Exit Strategy
Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Dark Angel, or any of the characters you find here. No, not even Alec.
Spoilers: Set two weeks after the events of Freak Nation, includes spoilers for the entire series.
Like Madness
Mole was on Alec before Dalton's body hit the ground, all concern for bringing the X5 down unscathed obliterated by the gunshot.
Mole had heard Alec say White's name, right before his spontaneous flight. He turned to Joshua and saw the dog-man sniff the air and shake his head before they joined Gem and 452 in their pursuit. The two X5s reached Alec first.
Mole watched them approach the crazed man, watched as Alec slammed his gun into Gem's head, causing her to stumble back. He watched as Agent Gottlieb stopped struggling and Alec dropped his body. Alec turned to them, then, his pupils blown wide and black and empty, his still face a mask of death. Mole shuddered at the sight. 452 walked towards Alec, hands out and cautious. Mole heard Dix and Dalton running up behind them, yelling Alec's name. Then Dalton was falling and someone was screaming and Mole was moving faster than he ever had before.
Alec didn't struggle when Mole wrapped him in a sleeper hold. As his body began to slump against Mole's, the lizard-man heard Luke yelling to him from down the street, where Dalton lay bleeding.
"Don't put him to sleep! Mole!! Subdue him all you want, but keep him conscious!"
Mole motioned to Joshua, who was standing in shock beside him, to help restrain the transgenic. Gem rushed forward to take the gun still dangling from Alec's hand as 452 knelt down by Alec's head, waving Joshua away.
"Go help Luke with Dalton. We'll take care of Alec."
Joshua nodded and trotted off down the street, and leaned down to take instructions from Luke. Alec blinked up at them, his eyes surprisingly sane.
"It was White. I saw him but, Dalton? Did…did I shoot him? White…" Alec continued to mumble, but kept his body very, deliberately still.
"Gottlieb," Max looked at the agent, and the ordinaries with him, "get them out of here."
The agent shook his head.
"We're in an industrial part of the city, so hopefully no one was around to hear the gunshot. I arranged for the checkpoint to be unmanned." The man said, his voice sounding rough and painful through his abused throat. "He told me…told me to expect this."
"You better tell me what the hell you're talking about." 452 replied, her hands adjusting their hold on Alec's shoulders to push him down into the asphalt. "He was expecting to flip out and attack his own people?"
Alec began breathing heavily, though he made no attempt to move.
"No," the agent replied, shaking his head and rubbing his throat simultaneously, "he was expecting to get worse. Before we split up, he told me he…he didn't have much longer. He told me to get them out safely."
"White," Alec said between panting breaths, his eyes dark and dilated once more, "He's coming. He's here. He'll kill us all and you won't let me stop him."
"Get them out," 452 repeated to Agent Gottlieb, "we'll take care of this."
The ordinaries looked hesitant to leave, the boyfriend glancing back twice as if to offer to stay and help. Then Alec's body began to buck beneath their grasp, and Mole had no more time to watch the group's retreat.
"He's coming, don't you understand? I saw him! I saw him!" Alec screamed, his arms and legs now shaking with the rest of his body.
"Only Alec would have a seizure in the middle of a psychotic break." Mole muttered while tightening his hold.
"It's not…he's not having a psychotic break." Luke replied. Mole looked up in surprise to see Luke kneeling down next to him. Joshua was carrying a bleeding, unconscious Dalton, while Gem applied pressure to his wound. "And he's not having a seizure. Well, at least not the kind we're used to." The statement only seemed to aggravate Alec more.
"I'm not broken! I'm not. The shaking will stop, I promise. They said they'd make it stop. Now let me go!"
Mole clapped a hand over the screaming transgenic's mouth.
"Well, Luke, I'm glad to hear you've drummed up some inkling of what's wrong with our boy here, but we wait around much longer and its not gonna matter if anyone heard that gunshot."
Mole looked at 452, who was watching Alec with a painful look on her face.
Alec had told Mole once about his twin, 493. He was one of the 09ers, family to 452, and a serial killer. He was dead now, Mole knew that much, but not before Manticore had punished Alec for all his brother's transgressions. Mole wondered if, looking down at Alec's jerking body, 452 was really seeing Alec at all, or just the ghost of the brother she lost. The mere possibility infuriated him.
"Well come on, girly, you gonna order us around? Or do you plan on waiting until Dalton bleeds out and Alec…"
452 spun her head and gave Mole a quick snarl, before turning to the rest of the transgenics to begin barking out orders. Good.
