Backslide

Lydecker turned, feeling the heat upon his back. He saw the flames, and his eyes bulged, ready to pop right out of his sockets. Madly, he began to call to his men as he dashed away inside the building that adjoined the outside arena.

Max turned away and began to head towards the wall, seeing her chance to escape. Suddenly, another body slammed into her, and they both fell. "What are you doing?!" she screamed, knowing the person was Zack.

"You're not leaving. We haven't finished!"

"Don't be an idiot! We're not going to survive!" she yelled, the sound of the flames eating away at a nearby building growing louder.

"We haven't received command from our officer to retreat!" Max heaved him off of her, and he stood with his back to the flames, staring at her with slitted eyes.

"Look," she hissed, trying to be heard above the sound of the flames, "I don't care what you're going to do! But, I'm not going to die! The flames are going to eat us alive in less than five minutes! We don't have time to spare!" Zack turned away. Then, with a quick glance back at Max, he ran away from her and back the way Lydecker had come.

Max paused, and, for a moment, considered going back after him. The building Zack had ran into was quickly being eaten by the flames on the other side. She turned, shaking her head, and back up from the wall. She ran at the wall full force, and leaped, trying to climb over. To her dismay, she couldn't even make it up to the wire fencing. With the flames pressing closer, her hands were growing slick from sweat and made it even harder to climb the wall. She slid down and proceeded to jump the wall again.

Then, in mid-run, she remembered the others. Trapped within their cells, they didn't have anyway to escape in the blaze. She couldn't leave them to die. After all, she had come back to Manticore to save them, and her work would be lost if she didn't try now. Quickly, she sprinted across the arena and dashed inside the raging building.


The hallway down which Lydecker had brought her to the arena was already burning, impassable. Max turned away and hurried down an opposite hallway, praying that it was right. Indeed, after jumping across blazing beams that had fallen through the ceiling, she recognized where she was at.

Without hesitation, she kicked the door in through the glass window and stuck her arm through to unlock it. Razor sharp glass cut her arm, sending blood dripping to the floor. The door swung open and in the smoky room, her friends lay, on their bellies, faces covered with what clothing they had, so to prevent smoke inhalation. "Max!" Zane cried, looking up from his position on the floor. "You gotta get us outta here!"

"How?" she asked, coughing from the smoke.

"Try to kick the door in," Tinga told her, trying to keep calm. "They open into the cells, so perhaps you can kick them in." Max squared herself up to Zane's door and backed up, then dashed towards the door, lashing out. The metal screamed as it rubbed against each other. The door did weaken slightly, but Max couldn't be so patient.

Max began to panic, as the coughing of her friends and the destruction of the flames grew louder, and she flew at the door again. Just as the door was ready to fall in and free Zane, so that he could help her, there was a low whooshing sound.

Max turned towards the sound, pausing for a split second. But, in that moment that she hesitated, the fire caught the gasoline and devoured it. Out of nowhere, a huge crash like an atomic bomb going off was heard. The wall fell in as the blazing inferno began to devour the room rapidly. Max felt herself go flying through the air, propelled by the force of the blast.

Just before she lost consciousness with her friends screaming in the background, she wondered what Logan would think when her charred body was found.