Eva and Chris had been standing outside the door

Eva and Chris had been standing outside the door. Eva could hear what they were saying, heard every word. She'd known this was it, now or never.

As soon as she'd opened the door, screamed out at him, he had his gun drawn too, trained on Max. Max was completely defenseless, her whole body exposed because of her position. He touched the gun to her scalp.

"Come on, now Eva. Let's be reasonable."

"Be REASONABLE? Reasonable? Can you hear yourself?"

"I will shoot you. I will."

Lydecker stared at her intensely. He slowly lifted the gun from alongside Max's head, then sighted it at Eva.

"Well, Don. Here we are again."

"Again?"
"That night? You remember that night. Your kids ran away, Don. But not me. Not me." She elongated the words. "Because you shot me. You didn't care. You didn't give a rat's as$ about any of us.

"That's not true, Eva."

"Then why? Why did you shoot me?"

"IT'S NOT TRUE. I cared about you, all of you," he said, glancing momentarily at Max.

"So what are you going to do now? You going to shoot me? Shoot me again? Because you care?"

"Eva, DON'T do this. I will…"

Eva cocked her head. Chris ran in and knelt next to Max, quickly undoing one side of the cuffs. He pulled her up.

"Come on," he whispered.

"No….I," she protested.

"This isn't about you. Come on." She allowed him to pull her after him, into the hall. They stood against the wall. The hallway was still empty. Most of the office was on lunch break.

"EVA, DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS. I will, I swear to God, I'll do it again." His voice sounded shaky, as if he might be crying.

"Go ahead, Don. Go ahead. Do it. DO IT! DO IT NOW! I DARE you."

"Eva, EVA, EVA!" His voice was anguished. Hers was taunting.

"Is it because you love me, that you can't do it? Because I'm yours? Because you gave me this life, and you can't bear to take it now? Do it….do it…."

Chris and Max winced as they heard a gun go off. No screams followed. Then -

"You CHICKENSHIT! You shot me in the ARM! You can't even do it." They heard a report from the Baretta, then Eva dashed into the hall.
"Come on." They stared at her arm. Blood was running freely, dripping off her fingertips. "Come on." Chris shucked his jacket and wrapped it around her arm to keep the blood from getting on the carpet. They took off running. Chris had the stolen passkeys. They swiped them, repeatedly, turning and going through doors, down stairs, up stairs. Max lost orientation.

"Did you kill him?" Max asked carefully.

"Shot him in the leg. Keep him from coming after us. I couldn't kill him…"

They heard echoing footsteps, running and shouting.

"They're chasing us. Come on."

"Where are we?"

"L wing. We're almost there." Chris kept trading passkeys.

He must've stolen a couple sets. Eva thought To keep them from tracing us. Chris swiped the cards again, and they ducked into a room and waited for the footsteps to pass. They ran up another few flights of stairs. Eva began to stumble. Her face was pinched and pale.

"We're almost there."

She nodded determinedly. They went into another room, then walked to the window. The window caught in the frame. Max jammed it with her hand and it screeched open. The slid through, one at a time, landing with a gentle thud on the grass below. The blue Cherokee sat waiting. Eva lost her footing. Max grabbed her other arm, pulling her up gently. They got into the Cherokee, slammed the doors. Chris gunned the engine.

"What do you bet they've alerted the perimeter?"

"Odds are good. But don't worry. There are people like you out there," Eva said in the way of reassurance. Chris kept with the speed limit. Eva lay across the backseat, the jacket around her arm slick and soaked with blood. They arrived at the nearest gate. The guard eyed them suspiciously. He began to reach for the phone.

"Wait." Eva reached into her pocket with her good arm and drew out a few bills folded together. She handed them to Chris, who handed them to the guard. The guard paused, pocketed the bills, and opened the gate.

"Then," Eva continued, muttering. "There are people like him. This whole damn universe is corrupt, from the very bottom to the very top."