"Joshua and Gem, head back to Terminal City with Dalton. Take the tunnel. Luke, do we have any certified medics that can meet them?"
"No one certified, but a couple trained in Field Med. They'll keep him stable. Gem," Luke pointed to Dalton, "check his jacket pocket for a cell and call command on the way. Dix is expecting to hear from us."
The young mother had just started to riffle through Dalton's pockets, when she stopped abruptly.
"Luke, where is my daughter?"
"Relax Gem, we left Eve with Dix. She's perfectly safe. Now get Dalton out of here. We'll be there soon. Everything will be fine."
No sooner had the words left Luke's mouth than Alec's struggling increased tenfold. Mole could feel Alec's mouth working beneath his palm, trying to bite his hand. Joshua whimpered at the sight of his friend, but started to jog away with Gem and Dalton all the same.
"Can you really help him?" 452 asked, adjusting to rest her full weight on Alec's trembling legs. Luke paused, and Mole felt his apprehension grow.
"Well, I can't do anything for him here." Luke took a syringe out of his pocket, injecting its contents into Alec's thigh. "This might help to keep him calm."
Alec began to still under Mole's hold, and stopped trying to take off Mole's hand. "Well, why the hell are you just giving it to him now?" Mole asked, huffing.
"I'm afraid…the risks may outweigh the benefits."
"What risks?" asked 452, loosening her grip and leaning forward to help a quiescent Alec sit up.
"They don't matter now." Luke answered softly.
------------------------------------------
It took several minutes to coax Alec to stand, and even then he needed to be supported on both sides by Max and Mole. Max had suggested taking the tunnel entrance back to TC, but Luke vehemently opposed the idea. After a short argument, they decided to take a shorter, more dangerous route, one that Alec often used when slipping in and out of TC on his recon missions. Now the small convoy was making their way through an abandoned part of the city, Luke leading the way.
Max could feel Alec's body shuddering beside her, though after the injection Luke had given him, the strongest tremors had passed. She occasionally caught small snippets of recognizable words or phrases in his incessant muttering, all of which added up to shallow threats, a good amount of begging, and small, sad sounds that tore at Max's heart.
After ten minutes of stumbling down side streets, Alec finally began to speak clearly, albeit quietly.
"Luke?"
At the sound of his name, the transgenic stopped suddenly, which in turn caused Max and Mole to stagger to a halt.
"Alec?" Max spoke softly, readjusting his arm across her shoulders to allow her to face him. She needed to see his face.
"Luke?" He repeated, "You found it, didn't you? My file?"
Max looked questioningly from one man to the other.
"I did, Alec," Luke replied. "Logan gave it to me before he left. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Alec hung his head, and his feet stuttered to a stop.
"I didn't know, and then I did. And it was too late, man. It was always too late. There was nothing to do."
The response was disquieting enough to send a shiver down Max's spine. She remembered Luke yelling to Mole to keep Alec awake, and Mole commending Luke on having some inkling of Alec's condition. She simply hadn't thought to question Luke on his discovery in the time since. Now the two of them were discussing Alec's illness in terms so opaque, Max struggled to make heads or tails of the conversation. Mole, of course, beat her to the punch.
"You too wanna fill us in on what's going on, before pretty boy here flips his lid again?"
Alec paled at the last statement, but his eyes stayed focused, and his voice steady.
"We don't have time to explain everything, but the seizures will keep getting worse."
"And the rest? What about the mumbling and the hallucinations? Will they get worse?" Max asked, her voice rising incrementally as she spoke.
Luke looked prepared to answer when she realized they had reached the side entrance to Terminal City, a gap in the fence for them to crawl through, disguised by an empty dumpster. Mole shifted his portion of Alec's weight to Luke to support, so that he could push the dumpster out the way. Alec, Max noticed, had started trembling again. His eyes were blinking rapidly, and he was staring down the alleyway behind them.
"Max, he's here. He's…White. Can you see him?"
Max reached out one hand to cradle his cheek, and tried to sound reassuring. "It's okay. We'll help you. We're almost home." Alec just shook his head, and lifted one shaking hand.
"He's here, Maxie. I see him. I see him."
Max sighed and looked to Luke, who was trying to take Alec's pulse and feel for fever. Mole had finished moving the dumpster, and was motioning them ahead when a familiar voice called out from behind them, along with the sound of a safety clicking off.
"You really should learn to listen to your Second, 452."
We're in the home stretch now- just one chapter left! Thank you, as usual, for all your wonderful reviews. I'm feeling rather inspired, so I hope to have the ending up soon.
