat for Dover to get the message loud and clear.

"I know, Captain."

Link released Dover’s shoulder and Dover went to join the rest of the crew.

It didn’t take long for the men to lay out the D-Mac. None of the men that had been part of the clean up crew and initially in the cave when it blew, could recall how close to the entrance or deep in the cave their trapped man could have been. Therefore, Link ordered the D-Mac laid close to the cave entrance, taking the gamble that Jimmy would have headed closer to the entrance when the cave had begun to collapse. However, this was a risky gamble to take. If Jimmy had headed towards the entrance when the cave had started to collapse, there was the possibility that the explosives were laid too close to the entrance. It was a chance that Link was just going to have to take.

After every man was positioned at a safe distance from the explosion, Link gave the order. Every man waited with baited breath for the explosion to trigger, hoping and praying that when it did, they would be able to finally free their trapped man.

As the explosion triggered, the men looked on in bewildered silence as they witnessed the most bizarre explosion any of them had ever seen. There was no loud pop as the D-Mac imploded. There was no build up of rock and dirt from the surrounding gravel. No fire or smoke emitted from the area where the D-Mac had been laid. The only evidence of an explosion was a gush of dust so fine, it was like sand whizzing past the men. It was a gust of wind so strong, it knocked every man off their feet, even from some fifty odd feet away.

Dover and Adder were the first to regain their footing. Leaving no time to waste, the two men immediately ran over to the explosion area.

The sight that greeted them was even more bizarre than the strange explosion the men had just witnessed.

"What the hell is this?" Adder asked, looking down at the strange substance beneath his feet.

Dover slowly kneeled down to the ground and placed his hand against what had once been dirt and rock, but was now a strange form of solid metal.

It was not any normal metal. At first glance, the substance seemed to move and swirl like a sort of liquid sliver. But at the touch, it was smooth and solid. It was like the liquid was trapped beneath some foreign mineral that was clear as glass and solid as titanium. The entire outside of the cave entrance, as well as the surrounding ground, was covered in it. The hole, that had once been the entrance to Lacebark Cave, too was sealed with this strange substance.

"Don’t touch it, man!" Adder knocked Dover’s hand away. "It could be poisonous or something."

Dover got to his feet and he and Adder backed away from the strange scene.

"What happened?" Link asked as he and the other men caught up to them.

"Noth…nothing happened." Dover looked back over at the silver something covering the cave.

"The hell nothing happened! There’s no hole, there’s no dirt, there’s not even any evidence that any D-Mac was laid here. There’s just this…stuff.”

"Get away from it!"

All the men turned around at the sound of the irate voice.

A small man wearing a long black lab coat and a pair of protective goggles stepped forward into the sea of men. Link didn’t recognize him as one of his men.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.

The small man walked forward on shaky legs. He was obviously disturbed as he came to stand next to Link, Adder, and Dover.

"Dr. Virgo, Captain. I was sent over by the Center to treat the wounded men. I’m also an MR, and I’m sorry to say, this area is now officially out of your jurisdiction." He flashed an MR’s badge at Link.

Link glanced at the badge and handed it back to the man. "Out of my jurisdiction?"

"Yes, Captain. Now, I have to ask that you and your men evacuate the area immediately. As you can see, this is an order of-"

"I don’t think you understand, Doctor. One of my men is trapped in that cave, and as long as he remains trapped, this cave remains in my jurisdiction."

Dover watched as the Doctor looked nervously over at the cave, then back to Link.

"Captain, I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist that you evacuate the area. I know that you have a deep concern for your man, but remaining here without the proper protective gear any longer, will only serve to endanger you, as well as the rest of your men."

"Well then, cough up the proper protective gear," Adder said, folding his arms across his chest.

"I’m afraid it’s not that simple," Dr. Virgo answered. "Now, please, this is an order of extreme seriousness."

"Extreme seriousness? You bet your ass it’s an order of extreme seriousness. We got a man trapped-"

"Adder, that’s enough."

Adder and Dover frowned at the change in Link’s voice.

"The doctor is right. There’s nothing we can do at the moment. Tell the men to pack it up."

"But Captain!"

"Adder! I said, tell the men to pack it up. I won’t repeat myself again."

Adder stood in place for a moment, glaring at Link and Dr. Virgo.
"Adder, that was an order, not a request," Link said coldly.

Adder looked over at Dover and then back to Link. Adder was not known for his litheness. Of all the Doughboys, he was the one least receptive of orders, so it was a complete shock to Dover when Adder mumbled a curt, "Yes, Sir," and started towards the other men, issuing orders of withdrawal along the way.

"Dover," Link said as he turned to address him. "I want you to go too."

Dover didn’t like it. He would much rather stay. He was worried about the trapped man. He was also worried about the strange accidence. Did this have anything to do with Max? The lighting, the cave sealing itself off, it was all just a little too coincidental. But surely there was some other explanation for all this. There had to be. He couldn’t deal with the possibility that a man’s life was at stake because of what he had done.

"Did you hear me, Blackwell? I said, go."

Dover nodded to his Captain and turned away from the scene. As of that moment, there was nothing he could do but follow orders. He would have to find another time to appease his curiosity over the situation.

Dover joined Adder and a few other men as they started to pile into a litter that would carry them away from the site. He looked out the window and watched as Link and Dr. Virgo continued to talk. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Link didn’t look pleased, and Virgo kept looking nervously over his shoulder at the cave.

"Can you believe this shit?" Adder swore with his usual vehemence. "Evacuate the cave immediately," his voice raised an octave as he imitated Dr. Virgo in an effeminately high pitched voice.

"And the Captain, just backing down like that. What about Jimmy? I bet he doesn’t give a rat’s candy ass over whose fucking jurisdiction that cave is in. We’re the only men with the know-how on getting him out. I bet I’m sure as hell not going to see no damn MRs getting their hands dirty trying to get him outta there."

"Calm down, Adder," Dover said, not turning his head away from the window, even as the litter began to pull away. "Right now there’s nothing that we can do. As much as we may not like it, Dr. Virgo is right. We don’t know what’s going on with that cave. It’s for the MRs to figure out. Once they do, I’m sure they’ll let us get back to saving Jimmy."

"Oh yeah, and I’m sure Jimmy can just hold his breath until we get there," Adder shouted.

"Well shouting and blowing a fuse isn’t going to get anything done faster!" Dover shouted back.

The two men glared at each other for a moment, both equally upset about the situation that they had been placed in, yet handling it in two different ways.

Adder leaned back against his seat and let out an infuriated sigh. "It’s just that Jimmy’s so young, you know. And he’s only part of the clean up crew. He’s barely supposed to know what a malign cave looks like, let alone have a close up freaking Indiana Jones experience with one. What are we going to say to his Ma? Sorry your son’s trapped in a cave but we can’t get him out cuz Dr. Do-nothing says it’s out of our jurisdiction? I’m sure that’ll fly real well."

On some level, Dover knew Adder was right, but he also knew that they were in a pretty bleak situation.

"Adder, if we were still at that cave right now, what would you do? If Dr. Virgo hadn’t said a thing about us leaving the area and we still had full control over it, how would you go about getting Jimmy out of that cave, strange malign substance and all."

Dover waited for Adder to answer but saw that the man couldn’t come up with a single idea that they hadn’t already tried. "That’s what I thought."

Adder frowned. "So what if I can’t come up with something on the spot? Being there trying is better then being here while Jimmy’s in that cave suffocating to death."

Dover shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. We’re just going to have to wait and see."

"Well I’ll tell you one thing, Egghead and his brainiac posse better come up with something to get him outta there."

Dover hoped so too. And he hoped whatever it was that they came up with, they came up with it quickly, because if they didn’t, James Valenti was going to die.

TBC

[RosDude]

Ok, so I guess I could have played that a bit more smoothly. But I guess I was missed.

TheAliensAreComing!
flyawayraven
Morning Dreamgirl
Smac
Flamehair
Michelle in Yonkers
Ellie

Thanks for the feedback.

Part 1:

Chapter Seven

Plat City, New Mexico: Plat City University Medical Center

Lilly watched Max as he sat in the big comfortable chair in her office. The little boy was too wrapped up in playing with the strings on his oversized jacket to notice her watching him. Every so often, he would stick the strings of the jacket out in front of him as far as his arms would stretch, then beam a smile as if he had just done something exceedingly luminous. After watching the strings bounce back to him, he would repeat the process of stretching the strings all over again.