"Okay," Chris said, easing the Cherokee out into traffic. "We've got to get to a hospital."
"No! They'll find us there. We've got to go to Seattle." Eva was insistent.

"Seattle! Are you crazy? That's at least a day away. You'll bleed out by then. What's in Seattle?"

"A friend. He'll get you and Max where you need to go. Me too. I'll be okay."

"No, you won't. You've just been shot, for cripes sake. You just can't put a Band-Aid on and be all better."

"Not to sound cliché or anything, but it's just a flesh wound."

Max slid into the backseat and gently unwrapped Eva's arm.

"It's true. It went clean through, and just barely, too. He practically missed her."

"Then why is she bleeding so much?"

"Don't ask me. Do you have any…" Max glanced around the grungy Jeep. "Any anything?"

"There's a first-aid kit in the back."

Max slid over the backseat and began rooting around, and came up with the box. She pulled the dingy lid away. It was shoved full of all sorts of medical things. Max had expected a tube of anapestic and a couple mangled Band-Aids.

"Whoa. Boy scout."

"I stole it from the medical labs."

"Well, does anybody have any idea how to best go about fixing up a shot wound?"

Eva sighed. "Not really. Just try to get it to stop bleeding, I guess. I'm going to end up in the hospital sooner or later, and now I'd really prefer later."

"You seriously want to still go to Seattle?"

"Yes. And so do you. You want a new life? That's the way to get it." Eva winced as Max went to work trying to staunch the bleeding. Her face was pale and wan. This must hurt like no other Max thought, touching the wound. I guess she's just still trying to be a soldier. Eva pulled the box to her and searched through it, coming up with a glass bottle. She set it on her lap and continued her search until she came up with a wrapped syringe. She handed to Max.

"Gimmie some of this." Max turned the bottle so she could read the label. Morphine.

"How much?" she asked.

"Dunno. Just a little. Maybe this much," Eva said, holding her fingers apart. Max shrugged and poked the needle into the bottle, pulled back on the plunger, and stabbed the needle into Eva's arm.

"This is crazy," Chris muttered.

"You better believe it," Max said. "And don't forget, you wanted this."

They drove on in silence. After a while, Eva took another hit of drugs and drifted off into morphine dreams. She muttered quietly. It was dark. Chris's eyes began to droop, and Max offered to take the wheel. Every so often, they would pass a sector checkpoint and Chris would supply sector passes taken from Eva's backpack, left over from Logan.

"We're going to need more gas soon."

"Try there," Chris said, pointing to a station. She pulled in.

"You fill up. I'll be back." She headed inside to the back hallway. There was a payphone. She picked up the receiver and punched 0 with her middle finger. She waited for the automated voice to start. It was a nice voice

"…place a collect call, press one now….if you would"

1

"Please enter the number you wish to dial…"

Max punched in Logan's number.

"Please state your name…"

Max stayed silent. She glanced through the station's front window. Chris stood next to the Cherokee, watching the numbers tick over. Eva was still in the backseat. She sighed. She was tired. Her system, she suspected, was still coursing with drugs, and running all day wasn't helping either. She didn't ache so much anymore, though. And her thoughts were clearer.

"Hello. Hello?"

It was Logan.

"Logan? How's the weather?"

"Max? Is that you?" she could hear Logan draw in his breath, deeply, relieved and at the same time anxious. "Where are you? You were supposed to be back… we've been so worried. Where have you been?"

"Manticore. Long story. We're all okay. Well, except Eva. She sorta got shot, but she'll be okay. I think."

"How do you sorta get shot?"

"Another long one. I'll be back in Seattle tomorrow. See if you can work up two new identities. One for a guy, caucasian, about twenty. And one for Eva."

"Max, I…" Max cut him off, afraid of what he might say.

"I've got to go now. Tell everybody 'hi'" she said flippantly. She dropped the phone back on the hook and let out a sigh. She was so tired.