Eh, I'm just going to post this up here. It's easier than sending you guys all over the internet in search for it. You should still go check out Nuns With Pens when you get a chance, though. =)
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Dear God, you ask, is it possible this has been updated?! Yes, yes it is. And all the credit for that goes to the wonderful and fabulous Alexis, who let me babble endlessly and helped to get my head clear where this damn albatross is concerned. From now on, no more attempts to outline the story or guide it or hell, even plan the next chapter. We're just riding it out guys, that seems to be the only way it wants to be told.
And thanks everyone, for sticking by this story and emailing me and PMing me and bugging me and caring about it and not letting me tear it up out of frustration. Kisses all around.
Chapter 11 – Random
The last thing anyone, even two highly trained transgenics, expected at that particular moment, was an explosion. The force of it threw both Max and Alec backwards onto the floor, where Alec slammed into an end table and Max slammed into him.
"Shit." She swore, scrambling to her feet. "What the hell was that?"
Alec crawled to his knees and looked up at her. "Something got blown up."
They stared at each other. Alarms began to whine throughout the building. For once their minds were on exactly the same train of thought.
"Nobody's going to notice a few extra alarms going off right now." Max said slowly.
Alec smiled.
They moved at the same time towards the door and continued moving at top speed until they hit it simultaneously.
They also simultaneously bounced right off of it.
Alec stared, stunned, at the ceiling from his position on the floor. "Holy Christ."
"What the hell is that thing made of." Max sat up and rubbed her shoulder. "It was like hitting a steel reinforced brick wall. They really didn't want these people getting out."
Alec sat up, wincing as his muscles protested. "Well, there are worse things than being locked in a room and forced to have sex. Take us for example, our rewarding and meaningful relationship never would have ever begun if Manticore hadn't locked us in a room to force us to have sex."
"You know, I was really hoping to wipe that entire experience from my memory – but hey, thanks for reminding me."
"My pleasure, Max."
They stared silently at the door.
"You know, I'd give a lot to know what's going on out there." Alec stood.
The alarms began to whine in their room and both winced at the assault on their delicate hearing. The door slid open.
"Well, well, well." Alec shrugged into his knapsack and grinned at Max. "Ask and ye shall receive."
"Lord, please strike Alec down with all the all the might of your fury." Max muttered as they stepped cautiously out of the room. Smoke drifted through the hall outside and muted yelling could be heard alongside the rhythmic siren of the alarm.
Abandoning any attempt to communicate verbally, Alec tapped two fingers to his wrist and then pointed down the hall. Max nodded and they moved simultaneously in the direction he'd pointed, gun drawn and held at his side.
They were out of the building in minutes – the escape so easy it was almost a let down. The gear they had used coming in was right where they had left it, undisturbed and presumably undiscovered. It wasn't until they were a safe distance away that both transgenics paused to survey the scene behind them. Alarms could still be vaguely heard by normal human hearing, but other than that there was no physical evidence that anything out of the ordinary was occurring.
"There's no smoke or anything." Max said, somewhat uneasy. "I figured it was a fire or something."
"Maybe it was a test."
They looked at each other silently and both knew that the other had the same apprehension as the other. Something, on an instinctual level, didn't feel right. Without another word they headed back towards where they'd just come from. This time they circled warily around the perimeter, taking time to examine things closely. It wasn't until they got to the back that Max felt a lurch of dread low in her stomach.
"Oh, shit." Alec breathed.
Parked discreetly in the trees was Bessie.
Just then a group of medical personnel came trotting around the building carrying very non-medical looking rifles and handling them in very non-medical ways. Both transgenics faded instantly into the trees.
"Think they got 'em?" Alec whispered.
"Yes."
"Ditto."
"No transfer yet."
"Rendezvous same ten thirty."
"Transfer?"
"Motel indefinite."
"Go."
Without waiting to see what Alec did, knowing he would move at the same time she did only in the opposite direction, Max turned stealthily moved deeper into the cover of the forest. She kept the soldiers/medics in sight the entire time out of habit, not really seeing them as a threat. The most important thing at this point was to keep the building in her line of sight – so far they could assume that whomever had set off that alarm was still inside. But if they transported them somewhere else then she was going to have to follow.
The alarms went silent.
As she moved Max realized that they had never been specified who would stay here and who would head back to the motel for reinforcements – it was simply understood. She grunted to herself and set about finding a high enough spot that would afford her the best view of the building below.