In the short two days that Lilly had come to know Max, she learned several definite things about him. He was a quick learner and new things absolutely fascinated him. Just the night before, he spent about ten minutes laughing at his own reflection in the mirror after she and Liz had shown him how to brush his teeth. After that, Lilly took Max back to Dover’s parents’ room where Dover and she had decided he would sleep.

Instead of going to sleep like he was supposed to, Max, thanks in large part to Liz, had suddenly discovered that if he jumped on the bed the springing mattress would propel him up higher into the air. And if he fell on his butt, no problem, the springs would bounce him right back up into the air again. Then the two children discovered that if they held hands while they jumped, they could go even higher. It had took forever to get the two of them to settle down.

When the two had finally decided that they’d had enough fun, Lilly started to take Liz back to her room. However, Max didn’t seem to like the idea of being without Liz very much. His reaction was to immediately hop out of bed and follow them to Liz’s bedroom.

Dover took Max back to his room, but it was no use. Every time they left the room, Max would get out of bed and make his way back to Liz’s room. Whenever they would try to take him back to his own room, Max would allow himself to be taken back, only to return to Liz’s room once Lilly and Dover had gone.

Though it was against their better judgment, eventually gave up and allowed Max to have his way. Liz didn’t seem too slighted by having to share a bed with Max. In fact, she appeared to be just as pleased with the situation as Max was.

After putting the children to bed, Lilly and Dover once again stayed up all night discussing their current situation. It was obvious that Dover took a liking to Max. He made it pretty clear that they, as well as Liz, were in way too deep for them to even consider abandoning the little boy now. Lilly knew that to be true, but in her heart she still hoped that there was a way for the two of them to relieve themselves of their new resident.

But they took Max into their home and he was now officially their responsibility. However, they were still not sure what to make of him. They knew that he was a malign. That was non-disputable. But having a malign in their household only aided in making one thing abundantly clear to them, they really didn’t know anything about maligns.

Although she was a doctor, Lilly specialized in the human body. Only MRs studied maligns, and as far as she was aware, their bodies and immune systems weren’t really studied to the degree that the human body was.

Lilly was acquainted with a few MRs at the center, but she could hardly go up to one of them and ask them to give Max a quick once over. Not to mention, she doubted that any of the MRs had ever studied a live malign. She wasn’t entirely sure if there was really anyone that knew anything about the way the malign body worked. So she and Dover decided that she was going to have to be the one to examine Max.

Today she brought Max to the center with her so that she could give him a complete physical. She managed to check him out as best as she could with the supplies that she had at home, but her home equipment was paltry in comparison to the advanced apparatuses she had at her disposal at the center, and hardly fit for the type of examination she would have to do on Max. Here, she would be able to check Max out thoroughly, exteriorly as well as interiorly.

But the strange thing was, as far as she was able to determine, other than the obvious difference in his speech and rapid learning abilities, Max was a perfectly normal human child. Nevertheless, she had to keep in mind that she had no idea what his interior organs were like, nor was she sure if his body was as human as it appeared to be.

As if sensing her focus had shifted to him, Max looked up from his jacket strings to Lilly’s watchful eyes. Another happy-little-boy smile played across his face as he held the strings out towards her.

"Strings," he said, and laughed as they bounced back to him.

Lilly smiled to herself. Human or malign, he was an adorable little guy.

Suddenly there was a steady knock on the door, immediately drawing Lilly’s attention away from Max.

"Come in," she called out, and watched as the door swung open slowly.

"Dr. Blackwell, I’m sorry to bother you…oh." Lilly’s assistant stepped inside of the room, but stopped as she caught sight of Max sitting in the chair beside Lilly’s desk.

Cora Monroe was a friendly looking woman in her early twenties, not much younger than Lilly’s own age. She had friendly eyes, a friendly face and tended to have a friendly disposition to boot. She had only been Lilly’s assistant for a short time, but in that time Lilly had come to like and respect her very much. She was a quiet woman, good at taking orders and didn’t ask a lot of questions, a trait Lilly never thought she would appreciate so much, until now.

As quickly as she’d lost it, Cora regained herself and stepped further into the room. It was obviously written across her face that she thought Max was a patient. Her gaze lingered on him for a moment, seemingly trying to deduce what could possibly be wrong with such an apparently happy and healthy little boy. However, if Cora’s curiosity did in fact exist, she didn’t voice it.
Still, Lilly took note of the confused look that Cora had not so facilely been able to hide. No doubt it was due to the fact that Cora had never known Lilly to bring a child to her personal office. All patients were looked at in the examining room.

Cora continued forward until she stood in front of Max’s chair and then smiled down at him, giving him that same friendly doctor smile she, and every other worker at the center, gave sick children.
"Well now, who’s this little guy?" she asked in a pleasantly sweet voice.

"Cora, this is Max. He’s my little visitor this morning," Lilly said, seeing no need to explain Max’s presence any further than that.

And Cora, being her usual apathetic self, didn’t seem to require any more of an explanation than that. She knelt down in front of Max, placing an affectionate hand on one of his shoes that had been dangling contentedly from the chair.

"Hi there, Max. I’m Cora. Iit’s nice to meet you."

Max looked up at Cora with eyes that were big and round and full of inquisitiveness. He tilted his head to the side, seemingly to study Cora in the same way that she had initially studied him. Then his eyes brightened as if he had determined something that he found pleasing about the woman, and offered her his famous smile.
Cora returned Max’s smile and got back to her feet.

"Well, isn’t he just the cutest thing?" Cora turned back to face Lilly as she spoke.

"Yeah, he is. Is there something you wanted, Cora?"

"Oh, yes there is, actually." Cora’s voice lost any of the previous kindliness it had held while she’d been addressing Max, and once again became its normal serious and yet softly spoken tone.

"I came to tell you that I just received a holo-message from Dr. Virgo. He asked if you would cover his evening patients. There was another accident in one of the caves and he has to go on site to tend to the wounded men."

Lilly’s attention perked up at Cora’s words. "An accident?" she hadn’t heard anything about any accident.

Cora nodded and continued. "Yes, early yesterday morning. It’s an odd story, really. It seems lightning from yesterday’s storm struck one of the caves and caused it to collapse on itself. I’ve never heard anything like that happening before. I mean lightning collapsing an entire cave?
"All the reports say that the cave was completely ruined. Anyway, one of the MD clean up crews was still inside at the time. A lot of the men suffered some pretty bad injuries and one of them was trapped inside. They’ve been trying to get him out all night. Dr. Virgo’s on standby until they can get the cave opened up enough to get the man out."

Lilly’s eyes widened as she heard the news, but she tried hard not to let Cora see the shock on her face. She wondered…

"That’s terrible. Of course I’ll cover Dr. Virgo’s patients tonight," Lilly tried to hide the worry in her voice as she spoke, but she couldn’t help but glance over at Max, who had now gone from playing with the strings on his jacket to using the edge of the desk to spin himself around in the chair. There was no way that this could have had anything to do with him. It was just a freak accident.

Cora nodded her head, accepting Lilly’s answer and started to head for the door. "I’ll make sure to let the Doctor’s assistant know you’ll be filling in for him tonight." She opened the door and started to exit the room.

"Um Cora, before you go…" She had to know, and she couldn’t seem to stop herself from asking the question.

Cora turned back to Lilly. "Yes, Dr. Blackwell, is there something else?"

"The cave…do you happen to know which one it was?" Lilly felt a sense of nervousness travel through her body as the words came out. "In case I need to get in touch with Dr. Virgo," she covered.

"Yes, Dr. Blackwell, I believe it was Lacebark Cave."

Lilly felt her stomach tighten at her assistant’s words, but she couldn’t afford to alarm the woman by letting her current emotions show.

A worried look crossed Cora’s face as she watched Lilly. "Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the cave that Mr. Blackwell was working in a few days ago?"

It was no secret that Lilly’s husband was an MD. Many of the other doctors and workers at the center asked her what caves were being searched for maligns in order for them to know what routes were best to stay clear of. Also it benefited them to know to be alert in case of incidents, such as the one that had taken place yesterday.

"Yes, Dover’s squad just…cleaned out a malign from that area a few days ago.," Lilly’s eyes unconsciously shifted to Max as she answered.

"Well, I’m glad he wasn’t hurt," Cora said comfortingly. "We can only thank goodness for small miracles."

Lilly nodded objectively. "Yes, we can."

Her eyes never left Max as he continued to twirl around in the chair. He, however, seemed pleasantly oblivious to her watchfulness, completely entranced by the spinning chair.

