Roswell

SEPTEMBER 26, 1963

 

When it rains in the mountains, waiting for the storm to pass can take hours. With the altitude of the bluffs, the temperature can drop twenty-some degrees in only an hour. And although Ruby had driven home in worse weather, that night, she felt more on edge than ever before. Since her brush with the three-eyed man of the mountain, she hadn’t gone near the park. But a friend needed a ride out to Fontana and she was too indebted to them to say no. It was just to some bonfire in the woods. Normally, Ruby would have attended, but she wouldn’t dare risk hiking now. She was ten parts interested in knowing more about the strange man she’d met weeks earlier, but ten thousand parts more terrified of what would happen if their paths crossed again. The pounding rain on her windshield and the clatter of thunder only added to her stress.

She sat in her driver’s seat, white-knuckling the steering wheel and singing softly to herself as she sped through the curves of the road. For a minute, she even felt a little safe, the necklaces on her rearview mirror jingling along with the bumps in the road and her heat blasting to keep her warm. But in the midst of this last moment of peace, her tire blew out, and her car skidded on the slick pavement and hydroplaned into a ditch. Her face smashed into the steering wheel and her whole body was suspended as the car’s momentum sent her up off her seat. It happened in slow motion yet all at once.

 

BEFORE SHE WOKE, a monster pulled her from her van.

The vehicle had wedged itself on the border of the woods and the road. Anyone looking in would be concealed and hidden away from the world. So Diana wasn’t afraid to approach it. She had half a mind to get Da Vinci and hijack it, but upon seeing who was inside the van, any plans of escape vanished and were replaced by an irrefutable rage.

“We should kill her.” Tim examined the girl’s bruised body. “We have to kill her.” He opened the door of the van and she came slumping out. He caught her before she fell. Steadily, he placed his hands around her neck. He looked to Diana, as though waiting for confirmation, but she’d give him none of it.

“It’s got to be Da Vinci.” Diana stared at the girl with no empathy in her heart. “We give him an inch and he takes a mile. Now, he’s lied to us and put the whole group at risk. We need to know that we can trust him.” There was a chill in the air that did not come from the rain but the frigidity in her voice.

“It’s Da Vinci, Diana.” Tim went to break Ruby’s neck anyway, only to be stopped in the split instant before it was too late.

“What the hell are you doing?” Diana had a cruel tone to her voice. She had her hands between Tim’s and the girl’s neck. “You heard me. Da Vinci is the one to do it.”

“He won’t.” Tim scowled as he resisted Diana’s controlling grip.

“Then we abandon him and Rigan to fend for themselves.”

Tim let go of Ruby and left Diana to catch the girl before she hit the ground. “You know what I hate most about you?” He paused, but not long enough for her to answer. “You’re petty.” He turned his back to her and began his ascent into the mountains. “You think now is the time for your game of power and politics, Diana?” Tim kept his back to her, speaking from a distance. “I’ll clue you in; no one here has power.”

 

THERE WASN’T SLEEP anymore. Only a dreamlike state existed for Da Vinci. Blurs of men in power, explosions on the water, small-town mothers, and the smell of meat grinding intertwined with the faces of those he knew, wars he’d been in, and other jumbled pieces of subconscious, all trying to make sense of his partial lucidity. Being snapped out of it was sometimes a blessing. So, when Diana woke him, he welcomed it.

“Da Vinci?” Her voice was a lover’s coo. She was seated on damp grass, barely visible in the dark. “I need you to wake up for me.”

Protected under a makeshift shelter of sticks and tarp, Da Vinci had only a sliver of warmth. He felt for Diana’s hand as he came out of his trance. “Hey.” He gave her a tired smile, whispering over the muffled sounds of crickets and rain. “What’s going on?” He looked at her face, still beautiful and her hair, still a soft yellow. Her presence had a warmth to it, regardless of her cracked skin. For a moment, it was paradise.

“Are you okay?” Da Vinci grabbed for his still-drying shirt. Once he caught sight of the trouble in those big eyes of hers, he hurried to get ready. “What’s going on?”

She grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet. “There’s something you need to see.” She let her hand linger in his for another few moments before turning away. “Come now.” She ducked out of the shelter and entered the clearing, Da Vinci not far behind her.

“Diana, wait,” he grunted, zipping his damp slacks and shuffling out after her. It was only upon entering the clearing that his stomach turned and the bile in his gut wrenched up and burned his throat. Lying in the clearing was Ruby Starr, badly bruised and unconscious.

He stepped over to the girl, not looking Diana or Tim in the eye. He crouched down to examine her. On her cheek, was an imprint of her steering wheel’s logo. “Wait.” His gaze turned upward to Diana. “You didn’t do this. It was a car wreck?”

“No, but we would have.” Diana stepped Ruby and stood beside Tim. Both of them had a cold aloofness in their stance.

“When I saw this the first time… In the first vision I had, it was you two who hurt her.” Da Vinci looked at Ruby’s forehead, the wounds seemed superficial. “But this time, it wasn’t,” he said simply. “I would have rather she never come back, but at least this time, we did things differently.”

“This time, we’ll do things right.” Diana kept a hard, flat expression on her face. “She dies. You lied to us. You breached trust. Make it right.”

The reality of the situation settled in. Da Vinci’s mind began to reel and the weight on his shoulders felt heavy enough to sink him. He turned to Tim who offered him no assistance.

“There is no other way, Da Vinci. She has to die. She knows too much and could lead the KGB right to us.” Tim was always honest with him.

“We got lucky the first time,” she explained. “We had the upper hand because they underestimated us. If we run into them again, it won’t be the same level of child’s play. We’ll have no element of surprise. Next time we see them, they’ll have come up with something to counter us. She’s too much of a liability.”

Da Vinci brushed off the knees of his pants and threw his shoulders back as he stood. “We’re not going to kill her. This conversation will go on and on, but we’re not going to kill her.” He crossed his arms. “I know this. So, let’s just skip to the part where we decide it’s in our best interest not to kill the kid.” He let out a long deep breath that sounded more like a groan of pain than an exhale of relief. “This argument is going to be a waste of our time, because I know that in a few weeks, she’ll still be here.”

Diana gave orders, and when they weren’t followed, someone always paid. Under her cold surface, a rage was boiling, and Da Vinci knew it. The two men were her audience, hinged on her response.

“You’ve already proven that the future can be changed. This is no different. We’ve got to kill her, and if you want us to stick together, it’s got to be you who does it.” Not a muscle in Diana’s face flinched as Da Vinci started his rebuttal.

“She hasn’t told anyone, and she won’t tell anyone. She didn’t even see you two that first night in the woods. If I’m right, this girl will become vital to our survival. We can’t kill her now, or we doom ourselves later on.” Da Vinci was more irritated at this whole ordeal than anything else. He knew she lived. He’d seen it. This was a waste of time.

“We’ve spent enough energy on this already,” Tim huffed. “This needs to end.”

“Tim agrees, Da Vinci. This needs to end.” Diana took a few steps back from the girl, giving Da Vinci more space. “Kill her before she wakes up, or you’ll have to do it while she’s conscious.”

Sweat built up on Da Vinci’s brow. His heart beat in his ears. How did this play out? How did they get from here to letting her live? He guessed the only way, was if he made it happen. “We don’t kill her.”

“We don’t,” Diana confirmed. “You do.”

A twinge of resentment hit Da Vinci. He stared at Diana with the same amount of coldness she presented to him. “I don’t kill kids.”

“But you kill mothers, you kill fathers, soldiers, civilians, collateral damage. You may not kill kids, but you sure commanded the orders that did. The landing at Normandy, the bombings in Dresden, it’s no different.”

Her words cut him deep enough to harm him, but he kept his head held high and his voice strong. “That was war. It isn’t the same.” Da Vinci stepped up closer to the two of them, his face now only inches from Diana’s. “And you know that.”

