Escape and Evade

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except this story that I'll probably deny I wrote later on. Everything belongs to Charles Eglee, James Cameron, and all those other DA people.
Summary: What I hope will happen during season 2. Max will escape sometime in later chapters (that is, if all of you don't think it's horrible) with help from Zack who (obviously) isn't dead. It'll eventually become a m/z story, so if you don't like it screw you, don't read it, and I mean that in the nicest possible way; really I do.
Spoilers: just to be safe, every episode to date (AJBAC), I'll probably bring up a lot of past episodes.
Rating: PG-13 (this chapter) language and eventually some m/z encounter(s) *wink, wink* but if you watch the show it's not that big of a deal.

A/N: Ok, this one took a little longer. I had no clue how to start it, but since I took longer, it probably makes a little more since (probably). Wrist pain is gone, so I can actually type now. Oh, and I 4get who wrote the review, but I'm not going to make Max ditch Logan (or kill him), so don't worry. I won't be too hard on him (next chapter she'll probably see him...probably). Thanks for the support, hope this isn't too bad.



Zack broke the kiss, and grinning, he lead the way through the woods. We stopped to rest only when Zack was tired. I didn't need sleep, and he wouldn't admit he was getting rundown, so I'd have to ask to stop whenever he looked like he was going to collapse. We didn't talk much while walking, he'd just wake up at the crack of dawn, and gesture for me to follow him.

Walking from dawn to dusk and narrowly escaping suspicious sector police was not something I enjoyed, and I made that clear to Zack. He'd just grunt in response, and keep moving. That was Zack for you, I guess I really didn't expect him to have some drastic change just because I told him how I felt. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't have it any other way.

On the third or fourth night of our journey, I noticed that several cars began speeding up and down the road. We were probably getting closer to an actual town. It'd been a long walk, and finally some small, rundown houses came into view. Ah, just like back home. Graffiti decorated walls and the sides of buildings, and druggies littered alleys we passed by. Charming place.

"We can stay here." Zack stated, jerking his head toward a really dumpy looking hotel. Oh, he spoils me, he really does. He sure knew how to pick the classiest hotels. We walked into the lobby and some old hag with stringy gray hair, huge, thick glasses, and a lot of missing teeth sat behind the front desk. She was reading a newspaper, and we had to ring the bell about five times until she actually noticed we were there. Zack frowned at her, his arms crossed over his chest. Looked like I'd have to take care of this one before Zack started screaming at her.

"Do you have any vacancies?" I asked sweetly, although I probably didn't have to worry about her being suspicious. She probably wouldn't even remember who we were when we checked out...or she'd have died of old age by then.

"One." She replied, lifting her beady brown eyes from the newspaper to meet mine. I waited for her to continue, but she just stared past us. Ok....we weren't getting anywhere here.

"And..." Zack interrupted impatiently.

"A twin bed, bathroom, couch, closet...nothing special." She returned absentmindedly.

"We'll take it." I volunteered, and she pointed at a key to her right, which had the room number engraved on them. I heard Zack sigh loudly in exasperation as he grabbed the keys quickly, and walked to the room. He unlocked the door, and swung open the door. It wasn't that bad considering the neighborhood we were in, kind of like a much smaller version of my place, minus Original Cindy and my Ninja. Zack sat on the small couch in the corner of the room, and it sagged under his weight.

"Go ahead." He said, jerking his head toward the shower that I was eyeing with obvious desire. I nodded, and took about an hour long shower. As I opened the bathroom door, and walked out in a towel, I smiled dreamily at Zack. He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. Despite his annoyance at my lengthy shower, I watched his eyes venture up and down my body. I ignored him and hung my drying clothes partway out the window, and sat on the corner of the bed, not wanting to sleep, but not knowing what else to do. Zack mumbled something about taking a shower, and closed the bathroom door. You have to call him sometime Max. He thinks you're dead.

I pulled on my wet clothes, and scaled the fire escape down to the payphone on the side of the building. Taking a deep breath, I picked up the phone and punched in Logan's cell number. I drummed my fingers nervously against the outside of the phone booth as I waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" A voice answered. Not Logan, it sounded kind of like...

"Krit?"

"Max? Where are you, I thought you were-"

"I'm fine, did you guys make it out ok?"

"Yeah...we're on our way back to Seattle....but how...what happened? You were dead...."

"Transplant...they gave me Tinga's heart. Zack and I escaped, and we're staying at a hotel. We broke out, killed Renfro, freed the X7s and we've been moving through forests for at least the past three or four days. Listen, I need to talk to Logan, is he around?"

"Yeah, hold on." Krit said, and I heard him set down the phone and yell to Logan.