Cora eyed Lilly attentively as her boss gazed intently at the little boy. It was strange the way Lilly’s eyes fixed on him, almost as if he were something terribly important. However, again, Cora kept her thoughts silent.

"Well then, I’ll just go and have Sara send over a schedule of Dr. Virgo’s evening patients." Cora waited another moment for Lilly to say something in response, but when Lilly remained silent, Cora just chalked it up to the fear of being so close to losing her husband, and left the office, no more suspicious of anything than she was when she entered.

Lilly barely registered the sound of the door closing as Cora left her office. It was actually the sound of Max’s voice that had broken her from her thoughts. Quite honestly, she hadn’t even been aware of when she became lost in them.

"Want to go see Liz.," Max said, meeting Lilly’s eyes with his own.

What she wanted to do was talk to Dover. He most likely heard about what happened at the cave. He might even have been at the cave at that very moment.

Suddenly, a stab of fear shot through her. What if the lightning collapsing the cave truly did have something to do with Max? Would there be any sign that a malign was missing? Would there be any evidence that she and Dover were involved?

The entire situation was becoming all too dangerous, and extremely frightening. She needed to talk to Dover. She needed to make sure that he was all right and that no one knew of his connection to the cave, other than that he had been one of the many MDs that had removed a malign threat from it two days ago.

Lilly scooted her chair back from her desk. This was crazy. This was dangerous. Max was dangerous. He was a completely different life form. In all seriousness, he was a fugitive. He shouldn’t even have been alive. And yet he was alive, as harmless as a baby chick, and as dangerous as a wild beast.

She wished Dover was there. Unlike her, he seemed to really know how to deal with the boy. He didn’t act scared and confused like she was. Liz neither.

Liz, more than Dover and herself, had accepted Max with all the openness of a long lost brother, and so much more. And Max, he responded to Dover and Liz differently than he responded to her. He never spoke Lilly’s own name, not even once. Yet he had quickly learned to call Dover and Liz by their names, going so far as to even use the endearment of ZeeZee for Dover’s little sister.

Although there wasn’t an ounce of malice in his small body, there was a palpable difference in his reactions towards her. She hadn’t said it to Dover, but it was something that made her fear him a great deal. She, a grown woman, and he, a boy newly born.

No, not a boy, a malign.

It was a strange thought, and Lilly didn’t even truly know where it had come from, but the difference was so clear to her…it was like Dover and Liz were his family, and she…she was a means of being with his family.

Max looked at Dover and Liz with trusting eyes. And though he smiled at her, well hell, he smiled at everyone, there was always a somewhat questioning look in his eyes when he looked at her., Like he wasn’t sure if he could trust her.

"Go see ZeeZee now?" Max asked. This time, there was a bit of impatience in his tone.

Lilly watched as he tilted his head to the side, as if making sure that she understood that he was asking her a question. His innocent eyes seemed bigger than she had ever seen them and his dark hair fell to the side with the tilt of his head, touching his shoulder and making him appear even more the innocent child.

Lilly laughed out loud in the quiet room. She was being ridiculous. She had known Max for what, a day? She was nervous about the cave, that was all. Everything she was feeling was just nerves from the situation. Anyone would be a little overly cautious in her shoes. She had no reason to fear Max. After all, he was just a little boy.

She shook her head once and told herself to get a grip. Then she stood up from her chair and walked around to the desk until she was standing in front of Max.

"See Zee?" he asked for the third time. He climbed out of his own chair and stood up, looking up at her expectantly, and waiting for her to confirm his wishes.

Lilly shook her head no as she reached down and lifted him into her arms. She had an important job to do and she couldn’t let her irrational fears get in the way of her doing it.

"No Max, we’re not going to see ZeeZee just yet."

Max’s brow creased in a frown as he understood that they were not going to see his ZeeZee. "Where go?" he asked.
Lilly gave him a reassuring smile as she headed towards the door.

"We’re just going to have a little check up."

TBC

[RosDude]

As promised, here is the next chapter. eh you've waited long enough.

~Chad~

The story so far.

The Year is 2210 and the world is a different place. The existence of aliens is public knowledge, and they are greatly feared. They are referred to as Maligns for reasons yet unclear. There exist a group of people that are dispatched in order to kill Maligns.

Dover Blackwell is a member of this group called MDs or Malign Disposers. While dissecting a malign, it hatches to reveal that Maligns are human in form. This information was not previously known by the MDs.

Not having the heart to kill the Malign that resembles a five year old boy, Dover takes it home with him. Dover’s little sister Liz, otherwise know as ZeeZee, immediately takes a liking to the little boy and the two become friends. She gives him the name Max.

The next morning ZeeZee awakens to find that her new friend is gone. She finds him outside, but he is trapped in the middle of a thunderstorm. ZeeZee begs her brother to go and rescue Max and he agrees to do so. Upon reaching Max, the little boy is struck by lighting and by all accounts appears to be dead. Dover goes to bury Max but the boy wakes up and is now capable of speech, something he was previously unable to do.

Dover takes Max back to his home and he and his wife deicide that they are going to keep him. The next day, Dover’s wife, Lilly, who is a doctor, takes Max with her to give him a check up. That same day, the cave from which Max spawned collapses on itself, trapping a man (Jimmy Valintie) inside.

In an attempt to blow the cave open, the Doughboys unearth an unknown element. They are then sent away from the cave and the MRs (Malign Researchers) take over the aria. What is this new element and what if anything does it have to do with Max?

Part 1:

Chapter Eight

Plat City, New Mexico: Plat City University Medical Center

Max didn’t like the bright room. The color hurt his eyes, and the big bed in the center was not fun like the spinney chair had been. He didn’t like the smell of the room either. It was a funny smell, that made his nose tingle. But what he liked least of all was Lilly-in-the-black-coat. She made him take off his funny string jacket and kept putting things that were cold on him. Her hands felt funny, covered by the strange hand shaped stretchy stuff she put on them, and she looked scary with the creepy mask on over the bottom half of her face.

Also, she would not let him sit up. Every time he tried to climb off of the strange bed, she would place her hand on his chest and make him lay back down. Then, she would continue putting cold things on his body. No, of everything about the bright room, Max liked Lilly-in-the-black-coat the least.

“Max?” Lilly bent over Max, looking down at him with what Dover referred to as her “Examining Eyes’. Max did not like the check up; he made no secret of that.

He had an aversion to almost every instrument that she used on him. It appeared he had not yet mastered breathing through his nose and so he hated having the thermometer in his mouth for an extended period of time. He didn’t like having the light flashed in his eyes. He hated when she pressed the stethoscope to his chest. And he would not, for the life of him, remain lying on the examination table.

Max looked back up at her with a hurt expression on his face. “Why being mean?” he asked as he tilted his head to the side.

Lilly sighed deeply. “I’m sorry, Max. I’m not trying to be mean. I just want to make sure that you are all right. That you are healthy, you understand?” She nodded her head to make sure that he understood.

Max’s eyes went from Lilly to the lapels of her black lab coat. He reached his hand up and touched the edge of it. “Don’t like Lilly-in-the-black-coat.,” he said, before turning his head away.

Lilly frowned down at him, confused by his words. “What do you mean, Max?” she asked, lifting her shoulders in a shrug.

“Black coat make Lilly mean,” he answered, but continued to look away from her.

Lilly understood now. Max was beginning to associate the black lab coat she was wearing with the treatment she was giving him; the treatment he did not like. Lilly lifted her hand to her face and pulled the white mask down to rest on her chin, revealing her entire face. She placed her hand on Max’s cheek and turned his head to face her. She smiled at him so that he was not afraid.

“Max,” she said coaxingly. Max lifted his eyes slowly until they met Lilly’s.

“We’re almost done, sweetie. Then I promise, no more Lilly-in-the-black-coat.,” Lilly said as she shook her head no.

“Promise?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “What promise?”

Lilly frowned for a moment as she pondered how to explain to the little boy what a promise was. “A promise is something I give to you, that you can always know I will never take back,” she said.

She reached inside of her pocket and fished out a small gold-jack coin. The thing was worthless really, but she’d always had it ever since she was a little girl. It was a token from her mother along with the message that it would always bring her good luck. She kept it in the pocket of her lab coat with the silly superstition that it would bring luck to those she tended as well.

Looking down at the small coin, Lilly quickly came to a decision, one she hoped would bridge the small, but ever present, gap between Max and herself.

Lilly smiled and reached out to take Max’s small hand in hers. “This is my promise, Max.” She opened his hand and placed the coin in it. “I will never hurt you.”