“It is the same, Da Vinci,” she answered. “It’s us or them, and you’ll choose us like you always do.”

“You need to shut the hell up.” A hoarse voice came from behind Da Vinci, an indisputable accent strung onto the words. Da Vinci turned just in time for Rigan to grab onto his shoulder. Rigan was weak, but he’d always been resilient.

Diana saved face. “I apologize if my words have offended either of you, but this is no time to show mercy or compassion. This girl puts us all at risk.” Diana turned to Tim for support, and although it was rare they agreed on something, he supported her in this endeavor.

“The sooner we kill her, the sooner we can get moving,” Tim added.

“Your answer is always homicide. I’m sure she’s…” Rigan’s voice grew faint as his gaze followed Tim’s to the girl on the ground. “Fuck.” For a minute, Rigan stood there with his mouth hanging open and his jagged car-wreck teeth exposed. “Fuck!”

This made Da Vinci’s heart break. He and Rigan had always shared the same hesitance toward death. The boy was realizing this entire situation was his fault.

“What?!” Tim put his hands out in confusion. “Why are you yelling?”

“She’s my local.” Rigan’s words were labored. His breathing slowing to long, heavy heaves.

“You led her here?” Diana asked.

Rigan bowed his head, and Da Vinci was quick to offer any condolences he could muster up.

“It’s okay, Rigan.” Da Vinci spoke in Portuguese, excluding Diana and Tim from the conversation.

“Okay?” Rigan turned to Da Vinci, speaking in his native tongue. “It’s not okay. They’re going to kill her. I did this.” Rigan coughed. Just the walk from the shelter had taken the wind out of him, the anxiety induced by seeing Ruby seemed to be overwhelming his still-healing body.

“They’re not going to kill her.” Da Vinci could feel Tim and Diana glaring, but he continued on in Portuguese, choosing to console Rigan instead.

“Enough, you two.” There was an edge of contempt in Tim’s voice, coming from years of listening to Rigan and Da Vinci talk exclusively to each other. “We need to get this over with.”

Ruby woke up to a scene. Tim reaching for her neck and three shrill voices screaming for him to stop.

“Knock it off!”

“What the fuck, Tim?!”

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Da Vinci pushed on Tim’s shoulders but made about as much progress as one might make attempting to move a giant. Diana on the other hand, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and succeeded in yanking him away from Ruby. Tim looked ready to jump her but stopped on account of Da Vinci throwing himself between the two of them.

“Stop it,” Da Vinci growled. “The both of you!” The tension in the air was high, and everyone had a temper that was bubbling over. His inflection teeter-tottered between screaming and sobbing. “We can’t kill her.”

“Ruby? Are you all right?” Rigan was over her, ready to fight off anyone who sprung at her, but as she came to, she began to scream.

Startled and likely physically strained, Rigan fainted. Da Vinci was quick and lucky enough to catch him. He laid the boy on the ground gently. “Rigan, Rigan, come on…” Da Vinci kneeled down, checking Rigan’s now fully scaled neck for a pulse. He was alive but out for now. It seemed each time he came to, he could stay for less and less time. Da Vinci checked Rigan’s bandages.

“What is that?” Ruby’s voice was high and her breathing was off. She stumbled to her feet and audibly gasped as she found herself face to face with Da Vinci once again. “No.” Her voice was low and her tone was riddled with dread. “No,” she repeated. “I didn’t come back. I didn’t break the rules.” She nearly collapsed again in agony.

“The rules?” Diana parroted. “What’s she talking about, Da Vinci?”

“I told her not to come back on the first night we met her.” Da Vinci shook his head and turned his attention to Ruby. “Do you feel all right? You were in a crash.”

“You told me things would be fine if I didn’t come back,” she croaked as her eyes started to well. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

Diana and Tim both watched Da Vinci carefully now. He couldn’t read past their expressions, but he was certain they were rightly pissed.

“You knew this was going to happen?” Diana didn’t hold back on the accusing aspect of the situation.

“Not exactly,” Da Vinci defended himself.