"Max?" Logan breathed.

"Hey...we need to talk..."

"I know...Max, you were dead, how in the world...."

"We can talk about that later, I have Tinga's heart, I'm in God only knows where with Zack, probably in North Western Wyoming, and I'm fine. First of all, where are the four of you?"

"In Northern Idaho, on our way to Seattle...and it's us three. Liedecker's gone." He replied slowly.

"What happened?"

"Krit and Syl happened. They killed him as soon as we started driving off from Manticore; he was useless to us, and you know how they felt about him...how all of you felt about him. I didn't see it, I was unconscious at the time, but when I came to only Krit and Syl were in the van, and Deck was gone. Krit explained that they'd tossed his body into a lake while I was still knocked out. I guess he deserved it; putting all those kids through hell and back....Max...I don't know what to say. I mean, I thought you were dead....I missed you..."

"I know the feeling," I replied softly, thinking of Zack, "Renfro told me Zack killed himself to give me his heart, but he got shot and passed out before he could pull the trigger and commit suicide. All those days when my stitches were healing...all I could think about was Zack...."

"What are you trying to say Max..." Logan questioned warily, his voice wavering slightly.

"Logan...I'm in love with Zack." I blurted out. I couldn't help it, he was making this so much harder than I ever thought it would be, I just wanted to let it out so I wouldn't have to deal with it later.

"What about us? Everything we ever had was just a mistake?" He pressed heatedly.

"I never realized my feelings toward Zack until now. I don't think everything that we had was a mistake, I thought I loved you. I'm sorry Logan."

"Me too." He agreed curtly, and he hung up. I just stood there, listening to the dial tone, until I finally snapped out of it, and hung up the phone. He was just angry...he'd cool down. It's not like he was going to just accept it and congratulate us. I decided I'd call back in a few days.

Just as I started to turn toward the fire escape and climb back up, a hand grabbed me roughly by the arm. I swung at the assailant, but he grabbed my wrist. My back was to the man's chest, and I flipped around quickly to study the attacker. It was Zack. I sighed with relief, and stopped struggling.

"What do you think you're doing?" He growled.

"Making a phone call. You'd be amazed at the technology these days! You can pick up the receiver, dial a number, and talk with anyone you want; maybe you should try it sometime!" I retorted sarcastically.

"It's dangerous Max. We're still in Wyoming, hover drones are all over the place, and....I was worried about you." He added so quietly I could barely hear him.

"You-you were worried about me? Mr. Phony Sentimentality, vigilant and brave CO of the X5s, was worried about me taking care of myself?" I laughed incredulously.

"I got out of the shower, you weren't there, your clothes were gone, the window was hanging open...I thought you left..." He trailed off uncomfortably.

"Why would I leave you Zack? I could never leave you....come on, let's just get back to the room," I suggested, "....race you!"

I watched him chase me up the fire escape, leaping from one to the other, barely even using the ladders. His blond hair flew behind him as he soared past me, grinning triumphantly. He was already in the room by the time I climbed into the window. He was lying on the bed, one hand tucked behind his head, the other looking at his watch as if he'd been waiting hours for me.

"I let you win." I told him, sitting beside him.

"You need to brush up on your training Maxie, you're slipping." He snickered, watching me stare at him, eyebrows raised, and arms crossed. I was always faster than him, he must've been training hard before he came to tell me about Tinga.

"Screw the training, we aren't soldiers anymore Zack." I pointed out, frowning at him.

"Just because Manticore's gone doesn't mean we get to slack off and get lazy. There are other people who'd love to get their hands on a couple genetically enhanced super-soldiers out there. You of all people should know that after those run-ins with the reds."

"I'd work harder if you'd give me a little personal training." I tried, grinning at his raised eyebrows.

"I think I could handle that." Zack agreed, sliding a hand around my neck, and pulling me down for another kiss.



A/N: Ok, I'll admit it. I love torturing all of you. Actually, I'm just contemplating where to go from here, so I stopped. Anyway, sorry this took so long, I could've gotten it up the next day, but I'm sick :( I kinda have an idea what's going to happen in the next chapter (key word being kinda), so it should be up a little sooner than this 1 was, hopefully. I fixed up the first 3 chapters, so they make more sense (that's always a good thing). See, I told you I wouldn't be mean to Logan, he's sad, but he'll get over it. I killed off Deck cause I think he's gonna turn on them later next season, I mean, Logan had to point a gun at Deck's head to get him to blow up the DNA lab. I guess that makes sense though, that was his 'lifelong dream' and whatnot. I like him and everything, but I didn't want to have to deal with him being in the story later on. Ok, I'll stop rambling and start typing. Review, review, review!