Rating:R
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine.
A wisp of smoke drifted from the muzzle of the gun. Max's hand quivered
a bit, then dropped the weapon onto the floor. Her lifeless brown pupils echoed the finality
of the act, the ultimate severing of her past life from the being that she now was. Logan
lay on the carpet, blue eyes wide open, unblinking. The last part of her humanity lay on the
carpet, his body no doubt getting cold already. No sign of life emanated from his still
form. "Pack up the captures and move out." Renfro ordered. "I want us back at base by
1100 hours." The soldiers in the room proceeded to handcuff and chain up Krit, Jondy,
and Zane. The large group moved orderly out of the apartment, dragging the helpless
forms of their captives with them. Max and Brin joined them. As they walked, Brin looked
over at her sister. Something had changed. She was so different from the girl she
remembered when they were just kids, so different from the young woman she had known
for but a few days but had grown intimately close to when they captured her. Where once
there was a fire, a burning bright flame of determination and strength in those eyes, there
remained nothing. Nothing but a deep sadness, a complete and shallow emptiness where
her sister Max used to be. It was as if she had died with that man back in that shattered,
smoke filled room.
"What the hell do you mean the subject got away?" Renfro growled
angrily at the leader of Bravo 2 as the man nervously avoided eye contact and shifted his
weight on one foot. "You mean to that you were right there at the bottom waiting for her,
and she still managed to get away? You fucking idiot!" "Sorry Sir, she was just too fast,
and Robertsons' gun jammed--" "Save me your pitiful excuses. I'll decide what to do with
you when we get back. Rest of you move out." She turned from him and checked on the
status of the prisoners. All healthy, not too badly injured. |Well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad,
considering. They should make excellent new additions to the program.| They began
loading the captures into two separate vans. Brin and Max would take Zane and Jondy in
one vehicle, Eva and another group of guards would take Krit in another van. She gave
orders to have them heavily sedated at all times and to make sure they were strapped
down tight. Brin directed a thoughtful and concerned stare towards the two she had been
assigned to escort before getting inside the driver's seat with Max next to her. The small
army of black hummers and vans sped off into the cold black night.
Syl dashed through the darkness, her eyes adjusting easily to the lack of
illumination. She looked around her. No sign of the black clad TAC troopers, but no signs
of Max or Krit or any of the others. |I can only hope they were as lucky as I was.| She
briefly entertained the possibility that they may be dead or captured, but quickly pushed it
out of her mind. |Can't think like that. Got to hope for the best. Question is, how the hell
did those bastards find us anyway?| She stopped running, catching her breath and taking in
her surroundings more carefully. The street was dirty and covered with torn newspapers
and garbage, structures surrounding her covered with grafitti and rotting decay. A
homeless man sat in the corner, his hat lying upside down on the pavement, a futile plead
for spare change. |Not much different from Sacramento. Poverty and despair, people living
on the street, martial law enforced by dirty cops, what else is new?| Suddenly she felt like
falling to the ground and crying. She always had an urge to break down in tough
situations, even more so now since she had none of her siblings to rely on. |Feeling sorry
for yourself won't accomplish anything| her mind shouted at her. |Got to keep moving| But
where to? She had no place to go. What the hell was she going to do?
|I didn't see any of them leaving the building, so they must be—No. It can't
be. It all happened so fast, there were too many of them, if we--| There was no time for
if's. She had to decide what to do next. |Might as well lay low and wait for them to stop
looking...then maybe, just maybe I can find a way to get them out of there.| It was the best
idea she could come up with, given the circumstances. Rage and helplessness surged
through her chest as she realized she could do nothing to help them. Then she remembered
Logan. Maybe he was still alive. Maybe he could help her. Sure, they might have greased
him to cover things up, and they definitely would have killed him if they found out about
Eyes, but... it was a lot to hope for, but if he was still alive, he was the only person who
could help her get the others back. Besides, they left a lot of equipment and cash back at
his place. She needed transportation too. Then again, they might be waiting for her back
there. |And why would they do that?| Still, to be on the safe side, she decided to wait a
couple hours before heading back. She walked a couple of blocks down towards South
Market. If they were still looking for her, she could hide in the crowd. She pressed her
way through the bustling and noisy bodies and entered a coffee shop. She ordered a cup to
calm her nerves, while noting that there were two back exits in addition to the one she
came in. She would wait here until she felt it was safe to head back.