* * *
It was twenty minutes later that another group of medical soldiers exited out through the front doors and into the parking lot where three large Hummers were waiting. In the midst of the ten armed guards was a bound and gagged Logan and Asha.
Max swore softly to herself as she stood and began to rapidly make her way down the hill. Alec wasn't back yet, but he knew that if he returned and she wasn't at the rendezvous point then she was following the transfer and he would wait at the motel until she contacted him.
She took a short cut through the woods so that she hit the highway just before the hummer. Frantically she looked around – but there were no cars in sight to hijack. She pressed herself against a tree as the hummers came to the intersection and turned right onto the highway.
"Shit." She watched as the caravan of vehicle drove away from her. She could run fast and she could run far, but there was no way she'd be able to keep up for long.
A low rumbling from behind her interrupted her thoughts. Max turned just as a large brown car came to a halt next to her. "Want some candy, little girl?" Alec called out the open window.
"Jesus, Alec." She wrenched the door open and climbed in the passenger seat. "A Buick?"
"My options were limited." He pulled out onto the road, following the Hummer's at a significant distance. "It was this or a Passat."
"You always go with the foreign cars, don't you know anything?"
"We're carrying a small arsenal with us, Maxie. A nice spacious Buick is just what we need."
"Could you be any more conspicuous?" She continued complaining, "We're driving a gigantic shit colored whale."
One of his eyebrows shot up, "Graphic."
They drove in silence for several miles, keeping their eyes on the equally inconspicuous Hummers.
"You think they came looking for us?" Alec finally spoke. Max didn't need to ask what he was talking about.
"Yeah." She looked moodily out the front window. "Like idiots they probably thought they could rescue us. Typical Logan."
Alec glanced at her, fairly certain she wasn't aware of the way her voice had softened on those last two words.
"Yeah, nice of them to work us into their busy fucking schedule." He sneered, and then instantly regretted the words as Max stiffened.
"Christ, Max I didn't mean-"
"What is your problem with him anyway?" She interrupted coolly, "For as long as you've been around you've been a prick to Logan."
"Look, the guy just bugs me, alright." He ran a hand restlessly through his hair. "You can think he's as noble and perfect as you want but the fact remains that he bailed on you with the first cute blond that came along."
"You're being unfair. I told him that it was over between us and on top of that Logan thinks you and I are together."
"Bullshit. Anybody who really cared about you should A) see that we're no more together than O.C. and Sketchy and B) know that you never mean it when you say you want to end it with him."
"He can't read my mind, you're expecting too much from him." She returned hotly.
"No, you're expecting too little from someone who's supposed to love you."
"It's not fair to ask him to wait for me!"
His hand slammed down on the steering wheel, "I would have waited for you!"
In the sudden, surprised silence Max realized that one of the windows was open, blowing warm air across the back of her neck. She wasn't sure who was more taken aback, her or Alec.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked carefully.
"The guy's a fucking idiot, lets just leave it at that." He mumbled irritably.
Max stared at his disgruntled profile and quite unexpectedly felt a smile begin to grow on her face.
"I think that's the nicest thing anybody's ever said to me." She turned back around in her seat to face front, grinning like a loon.
"Well, don't get used to it." He slouched in his seat almost petulantly.
Max squinted at the hummers up ahead, narrowing her pupils to keep them in sight. "What are you? A little blue-haired old lady? Speed up, we're going to lose them."
"No little blue-haired old lady ever had one of these." Alec nodded at the small black leather case sitting next to him.
Max picked it up, unzipped it and pulling out a hand-held PDA.
"Complete with infrared GPS satellite." Alec continued smugly. "Once you lock onto the caravan that thing'll track them anywhere in the world. Our eyes don't have to be able to see jack shit."
Max refused to admit that she was impressed with his foresight. She tapped several buttons and an aerial image of the three vehicles came on the screen. "Logan and Asha are in the middle one." She murmured. "It's the only one with more than two people."
"Now you can kick back and relax, Max." Alec smiled at her, sliding on sunglasses. "As usual, I've got everything under control."
* * *
The problems began two hours later.
They had been driving into the setting sun for over twenty minutes, Max hunched over the steering wheel, muttering curses underneath her breath. She squinted out at the road, puzzled at what she was seeing. It appeared as though a white fluffy blanket was laid out across the highway a mile ahead of her.
She frowned and thought about slowing down. But it was just a blanket, what harm could a blanket do to the car? She looked out the side window uneasily. They'd been driving through country for quite awhile now. Real country. As in green fields and fences and strange looking vehicles with large wheels. Some farmer must have lost his blanket out of the back of his truck. She glanced over at Alec who appeared to be sound asleep against the window. No need to wake him up over a measly blanket.
