Disclaimer: Terra Nova is not mine.
Sometimes, Alicia asks questions that are not leading or prompts or any of the things which she has become used to hearing. These are sincere ones (at least ones that feel sincere from Maddy's perspective). These questions feel like the woman has taken a step back from her story telling and creation of backup plans - like something has genuinely just occurred to her that she feels like she needs to ask. So on the day that the woman wonders out loud how old she is, Maddy finds herself answering - the simple version of the answer at any rate.
She says the first words that come to mind - that she doesn't know. Then, she continues working without bothering to check the expression on Alicia's face. She doesn't feel like going into the ins and outs of why it is that she does not know. She does not bother to vocalize the concept of losing track of time in confinement. She does not mention the days that were never really even or the times that she knows she was drugged and has no way of telling how long they kept her under. Something tells her that it is more than likely that she does not need to explain those concepts to the woman who is doing the asking.
Alicia does something unexpected (or maybe if Maddy had thought about it harder it might not seem so out of place). She offers information. She gives Maddy the date - not part of the dating system that they use on the records here in the lab. That is some bizarre construct of Lucas's invention that marks time from some point of significance to him. She gives the actual, legitimate date (or what it would be if they were still on the other side of the portal). Maddy has no reason to believe that the offering is anything other than accurate. She lets the thought process filter its way through her mind before allowing one more unguarded comment to pass her lips.
"I'm sixteen then," she says softly. "I guess that's good to know."
Alicia's talking is not the only change that occurs in the aftermath of Maddy's request for assistance. After the stories have settled into their pattern, there comes one more introduction into Maddy's life - someone who by his bearing and stance (and the way that he is always half watched out of the corner of their eyes by the members of the Phoenix Group) leaves Maddy sure that he was a part of the military contingent in this place back in their before. He is young - not as young as Maddy but obviously significantly younger than Alicia.
Maddy is not sure why the introduction is made. She can speculate. It may be that they think she will respond better to someone who is closer to her own age. It may be (given that she now knows how old Maddy is) that Alicia is hoping for some sort of a teenage crush situation that they can maneuver to their advantage. The boy . . . man . . . definitely old enough to be considered a man . . . and he was obviously a professional before this all occurred (so man seems to be the appropriate appellation) is attractive from an objective point of view. She would recognize him as such if Maddy was paying attention to such things (which she kind of is but only because it is in her nature to observe).
From the way that he does not really talk or force himself on her notice while she spots him ever increasingly often in the background, she gets the impression that Alicia has done something along the lines of providing her with an extra bodyguard. Part of her wants to rail against that. As if she isn't already in someone's custody? As if she isn't already being watched nearly every moment of every day of her life? Another part of her still manages to find it somewhat sweet (because she knows even without the words being spoken between them just how little Alicia trusts the members of the Phoenix Group). She can tell that the woman does not have a great deal of faith in Lucas Taylor's ability to keep control over this place and the people that are aiding him in holding it. Maddy decides to say nothing - it is not as though saying anything ever gets her what she wants anyway, and she is not entirely certain what it is she would want if she had a choice in this particular instance. She lets it be, and she tries with ever increasing levels of failure to maintain emotional and mental distance from the subjects of the stories that Alicia is still telling her.
It is an implied fact that they want to get her out of this place. Maddy is not, in principle, opposed to this idea. It was not her choice to be here. It was not her choice to be doing finish work on Lucas Taylor's projects and running equations for Dr. Yibbets. It is, however, not her choice to be a tool to wield in the hands of the other side either. She does recognize that the other side, at least, has higher odds of letting her dictate terms.
It does not seem as if they are very close to following any course of action toward smuggling her out anyway - until suddenly they are. Dr. Yibbets is actually on site for once, and Lucas has been OTG for more than a day in some sort of a surveying venture when it happens. She does not see the streak across the sky that is their only warning (it is Dr. Yibbets who mentions it to her in the initial aftermath). She is, in fact, still in her room rather than on her way to the lab when the wave rattles the house.
There is a short silence followed by a lot of yelling - most of it indistinguishable as separate words and phrases. Part of her head is focused on the mess of shattered glass that covers the floor of the kitchen and living area of the house. Another part of her brain is tracking what must have happened as almost a commentary on the situation running over the top of everything else that she is thinking. An EMP must have occurred in the aftermath of the meteor strike. How much of the equipment in the colony is shielded for such a contingency is information that she does not have, but the change in the ambient sound around her and the tone of the yelling in the distance is implying to her that it is precious little.
Dr. Yibbets barks at her to stay put as she goes flying out the door in the direction of the lab, and Maddy quickly pushes down her natural curiosity and desire to see more closely what is happening.
She is not truly surprised several hours later (with no word from Dr. Yibbets or anyone else) to hear the tap at her window that reveals Reynolds to be waiting for her with a pack strapped to his back and whispered instructions for her to grab certain items and come quickly. Part of her bristles at the confirmation of yet another group that simply expects her to comply quietly with whatever they demand of her, but the instructions are accompanied by one small difference. "Please, Maddy," he adds at the end. "This is the best chance you have of getting out of here."
She could muster up some grounds for argument with that, but she finds that she does not want to do so. That she has to have somewhere to run to has been the underlying sticking point through all of her plans. They are offering her somewhere to go. She knows what staying entails and leaving is a white wall of unidentified variables. She throws together the bag as instructed and climbs out the window. They have never so much as bothered with offering her family or even information pertaining to them as bargaining chips. She is in a repetitive loop with no signs of change being forthcoming. Unidentified variables might be exactly what she needs.
It is strangely easy to slide from corner to corner and evade the eyes of those who are patrolling (perhaps because there seems to be a certain disregard of the usual standards in the face of the unexpected occurrence and the current lack of leadership present to redeploy new parameters). It is then that she realizes just how little depth the majority of the people at Lucas's command have. They aren't very adaptive (or, at least, they are not very adaptive in short time frames).
That is something that she is going to have to keep in mind for future planning. Right now, however, she needs her focus on other things - like the things that will be lurking in the coming darkness that will not hesitate to eat her and what will happen to her if they do manage to make it to wherever it is that Reynolds is taking her.