"You alright boo?" Logan stirred a bit, inhaling deeply, his nostrils flaring
from the smell of dust and freshly spent bullets. Pain ran in shockwaves across his chest.
|Why the hell does it hurt so much?| Then he remembered. Max had shot him. Part of him
still refused to accept it, to believe that Max would turn against him and her family to
serve the bastards responsible for her traumatic childhood. |It can't be. Got to be another
dream. Got to be. If I just blink my eyes right now, this will all go away, I'll wake up in
bed, and find out none of this ever happ--| He was pulled out of his comatose state by a
hand waving back and forth across his face. He looked up. "Cindy?" "Bout time you came
round." He turned his head and surveyed the devastation that had been done to his once
beautiful home. Bullet holes mutilated the walls and ceiling, furniture was shattered and
torn to pieces, perhaps due to the explosion, and a thin cloud of dust filled the air like the
stench of a old tomb. "Original Cindy leave you guys alone for an hour and all hell breaks
loose. What the hell happened? Where the hell is Max and her peeps?"
He sat up, feeling the searing, agonizing pain growing in his chest. He held
his hand to it. Cindy noticed his state of suffering. "You hurt?" "I got shot." |She nailed
me straight in the heart. How am I still alive?| Cindy pulled up his shirt to get a better
look. He stared down at his chest, expecting to see a bloody hole, only to find that the
bullet was embedded in the dark, lightweight yet firm material that he wore over his
clothing. |Thank god for kevlar.| He'd forgotten to take the vest off when they got back.
|Logan, you are one lucky son of a bitch.| "Here, help me get this off." She helped pull the
bulky article over his forehead. He examined his injuries. A dark black/reddish bruise
covered the area where he'd been hit, and there was a definite pock mark in his flesh
where it had struck, in addition to a little blood. It still hurt like hell, but otherwise he was
fine. "You ready to tell me want went down yet?" She looked him directly in eye, her tone
demanding and somewhat angry. He averted his eyes from hers a bit, not wanting to tell
her the truth which he himself did not want to believe or hear. He opened his mouth to
speak, when suddenly he noticed another presence in the room. "Syl! What are you doing
back here?
"Came back to check up on you. And get some of the stuff I had to leave."
Syl paused for a moment, hesitant to have him confirm the truth about the others. "They
got caught, didn't they?" Cindy abruptly came to the obvious conclusion that had evaded
her for so long. "Let me guess. Them black helicopter goons are what happened, right?"
Logan could only nod in a strained sign of confirmation. "They got Max and the others?"
"Yeah." His voice was dry and stagnant. Syl cast her head down. "Fuck. I knew it. How
the hell did they find us anyway." Logan cleared his throat and began his answer
hesitantly. "They uh... had someone on the inside." "Like who? It can't be you,
considering they want your ass dead. Besides, I don't think you'd be the type." "It was
Max." The faces of both women contorted in shock. "Tell me you're shitting me." "Wish I
could." Syl merely stood there, unwilling to believe it. "My god. She played us all along,
had us all fooled. We should have known, it seemed just a little too simple..." Cindy broke
out of her trance and opened her mouth. "No fucking way my boo would work for them
bastards. Max be the toughest ass person I know! No fucking way she'd let them
brainwash her into some kind of--" "She shot me herself." "What?" "Listen Cindy, the
Max we know is dead. I took one good look at her right before she pulled the trigger. She
isn't Max anymore, she's just a soulless monster created by Manticore, they turned her
into one of their goddamn perfect soldiers. And I'm not sure we can ever get her back
again."
"You all right?" Brin's voice broke the icy numbness rotating endlessly
through Max's mind like a hurricane—one with no wind or thunder, no detectable sound
whatsoever, just flashes of bright yellow orange lightning accompanied by the constant
replaying of that one nightmarish moment in time when she pulled the trigger and
destroyed the last thing that gave her something to go back to, the last thing that she had
to live for. She could see herself killing him, over and over again, like a goddamn fucking
tape being rewinded and replayed for the sole reason of keeping her in perpetual torment.
"Max? Please. Answer me." She remained numb and unreadable, a granite statue helpless
to release the torrent of pain welling inside of her. Frustrated, Brin looked at the road
surrounding her. Two of the hummers were supposed to stay behind them, a necessary
precaution in order to protect and guard the precious cargo that was behind her. She
checked the rear mirror, then the side ones. No sign of them. |What the fuck. Are norms
always this goddamn incompetent? No wonder they had to make us.| She sighed. |Guess
now is as good a time as any.| She pulled over next to the rusted steel railing. One of the
guards in the back spoke up. "Sir! Something wrong?" Brin paused for a moment. "Me
and 452 need to talk for a minute. Alone." Perplexed, a slight frown manifesting upon his
lips, the guard replied "What about the prisoners?" "Are they properly sedated?" "Yes, but
we have orders to---" "Leave. Your attention is not required." Worried, the two guards
opened the back door of the van and shut them firmly behind them.
