Wrote this one before I got even halfway through 'Quarantine'. Hence the quick post.

This was a little bit inspired by a part of John Grogan's Marley & Me. I don't think I'm really spoiler-ing it, the first chapter of the book tells you enough, but if you don't want to know, don't read it.

I loved writing this, and am really happy with how it came out… I'm a bad, sick, depressing person. Sorry.

U is for

Umbrella

Animals go away to die.

Max heard that once. Animals go away to be on their own when they know they are going to die. She knew she wasn't an animal. Despite what people tried to tell her. She didn't think transgenics were animals, even the 'nomlies. They were people, just as human and humane as any other John or Jane Doe on the street.

Maybe the others still hadn't been out of Manticore long enough to realise that yet.

Which was why she was wandering the streets of T.C. in one of Seattle's, hundred-a-month, rainstorms.

The attack had been unexpected. Maybe the ordinaries had finally just got sick of their government's truce with the 'freaks' inside T.C., but whatever had started it, they had acted more like animals than any of Max's people. They had smashed their way through an unprotected section of the barricade before anyone at Command Central had realised what was going on, and grabbed the first 'freak' they saw.

She heard footsteps padding up behind her. Max glanced around to see Gem hurrying over, sheltered under an umbrella. She had a second, unopened one in her other hand, and held it out when she reached Max's side. Max took it gratefully and opened it, ducking out of the freezing rain.

"No sign of him, we called Logan, he didn't go to Sandeman's house. He's not at his apartment, or Jam Pony, or Crash. We've got people in the sewers. We even sent a scout to the old Manticore site. They said they'd call when they've searched the remains."

"Make sure they check the basements if they can still get in there," replied Max automatically. She didn't think he'd have gone there, but he'd spent so much of his life there, who knew? And the basement was the safe place, away from guards, where they'd spent a lot of their alone time together.

"Already have," Gem assured her. She paused at Max's side, and Max could sense her hesitance.

"Go Gem, I've got this street covered," she felt a gloved hand rest on her wet arm.

"We'll find him," Max allowed a small smile of thanks at Gem's gesture.

"I know," … even though she didn't. Gem nodded and hurried away, back in the direction she came from.

The umbrella provided a little relief from the rain, but it wasn't enough. She was already soaked through and biting back the shivers. It was too little, too late, like everything that day. She tried to focus, listening for even the slightest noise in the rundown office building ahead of her. Reaching out for the tiniest scent of him. She saw a shadow move ahead of her across the entrance to a small courtyard. They had cleared out the Ordinaries, hurting them a whole lot less than everyone wanted to. She crossed to the shadow carefully, aware that there was a possibility, albeit a small one, that there were still some of the amped up Ordinaries in T.C.

She tried to bite back the hatred she felt for them right then. The hatred for them and for the damn guns they had brought with them, like they were hunting game.

Animals.

A head poked out the entrance and waved her toward them. She couldn't make out who it was, but the hand signals were Manticore. So she ran.

It was Bullet. He pointed inside the courtyard silently, shaking his head. Max felt her stomach knot with fear as she crossed through the gate.

The courtyard was relatively small, and as rundown as everywhere else in T.C., but there were a couple of withered trees still standing. Silent, decaying sentinels either side of an arched doorway. Silent decaying sentinels over a silent, shivering body.

Alec's head was in his hands as he sat on the wet concrete steps, and she hurried over to him. She held the umbrella over him, though she wasn't sure why. He was soaked to the skin already. He noticed the respite from the rain and raised his head slowly. His eyes were bloodshot, lips tinged purple with cold. The scratch on his cheek where the bullet had grazed him had been washed clean in the rain. She realised he must have been sitting there for a while. Max touched his arm gently and her eyes flicked anxiously to the door behind him.

"Did you find him?" she spoke normally, but her voice seemed as loud as a gunshot in the small space. Alec shut his eyes, face tight as he fought for composure. She dropped to her knees and laid a hand on his cheek. He grasped it with his own. Without opening his eyes, he pulled her hand away and used it to point to his left.

Joshua lay under the bigger of the two trees. His big body seemed impossibly small curled up in the protruding roots. Her breath caught in her throat. Alec's hand on hers tightened even as her other hand relaxed, and the umbrella drifted off, caught in the wind, forgotten.

So this was more inspired by the end image than anything else.

Please feed my habit and review!