“But you knew she’d find us again? You knew she’d create complications.” Tim crossed his arms over his chest, perhaps showing the most emotion Tim was capable of.

“I thought I had stopped her.” Da Vinci could feel himself losing footing in this argument. “I thought things had changed.”

Diana looked at him with an icy expression. “This isn’t the future you said you changed, is it? The one where Tim and I die?”

“No!” Da Vinci immediately blurted. “I changed that. Rigan is here. That’s a change!”

“What a positive change on Rigan’s behalf,” Tim muttered dryly.

“I am trying, Tim,” Da Vinci barked.

Ruby was already gathering the belongings they’d taken from her, including a backpack and blanket. They were quick to notice.

“You’re not going anywhere, sweetheart.” Diana’s words were not a challenge but an order.

Ruby swallowed hard and stepped closer to the group now. She was afraid but brave. “Is it okay?” She pointed down to Rigan.

“It?” Da Vinci replied with an unintentionally sharp tone. “It is Marco.”

“What?” She joined Da Vinci on the ground. Her eyes widened as she took in all of Rigan’s abnormalities. “Maybe what he was telling me was true,” she whispered as a note to self, but with trained ears, they all heard.

“Did he tell you about us?” Da Vinci attempted to maintain a bit of tact in his digging, but his attention was divided as he attempted to find the cause of Rigan’s distress, re-checking the makeshift bandages for bleeding.

“No.” Ruby shook her head and pulled her legs in toward her chest. “Just, just alien stuff—what’s really in Area 51 and…and like…I don’t know. People tease me about stuff like that a lot, so I thought he was pulling my leg, but I mean, maybe it was true. This is some creature-from-the-black-lagoon-level shit.”

“Operation Mogul?” Diana raised an eyebrow and now stepped closer, her body looming over the three of them.

“He’s a tale spinner.” Da Vinci addressed his partners this time. “It’s just something he does.” He paused, weighing the anxiety that was tearing him apart with the need to keep going. “Grab the aspirin from your backpack, Ruby.”

“How did you…” Ruby grabbed her bag and then dug out a bottle of small white pills. She poured two out for herself and gave the rest to Da Vinci. “Here. You need them more than me.” She popped the two into her mouth and swallowed them dry. She meekly looked up at Diana and Tim, clearly trying her best to ignore their physical deformities. “You know, there’s some apples and a sandwich in there. If you guys want them.” Her voice had the strength of a mouse’s squeak by the time she offered the bag to them.

Diana considered it thoughtfully before taking the bag and handing it off to Tim. “Thank you.”

Tim went right to work looking through the backpack. There were no secret compartments, no weapons, just a change of clothes, some food, and a copy of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

“I’m keeping this,” he said, pulling the book from her bag.

It was clear Ruby had intended to laugh. She had a smile on her face and started to chuckle moments before she burst into tears. “Are you going to let me live?”

“We have to kill you,” Tim replied casually, his hand still in her bag. Diana and

Da Vinci snapped their gazes toward him. Both upset, likely for different reasons.

“We are not going to kill you. Don’t worry. I know you live. Trust me, I see the future.” Da Vinci put his arm out and onto her shoulder, reassuring her that things would be all right. He then turned and smiled at Diana, his demeanor calm. “Might I request a moment alone with you two?”

Diana offered her hand to him and helped him off the ground. “If you must.” She gestured for Tim to follow them as they pulled aside, then left Ruby with only an unconscious Rigan as company.

“Can you still see her?” Tim asked Diana as they descended farther into the woods.

“Yes,” she replied calmly. “And if she runs, I can catch her, no problem.” Tim and Diana then turned to Da Vinci expectantly.

The back of his neck prickled and sweat inched down his back. They were waiting for him to speak prophecy. Her life was in his hands. “I know this looks bad, but you two have to let her live. I can’t go on with her blood on my hands. Not when she didn’t do anything wrong, and not when killing her could indirectly kill us.”

“Then you should have bloodied your hands the first time around,” Tim countered.