"Alright Max. Now that we're alone, feel free to tell me what the fuck is
going on." Barely changing her stonelike appearance, Max gave a controlled and quiet
answer. "Nothing. It's nothing." "Then why the hell are you acting like this?" "Like what?
Like you're dead or something?" No answer. Brin noticed a quivering of the upper lip,
like the woman next to her was about to suffer a nervous breakdown. |Has to be
something.| Then it struck her. The man back at the apartment. Eyes Only. The guy Max
shot. "That man. Logan Cale. You knew him didn't you?" All she got was a stiff nod for
an answer. "You were....I mean... you two were close weren't you? You had feelings for
him." There was no response this time. There was no need for one. Her silence was
enough, as was the shimmering drops of moisture emanating form her eyes. Brin was
beside herself. "Shit." Brin sat for a moment. The decision she was about to make would
determine the course of the rest of her life, and the lives of Max and the two siblings lying
unconscious in the back of the vehicle. But what she read in that file on Renfro's desk that
day compelled her to choose the very path she once believed with all her heart and soul to
be evil and treacherous, to be the greatest possible sin against all that she stood for, all
that she believed in, all that she was meant to be. And still, she was not sure where such a
path would lead, where it would take them.
|I survived on the outside once, we both did. We can do it again. But
once I go through with this, there's no turning back. No way to set things back the way
they were till it's too late. This could be the greatest mistake of my life. They'll never
forgive me for this, never take me back. If they catch me again, they'd probably just kill
me or worse, stick me down in that pit with nomalies.| She shuddered at the thought. |So
here I am. To go or not to go?| She paused for one seemingly endless moment as time
seemed to crawl on it's belly. Then she made her decision. |What the hell.| Turning her
head and checking to see that Max was paying any attention, she silently reached for the
high voltage tazer located on her belt. Max continued to stare out the window, eyes
focusing endlessly into space, oblivious. And so she never knew what hit her as Brin
shoved the tazer against her neck and activated it, sending coursing jolts of paralyzing
electricity throughout her body. Vision flickering, dazed and disoriented, she attempted to
discern what had happened but the world rapidly started to fade to black. And then she felt
no more.
The guards were incredibly startled when the vehicle suddenly accelerated
and kicked up a cloud of dust in their direction leaving them choking and stumbling
uselessly after it while flailing their arms and attempting to shout and simultaneously
cough up the brownish debris littering their lungs. They both bent down, coughing and
choking furiously, all the while struggling to process what just happened through their
slow moving brains. When the dust finally settled, they turned to each other with a almost
comical mixture of fear and surprise on their faces. One opened his mouth. "What the hell
just happened?" The other simply shrugged. "I just hope she's in a good mood when she
hears they ran off without us."
The decision was made, and she was ready to accept any consequences that
would come as a result of it. Brin looked at the unconscious forms of her brethren littered
about the vehicle, one in the passenger seat, two in the back, the stretchers they were
firmly secured to rapping gently against the sides of the vehicle. |No turning back...| And
yet, somehow she knew she had made the right choice. She gazed once more at the prone,
still form of her little sister. "Sorry about that Maxie, but I wasn't sure which side you
would be on. Couldn't afford to let you stop me or anything. One things for sure though.
You were right about that bitch Renfro. She killed Tinga. And it could be that me or you
or any one of us would have been next." She cast her head down, a meadly of rage and
pain filling her voice as she continued. "You were right about everything. I'm just so
fucking sorry I didn't listen to you earlier." Images flashed through her memory. The
names of important doctors and personnel on that file. People she had once trusted with
her life, people who she was once was foolish enough to think only wanted to help her.
"Manticore didn't care about us. They weren't our family, and that dried up shithole
wasn't where we belonged. They just wanted to use us for their fucking dirty work, and
throw us away as expendable assets once we were no longer any use, even though we
dedicated our lives to them."
"Well, one thing's for sure. I'm not gonna let them do it anymore. I'm not going to
be their fucking puppet any longer. I'm not gonna let them hurt you guys. Any of you.
Ever again." She drove on through the endless highway, a final realization dawning on her.
|I've achieved what I gained and lost, and not until now realized the importance of. I have
my freedom back.|