The explosions were even closer now, and Alec braced his hand against the table, keeping it stable from the aftershock. "How many have we evacuated?"

For a long moment, no one answered, until finally, X5-156 called out, "X6s and 8s are out! Med bay's been cleared and we've got the stable wounded shipping out now." She paused, her pale blue eyes wide. "Medics warned we might not have time to stabilize the rest of the wounded for transport."

"Then tell them to work faster, Shilo! We are inot/i leaving our people behind!" Alec roared, and the female was already running up the stairs, carrying out her improbable orders. "Any word on who exactly we're fighting? Children of the Runes has a nice ring to it, but I need to know iwhat/i designations."

"I've got Biggs!" Dix called from the corner, headset nearly obscuring his face. "He's requesting a tactical retreat: apparently they've set fires ieverywhere/i."

"Granted, but tell him to get me those designations!" Dix spun back around, radioing back even as Alec turned back to the bustling room. "I want the units pulled back now, and the rest of you are going to get ready to go mobile. Someone help Dix," He added as an afterthought, and the scrawny Anomaly gave him a thankful smile.

Felix stepped up beside him, holding out a slightly singed folder. "Tally of supplies, including the cuts we made to fit in people."

Alec scanned the list, his frown deepening. "Mole's gonna have a shitfit when he sees the ammo lost."

"We're counting on there being munitions stores," Keegan piped up, a rucksack already on her back and another in her hand. "Long shot, but it's all we got." She shoved the extra bag at Alec, upsetting some of the papers on the makeshift war-table. "Cleared out your apartment; sorry I couldn't grab the tv."

Alec rolled his eyes, and waited for her to head out before turning back to Felix. "And the explosion?"

"Set the charges around the perimeter. I've got the trigger on a dead-man's switch, so if anything happens…" His words trailed off dangerously, but it was the dangerous Alec wanted.

"How far is the clear?"

"Few yards. We'll be hit by a decent shock wave, but won't do anything more than blow out windows."

Alec turned, suspicious of his older clone. "What, exactly, did you decide to blow up TC with? That sounds tame for you."

Felix shot him a look. "You didn't ask what it will do to TC. They're high-intensity- thermobaric charges."

It took a minute for Alec to process the sentence, and then, "A fucking fuel-air bomb? They're gonna suffer like hell."

"And iyou/i want the United States to think we blew ourselves up. No matter what we do, there will never be enough bodies here to convince them we iall/i died." He took a deep breath. "Yeah, they're going to have a fucking painful death, but there will be inothing/i left of Terminal City."

Alec swallowed down his reservations, knowing that Felix was right. "You better head towards the transports."

"No fucking way." Alec snapped his attention back to Felix, who was standing there, looking like Alec was the biggest idiot in the world. "Like I'm gonna leave your sorry ass here by yourself. I leave when you leave."

"iI'm/i not leaving till the last field medics have reported in. You need to get out there—you've got a mate, and are the only other Alpha here." He glared at his taller, darker clone. "You need to keep 493 and his group of Niners in line."

Felix crossed his arms, leaning against the shaking wall. "No."

The snarl that escaped him didn't even deter 496. "Felix…"

"Isn't your radio buzzing?"

Alec shot him one last look before snatching the radio off the table. "Repeat?"

The voice on the other end was tinny and distorted by the background noise, but it was clearly a request to pull out—that people would be left—

"Go! Just get to the motor pool!" Alec yelled, finally admitting to himself that he wasn't going to be able to save everyone. "Felix, you better get your ass—"

"Sir." Felix was already running up the stairs, and Alec was only steps behind him. They bolted from the ransacked X5 housing, catching up with the retreating units and the few field triage survivors.

Gunfire sounded behind them, and Alec risked a glance backwards, trying to get a good view of whoever was leading this insane attack. The male's face was obscured by what looked like a muzzle flash, and then Alec wasn't on his feet any more.

"Commander down!" Felix yelled, skidding in his attempt to change direction. Despite the hail of bullets, Biggs and one of the field medics followed him. Biggs took up return fire even as Lymph dropped his med kit, already assessing his commanding officer's injury. "Can we move him?"