Pleased with her decisions, she faced forward again.
Hmm. The closer they got the larger the blanket got. The… thicker it got as well.
In fact… she slammed her foot down on the break pedal.
Alec was slammed painfully against the dash. It was only because of his unnatural reflexes that he didn't go flying through the windshield.
"What the fuck-" He began, and then cut himself off when he saw what was only inches from the nose of their hood.
Max and Alec both stared in silent shock.
"What it is?" Max whispered. It appeared to be a writhing, two foot high, dirty blanket that spilled over the road for a good thirty feet.
"Um." Alec glanced out his window nervously, seeing that the blanket was beginning to surround the car. "I think it's a herd of sheep."
"Sheep!" Max glared at them. "What the hell are sheep doing out here in… in…" She trailed off.
"In the country?"
"Shut up."
"Well." Alec settled back in his seat. "Go get 'em off the road, Maxie. And hurry it up, we don't want to get too far behind."
"I'll feed you to them." She growled, looking around unhappily. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Hit the horn. Maybe that'll scare them into running away."
Pressing down as hard as she could, Max let it sound for a good minute. The pace of the writhing seemed to increase for a moment, but there was no net movement in either direction.
"Damn."
They sat in silence for a while and then simultaneously climbed out of the car. "Why sheep? What I know about sheep could fit into a thimble." Max said glumly. "Come on, Alec, you were in Manticore longer than I – lets have a plan of action."
Alec looked at her incredulously. "Gee, sorry Max, Manticore didn't exactly have an intensive training program for how to handle livestock."
A cold nose pressed against her leg and Max looked down into long lashed brown eyes. Unexpectedly a lump built in her throat. "Manticore would just shoot them." She said bitterly. She bent down and wrapped her arms around it, patting the scratchy fur. "Aww, you're so sweet and beautiful."
Alec stared over the hood at her with alarm. "Max? Stop hugging the sheep."
"It's not their fault they got lost out here." She stood up, glaring at him. "I'll hug whoever I damn well want."
"We're trying to get them to move, not encourage them to stay."
A third voice interjected at that moment, causing both transgenics to turn in surprise to the man walking up to the road. "Don't worry, I'll have them out of your way in just a second."
He wasn't much more than a child, the shepherd heading towards them. His smile was sunny as he looked up at them. "We try to time the crossing just right – but it rarely works out as planned."
"Uh. No problem." Alec said, still unnerved at the boys sudden appearance.
"I'm Lloyd." He jutted his chin out in the direction of the sheep, "That's Mikey and Sammy."
They followed his gaze and were surprised to see two Australian Shepherds nipping at the heels of the sheep. Much to her surprise, Max realized that the sheep were actually moving.
"Not to sound like the clichéd country bumpkin that I probably am, but you two aren't from around here, are you?" Lloyd asked with ill concealed amusement.
"Boy is that the understatement of the century." Max muttered.
He strolled up and leaned casually against the hood of the car. "Not in Kansas anymore?"
Max and Alec both stared at him.
"We're not any where near Kansas." Max said in confusion. "I thought we were closer to Oregon."
"I've never been to Kansas." Alec mused aloud, "Tornado's out there – nasty buggers."
Lloyds eyebrows were at his hairline. "Never mind. Where you headed?"
"Just driving." Alec said vaguely. "Decided we needed to get away for awhile."
"If you're looking for a place to stay, there's a nice little Bed and Breakfast up ahead." Lloyd gave a sharp whistle through his teeth and the dogs separated. "I know the owners – they're a real nice couple, they'll treat you like royalty."
"Thanks, but I think we'll keep going." Max said politely. "There's still some daylight left."
"Suit yourselves. Road's clear now." Lloyd walked across the street after his sheep. "Have a good evening."
"You too, thanks for your help."
"Nice kid." Alec said, climbing back into the passenger seat. "Kinda strange. But nice."
"Yeah, quite articulate for an ignorant country bumpkin." Max fumbled for the keys.
"Well, we are just condescending city folk." This time Alec put on his seat belt. "It's easy to stereotype them all."
Max put the key in the ignition. "Still, he was probably better-" An awful grinding noise came from the engine as she turned the key. "What the hell?" She tried it again, with the same results. Her and Alec stared at each other.
A familiar, cheerful voice floated in from the open windows. "Looks like maybe you'll be needing that Bed and Breakfast after all."
TBC