Max sat up again, but this time, she allowed it. He lifted his hand close to his eyes and examined the coin just as he had the mud. He looked at it curiously for a moment. He then rolled it between his fingers, as if he were trying to get a feel for the coin. Finally, he looked back to Lilly.

“Lilly’s promise?” he asked.

She smiled and nodded her head. “Yes, that is my promise,” she said.

Max smiled back at her and clutched the little coin in his small hand. Lilly smiled as well as she placed her hand back on his chest, pushing him back down on the examination table. This time, he let her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plat City, New Mexico: Lacebark Cave

Jimmy woke with the taste of dirt in his mouth and a serious pain in his head. He sat up slowly, all the while spitting out dirt and rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head. He could already tell that a large knot was beginning to form. He couldn’t see a single thing around him. It was so dark. So dark, in fact, that for a moment, he started to think that the knock on his head had rendered him blind as well. But then he remembered how he got into his current location. He was trapped twenty feet below ground in a malign cave, a place that tended to give off very little light.

He remembered now. The cave had all of a suddenly gone haywire while he and his crew were sealing off the malign cave that the MDs had sealed. His team were just about to pull him out of the cave when a jagged shard of something shot right through his cable and sent him plummeting to the bottom of the cave. That was the last thing Jimmy remembered before waking up in pitch-black darkness.

Jimmy got to his feet shakily, brushing bits of rock off of himself. He wondered for a moment how long he’d been out. There was no telling. He lost his emergency pack during his fall, which meant that, on top of being stuck inside of a Malign cave, he was also supply-less to boot.

Not expecting an answer but seeing no reason why not to try, Jimmy cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted out above him. “Hello, can anyone hear me? Hello? I’m alive down here!” As he expected, there was no answer. It was just as well. His crew had to know he was still down here. No one expected the cave to collapse. They were probably working on freeing him at that very moment. He would just have to wait it out.
Jimmy knelt back down on the ground and began feeling around the cave floor for his pack. He was pretty sure that there was a light inside of it and he was getting sick and tired of sitting in the dark. He continued to feel around for a while until he felt the strap of his pack. Jimmy smiled in triumph and pulled the pack to him. Quickly, he opened it up and started to feel around for the flash.

“Jackpot!” Jimmy pulled the flash from his pack and quickly turned it on.

Reclining back against the cave wall, Jimmy sighed and let his mind reel. He could already hear the other MD trainees back at HQ ribbing him about this. As one of the toped ranked rookies in his squad and the most likely candidate to be prompted to an MD, his place in the eyes of the other rookies was not all that good. Link made it a point to spew Jimmy’s accolades at every turn, and would even go so far as to tell the other rookies that they should aspire to be more like Jimmy. Maybe not in those exact words, but the meaning was much implied. And as if all of that wasn’t more than enough, Jimmy had the added bonus of being Link’s nephew through marriage. There was no doubt that he other trainees were going to eat this little slip right up.

Jimmy groaned loudly. Plus, on top of all of this, he would have to do a week in hospice just so the MRs could check, double check, and triple check that he was not infected with toxic poisoning. Jimmy could already tell that the next couple of weeks of his life were going to be a real pain in the ass.

He sat there against the wall, lost in his own mind for a short time before the realization dawned upon him. The strange humming that he had been hearing in the back of his head for the last few minutes was not the musings of his own mind, but rather the sound resonating from the cave itself. And the extremely bright glow of the cave was not just coming from the flash. If anything, his flash had barely begun to give off a light at all compared to the light that beamed from the barely man sized crevice on the far side of the cave. The crack was small but Jimmy could see that, whatever it was that caused the cave to fill with light, was coming from inside.

Getting to his feet, Jimmy picked up his pack and reached inside for a protective mask that all rookies were required to wear and placed it over his face. Jimmy had always heard that malign pods died once the malign was dissected. At least, that was what all the study information he was given had said. But like all rookies, he had never actually seen the death of a malign pod. Hell, he had never even seen a malign pod. His squad, the Doughboys, which was ran by his Uncle Link, was responsible for making sure that malign pods were not accessible to humans after the malign had been disposed of. Most of the time, the job didn’t even require them entering the cave. But since Lacebark Cave was underground, the circumstances were a little different.

Jimmy started to slowly inch closer to the crack as curiosity overtook him. Seeing a malign pod up close and personal was definitely something to tell the other rookies. Even if the malign had technically already been removed, it would still be something. He bet the others would not be so quick to rib him then. Deciding to sneak in for a quick look, Jimmy walked the remaining distance to the crack in the wall.

It was a tight squeeze, but Jimmy managed to force his way through the opening and stepped through to the other side.

Jimmy was in awe of the room he entered. It was glowing like a crystal prism. Light beamed off the wall and reflected through the entire cave, shooting from one place to the next, decking the cave in a glow so bright, Jimmy had a hard time even looking at it. The reflecting light painted the dirt wall in crystal and for a moment, making it seem as if everything in the room had completely come to life. Iin the center of all of this luminous light was what Jimmy could only assume was the malign pod.

He stared in awe, taking in all that surrounded him. He almost felt as if he had walked into something sacred. Even the ground he stood upon seemed to give off some form of pristine light, the likes of which his unworthy feet should have never touched. Jimmy brought his attention to the center of the room where his eyes focus in on the malign pod.

It looked…well, gross, but there was something about it that made it seem like it was the most sacred thing in the room. Like everything else centered around it meant nothing compared to the importance of this gross, deflated sac. It looked like a fetus, only it was glowing and pulsing with…maligness.

Jimmy didn’t want to venture any further into the cave from the crack in the wall, but he wanted to get a better look at the thing. Were pods supposed to pulse like that after they were dissected? He didn’t recall reading anything about it in his study material. For some reason, it didn’t seem like a very dead action. As a matter of fact, the entire room was practically breathing. He was just waiting for a gust of exhalation to blow him away.

As Jimmy continued to examine the room, he had to smother the urge to burst into laughter as a wave of giddiness took hold of him. He wasn’t sure why, but a sudden wave of euphoria took hold of him, causing him to stand there grinning behind his mask for no apparent reason. The notion unexpectedly came upon him that there was something very mesmerizing about the room. The room’s ebb and flow. The funky glow.

Flow-glow-flow-glow. Jimmy chuckled at the rhyme. Jimmy was starting to feel very languid. He couldn’t quite remember what it was exactly he was doing there. And for some strange reason, his mind started to spin. Or was that the room spinning? Jimmy shrugged as if the question had been asked by someone else. Either way, it was pretty cool.

In his euphoric state, Jimmy didn’t take notice when the pod began pulsing faster, nor did his mind register the booming sound that began reverberate throughout the cave. He did however notice that blue was a nice color, especially when it ran down the wall like rain drops on a window. That was the last thing Jimmy noticed before the world exploded around him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sealant New Mexico: Blackwell Domicile

Liz found Max, he was on his knees, on her bed, looking out of the blue-tinted glass of her bedroom window. She sighed in annoyance. He had been doing that for forever, just staring out of the window like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen in his life. Liz didn’t get it. It was just a window. What was so great about that? She was also starting to get angry. She had sat through school all day, super excited to come home and play with Max. Dover and Lilly didn’t let Max come to school with her for some adult reason that she really didn’t understand. She thought all kids were supposed to go to school. But after thinking about it for a little while, Liz decided she was glad that Max didn’t go to school with her. That way, she could have him all to herself. He could be her own secret, little friend.

But the only time she ever got to play with him was when the two of them were at home together. And ever since she had got home from school, Max had been no fun at all. He’d just been staring out of the window. Even when she called out his name and asked him if he wanted to go outside and play with her, he completely ignored her and continued to stare out of the window.

Liz bristled. She knew she was way more fun than some stupid window. “Max,” she groaned, dragging out the letters in his name. She walked over to the side of the bed Max was kneeling on. “Stop looking out of the window and come play with me.”

Sick of being ignored, Liz grabbed Max by the arm and pulled him so that he was no longer facing the window. She gasped when she got a look at his eyes. They weren’t the pretty brown they had once been before, but had turned all icky black, just like she thought she first saw that first night in her parents’ bed. Liz let go of his arm and backed away from him.

Max continued to stare at her with those strange eyes. Eeven though he looked right at her, it seemed as if he could not see her at all. “Max?” she called out to him. She couldn't prevent her voice from sounding a little shaky as she spoke. She couldn’t help it. There was something really scary about this black-eyed Max.