"Can't see the wound, but there's a lot of blood." Lymph frowned, fully aware of the dire circumstances that surrounded them.

"Winged…winged me." Felix snapped his gaze down, surprised to see Alec's eyes open, and his hand reaching towards his temple. "X3-7 isn't a particularly good shot." He struggled to a seated position, helped by Lymph, and then Felix scooped him into his arms. "Whoa!"

"We needed to displace iyesterday/i." Biggs hissed at him, still firing into the oncoming rush of transgenics. "I don't think you're up for running, boss."

"Conceded." Alec groaned, wincing in pain as Lymph applied a field bandage to his wound while Felix ran. "How are you even keeping up?"

"Practice." Lymph grunted, adding a second layer of adhesive.

"I'm gonna be out of ammo in ten rounds!" Biggs yelled—only to jump out of the way as one of the transport vehicles crashed through the nearest building, cutting off the retreating transgenics from the zealots pursuing them.

Mole stuck his head out of the driver's side window, "Are you coming or what?" Without hesitation, Biggs leapt in, extending a hand to Lymph, who, in turn, grabbed Alec from Felix. As soon as 496 was in, Mole hit the gas, throwing them all against the back of the transport. "We're the last ones out. "

"Let me know when we've cleared TC by 4 yards." Felix demanded, pulling Alec to rest against him. "We need to be out of the blast—"

"There, Princess!"

Felix finally released the small device he held clenched in his left hand. There was a whoosh, and then pressure wave that knocked the van sideways, sending them flying into an abandoned building. Alec pushed himself to the window, only to see TC erupting in a cyclone of flame and rubble—and he could hear the screams of the ones who had been at the edge of the explosion—

Mole was cursing, but, through a series of maneuvers , managed to get their vehicle righted and out of the building. "Felix, I thought we agreed ino/i HITs." He grumbled around his cigar.

"Aw, does the thought of those people dying from ruptured and burning lungs bother you?" Felix snapped, "Because I'm pretty sure you weren't on their Christmas list."

"We needed TC igone/i, you dinosaur." Alec struggled once again to a seated position, allowing Lymph to double check his wound. "Biggs, any idea exactly who we took out?"

At that, Biggs frowned. "Too many. Pretty much every surviving X from 2-3, a couple of 4s and 6s. About four units total, but those were only the ones I saw fighting."

"And my people?" Mole demanded, glancing in the rearview.

Biggs didn't meet his eyes. "The only ones there were the ones they made 'examples' of. I'm so sorry, Mole. Cera…" Mole's grip tightened on the wheel, but the lizard man said nothing, clenching his teeth on his cigar. "They were freaks. And they got put down like they deserved."

"Wouldn't count on that." Felix announced, still looking out the rear window. "This was an organized attack; planned. They knew we were preparing to mobilize, so there is a good probability that they snuck a few of theirs in. Though I can vouch for Lymph."

The nearly completely white X4 rolled his eyes. "iThanks/i, Felix. Really."

"How many wounded didn't make it out?" Alec demanded, forcing Lymph's attention back to him. "How many did we…murder?"

Lymph gave a soft sigh. "Twenty. 8 X5s, 10 X6s and 2 X8s."

Alec balked. "The X8s were all cleared!"

"Not the ones ithey/i had." Lymph said, grimly. "We would have lost them anyway, their forces wouldn't let any field medics near their fallen." The statement sank in, and for a long moment, the only noise was the van's speeding through Seattle's streets.

After what seemed like an hour, Alec took a deep breath, as if bracing himself. "We know they we organized, and we know they have people in with ours. What are we going to do about it?"

"Depends on how quickly they show their allegiances. But I'm not sure killing them is going to help." Felix stated, frowning. "Martyrdom and all that."

"Should we even be discussing this? " Lymph asked, but fell silent as he caught glares from the others.

"I don't think we know how this will go down till we get to Wyoming. We're going to have to be on guard." Biggs said.

Alec scoffed a bit, "And hope that Maxie doesn't turn into an etch-a-sketch again."