Ch. 2

Winter 2009

The nine year old girl, small for her age and scrawny from lack of food, crouched behind a dumpster. Her wide, green eyes followed the movements of a small group of people walking slowly down the street and she studied them with a kind of calculating intensity that was disconcerting on her child-like features.

"Mama, mama!" Jondy's sensitive hearing amplified the voice of the small blond girl, as she tugged on the older woman's hand. "Johnny stole my dolly! Mama!"

The older woman, the one Jondy now knew as "mama", glanced over at her dark haired companion and smiled. "Tim…" she said, her voice meaningful.

"I know, dear," Tim replied. Turing to the last member of the little group, he ordered sternly, "John, give your sister back her doll."

As the boy, looking distinctly sullen, handed back the doll, he muttered a disgruntled "Yes, Dad." Jondy could see that he was almost identical in appearance to the man called "Tim", although his features were softened with childhood and innocence.

What is a "mama"? Jondy thought, as she watched the little girl get picked up by her mother. There was nobody like that back at Manticore. Her mind flashed with images of numerous drill sergeants shouting as they trained her and her siblings, of the doctors and nurses that performed painful experiments on them, the teachers that drilled them in military strategy, behavior, and duty, and Lydecker… the man who shot Eva.

No, definitely not at Manticore.

She shook her had to rid herself of the dark memories. Realizing that the group who had so intrigued her was almost out of sight, she stood, meaning to follow and continue studying them.

Suddenly her stomach gave a loud rumble, reminding her that she hadn't eaten in two days. Even with her genetically enhanced body. Jondy knew that she would need to find food soon in order to keep up her strength.

Lydecker's still looking for me, she thought grimly, me and the others that escaped.

If they escaped, added a treacherous voice in her mind. Pushing the thought away, Jondy went in search of food.

It had been two weeks since she had escaped Manticore, two weeks since she had abandoned Max to Manticore's TAC teams per Zach's orders. She desperately hoped that her sister and other siblings were all right and had made it out with her.

After she had left Max, Jondy ran for miles in the forest, avoiding TAC teams and, on two occasions, managing to kill those small groups of men and dogs that happen to stumble across her. Sometime during that long, fear-filled night, a bullet had managed to graze her left arm. While not a serious wound for a transgenic, Jondy had torn off a strip of the military issue smock she was wearing and bandaged it up. She couldn't risk a blood trail.

By the time the sun rose she had made it well past Manticore's boundaries and managed to hitch a ride in the back of a farmer's hay cart. For the next two weeks she hitched rides when she could and when she thought it was safe, walked and ran when she had to, and was careful not to bring any attention down on herself. She had stolen new cloths, burning her old Manticore ones, and avoided letting anyone get a good look at her.

For the first week she frequently saw military officers questioning people on the highways or small towns that she crossed close too. She managed to escape their notice each time and, by the second week, she began to see fewer and fewer of those that were sent to capture her. But she was constantly on alert.

Now, she was in a small town on the southern edge of Wyoming needing food and, more importantly, a plan.

Autumn 2020

Jondy made her way cautiously through Terminal City, noticing the recent renovation that the trangenics had been making to improve the condition of their new home. To all outward appearances the X-5 was calm and relaxed, but inside she was tense, not knowing what to expect but ready for the worst.

This might be Base Ops for the transgenic movement, she thought, but that doesn't mean it isn't enemy territory .

Her instincts were rewarded when, as she turned the next corner, she was met with the business end of a handful of nasty looking weaponry, wielded expertly by a motley group of transgenics.

The leader of the group stepped forward and Jondy gasped. He was a tall, handsome blond with a chiseled face and a carriage that spoke of power and danger.

Ben! No, no, it can't be. Zach told me he was dead. But he looks just like my brother .

"Wh…Who are you?" Jondy asked, her voice not as steady as she would have liked it to be, confronted with this apparition of the past.

"I'm Alec, who are you? We were watching you on the monitors. From that jump you made at the fence, you're obviously transgenic. X-5 by the look of it. Are you are right? You look like you've seen a ghost." Alec motioned for the others to lower their weapons, though Jondy could tell that they would have them back up in an instant if she tried anything.

"I'm fine. It's just that…you look like someone I use to know."

Alec nodded, as if this explained everything and motioned for her to follow him. As the rest of the transgenics fell into step behind them, he asked, "So, did you come to join our little party?" He made a gesture that encompassed the buildings of Terminal City. "We could use more soldiers. While we're hoping to avoid a physical confrontation, I'm afraid that the day is approaching when we're going to have to fight."

Jondy nodded. She had been watching the news and, reading between the highly one-sided and biased lines, realized that the situation was grave for those holed up inside the city.

"Actually, I heard that an old friend of mine was here. I'm looking for Max."

A/n: Again, Critism of all types is welcome and reviews would help my motivation for writing more chapters, although I am going to try to actually finish this story. Hope you are enjoying it!