He continued to look at her without seeing her or hearing her. When she said his name, he didn’t respond. When she touched his arm, he still remained as frozen as he was, looking straight through her.

Liz placed her hands on both of his shoulders and started to shake him as hard as her little arms would allow her. “Max, stop it!” she closed her eyes and whispered softly to him. She didn’t like this Max and he was really scaring her. But when she opened her eyes, Max was no longer looking at her with black eyes. Instead, his eyes had returned back to normal and he was staring back at her with his brow creased and his mouth turned down in a frown.

“Why Liz cry?” he asked?. Max reached up and placed his hand on Liz‘s cheek, where she hadn’t realized a tear had leaked out of her eye. Max wiped the tear away and placed his hand on top of hers on top of his shoulder.

Liz looked deep into Max’s eyes that were no longer icky black. Sshe could see concern and confusion in his now back to normal eyes. He also looked like he could see her again.

“Max, you’re back to normal!” She smiled and threw her arms around him in a fierce hug.

Max frowned over Liz’s shoulder, not completely understanding where normal was and when he had ever left it, but he liked the feeling of her arms around him, so he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back.

Liz pulled away from Max and looked back in his eyes. Yep, they were definitely back to normal. But she could see that Max was still a little confused about what had happened. She didn’t feel like explaining it to him. They had wasted almost the entire day already and she didn’t want to waste another second of it.

“It doesn’t matter. Now that you’re back, you can come and play with me.” Liz let go of Max’s shoulders and took his hand in hers. Liking the idea, Max followed Liz as she tugged him out of the room. “What we play?” he asked.

“Let’s play hide-and-seek.,” Liz said, but then remembered what had happened the last time Max played hide-and-seek with her. She stopped tugging for a moment and turned to face Max. “This time, I’ll hide.”

TBC

[RosDude]

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Part 1:

Chapter Nine

Sealant New Mexico: Blackwell Domicile

Dover was starting to get nervous. It had been almost four days since Jimmy got stuck inside of Max’s cave, and none of the MDs were allowed to go anywhere near it. The cave had become a magnet for Malign Researchers ever since the failed attempt to blow it open. MRs were drawing in by the hundreds to study the strange new element that had spewed from the cave. It seemed that almost no one believed that Jimmy could possibly still be alive. It seemed somewhere along the past few days, whether or not Jimmy was alive was not as important to the MRs as discovering what this new element truly was.

Even so, Jimmy was still important to some people.

Link had been a mess ever since Dr. Virgo’s declaration that the cave was no longer in his jurisdiction. Dover had never seen the man so discomposed. Jimmy was also still important to Dover. No matter how many times Lilly told him it wasn’t his fault, or how many times he tried to convince himself of that, Dover couldn’t shake the feeling of responsibility. Malign caves did not just close in on themselves. They didn’t just spew out unidentifiable elements. The cave had to be reacting to his having removed Max from the pod. However, the alternative to having done so would have been to kill Max.

Could he have done it? Could he really have traded Max’s life for Jimmy’s? Dover didn’t know, but there was a small part of him, the part that had become very attached to the little malign boy, that didn’t think so.

On the night of the fifth day of Jimmy being trapped in Lacebark, Dover received an unexpected visit from Adder. Max and Liz were both asleep in Liz’s room. Since Dover and Lilly had not officially told anyone about Max, wanting to have their story completely straight before introducing the little boy to the world, Dover made sure the door to ZeeZee’s room was locked up tight before he let Adder enter.

Adder was his usual self, all anger and animation. He was yet another person that still cared about Jimmy, cursing the MRs, or psychotic scientific son-of-a-bitches, as he liked to refer to them, for every day that Jimmy was stuck in the cave.

“I’ve had enough!” Adder shouted as he entered the domicile.

“Come on in, Adder,” Dover said, closing the door behind him.

“I mean it. You should hear some of the bull these SOBs have been spouting off. Saying Jimmy’s not ‘high priority’. Can you believe that?” Adder plopped down hard in a nearby chair. ”High pri-freaking-ority! What the hell is that?”

“Will you try to keep it down, Adder? ZeeZee’s asleep in the other room.” The last thing Dover wanted was for Liz or Max to wake up.

Adder waved his hand in the air, but lowered his voice. “Sorry about that. It just makes me so damn mad, ya know?”

Dover pulled up a second chair and took a seat next to Adder. Oh yes, he knew all too well what Adder was feeling, perhaps even more so. The MRs came up with all kinds of excuses as to why saving Jimmy didn’t take priority over studying the new element. He didn’t understand their reasoning one-hundred percent, but he knew it had something to do with saving the life of one, versus endangering the llives of many.

“Seriously,” Adder continued his rant. “The MRs are out their everyday with their little toys and all that crap. If the cave is so dangerous, why hasn’t anything happened to any of them?”

It was a good question, but of course, the MRs had a good answer. “The MRs are constantly in protective gear, so the element has no effect on them, if in fact it has any effect at all,” Dover and Adder looked up as Lilly entered the room, answering Adder’s question. She came over to Dover’s chair and stood beside it, then placed her hand on his shoulder. “Hello Adder. It’s good to see you again.”

Answering Lilly’s greeting with a slight wave, Adder made a noise somewhere between a snort and a grunt, “I still don’t see why they can’t just issue us protective gear. Lacebark’s one-hundred miles from nowhere anyway.”

“It’s not as easy as that,” Lilly answered evenly. “So far, the element has been able to be contained, but no one knows what’s going on inside the cave for sure. Not only that, the entire cave is covered in the element. To date, it seems to be impenetrable.

“Even if it wasn’t, there’s no telling what could happen if that cave were to be opened. We don’t know if the new element is airborne or how dangerous it could be outside of a contained area.”

Adder made an angry face at Lilly. He knew her words made all the sense in the world. Who would know better than she? Although she was not an MR, she worked in a building with them all day. Regardless, there was a small part of him that still wanted to blame the MRs for everything. “What are you, some kind of MR cheerleader?”

“Hey!” Dover gave Adder a warning glare. “I know you’re upset, Adder, but watch it.”

“Sorry,” Dover said, not sounding very apologetic.

Lilly shrugged. “I’m just laying out the facts.” She looked away from Adder for a moment before stepping around Dover’s chair and taking a seat on his lap. She felt Dover wrap his arm around her waist as she took a deep breath before continuing.

“There’s also the possibility that Jimmy is…dead.”

That was hitting the nail on the head. It was the one thing neither the MRs nor anyone in the room wanted to believe, yet it was the truth that they would all be facing sooner or later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max was three weeks old today. The thought crossed Lilly’s mind as she knelt beside the tub with her stethoscope pressed against Max’s bare chest. It was an amazing thought. Only three weeks alive and he was already developed almost to the same level as any normal five year old.

His speech had improved tremendously. He now used full sentences instead of broken speech. He had also learned to communicate more with words rather than actions. However, he still attained the endearing habit of slightly tilting his head when he asked a question.

Even more phenomenal than his rapid development, there was not a single trace in his bone structure, organs, or circulatory and pulmonary systems that indicated he was anything other than a regular little boy. Lilly would not have believed it if she had not run the tests herself. But she had, multiple times. By almost every medical standard, Max was human.

Almost.

As he developed more and more, Lilly had taken to giving Max a check up every few days. Doing this, she discovered some slight unexplainable differentiations in his cells and blood. She couldn’t deny that there was a small part of her that wanted to study him more. She had no doubt that he would make a truly fascinating case. But she constantly reminded herself that he was not a case. He was Max. And if Dover and she wanted to have any chance of having the world believe that he was nothing out of the ordinary, they would have to treat him as such.

Lilly looked up at Max suddenly when she felt a small tug on her ears. Max had pulled on the stethoscope, not realizing she no longer had it pressed to his chest.

“All done?” he asked when she met his gaze.

Lilly smiled, shaking her head and her thoughts away. “Yes Max. All done.” She took off the stethoscope and gave him a small pat on the stomach. She then reached up to the corner of the sink for Max’s shirt, and helped him slip back into it.

This would probably be the last test that she did on him for a while without being able to take him into the lab for proper testing. It was just as well. Though she wasn’t quick to say anything, Lilly could tell Cora was beginning to wonder why she was bringing Max in every few days. She didn’t want the other woman to start asking questions. Right now, she’d done everything she needed to do to make sure that Max was hale and healthy. After all, tomorrow would be his first day of school.

