Max simply stared at her friend, quiet and comprehending. Brin was right. Max had escaped everything that the others had gone through. She wasn't a soldier, she wasn't a test experiment, she didn't even belong to Manticore. The others, unfortunately, had been forced to relapse back into the lives that they all tried to leave eleven years ago. She opened her mouth to speak when Lydecker could be heard calling Brin in from the building.
Brin turned to Max. "Don't follow me. Don't you dare follow me and make it something you'll regret for the rest of your life." She turned again and slowly strode into the building. Once she entered the illuminated doorway, she turned to face Max, and shook her head. The door closed behind her dark shadow.
Max stood outside alone, now. She was so confused. Her loyalties were with the others. But what if what Brin had said was true-that Zack really was a puppet of Lydecker's? Still, the rest of them didn't deserve to suffer just because Zack had been poisoned. Besides, what if he could change? What if he really could get better? She remembered what he had told her only that morning, "Thanks…for everything, Max."
Right then and there, as she stood in the darkness, the night wind starting to build, she decided that no matter what Lydecker did to her, she would never give up on her friends. Her adrenaline building, she ran towards the building, faster and faster. The wall came closer and closer, no turning back now. You know what you have to do, she told herself.
Her legs tightened and pushed off the ground, propelling herself into the air, so she hung on the side of the brick wall. The bricks were aligned wrongly enough that Max was able to get some kind of foothold. She scurried up the side of building, not even thinking of the possibility that she could just tumble off and die.
Once she had reached the top, she grasped onto the side of the building and heaved herself up. The top of the building was bare. A single skylight sent light shooting up into the night sky. She crept cautiously, never daring to make a sound. Slowly, she sidled up to the window and peered down into it, craning her neck ever so slightly. She couldn't risk getting too close to the window. Somebody would see her and she could trust hardly anyone. Even Zack, or so Brin had said, was not trustable.
Far below, she saw her friends in their cells, all miserable looking and very lonely. They were skinny and malnourished. Obviously, Lydecker didn't have the funds to feed them well enough. He just figured if he kept them alive long enough until the good food arrived, that was fine enough. All of them had dark circles under eyes that sunk far too deep into sockets.
Tinga, Max thought it was her, was rocking back and forth, clutching her knees like a psychotic patient. Jhondi was rubbing her arms, trying to keep warm. Zane, lying on his back, was staring off into an abyss. His eyes shifted and met Max's, high above. Eyes widening he slowly sat up, still staring at Max in the window above his head. She put her finger over her lips, motioning for him to be quiet. He nodded.
Carefully, and as quietly as possible, Max opened the skylight. The warm, stale air came flowing out, and Max nearly gagged. How retched, she thought.
In one fluid movement, she slipped through the window and fell to the floor. Although she made barely a sound in her landing, all eyes centered on her.
"Max?" Jhondie asked in disbelief, rising to her feet.
"But we were told you were dead," Krit, who she hadn't noticed before, said.
"Yeah, well, don't believe what you hear," Max said with a shrug.
"You have to get out of here," Zane told her. Jhondie nodded in agreement.
"No, I'm not leaving without you guys and Zack."
"Max, you don't want us," Syl said.
"Why not?"
"Look at us," she replied, "we're here. There's no way you can sneak all of us out there without being spotted by Lydecker."
"I can't just abandon you!"
"Shh, chill," Krit whispered. "We gotta keep our voices down or else 'Deck is going to flip. Max, look, it's nice that you came back for us and everything, but you unlock these cells, and do you have any idea how many guards are going to be all over you?"
"A lot," she replied.
"So, you have to get going. Now!" Zane hissed.
"Where's Zack?" she asked, totally changing the subject. They hadn't suspected that one. They all looked away from her and at the ground. "What'd Lydecker do to him? I've talked to Brin and she says that Lydecker did something pretty bad to him. She says he's not Zack anymore and-"
"Well, she's right," Zane snapped.
"How so?"
"Max." The voice was so soft that Max barely heard it. Tinga was rising to her feet, almost painfully and she walked to the bars of her cell. Max hurried down to her cell and stood outside, and reached to touch Tinga's freezing hand, since there were no wires around the cells. Tinga smiled faintly. "I can't believe you actually came back."
"I'd never leave you guys here like this."
"Max, not now. You have to listen to us. Leave now. Go out and forget about us-"
"I can't…" she began.
"Yes, yes you can. Forget about everything that's been done and will be done. You're free take it while you can."
Max shook her head. "I don't believe this."
"Well, you'd better believe it," Syl replied.
Max turned away from them and to the door that was at the end of the row of cells. She walked up to it and rested her hand on the doorknob. "Don't go after him," Jhondi warned.
"You'll regret it for as long as you live," Zane told her.
"They'll kill you Maxie," Krit said. She turned back to them. None of them wanted her to go. The minute she opened that door, she would never, ever escape Manticore again. No amount of money that Logan proposed would ever set her free. No clever artifices would help her to escape. Lydecker would never let his guard down again, and she couldn't flee as she had eleven years before. She knew it. Her friends knew it.
"If you're going after Zack, don't, because it's pointless," Jhondi spat, angry almost.
"I can't leave him, just like I can't leave you guys."
"This will be it, then, you realize that?" Zane asked her.
"Yes," she replied.
"Max, there cannot possibly be any reason that you would risk your life to go after Zack. Yes, he's helped us all out before, but he won't want you. He'll want to kill you, that's all there is to it," Jhondi told her.
"I'm not expecting you to support me on this, but I have to make my own choices," Max said.
"What reason is there that could possibly be good enough for risking your life?" Tinga asked.
Max ignored her, although she really didn't want to. She opened the door and stepped out. It was time to begin.
Slowly, the closed the door behind her, letting it click quietly. A looming hallway stretched before her. She leaned back against the door and sighed, trying to prepare herself for the challenge of her life.
You know why, Tinga?, she thought. You want to really know why I'm going back to Zack when it could mean my death? Max shook her head and began to walk down the corridor.
I love him.