Diana placed her hand in Da Vinci’s. “There’s no way around this, Da Vinci. If she’s a spy for the KGB, she’ll kill us. If she’s just a local, she’ll still kill us. They’ll find her. She’ll talk. Especially now that there is more than likely a documented car crash with her name on it.”

“She’s no KGB agent and you know that.” Da Vinci pulled his hand away and began to pace. “I wish you two would stop playing scared, because I know that you’re not.” He started calculating all the possible ways he could get out of this conversation unscathed.

“We’re not playing this game scared, Da Vinci. We’re playing it smart,” Diana refuted. She and Tim, despite their differences, were both tactile like this. It was clear neither of them planned on backing down.

Da Vinci could feel his face heating up. His stomach churned as the truth came to the surface. “This girl is the only reason Rigan and I live. You two may not feel the cold and need to eat, but we do.” He felt the shame flood over him. “She is the only reason we survive as long as we do.” This time, he spoke to Diana. “And she is the only way to get ahold of Adams.”

That name always grabbed Diana’s attention. “She is?”

“How do we know you’re not just saying this to save her?” Tim asked.

“You don’t.” Da Vinci was starting to cry. He didn’t want to, but look at the goddamn circumstances. He felt hopeless. “I don’t.” He broke down, the reality of his visions and the reality of the future setting in. “I don’t know what’s real and what’s not.” He folded in on himself. Both Diana and Tim reached out to grab him. He braced himself on the two of them, his sobs heavy. “I’m trying to save us. I’m trying so hard to save us all.” His knees gave way, but as he sank, so did his partners. They followed him to the ground, sitting on the soil.

“Is she what you changed? Was she going to be the reason Tim and I died?” Diana held his hand again, her compassion a glimmer of hope in his bleak life.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” he squawked, his throat hoarse and the tears not stopping. “She isn’t KGB. She doesn’t lead them to us, but in the future, when you know if you save her, you’ll die. You two still always choose to save her over yourselves.”

Diana and Tim both exchanged dubious glances. Tim even laughed.

“That’s not particularly characteristic of Tim and me, Da Vinci. I fear you may be worrying over nothing.” Diana rested her hand on his back, rubbing it gently.

“But you do it,” he murmured, pulling away from his partners and sitting up on his own. “You both do it. Even though I tell you not to… But how do I even know that’s the future now?” The question was aimed more to the universe than to them. He’d been so frustrated over these last weeks. He didn’t understand what anything meant anymore. “Rigan wasn’t there in that final fight with them, so that’s changed, but neither was Adams. It was just us, and all I have is bits and pieces, and no matter how many times I put it together, it doesn’t fit. I keep taking guesses and trying to make logical leaps and bounds, but it never makes sense.” He rubbed his forehead, irritating his third eye.

Diana turned to Tim, and an unspoken agreement was made. “She’ll stay until we no longer need her.” Diana took Da Vinci’s hands. “Okay?” Diana met his gaze. Her eyes were a cool, steady gray color, and in them, Da Vinci always felt as though he’d find salvation.

“But that means you could die… But it also means she won’t.” Da Vinci tipped his head back and looked at the stars.

“What you saw holds no promise, Da Vinci. You have changed the future before, right?” Diana suggested.

“Minimally,” he whispered.

“Then she stays for now,” Diana said.

Da Vinci could feel his fears crowding around him, but he chose to press on. “Okay.” He cleaned away the tears and dirt from his scabbed-up face. Diana and Tim helped him to his feet.

The three entered the clearing, surprised to find Ruby still there, sitting quietly next to Rigan. She turned and saw them, grabbed her bag, clearly intending to make a run for it but stopped short when Diana laughed.

“There’s no reason to run. You will not die tonight.” She stepped closer to Ruby, eventually taking her soft face in her cool, cracking hands. “I promise you your safety in exchange for goods and services if you will so have it.”

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

“Food, medicine, and a change of clothes. That’s all we want.” This move was uncharacteristically soft for Diana, but maybe even she couldn’t deny the facts. They were starving, some of them were sick, and they were trapped. They could use her help. So, although Ruby was not set solely free as Da Vinci would have rather seen it, and although she was not dead as Diana would have rather seen it, she was going to live.

