Title: Unbelievably Faithfully Yours: Prologue
Rating: T
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Dark Angel and I don't intend to make money with this story so don't sue me, please.
Prologue
For the next forty – eight hours the transgenics fortified their position inside and kept a careful eye on the police and National Guard outside, which – true to Mole's prediction had locked down the perimeter of Terminal City. Already a chain of command seemed to be establishing itself. Logan and Mole oversaw the upgrade in security, and Dix and Luke monitored the media – whose cameras gave them a nice look at the National Guard and police forces outside the fence. Joshua appointed himself Max's personal bodyguard, while Alec and Max argued over strategies for their next step.
It was late the second night when Dix called them into the transgenics' makeshift media center. A dozen monitors were built into a pyramid, with four of their brethren watching them, sifting through the information from the various sources both local and national. Off to the left another baker's dozen of monitors kept track of the security system the transgenics had installed and been upgrading since they first settled in the restricted area.
"What's going on?" Max asked.
Dix pointed to a monitor in the third row; and an X5, a redheaded young woman about Max's age, pointed a remote and raised the volume.
On the screen, a reporter stood in front of Jam Pony, Normal standing next to the man. "But about your captors . . . what are these creatures like? Is it true you delivered a transgenic baby?"
Normal beamed. He couldn't have been any happier if he'd been the father himself. "I did, and a beautiful, bouncing baby girl she is."
The reporter asked, "So – you're saying they're not all monsters, then?"
"Monsters?" Normal asked with a shake of his head, as if such a thought were foreign to him. "No more than you or me."
And with that he turned away and swept the sidewalk in front of Jam Pony, when he saw two of his riders not moving fast enough, he said, "Hey, Sparky – not a country club, get moving. Bip bip bip!"
The two slackers headed off in opposite directions, each trying to get as far away from Normal as fast as they could.
Max turned to Logan. "What do you make of that?"
Grinning, Logan said, "Looks like you've got another convert."
With a perplexed look, Max asked, "Normal?"
Logan shrugged. "Could be helpful to have another friend on the outside."
She nodded. "Can't ever hurt to have another friend." Turning to Dix, she said, "Anything else?"
He shook his mashed-potato head. "You should get some rest, Max."
A yawn escaped from her. "Maybe you're right." She and Alec, as well as most of the rest of them, hadn't slept for at least the last two days. A nap wouldn't hurt her, and she knew Alec needed the rest even more than she. "Can you get somebody to wake us at dawn?"
Dix nodded. "Take my room," he said, pointing to a door off to the right.
She took a few steps then turned back to Alec. "You comin'?"
A small smile appeared and he said, "Yeah, only because I know you are not really asking, you'll make me if I say no!"
Dix's room was a far cry from the barracks at Manticore where not so long ago Alec would come in at night and pretend to fornicate with Max, or even Max's condemned – building crib, for that matter; but it would do, for tonight anyway. About as big as a good – sized bathroom and illuminated by a single light bulb dangling from a cord, it had and old double mattress on the floor in one corner, some bookshelves with a few volumes on the opposite wall to the left, a small round table near them with two chairs, and in the front left corner – below some steam pipes that Alec had to duck beneath – an old leather recliner that had been salvaged from God knows where.
"You take the bed," Max said. "I'll take this." She patted the recliner.
"No," Alec said. "You take the bed . . ."
She gave him a sharp look. "When was the last time you slept?"
He shrugged, but said, "Can't you let me be a gentleman about it? Seeing you are already not giving me a choice to sleep or not!"
She waggled a finger at him. "Whoever said you're a gentleman, especially to me?" She knew she had him now.
Without any more argument, he spilled into the bed, took off his shoes, and instantly fell asleep.
Plopping onto the recliner, Max kicked back and listened as Alec started to snore softly. She couldn't think of a prettier sound, as long as it didn't get louder. Pulling the string on the light and ginning, she liked over at this man who she loved like a cousin but hated as a person, asleep in the darkness. "Your not that bad," she said quietly.
He snorted in response, and Max suddenly realized this was what they all wanted, what they were all fighting for – just a little peace and quiet in this big, noisy would.
Alec's snoring grew louder, and Max decided that even peace without quiet was good enough for her, seeing that even when he's asleep he argues with her. Closing her eyes, she drifted off in a cloud of hope that carried over into sweet dreams.
Which, when so many of her days were waking nightmares, was one small blessing, anyway?
The next morning, rested and refreshed, Max and Alec joined a number of their fellow outcasts in the Terminal City media center and watched the early morning news on KIPR. The picture showed a dozen police cars layered in front of the main gate in multiple barricades, their light bars flashing red and blue, with several heavily armed officers running around behind the barricade.
"Tell me something I don't know," Max said dryly.
"Maybe she will," Logan said, with a nod to the screen.
The camera had settled on a female newscaster wearing too much lipstick. "As dawn breaks on the siege at Terminal City, the situation is tense but unchanged. While several hundred transgenics remain barricaded inside the restricted area, police and the National Guard stand an uneasy watch at the perimeter, each side seemingly waiting to see what the other will do next."
"No kidding," Max said to the TV.
"You think they're coming in?" Logan asked.
She shook her head. "I don't think they're that stupid."
Logan shot her a quick grin. "What about White?"
They exchanged glances – neither really considered Ames White stupid, but both knew him to be incredibly ruthless and reckless, with other people's lives at least. White, with his antitransgenic agenda, had the most to gain if this siege turned into a slaughter. It didn't even matter who on which side got slaughtered . . .