Backslide

The lights in the room were shut off, indicating nighttime. Lying on his cot, Zack was staring out into an abyss, his mind sailing. He heard the click of a door opening and paid no attention until the pale light from the hallways drained into the room, illuminating it for a moment.

The door stayed open as a man walked in, carrying a body in his arms. With unexpected tenderness, the body was laid down in the cot in the cell next to Zack's. The other man left and Zack rolled off the cot and scurried to the bars nearest the opposite cell. He knew the wires had been turned on and didn't dare put his hand out. There was a pale light in the room, outlining shadows, but he could still see. That part of Manticore would never leave him-the genetic coding.

"Max?" he whispered, uncertain that Lydecker really would've let her come back. The body stirred and a twinge of hope surged through Zack. Slowly and obviously painfully, the person moved to the bars closest to his cell. In the pale light he could see that it was Max. Her jeans and T-shirt had been removed to be changed into a faded outfit of their old uniforms. She was a sickly shade of ashen gray and beads of perspiration clung to her forehead, twinkling in the pale light; her eyes were bloodshot and unable to focus on him; and she was shaking slightly, as if she were going start in on a fit of seizures.

"It's me…" she replied, her voice terribly weak.

"What'd they do to you?" he asked. They were both sitting by the wall of bars closest to the other. Without the wires, they would've easily been able to reach out and touch one another.

"Zack…" she began, "I don't know how to say this to you without…without…" she paused, seemingly searching for the right word, "without shocking you."

"What happened?" he repeated nervously, wondering what they could've done to Max that would affect him. He didn't like the way she looked. Max was usually so strong and now she was like a baby deer, helpless and able to be snatched up any predator.

"Zack," she paused and licked her lips. "Zack, I'm pregnant... With our child." He was floored. The thought that Max contained a baby that he had no option in creating was mind-boggling and infuriating. Of course it wasn't her fault, but that wasn't the point. A child had been created nonetheless.

"Ours?" he echoed. She nodded mutely, her black curls bobbing in the blanched light. "You're sure? I mean, what if they were lying to you?"

She looked away and at the floor. "I saw it. I saw the tiny little creature growing before they sedated me and put it inside. I know it's there. I can feel it." Zack felt sick. He wanted to vomit in some corner far away until his brains blew out. His child. Her child. Their child.

"Max," he whispered. She turned to look at him. "I'm sorry."

"What for? Besides, didn't you already know?"

"No. I awoke as I was being strapped down to an operating table. Hell, I thought Lydecker was going to take my organs and sell them on the market for millions. We're worth that, y'know."

"A good couple million."

"Truly, I thought he was going to chop me open and sell my insides. But, when I woke up and found that I was still alive…I wasn't exactly sure what Lydecker had done," he explained.

"It's not like it's your fault though that this happened."

"It partially is."

"It's partially mine too."

"But mostly Lydecker's."

"Uh-huh," she agreed. "What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, slightly confused at the point she was trying to reach.

"What are we going to do with it?" She shook her head sadly. "I don't remember my mom. All I was was an inferior science experiment…and that's exactly what this baby will be like. Alone and helpless."

"Yes…" he agreed.

"Think about it though. The child will be extremely powerful. More powerful than any of us could imagine. It'll have your genes and my genes and Lydecker will most likely do more genetic work on it…if he hasn't already." She sighed and tenderly ran her fingers through her hair. "It can't live, Zack. It'll be nothing but a tool. A nuclear warhead for Lydecker's army."

"You can't kill it," he argued. "You'll kill yourself."

"Maybe so, but then…" she faded away and looked away. "It's late and I don't feel good." She laughed hoarsely. "Besides, Lydecker'll be back tomorrow. So, it's probably best that I get to bed." Max struggled to get up and limped to her bed. She had to have been hurting. Just getting back from major surgery and mostly likely not having enough tranquilizers would hurt anybody. "'Night," she whispered and rolled over on her side.

Zack watched her for sometime more before finally heading over to his cot. He was no longer in much pain. It came as an inkling now and then. After all, he hadn't been the one who had to have his abdomen split open-twice. Soon, he told himself, when Max is strong enough, we'll escape…with the others and destroy Lydecker once and for all, like he should've been a long time ago.