“How do you feel, Max? Are you excited about tomorrow?” Lilly asked as she opened the lavatory door and let him out of the room. Max looked up at Lilly and smiled brightly before nodding his head yes. “I get to be with ZeeZee,” and his smile brightened even more.

Lilly smiled to herself. It figured that being able to be with Liz during the day would be Max’s number one reason for being excited about going to school. “That’s right. Tomorrow you get to go to school with ZeeZee. I’m sure the two of you are going to have a really good time.

“Yea!” Max said, but his smile began to fritter away. Lilly frowned at Max when she saw this. “What’s the matter, Max?”

He bit his lip for a second and looked down as if he were contemplating whether or not to tell Lilly what he was thinking.

“Go ahead, Max. You can tell me,” she assured him.

Max looked back up at her. “Will miss Dover,” he said, sounding as if he were guilty of having done something wrong.

Lilly frowned. For the past three weeks since the accident with Jimmy, Dover’s team had been on mandatory sabbatical. While she was at the lab and Liz was at school, Max had spent almost all of his time with Dover. Lilly wasn’t sure what it was the two of them did all day, but she found that Max had taken up mimicking Dover in mannerism, and sometimes, in speech.

“I’m sure Dover is going to miss you too, Max.” Max looked at her as if he didn’t quite believe what she was telling him, but continued to followed her into the living room.

Dover was reclined on the living room couch with his eyes closed as they entered the room. Max sprinted away from Lilly and climbed up beside him. At the same time, Liz stepped from out of her room and declared herself dressed and ready to go. Max, Liz Dover, and Lilly said their goodbyes, before Lilly headed off to take Liz to school for the last time without Max.

Dover was sprawled out on the couch with his arm thrust out over his eyes when he felt Max shift positions beside him. Dover could feel Max moving around for a moment, most likely attempting to emulate his position. He then settled down once more. There was a moment of silence as the two of them laid back on the couch.

“What cha doing?” Max asked, breaking the silence. He leaned over Dover and tilted his head as he asked. Dover smiled underneath his arm at Max’s use of the word ‘cha’. The boy had even begun to pick up improper English.

“I’m resting,” he answered, but did not remove his arm from in front of his face. Max made a small ‘o’ shape with his mouth then frowned in confusion. He reached over to Dover and pulled his arm away from his face.

“But it’s morning,” he said when Dover opened his eyes. Then he pointed to the big picture window behind that couch. “See?”

Dover didn’t really feel like explaining, but he knew Max wouldn’t let it go until he understood completely. “But why are you sleepy? Didn’t you sleep at night?” It was obvious from the expression written on his face, Max was still confused.

Dover sighed and sat up a little. He turned to face Max. “Well, it’s like this, Max. Sometimes, even when people go to sleep at night, they can wake up and still feel sleepy during the day. You see, night and day don’t determine when a person sleeps. People sleep when their bodies need rest. Do you understand?”

“O-oohh,” Max said, stressing the letter. But Dover wasn’t sure if he truly understood, or had just grown bored with the conversation.

Max stood up on the couch and then plopped back down on his butt. “Well, I’m not sleepy,” he said, then stood back up on the couch so he could repeat the action.

“Hey!” Dover reached out and lifted Max up, moving Max’s feet from the couch cushions to his thighs. “No standing on the couch.” Max laughed when Dover used his arms to trip him, and he went tumbling into Dover’s lap. Dover dropped him back on the couch beside him. Max scrambled to his knees but made sure to not ‘stand’ on the couch.

Dover leaned back against the couch. “How can you be so energetic this early in the morning?” he asked the little boy.

Max creased his brow and tilted his head to the side. “En-er-ge-tic?” he sounded out each syllable, then waited for Dover to explain.

“Awake.” Dover smiled and tilted Max’s head back to normal. He rubbed his hand across Max’s head. “How can you be so ‘not sleepy’?”

Max swatted at Dover’s hand before rubbing his own hand through his hair in an attempt to fix it back the way Lilly had put it. She would be mad if he messed it up. After succeeding in making it worse, Max turned his attention back to Dover.

“I slept at night. Now my body is not sleepy, so I can be awake in the morning.” Max looked thoughtful as if he were considering the logic of his own words. After he determined that they made sense, he nodded his head and smiled.

“Alright,” Dover laughed at Max’s explanation. He pushed himself to an upright position. “I suppose since you are so awake, I don’t have a choice but to be awake too, huh?”

Max nodded his head. “Right!”

Dover stretched to work the sleepiness out of his body. “Ok Max, then how about this? I’ve got a few things that I need to do outside today. How do you feel about tagging along with me?”

“YAY!” Max shouted, and fell off the couch in his excitement. Max looked down angrily, as if his falling had been the fault of the floor.

Dover laughed, picked Max up off the floor, and set him on his feet. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Already forgetting his aggravation at the floor, Max nodded his head vigorously.

“Alright.” Dover stood up and placed Max back down on the couch. “Let’s go get dressed.”

Max looked down at himself and frowned. “Dressed?” he asked. He patted the legs of the pants he was wearing. “Pantsed,” he corrected.

Dover laughed. “Ok, let’s go get pantsed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Max and Dover finished with their outside work, Max’s energy had just about run out. The boy was well on his way to dream island.

“Hey, what happened to sleeping at night?” Dover asked the half asleep boy that was draped over his shoulder. He walked over to the couch and gently laid Max down on it.

Max’s eyes were just barely opened, but there was a slight smile on his face as he spoke. “Well, it’s like this, Dover. Sometimes, even when people go to sleep at night, they can wake up and still feel sleepy in the day. You see. Night and day don’t de-ter-mine when a person sleeps. People sleep when their bodies need rest. Do you understand?”

Dover couldn’t help but laugh out loud as Max repeated his earlier words back to him. He couldn’t believe the little guy had remembered the exact words he used to explain his tiredness earlier. He really was one amazing little boy.

“Well Max, I guess I can’t argue with that.” But Dover was talking to no one because Max had already drifted off to sleep.

Dover sighed. He really enjoyed spending these last three weeks with Max. He was definitely going to miss him tomorrow. The little boy had successfully managed to take his mind off of a lot of things, including the guilt he felt over Jimmy.

As much as he mourned Jimmy, Dover knew there was no way he wouldn’t have saved Max. He also came to a few other realizations. He could no longer be a part of an organization that was responsible for the destruction of creatures…no, living beings, like Max. He still had a lot of questions. Some of those questions he was not sure if there were answers to. But the pursuit of those answers would surely draw attention to his family. That was something he would not do. As crazy as it seemed, even in this short time, Dover had begun to see Max as a member of the family he desperately wanted to protect.

Therefore, when the sabbatical was over, Dover Blackwell would hand in his resignation and no longer be a Malign Disposer.

About a half an hour later, Dover received a holo-message from Adder. The message was brief, but Adder was definitely riled up. Although, that wasn’t very unusual for Adder.

“Hey, it’s me. You better get down to HQ quick. Something’s going down.”

Dover looked over at Max, who was still sleeping over on the couch. “HQ…why? What’s going on?”

“Don’t ask stupid questions. Just get down here. That’s an order from Link directly.”

Link directly? This had to be about Jimmy. “I’m on my way,” Dover said, then disconnected with Adder.

It took Dover no more than a few minutes to grab the things he needed and head for the door. He stood there for a moment, looking back over at the couch where he had left Max sleeping. He didn’t like leaving Max alone, but there was no way that he could take the boy with him. If anything, he wanted to keep Max as far away from MD HQ as he possibly could.

Dover took a moment to glance over at the wall clock. It was already late afternoon. Lilly would be home with Liz soon. Max had only been asleep for about twenty-five minutes. He would most likely remain asleep for the remainder of the time it would take for Lilly and ZeeZee to get home.

Dover grabbed the memo pad off of the table and quickly recorded a message for Lilly. He set the pad back down on the table and glanced back over at Max.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, Max,” he whispered so as not to wake the sleeping child. Without another word, Dover left the domicile.

TBC

[RosDude]

Thanks to

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For all the feedback bumps and harassment.

Part 1

Chapter Ten

Plat City, New Mexico: MD Head Quarters

As Dover suspected, HQ was in an uproar when he arrived. There were men scrambling about everywhere. He recognized most of them as being from his faction, but some he did not know. When he spotted Adder and a few of the other members of his group gathered in a circle he quickly headed over to them.

“Hey Adder!” he called out, drawing the other man's attention. Adder looked up from the conversation he had been having with another MD and broke the circle to greet Dover.

