Roswell II

That sound.

God that sound.

It’s rippling through the valley once more. I can see the dust and dirt I shuffled through vibrate as the percussion hit me. Over and over again. Something was out there. Blowing a noisy shaky primal tone that made the very rocks jump. They were dancing, buzzing. 

I could taste the copper in the air. The smoky wisps coming from my palate. It was electricity. All around me. The noise I heard was always there in the molecules of the world, ready to burst at all times but the frequency was what unleashed it. 

It let it dance free. For a moment. Showing it’s true face.

Chewy followed me yawning as we pushed forward. As he did so, his maw was something of a nightmare but he transformed once more as a spirit guide when he re-masked himself. I had grabbed a large light from my trunk. It worked great. I shined it on the moving shrubbery and bushes and watched the shadow animals scuttle away from my beam of light I wielded. That I clutched.

“He’s out here,” I muttered to myself. “I can feel it. I know it”

I crested up a small hill after hand-over-hand crawling up it. I was a large beetle in this world. But I was heavy. Top heavy, no not top heavy, back heavy. My carapace had turned to iron. I was pulled back by something. By a strong hand around my collar. The bass hit me again and a rock tore free.

I dropped my light and saw how beautiful it was as it tumbled back with me. 

I landed on my back. My breath taken from me. Stolen. I was happy I landed on a softness. Like the ground hugged me. The dirt embraced me and shepherded the air back into my lungs, my soul reforming with the cool vapor. 

I could fall asleep here. 

But then the terrible thought hit me. Just why was this rocky terrain soft like a pillow? At first I thought it was Chewy. That I smashed him like jam. But he licked my face, happy to be on a hike tonight. No, it was the backpack that pulled me free. It had suddenly weighed a ton. Not like before. Before it was so light I forgot I had it on. Truth be told I didn’t even realize why I had brought it along in the first place. Maybe I knew it would break my fall. Maybe I was omniscient every time I smoked some crystal? I liked that idea, but I was also scared of it.  

I shifted and crinkled the Rice Krispies that were under me. 

Ah. That’s right. 

It was mostly just full of clothes and snacks. Snacks are always important in any endeavor.

  I opened my eyes to daylight. Or so I thought. Plumes of dust did the Macarena around me. Dancing on canoes of light swirling around my body. The whole world was lit up. 

Lit up in high beams. Blue. 

I looked around and saw that I had tried crawling up the right bank of a dirt road. Now I sat on said road. On my back like a flipped turtle waiting for a car to run me over. And it looked like I’d get my wish. The blacked out SUV sat humming on the dirt path no more than ten feet from me. The engine vibrated my teeth and lifted rocks around it, scattering it away. Like they were running from this phantom car. I figured if the rocks had a good reason to run, so did I. But my limbs were oh-so-heavy right now. It was like I was a fly caught in a web of lights. The high beams blinded me. In a way that I couldn’t see what was going on in the front of the cabin. Either the windows were that well tinted or shadows clung to it in all the right places hiding it from me. It was probably just that gangster tint.

But I heard the crack of a door opening and then it thud shut. 

Through great effort I rolled over trying to scramble to my feet. 

A figure, tall with broad shoulders, pressed a black shoe to my rib cage. 

I fell back down in a sprawl. Pain was starting to catch up to me. I had scraped knees and hands, my head throbbing from new wounds and old. I didn’t feel like fighting. But that was me my entire life. I would have to do better if I wanted to avenge my wife. But I think I may be dead right here. 

“What do you want?” I asked. Chewy yapped around me, his bark searching out into the night. He called out to anyone to help but kept his distance. 

The figure’s outline was all that I could see. He stood there with those lights wrapping to his silhouette. His face was obscured to me but I could tell he wore a suit when he adjusted his tie.

He stared down at me. Silent. Slowly he reached into his jacket pocket. 

Oh god. I had seen enough movies to know what he would pull out. It reminded me that I could fight back after all. I didn’t just have to lay here and die. He was bigger than me but I had a great equalizer up my sleeve. I reached for my gun in my back belt but only found a sweat stained nothing. 

It must have fallen out somewhere.

“Chewy” I gasped as I looked around the ground. 

My dog was over me growling into the night. Guarding me from whoever this guy was. Definitely no road rage idiot. 

The man pulled free a carton of cigarettes and lit one. His face flared up in the flame. My immediate shock settled slightly. It’s not him. But he unnerved me again when he spoke. 

“What is it that he sees in you?” His voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Strained and wavering. 

“I’m sorry, what’s going on here?” I pleaded. Still scanning the ground trying to find anything, anything to give me a little more time to keep me breathing. 

He shrugged and took a puff. The light lit up his beady eyes and crooked nose. “You are mucking about in things you shouldn’t be. Don’t feel bad. Lots of people do. That’s why we are employed after all.”

He crouched down looking at me. 

“Who’s we?” I asked.

He scoffed, “ You tell me.” He studied me for a second. “I’m just wondering why he didn’t deal with you himself?”

“Tim?” I stammered out. 

He smiled at that. I could tell because the tip of the cigarette bobbed up slightly. 

