Part fourteen

“Ok, we’s just gonna look around, scope things out, right?” Ava asked anxiously. She and Jeff were parked in the visitor’s section of Edward’s Air Force Base’s parking lot outside the Welcome building.

“Right,” Jeff stated, reassuringly. He knew this was probably as close as she’d ever been to a military institution, and had every ( Read more... )

Part thirteen

“Oh my god!” Jeff said, stumbling away from Ava once the sound of the Hummer’s engine drifted away. He felt sick. Literally. Nancy… in the hands of those madmen. It had to be her. He thought back to the two separate conversations he’d overheard while locked in the Sheriff’s Station and knew there could be no mistake.

The first clue ( Read more... )

Part twelve

“So, you and Liz used to come up here, huh?” Jeff watched Ava looking around the peaceful clearing in Frasier Woods curiosity and something else in her bright eyes.

“Yep,” he answered. “Every year. The schools Liz went to had this traditional Father’s Weekend Campout and every year we’d come up here and hang out with the other kids’ ( Read more... )

Part eleven

It was getting pretty late, but Ava couldn’t sleep, which wasn’t all that surprising, considering the week she’d had.

It had started pretty normal: wake up in one of the access tunnels built into Chicago’s Metro system, then go out into the city, looking for food, money, anything to avoid having to return to her siblings and their new ( Read more... )

Part ten

In the alley behind the CrashDown, the three grown ups stared at the ragged waif before them in varying stages of disbelief and shock. Jeff couldn’t release her arm fast enough. As soon as Philip had spoken, he’d realized immediately why he’d thought the strange girl looked familiar. Granted, he hadn’t seen her in a year, and the grime ( Read more... )

Part nine

As the days drifted by, Jeff learned a new meaning to the word ‘normal’. Normal was looking out the large windows of the restaurant a thousand times a day in hopes of seeing Nancy or Liz walking up to the doors as if nothing had happened. Normal was pouncing on the phone whenever it rang in the unlikely possibility it was someone with ( Read more... )

Part eight

Out in the middle of the desert, while a trio of accomplices waited nearby keeping lookout for determined government agents, a meeting of galactic proportions was preparing to commence. It was to be officiated not by king or solider, but by friend and advisor, Jim Valenti, the only remaining member of the I-Know-An-Alien Club in Roswell ( Read more... )

Part seven

Above the CrashDown, Jeff was on the phone. He’d already placed calls to the FBI, CIA, IA and any other acronym he could think of since his release from the Roswell County lockup. So far, all he’d gotten for his troubles was the run around and a stellar headache. Slamming the phone down after the latest, “I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t ( Read more... )

Part six

Jeff wasn’t really surprised that it was Deputy Jim Valenti who came to let him out of his cell the following morning. In the long hours that had passed since General Hopkins and Agent Deirks had held their revealing conference directly outside his window, Jeff had sat unmoving on his cot. His elbows resting on his knees, his head buried ( Read more... )

Part five

Jeff angrily paced the tiny length of his cell. His wife and daughter were missing. It was beginning to sink in. too much time had passed. They weren’t off on some holiday, or mother/daughter outing. They were gone. The two most important people in his life. The apple of his eye and his whole reason for living were nowhere to be found ( Read more... )