"Let me go!" Max cried as the men dragged her down the hallways. She could have attempted to fight them off, but it certainly wouldn't have done her much good. After all, there were two of them and one of her-in chains too.

Her knees skidded along the lavish carpeting as she attempted to slow herself down by becoming dead weight. Instead, the men grabbed her firmly under the arms and shoved her to her feet, forcing her to walk.

"No!" she screamed again. "Let me go!" She brought both of her feet up together and tried kicking one of the men in the back of the knee. He wheeled around, grabbed her by both ankles and threw her so sharply on the ground that it knocked the wind out of her.

She lay, wheezing, on the floor, for a moment. Then, the men picked her back up again and began to drag her down the empty hallway.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked, trying to get them to say something, anything.

The men, if they heard her, gave no indication of it. She was a thing. A mere guinea pig that could be tossed wherever and whenever she was needed. They were certainly far too good to talk to the likes of just a lab experiment.

Instead, they simply shoved her in the elevator so hard that she hit the wall and bounced off of it. They were playing with her like a cat plays with a mouse just before the mouse is eaten. All three of them waited while the elevator dropped down from A floor down to the basement.

Max froze. The basement. That was where the anomalies lived, where they drank your blood and you never came back.

She fought with a frenzy this time, biting at the men as if she really was a rabid animal. She tucked her knees up underneath her and snapped out at one of the thick-headed guards. That one toppled to the ground. The other was smarter and pulled out his pistol. He aimed it right at her.

"You move another inch, I won't hesitate to shoot you," he told her.

"Lydecker certainly wouldn't be very happy about that."

The man aimed the gun down and shot Max directly in the foot. She crumpled, blood pooling around her leg. Her face contorted in pain, and she bit down on her bottom lip.

"It's called military restraining. Anything goes."

Once they had reached the basement, he grabbed Max by her wrists and pulled her out of the elevator. She didn't want to fight anymore, and her leg was beginning to burn. Probably the s.o.b. used acids in the gunpowder, she thought bitterly.

The guard paused only for a moment to unlock a cell door and throw her inside.

She lay directly in front of the door, pleading to be heard. Even if Lydecker had to save her, she rather would have had that than to die with the anomalies. She remembered Ben's face just before he had died; how he had pleaded with her to kill him just so he didn't have to live with the anomalies. Now, she pleaded for her own death.

Suddenly, there was a skittering across the darkened room, and Max rolled up, propping herself on her elbow, to see what was coming towards her.

The creature moved at an awkward hobble because one leg was severely shorter than the other due to genetic deformation. Max saw its glittering eyes focusing in on her. She pulled her legs closer to her and resisted the urge to scream.

The anomaly came closer until she was about a couple inches away from Max. She reached for Max's wounded foot with her sticky, bloody talons. Max jerked her leg closer to her body and tried to stand, but her feet slipped on the concrete floor. She was backed up against the door with nowhere to go.

The anomaly reeked of rotting flesh and sweat, and as she pressed closer to the scared girl, Max tried not to gag on the stench. Finally, the anomaly grabbed Max's foot in such a firm gesture that Max was afraid to pull it away in case the creature decided to rip it right out of her socket and drink her blood.

Examining the wounded, bleeding foot closely for a moment, the anomaly then ripped part of her already ragged uniform. She then removed Max's shoe and sock and wrapped the rag around Max's foot.

Shocked that such a creature could comprehend a feeling as caring about one another, Max said nothing and watched as the anomaly wrapped her foot up tighter. Then, finished, the anomaly gave it a pat and scurried back to its cot.

"You helped me…" Max said blankly, unsure as to what to say to such a monster. After all, for her whole life, the anomalies had been viewed as something stupid and deformed, never capable of human emotions.

The anomaly stared, her dying mind sorting out the words that had been spoken to her. Finally, after a long moment of hesitation, she nodded.

Even more shocked that the creature understood her, Max tentatively limped over beside it and sat down on the cot next to it.

"What's your name?" she asked it.

The anomaly stared at her, unbelieving that this girl, this beautiful girl, was really talking to her. After all, no one had talked directly to her in over a decade. She had given up all hope of ever carrying on a normal human conversation again.

"I'm Max," Max told the creature. "Who are you?"

"I," the creature said to Max, although her answer was more of a question, "I am Thing."