Diana went over the logistics of drop-off points and meeting times, and by the time she was done, Ruby only really had one question. “What’s stopping me from running away?” Ruby asked innocently. “Not that I would. I’m just curious.”

“Nothing,” Tim said grimly.

Pulling himself away from Tim, Da Vinci joined Diana. “I’ll walk her back to her van. Just to make sure she’s safe.” He pulled from the pocket of his slacks a long, red scrap of fabric which he’d fashioned into a kind of wrap for his forehead, to cover his third eye. “Let’s get going, before they tow your van.”

Ruby widened her eyes like a crazy persons. “Oh, my god. My van. Did it survive the crash?”

Da Vinci laughed, relieved that, given all she had faced that night, the state of her glorified passion wagon was at the top of her concern list.

“The front is a little banged up, but you’ll be fine,” Diana said.

“Great…Well…thank you,” Ruby said before joining Da Vinci on a walk through the great forest. As they followed the trail, Ruby seemed deep in thought, contemplating, curiosity eating her up. Eventually, she asked, “What happened to you four? What made you all…sentient?”

“Sentient…that’s a nice way to sell it.” Wanting to protect her, Da Vinci lied, “Aliens.”

“Wrong. Try again,” she sassed. “They’d never.”

“Yetis.” He thought she bought it for a second, but as they traveled farther, she tried again.

“I just had to plead for my life. I feel honesty is a good thing right about now.”

“Communists.” There wasn’t a hint of play in his voice.

“Like McCarthyist?”

“Like the KGB.”

“What are you then?” Her tone softened.

“Intelligence agents.” Da Vinci dipped and followed her down the path, her van now in sight from the slightly higher bluff.

“What?” Ruby had to stop for a minute to take it in. “Like spies?”

“That’s another word for it.” He had little enthusiasm. “We worked for the CIA, and sometimes we were lucky, and sometimes we weren’t. This time, we were really unlucky.”

“So you are more man than mystic.” There was a deep sadness in her tone. She leaned back on a rock formation along the path. “I am so sorry. I… How did Marco get wrapped up in this? He was fine just a week or two ago.”

“He got dragged into this by mistake.” Da Vinci’s gaze wandered off to the skyline of mountaintops they faced, watching lightning bugs glide through the sky. “His real name is Rigan, by the way.”

“Rigan,” she repeated. “Is that Brazilian?”

Da Vinci nodded. “That it is.”

“He’ll be okay,” Ruby promised. “I’ll bring all the medical supplies I can carry when we meet again.”

“About that—” Da Vinci exhaled steadily. “Don’t. It may be for the best if you don’t come back, Ruby. Do you remember what I told you the first night we met?”

“Yeah,” Ruby replied. “I think about it every night when I go to bed, every time I feel there are eyes on me when there aren’t, every time I look to the sky, I’m worried I’m going to kill someone.”

“I don’t think what I said has changed at all. Yeah, they didn’t find you on a trail, and yeah, they didn’t beat you half to death, but…time corrected itself. You were still found and you were still hurt.” He started moving again, leaving the view behind in favor of the trail. They were getting closer. “I can’t say for sure, but I fear that if you come back, Diana and Tim will die.” He hesitated. “I also fear that if you don’t, Rigan will die. I don’t know what happens to you.” Da Vinci could feel himself getting choked up again, but he swallowed his tears, forcing himself to speak coherently. “It’s just something to consider. I don’t know what of the future I’ve changed, but I know that you are entering a dangerous world by taking part in this, and I can’t guarantee your safety and I can’t guarantee the safety of the others. It may be best if you just go back home and stay there.”

Whatever swarm of emotions hit her, rendered her silent. Instead she just stared, expecting answers from him like the rest of them.

Da Vinci could see her struggle. “I offer only my advice and what I’ve seen. Sadly, what I’ve seen isn’t clear.”