“Dover, it’s about time you got here.” Dover noticed for the first time that Adder, as well as the other men, were suited up in the same protective suits that had been issued to the MRs studying the cave site.

“Adder, what’s going on?”

“You’re not going to believe this.” Adder started. “The element, the MRs are now calling it El-x or something like that, apparently it’s starting to melt.”

“Melt?” Dover asked.

“I know. You’re sporting the same look I was when I first heard it from Richards, but yeah. And get this. All of this happened overnight, apparently. Now Lacebark’s nothing but a fucking tub of silver goo. Disintegrated the rock and everything.”

“Disintegrated the rock?” Dover took a moment to let that sink in. “Wait a minute, so Lacebark’s opened now?” He couldn’t believe it. It had been three weeks already and he as well as the other men had started to lose hope that the cave would ever be breached again.

“That’s right,” Adder confirmed, “and,” he added, “We’re going in.”

Dover paused. “Going in?” he asked dumbly.

“Yep,” Adder was smiling like a kid in a candy store. “HQ’s sending us in with a team of MRs to find Jimmy’s body.” Dover didn’t miss the hint of sadness that touched Adder’s voice. After three weeks, there was not a single person that believed Jimmy was still alive.

“We’re going to get him out of there and give him a proper burial, like he deserves.”

A sudden sense of fear gripped Dover. If they were re-entering the cave chances were the MRs would inspect the dissected Malign. What would happen when they discovered there was no Malign? Would someone remember that he was the one that had been sent in to dissect it? What if they found out about Max?

Dover took a long deep breath. Now was not the time for him to lose a grip on his wits. Nothing had even happened yet.

“You should go suit up. We’ll be leaving soon.” Adder informed him.

“What about this El-x? Is it even safe for us to go inside? If it was able to eat through rock what could it do to us?” Though it was a legitimate fear, Dover felt as if he would have said anything in order to stall for more time. He still had a pretty murky view of the situation.

Adder waved the question away. “According to the MRs the stuff doesn’t seem to have any dangerous after affects. It’s just liquefied. Apparently the rock gave because of heat compression or something. Look, if you want the particulars, go talk to an MR. All I know is, Dr. Virgo gave Link the go ahead, so he’s sending us in.”

Dr. Virgo? Dover remembered the man. He was the same doctor that had sent them away from the cave on the first day of the collapse. Virgo had been heading up the research at Lacebark since the accident. Lilly worked with the man, and Dover remembered her telling him that she had been filling in for him with some of his regular patients while he worked at the cave.

He was one of the MRs that specialized in human and malign biological studies. If he was sending a group of MRs with them, did that mean that there was something inside of Lacebark he found worth studying?

“Blackwell.” Dover was drawn from his thoughts. He immediately recognized the voice as Link’s. Dover turned to his commanding officer, giving him his full attention. He tried not the gasp in shock at the sight before him.

Dover hadn’t seen Link in all the weeks since Jimmy’s accident. Saying the man looked like death warmed over, would have been sugar coating it. He had never seen Link look this way.

Link Patterson looked as if he had the weight of the world pressing powerfully upon his shoulders. The man managed to look tired, warn, and wired, all at the same time. It was almost as if he had aged a lifetime in just the span of a few weeks. The way in which he usually carried himself was completely changed. Gone was the confident posture of a man that demanded absolute allegiance from his subordinates. In his place was the tattered shell of a man that was drawing closer and closer to the end of his rope.

“Sir,” Dover said trying not to give any indication that he was aware of the difference in Link.

Link smiled and gave a soft chuckle. “What’s the matter, Blackwell? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Dover wasn’t sure how to respond to that, or if he should respond at all. “Sir…I…it’s just-”

“It’s okay, Blackwell,” Link cut off. “I feel like hell too.” He softened his words with a smile, but it was obvious by the look on the man’s normally unreadable face, that he was telling no joke.

Dover nodded his head in understanding.

Link didn’t respond but instead opted for a change in subject. “So I take it Watson filled you in on the current situation?” He looked to Adder for confirmation and seemed pleased by the nod Adder gave him.

Dover nodded his head as well. “Sir, I’ve been informed of what's been going on and have somewhat of an understanding of our situation but-”

“Good, so why are you still standing there in street clothes? I’m sure Watson expressed to you the essence of time?” Link did not wait for Dover to reply as he headed off in the direction of the gathering members of their group. He walked in such a way that said he expected both Dover and Adder to follow him. Perhaps all of the authoritativeness was not gone from him after all.

The two men wasted no time following Link, but Dover felt the need to voice his concerns. There was much more at stake for him than anyone else. “Sir, as I said before, I have a grasp on the current situation but are you sure that it is safe for us to enter the cave? Do we have a full understanding of what’s going-”

For the third time since his arrival, Dover was cut off by Link, but not by words. Link turned to him with a sharpness that Dover was unaccustomed to seeing in the other man.

“Are you questioning the orders I’ve issued you, Blackwell?” Link’s voice was stone cold as he spoke. Never had anyone heard Link address one of his men in such a tone. Even nearby officers were stopped cold by the sound.

Dover shook his head no in answer to Link’s question. But it was still important that he stand his ground. “No sir, I do not question your orders. I only question the safety of the cave at this point,” he amended.

“Do you think I would risk the safety of yet another man after Jimmy, by sending him into a danger zone without thoroughly and meticulously going over the potential danger of that area?” Link’s voice began to rise as he spoke. “And knowing the level of danger, do you, Dover Blackwell, believe I would send a man, no, a faction of men, into that area without being one-hundred percent sure that there was no danger to them?”

Dover felt the embarrassing need to look away. He felt slightly ashamed for thinking for a moment that Link would ever put any of their lives in danger. But at the moment, Max’s safety was above mortification on his priority list. “No sir, I don’t believe that you would.”

“Then shut up, suit up and head for the damn cave.” And on that less than friendly note, Link Patterson walked away.

Dover sighed to himself. Things were not looking good. After three weeks, they were finally reentering Lacebark. Who knew what they would find after the freak explosion. But what worried Dover the most was what they wouldn’t find.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sealant New Mexico: Blackwell Domicile

Max opened his eyes very slowly. He was no longer sleepy after his long afternoon nap. He just liked the way it looked when the room went from darkness behind his eyes to lightness in front of his eyes. Feeling refreshed, and ready to get on with the rest of the day, Max sat up and rubbed his eyes to wipe the sleep away. He yawned, opening his mouth as wide as he could and stretched his arms out as far as they would go. ZeeZee told him that this was the best way to get sleep out of your body.

He swung his legs around and hopped off the couch to a standing position. Now that his body was completely removed of sleep he could tell Dover and Lilly that they didn’t have to make him go to bed tonight. They might even let him stay up all night!

Max looked around the room for Dover but found that it was strangely empty.

He blinked once.

No Dover

Twice.

No Dover.

He closed his eyes then opened them.

No Dover.

He closed both of his eyes again then slowly opened them one at a time.

No Dover.

He put his hand in front of his face, closed his eyes, then removed his hands and opened his eyes

No Dover.

He closed his eyes and turned to face the couch he had been sleeping on, opened his eyes, then turned back around.

Still, No Dover.

Max frowned. Where was Dover?

“Where’s Dover?” he asked the air, as if the room would answer his question. When that didn’t happen, Max’s frown deepened. When he went to sleep, Dover had been there, so why wasn’t he here now?

“Ohhhhh,” Max whispered to no one. An idea struck him. Maybe Dover had gotten sleepy again and gone to his room to take a nap. That was it!

“Dover!” he ran through the domicile shouting the name, but when he reached Dover’s room, he was surprised to find there was no one there. Max folded his arms across his chest and placed his hand on his chin, an action he had seen Dover do many times when he was thinking. Max needed to think now, if he was going to find Dover.

He stood there for a moment just rubbing his chin as Dover would have done, but unfortunately, no thought came to him. Maybe he wasn’t doing it right. Oh well, he would have to ask Dover how to do it later, that is when he found Dover.

Found Dover!

Another idea suddenly came to Max. Was Dover playing hide-n-seek with him like ZeeZee liked to do? If ZeeZee liked to play it, maybe Dover did too. But before that thought settled in, another one formed. No, Dover couldn’t be playing with him. Dover was a grown-up and grown-ups didn’t like to play kid games like hide-n-seek.