“He’s a fellow with lots of names.” He stood up and this time he pulled a gun from his back belt, like where I kept mine. 

“Oh shit” I said to myself. But Chewy must have understood the meaning of the gesture cause he whimpered and spun away leaving me in the stretch of light. 

Good dog, no use in getting murdered yourself.  

I crawled back a bit. Searching behind me for my own gun, or a stone, a beer bottle, anything, hell I’d throw a rice krispy treat at him if one had fallen loose. But it was just dust and dirt my fingers threaded through. 

“Tell me?” He stepped forward. “Do you want to live? Cause if you do, you best stop looking for..”

I stopped him there. “I don’t really want to, no.” I said putting my hands up to block the bullets that were about to rip through me. 

He tilted his head. “Why are you cowering then?” He pulled the gun away. 

“I’m not sure. I imagine it hurts to get shot.”

“Well I won’t be shooting you if you just stop looking...” He placed the gun closer to me and I couldn’t help but flinch. But still out of the corner of my scrunched up face I stopped him short again.

“I really don’t wanna lie to you…” I whimpered out. “I’m not gonna stop looking for Tim. He killed my wife. He should’ve killed me…”

“I’ll kill you! You idiot!” He pressed it forward more. The barrel was now at my temple.

I gulped thinking about the bullet tearing through my brain. Not ideal. But I wasn’t some Rambo super-soldier to try and disarm him. I was hurt, drugged, tired. Hell, it would feel good to rest forever more... It was just the getting there, that was unnerving to me. 

I closed my eyes tight and pleaded some more.“If you do kill me! Please promise me you’ll kill him. Promise me you’ll avenge me!”

He pulled the gun back and sighed. “What the fuck are you talking about? Obviously I’m not gonna kill my employer. Have you ever done this before?” He took drag of his cigarette. 

“Uhhh…”

I jumped as a noise rang out. His phone was ringing. A nice little tune played that sounded like it was the bell of a trolley. He answered with a flip of his wrist. The gun still pointed at me. 

“Hello” He said, staring at me. “I actually have him right here…”

“Put it on speaker,” I whispered.

Even with his form shaded I saw him roll his eyes. He continued his conversation. “He’s a real piece of work. Oh get this. He’s calling you Tim… is that what you go by now?” He scratched his face with the slide of his black pistol and returned it back to me. “Anyways yeah it’s pretty much done. Okay. Okay bye now. Oh that’s a nice town. Ahh, yeah, check out the Alamo, great drinks there. Have a good time. See ya.” 

He pocketed the phone and breathed deep.“Where were we?”

I went to speak but my teeth caught my tongue. 

Faster than I ever expected he strode forward and struck me in the face. As my head was turned he grabbed me by my backpack and started dragging me back. He was not only big but he was strong too. Like a fucking Ox this guy was. It was easy for him to pull me behind him. Like a parent pulling a screaming child out of a supermarket. He looked around, looking for a good spot to take me. I flailed a bit but the straps of my pack put me into a self made headlock. My shorts got pulled down and gravel went into my asscrack. He pulled me into the desert darkness outside the front of the car. 

What a humiliating way to die. 

Shot in the head by the side of the road, vultures picking apart my exposed butt cheeks. Behind me the car grew smaller and the uninterrupted night was surrounding us. It was hard for my eyes to adjust. I saw cactus and brush and jagged rocks making the embankment of the road. Chewy came out from behind the wheel well of the car and trotted up to me. He highstepped and danced around my spread legs as they made troughs through the dirt. 

“Run boy!” I shouted “Get out of here!”

He whined and yipped at me. The man turned his head back slightly. “Shut that dog up.”

Chewy crawled up into my lap and dropped something hard there as I was being scuttled across the road. Is he seriously trying to play fetch right now? But it was heavy and cool on my belly where my hoodie had lifted up. I saw the silver metal of the revolver. My revolver. 

Chewy skipped off waiting for me to throw my gun. I wouldn’t be doing that. But I did have something in mind. With one great effort I pulled my arms as far back as they could go. The bag pulled free and I slipped out. 

“You fat fucking…” he threw the pack to the ground and spun around reaching for his holstered gun again. 

I fumbled with my own, catching it back and forth from both of my hands. Like a hot potato.

“Where the hell?” He asked before I righted it and pulled the trigger. Something exploded out the barrel. From the kickback it was safe to say it was a bullet. We both froze in amazement at what had just happened, him looking over himself and me with my mouth open and ears ringing. I was sure I missed him so I squeezed some more. I closed my eyes until the gun clicked empty. 

My ears rang louder and my eyes focused. 

He was flat on his back, smoke rising from holes in his chest.

“Holy shit Chewy… Chewy?”

~

We were thirty feet off the side of the road and my asscrack was still out. The SUV sprang to life as it swerved forward. Running from the shots. I watched it tailslide around the dirt road bend. Taillights and headlights faded away. I waited until the motor could no longer be heard. I crouched there by the side of the road. Too scared to even lift my pants back up. I was out of bullets but his partner might not know that. I went and collected my flashlight, the beam laying across the center of the road. 

When my head settled somewhat I began thinking about what to do next. I felt naked without a loaded weapon. I guess I could throw it if the car sped back. Chewy would like that. Wherever he was. 

I snapped my fingers. 

I might be out of bullets but he wasn’t! I walked up to the dead man, stumbling around in the dark. I would have to go through his pockets. I did so, in the dark. I used as little light asi possibly could. To not give myself away but also I didn’t want to see exactly what I had done. After emptying his pockets I found he had an old flip phone and a laminated social security card. His holster was empty. 

Well now I know his name. Shit. 

That makes it worse, I realized. Now I knew, laying before me was one John D. Lucien social security number 029-31-6432. 

He was John once. Was. Not anymore. 

He was no longer much of anything. The .38 revolver saw to that. Not even a death rattle came out of him.

I caught myself staring too long at the card. Letting it double and wave in my vision. The low light swirling around it. The numbers fell off the little slip of paper and I did my best to catch them in my hands. This is an ordeal I thought and I let the card get taken on the breeze and tip toed away. Searching the ground for that black metal piece he shoved in my face. I had no luck. 

This was not great. 

Worst of all, while doing all this Chewy was still scared of me, hesitant to crawl out from behind the bush he hid behind. 

“Come one boy!” I waved him forward. “I give up. We gotta go,” I gathered up my pack and wandered off the road. He stayed put.

“Come on!” I hissed out. “Come here!” 

Out of the landscape I heard some slow movements. His glowing eyes peeked out of some tangle of a sticker shrub. His ears were pinned back and he was low to the ground. 

“Let’s go!” I turned and walked away, looking back after twenty paces.

He was in the middle of the road seemingly giving me a wide berth. Staring at me, like he knew what I did. What he helped me do. “I understood it was a noisy couple of minutes... Don’t look at me like that!” I whispered. “Okay, fine, stay there.” I ducked under a green tree and it’s thorns caught at my collar. I walked for some time falling and scraping myself. Fumbling through the rocks and boulders. Getting sand in my shoes and cactus stuck in my shorts and shins. Finally I stopped, satisfied with how deep I got. But I realized I was even more lost now. Chewy made his way slowly behind me, like a coyote stalking his prey. But this was fear, it broke my heart. 

“We gotta get back to the car. Where is it though?” I had to find those lights on the horizon. I decided to crawl up on a small bluff, to try and get out of this dry creek bed I stumbled upon. I climbed up again, less dizzy now. And up top I saw the purple horizon spread out before me to the east, I assumed it was east. The sun was coming up after all. Over to the left I saw the camp. Shop lights were still set up and a fire was still burning. Behind me the racking of nails on rock scraped out. In a couple of hops Chewy joined me. I patted his head. 

“I know buddy. I’m scared too.” I sat down on the bluff and watched the sun come up once more, the long night was over. Chewy tentatively crawled into my lap. 

“You’re a much better climber than me. My little billy goat.” I sighed. My hands absentmindedly rubbing through his fur. “We almost died. That’s not fair to you. What would you do without me?” I thought for a small time but perhaps the better question was what would I do without him? Firstly I would be dead and in the trunk of that SUV. Or buried in the desert countryside. In the other case, he’d be all alone howling at the moon. Too loyal for his own good.  

I patted his belly as I felt the tears coming on fast and strong. They fell to my cheeks as he licked my face. He could always feel when I was upset. It’s why he probably wanted to come with me on this quest in the first place. Not strictly for revenge, he was a dog after all, but he came to watch after me. Like he always did. But I was the adult in this relationship. I have to care for him just as much as he has cared for me. That was the deal we made when he was a puppy. As the best pets do. 

“I don’t know what you’d do if I died. I’d hope you’d leave me. Go live in the wild where you belong, find a nice family maybe.” I wiped the drying tears away as the thoughts swirled in my head. Adrenalin crashing. “But god… I know how stubborn you are. You might starve yourself just staying by my corpse. Or wolves might come and try to get you. Maybe a big eagle could do it, maybe.” He whined at that, saying that he was much too strong for a bird to kill him. 

My poor poor dog. 

I had gotten him into something he didn’t deserve and I had been careless with both our lives. I could be careless with my own. But only if he was taken care of and only after I had found Tim. 

“The Alamo? Isn’t that in San Antonio?” I asked aloud.

Chewy felt my emotions calm and settled himself. He was all tucked into my lap and closing his eyes when I felt that wave of lethargy sweep over me too. I figured I'd close my eyes for a second. I needed the rest afterall. 

Texas 

I woke up bleary eyed and delirious. Green lights fading around my vision like a swirl of phantom fireflies. It took me a second to get my bearings but over the roar of the pushing engine I found myself driving. The car shifted and skidded as one hand was on my cheek and the other over my mouth covering a yawn. They jumped to the pulling wheel. It was like trying to wrangle the reins of a bucking bronco. However this was a 1999 Subaru V6 baby; even so, I got it under my control. It spewed up grass and dirt on the road embankment as the countryside flew past us. Chewy whimpered as he bounced across the backseat falling into the back door with a thud. I steadied myself and the car. 

I watched a road sign come to us and fade behind.

“Huh, I guess we are in Round Rock Texas.”