“DOVER!!” Max shouted out to the empty domicile. He was starting to get a little scared. What if Dover and ZeeZee and Lilly had all left? What if they were gone forever and they weren’t going to come back? What if-

Suddenly Max heard a strange noise. He all but forgot his erratic thoughts as he wondered what the noise was. Was it Dover coming back from being gone? Max ran over to the door to see, but when he tried to open it, nothing happened.

Max grimaced at the door. Why wouldn’t it open? He tried to think. That’s right, whenever Dover and Lilly wanted to open the door they would press the little button that was on the side of it. Max looked at the buttons. There were two. One was green and the other was red. He wondered which button was the one that opened the door. Max had never really paid attention. Whenever he left the domicile, he was either with Lilly or Dover. They were always the ones that opened the door.

Max sighed and wished ZeeZee was there with him. She always knew a lot of stuff. He bet that she would know which button to press.

“Which one?” he asked the air a second question. But just like before, the room refused to answer.

Max took another few minutes to stand in Dover’s thinking pose but gave up when nothing came to him. He then turned around and stared at the two buttons. One would open the door. One would close it. One would open. One would close. Open. Close. But which one?

He took another second to think. Well, since the door was already closed, the worst thing that would happen if he pressed the wrong button was nothing. And if nothing happened, then he would know that he pressed the wrong button. Then he could press the other button! So it didn’t really matter what button he pressed!

Max smiled then pressed one of the buttons. He waited for a second for the door to open. When it didn’t he pressed the other button.

The door began to slide open.

Max smiled at himself for being so smart and watched as the door stood wide open. He would have to remember from now on, that the green button opened the door. Just for good measure, Max pressed the red button. The door immediately began to close.

He laughed, Green for open. Red for close. He would never forget that.

Max pressed the green button and stepped outside. He stood there for a moment looking around. He had almost forgotten what it was he had ventured out here for, until he heard the strange sound that he had heard in the house.

There was a strange litter sitting not too far in front of the domicile. It was kind of like the one that Lilly took him to the doctor place in. The strange noise was coming from it. Maybe Dover was inside, Max thought. Not wasting any time, he headed in the direction of the litter.

The litter was a strange shaped vehicle. Unlike the windows inside of the house the windows on it were not tinted any color. Also there was a strange women standing in front of the litter. A rush of excitement ran through Max. Maybe this lady knew where Dover was.

As Max drew closer to the woman, one thing became extremely clear. She was a very tall lady. VERY tall. More tall than Dover and Lilly. He ran up beside her and tugged on the hem of the dress she was wearing.

Joy Pallor-Smith didn’t like children. Especially little grubby uncouth children that ran up groping strangers. “Pardon me little one, but do you mind!” she shrieked and snatched her dress from the hands of the child that had just come up to her.

The boy looked up at her as if he didn’t quite understand what he had done wrong. Mrs. Pallor-Smith harrumphed. Children, what insolent little creatures.

Max continued to stare at the woman, wondering why she was so mad. It didn’t matter. He needed to find out if she knew what happened to Dover.

When the small child just continued to stare at her, Mrs. Pallor-Smith shifted uncomfortably. “Well, what do you want, you little urchin.”

Max didn’t know what an urchin was, but the strange lady didn’t seem like she would be nice enough to explain like Dover and Lilly would. “Have you seen Dover?” he asked.

Mrs. Pallor-Smith made a face. “Dover, who on earth is Dover?” she looked up across the street at the domicile where the boy had come from. “Oh, you must be referring to Mr. Blackwell.”

Max frowned. “Miss-ter-Blac-Well?” he sounded.

Joy looked down her nose at the boy. “What an unusual child you are.”

Max frowned. He didn’t like that the new woman kept on saying words that he didn’t know. Whenever Dover or Lilly or ZeeZee said a word he didn’t know, they would always explain what the word meant. Somehow he had to get her to understand that he needed to know where Dover was. But before he could make another attempt to ask his question, Max heard the strange noise again.

He looked from the lady to the litter. Ohh, so the litter was making the strange noise he had heard. “What’s that?” he asked the lady.

Joy looked over at her litter, as it seemed to have engaged the child’s attention.

“That it my litter and I’ll thank you very much to stay away from it.” She answered, snatching the boy’s hand as he made to touch her vehicle. It was bad enough that her litter had broken down on the side of the road so far away from her home. The last thing she needed was some curious little boy fiddling with it.

The boy looked up at Joy as if her words had caused great confusion.

“But Lilly’s litter doesn’t make that noise. Why does your litter make that noise?”

Joy almost had the unladylike desire to groan. However, she would never do such a thing. This little boy was becoming a bit of a nuisance with all his questions and his odd behavior.

“Listen small child, why don’t you run along back to wherever it is that you belong. Go on, shoo!”

“Shoo!” Max said mimicking the funny noise the lady made. He laughed at the sound of it.

Joy Pallor-Smith gasped. Was this little boy mocking her? The nerve! “Now see here, I’ve had enough of you.” She reached down and took Max’s hand in hers, then began to guide him back across the street. Once in front of the domicile, she began banging on the door furiously.

Max just watched her for a second, wondering what she was doing. He watched her knock a few more times before he decided to join in as well. Using his free hand, Max began to bang on the door.

This time Joy did groan when the little boy started to knock on the door. It was so like those Blackwells to leave an annoying little child outside to pester innocent folks. After a few more minutes of knocking Joy determined that she was not going to receive an answer. The Blackwells must have been out. That was just wonderful, now what was she to do with this little one?

Max however, continued to knock on the door.

“Stop that!” Joy said snatching his hand away.

Max narrowed his eyes at the hand that gripped his. The new lady was mean.

“Oh, don’t make that face at me, you little monkey. Where are your parents?”

“Parents?” Max tilted his head to the side. He remembered that word. ZeeZee had told him that parents were Mommy and Daddy. She’d also told him that her Mommy and Daddy had gone away.

“Mommy and Daddy are gone away,” he answered simply.

Joy frowned. What type of parents were the Blackwells to just leave this little boy by himself without a chaperone? He may as well have been a little monkey traipsing about outdoors with absolutely no sense of common curtsey towards other people.

“What are you doing out here by yourself?”

Max thought this lady was really weird. He’d already told her that he was looking for Dover. “I’m looking for Dover," he said again. He said it slowly the way Dover always did when he was trying to get Max to understand something.

“Oh.” Joy sighed. She supposed she could not just leave the boy out in the wilderness to fend for himself. What kind of citizen would that make her? And if nothing else, Joy Pallor-Smith prided herself on being an upstanding citizen.

She glanced down at the gold timepiece she wore tied to her wrist. It was already a little past four. Her husband, Donald Pallor-Smith was sure to be there any moment to pick her up from her bad predicament. She supposed she would have to take the child with her.

“Very well then.” She said more to herself than to the little boy. “What is your name, little one?”

Max stopped frowning at his hand and looked up to face the tall woman. “Max,” he answered happily. He really liked his name. “My name is Max. ZeeZee gave it to me.”

“Gave what to you?” Joy asked, choosing to ignore the fact that she was engaged in a conversation with a child that looked to be no more than five or six years old.

“My name.” Max answered.

“Oh…well it’s a very nice name.” She said humoring him. “Well then, Max. Since your guardians are not here, I have no choice but to take you with me. I suppose I shall leave a note for them to come and pick you up whenever they return. But so long as you are with me, you must be on your very best behavior. Do you understand?”

Max tilted his head to the side. “Guard-de-ons?” he whispered to himself quietly. He would have to ask Dover what that word meant when he found him. He then looked back to the woman and smiled. “What’s your name?” he asked, seeming to have either ignored or not heard the rest of her words.

Joy sighed, but she couldn’t quite stop the corners of her lips from tugging into a small smile. He was a bit of a cute thing, when he wasn’t being particularly annoying. And he did have a somewhat charming smile, for one so young.

“You can call me Mrs. Pallor-Smith.” She answered.

“Miss-es. Pal or Smith?” He said pronouncing them as three separate words. He thought the names over for a moment, then smiled when he came to his decision. “Pal,” he said. “I like Pal.”

Joy shook her head. “No, no, no, it’s not a choice of names. My full name is Mrs. Pallor-Smith. Say it with me. ‘Pall-or-Smith’”

“Pall-or-Smith,” Max repeated the woman. Still, he tilted his head to the side, not understanding why the woman had two names.

Joy could see that the boy was still confused by the naming situation, but she didn’t want to waist any more time on explaining it to him. “Oh, very well then, just call me Mrs. Pal.”

Max beamed “Miss-es Pal!”

What an unusual little child, Joy thought for the second time.

TBC